South Los Angeles Officials And Community Members Push To Save Public Libraries!!! Public Service Unions Are Responsible!

Government employees public service unions would rather THE TAXPAYERS REVENUE go towards their PENSION and BENEFITS and screw the public services our taxes are supposed to be paying for!!!

I warned about this a while back. The public needs to understand basic accounting. Revenue (income) and liabilities (expenses). The government gets their revenue from taxpayers that come from different avenues ie; sales tax, gasoline tax, property tax, utility tax, alcohol tax, tobacco tax and what else am I missing...?

Oh yeah how can I forget income tax, corporate tax, small business tax and auto registration fees and traffic citations, parking tickets and parking meter fees. And isn't a portion of the California State lottery supposed to go towards PUBLIC EDUCATION?!?! These public officials don't know how to manage our public funds. They seriously are dirty rotten scoundrels! They are irresponsible THIEVES! I have NOTHING nice to say about them right now!

Our government employees public service unions get PAID almost twice the average salary a non-government employee earns. PLUS they get cushy retirement pension plans and retirement medical benefits. PLUS Our government EXEMPTED these public service employees from having to pay into the Social Security (government retirment income) and Medicare (government retirement medical) system the rest of the American public is FORCED to pay into. Oh and President Obama has recently EXEMPTED these public service unions from Obamacare aka the Healthcare Reform law that has been FORCED upon the rest of the American public!!! This is a result of the UNETHICAL government employee public service union collective bargaining rights! Our elected officials have been granting their demands above what is in the best interest of the general public. So basically, our elected officials are working to satisfy the public service unions and NOT THE GENERAL PUBLIC! You are just as bad or worse than the BANKSTERS who the taxpayers bailed out. BOTH bailouts are moral hazards and BOTH put their interests above that of the general public!

Because of that fact most of the taxpayer revenue is going to pay for what I mentioned above and our public services will be cut because the public service unions don't want to give up the cash cow or golden goose they're used to having at OUR EXPENSE.

This is called a payoff for political campaign support. But this creates a great riff in any society because the have's are working in government and the have-not's are non-government employees. The government elites only vote in politicians who will continue caving into their demands. The only job that would be "secure" in society is working for the government. Garbage collector's earn more than $100,000 in the state of New York. My mom and I heard this and couldn't help but laugh and say "Where do we sign up!" I have a bachelor's degree in finance and have never earned that much with 20 years business/finance/investment experience. Who care's about the title right. You can call me a nanny or maid or garbage collector, I don't have a problem throwing on a pair of overalls and work boots as long as you're paying me $100,000 or more!!! with great benefits and AWESOME retirement benefits. They can retire (stop working) in their 50's and continue getting the same pay and medical benefits. HECK, I too would be fighting to keep that DEAL!!! This is why you see these public and private union protest all over America. But it's destroying us!

I would like to point out that the public and private union protest are in complete contrast to what the Egyptians and the rest of the middle east and north African protestors are fighting for. America's government employee public service unions want to keep their cash cow, whereas the Egyptians and the rest of the world are fighting against the government elites like you because they are tired of struggling and being the have-not's! Their dictators only benefited government employees and those who were chummy with them. Meanwhile, the rest of the general public had to do whatever to make ends meat. So I say shame on you public service employee unions for having the nerve to compare your situation to their plight! Heck, America has over 10% unemployment, that would be somewhere above 30 million people. I'm sure anyone of those unemployed would be happy to take your place and be GRATEFUL to just get a regular paycheck to pay for their living expenses.

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The South Los Angeles Report

South LA officials and community members push to save libraries

written by Megan Dickey

Monday February 28, 2011

Los Angeles Residents waved signs that read, "Open These Doors," on the steps of the Angeles Mesa Branch Library. Budget cuts forced public libraries in the city to close their doors twice a week.

Council-member Bernard Parks says residents in the 8th district deserve to have the library open seven days a week.

"Many students come here for after school programs instead of going home to an empty home," Parks said. "Or going to some other unhealthy after-school activity...we're talking about unhealthy activities that could be gang related."

But opponents fear that the measure would reduce the amount of money available for law enforcement agencies, fire services and street cleaning. But Parks, a law enforcement officer for 38 years, said libraries help stop crime.

"The libraries provide just as much or more prevention, intervention and education than law enforcement could ever do," Parks said. "A librarian today is worth every dollar we spend and is equal if not more important than a police officer."

Measure L would change the city charter to guarantee the Library Department a higher percentage of property tax revenue. The library would get $18 million in emergency funding without raising taxes. City Librarian Martín Gómez says he backs the measure.

"At a time when unemployment has reached record numbers, when students need all the support and resources they need to succeed, when more and more information is available only to those who can afford access to the Internet, the people he people of Los Angeles need their library now more than ever," City Librarian Martín Gómez said.

The Los Angeles public libraries serve 15,000 kids every day, Gomez said. Last year, 7 million people visited the library. Roy Stone, President of the Librarians Guild , expressed fear over what might happen if Measure L doesn't pass.

"Libraries will be closed," Stone said. "There will be more firing and more layoffs."

And Cheryl McCall, a clerk typist at the Mesa branch, stressed the importance of the library in the community.

"The library is an artery to the heart of the city of Los Angeles and the community depends upon us to be here and we try to help everyone in all areas of life."

Yes on Libraries website

Read why the LA Times editorial board opposes Measure L.

Ugly US Medical Experiments Uncovered! WOW! :/

Associated Press

Ugly US medical experiments uncovered

written by Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer

Sunday February 27, 2011

ATLANTA (AP) — Shocking as it may seem, U.S. government doctors once thought it was fine to experiment on disabled people and prison inmates. Such experiments included giving hepatitis to mental patients in Connecticut, squirting a pandemic flu virus up the noses of prisoners in Maryland, and injecting cancer cells into chronically ill people at a New York hospital.

Much of this horrific history is 40 to 80 years old, but it is the backdrop for a meeting in Washington this week by a presidential bioethics commission. The meeting was triggered by the government's apology last fall for federal doctors infecting prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala with syphilis 65 years ago.

U.S. officials also acknowledged there had been dozens of similar experiments in the United States — studies that often involved making healthy people sick.

An exhaustive review by The Associated Press of medical journal reports and decades-old press clippings found more than 40 such studies. At best, these were a search for lifesaving treatments; at worst, some amounted to curiosity-satisfying experiments that hurt people but provided no useful results.

Inevitably, they will be compared to the well-known Tuskegee syphilis study. In that episode, U.S. health officials tracked 600 black men in Alabama who already had syphilis but didn't give them adequate treatment even after penicillin became available.

These studies were worse in at least one respect — they violated the concept of "first do no harm," a fundamental medical principle that stretches back centuries.

"When you give somebody a disease — even by the standards of their time — you really cross the key ethical norm of the profession," said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics.

Some of these studies, mostly from the 1940s to the '60s, apparently were never covered by news media. Others were reported at the time, but the focus was on the promise of enduring new cures, while glossing over how test subjects were treated.

Attitudes about medical research were different then. Infectious diseases killed many more people years ago, and doctors worked urgently to invent and test cures. Many prominent researchers felt it was legitimate to experiment on people who did not have full rights in society — people like prisoners, mental patients, poor blacks. It was an attitude in some ways similar to that of Nazi doctors experimenting on Jews.

"There was definitely a sense — that we don't have today — that sacrifice for the nation was important," said Laura Stark, a Wesleyan University assistant professor of science in society, who is writing a book about past federal medical experiments.

The AP review of past research found:

—A federally funded study begun in 1942 injected experimental flu vaccine in male patients at a state insane asylum in Ypsilanti, Mich., then exposed them to flu several months later. It was co-authored by Dr. Jonas Salk, who a decade later would become famous as inventor of the polio vaccine.

Some of the men weren't able to describe their symptoms, raising serious questions about how well they understood what was being done to them. One newspaper account mentioned the test subjects were "senile and debilitated." Then it quickly moved on to the promising results.

—In federally funded studies in the 1940s, noted researcher Dr. W. Paul Havens Jr. exposed men to hepatitis in a series of experiments, including one using patients from mental institutions in Middletown and Norwich, Conn. Havens, a World Health Organization expert on viral diseases, was one of the first scientists to differentiate types of hepatitis and their causes.

A search of various news archives found no mention of the mental patients study, which made eight healthy men ill but broke no new ground in understanding the disease.

—Researchers in the mid-1940s studied the transmission of a deadly stomach bug by having young men swallow unfiltered stool suspension. The study was conducted at the New York State Vocational Institution, a reformatory prison in West Coxsackie. The point was to see how well the disease spread that way as compared to spraying the germs and having test subjects breathe it. Swallowing it was a more effective way to spread the disease, the researchers concluded. The study doesn't explain if the men were rewarded for this awful task.

—A University of Minnesota study in the late 1940s injected 11 public service employee volunteers with malaria, then starved them for five days. Some were also subjected to hard labor, and those men lost an average of 14 pounds. They were treated for malarial fevers with quinine sulfate. One of the authors was Ancel Keys, a noted dietary scientist who developed K-rations for the military and the Mediterranean diet for the public. But a search of various news archives found no mention of the study.

—For a study in 1957, when the Asian flu pandemic was spreading, federal researchers sprayed the virus in the noses of 23 inmates at Patuxent prison in Jessup, Md., to compare their reactions to those of 32 virus-exposed inmates who had been given a new vaccine.

—Government researchers in the 1950s tried to infect about two dozen volunteering prison inmates with gonorrhea using two different methods in an experiment at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta. The bacteria was pumped directly into the urinary tract through the penis, according to their paper.

The men quickly developed the disease, but the researchers noted this method wasn't comparable to how men normally got infected — by having sex with an infected partner. The men were later treated with antibiotics. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, but there was no mention of it in various news archives.

Please click HERE to read the entire article... Very long but worth the read.

Victory in the Southern Ocean Day for the Whales!!! YAAAAAY ♥ Thank you Sea Shepherd! ♥

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Victory in the Southern Ocean Day for the Whales

written by Staff

Thursday, February 17, 2011

It’s official – the Japanese whaling fleet has called it quits in the Southern Ocean, at least for this season. And if they return next season, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be ready to resume their efforts to obstruct and disable illegal Japanese whaling operations.

“The Nisshin Maru made a significant course change immediately after the Japanese government made it official that the whaling fleet has been recalled,” said Captain Alex Cornelissen from the Bob Barker. “She looks like she’s going home!”

The Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker has been tailing the Japanese Nisshin Maru factory ship since February 9th making it impossible for the whalers to continue their illegal whaling operations.

“I have a crew of 88 very happy people from 23 different nations including Japan and they are absolutely thrilled that the whalers are heading home and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is now indeed a real sanctuary,” said Captain Paul Watson.

The Sea Shepherd ships Steve Irwin, Bob Barker, and Gojira will remain in the Southern Ocean to escort the Japanese ships northward. “We will not leave the whale sanctuary until the last whaling ship has departed,” said Gojira captain Locky MacLean.

“This is a great victory for the whales,” said Captain Watson, “but we did not do this alone. Without the support of the people of Australia and New Zealand, we would not have been able to send voyages out for seven seasons from Australian and New Zealand ports. We are grateful to Senator Bob Brown and the Australian Greens Party. We are very grateful to Mr. Bob Barker for giving us the ship that turned the tide in our efforts to force the Japanese fleet from these waters. We are grateful to all our onshore staff and volunteers, supporting members and ship crews. We are grateful to the Chilean Navy and the government of France for their support. It is a very happy day for people everywhere who love whales and our oceans.”

It’s official – the killing of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is over for this season and the whalers did not even take 10% of their quota. Sea Shepherd estimates that over 900 whales have been saved this year.

“It’s a great day for the whales,” said Sea Shepherd Chief Cook on the Steve Irwin Laura Dakin of Canberra, Australia, “and it’s a great day for humanity!”

JAPAN: Whaling Policy in Choppy Waters

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace Japan!!! ♥

IPS news

Whaling Policy in Choppy Waters

written by Suvendrini Kakuchi

Sunday February 27, 2011

TOKYO - After years of stiff resistance, the Japanese government has announced a temporary halt to its controversial research whaling programme in the Antarctic Ocean, a decision that will finally stir the debate to promote sustainable fishing, say conservationists here.

"We welcome the decision to halt whaling this season as a step towards preserving whales which are an endangered species. The message is that whales have to be protected which is all the more valuable since it comes from a nation that is a leader in the consumption of seafood stocks," Junichi Sato, expert on whaling at Greenpeace Japan told IPS.

Since 1982, the world has followed global moratorium against commercial whaling by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) but only Japan was allocated an annual quota for scientific whaling that is aimed at determining available stocks.

Greenpeace International spearheads a global campaign against Japanese whaling that has led to bitter clashes and lawsuits against each other.

Several fisheries experts express support for the unprecedented move by the Japanese government, pointing out it is a vital landmark in dealing with the growing consumption of fish in the world that has lead to alarming depletion of stocks.

"The decision to call back the Japanese whaling fleet is based on low whale meat consumption locally, and other evidence that shows the industry is not sustainable," Prof. Toshio Katsura, marine biologist at Mie University told IPS.

Katsura has long called on the government to develop a visionary policy where fishing management based on quotas for fishers are seriously enforced in a bid to protect marine species.

Despite campaigns to increase the sale of whale meat from minke whales, the local market has reported a reduction of 30 percent in 2010, according to the Tokyo-based Minato Newspaper quoting the publicly funded whaling company Koyodo Senpaku.

Whale meat is popular among older consumers in the sixties and above whose diet soon after World War II relied on whale as a protein.

But a 2008 September survey conducted by an independent organization under a request by Greenpeace Japan conservationists indicates that 70 percent of people between the ages of 15 to 39 years have not eaten whale meat.

The Japanese media has reported that 4,000 tonnes of excess whale meat was frozen and stored in warehouses in 2009.

But, in sharp contrast to the mood displayed by conservationists, the announcement on Feb. 17 by Fisheries Minister Michiko Kano on the change of policy expressed no firm commitment to sustainable fishing practices.

Indeed, Kano avoided the word sustainability and instead cited "safety concerns for Japanese whalers" from harassment by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society that has blocked the Japanese ships from whaling.

The Japanese fleet Nishinmaru comprising five ships left for the Antarctica last December and harpooned 170 minke whales and two fin whales before it was called back. The catch is below the Japanese quota of 850 minke whales and 50 fin whales approved by the IWC for research purposes.

The government cites whale populations to justify this level of whaling for research. It says the minke whale population is estimated to have grown to more than 100,000 in the Atlantic and over 660,000 in the Southern Hemisphere.

Minke, a small sized whale, is reported to be the fastest growing species, and so research whaling is legitimate, according to the Japanese Fisheries Agency. Japan justifies research whaling as necessary to protect its indigenous cuisine that has included whale meat since the 12th century.

Prof. Masayuki Komatsu at the National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies, a think tank, who served as a former negotiator for the government at the IWC, is critical of the new move.

"Calling back the Japanese whalers to protect them from irresponsible and violent activists smacks of diplomatic weakness. This is not the way to go," he told IPS.

The conservationists insist the new move to curtail whaling is a powerful boost to their long call on the Japanese government to manage dwindling marine resources around the world.

Toshiaki Fujita, local governmental official at the Niigata prefecture located on the northwest coast of country is currently putting the finishing touches to a landmark programme where fishermen will participate in sustainable catches of sweet shrimp, a Japanese delicacy.

Speaking to IPS, Fujita says the new step to regulate fishing is aimed at cultivating a sustainable management system that will gain the support of Japanese fishermen to share a quota in catches.

"As the catches of sweet shrimp became smaller in size, the stark reality of reducing catches and preserving stocks became obvious to the fishing industry. This is why they are now willing to participate in this management experiment," he said.

Niigata is the third largest resource in Japan for sweet shrimp providing 600 tonnes annually. Only ten out of a hundred fishing companies have voluntary joined the programme, but Fujita says the group represents the largest shrimp companies in the area.

Biologist Katsura who launched the Niigata project, heralds the step as a groundbreaking start in Japan where the government " stubbornly refuses to fund such moves which are crucial for sustainable fishing."

"Government focus is on maintaining the supply of fish and much money is spent on farm-harvested technology as the solution. This is not the answer in the long run as fish farms depend on feed from the oceans."

Obama Signs Patriot Act Extension Into Law!!!

The Hill

Obama signs Patriot Act extension into law

written by By Pete Kasperowicz

Saturday February 25, 2011

President Obama on Friday signed into law a bill that extends three Patriot Act surveillance authorities until late May.

Obama signed the "FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011," which refers to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Surveillance authorities under that act were extended in part by amending the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act.

With Obama's signature, the ability of the United States to access business records, conduct roving wiretaps and monitor individual terrorists is maintained until May 27. The administration has said it supports a longer extension, and the Senate next week will begin working on a three-year extension.

Inspirational Video Focusing On What If You Could...

Inspirational video about all the things you can achieve in your life!

This is an AWESOME message! MUST WATCH! ;)

83rd Annual Academy Awards!!!

It's that time of year again. The OSCAR AWARDS!!!! Okay let's see do I have everything I need? chips and dip (CHECK), tub of Red Vines (CHECK) and Samuel Adams beer in hand (CHECK) Yep I'm ready to take it all in now... WooHoo!

You Are Never Alone... ♥

We Can Learn A Thing Or Two From Noah's Ark!

Noah's Ark

1. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

2. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something REALLY big.

3. Don't listen to critics -- do what has to be done.

4. Build on high ground.

5. For safety's sake, travel in pairs.

6. Two heads are better than one.

7. Speed isn't always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board, but so were the snails.

8. If you can't fight or flee -- float!

9. Don't forget that we're all in the same boat.

10. Remember that the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals.

11. Remember that the woodpeckers INSIDE are often a bigger threat than the storm outside.

12. Don't miss the boat.

13. No matter how bleak it looks, if God is with you, there's always a rainbow on the other side.

The Next Time You Feel Like GOD Can't Use YOU, Just Remember... Now This Is A GREAT Message!!! LOVE IT! ♥

The next time you feel like GOD can't use YOU, just remember....

written by Elder S.D. Ashe

* Noah was a drunk * Abraham was too old * Isaac was a daydreamer * Jacob was a liar * Leah was ugly * Joseph was abused * Moses had a stuttering problem * Gideon was afraid * Sampson had long hair and was a womanizer * Rahab was a prostitute * Jeremiah and Timothy were too young * David had an affair and was a murderer * Elijah was suicidal * Isaiah preached naked * Jonah ran from God * Naomi was a widow * Job went bankrupt * John the Baptist ate bugs * Peter denied Christ * The Disciples fell asleep while praying * Martha worried about everything * The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once * Zaccheus was too small * Paul was too religious * Timothy had an ulcer * Lazarus was dead!

Jesus does not pick the qualified;
He qualifies those He picks.

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I'd like to share an exchange I had with a friend after I posted this message on Facebook. Perhaps some of you may be asking the same question.

Thomas: @Josette, I guess Noah had a platypus on the boat. So, why is that they are only in one area of the world?

Josette (Me): @Thomas, I don't know. Why don't you ask God and then let me know what you find out. ;)

Thomas: @Josette, Same thing with the whales and the dolphins? I just asking you Jo? Apparently you may have some inside information that I don't.

Josette: @Thomas, why would you say that "I may have some inside information that you don't?" I wasn't there. But like I said since it's important for you to have this question answered just ask God yourself.

Josette: @Thomas, while I was writing my last comment it came to me... Noah built the Ark because God warned of an imminent flood that would engulf the whole earth right? Well I guess it would be safe to say that ALL water creatures were SAFE and didn't need to be kept in Noah's Ark.

Thomas: @Josette, thank God you know that stuff!

You Are An Eternal Being... ♥

"You are an eternal being

now on the pathway of endless unfoldment,

never less but always more yourself.

Life is not static.

It is forever dynamic, forever creating

- not something done and finished,

but something alive, awake and aware.

There is something within you

that sings the song of eternity.

Listen to it."

~ by Ernest Holmes

Fable of the Porcupine! Awwwwwe.... I LOVE THIS STORY!!! Thanks For Sharing This With Me John!

Fable of the Porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions. After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the warmth that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.

Moral of the story: The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

The real moral of the story... LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE PRICKS IN YOUR LIFE.

"Love isn't finding a perfect person.
It's seeing an imperfect person perfectly.”
~ by Sam Keen

Achmed The Dead Terrorist: "Silence, I'll Kill You!"

I'm posting this in honor of the FBI arresting Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, the Saudi Arabian college student accused of planning terrorist attacks here in the United States. I'm glad to see the FBI is protecting us! These twisted SOBs are real.

So let us have a good hearty LAUGH on their behalf. This 10 minute skit is HILARIOUS!!! :)

Jeff Dunham is a GREAT comedian/ventriloquist. I watched his show on the Comedy Channel. Non-stop laughter!!! I highly recommend you watching. :)

Achmed in Training Camp lol :)

FBI Arresting Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, A Saudi Arabian College Student Accused Of Planning Terrorist Attacks Here In The United States!

AOL News

Saudi Student Charged With Plotting to Bomb Bush House

written by Staff

Thursday February 24, 2011

LUBBOCK, Texas -- A college student from Saudi Arabia who studied chemical engineering in Texas bought explosive chemicals online as part of a plan to hide bomb materials inside dolls and baby carriages to blow up dams, nuclear plants or the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush, the Justice Department said Thursday.

"After mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for jihad," or holy war, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari wrote in his private journal, according to court documents.

The 20-year-old Aldawsari wrote that he was planning an attack in the United States for years, even before coming to the U.S. on a scholarship. He said he was influenced by Osama bin Laden's speeches and that he bemoaned the plight of Muslims.

One of the chemical companies, Carolina Biological Supply of Burlington, N.C., reported $435 in suspicious purchases by Aldawsari to the FBI on Feb. 1.

Separately, shipping company Con-Way Freight notified Lubbock police the same day with similar suspicions. Within weeks, federal agents had traced his other online purchases, discovered extremist posts he made on the Internet and secretly searched his off-campus apartment, computer and e-mail accounts and read his diary, according to court records.

TNP, the chemical explosive that Aldawsari was suspected of trying to make, has approximately the same destructive power as TNT. FBI bomb experts said the amounts in the Aldawsari case would have yielded almost 15 pounds of explosive. That's about the same amount used per bomb in the London subway attacks that killed scores of people in July 2005.

Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa, was expected to appear in federal court on Friday. He was charged Thursday with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Aldawsari entered the U.S. in October 2008 from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to study chemical engineering at Texas Tech University. He transferred this year to nearby South Plains College, where he was studying business. A Saudi industrial company, which was not identified in court documents, was paying his tuition and living expenses in the U.S.

"He was quiet. I thought he was a good guy," said Ahmid Obaidan, a senior at Tennessee State University who also is from Saudi Arabia and met Aldawsar in Nashville, Tenn., when Aldawsari was studying at an English language center at Vanderbilt University.

It was not immediately clear whether Aldawsari had hired a lawyer. Telephone numbers that Aldawsari had provided to others were not working Thursday. No one answered the buzzer or a knock on the door at the address listed as Aldawsari's apartment, just one block from the Texas Tech campus in a recently gentrified area of mixed-use retail and apartment complexes where many students live.

The terrorism case outlined in court documents was significant because it suggests that radicalized foreigners can live quietly in the U.S. without raising suspicions from neighbors, classmates, teachers or others. But it also showed how quickly U.S. law enforcement can move when tipped that a terrorist plot may be unfolding.

Prosecutors said Aldawsari, who hoped to create an Islamic group under the al-Qaida banner, had a blog to publish extremist messages expressing his dismay over conditions for Muslims.

"You who created mankind, grant me martyrdom for your sake and make jihad easy for me only in your path," he wrote, according to court records.

Please click HERE to read the entire article...

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[God is LIFE, TRUTH and FREE WILL! Satan comes to steal, KILL and destroy! Satan is also the author of lies and confusion. These weak minded demented radical Islamic extremist are not praying to God Almighty! The God of Abraham, father of Isaac and Ishmael. The Source of all creation. They are literally praying to the dark forces that are fueling their rage and hatred. If you live in America and are a practicing muslim, no one cares about your religious beliefs. Why? Because here in America we have FREEDOM OF RELIGION. What you do in your "personal" life is your business. Where most of us have a beef however is when you emphatically state in your speeches and amongst each other, that you hate our American infidel lifestyle and you say in your Muslim Pledge of Allegiance, "Jihad is in my spirit. I will die to establish Islam." That's pretty clear to those of us who value OUR FREEDOM. We don't want you to IMPOSE YOUR RELIGIOUS BELIEF's ON US PERIOD! We don't want to live under YOUR STRICT SHARIA LAW! That is precisely why most Americans from ALL backgrounds have come together to PRESERVE our US Constitution and our Bill of Rights. Because we don't want to be CONTROLLED by the State (government ie; Marxism, Socialism, Communism) or the Church (any religion). (emphasis mine)]

LMAO!!! Coming soon...

Oh and btw, for all my lovely female friends just an fyi: women do have nuts... they are called ovaries. ;)

Baby Tiger and Piglet Spooning...

Awwwwwwwweeee.... Simply adorable!!! ♥

The Muslim Students Association Pledge of Allegiance

I've taken the following from Pajamas media YouTube description:

This video from the MSA West conference at UCLA, Feb 2011, shows Amir Abdel Malik leading attendees in the MSA's pledge of allegiance. The pledge mirror's the credo of the Muslim Brotherhood. Malik himself has been cited in the past for his hate speech:

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I have typed a transcript below of this video message for those of you who can't watch the video or want to stay willfully naive about this:

We want to say to the brothers and sisters who are here, and you know we have brothers and sisters who are here today who are amongst us whose family is like locked up (?) evidence. and we say to you all hang in there, hang in there and we will continue to making (?) for you and don't give up and we have to embrace them and not kick them to the curb, we have to embrace them. You all go back and get your book. We will end with the pledge of allegiance.

Allah is my lord. Islam is my life. The koran is my guide. The Sunna is my practice. Jihad is my spirit. Righteousness is my character. Paradise is my goal. For I enjoin what is right. I forbid what is wrong. I will fight against oppression. And I will die to establish Islam.

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Now I'd like to share my exchange with friends after I posted this video on Facebook.

Josette (Me): Woah.... wtf?!?! They are not hiding it anymore! And this was right here at UCLA!!!! omg.... MUST WATCH and LISTEN!!!!!!!

Josette: Everybody on ALL SIDES need to stop being willfully naive about this situation and these people wanting to make the US an Islamist state! The pledge says "I will fight against oppression" This is how f***ing twisted these people are ISLAM (sharia law) IS OPPRESSION!!! When you have to OBEY OR DIE... wtf do you call that?!?! OPPRESSION! everybody seriously needs to wake the f*** up!

Pam: @Josette, Wtf? When the kkk make those hate speech, we jump all over them. Why is this bullshit acceptable?

Josette: ‎@Pam, my thoughts EXACTLY!!! Why is this TOLERATED AT ALL?! These people are the same. There is no difference! They are allowed to freely express this kind of speech due to the first amendment. Just like the KKK and that other radical christian group who targets military funerals... I think their name is westboro baptist church or something like that. They blame military deaths on homosexuals existence in the US and go to their funerals to applaud the military person's deaths.

Josette: @Pam, freedom of speech needs to be protected even though this is radical speech. I just wish the people on the extreme far left would admit this is wrong and stop condoning it. It would be like people condoning the kkk or westboro. No different.

David: @Josette, America. Is this a great country, or what?

Josette: @David, THE BEST! Compared to the rest of the world in terms of rights. YES! There is a lot that needs to be improved and restored and thank goodness we are all working on that. We really need to save the REPUBLIC!!!

John: The MB has been on the move in America since the 70's. It's too bad that we as a nation have kept our heads in the sand so long and have given so much up to the forces that seek to destroy us. There is a great clash coming with the forces t...hat seek to enslave us and it has been given fuel by our own oval office. People can talk all day long about how great America is, but if we let unbridled tolerance and apathy guide us this great country as we know it will no longer exist. It will slide into a false theocratic enslavement and mediocrity just as all enslaved countries do.

Josette: @John, well said. You totally nailed it!!!

Online Activists Calling For Jasmine Revolution Arrested In China! A Fine Example Of Communist Chinese Government OPPRESSION!

The Telegraph UK

Online activists calling for Jasmine revolution arrested in China

written by By Peter Foster, Beijing and agencies

Friday February 25, 2011 at 1:36am GMT

Three Chinese online users have been charged with subversion for re-posting calls for a Jasmine revolution on the internet, a Hong Kong-based civil rights groups has reported.

The arrests are further evidence of Beijing's determination to stamp out any attempt to foment Middle East-style protests in China after a foreign-based website, boxun.com, issued a call for nationwide demonstrations against one-party rule.

The charges have been made under China's draconian "subversion of state power" laws, a catch-all that enables China's ruling Communist Party to jail anyone it deems to be challenging its right to rule.

Liu Xiaobo, the dissident who won this year's Nobel peace prize is currently serving an 11-year sentence after being convicted on subversion charges.

Liang Haiyi, an unemployed 35-year-old woman in the northeast city of Harbin, was taken away Saturday after putting information about the protests on a Chinese chat rooms, according to a lawyer, said the statement by Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. She was questioned and taken away in handcuffs, and her ex-husband has received an official notice saying she has been charged with subversion, added the lawyer, who said he had spoken to the woman's ex-husband.

"I don't think she's broken any law, she only reposted someone else's writings on the Chinese internet and it wasn't her own writing," said Liang Xiaojun said. "Anyone overseas can see these materials." Also detained for spreading word of the planned protest online were Hua Chunhui, from Wuxi city in eastern China, and Chen Wei from Suining city in the southwest, the group said in its statement.

The anonymous calls for protests in China failed to generate significant interest last weekend when any protesters were outnumbered by police, journalists and followers of the microblog site Twitter.com, which is blocked in China.

Apparently undeterred, the organisers reiterated their calls this week, posting locations in 18 Chinese cities the length and breadth of China calling on people to come out against China's autocratic rulers.

"We invite every participant to stroll, watch or even just pretend to pass by. As long as you are present, the authoritarian government will be shaking with fear," said the open letter posted on the US-based Chinese-language website Boxun.com, which is blocked in China.

The Chinese authorities have oscillated between pouring scorn on the failed calls to protest – a senior Party official described the idea of a Chinese Jasmine revolution as "preposterous and unrealistic" – and heavy handed use of China's massive internal security apparatus.

Online censorship has been stepped up and as many as 100 activists are reported to have been detained or put under house arrest over the last week as the authorities move to snuff out any prospect of anti-government movement taking hold.

Human Rights in China, an advocacy group based in New York, listed 29 lawyers and dissidents who had been detained, confined, searched or questioned by police or government agents since the Jasmine protest calls first appeared.

In the past week senior Party leaders, including the Chinese President Hu Jintao, have urged cadres to do more to address the grievances of ordinary Chinese while strengthening controls on society in order to maintain "harmony and stability".

Li Heping, a lawyer in Beijing who has defended dissidents, said that he and a colleague had been stopped from flying to Japan to attend a meeting – the fifth time since 2008 that he was blocked by border officers from going abroad.

"The atmosphere is relatively tense now, because of the events in north Africa," Mr Li told the Reuters news agency, "They're afraid of all these calls for human rights and freedom spreading in China."

STARVING Communist North Korea Begs Foreign Governments For Food! Why Would The Communist Party USA Want This For Us HERE?! Only A Demented Person Would Think This Was A Great Way Of Life!

"North Korea has since developed a grass-roots network of private markets - a stand-in for government programs but also the target of occasional crackdowns from a leadership that views free-market activity as a threat." A THREAT to his dictatorship!!! This a-hole has never given a damn about the common folks there! ONLY THE GOVERNMENT ELITE SURVIVE! That includes EVERYBODY who works for the government or is chummy with the government! That is what is being overturned across the middle east right now! They are tired of being left to starve because there is hardly any employment in the private sector!

**********************************************************

The Washington Post

Starving N. Korea begs for food, but U.S. has concerns about resuming aid

written by Chico Harlan

Tuesday February 22, 2011; 2:03am

TOKYO - North Korea recently took the unusual step of begging for food handouts from the foreign governments it usually threatens.

Plagued by floods, an outbreak of a livestock disease and a brutal winter, the government ordered its embassies and diplomatic offices around the world to seek help.

The request has put the United States and other Western countries in the uncomfortable position of having to decide whether to ignore the pleas of a starving country or pump food into a corrupt distribution system that often gives food to those who need it least.

The United States, which suspended its food aid to North Korea two years ago amid concerns about transparency, "has no plans for any contributions at this time," said Kurt Campbell, the State Department's top East Asia official.

Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Program, responsible for much of the food aid in North Korea, said its current food supply could sustain operations in the communist country for only another month.

"We're certainly hopeful that new donations will be coming in the upcoming weeks," said Marcus Prior, the WFP's spokesman in Asia.

Next month, the WFP plans to complete an assessment of North Korea's food situation - a report that could influence how foreign governments respond. But few doubt that North Korea's 24 million people need food.

For two decades, since the collapse of a public distribution system that supplied food rations, Kim Jong Il's government has neglected to care for its people. In the early and mid-1990s, an estimated 1 million died in a famine.

North Korea has since developed a grass-roots network of private markets - a stand-in for government programs but also the target of occasional crackdowns from a leadership that views free-market activity as a threat.

Amid the food shortages, though, humanitarian experts describe another failure: the international aid effort. Outsiders have yet to devise a formula that reaches basic standards for monitoring or effectiveness. After 15 years and about $2 billion of aid efforts, one in four pregnant women is malnourished and one in three children is stunted.

The government places obstacles at every step of the distribution process - the top complaint from U.S. officials, who demand better transparency before aid resumes.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a statement this week calling it "essential" that U.S. assistance is "actually received by hungry North Korean children and their families, rather than reinforcing the North Korean military whose care is already a priority over the rest of the population."

Please click HERE to read the entire article...

Somali Islamists Kill Twenty-Fourth Christian Convert! I'm Telling You Don't Be FOOLED By Sharia Law Advocates!!!

The Persecution Times

Somali Islamists Kill Twenty-Fourth Christian Convert

written by Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

Thursday February 24, 2011

WASHINGTON D.C. (ANS) — A human rights organization has learned that members of the Somali Islamic radical group, Al-Shabaab, killed a Christian convert from Islam in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

The killing occurred on Jan. 26.

Another Christian convert escaped from Al-Shabaab’s detention on Jan. 29.

According to International Christian Concern (ICC), the Islamists killed Abdirahman Hussein Roble after accusing him of spying and promoting religious discord by evangelizing Muslims.

ICC said two eye witnesses notified Abdirahman’s widow and relatives about his murder on Feb. 9. Abdirahman, who converted to Christianity in 2009, was the father of two children. He is the twenty-fourth Christian to be killed by the Somali Islamists since 2009.

Another Christian convert from Islam escaped from a makeshift detention center run by Al-Shabaab.

ICC said Hassan (name changed for security reasons) was arrested on Jan. 8 in the Afgoye district of Somalia. He was repeatedly interrogated about his faith and ministry. Hassan escaped while the Islamists were attending evening prayer. Hassan is the first Christian to escape from the hands of the Islamists.

ICC said Al-Shabaab is an al-Qaeda linked organization known for enforcing a strict version of Sharia law by stoning adulterers to death, cutting off the hands of thieves and murdering Christian converts from Islam. According to ICC sources, Al-Shabaab is losing broad support in Somalia due to its brutality.

“Al-Shabaab’s unrestrained Islamic fundamentalism must be condemned by the international community, especially by the moderate Islamic community,” said ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Jonathan Racho, speaking in a news release.

ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that assists and advocates for the plight of persecuted Christians worldwide.

Pakistani Christian Woman Falls Victim To Blasphemy Laws! This Is Part Of Sharia Law Folks!

Pakistan Christian Post

Pakistani Christian woman falls victim to blasphemy laws

written by Staff

Thursday February 24, 2011

London: A Christian woman in Faisalabad has been accused of blasphemy following a dispute over land. According to our colleagues in Pakistan, Agnes Bibi has been arrested and detained by the police. It is believed she was in competition for a valuable piece of land with local Muslims and that they accused her of blaspheming against Islam when they failed to take hold of it.

Her arrest has spread a fresh wave of fear among Christians in Faisalabad, who like Christians across Pakistan remain tense after a judge sentenced mother-of-five Asia Bibi to death for blasphemy last November. Asia remains in jail where she is awaiting the start of an appeal hearing at the Lahore High Court, which has been delayed due to threats being made against the judges.

Faisalabad is also the city in which two Christian brothers were shot dead by Islamic militants outside a courthouse where they had just attended a hearing on the blasphemy charges against them. Their killers are still at large.

CLAAS UK Coordinator Nasir Saeed said: “We are greatly concerned for the welfare of Agnes Bibi as we have already seen the extremes to which blasphemy charges can go with the case of Asia Bibi. She is fighting a desperate battle to have her death sentence overturned and extremists are offering rewards for anyone who takes her life if she is released. This is the reality facing victims of the blasphemy law. We ask that the charges be dropped and that Agnes be released from prison immediately.”

Anjem Choudary, A HATE Fanatic Has Boasted That Muslims Will One Day Conquer Britain By Having More BABIES! Would WAKE THE F*** UP Be Appropriate Now?!

The Sun UK

A HATE fanatic has boasted that Muslims will one day conquer Britain - by having more BABIES.

written by Anthony France and Vince Soodin

September 13, 2008

Speaking at a rally marking 9/11, Anjem Choudary bragged that a birth explosion would let followers of Islam take control of the country.

Undercover Sun investigators secretly recorded Choudary telling a young and impressionable audience that they would eventually rule under strict Sharia law.

And our team listened in chilled silence as he predicted: "Islam is superior and will never be surpassed. The flag of Islam will rise over Downing Street."

Sun Exclusive Video: Call For UK Islamic State. Hate fanatic wants to 'conquer' Britain.

Lawyer Choudary also said it would be easy for vast numbers of Muslims to declare Jihad, or holy war, against Britain - and that every one of them could become "a time bomb waiting to go off".

The Sun team watched vile Choudary, the right-hand man of exiled preacher of hate Omar Bakri, ranting to 100 young Muslims at a meeting in East London.

The mob bayed and cheered as he said: "About 500 people in Britain become Muslim every day.

"The Home Office say there are 1.5million Muslims but there were 1.5million ten years ago. Since then our brothers in Bethnal Green, Whitechapel and other places have had eight or nine children each. Eight children here, ten children, 15 children. There must be at least six million people.

"It may be by pure conversion that Britain will become an Islamic state. We may never need to conquer it from the outside."

The rally - advertised as a debate on whether the West had "learned the lessons" of 9/11 - was held amid strict security in a hall above a mosque in Lea Bridge Road, Leyton. Stewards on the door demanded ID from non-Muslims.

Inside the atmosphere was tense as dozens of young men in their teens or 20s packed chairs at the front while the few women present were ushered to the back. Choudary - whose family live on £25,000 a year in benefits - whipped them into a frenzy with a speech calling for Sharia law, under which criminals and adulterers are stoned or have limbs amputated.

He roared: "We do not integrate into Christianity. We will ensure that one day you will integrate into the Sharia Islamic law. Our eyes are on Downing Street."

He went on: "That is why the British are so afraid. It would be easy for us to declare Jihad in Britain and each one of us could become a time-bomb waiting to go off. But we are not people who betray."

Choudary, who once called for the Pope to be executed and said the 9/11 hijackers were "magnificent martyrs", also claimed without a shred of evidence that 200 Muslim women were locked up in British jails.

Midway through the three-hour rally there was a break for prayers and food. The audience knelt on the floor and free chicken curry and bottles of water were handed out - but nobody ate or drank until a signal from chairman Abu Omar.

Another hate-filled speaker, Saiful Islam, praised terror chief Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda for their courage in retaliating against the West's "oppression".

He warned of a repeat of the 9/11 attacks in which more than 3,000 died in America, or another 7/7 suicide attack in London. He said: "The blame of 9/11 belongs to no one but the American government. They are the terrorists.

"Sheikh Osama warned America numerous times, it was because of their own arrogance, because they thought they are a superpower and nobody could match them, that Sheikh Osama taught them a lesson - a lesson they still haven't learned."

Referring to Iraq and Afghanistan, he warned the US and Britain: "Wake up. Withdraw. Listen. All of us have a part to play in stopping the violence or the next 9/11 will take place in Britain, the next 7/7 could take place locally."

The meeting was also addressed by law lecturer Abu Saalihah and there was a live webcam link to Omar Bakri at his Lebanon hideout.

Yesterday unrepentant Bakri said he could not understand what moderate Muslims have against Bin Laden.

He also dismissed 9/11 as "just an event" which was neither good nor bad but comparable to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Speaking from Beirut he said: "Osama Bin Laden is a legendary person for Muslims round the world."

Last night the meeting was condemned by moderate Muslims.

Iqbal Sacranie, ex-Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said: "Such outrageous and irresponsible comments are nothing new from the likes of Omar Bakri and his lot. These people know they do not represent the views of the vast majority, if not the entire community, of Muslims in the UK."

Last night Scotland Yard asked The Sun for a copy of our video showing Choudary and Islam's rants.

The Counter-Terrorism Command will study the footage. Sources stressed they had not launched a formal inquiry but one said: "We want to see if any laws were breached."

Muslim Cleric Anjem Choudary Who Pushing For Sharia Law To REPLACE Our US Constitution Plans White House Protest Next Week!

This jackass was interviewed again by Gretchen Carlson this week and he is flying over here next week to protest in front of the White House rallying American muslims to change the US Constitution to SHARIA LAW!!!!!!!! You have to watch and listen to this interview! WE ARE A FREE NATION, KEEP YOUR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS and LAWS TO YOURSELF! Buy a f***ing island and create your own OPPRESSIVE SHARIA LAW GOVERNMENT! and all of you who keep telling me that I am making this sh*t up can now stfu and get real. Unless of course you want to live in an OPPRESSIVE SOCIETY! No matter how messed up our country is, believe me we have it made compared to the people in countries that practice Sharia Law. Don't be fooled by his charm and ability to speak very well. This man is one twisted sob! Listen to how he contradicts himself so much. He's also one lying sack of sh*t. He said, "there is no country in the world today which implements sharia." Look up these countries and find out for yourselves what its like for their people to live under sharia law: Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sudan, Somalia. I have just named a few off the top of my head and this guy is an Imam?!

I have typed a transcript of this interview for those of you who can't watch or refuse to watch!

Gretchen Carlson: He has called Americans criminals during a recent appearance on our Hannity show. [replay clip] Well now that Muslim Cleric Anjem Choudary is planning a protest outside the White House. He's calling on muslims to establish Sharia Law in America. and joining me now from London is Mr. Choudary.

Imam Anjem Choudary: Yes good morning.

Gretchen: Now I understand that you are calling for this protest on March 3rd. So you're going to come to this country and what are you going to say at this protest?

Imam Choudary: Well first of all let me thank you for having me on your program. It's always a pleasure to introduce Islam and to talk about this great religion. We are going to invite the muslims in America to talk about Islam as an alternative to the freedom and democracy and the law that you have at the current time in America and indeed in the rest of the world. What we find in fact is that the revolutions in muslim countries nowadays which are rising against oppression, you know are not rising against individuals like Husnei Mubarak or Ben Ali in Tunisia. Rather we believe as muslims that the oppression is because people are going away from the divine law and they're making the law up according to their own whims and desires. So it's a call to go back to the divine revelation and to implement (g)od's law.

Gretchen: But I'm not so sure that your definition of "Islam" is how many members of the muslim faith who live here in America would describe it. Because you believe in Sharia Law and I'm not so sure that every muslim in America would agree with that. In fact, I know for sure they don't all agree with that.

Imam Choudary: Well you know I certainly believe that there is a decline in fact you know in the world today because we don't have the sharia implemented on State level and therefore there is no education system to teach people that in fact Islam has a solution for all affairs within society. So you know many people have become secularized because they live in the West and you know this is no surprise that they don't have this call for the sharia but it is part of Islam. Islam is not a religion that is just confined to the mosques.

Gretchen: But let me ask you this, do you find it ironic that you can come to this country and have that kind of protest where we honor open and free speech like but if we went to countries where they practice sharia law you would not be able to do that.

Imam Choudary: Well you know ironically there is no country in the world today which implements the sharia. In fact some of the most barbaric and tyrannical regimes are those in muslim countries and (?) propped up as you well know by the Americans and the Bush and the others because of their own interest in those countries.

Gretchen: Well, I'm thinking of Iran where they do practice Sharia Law and uh you see what happens when people try to protest there.

Gretchen: Let me ask you about another topic. Because in the last couple of weeks here in the United States there have been two churches here Christian churches who have said that they would open their doors to muslims for worship. Would you allow Christians to come into your mosques?

Imam Choudary: Yes of course, I mean the mosques you know in Islam have always been a place which have been open for anyone to come in to study about Islam, to have refuge there, there have been universities, there have been hospitals. You know the mosque is not just a place for people to come in to pray. So suddenly our doors are always open for non-muslims to discover the truth. But you know I would say that I don't think on a local level we can provide a solution for the problems that America faces. If you look in the history of the relationship between the muslims and non-muslims, if you go back for example to places like Lebanon and Syria where the sharia was implemented and the mosques and the synogogues and the churches are still in existence for over a thousand years. That means it was never our policy to destroy the churches and the synogogues. So rather they can exist. But I think we need to have a healthy discussion about what is the way forward for mankind. Where there is democracy and freedom or where there is Islam. I believe there is Islam and that is the debate I want to have in America.

Gretchen: I can tell you one thing Americans do not want to have Sharia Law. So I'm sure how successful your protest is going to be.

Imam Choudary: Well I think you'd be surprised.

Gretchen: But before you go I want to find out do you actually believe that you can get into this country will you be able to fill out the application accurately when you're asked these questions? Because the tourist visa will require you to answer these questions. Have you been involved in acts of terrorism or plan to commit crimes in the United States? How will you answer those questions?

Imam Choudary: Well look I've never been convicted of any criminal offense. I've never been convicted of any terrorist alleged offenses. I believe that the muslims in America and indeed in Britain live under a covenant of security. They cannot target the life and the wealth of the people in return their life and wealth being protected. But you know according to your own first amendment, you have the right to establish your religion. But you see unlike Christianity our religion is not confined to the mosque. It should be something which is implemented within society. Therefore I invite Barack Obama and the American administration and the people to think about Islam as an alternative way of life. As a solution for the economic and social malaisse that cowardly faces in America and indeed all other countries under Islam would be good for everyone.

Gretchen: And with all due respect Mr. Choudary, unfortunately or fortunately you will probably be allowed into this country and you'll probably be allowed to go in front of the White House on March 3rd and protest and that's what makes this country different than Sharia Law. Thank you so much for your time today Anjem Choudary. Thank you so much.

Detroit in RUINS! Yet Obama Administration Spends $770 Million Stimulus Dollars Rebuilding Mosques Overseas!

This is just lovely... :/ $770 Million Stimulus dollars rebuilding mosques overseas...What the hell are we doing rebuilding foreign mosques when American cities like DETROIT lay as a WASTELAND!!!!!!!! I can't believe this sh*t! What about taking care of OUR HOME FIRST MR. PRESIDENT!

Progressing Into the Stone Age: A Look at America's Anti-Industrial Revolution! This Is An EXCELLENT PIECE About Detroit!

BlogCritics

Progressing Into the Stone Age: A Look at America's Anti-Industrial Revolution

written by Joseph Cotto

February 14, 2011

Very often, I hear various left-wing pundits and politicians extolling the virtue of moving forward for the sake of creating a more progressive America, in which total societal equality is achieved, the sun shines endlessly, and manna falls from the heavens as the rivers run with milk and honey. Typically, I shake my head in amusement and resignation at their utter stupidity. After all, it is now, has always been, and forever shall be, a futile action to attempt dealing with one that basks in his or her lack of intelligence via reason and logic.

A few nights ago, I had the opportunity to watch a most fascinating documentary from BBC America, named Requiem for Detroit? It brilliantly detailed the downfall of the Motor City, from the tail end of its halcyon era, which came about during the very early 1960s, to today, when one can observe relatively tall trees growing from the tops of abandoned downtown skyscrapers. Many local residents were interviewed, each of a different racial, economic, and social standing, bringing unique perspectives on exactly why Motown is presently No-town-at-all. The makers of the film came to the conclusion that it was, of course, the greed of big business and appalling consumerism of the American people which, in a toxic brew, brought down Detroit once and for all.

Needless to say, their conclusion was wrong on every level. How can I prove this? Easy. Pajamas Media did a segment of its own on the D's half-century-long suicide-in-progress. In it, journalist Steven Crowder meticulously accounts how Jerome Cavanagh, a firebrand leftist who upset incumbent Republican Mayor Louis Miriani in the city's 1961 municipal elections, strived for and succeeded in creating a slew of F.D.R.-style government programs for the underprivileged by way of destroying Detroit's pro-business atmosphere and gleefully replacing it with one wholeheartedly devoted to the preservation of a welfare state. Childishly believing that he could create a utopia on the shores of Lake St. Clair, Cavanagh managed to witness his hometown and life's dream quite literally fall to pieces all around him as productive citizens left and the underclass grew more demanding, eventually to the point of engaging in terribly destructive riots as a means of displaying its newfound sociopolitical power and influence.

Should one wish to see what America will be like only a few decades down the line under progressive control, then a trip to what was once one of her great cities should most definitely be in order. By far the most ironic thing about Detroit and the living hell it has damned itself into is that this was done in the name of progress and looking ahead, all the while discarding those evil, selfish notions of capitalism and sustainable private sector growth. Motown has indeed gone places since instituting leftist economic policies. It has travelled far; so far that, as I write this, farms are being created on virtually worthless tracts of cleared land in what were once bustling urban neighborhoods. Detroit has managed to do what no other first world city has done before; wage a full-scale anti-industrial revolution and banish itself to what is essentially the Stone Age. The only good it can do now is to serve as a lesson for those of us who have not had to experience its decline in the first person.

We would be fools not to learn from what the once Motor City shows us in each and every day of its miserable existence, as it continues its solemn march towards attaining the status granted to other lost cities such as Atlantis and Pompeii.

Indigenous Ecuadoran Woman Humbles US Oil Giant Chevron For Polluting The Rain Forest She Calls Home!!! YAAAAAY! You See ONE PERSON Can Make A Difference! ;)

Yahoo News

Indigenous Ecuadoran woman humbles US oil giant

written by Valeria Pacheco, AFP

Wednesday February 23, 2011

RUMIPAMBA, Ecuador (AFP) – She has no legal training, and doesn't speak the Spanish that dominates government in Quito but indigenous villager Maria Aguinda helped bring a landmark judgment against US oil giant Chevron for polluting the rain forest she calls home.

The diminutive grandmother whose modest home sits near marshes clogged for decades in sticky oil has been at the heart of the David-and-Goliath case, and spoke out after Chevron was slapped last week with a $9.5-billion fine, among the heaviest ever handed down for environmental damage.

"Before I die they have to pay me for the dead animals, and for what they did to the river, and the water and the earth," the 61-year-old Aguinda told AFP at her home in Rumipamba, a town in remote Orellana province where pollution caused by 30 years of oil drilling and petroleum accidents had become a sad fact of life.

Texaco operated in the area between 1964 and 1990, and was bought in 2001 by Chevron, which inherited Texaco's legal nightmare. [CHEVRON you knew what you were buying into and you NEED to do the right thing. (emphasis mine)]

"The demand (for compensation) is going on track," said the ethnic Quechua woman, pointing to a nearby spot marked by spillage from an oil well run by Texaco in the 1970s.

"Mary Aguinda et al" are the opening words of the suit launched in 1993 on behalf of 30,000 residents of Orellana and Sucumbios provinces, in which they charge Texaco dumped billions of gallons of toxic crude during its operations, fouling rivers, lakes and soil and causing cancer deaths in indigenous communities.

Aguinda said she believes her husband and two of his 10 children died from effects of the pollution, which rights group Amazon Watch says has affected an area the size of the US state of Rhode Island.

Several of her family members "have skin problems, like fungus," Aguinda said as she lifted her granddaughter's foot off the dirt floor to show an outbreak on her leg.

Chevron blames state-run Petroecuador, with which Texaco formed a consortium from 1972 until the US firm departed in 1992, of not doing its part in the clean-up agreed with the state.

"When Texaco came we never thought they would leave behind such damage, never. Then it began to drill a well and set up burn pits," she said, helped in translation by her son William Grefa.

"It changed our life: hunting, fishing, and other food, it's all finished."

She skeptically eyes the ongoing cleanup of a marsh just meters from her house, where workers dressed in oil-stained yellow overalls dredge thick black ooze into suction pipes.

Aguinda said the spill is leftover from a Texaco storage pool which overflowed into the marshes during 1987-1990 operations of the Auca South 1 well about 200 meters (656 feet) from Rumipamba.

Texaco performed operational repairs in the area in the 1990s, and oil extraction continues in the region, according to Grefa.

Six months ago, a dozen workers from Petroecuador, which has managed the concession since 1990, began cleaning up the marshes, reviving bitter memories within the community of the slow-motion disaster.

The company "made arrangements, but they covered everything with sticks and earth and nothing more," said Grefa, a member of the Assembly of People Affected by Texaco, which represents the 30,000 indigenous people in the suit.

The operation has done little to improve conditions, Aguinda said.

"With the cleanup that Texaco left, the air is just unbearable. I can't live above the oil," groaned Aguinda, who grew visibly irritated talking about the disaster.

"If someone comes here from Texaco" he'll get "pepper in his eyes," she winced.

A strong petroleum smell permeates Rumipamba, home to nine families, some of whom complain of headaches. Several areas of Sucumbios are also contaminated, according to the plaintiffs, who argue that merely sinking a shovel into the ground yields a thick layer of crude.

Chevron, which has called the judgment "illegitimate and unenforceable," has asked a judge in Ecuador for clarification of the ruling as it seeks to appeal.

The court last week announced a penalty against Chevron of $8.6 billion with an additional 10 percent for environment management costs.

The plaintiffs, too, plan to appeal, saying the ruling fails to adequately compensate for certain damages and illness. They were seeking more than $27 billion in their suit.