BartBlog

Is the 9/11 truth movement gaining ground?

Excerpt:
The 9/11 truth movement, comprised of various professional and grassroots organizations such as Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth, We are Change, Patriots Question 9/11 and victims families like the Jersey Girls have made one thing clear in recent months: they are not going to fall into the memory hole of history.

Last month, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth held a press conference at the Mariner’s Club & Hotel in San Francisco, CA, USA. The organization announced that they have received more than 1,000 signatures from architects and engineers around the world demanding a new, truly independent investigation of the facts regarding the events of Sept. 11, 2001, saying that the conclusions drawn by the 911 Commission reek of cover-up and are not supported by facts.

The newsworthy item here is not that 70 million Americans are questioning the official story of 9/11, or that it may be a conspiracy theory, or that people involved in the 9/11 commission report such as Bob Kerry have publically stated that “it is a 30 year old conspiracy.” What is newsworthy is simply that the movement is now getting some coverage in the mainstream media in the U.S., and relatively more coverage in European media.

While the 9/11 truth movement does not make any claims regarding theories as to what really happened that day, the various organizations that comprise the movement do call for a new, independent investigation. So, who would do that?

One thing for certain is that it will not be the corporate media. The “big” stories are distractions such as Tiger Wood’s affair, Sen. Bunning’s filibuster, or anything that pops up like a balloon boy or a Fruit of the Boom bomber. Never mind that at least 10 eyewitnesses that may have pertinent information as to what really happened on 9/11 have mysteriously died, including:

• Barry Jennings, former New York housing authority emergency coordinator, who reported that he had been blown back big explosions in WTC 7, claimed to have stepped over bodies on his way out of the building.
• Beverly Eckert, who lost her husband on 9/11 and did not believe the official story. She declined monetary compensation from the U.S. government for her loss and instead filed a lawsuit against the U.S. and Saudi governments. She died in a commuter plane crash in Buffalo, NY on Feb. 19th, 2009, a week after meeting with President Obama.
• Kenneth Johannemann, a janitor in WTC 1 who reported hearing massive explosions in the basement of the towers and rescuing someone from the basement who had massive full body burns.
• Bertha Champagne, babysitter for Marvin Bush’s family. Marvin Bush was the director of Securacom/Stratesec in the months before 9/11, the Saudi and Kuwaiti-financed company that provided security for the WTC complex and Dulles international airport where Flight 77 took off from. On Oct. 10th, 2003, Bertha was found crushed to death by her own vehicle in front of the Bush family home.
• Deborah Palfrey, the infamous “D.C. madam” who claimed her call girls were chaufferred to poker parties hosted by Porter Goss, former CIA director and co-chair of the joint 9/11 intelligence inquiry. On the morning of 9/11, Goss was reported to have had breakfast with Gen. Mahmud Ahmed, head of Pakistan’s ISI, who was reported to have wired $100K to the alleged lead hijacker, Mohammed Atta. Deborah allegedly committed suicide after saying she would not do that on a nationally syndicated radio show.

Nearly every piece of big-spending and/or freedom-taking legislation, including two wars, FICA, the PATRIOT Act and almost everything that has brought this country to the brink of collapse has been justified as a response to what happened on 9/11. Perhaps even the media realizes that it is time for the American people to know the truth. If all that takes is a real independent investigation, then let’s have one.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m3d3-911-truth-movement-keeps-moving-along

There are a shitload of links in the article above. I don’t touch this stuff without hardcore documentation…

I got another change of terms letter from a credit card company today.  Within the first paragraph I could immediately tell that something was different.  This was not your ordinary “We are altering the agreement.  Pray we don’t alter it further” letter.

No, the first paragraph stated that from now on, payments made over the minimum would first be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate.

In case you’re lucky enough to never have to know this, I’ll explain.  Suppose you got this card with an offer of zero percent interest on balance transfers and put a couple thousand on it, thinking you’ll enjoy the respite from usury.   Then, a couple of months later, you discover that you’re short on cash at Micky D’s and whip out this card.  No biggie, just five bucks, right?  You’ll pay an extra five or ten next month and you’re square.

Here’s where it gets fun.

The minimum interest charge for most cards is one dollar per payment cycle, so next month you’re charged a whopping 240% interest on your Happy Meal.   Well, that’s only a dollar.  But wait.  Your extra ten didn’t erase this portion of your balance, because Visa applied it toward your zero-interest transfer balance.  So this $5 – no, $6 – stays on your card, racking up another dollar month after month.  You don’t even begin to pay this off until you’ve finished off the original $2000 you transferred to the card.  That burger and fries could end up costing you a couple hundred.

Well now that’s reversed.  Thanks to the current administration.  You can be damn sure that the credit industry would never have made this change had they not been forced to do so.  In fact it says as much right there in the letter – these changes are being made due to changes in FEDERAL LAW.

Thank you, Mr. President.  This may not be the pony I wish I had, but it will help me make strides toward becoming debt-free.  Or at least bigger baby steps.   And, while it may feel like a personal gift to me, it affects thousands of others just like me.  Maybe millions.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that Obama did nothing worthwhile.

And take advantage of this before the next Republican President takes office.

Excerpt:
According to a CBS News/New York Times poll released last weekend, only 12 percent of respondents think that their federal taxes were reduced under the Obama administration. Twice as many respondents think that their federal taxes have increased.

The results of this poll can only lead to one of two mutually exclusive conclusions: Either the President is lying to the American people about tax cuts, or 88 percent of the respondents of this poll are incorrect and misinformed.

According to a report by the non-partisan Urban Institute and Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, President Obama is correct in saying that 95 percent of Americans have had their federal taxes reduced in 2009.

So, if the President is telling the truth when he says that 95 of Americans are getting tax cuts, why do so few think that is not the case?

CBS news writers speculate that may be the case because state and local taxes have increased, as well as cost of living expenses, to a level where the marginal decreases in federal taxes are not noticeable. A more plausible explanation may be that “talk of raising taxes in the future clouded the landscape.” CBS and the Times may be on to something with that statement. But who’s responsible for clouding the landscape? Look no further than mainstream media.

The problem is not so much what corporate media covers…it’s what is not covered.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m2d16-Poll-Only-12-of-Americans-think-federal-taxes-were-cut-in-2009

Thanks for the chart, bart! I used it in this one.

Excerpt:
Who would that be? Well, he is not a recipient of large corporate contributions. 80% of his contributions came from over 15,000 individual donors, many of whom who have given multiple donations.

He is not a teabagger relentlessly promoted by Fox news, and he gets little media coverage by any news outlet. He does not think that the Earth was created 6000 years ago, that President Obama was born in Kenya, or that global warming is a hoax. He is not a high-profile Democrat like Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank that gets under the skin of conservative commentators. He is not even a Republican.

In fact he is a populist congressman that has been outspoken against the wars, has railed on too-big-to-fail bank executives and the Federal Reserve, and let his do-nothing colleagues in the House opposed to health care reform have it in a controversial speech in which he apologized to the 45,000 Americans who die from lack of health care each year.

He was also one of the first to write a package of bills to counteract the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a decision which would allow unlimited funding of campaign ads by corporations, saying, “If we do nothing then I think you can kiss your country goodbye. You won’t have any more senators from Kansas or Oregon, you’ll have senators from Cheekies and Exxon. Maybe we’ll have to wear corporate logos like Nascar drivers.”

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m2d11-Florida-congressman-no-1-fundraiser-in-2009

Excerpt:
On Jan. 31st, Joshua Tabor, an Army Sergeant and Iraq war veteran, was arrested in Yelm, WA after allegedly water boarding his 4-year-old daughter for failing to properly recite the alphabet.

The police apparently had to coax the terrified girl out of the bathroom. She was covered with bruises. “It was hot! The water was hot!” the girl told police, according to the incident report. “I told him I would say my letters then! My heart shirt got wet.”

Tabor explained to police that after her dunk in the water, “She said her letters after that.”

That “ends-justifies-the-means” argument for using torture has been heard before. In an obvious reference to water boarding Al Qaida suspects, former Vice President Dick Cheney was asked in October 2006 whether “a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?” Cheney responded like Cheney: “Well, it’s a no-brainer for me.” His daughter, Liz Cheney, defended that practice saying “this was an important program, it saved American lives.”

If the Bush administration had not authorized water boarding, would Tabor have come up with that one on his own? One may think, “Well, it’s not fair to blame the torture of a 4-year-old girl on the former vice president. Cheney was trying to save lives.” The truth may be that the legacy of torture goes far beyond that. It may be the kind of news we will come to expect if, as a society, the United States determines that torture is an acceptable method of securing information and inducing obedience.

At the center of today’s propaganda promoting the torture state are former Vice President Dick Cheney, his family and many of his friends, working through an organization called Keeping America Safe that is run by his daughter Liz Cheney.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m2d10-Waterboarding-4yearolds-The-Cheney-familys-legacy-of-torture

Excerpt:

After the State of the Union address last Wednesday, a somewhat “friendly” meeting with House Republicans on Thursday and a meeting with Senate Democrats today, it appears that President Obama may have finally showed up for work.

A lot of progressives may agree that it is about time that he did that. A lot of conservatives may not be sure how to handle that, as witnessed by Fox News cutting from the live feed of Obama’s discourse twice in less than a week.

Without rehashing Obama’s State of Union address, or repeating how his comments to House Republicans may have sounded like an adult President reprimanding a classroom full of impetuous schoolchildren, the most significant remark he made in the past week is, perhaps, how he handled a member of his own party.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) suggested that he moderate his agenda and work with Republicans to ease the current state of economic uncertainty.

Obama’s response may not only be something that progressives have been longing to hear, but also something Democrats have and perhaps, anyone who wants this administration to get something meaningful done wants to hear. It is well-worth reading in its entirety.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2010m2d3-Obama-finally-shows-up-for-work-in-2010

Is it possible that Obama finally showed up for work and realized who is with him and who is against him? Is he finally willing to call out those in his party and those in Washington that seem determined to help him fail? That is beginning to seem like the case, but do not hold your breath waiting for that “change we can believe in.” Words are cheap and do not go very far with people that have repeatedly demostrated that they are unwilling to compromise with anyone but corporate donars to their campaigns. Welcome to Washington, Mr. President. Now let’s see you get something done.

Excerpt:

Warren Taylor, the alleged gunman accused of taking three people hostage in a Virginia post office, was angry “about the government taking over the right to bear arms … he was angry at the government over taxing us,” and railed against President Obama, according to hostage Jimmy Oliver, who spoke to the Associated Press.

From where could Taylor have possibly gotten that misinformation?

Although Taylor popped off a few rounds, thankfully, no one was hurt or killed and the hostages were peacefully released – this time. The three police officers that were murdered by Richard Paplowski, who was led to believe that Obama would be taking away his guns were not that lucky. Nor were the two killed and seven injured by Jim David Adkisson at a Knoxville, TN church shooting because he “wanted to kill…every democrat in the Senate and House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book,” entitled 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. Nor was Dr. George Tiller, shot in the head and killed in church after Bill O’Reilly spent 29 episodes of his show on Fox News describing him as “Tiller the Baby Killer” who will “kill your baby for any reason.”

It is unlikely that these seemingly random acts of violence are not connected in some way, considering that the motives cited by the alleged perpetrators are so similar. It is likely, however, that the sources of information behind the motives are the same irresponsible media personalities that have people believing that taxes will be increased, death panels will be created, Obama was born in Kenya and “they’re” coming to get your guns. What’s next Fox News, revolution?

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m12d25-VA-hostage-taker-angry-about-gun-control-high-taxes-and-Obama

Written by Ye Olde Scribe

Come gather round kiddies for a quaint little Christmas tale featuring the skeleton of a certain Karl, visitors, an Ant and so much more socked into our stocking that Santa is going to have to be told to “go stuff it” somewhere else.

It all happened around Christmas time. Many Christmas times.

Once upon those many times ago there twere a twisted little man named Karl. No, he really was twisted: everything about him. His arms, his legs, his neck; even his intestines were twisted, which fits right into Scribe’s story. But Scribe will save that twist for a bit later. Karl’s ethics were a little twisted too, somewhat like Scribe’s, only far, far worse. Scribe’s only ethical twist is he likes to make you wait for the punchline.

And this is all a bit of an allegory regarding another rather twisted “Karl,” but let’s keep the story non-partisan for now, OK? OK???

Well, anyflusie…
(more…)

Excerpt:
According to former Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC), “the big banks, Wall Street, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Business Roundtable, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, Corporate America, the President of the United States, Congress of the United States” are against creating jobs in the U.S. because of “money.”

According to Hollings, “the Council on Foreign Relations ought to be renamed the Council on Making Money,…financial interests organized the Business Roundtable to continue off-shore investment and profit [and] Tom Donahue and the United States Chamber have sold out to the financial interests and oppose jobs and producing in the United States.”

Hollings concludes:

The economy is in the hands of Summers, Bernanke and Geithner. Campaign contributions are in the hands of David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel. The poor President is smart, diligent and working his head off campaigning. But he is inexperienced and not governing, and the Congress is in a Mexican standoff over an archaic filibuster rule that reveres democracy by the minority. Of course, the media, which knows this and keeps it top secret, is owned by big business. If I don’t meet you in the breadline, my children will.

Merry Christmas!

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m12d22-Who-is-against-job-creation-in-the-US

Excerpt:
According to Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), among the most vocal supporters of the public option, the ultimate responsibility for a Senate health care bill without a public option or Medicare expansion lies with the Obama administration.

Many progressives have painted the Obama administration as powerless to stand up to the will of Congress, blaming Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) for single-handedly forcing Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) to drop the public option and Medicare expansion from the bill. It may not be realistic, however, to believe that one Senator has that much power and influence. On the other hand, it may be more practical to believe that the White House, with Presidential directives, veto and other means does have the power to force or mold legislation.

Russ Feingold probably knew exactly that when he said, according to The Hill:

It would be unfair to blame Lieberman for its apparent demise…[because] President Barack Obama…could have insisted on a higher standard for the legislation. This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place, so I don’t think focusing it on Lieberman really hits the truth. I think they could have been higher. I certainly think a stronger bill would have been better in every respect.

If one looks closely at the twists and turns in the health care debate over the past few months, there is much evidence to support Feingold’s assertion.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m12d17-Russ-Feingold-Obama-got-the-health-care-bill-he-wanted

Excerpt:
When the word reconciliation and health care bill are used in the same phrase, most may think compromise.

Reconciliation, however, is a little-talked about, but well-known and perfectly legal Senate process that can be used to pass any bill with 51 votes rather than the 60 votes Democrats have been saying is necessary.

Reconciliation can be used to pass bills if they are justified in terms of reconciling the budget – that is, if the bill can be justified in terms of changing current law in order to bring revenue, spending, and debt-limit levels into conformity with the policies of the annual budget resolution.

Howard Dean, former Gov. of Vermont and former DNC chairman, told political reporter Bob Kinzel today on Vermont Public Radio that the removal of the Medicare buy-in means the Senate health care bill is no longer worth supporting. “This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate.” According to Greg Sargent at The Plum Line, Dean also said, “honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”

The only real question is, will the Senate Democrats have enough courage to do that? If recent developments are any indication, probably not. The bottom line at this point may be: Either Democrats use their power now, or lose it in 2010. Oh and…reconciliation would be a fitting way to kick Joe Lieberman to the curb.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m12d16-Kill-the-health-care-bill-time-for-reconciliation