John McCain claims his many years in the Inner Circle of the Washington elite make him qualified candidate to be the Senator from Arizona.

Who is in McCain's Inner Circle?

When it comes to Illegal Immigration, La Raza and the Democrats are part of the McCain inner sanctum. McCain, LaRaza and the Democrats are all in when it comes to the quest to grant Illegals Amnesty

Who is LaRaza? The Amnesty Lobby! (So much for curbing special interests, Senator McCain!)

Do you remember the McCain-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill? Do you remember the last time John McCain tried to force Amnesty on America? That was back in 2007...

• ...After 12 to 40 million illegal aliens had invaded the U.S. from across the Mexican border, John McCain proposed Amnesty!
• ...When the economy crashed, causing the largest recession and loss of jobs since the Great Depression, John McCain proposed Amnesty (and is still pushing for illegals to come to America and take the jobs that U.S. citizens desperately need.)!
• ...And as the flow of drugs from South America and Mexico across the U.S. border increased to record levels, John McCain proposed Amnesty!

• J.D. Hayworth is a national leader in the fight to secure our borders
• J.D. Hayworth has actually "written the book" on the subject, "Whatever It Takes".
• When John McCain proposed his Amnesty Plan-the Heritage Foundation said it would cost taxpayers $2.6 Trillion-J.D. Hayworth stood up and fought against it.

Sincerely,

JD Hayworth
JDforSenate.com

englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 25, 2010 08:40 KST

The Japanese government will officially admit that it signed two secret pacts with the U.S. in 1960 and 1972, allowing the U.S. Forces Japan to intervene in a war on the Korean Peninsula without consulting Tokyo and allowing the U.S. to deploy nuclear weapons in Okinawa in a regional emergency.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Wednesday that an expert committee at the Japanese Foreign Ministry recently investigated the question and recommended admitting the existence of the two secret pacts. They will be made public in March.

The first pact was agreed when the two countries revised the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. The second was concluded before the U.S. returned Okinawa to Japan, and states that the U.S. can bring nuclear weapons to the island after consultations with Tokyo.

Japan had consistently denied the existence of the secret pacts, but the new government, which pursues a policy of greater transparency and reduced dependence on the U.S., launched the investigation since its inauguration last September.

Based on a report from the committee, the Yukio Hatoyama administration will decide what to do with the secret pacts. Of the two, the 1972 nuclear pact is likely to be scrapped since it runs counter to Japan's three anti-nuclear principles banning the possession, production and import of nuclear arms.

The agreement on the USFJ's automatic intervention in a war on the Korean Peninsula could spark heated debate among Japan's neighbors.

But the committee denied the existence of a third pact, also signed in 1960, rumoured to allow U.S. nuclear-powered ships to call at Japanese ports or U.S. aircraft carrying nuclear weapons to pass Japanese airspace. "It is obvious that there were talks on the issue, but there is no evidence that the two countries reached any agreement," the committee concluded.

Google employees and outsiders tested Buzz before its launch. But privacy concerns became issue after it went live.

(CNET) -- Google may have reached the limits of what it can learn from dog food.

Ask almost any technology company what products and services they use within their own organizations, and most will enthusiastically admit to "dog-fooding" their own products. It's both a show of support for their own technology and an opportunity to test those products for flaws that won't make the light of day before they are fixed.

Google is no different. But something went wrong with the dog-fooding process for Google Buzz, forcing company engineers to scramble over a holiday weekend to calm the outcry over privacy violations with tweaks to the settings and set-up process.

Google now asks Buzz users to manually approve their followers instead of automatically including them on their Buzz lists, and improved the visibility of the privacy controls.

Buzz was just tested inside Google before it launched to the general public, said Todd Jackson, Google Buzz product manager. Several layers of Google employees participated in the process, from the initial design team to wider and wider circles of employees.

And a source familiar with the product development process said Google put Buzz through its usability lab, where it brings in outsiders to evaluate products in secret before they are launched.

However, either no one brought up the privacy concerns that Buzz users raised within a day of its launch, Google didn't ask the outsiders for their thoughts on Buzz privacy, or Google engineers dismissed those concerns as unfounded.

For whatever reason, Google has taken a hit over the Buzz launch from a public that is already skeptical about the search giant's motivations with the enormous amount of personal data it already has accumulated.

It is moving quickly to assuage those fears. Buzz and the issues surrounding its launch quickly became the center of attention at Google's weekly meeting for employees on Friday, where tradition holds that employees can speak freely on anything and everything involving the company.

People familiar with the meeting characterized it as full of "strong feelings" that led to Google's weekend push to improve the set-up options for Buzz.

The furor over the Buzz launch will subside, and Web users will turn their attentions to debating the usefulness of the service. However, the incident exposes a real problem for Google: Does its unique culture really understand the markets in which it wants to participate?

Social media has already been a minefield for Google, with stops and starts amid charges that the engineers who built Google don't understand the wider world of social networking.

By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 -- 10:06 pm

In the face of several electoral challenges from tea party-connected candidates, Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul cautioned in a recent interview that "neocon influence" is "infiltrating" the movement he is often credited for creating.

Speaking to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night, Paul first took up for the tea parties as a natural reaction of the people when they are unhappy with government. What they are not, he explained, are entirely adherent to his ideas. Paul suggested that the group only "sometimes" represents his views.

"My message is somewhat different," he said. "The message gets somewhat diluted" with large movements of this nature.

"Everybody likes to join what looks like a popular movement, then they want to come in and influence that movement," Paul continued.

His core issues, such as creating transparency at the Federal Reserve, recalling overseas soldiers and ending the drug war, are "not what is generally heard from the Republican party," he said...

09 Feb, 2010 @ 02:14 pm ET | By Michael Pento
International Business Times

by Jane Hamsher
February 10, 2010

There's trouble brewing between the Ron Paul libertarians who staged the the first modern tea party in 2007 by dumping tea into Boston Harbor, and the neocon war hawks led by Sarah Palin who are furiously trying to hijack their message.

After I appeared on MSNBC talking about Sarah Palin's appearance at the Nashville tea party convention, several libertarians told me they were unhappy with the exchange.

I said that Sarah Palin's hawkish message on Iran was oddly out of place in a group whose roots belong to the Ron Paul libertarians, particularly as the anti-interventionist Rand Paul is looking strong in the Kentucky Senate Senate race -- and Palin just endorsed him. The woman who appeared with me representing the tea partiers disagreed with that premise, and claimed she was very much an interventionist.

My libertarian friends couldn't imagine what she was doing on TV representing the tea parties in the first place, and thought it was a sad day when the opposition stated their position more fairly than their supposed allies.

But it underscores a rift between the anti-tax, pro-civil rights libertarians who started the tea parties and the corporatist neocon grifters of the GOP who are now trying to swoop in and capitalize on all of the hype. And in the irony of ironies, tea party-identified candidates are now trying to oust Ron Paul from his Texas House seat.

Paul appeared on Rachel Maddow last night to speak about it. Rachel asked him about his relationship to the tea parties, and he said:

I think the message gets a little bit diluted when a lot of people come in and the Republican party wants to make sure that maybe there's a Neocon type of influence.

Ron Paul was reluctant to reject Sarah Palin's endorsement of his son, and mostly tried to change the subject. But this morning Doug Bandow, a Senior Fellow at the Campaign for Liberty, has a piece denouncing the Daniel Pipes foolishness (echoed by Sarah Palin last weekend) which says Obama would help himself politically by bombing the bejesus out of Iran:

There are no good solutions in Iran. The world will be a better place if Iran becomes democratic and abandons any nuclear weapons program. But initiating war likely would inhibit reform in Iraq while making the world a more dangerous place. The disastrous experience of Iraq should teach us many lessons, the most important of which is that war always should be a last resort. That standard is no where close to being met in Iran...

By Jeremy A. Kaplan
February 12, 2010
FOXNews.com

A federal appeals court Friday debated a privacy issue you probably hadn't considered: the government's ability to track your location at any time, if you carry a cell phone.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

A case being heard by a federal appeals court today aims to investigate the government's ability to track an individual's location based on cellular phone data.

A federal appeals court Friday debated a privacy issue you probably hadn't considered: the government's ability to track your location at any time, if you carry a cell phone.

As cell phones have morphed from cordless communication devices into pocket-sized PCs, cellular providers have developed and honed the ability to pinpoint your location fairly accurately -- potentially to within 150 feet. This helps network operators connect your phone to the nearest cell tower and locate you in an emergency, a federally mandated feature called E9-1-1.

That feature could be a lifesaver if your car runs off a rural road on a dark night. But it also enables the authorities to know your location at all times when you're carrying your phone.

"Most people don't understand they are carrying a tracking device in their pockets," Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Newsweek. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia heard arguments on Friday in a case that centers around Philadelphia FBI agent William Shute, who testified that he obtained records 150 times in recent years to track the location of federal fugitives.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union argued in court Friday that the practice raises serious privacy issues. And third U.S. Circuit Judge Dolores Sloviter seemed to share that concern...

by Chuck Baldwin
February 12, 2010

As far as grassroots activism goes, the surge in Tea Parties across America is one of the more encouraging developments to recently take place. It reminds me of the "Conservative Revolution" of 1994, when the GOP reclaimed both the US Senate and House of Representatives. At that time, it had been over 40 years since the Republican Party controlled both the US House and Senate. And, between the two, the House victories were the most significant.

Spurred mostly by the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, a host of young, energetic freshman Republicans marched into Washington, D.C., determined to return a burgeoning and out-of-control federal leviathan to the constitutional precepts of limited government. I'm talking about then-freshman House members such as Helen Chenoweth, Steve Largent, Bob Barr, Joe Scarborough, Sonny Bono, John Shadegg, J.C. Watts, etc. These young conservatives went to Washington, D.C., determined to reduce the growth and size of the federal government.

The vehicle used to transport these young conservatives from grassroots activism to US House and Senate seats was the highly touted "Contract with America" (CWA), which was orchestrated by House Speaker-to-be, Newt Gingrich. The CWA included a promise to the American people that if they would give the GOP a majority in Congress, they would eliminate up to 5 federal departments--such as the Departments of Energy and Education--and many federal agencies.

Obviously, not only did the GOP-controlled Congress not eliminate a single federal department or agency--or even shrink the size of the federal government at all--it expanded the size and scope of the federal government at every level. And there is one reason for it: Big Government neocons posing as champions of conservatism co-opted and destroyed the Conservative Revolution of 1994.

If one wants to put names to these treasonous wretches (and I do), I'm talking about charlatans such as Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott. Anyone who thinks that Newt Gingrich is a real conservative or that he will do anything to reduce the size and scope of the federal government needs to speak with any of those Republican members of the freshman class of 1994. (Sadly, too, some of the members of that great freshman class went on to become Big Government toadies themselves. Such is the power of that Putrid Province by the Potomac.)

The Tea Parties of 2010 remind me very much of the Conservative Revolution of 1994. And if the Tea Party Nation is not very careful, they will succumb to the same fate. The signs of a silent takeover of the movement are already appearing.

First of all, the Tea Parties were actually born during the Presidential campaign of Congressman Ron Paul of Texas in 2007 and 2008. For all intents and purposes, the Tea Parties and the Ron Paul Revolution were one and the same. These were (mostly) young people, who were sick and tired of the same old establishment Republican Party. They were tired of establishment Republicans selling out the principles of limited government; they were tired of the US Constitution being ignored and trampled by both Republicans and Democrats; they were tired of an incessant interventionist US foreign policy that keeps sending US forces overseas to advance a burgeoning New World Order (NWO); they were tired of perpetual war; they were tired of the bank bailouts; they were tired of the Federal Reserve; etc.

I know this because I met--and spoke before--the Tea Party Nation in State after State as I campaigned for Dr. Paul during the Republican primaries back in 2008. And I met them again all over America, as I was running as an Independent candidate for President--with Ron Paul's endorsement, no less. I was with them in scores of meetings (big and small) from Washington, D.C., to Spokane, Washington, and all points in between.

But now many of the Tea Parties are distancing themselves from Dr. Paul and embracing establishment players such as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. Even Newt Gingrich is being courted. Watch out, Tea Party Nation: you're in danger of losing your soul! Newt Gingrich is not one of you. He is not your friend. He is an imposter. He will destroy you just like he almost single-handedly destroyed the Conservative Revolution of 1994.

Plus, be careful about Sarah Palin and other establishment Republicans. Palin is currently playing both sides. She is promoting Big Government neocons such as John McCain on the one hand, and sincere conservative-libertarians such as Rand Paul on the other hand. But if one wants a real barometer of Palin's true colors, look no further than her endorsement of Rick Perry in Texas.

Perry is the quintessential establishment Republican. Perry has been in office for some 9 years, and what has he done to thwart the NWO in Texas? Nothing! Perry is even a Bilderberg Group attendee. What has he done for State sovereignty in Texas? Nothing! In fact, he supports the North American Union and the NAFTA superhighway. What has he done to resist Obama's universal health care proposals? Nothing! What has he done to protect the citizens of Texas against an emerging Police State? Nothing! What has he done to fight illegal immigration? Nothing!...

englishnews@chosun.com / Jan. 22, 2010 12:56 KST

South Korea has issued its first report on human rights abuses committed in North Korea's political prison camps. The report by the National Human Rights Commission shows the inhumanity of North Korea's political prison camps, including widespread torture and public executions. Most of the people incarcerated in the North's political prison camps were caught trying to escape to South Korea or for minor political infractions, such as failing to hang up a picture of leader Kim Jong-il. None of them were arrested with a warrant or received a fair trial. The families of inmates have also been imprisoned according to a guilty-by-association system.

The report is South Korea's first assessment of human rights abuses in North Korea and marks a significant shift in the South's approach toward the North. The NHRC plans to translate the report into English and deliver it to the UN Commission on Human Rights and other international organizations to spread awareness of the atrocities being committed in North Korea.

A protestor in Seoul calls for the release of Robert Park, an evangelical activist who crossed the frozen border river into North Korea.

◆ Abuse of Human Rights

Human rights disappear the moment a person steps inside a concentration camp. Some prison camps do not even allow inmates to marry other inmates. "If an inmate does a good job spying or works hard, he or she is allowed to marry, but only on three to four special days of the year," said a North Korean defector. Even if inmates marry and have children, the camps have no childcare facilities and in some cases babies were found dead while their mothers went out to work. The camps do not provide clothing and shoes to the inmates, only shelter and food. Household items and sanitary pads are unavailable, and this makes living conditions extremely difficult especially for women. Women are often summoned by intelligence officers to their rooms and sexually assaulted there or at the clothes and food products factories in the camps, according to testimony from defectors.

Inmates who complain about conditions spend between a month to a year at detention centers within the camps. Inmates were especially afraid of the extended torture and physical assaults that awaited them there, which often left prisoners dead. Attempts to escape led to the harshest punishments, including execution by firing squad or hanging. When a pregnant inmate suddenly disappears, she was probably secretly executed, say North Koreans who had survived the camps. "I think there were between 20 to 30 public executions at the camps. They would shoot you for 'refusing to convert,'" said one former inmate. Another former inmate said the body of a pregnant woman was discovered with a shovel embedded in her body in 1992, and the location of secret executions is a canyon around 500 m from the prison.

◆ Bribing Their Way Out of Camps

North Korean defectors who were caught in China are subject to terrible assaults and torture. Some female defectors said prison officials used their hands to check whether women were hiding money in their orifices. After the number of defections increased in 2006, there were accounts of inmates bribing prison officials to get lighter sentences or even gain freedom. "Between 60 to 70 percent of defectors caught while heading to South Korea were sent directly to political prisons or summarily executed, while those who were freed had used bribes," said one defector.

englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 04, 2010 12:51 KST

The North Korean regime has sacked the Workers' Party's Finance Director Pak Nam-gi, letting him take the fall for the failed currency reform late last year. Until December, Pak was frequently spotted accompanying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on his "on-the-spot-guidance" tours, but he suddenly dropped from sight in January.

Diplomatic sources in Beijing say Pak was probably removed as a sacrificial lamb after social unrest increased following the currency revaluation, which led to skyrocketing prices. When millions of people starved to death or fled the country to escape famine and flooding between 1995 and '96, North Korea accused Minister of Agriculture Seo Gwan-hee of espionage and executed him in public in the streets of Pyongyang.

North Korean defectors say the official price of rice was 20 won per kilogram, but in the month after the currency revaluation, it jumped 20 times to 30 times and now costs 600 won. In some areas, prices are said to have soared 50 times to 1,000 won. As a result, frustrated North Koreans have no qualms about making insulting comments about their leader now, even in front of state security agents.

North Korea revalued its currency because a nascent market economy began taking root in various parts of the country following the collapse of the state's ability to distribute food and other supplies in the late 1990s, which created a new class of relatively wealthy merchants who became an increasing threat to the privileges of party members. North Korea wanted to revamp the system of state distribution system and reclaim economic control to protect the communist ruling class and to ensure the smooth transfer of power from Kim Jong-il to his third son Jong-un.

The crisis demonstrates the losing battle the North Korean leader is fighting against market forces and rising public discontent. The regime is even said to have issued live ammunition to security agents and authorized them to shoot and kill protesting citizens. But the regime still had to resort to blaming its chief economic policymaker after the draconian measures failed to appease public anger, a tactic commonly used by regimes that have lost the support of the public.

If the rumors coming out of North Korea are accurate, then the country is a ticking time bomb. During the last crisis during the late 1990s, North Korea pursued the Geneva Agreement with the U.S., while sending armed infiltrators to South Korea aboard submarines and launched the Taepodong-1 long-range missile. Now it is resorting to similar tactics by demanding talks with South Korea while launching massive military exercises and firing artillery rounds near the maritime border in the West Sea.

Grand National Party leader Chung Mong-joon said on Wednesday, "I would like to be briefed by intelligence officers" on the situation in North Korea. The South Korean public is even more anxious about the situation. Cheong Wa Dae, the Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service are saying that the situation in North Korea is not serious enough to threaten Kim's rule. In January 1989, the West German government said there were no unusual signs coming out of East Germany, but soon after, masses of East Germans fled their country and headed to Hungary and Austria, and in November the same year the Berlin Wall came down.

This does not mean South Korea's intelligence is inaccurate. It is important to note that nobody can be certain of the fate of the North Korean regime at this point. But what is required is for the government to set aside its preconceived ideas and prepare contingency plans in case of an emergency in North Korea. South Korean officials from the president on down must be prepared to deal with any scenario.

The New York Times is displayed on Amazon's Kindle e-book reader. /AP

With its newly unveiled iPad tablet PC, Apple is threatening the dominance of online retailer Amazon in the U.S. e-book market.

Amazon, the world's largest online bookstore, has been leading the e-book market for the past two years, selling 2.5 million units of its Kindle wireless e-reader. But less than a week after the iPad's debut, Amazon has already been forced to revise its pricing policy.

Amazon had been charging US$9.99 for e-book versions of popular titles, but last weekend it was forced to raise its prices when U.S. publishing giant Macmillan demanded it charge $12.99 to $14.99. Amazon initially took a tough stance and halted all sales of Macmillan books, but later retracted the measure and said on Sunday it would accept Macmillan's demand, according to international media reports.

Apple is behind the dispute between Amazon and the publishing industry. When it unveiled the iPad last Wednesday, Apple offered to charge up to $14.99 per e-book, prompting publishers, which have been unhappy with Amazon's monopoly, to revolt against the retailer. Apple also promised to give publishers or copyright holders 70 percent of the revenue from e-book sales, as it does with developers of applications for the iPhone. That gave Macmillan leverage to demand that Amazon raise its prices.

Industry insiders predict that e-book makers including publishers and newspapers will eventually have a bigger say in distribution. They may be helped by the decision of Internet giant Google to enter the market. Google plans to only set certain standards on discount rates and give publishers the right to decide prices. That will enable publishers to choose the retailer that offers the most favorable terms.

Dear Family, Friends, Allies & Future Friends,

by Philip Giraldi
January 28, 2010

A curious op-ed "The Tel Aviv Cluster" by the reliably neoconnish David Brooks appeared in the New York Times on January 12th.  Brooks enthused over the prowess of Israel’s high tech businesses, attributing their success in large part to Jewish exceptionalism and genius, which must have provided the ultimate feel good moment for Brooks, who is himself Jewish.  That Israel has a booming technology sector is undeniably true, but Brooks failed to mention other contributing factors such as the $101 billion dollars in US economic and military aid over the course of more than four decades, which does not include the additional $30 billion recently approved by President Barack Obama.  American assistance has financed and fueled Israel’s business growth while the open access and even "preferential treatment" afforded to Israeli exporters through the Israel Free Trade Implementation Act of 1985 has provided Israelis with the enormous US market to sell their products and services.  By act of Congress, Israeli businesses can even bid on most American Federal and State government contracts just as if they were US companies.

The reality of Israeli spying is indisputable.  Israel always features prominently in the annual FBI report called "Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage." The 2005 report states, "Israel has an active program to gather proprietary information within the United States. These collection activities are primarily directed at obtaining information on military systems and advanced computing applications that can be used in Israel’s sizable armaments industry." It adds that Israel recruits spies, uses electronic methods, and carries out computer intrusion to gain the information. The 2005 report concluded that the thefts eroded US military advantage, enabling foreign powers to obtain expensive technologies that had taken years to develop.
 
A 1996 Defense Investigative Service report noted that Israel has great success stealing technology by exploiting the numerous co-production projects that it has with the Pentagon. "Placing Israeli nationals in key industries …is a technique utilized with great success." A General Accounting Office (GAO) examination of espionage directed against American defense and security industries described how Israeli citizens residing in the US had stolen sensitive technology to manufacture artillery gun tubes, obtained classified plans for a reconnaissance system, and passed sensitive aerospace designs to unauthorized users. An Israeli company was caught monitoring a Department of Defense telecommunications system to obtain classified information, while other Israeli entities targeted avionics, missile telemetry, aircraft communications, software systems, and advanced materials and coatings used in missile re-entry. The GAO concluded that Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any US ally." In June 2006, a Pentagon administrative judge overruled an appeal by an Israeli who had been denied a security clearance, stating, "The Israeli government is actively engaged in military and industrial espionage in the United States. An Israeli citizen working in the US who has access to proprietary information is likely to be a target of such espionage."  More recently, FBI counter intelligence officer John Cole has reported how many cases of Israeli espionage are dropped under orders from the Justice Department.  He provides a "conservative estimate" of 125 worthwhile investigations into Israeli espionage involving both American citizens and Israelis that were stopped due to political pressure from above.
 
Two recent stories that have been reported in the Israeli media but are strangely absent from the news on this side of the Atlantic demonstrate exactly what is going on and what is at stake. The first story confirms that Israeli efforts to obtain US technology are ongoing.  Stewart David Nozette, a US government scientist who was arrested on October 19, 2009 in an FBI sting operation after offering to spy for Israel has been waiting in jail to go to trial on espionage charges.  New documents in the case were presented in the Federal court in Washington last week.  The documents confirm that Nozette was a paid consultant for Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and it is believed that he passed to them classified material in return for an estimated $225,000 in consulting fees.  Examination of his computer by the FBI revealed that he was planning a "penetration of NASA" the US space agency and that he was also trying to crack into other scientists’ computers to obtain additional classified material.  Other documents demonstrate that he was cooperating with two Israeli scientists who were administrators with IAI, Yossi Weiss and Yossi Fishman.  Nozette made several trips to Israel without reporting them, which he was required to do because of his high security clearance.  The FBI reportedly also has incriminating letters and other documents that were obtained from the computer.
 
The second story relates to the pending sale of twenty-five F-35 fighter planes to Israel.  The F-35 is one of the most advanced fighter planes in the world.  The $130 million planes would be purchased with US military assistance money, which means they would effectively be a gift from the US taxpayer.  But Israel is balking at the sale reportedly because it wants to install some of its own local content in the aircraft.  The Pentagon has already made some concessions but is disinclined to grant approval for all the changes because to do so would require giving the Israelis full access to the plane’s advanced avionics and computer systems.  Israel also wants to independently maintain the aircraft, which would also require access to all systems.  It would be nice to think that the Pentagon wants to keep the maintenance in American hands to preserve jobs, but the Defense Department has never cared about US workers before when the issue is Israel, and the real reason for the standoff is that Lockheed-Martin and the Pentagon both know that Israel will steal whatever it can if it gains access.  It would then use the technology to market its own products at a price below that of US defense contractors. The result would be a triple whammy for Uncle Sam:  the expensive planes are given to Israel free, the technology is then stolen, and future sales vanish as our Israeli friends market their knock down versions of weapons systems reliant on the stolen technology.
 
So to David Brooks I would say that there is most definitely an economic surge taking place in high tech Israel, but it is less a miracle than the fruit of a long series of thefts and manipulations fueled by American tax money and the connivance of a Congress that is always willing to do favors for the country that it appears to love beyond all others.  I’m sure most Americans would wish the Israelis well and would applaud the prosperity that derives from their own industry and inventiveness but it is also time to put the brakes on business as usual and to take the Israeli hand out of our pocket.  I’m sure Brooks’ job is pretty secure and well paid, but many Americans are out of work and suffering, so let’s take some steps to protect our economy from the information thieves from Tel Aviv and keep our money and jobs over here...

By Curt Maynard
January 30, 2010

USA Today[1] is reporting that the Senate’s immigration deal pleases few. No kidding? What, I need a mainstream publication to tell me that? I don’t think so. I can tell the reader without any hesitation whatsoever that the Senate’s immigration deal pleases almost nobody with the exception of the 20 million illegal aliens here in the United States at present and a few million Jews and ultra-liberal leftists on the east coast.

Don’t be fooled by the US governments attempts to convince you through the Zionist media that Democrats want this or want that, or Republican moderates favor the deal, or that liberals see it this way, or conservatives see it that way, the government is lying and they’re using the media to shovel this crap down your throat.

Illegal immigration and whether or not to send the 20 million illegals in this country packing is one of very few bipartisan issues that nearly everyone, Black, White Hispanic, or Asian can agree on today. NO AMNESTY! No amnesty OR anything that smells like amnesty, these people must leave, one way or another and if our Congressional representatives can’t or won’t make that happen, we have a duty, an obligation, to our children, grandchildren, and those of our neighbors to make them!

When do we take our guns off the rack, oil them up, and head to Washington DC? That’s really the question isn’t it? We do have a right to do so you know, in fact, that is the very purpose of the Second Amendment, something our government has been actively trying to take away from us or at least reinterpret so as to disarm the American people.

The definition of treason is relatively clear, especially as it applies to anyone that has taken an oath swearing allegiance to the United States Constitution, which clearly states that the oath taker swears to uphold the Constitution against enemies foreign AND domestic. One definition is vague enough to include dissidents like myself IF one reads it as is, rather than considers what it really states and that is that treason is “a crime that undermines the offender's government.” I certainly am not in favor of our present government and won’t support it or anything it seeks to do until it [this is important] recognizes the authority of the American people, the true owners of this government. Theoretically, our politicians are suppose to represent us the American people, when they stop representing what we the people want they need to either leave office voluntarily or be thrown out.

The legal definition of treason as defined by Merriam Webster is simply a “betrayal of trust.” Now if the current representatives of this government aren’t guilty of treason as defined by Merriam Webster I don’t know what to say, they [Democrats and Republicans] have done nothing but lie, deceive, subvert, coerce, threaten, and betray our trust since 9-11. They have already engaged in treason and many of them know it, that is why you see so many of them completely selling out at present, selling their corrupt souls and votes to the hidden elite – the true rulers of the United States of America, who by the way do not represent the American people.

Am I saying that George Bush is a traitor? Damn right I am. I’m also accusing the following Senators of High Treason, each one of them voted to give amnesty to the 20 million illegal invaders presently squatting on American soil and not one of them can or ever will attempt to prove that the majority of their constituents [The people that elected these people to represent THEM] approve of any form of amnesty or forgiveness of the illegal aliens in their midst, not one. Thus, it’s really simple no? These Senators are NOT representing those that voted for them – they are however, representing something or someone else.

Murkowski (R-AK), Stevens (R-AK), Kyl (R-AZ), Lincoln (D-AR), Pryor (D-AR), Boxer (D-CA), Feinstein (D-CA), Salazar (D-CO), Lieberman (D-CT), Carper (D-DE), Martinez (R-FL), Chambliss (R-GA), Isakson (R-GA), Inouye (D-HI), Craig (R-ID), Durbin (D-IL), Bayh (D-IN), Lugar (R-IN), Grassley (R-IA), Harkin (D-IA), Brownback (R-KS), McConnell (R-KY), Landrieu (D-LA), Collins (R-ME), Snowe (R-ME), Cardin (D-MD), Mikulski (D-MD), Kennedy (D-MA), Levin (D-MI), Stabenow (D-MI), Coleman (R-MN), Klobuchar (D-MN), Cochran (R-MS), Lott (R-MS), Bond (R-MO), McCaskill (D-MO), Hagel (R-NE), Nelson (D-NE), Ensign (R-NV), Reid (D-NV), Gregg (R-NH), Sununu (R-NH), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Menendez (D-NJ), Bingaman (D-NM), Domenici (R-NM), Schumer (D-NY), Burr (R-NC), Conrad (D-ND), Brown (D-OH), Voinovich (R-OH), Smith (R-OR), Wyden (D-OR), Casey (D-PA), Specter (R-PA), Reed (D-RI), Whitehouse (D-RI), Graham (R-SC), Alexander (R-TN), Bennett (R-UT), Hatch (R-UT), Leahy (D-VT), Warner (R-VA), Webb (D-VA), Cantwell (D-WA), Murray (D-WA), Rockefeller (D-WV), Feingold (D-WI), Kohl (D-WI),

I’m often accused of anti-Semitism because of my willingness to say and write the word “Jew,” so why change things now. Let me be the first to tell you then that every single Jewish Senator without exception voted to provide amnesty to illegal aliens on Monday, May 21, 2007, just as their co-ethnics in the ADL, SPLC, ACLU, AJC, and every other organized Jewish group in the United States expected them to.

I am not guilty of subversion, but many, if not most of our politicians today are. I am not guilty of lying to the American people and telling them that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, ties to Al Qaeda, and was responsible for 9-11, yet many of our politicians continue to embrace Bush’s foreign policies in the Mid East, despite the fact that they know they were developed as a result of the above lies. I am not guilty of spitting in the face of the American people and betraying their trust, but all of the above Senators are. I am not guilty of serving the interests of a foreign government [Israel] as are so many in Congress today, but yet, I guarantee you, the Jewish media will soon be doing all it can to convince Americans that people like me [Patriotic Constitutionalists] are terrorists and enemies of the state – don’t be fooled – they’re lying – that’s what they do best].

Lastly, don’t fall for the phony vernacular and bald faced lies of our politicians; they want to play with the meaning of words. They’ll insist that they aren’t giving amnesty to illegal aliens because of this or that. They’ll also insist that their constituencies “want” them to “solve” the illegal alien issue. It’s all lies – yes, their constituents want them to solve the problem and they want them to do this by voting against any form of amnesty, any bill that allows illegal immigrants to stay in this country, but these liars will do their best to skew what their constituents want and to move forward with their treasonous objectives.

The government does NOT represent us any longer, it serves other interests and as long as it continues to do so, it is guilty of treason and we the people can lawfully oppose them in any manner we wish, we’re protected by the Constitution, they aren’t.

by Todd Brendan Fahey
January 28, 2010

A newly-emerging psychedelic--escaping the new legal strictures in Amsterdam and available for shipping worldwide--has reared its head on The Market.  Having just returned from that sacred city, it is with pleasure that I can report on "The Philosopher's Stone."

Psylocibin-bearing mushrooms are "illegal" now in Amsterdam.  The Roundheads in power rendered one of God's own creations as "prohibited for sale," citing one (1) suicide and one (1) instance of an unstable monkey having plowed his car into a crowd a couple of years back.  (Alcohol, however, is still "legal for sale" in the 'dam; right.)

A lifelong psychedelics enthusiast, I made it to High Street headshop one afternoon and inquired as to the status and sale of these "new" critters.  A knowledgeable head behind the counter explained to me that "The Philospher's Stone" (mycological classification: Sclerotica tampanensis--and which is more of a mold that grows under a group of mushrooms than it is a mushroom itself)--renders very similar effects as do above-ground psylocibin fungi, but without the uber-nasty (...just rank/fairly fecal) taste which invariably accompanies the gobbling of "magic" mushrooms.  ("They taste more like walnuts," the counter-Head explained.)

I remember being in the Bulldog Energy Club, near the train station, and chatting with a couple of new pals over the usual food fare and smokeable cuisine.  It was late, but I was game (who needs sleep in Amsterdam?).  I ripped apart the plastic container and stared in at some really very fugly matter within, took a whiff, and was surprised by the odor--fairly nutty and not at all like that which one endures even when boiling down a fistful of cow pasture denizens.  Even in a mug of tea and with two heaping lumps of brown sugar and a squeeze of lemon, traditional magic mushrooms still taste like shit.  They can't help it.  But these underground "truffles" tasted surprisingly like something a brave man might put on his salad.

The appearance is another story altogether.  We're talking about a fungus that occurs naturally below ground; and with a caste of brownish-purple, still moist in the case I had just opened, and looking like larger versions of the pellets that my long-ago guinea pig used to leave if I left him too long in my lap, even a hardcore like me was given pause.  But you know I choked them down anyway.

I gobbled all 15grams, and disregarded the "Caution" on the packaging.  (The Instructions state: "5 - 7 grams for a mellow trip; 10 - 15 for a strong trip.")  I knew where I wanted to be and snacked on the whole product.

Conventional "magic" mushrooms take hold usually at about the 45-minute mark, and with all the subtlety of a Simpsons rerun: woozy stomach; a very full head; mass, uncontrollable laughter, and then the desired sensations of synaesthia (the "hearing of colors" and "tasting of sound," and such).  These Sclerotica tampanensis bore no such "come-on" effects.  Very suddenly, I was simply wanting to get up and stroll the streets of Amsterdam--needing to, really.  It had snowed in the past several days and the walks were icy, and I didn't care.

My mojo rising and my camera in need of a workout (or so I felt at the time), I boogied from the Bulldog and went outside and just ambled.  For dozens of blocks.  Well past midnight, in sub-zero temperatures.  Loving it.  There is a manic push to these "Philosopher's Stones", with virtually no "body-load" and a clarity of thought and sensation that rendered--to me, now--the Experience as superior to any mushroom trip I've ever had.  Full of joy and enthusiasm, I "knew" that the photographs I was taking were the best things I had ever shot.  I count myself as being a fairly shy human--a misanthrope, ofttimes--but between popping in to still-open Middle Eastern delicatessans and rapping with strangers on the street, to whom many English is a foreign language (this hyper American's banter being an extreme case), the tODdMoNStEr found himself as Mr. OutOnTheTown.  No way I would have done that on 'shrooms, or in the grip of any other substance.  (The photos turned out to be pure bunkum.)

I woke the next morning in the Bulldog's hostel, thankfully with my camera in a coat pocket and none the worse for wear.  The buddies from the previous evening alerted me to the fact that I was whacked--but with no fights or arrests having taken place,  I could live with that.

Before boarding the train to Paris, I bought another 15gram pack of Sclerotica tampanensis and knew that I would try them again while in my stay at an old friend's house on a bird preserve on the Brittany coast of France ("Those things I like, I'll try twice" - Lynyrd Skynyrd).  The environs could not have been more dissimilar, but the relative solace, landscape, language and company, I felt, would give me a fair basis for comparison.

After an initial mistake of accompanying my old pal on a trip to the supermarket to stock his bare cupboards, we jettisoned the produce aisles for his jalopy and drove (he drove) to a churchyard and allowed me to both view 15th century masonry, accompanied by God's Own Choir, and again I was thankful to Him for having given humans access to the pleasures of psilocybin.  At about hour-4, there came a proundly empathetic touch to the Experience wherein, back at the house on the lake, I could connect with my friend's 15-year old dog--on its last legs after three major surgeries, dumb as any beast I've ever known, and with a heart as big as the open sky.  Untidy household habits having rendered her "an outdoor dog," it being the dead of winter, and with puppyhood novelty far in the rearview mirror, the huge black animal receives not the affection she had known years back; and it tore me right up.  I formed a connection with the shepherding Bretton bitch that late afternoon, and which was visible and palpable to my pal and everyone else who visited the house over my 3-week stay.  A thoughtful shove of the head upon my knee, followed by a bear-like exhaust that is the contented sigh, just whenever.

Nearing the 6-hour mark, the tide ebbs, its overt effects dissipating as so much steam in a kettle.  But, wOw, these "Philospher's Stones" are for real.  Get 'em while you can.

by John Dillon

THE INTERNET IS CHANGING FROM A PUBLIC RESOURCE TO A LUCRATIVE
OPERATION INFLUENCED BY SPOOKS AND FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIALS.
OPEN ACCESS AND INFORMATION ARE INCREASINGLY CONTROLLED.

The Internet, the mother of all networks, is a sprawling congregation of connected computers; almost anyone is welcome, almost anything goes. Now, one private company with strong ties to the defense and intelligence agencies has become the prime gatekeeper and toll-taker for the millions navigating the maze. Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) of Herndon, Va., has the government-granted monopoly to issue "domain names'' electronic addresses like used to route e-mail and steer traffic through the increasingly commercialized World Wide Web.

NSI's spook connections and its lead role in the privatization of the Internet have raised alarms. Net activists were outraged by the firm's September 1995 decision to charge $100 a year to register new addresses and $50 a year to renew old ones. Later, NSI stirred up even more anger when it began removing the addresses of the thousands who refused to pay. The company also has been sued half a dozen times over its policy to give trademark holders priority when a domain name is in dispute.

WHO'S IN CHARGE

The furor over NSI raises basic questions of who controls and regulates the Internet. Although physically decentralized with millions of computers linked around the globe the Net is in fact hierarchically organized. Anyone on the planet who wants an Internet address ending with one of the popular suffixes .com, .edu, .org, .net, or .gov must register the domain name with the Internet Network Information Center, or InterNIC, a US government-created central registry. In 1993, NSI took over the administration of that listing.

This domain name system allows people to substitute user -friendly names such as "ibm..com" for the real Internet Protocol (IP) addresses: hard-to-remember numerical strings like "198.106.242.7". When you enter an address in your web browser like "mediafilter.org/caq" to get this magazine's site your computer first accesses a "name server.'' The server then returns the unique numeric IP address which your browser uses to find the appropriate place on the Web.

Critics say there is no good reason why Network Solutions should have a monopoly franchise on registering the user-friendly domain names. But NSI has a great reason: By controlling the keys to prime Internet real estate, it has staked out a phenomenally lucrative business. Although the company does not release financial figures, the Internet's astronomical growth fueled by the tens of thousands of businesses coming on line each month has triggered an explosion in domain name registrations. In March alone, about 45,000 names were registered, a 25 percent increase over February. NSI made an estimated $20 million in the six months from September 1995 to March 1996 from annual registration fees, with an additional $40 million projected for the next six months.

"I would think they're making an obscene profit,'' said Karl Denniger, head of Macro Computer Solutions Inc., a Chicago-based Internet provider that wants to enter the domain name business. "Their monopoly of this isn't really legally defensible," said Stanton McCandlish, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.

CONTROLLING INFORMATION

NSI's national security pedigree is even more troubling to some than its monopoly-derived profits. When the government administered the InterNIC, the service was subsidized by tax dollars and was free to users who simply registered their names. In May 1993, the National Science Foundation privatized the name registry and is paying Network Solutions $5.9 million to administer it.

In September 1995, NSI instituted the fee system. A few months earlier, it had been bought out by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC). This privately held company with 20,000 employees and 450 offices around the globe has close ties to the Defense Department and intelligence agencies. Its current board of directors includes former National Security Agency chief Bobby Inman, former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, and the former head of research and development for the Pentagon, Donald Hicks. Ex-CIA Director Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense William Perry, and CIA Director John Deutch have been past members. Eighty-three percent of the company's $2 billion annual revenue comes from government contracts, including defense, intelligence, and law enforcement contracts. It is designing new information systems for the Pentagon, helping to automate the FBI's computerized fingerprint identification system, and last year won a $200 million contract to provide "information support'' to the Internal Revenue Service.

Some of these contracts, along with the company's strong intelligence and defense links, raise fears that SAIC will abuse the information it controls through its key "I don't want a spook corporation,particularly a private spook corporation, to be anywhere near a control point on the global cooperative Internet,'' said James Warren, a writer and Internet civil liberties activist. But McCandlish of the Electronic Frontier Foundation described SAIC's ownership of Network Solution as a "non issue.'' "The Internet itself was a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency project. It's been true for a long time. It's not some big secret.''

PUTTING A HOLD ON NAMES

Another bone of contention is NSI's policy on domain name disputes. For a long time, names were registered on a first come, first served basis. But then some quick-buck artists realized they could register domain names related to famous trademarks and sell the name back to the owner, a process known as trademark hijacking. In response, NSI instituted a policy that gives trademark owners priority in claiming a domain name over someone who has already registered it. While the domain names are in dispute, the company can put the disputed name "on hold," so that it can't be used until the issue is settled.

The company's dispute policy has swung too far to protect trademark owners at the expense of legitimate domain name holders, critics say. They note that trademark law allows different companies to share the same name McDonald's hamburgers and McDonald's widgets, for example. And they say NSI is ruling on legal questions, such as who owns the name and what it can be used for, without legal authority.

"They are serving as legislators, administrators, judges, juries, and executioners,'' said Kathryn Kleiman, a lawyer and organizer of the Domain Name Rights Coalition, a non-profit organization that lobbies Congress on domain name issues.

The company's policy created major headaches for a New Mexico Internet service named Roadrunner Computer Systems, for example, which used the address for itself and for its customers' e-mail. But last year Warner Bros., which produces Road Runner cartoons and holds a trademark by the same name, tried to establish exclusive rights. Roadrunner Computer Systems obtained a court order barring Network Solutions from putting its name on hold.

CHALLENGING THE MONOPOLY

But NSI's monopoly may soon crumble. Dozens of new top-level domains (the .com or .edu portion of the names) are being considered, and they will be administered by new registration services.

Paul Garrin, a New York media artist, has plans to strike an even more decisive blow for competition and Internet democratization. He and his colleagues have designed an alternative network of name servers. By changing your browser's default settings to find one of the servers Garrin has.

The most authoritative map of North Korea on Google Earth

Click here to download

(Recently featured in the Wall Street Journal)

*On the week of 12/15/2009 Google updated a significant amount of imagery requiring many corrections, updates, and additions.  Until these updates are completed, many mapped locations will be a few meters off.

Click on the screen shots above for larger images

This Google Earth project offers an extensive mapping of North Korea’s economic, cultural, political, and military infrastructures.  Through the topic menu, users of this program have easy access to geographical information on North Korea’s agriculture projects, aviation facilities, communications, hospitals, hotels, energy infrastructure, financial services, leisure destinations, manufacturing facilities, markets, mines, religious locations, restaurants, schools, and transportation infrastructure.  In addition to locations of economic interest, this map also displays anti-aircraft locations, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and Northern Line Limit Line (NLL), incarceration facilities, political monuments, political residencies, military bases, and nuclear facilities.

Markets                      Railways

Eletricity Grid

Elite Areas

Anti- aircraft

In addition to the geographical information displayed on the map, many location tabs provide links to internet resources which offer more information on the specific location. Many people have contributed to this project (see project history below), and further contributions are welcome.

Since launching in April 2007, this project has been downloaded over 150,000 times and has been featured in numerous media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Times of London, Telegraph, Independent, Der Spiegel, Choson Ilbo, NPR, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Washington Post, BBC, Yonhap, China People’s Daily, China CCTV,  Joong Ang Daily, and the Rachel Maddow Show.

Click here to download

If you do not have Google Earth installed on your computer, you must download it here first...