democracy & power

Can it be that Sarah Palin is not qualified enough for running for VP? Just a guess...Video: Matt Damon Condemns Sarah Palin [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anxkrm9uEJk&eurl=[/youtube]

Could the Gold issue be the reason of worldwide economic meltdown? GATA (Gold Anti Trust Action Commitee) Movie: Gold Rush 21: Everybody should see, one of the main reason for worldwide economic meltdownThe most important money in the world, in a world at risk.leading commentators and economists reveal facts and evidenceof one of the most important and dramatic issues today...the global manipulation of the gold market.The Gold Rush 21 conference DVD records the proceedings of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee's Gold Rush 21 Conference held August 7-9 2005, in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. This historic conference exposed the manipulation of the gold market by central banks and concluded with the adoption of the Dawson Declaration, an appeal for the liberation of the precious metals markets as a matter of international human rights.The Gold Rush 21 DVD set includes a 25 minute introduction summarizing the event, and eight hours of speaker presentation.Featuring:John BrimelowJeffrey P. DahlJohn EmbryAntal E. FeketeAlf FieldCatherine Austin FittsAdam FlemingPeter GeorgeReginald H. HoweRobert K. LandisFerdinand LipsJ.K. MortensenBill MurphyChris PowellHugo Salinas PriceJ.P. SchumacherJames TurkWatch the movie here: http://www.GATA.org/goldrush21

Breaking: Evidence photos for US sabotage training of Georgian peacekeepersRussia sets international organizations evidence of the practice of deliberate sabotage of the Georgian peacekeepers before. It said the Russian chief military prosecutor, Sergei Fridinski, before journalists on Wednesday.http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.rian.ru%2Fphotolents%2F20080911%2F116703396.html&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en

Is America really bankrupt? America Is Bankrupt by Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers A recent trip to the United States – after a three-year absence – showed me how far the country and its people have deteriorated in a short period of time. Americans are bankrupt. They are bankrupt at every possible level: spiritually, morally, educationally. The country’s economy has deteriorated to the level of a Philippines or a Thailand (and I mean no disrespect to the Philippines or Thailand – I love those places). Human-to-human communication in the United States has also faltered greatly. People who would rank as the vilest of trolls on any Internet chat room are now on the air as TV and radio hosts, spewing forth hatred and even barefaced lies. These talking heads do this, of course, to make money, but the effect it has on the average listener is nothing short of devastating. It is devastating to a population not educated to think analytically; it is devastating to a people who – above all – need to open up communication with each other, not close it. Intelligent discussion on American TV and radio has now taken a back seat to a sort of childish one-upmanship. It’s no longer a question of who can thrust and parry their opponent into a corner through the use of beautiful English phrasing and logic; it’s now a question of who can belittle the other with snappy (but rude) one-liners. This has affected the mainstream population in its daily affairs, in that the ordinary people come to believe that this is the way to win an argument. Substance and logic all take a back seat to name-calling. The worst culprits are the talk radio show hosts. Average America doesn’t know what is involved in becoming a talk show host, but trust me, just about all of these people are no more or less intelligent than you or I. Of course, they keep up on current events better than you or I could: It’s their job. While we are putting in a good eight or ten hours of work each day, these guys are brushing up on current affairs. As a result, it is very difficult to challenge and defeat them in an on-air discussion – especially when they have control of what goes on air. So to call up a talk show host and try to argue a point and win is akin to pushing water up a hill: It can’t be done. I know. I worked as a talk show host for many years. By the way, another part of the job of being an on-air talent is to keep yourself looking good and in decent physical shape. Guys like Rush Limbaugh are grossly overweight because they are, and have been, abusing drugs or alcohol. There are many examples to prove my point. John Belushi is an easy example that comes to mind. Thus, in modern America, talk show radio and TV is not about debating the issues of the day. It is a forum for a megalomaniac to make himself or herself look better to an audience that doesn't know any better, and to belittle opponents in front of other people. This never happens in Japan. It doesn’t happen because the structure of the Japanese language does not lend itself well to interruption when someone is speaking, and also because the Japanese are polite. But I suspect that it never happens in any other country excepting the United States. This childish behavior is especially damaging to the psyche of the American male – although women seem to be affected by it also (witness so-called "soccer moms"). It seems that winning is everything. Whatever happened to the saying, "It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game"? I know that this phrase does not apply to today’s American male. The verbal one-upmanship is insidious as it begins to creep into other areas of the American psyche. It becomes contagious and is damaging to civil discourse and civil behavior all around. Infantile machismo is a definitive trait of today’s American. During my recent visit I witnessed a TV commercial for some sports car. The sales point of the commercial boiled down to this: If you buy this car, then that tells your friends, ‘I’m just a little better than you are.’ How childish American men have become. What kind of man needs to show off his car, and to feel superior to his friends? Imagine a guy with an average vocabulary and no gift for repartee. What does he do when he has been belittled in public for no real reason? He probably holds it in, until one day when he raises his fists. In Japan, I have never seen a sports game – especially so-called "pick-up games" – break down into fisticuffs. Have I seen this in America? Have you folks in America seen this? Yes, far too many times (do I even need to ask?). The last time I witnessed it was in California, when a so-called friendly basketball game turned into a hockey game and a bunch of guys started punching it out over some foul. You would have thought their lives depended on the outcome of that game. It was embarrassing. I was out on the court to get some exercise. I didn’t care if we won or lost. I certainly wasn’t interested in getting hurt, or injured, or hit. I walked off. Americans today have become some of the most childish, self-centered adults I have ever seen. A recent trip to Crawford, to visit Camp Casey before it really got into full swing, allowed me to see for myself another slice of American life. I had brought my video camera and eight hours of tape. I was going to make a documentary to try to explain to the Japanese public what was going on there in Texas. (Japanese news will rarely show anything critical of a foreign government – especially the government of the United States). I wanted to capture the sights and sounds; the atmosphere of a real American-style anti-war demonstration. I had really hoped that I could make a documentary that would show the Japanese just what the average American is thinking. When I came back to Japan, I transferred the video tapes to the editing machine and I watched in increasing despair. I’m sure I can get the average Japanese to understand what Americans are all about and what they are thinking. I’m sure that if I ever do finish this documentary (and I’m wondering now if I want to), the Japanese will understand more than they want to understand about America. They will watch it and think: "Americans have gone completely nuts." I would have to agree. Cindy Sheehan and her movement are quite understandable. Cindy seems like a level-headed woman with plenty of common sense. It’s the others who have jumped on the bandwagon who seem crazy. Not all of them, of course, but it did seem a bit like a circus full of freaks. And those freaks were fully represented on both sides of the fence. Even worse than (some of) the anti-war group were the pro-war people – they seemed like they were really crazy. (I only saw six at most – even though the next day’s newspaper reported 250.) I talked to one woman who claimed to have "just arrived from Baghdad." She was lying. I could pick that out in a second of talking to her. Her English level was that of someone who had been in the United States for ten years. Yet there she was, claiming to have "just arrived." (Well, okay, I suppose everything is relative, especially in a country where it is now acceptable to out-and-out lie to get what you want.) There was another guy playing a guitar – or trying to – and singing, "How many ghosts did you make today? Aiding and abetting the enemy, how many ghosts did you make today?" (Bet you a donut he hasn’t a clue as to the meaning of the word ‘abetting’). I suppose a few off-key choruses of this song wouldn’t have been so bad, but this guy went on to play straight for at least six hours in the blazing sun without a break. Perhaps that would explain his behavior – he’s suffering from cooking his brain in the hot sun for too long. The entire scene, from the anti-war group to the pro-war group to George W. Bush taking a helicopter to avoid those groups to visit a little league game, seemed like a Lewis Carroll story. And I was standing there watching Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen (played by George) and the rest of them scurrying about their business but actually going nowhere. On top of all that, throw in the local TV news reporters with their perfect teeth, slicked-back blonde hair and make-up caked on thick to cover their wrinkles, who think they are all hot stuff because they report for some local in-the-sticks TV station, and you have a real life horror-show on the Comedy Channel. But the real-life horrors in today’s America don’t end there. Today’s American is poor, both monetarily and in common sense. In many ways, these two are related. The Japanese save money. Americans don’t. Of course it is common sense to save money. The Japanese save for all the right reasons, but they also save money for special reasons. It’s those special, just-in-case reasons for which the Japanese would always have a nest egg saved. When I went to the United States this time, I visited a good friend. I’d consider him one of my best friends. I am glad I could visit his place because then I could truly see for myself just how far America has gone downhill. Even though he had little, he was gracious enough to let me stay with him. I was thankful for this as, without his help, I had no way to get around and knew no one else who could help me to do so. But within two minutes of entering his abode, I could see just how poor Middle America has become. My friend had no money – none. He asked me for twenty dollars for gas. I gave him a hundred. He was happy. I was greatly disappointed, for many reasons. First off, I’m sorry America, but $100 is not that much money to most of the Western world (or China, or Japan). I was disappointed that he would ask me for money. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame him. He has lived all his life in America; he was brought up there. He has been taught that this is now acceptable behavior. But I remember a time when it wasn’t. It is unheard of in Japan (and, I suspect, in all Asian societies). In Japan, a guest is a guest. A guest in your home – especially one from far away – is to be treated with reverence. It would be completely unthinkable to ask a guest for money (although it is also common sense, in Japan, for the guest to offer to pay – an offer which will certainly be refused). I know it used to be this way in America. In Japan, honor and respect are much more valuable than money. If you had a guest come to stay in your house in Japan and you had no money, you would borrow money – you would do something – in order to treat your guest with the utmost respect. It is absolutely unheard of to ask a guest for money. It reminds me of that Chevy Chase movie Vegas Vacation where he and his family visit his wife’s broke family and the brother-in-law says to Chevy, "Would you like a cold one?" Chevy answers, "Sure!" To which the brother-in-law replies, "Me too. Got any money?" That was a joke in a movie released in 1997. It’s not a joke any more in today’s America. From what I’ve seen, the average 30-year-old college-educated guy in America today is getting paid less than I was paid in 1975 as a part-time commission salesman at Sears Roebuck department store. I have friends who tell me that they are getting six or eight dollars an hour right now. At 40 hours a week, that works out to about $320, less taxes. In 1975 I was getting paid over $1,000 per month after taxes – and those were 1975 dollars. I’m no economist, but it sure comes as no surprise that today’s young American has no money left to save after receiving this paltry income. When my friend took me around, driving through the city and out to Camp Casey, we stopped at a gasoline stand. Of course I volunteered to pay. He was complaining about the sudden rise in the price of gasoline. Here was where I witnessed just another small item that made me sure that America is headed for third world status, if it is not already there. He was complaining about gasoline at $3 a gallon. I hear that in Atlanta, after Hurricane Katrina, it hit $6 a gallon. I shook my head and thought, When are these crazy people going to wake up? Apparently it’s good that the USA invaded Iraq to secure oil. Japan has no natural resources. America does. America even has its own oil. Guess what? About seven years ago, the price for a liter of gasoline in Japan was 100 yen (3.78 liters per gallon). The price today is about 125 yen per liter. That means today’s price for a gallon of gasoline in Japan, a nation that produces no oil, is about $4.58 – an increase of 25% over the last seven years. Now, it doesn’t take much of a math whiz to figure out that if the prices at the pumps in America – a nation that produces oil – have doubled in the last few years, there’s something strange going on. How is it possible that Japan’s gasoline prices have just barely inched up over these past few years, at about 3% per year, while USA prices have doubled or more? Is it just the Iraq war? Or is it the decline of the dollar? Probably a bit of both, but you can definitely be sure of one thing, it is the US government taking advantage of you – regardless of whether you are a Democrat or Republican. And the average American still cheers on the federal monster. After filling up, we headed back onto the freeway. I looked at the scenery and had a feeling of déjà vu. I thought to myself, Hey! I’ve seen this before. Now where did I see it? Then it came back to me: The road leading to Crawford looked an awful lot like the road leading from Phuket International Airport towards Patong Beach – a nice place, but definitely not a road leading through a world power. Every once in a while we would pass through some small town – the buildings decayed and shuttered, a shadow of what it once was. And besides the rundown buildings and the empty streets, there was the filth. It was everywhere – everything seemed broken down. Public restrooms reeked as if they’d never been cleaned. Every once in a while I would see a solitary homeless figure – dazed and disheveled – walking by the side of the road. It looked just like some third world nation. You’d never see such poverty in Japan. But that’s today’s United States. Americans are always boasting about how they are the richest and the freest, etc., etc. But from the eyes of this American son, America’s twilight has fallen. It is getting dark. I cannot see any way out of the disaster you folks are headed for. The problems are too numerous, the needed debate unheard, and the psyche already destroyed. Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers [send him mail] was born and raised in the USA and moved to Japan in 1984. He has the distinction of being fired from every FM radio station in Tokyo – one of them three times. His first book, Schizophrenic in Japan, is now on sale. Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers171.html

Very good article, about the World of Finance.Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits by Catherine Austin Fitts This is a historic documentation about the current international economic melt down, coup organisation, Identities, tricks and timelines of the international elite. It's long and complete - save it to disc. It speaks about who is profiting from drugs and the privatisation of prisons and follows the $highway all the way. http://www.dunwalke.com/

Is it really so bad for the US economy now? Is the financial system meltdown just right around the corner? Any idea? Dodd: US financial system near meltdown Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:24:42 GMT Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the US Banking CommitteeThe US may be days away from a complete catastrophic meltdown of its financial system, says Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd. "I've been here 28 years. To listen to the language of last evening, we maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system," AFP quoted Dodd as saying while referring to the late Thursday meeting of the US Congressional leaders with the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Senator Dodd noted it was "one of the rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, that Democrats and Republicans decided we needed to work together, quickly." "We're talking hundreds of billions," Paulson said ahead of talks with Congress on details of the massive rescue effort, unveiled initially late Thursday. Stunned by the depth of the economic meltdown of the US financial institutions, Congressional leaders pledged a quick vote on the rescue plan. "I figure it will be at least half a trillion," Richard Shelby, the Ranking member of the Banking Committee, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, told ABC news network. "But if you look at what the Fed has already done, and the extension of power to Treasury to deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I believe we're talking about a trillion dollars," he added. US President George W. Bush has admitted confidence in the US economy has been shaken as he promised more tax dollars to save Wall Street from bad debt. "Confidence in our financial system and in its institutions is essential to the smooth operation of our economy, and recently that confidence has been shaken," he said The government plan provides an immediate $50 billion to shore up strained financial markets. A state-sponsored organization will then be given hundreds of billions more in government money to buy up bad debt accumulated over years of unregulated lending by the US financial services sector. The Fed has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the past year to stabilize the financial markets, including $180 billion swap lines extended Thursday to five other major central banks. Early September, the Treasury Secretary announced that the government was seizing control of ailing mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that supply almost half of all mortgages in America to prevent a collapse that would have seriously damaged the world economy. Last year these two mortgage companies' sustained losses of more than $14 billion, as so called 'sub-prime' homeowners defaulted on their mortgage repayments. The bailout of these two financial institutions could cost up to $200 billion. MMM/CW/DT http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=70011&sectionid=3510203

Genius Chinese-American boy invents 3D solar cell, how beautiful!!!12 yr old invents 3D solar cell!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDEWTCvU878&eurl= 

Read how Joseph E. Stiglitz, Economics Nobel Prize Awardee, would solve the current financial crisis. Very interesting and impressive true! Joseph E. Stiglitz: How to prevent the next Wall Street crisisSTORY HIGHLIGHTS- Joseph Stiglitz: Fed pumped too much money, aiding housing bubble- New-fangled instruments hid overuse of borrowing, Stiglitz says- Executives followed short-term interests and magnified risks, he says- Stiglitz: Widespread changes needed to prevent future crisesBy Joseph StiglitzSpecial to CNNEditor's note: Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for his work on the economics of information and was on the climate change panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. Stiglitz, a supporter of Barack Obama, was a member and later chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration before joining the World Bank as chief economist and senior vice president. He is the co-author with Linda Bilmes of the "Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict."Economist Joseph Stiglitz says federal regulators and executives helped create the Wall Street crisis.NEW YORK (CNN) -- Many seem taken aback by the depth and severity of the current financial turmoil. I was among several economists who saw it coming and warned about the risks.There is ample blame to be shared; but the purpose of parsing out blame is to figure out how to make a recurrence less likely.President Bush famously said, a little while ago, that the problem is simple: Too many houses were built. Yes, but the answer is too simplistic: Why did that happen?One can say the Fed failed twice, both as a regulator and in the conduct of monetary policy. Its flood of liquidity (money made available to borrow at low interest rates) and lax regulations led to a housing bubble. When the bubble broke, the excessively leveraged loans made on the basis of overvalued assets went sour.For all the new-fangled financial instruments, this was just another one of those financial crises based on excess leverage, or borrowing, and a pyramid scheme.The new "innovations" simply hid the extent of systemic leverage and made the risks less transparent; it is these innovations that have made this collapse so much more dramatic than earlier financial crises. But one needs to push further: Why did the Fed fail?First, key regulators like Alan Greenspan didn't really believe in regulation; when the excesses of the financial system were noted, they called for self-regulation -- an oxymoron.Second, the macro-economy was in bad shape with the collapse of the tech bubble. The tax cut of 2001 was not designed to stimulate the economy but to give a largesse to the wealthy -- the group that had been doing so well over the last quarter-century.The coup d'grace was the Iraq War, which contributed to soaring oil prices. Money that used to be spent on American goods now got diverted abroad. The Fed took seriously its responsibility to keep the economy going.It did this by replacing the tech bubble with a new bubble, a housing bubble. Household savings plummeted to zero, to the lowest level since the Great Depression. It managed to sustain the economy, but the way it did it was shortsighted: America was living on borrowed money and borrowed time.Finally, at the center of blame must be the financial institutions themselves. They -- and even more their executives -- had incentives that were not well aligned with the needs of our economy and our society.They were amply rewarded, presumably for managing risk and allocating capital, which was supposed to improve the efficiency of the economy so much that it justified their generous compensation. But they misallocated capital; they mismanaged risk -- they created risk.They did what their incentive structures were designed to do: focusing on short-term profits and encouraging excessive risk-taking.This is not the first crisis in our financial system, not the first time that those who believe in free and unregulated markets have come running to the government for bail-outs. There is a pattern here, one that suggests deep systemic problems -- and a variety of solutions:1. We need first to correct incentives for executives, reducing the scope for conflicts of interest and improving shareholder information about dilution in share value as a result of stock options. We should mitigate the incentives for excessive risk-taking and the short-term focus that has so long prevailed, for instance, by requiring bonuses to be paid on the basis of, say, five-year returns, rather than annual returns.2. Secondly, we need to create a financial product safety commission, to make sure that products bought and sold by banks, pension funds, etc. are safe for "human consumption." Consenting adults should be given great freedom to do whatever they want, but that does not mean they should gamble with other people's money. Some may worry that this may stifle innovation. But that may be a good thing considering the kind of innovation we had -- attempting to subvert accounting and regulations. What we need is more innovation addressing the needs of ordinary Americans, so they can stay in their homes when economic conditions change.3. We need to create a financial systems stability commission to take an overview of the entire financial system, recognizing the interrelations among the various parts, and to prevent the excessive systemic leveraging that we have just experienced.4. We need to impose other regulations to improve the safety and soundness of our financial system, such as "speed bumps" to limit borrowing. Historically, rapid expansion of lending has been responsible for a large fraction of crises and this crisis is no exception.5. We need better consumer protection laws, including laws that prevent predatory lending.6. We need better competition laws. The financial institutions have been able to prey on consumers through credit cards partly because of the absence of competition. But even more importantly, we should not be in situations where a firm is "too big to fail." If it is that big, it should be broken up.These reforms will not guarantee that we will not have another crisis. The ingenuity of those in the financial markets is impressive. Eventually, they will figure out how to circumvent whatever regulations are imposed. But these reforms will make another crisis of this kind less likely, and, should it occur, make it less severe than it otherwise would be.http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/stiglitz.crisis/index.html

Please watch the following video, Congressman Ron Paul explains the financial crisis, simple and easy to understand... Ron Paul Blasts “Secret Government” Running EconomyCongressman warns middle class in danger of being wiped out, says Congress is oblivious and Fed has no clueSteve Watson, Infowars.net, Thursday, Sept 18, 2008Congressman Ron Paul has issued a stinging address concerning the financial crisis in which he outlines how the current economic problems, created via malinvestment and shift to a debt based economy, are now being mismanaged by private interests in secret.What’s more he says he is not sure the Federal Reserve has any idea what to do next and that the Congress is totally oblivious to the whole sorry state of affairs - a cocktail of elements he warns puts the middle class of America in serious jeopardy.“Today we had a lot of financial fireworks in the markets, a lot of things are going on, and I think we are in the middle of something very big.” the Congressman stated.Speaking on the recent collapse and government bailout of several big financial institutions he warned:“We’re talking about big bucks, we’re not talking about hundreds of millions or even hundreds of billions, we’re talking about trillions of dollars, the obligation is immeasurable.”“The interesting thing is that they (the financial institutions) don’t come to the Congress, I mean the Federal Reserve buys them out, they own it. We as tax payers now own Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and know one knows how much that will cost. They don’t come to the Congress, we don’t have appropriations, it’s done by secret government, private individuals behind the scenes maneuvering and manipulating and trying to patch things up. While in the meantime, I’m sure there’s a few people making a couple of bucks out of this whole thing.”The Congressman highlighted how an economy structured on debt and credit and a financial system based on interventionism and self serving moral hazard has led to gross devaluation of the dollar and ultimately lies at the root of the current financial meltdown.“Our problems come first of all from the Federal Reserve. It is a monopoly and it controls interest rates artificially low, causes people to make mistakes, that’s the basic source. But then on top of that in the Housing market we had the community reinvestment act which told investors that they had to loan to risky borrowers, and that was a risky complication. HUD contributes to this, FDIC contributes, it’s called moral hazard, everything that we have done over here creates moral hazard, that is we assure people or assume that we will take care of everybody, just go out and create the risk, it is the opposite of the market place.” Paul stated.“You can’t create money like we’re doing in order to support the dollar, because ultimately it hurts the dollar and everything we do in Washington today whether its on the appropriations side, whether it’s what the Fed is doing, buying up America, it’s all putting pressure on the dollar. One of these days we’re just going to have to wake up and say that we need to liquidate debt. This is malinvestment.” he urged.The Congressman then slammed those who have blamed the crisis on failures of the free market:“And then they have people come along and say ’see, this is the failure of capitalism’, this has nothing to do with capitalism, this is something that started off as interventionism and us being too involved in the economy for the benefit of special interests. But now it is being socialized out in the open.”Continue to read:http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-blasts-secret-government-running-economy.htmlWatch the video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX9r-L1gKQc&eurl=

Since we have been discussing Inteligent Design may be we should consider teaching kids in school classes about UFOs. 

 Is it possible that what people from the past perceived as  God's Creation would actually become  the UFOs Intelligent Design?

Check this out:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?rn=222561&cl=9765833&ch=222562

May a public school science teacher's right to teach evolution be restricted?
No. The United States Supreme Court has determined that it is unconstitutional to restrict an educator's right to teach evolution.

May a science teacher who teaches evolution also teach creationism? No. Educators may not teach, as fact, the theory that humankind was created by a divine being. In science classes, educators must present only scientific explanations for life on earth and scientific critiques of evolution. Furthermore, schools may not refuse to teach evolution in an effort to avoid offending religious individuals. The United States Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional to require educators who teach evolution also to teach creationism.

In addition, disclaimers regarding the theory of evolution as the only explanation for the development of humankind have been found to be unconstitutional. In Freiler v. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education, 185 F. 3d 337 (5th Cir 1999), cert. denied, 530 U. S. 1251 (2000), the court struck down a school board rule requiring teachers to read a disclaimer that said that the teaching of evolution is "not intended to influence or dissuade the Biblical version of Creation or any other concept."

May creationism ever be discussed in the public schools? Yes. Creationism may be included in classes on comparative religion as an example of how some religious groups believe human life began. However, creationism may never be taught as scientific fact.

Do scientific integrity and equity require that we teach a competing theory of human origins? Some have argued that equity, intellectual honesty and scientific integrity require the teaching of creationism as a differing and alternative point of view. However, creationism may not be taught as a response to the theory of evolution. Indeed, creationism (or "creation science") does not meet the tenets of science as scientists use the term. Moreover, it is not a matter of equity to teach a religious point of view in a public school classroom with taxpayer dollars.

Additionally, there is a growing movement promoting the teaching of "intelligent design theory" which asserts that the only reasonable explanation for the very complexity of the world and development of humans is the existence of God. This "theory," often couched in scientific terminology, is just another species of creationism, and thus also must not be taught in the classroom as scientific fact.

http://www.adl.org/religion_ps_2004/evolution.asp

George Carlin - The funny prophet, told us long time ago, where America is leading to... has the American soul the power to turn for good?  I say, yes George Carlin - The American Dream 1 of 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMoFrBXxsSI George Carlin - The American Dream 2 of 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WWYHAEpNG4&feature=related

Any idea?

So...where is it?  what's the man actually done for his 27 years in Washington?  I hear a lot of empty blather about "straight talk," but his campaign literature is  pretty quiet about actual achievements. He's polished his image with self-promotion and one-liners, but I'd like to hear what he's really accomplished, if anything.  Even mavericks (and bullocks) produce bullshit.  

Some people (TT, you know who you are) ask "What have been Obama's successes and failures ... as a community organizer?"  Well, as a matter of fact, he was a community organizer right out of college, after which he went to law school, taught law, got elected to the Illinois legislature, then to the US Senate, and now to the Democratic nomination for President.  The point about his experience as a community organizer is that he lived and worked in a major American city, facing major American issues, including poverty, urban decay, unemployment, bad education and so forth.  Contrast this first-hand knowledge with McCain's cushy upbringing and subsequent free-ride as war-hero, not to mention his and Cindy's seven houses. And let's not even get into Flipper-Dum's upbringing in the frozen north: do you know how many black people live in Alaska?  

My friends, it's time to put up or ...

Sarah Palin really looses points with me with the way she handled the questioning about her reference to God's plan remark. Now, to me it's obvious that she does believe that the war in Iraq is the God's plan, which I think is non sense, but it is her right to believe it if she wants to. I have no problem  with any one's belief in anything. But I do have a problem with the fact she tried to get around it and kind of exuse herself that she didn't mean this  and didn't mean that that she quoted Lincoln and  ta bip - ta bap. I would  respect more if she just came out clean and said  she does believe in what she said but realises its not really politically correct to believe such thing. I mean she isn't fooling any one, just make herself now look very dishonest about it.

 Just like Obama's spiritual buddy Mr. Wright with his " God Damn America" that then critics claimed he actually said " God DamenED America" .

Politicians and preachers man...you ca't trust neither one of them!

Iranian human rights activists and freedom fighters have initiated two new petitions to support promotion of peace and democracy and human rights in Iran. These petitions are directed to United Nations Secretary General and international community for help. Please join us in denouncing Human Rights abuse by Iranian government and avoiding unneccessary war in the reigon. Here is the link and content of petition #1 for signing:

http://www.petitiononline.com/emruz53/petition.html 

On August 25th 2008 a large number of Kurdish political prisoners went on a hunger strike, to protest against the brutal treatment of Kurdish political prisoners, as well as the imposition of heavy sentences including lengthy prison terms and the death sentence.

The Islamic Regime in Iran is well known for its inhumane treatment of political prisoners in general, and ethnic minorities in particular. Most of the Kurdish prisoners have been subjected to severe physical and psychological torture; many of them have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, and some to death.

Many of these prisoners are human rights, civil rights or women’s rights activists and they include teachers, journalists, womens’ rights activists and students. The trials of these individuals have taken place behind closed doors, without a defence lawyer and on numerous occasions without the presence of the accused himself/herself.

Currently there are at least 8 Kurdish political prisoners on death row, the names of these individuals include Adnan Hassanpour, Hiwa Bwtimar, Farzad Kamangar, Anwer Hussein Panahy, Farhad Vakily, Ali Haidarian, Arsalan Awliaiy and Habibullah Latify.

Some of the prisoners sentenced to lengthy prison terms include Ms. Hanna Abdi (5 years imprisonment), Ms. Zaynab Baiazidy (4 years imprisonment), and Ms. Fatima Eftary (18 months imprisonment).

There are also many prisoners who are being held without a charge being laid against them or without a verdict. Some of these prisoners are Kawa Jwanmard, Ysir Guly, Hidayet Gazali, Sabah Nasri, Masoud Kurdpur, Rwnak Safarzade, Kamran Alaiy, Arash Alaiy.

We the undersigned urge The United Nations Secretary General, The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, The European Union as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to condemn the brutal treatment of political prisoners in Iran, in particular the treatment of ethnic minorities, and to pressure the Islamic Regime to:

1. Release all political prisoners who are being held without a charge, or in the alternative to charge them with internationally recognized crimes.

2. To rescind the death sentences for all political prisoners.

3. To have new trials for political prisoners whose trials took place behind closed doors. These new trials must meet international standards, be held in open court before a jury, with the presence of the accused and his/her defence lawyer.

4. To allow for visitations from independent human rights organizations to monitor the condition and treatment of political prisoners in Iranian prisons.

Sincerely,

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 Petition #2:

http://www.petitiononline.com/IranHR/petition.html

Your Excellency Ban Ki-moon

The Esteemed Secretary-General of the United Nations

I am writing to you as the longest-held political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and as a prisoner of conscious who has spent more than 29 years of his life in the regime’s dungeons for the crime of defending popular sovereignty and establishing democracy in Iran. I am currently on medical furlough in order to receive necessary treatment for medical conditions, the origins of which are the long imprisonment, as well as the maltreatment, malnutrition, and lack of medical care during my imprisonment. I am writing to you at a time of high tensions between Iran and the world community, the nuclear crisis, and the danger of another war.

Although cognizant of the regime’s extreme sensitivity about my activities, nevertheless I feel responsibility for the welfare of my compatriots. For the sake of defending the Iranian people’s rights to life and liberties, as well as for the sake of guarding peace in Iran and the crisis-ridden Middle East region, I am appealing to you. Through you and with your interjection, I appeal to the global community, humanity’s conscious, civil society institutions engaged in peace-building, and human rights supporters around the world.

Your Excellency,

The danger of war is so acute that only with mobilizing all the possible capabilities of the global community in support of the non-violent civil rights movement of the Iranian people, could we prevent this looming war.

The options that are on the table for the permanent members of the Security Council and the political leaders around the world, could not have any results other than increased harm to the material and ethical existence of the Iranian people. Increased sanctions, even smart sanctions, will increase the pain and suffering of the Iranian people with increased restrictions in the economic realm. These sanctions will only strengthen the regime-related smuggling groups as well as increase corruption, inflation, and unemployment. These sanctions will create shortages of various commodities and public necessities, which will gradually bury the Iranian people in mass graves.

On the other hand, the ruling regime will use the pretext of confronting foreign pressures to increase pressures on political, civil rights, and human rights activists in Iran. Under the excuse of confronting the enemy, the ruling regime will declare movements of the Iranian people for their freedoms and rights as unacceptable. The ruling regime will use the security environment in order to crush all movements of the civil society and bring absolute repression. Under such eerie conditions the regime will be taking the entire population of Iran as hostages.

For these reasons, it appears that the officials of this regime not only do not regard the kind of sanctions that have been imposed so far as any threat to their survival, but also welcome such sanctions. These sanctions will provide the regime the opportunity to declare war conditions, so that they could retaliate against the dissidents. In the same vein, threatening violence, in addition to creating irreparable costs for the Iranian people, will provide the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran the opportunity to increase repression at home, and continue the irresponsible and adventurist policies in all realms that will endanger the security of the Iranian people and those of the global community.

Neither war nor sanctions could change the behavior of the Islamic Republic regime in pursuing adventurism and accepting the necessities of international peace and security. Therefore, the only possible option is assisting the Iranian people to take leadership in managing their affairs and find an exit from the current impasse. In my opinion, the officials of the Islamic Republic will not accept freeze for freeze, nor will they accept the package of incentives offered by 5+1, because this regime needs crisis for its survival like one needs oxygen. For this reason, the nuclear dossier has provided the officials of the regime an opportunity to increase tensions, the necessary oxygen for regime survival.

If we think about and analyze the root causes of the nuclear crisis, we will easily discover that this crisis has its roots in the policies and strategic plans of the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Islamic Republic’s system has been so structured that producing crisis for the Iranian people as well as for the region and the global community have been its routine behaviors. This regime does not believe in freedom, democracy, peace, and the right of the people to choose their own destiny. That is why this regime is not concerned and worried about economic difficulties, psychological security, and financial security of the Iranian people. And this regime does not hesitate to sacrifice the entire population of Iran for its adventurism. For a regime which has such behavior towards its own population, naturally this regime will not hesitate to engage in any kind of violence towards others and threaten the right of existence of other peoples around the world.

Your Excellency,

The Iranian people, who are the primary victims of this regime’s adventurist, arrogant, selfish, violent, bellicose, and inhumane policies, are at the forefront of the struggles to change the behavior of this regime. Therefore, it would be auspicious, if your excellency would utilize all the capabilities and abilities of the United Nations to help the Iranian people in the struggle to determine their own destiny and to establish freedom and democracy. Your responsibility in defending peace, international security, and the rights to lives and liberties of the Iranian people and the people of the world is a grave responsibility.

If you take brave and responsible actions, history will honor you. And conversely, if you do not take brave and responsible actions, history will judge you harshly. When you look at the history and civilization of the honorable people of Iran, you would judge that the Iranian people have the capabilities and abilities of the free people around the world to choose their own destiny and utilize their cultural and material capabilities to advance peace and democracy.

Perhaps the costs of helping the Iranian people under these conditions are very hard. But such costs are far less than the costs of war and increased crisis and insecurities in the region and the world.

Your Excellency,

The people of Iran extend their hands in solidarity to you, and through you to leaders around the world, as well as to freedom-loving and peace-loving people around the world. Helping the Iranian people is helping the future of human kind.

Your Excellency,

My plea to you is very simple and at the same time is extremely significant. Demand the Islamic Republic to accept and implement all the primary conventions on human rights, conventions against torture, conventions against all forms of discrimination against women, and international criminal court’s treaty and laws as part of the confidence-building in the nuclear dossier and in order to have real control and monitoring of the nuclear activities. And the global community should utilize all its capabilities to monitor the regime’s respecting human rights, including charter of civil and political rights, and its voluntary protocols. Complete abiding of all human rights rules, norms, standards, and obligations in Iran is the key to solving the nuclear crisis as well as other crises in the region.

Your Excellency,

For the treatment of my medical conditions, I need to have access to my physicians at a moment’s notice. Returning me to prison again, may cause me to die. I am prepared to accept this heavy price with ease of mind in order to save the Iranian people from war, poverty, repression, starvation, catastrophe, mass killings, brain drain, and cultural destruction. By mentioning the possibility of my death, I wish to increase your moral responsibility so that you will go beyond traditional norms and activities of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and utilize all of the resources of the global community and use new and creative policies for the implementation of human rights rules and norms in Iran.
I am prepared to discuss the details of my plans and suggestions with your representatives and the experts whom you trust.

You can be certain that the great nation of Iran will be eternally grateful to you.

Sincerely yours,

Abbas Amir-Entezam

The Longest-Held Political Prisoner of Conscience

Serving the 29th Year of Imprisonment

July 12, 2008

Sincerely,

There seem to be a fair number of people here who think the US invasion of Iraq was a lousy idea.  I'm one of them myself, though my quarrel is more with the execution than with the goal of removing Saddam.  I'm wondering, though... since we don't like what was done, what do we think should have been done, back in 2003?

Here are the choices, as I see them with benefit of hindsight:

1.  Preserve the status quo - leave Saddam in power, but with his power constrained by military and economic sanctions.

2.  Surrender - Leave Saddam in power, lift sanctions, and allow him to reassert his authority over the whole of Iraq, pump and sell oil freely, and rebuild his military force.

3.  Remove Saddam but install a compliant dictator (or exile junta) in his place.

4.  Remove Saddam, bail out, and leave the Iraqis to their own devices.

5.  All other sugestions welcome.

My own preferred option at the time was for the US to lead a really multilateral effort to have Saddam removed and to work with the Iraqis to promote the evolution of a new democratic government - with the acknowledgement from the start that this was likely to take decades, not years.  Looking back, I'm not at all sure that would have been possible.  I do think that a more sustained and more credible attempt would have made unilateral action a great deal more credible.  

I'm genuinely curious: we all know that what was done didn't work out nearly as well as we were lead to believe it would... what do we think would have worked better?  Seems to me that with the advantage of hindsight we should all have opinions on that... 

The Bush administration on Sunday said
it was taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage
companies that play a key role in the U.S. housing industry. The
administration said it would funnel billions of dollars in taxpayer
money into the companies to help keep them afloat.

Towards the end of the 19thC, a number of big-city mayors were accused of fomenting "sewer socialism" because they held that cities should fund, own and control critical infrastructure like sewer systems and power-plants, rather than leave those projects to entrepreneurs.  

Now the Bush Administration proposes a full government takeover of the two largest mortgage companies in the US, arguing that not to do so would imperil the worldwide financial system.  Creeping socialism?  should Freddie and Fannie be allowed to fail, let the chips fall where they may?  Pragmatic management or cave-in to the whiners?