Category Archives: first amendment

More on Flight 800

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Democracy Now has a piece up featuring the controversy over Flight 800.  When I wrote the piece yesterday, I was unaware that Borjesson was the director of the documentary.

There are some serious questions raised about what happened.  These folks raising the questions are not hysterical people.  They are intelligent folks with great analytical skills who see something that just isn’t right.  I just wish we had a press that did the same thing.

**a side note~ a heart tug at hearing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during the interval between the segments.  It was the song I sung to my Mom as she began to pass from this world.

Loretta Sanchez

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…was on CSPAN this morning….a member of Congress that actually has a brain. 🙂

She voted against the invasion in Iraq. Check.

She voted against the invasion of privacy and illegal wiretapping act, otherwise known as the Patriot Act. Check.

BUT she said during this morning’s interview that what has happened with the NSA’s overreaching power has been authorized by Congress through the Patriot Act….so technically, it is prosecutable.  I say prosecutable because they have given themselves legal power that is…illegal… by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

Congress violated the Constitution by allowing it.  AND they continually fund it without even knowing what they’re funding!!

Sanchez reported that although she is a member of the Intelligence sub-committee, she has to fight to get information that should be readily given to her.  She said that she must schedule a certain secure room with certain intelligence personnel.  She said that she must go through the repubs to get allotted time in the room, and then she must coordinate with the intelligence personnel, who may or may not have scheduling conflicts with that time.  Then when she wants questions answered, she doesn’t always get that.  And they will try to divert her attention away by bringing up other intelligence issues, if I’m understanding what she was saying.   And she is not allowed to take notes.  WTH?

Is it any wonder that the American people are kept in the dark about all that is going on??

As someone said (caller)  they forget who they’re working for–the American public.  But, yeah, we sorta already knew that.  Like I said in my previous post–the information gathering most likely will be sold to the highest bidder.  The NSA won’t be held accountable because Congress is just throwing money at them without accountability or restraint.

And with all this information gathering, did they stop the Boston bombing? No.

Did they stop Fort Hood? No.

Did they stop Sandy Hook? No.

Did they stop the theatre shooting in Colorado? No.

Who stopped the underwear bomber?  The public.

Who stopped the guy in New York City who had the bomb in the Jeep?  The public.

Security, my arse.

 

GM Wheat found in Oregon

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In case you didn’t click on the link for yet another farm crop contaminated with GMO’s….

I just want to know how many times Monsanto can get away with this before somebody finally lays down the law?

What’s to say that they aren’t doing this in other countries…allegedly releasing GMO seed via unsuspecting farmers who plant the seed, not knowing it’s GMO, and by the time the discovery is made…well, too late…it’s already been released into the environment??

Bopping around on the web, I found this article about products that were thought to be GMO free, but alas…Sweden was, by other articles I read, proactive and was against GMO’s.  So….where did this come from?  I can’t say that I know enough about the timeline with Sweden, but is certainly raises questions.  What is worrisome is how Monsanto has worn down the resistance to GMO’s, if this is any indication.

Here’s a good article on what countries have banned GMO’s.  Note that even though Japan banned GMO products, it *still* got contamination…by importing Canadian GM canola….stunning…absolutely stunning.  Alarms should be going off all over at this news.  Also, the article mentions the India farmers’ suicides…and the water thing.  Why doesn’t anyone bring up that the cotton plants were much more thirsty than the heirloom cotton?  That seems to escape everyone’s notice–we can’t afford to use more of our precious water resources for frankencrops that require more water to survive.

Note also the refusal of a tuna shipment to Greece when it was tested positive for GM.  It had  been packed in genetically modified soybean oil!  So, evidently, one doesn’t have to consume GMO’s to be altered by it–one only has to touch it.  Which brings more worries about breathing in GM corn pollen.  As I have said in previous blogs, my allergies during the summer always get worse after corn pollen has started to enter the atmosphere.  And with my previous post on how GM enters the DNA of gut flora….just scares the crap out of me–even carefully trying to avoid GM food, I could still end up more contaminated.  I say more contaminated because I ate GM food before I was aware of it–as most Americans who are unaware of eating GM food.

Monsanto wins court case

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This is just mind numbing…do courts ever do their own research about stuff they rule on?  Or do they just accept what is force-fed them by agricultural bullies like Monsanto??

Well, with the ruling, I think we have the answer to that.  Anyone who does their homework and looks up genetically modified organisms will have had all the evidence against its continued use.  How many crops does this monster have to damage and destroy before courts and politicians wake up?!

Monsanto promises not to sue farmers….seriously?

Growing unrest in Turkey

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Report here.

After the incident, a representative from Turkey’s Socialist Democracy Party (SDP) issued a statement confirming that the individuals seen throwing the Molotov cocktails were not affiliated with the party, despite photographs of them carrying SDP flags.

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This just sickens me…there is just too, too much going on in the Middle East with what seems to be conflicts between those who are more progressive in their thinking who are sick of the austerity/conservative /pro-war gov’ts.  That’s just my take on it, your mileage may vary…

…it’s just my experience that most of the public, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist,  or whatever, are for peace.  They just want to live their lives and be let alone…

I’m thinking it’s time for a worldwide political party:  the Leave Us the Hell Alone Party.  We don’t *stand* for anything–we just live our lives following the Golden Rule of Doing Unto Others as We Would Have Done Unto Us….”

God Bless Us everyone…

 

 

 

To Clarify

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To clarify what I mean with my last post–I don’t have a problem with wiretapping suspected terrorists per se, but I have a big problem with the illegal wiretapping of anyone.  That is, I expect the gov’t agency to go before a judge with evidence that this person is indeed up to no good.  It’s what our Constitution requires.  I expect those in the gov’t who swear to uphold the Constitution to do just that.

Daniel Ellsberg on Snowden

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Daniel Ellsberg was on CNN last night, commenting on the NSA and Edward Snowden.  He asked the question…”Can you charge someone with a crime whom  has exposed a crime?  What Snowden did was expose a violation of the Constitution. ”  (paraphrasing). 

“They illegally wiretapped suspected terrorists…but I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t a terrorist….

Now they’re illegally wiretapping me and there’s no one brave enough to speak up….”

 

From this poem.

Senators who voted against GMO labeling

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(**edited to add tryptophan link.)

organic consumers has a post up on pressuring ten senators who voted against the Sanders’ amendment to allow states the right to label GMO food.

All we’re asking for is the right to know what is in our food!  We’re not asking them to ban GMO’s…although that’s certainly a dream of ours…we’re just asking for the right to refuse to eat food that is bad for us.

This is especially an issue for Celiacs, who can be seriously affected by genetically modified food that we cannot digest properly, and will only add to the leaky gut syndrome, possibly causing an emergency situation caused by gut inflammation. 

A debate (sort of) here.  The increase in gut inflammation since the 30s can easily be attributed to our increased use of wheat flour and undiagnosed Celiac / gluten intolerance.  I personally think it has been there, but now is becoming worse because of the GMO’s.  It just makes sense to me.

Here’s a trailer to the video by Dr. Smith : Genetic Roulette.  Glad to see Dr. Huber of Purdue University featured.  He has spoken out about the changes to the bee population.  I’m also glad to see other M.D.’s on board with this.

And then there’s this.  Holy crap, it’s worse than I thought…!  So, even if you stop eating GMO foods, you’re still subjected to this monster via your gut flora.  Holy crap.

The above page had a link to the Japan tryptophan disaster, but the link was dead.  I found it here.

It’s interesting that tryptohpan, which is a natural amino acid, was banned in supplement form…but it’s quite all right for GMO’s to go without scrutiny or restraint.  Many in the natural supplements industry felt that tryptophan was targeted because it was a natural supplement, that competed with Big Pharma.  This just adds more credibility to that claim.  If you’re Big Pharma or Monsanto, you can get away with it.

Here’s another page on GMO which mentions the Showa Denko incident.

What ver you doink Thursday night at 3:46 p.m.?

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Well, if you can’t remember, the NSA might be able to help fill in the memory gap.    (hat tip to fatster at  FDL.)

This quote from the comments brought a smile to my face in an otherwise somber article:

Candide08
I’m going to start calling random doctors and other businesses that have nothing to do with me. A little dis-information goes a long way.
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I don’t know everybody is surprised by this–anyone with half a brain could see the continuing violation of Fourth Amendment right to privacy.   All in the name of safety.  Um-hmmm….there’s no ulterior Nixon-like motive to gain an edge over someone by snooping into their private lives…./snark.  I’ve been saying all along that this whole thing smelled of Watergate–only on steroids.  Nixon sought the information so he could win at all costs.  Fortunately, we had Senator Frank Church to stand up for what was right.  Where’s our Church now?  Oh, right, drummed out of office by what is now the Tea Party.

 

 

Helping ourselves

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commondreams has this up.  Be sure to look at all the videos–well worth the time.

The idea is so simple it’s like “duh!”

I have a quibble, though, with Klein saying that it’s up to the Left to “seize the moment”.  There are those who are NOT in the Tea Party on the Right who also need and want to find a solution to the crashes around us.  I say this because the Left has not been of the same mind — I was shot down on a progressive website when I advocated buying American so we could put people back to work.  I knew that Washington wasn’t going to get off its collective duff and do anything about the job loss.  (NAFTA being a good example of monumental job loss.)

I just don’t think people have been given the skills or knowledge to feel confident enough to take over a business if the owners want to sell out.  I think it may be a case of learned helplessness?  Not believing in yourself can be such a huge obstacle that one stops before even getting started.

Perhaps the “teach-ins” of 2013 should be “Business 101:  how to own a business without going belly-up nor bankrupting the environment on your way to the bank…”

The Native Americans learned this a loooong time ago–nature was not a second thought.  They did not separate their actions from nature.

It’s still so incredibly stupid that business has ignored the laws of nature, as if we could exist without clean water, clean air and chemical free food…

Well…exist is probably a bad word choice…since we are existing right now…perhaps thriving  is the better word.  All one has to do is look at folks’ skin and see that we are not thriving, but existing.  The skin is such a barometer of what’s going on in the insides…not doing too well by that account.

Anyway, Washington isn’t going to help us…most likely profiting off of NAFTA…so, it’s up to us if we want to save ourselves.