USA Patriot Act

Taken from Dude , Where's My Country? by Michael Moore

USA PATRIOT ACT is really a gross misnomer. This law is anything but patriotic. the "Patriot" Act is as Un-American as Mein Kampf (see blog re Prescott Bush and his Nazi connections). The name is part of a masterful plan meant to camouflage a stench thicker than Florida swamp water.

You can always read the law yourself if you have several days and a gaggle of lawyers at your disposal. You see, this law is not like other laws that read in clear language, "you can do this" or "you cant do that". The Patriot Act is mostly about amending existing laws. There are 342 pages where it really never says what it is doing but rather refers you to hundreds of other passages in other laws written over the past hundred years. So, in order to read the Patriot Act, you need to have all the laws written in the past century in order to see what sentence or phrase the Patriot Act is changing.

Thats why , when anyone has challenged them, the Justice department folks throw up their hands and urge "the public to read the actual language of the act for clarification. t5here is no way to humanly do this.

On October 11th , just a month after September 11th 2001 the Senate passed a version of the bill thats was less tolerable to civil - rights advocates than the House version, to be voted on the next day.

The Bush administration didnt like the protection contained in the House Bill and, with the speaker of the house, worked through the night to strip it of all the civil rights protections The House had voted for. It was finally submitted at 3:45 am. when Congress showed up a few hours later to vote on it, they thought they were voting on the language agreed to the previous day. Instead they voted on the bill whose few protections were gutted by Attorney General John Ashcroft the night before. According to the American Civil Liberties Union few members of Congress read the final version of the act. It was perhaps the most reckless and irresponsbile action our Congress has ever taken.

Here's what the law does: Your government may now "trap and trace" all those countless emails you thought were private. Also up for inspection : banking records, school records, the list of library books you or your nine year old checked out this year (or even how often you logged on to the internet at the library), and your consumer purchases.
Think I'm exaggerating? Next time you are sitting in your doctor's waiting room or waiting in line at the bank, read their new privacy statements. Buried in the legalese you will find new warnings that your pivacy protections do not cover The Big Brother provisions of our New Patriot Act.

There's more. Under the special "SNEAK AND PEEK" provision ,agents may now come into your home and search through your stuff and - get this- never tell you've been there.



So AMERICA WHEN DECIDING WHO TO VOTE FOR (DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS) JUST REMEMBER THEY BOTH VOTED FOR THIS ACT
UNITED KINGDOM - JUST REMEMBER SINCE TONY BLAIR TOOK OVER WE HAVE BEEN JUST ANOTHER STATE IN THE US - ALSO REMEMBER THAT "OUR FRIEND" DAVID CAMERON HAS JUST RECENTLY GONE TO THE US TO MEET GEORGE BUSH - he is not to be trusted

Dead Peasants Insurance

Taken from: Dude, Where's My Country by Michael Moore


Are you aware that your company may have taken a life insurance policy out on you? Oh how nice of them, you say? yeah, here's how nice it is:

During the past twenty years, companies including, Disney, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Dow Chemical, JP Morgan Chase, and Wal Mart have been secretly taking out life insurance policies on their low- and mid-level employees and then naming themselves - the Corporation - as the benificiary!!! Thats right ; When you die, the company -not your survivors- get to cash in. If you die on the job, all the better, as most life insurance policies are geared to pay out more when someone dies young. And if you live to a ripe old age, even long after you've left the company, the company still gets to collect on your death. The money does not goto your grieving relatives through hard times or to pay for the funeral or burial; it goes to the corporate executives. and regardless of when you croak, the company is able to borrow against the policy and deduct the interest from its corporate taxes.
Many of these companies have set up a system for the money to go pay for executive bonuses, cars , homes , trips to the Caribbean. your death goes to helping make your boss a very happy man sitting in his jacuzzi on St Barts.
And what do the Corporations call this special form of life insurance?

Dead Peasants Insurance

That's right. "Dead Peasants." Because thats what you are to them - peasants. And you are sometimes worth more to them dead than alive. (It's also sometimes referred to as "Dead Janitors" insurance.)

When I read about this in The Wall Street Journal last year (2002), I thought I had picked up one of those parody versions of that newspaper. But, no, this was the real deal , and the writers , Ellen Shultz and Theo Francis, told some heartbreaking stories of employees who died and whose families could have used the money.

They wrote of a man who died at twenty-nine of complications of AIDS, who had no life insurance of his own. His family received no death benefits , but CM Holdings, the parent company of the music store where he worked, collected $339,302 at his death.

Another CM Holdings policy was taken out on an administrative assistant who earned $21,000 a year, who died from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). According to the Journal Story, the company turned down a request by her grown children, who cared for her during her illness, to help buy her a $5000 wheelchair so they could take their mother to church. When the woman died in 1998 the company recieved a payout of $180,000.

Some of the companies - Wal Mart among them- have stopped the practice, but for now the policies continue at many companies. Is your company one of them? You might want to find out. It's good to know that , after you die, your corpse could in fact mean a new Porche for the chairman.

Philippines: Military Coup averted as Rebels surrender to troops

Rebel officers standing trial for a failed 2003 Coup and a few dozen loyal soldiers to their cause against the present Philippine Government were arrested after taking over a Manila Hotel. The Coup leaders comprised of an ex army colonel, a priest and an ex bishop amongst others. One would think a hotel is a pretty bad place to stage a coup, for one hotels are not normally fortified and service is terrible .

Rebels surrender after troops storm Manila hotel

Last Updated: Thursday, November 29, 2007 | 7:41 AM ET

CBC News

Renegade Philippine soldiers who occupied a luxury hotel in Manila Thursday surrendered and were arrested shortly after heavily armed troops wearing gas masks stormed the lobby.

Government soldiers prepare for an assault at the Peninsula hotel in Manila on Thursday after several military officers stormed out of their coup trial and took over the facility.Government soldiers prepare for an assault at the Peninsula hotel in Manila on Thursday after several military officers stormed out of their coup trial and took over the facility.

The rebel soldiers, who stand accused of a failed mutiny in 2003, occupied the Peninsula hotel earlier in the day after breaking out of court where they were on trial.

"We are going off for the sake of the safety of everybody," Senator Antonio Trillanes said during a chaotic news conference from within the hotel shortly before he and about three dozen of his comrades were brought out in small groups with their hands bound.

"We cannot live with our conscience if some of you got hurt or killed in the crossfire," he said.

"Like soldiers we are going to face this."

Less than an hour earlier, live television footage showed dozens of troops following an armoured vehicle into the lobby of the hotel amid the sound of automatic gunfire and sight of tear gas.

The soldiers occupying the hotel had called on their fellow troops to withdraw their support for Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has been mired in corruption scandals in recent months.

"It's tantamount to treason if we don't do something," Trillanes said. "It's a moral obligation.

The BBC reported all guests from the hotel were removed before the raid, but many journalists blatantly defied a government order to leave the facility.

There is no word yet on any casualties. A Catholic priest inside the hotel with the rebels said they did not fire their weapons.

The bizarre incident is not the first crisis involving Arroyo and dissident military forces

In 2006, Arroyo declared a state of national emergency, saying the country faced a "clear threat" from treasonous forces.

In 2003, Arroyo ordered the military to arrest nearly 300 soldiers suspected of planning a coup against the government. The soldiers, which included 70 army and navy officers, surrendered after taking over a shopping complex and rigging it with explosives.

Forecaster Predicts "Mother of All Storms in The UK week before Christmas"

TAKEN FROM THE DAILY STAR Nov 20th 2007

BRITAIN is braced for the "mother of all storms" this Christmas.
the extreme weather is set to cause travel chaos, disrupting the festive seasion.

The Christmas Catastrophe will see powerful gales and driving rain cause havoc over the holiday period.

Forecaster Piers Corbyn said : "There will be a major week-long damaging stormy spell affecting all parts of the country in the lead up to Christmas".

The Weather Action expert said it was set to be " A MOTHER OF STORMS, WHICH COVERS ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY"


NB - I have now looked in to Piers Corbyn and you'll be pleased to know that he isnt a mainstream weather forecaster - he also predicted that we'd all be dead 10 years ago , but according to Wikipedia he is known to be up to 70 % accurate - So who Knows?

What I do know is that if a hurricane hits The East Coast of England the storm surge could flood central London so if you're in London when they evacuate Great Yarmouth again be warned it could be coming straight for us!

To see what the damage to the Uk would be if a storm surge of 7m - 14m would do click on this link Flood Maps - if a hurricane hit as in the film "Flood" the storm sturge could be up to 40m high





MOTHER OF STORMS BY JOHN BARNES


Just in time for hurricane season, John Barnes brings us science fiction for meteorologists. Mother of Storms will probably be labelled as "a chilling ecological thriller!" but it's much more than that. A military--excuse me, peacekeeping--strike by the UN causes sudden, rapid global warming, which results in the birth of a superhurricane of unprecedented size, strength, and longevity. This storm spawns a number of daughter storms, which proceed to rampage around the planet, doing a pretty good job of bringing civilization to its knees. This book has flood, pestilence, and war; there's famine too, but it's mostly offstage. There's death and destruction of incomprehensible magnitude. Nations and coastlines crumble.

This is a test video

New year Fireworks London 2005 - A Good Xmas Present

See more and buy at:

First Pictures of Phillipines

The Slums In Manila (Taken from the train)

The Bhutto Assasination & The Pakistani Secret Services

Scores dead in Bhutto assassination attempt

Posted Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:44am AEST
Updated Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:24am AEST

A suspected suicide bomber has killed 115 people in an attack targeting former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto as she was driven through Karachi on her return from eight years in exile.

Officials said Ms Bhutto was unhurt after one of the deadliest attacks in her country's history, having left the truck that had been transporting her through streets crowded with hundreds of thousands of wellwishers.

"Ms Bhutto is safe and she has been taken to her residence," said Azhar Farooqui, a senior police officer in Karachi, after two explosions in quick succession rocked Bhutto's motorcade.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Militants linked to Al Qaeda, angered by Ms Bhutto's support for the United States war on terrorism, had earlier this week threatened to assassinate her.

Dr Ejaz Ahmed, a police surgeon, told Reuters that 80 dead had been brought to three hospitals of the city. A Reuters reporter counted 35 bodies in another hospital.

Hospital officials said more than 200 people were wounded.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said many of the casualties were police officers travelling in two of the vans that formed part of Bhutto's security detail.

Reuters photographer Athar Hussain was slightly wounded.

He described "a ball of fire" bursting into the air and disappearing after the first blast. Mr Hussain and another photographer on a truck following Ms Bhutto's vehicle then rushed towards the site of the first blast.

"There was another blast and it was more powerful, then I knew it was a bomb attack."

He saw a television cameraman running in front of him killed.

"Bodies were scattered all over and wounded were crying for help. No one went near the bodies out of fear that there could be another blast," Mr Hussain said.

Rescuers scrambled to drag bodies from the twisted wreckage of blazing vehicles as flames lit up the night sky after two apparent explosions in Pakistan's most violent city.

"The blasts hit two police vehicles which were escorting the truck carrying Ms Bhutto. The target was the truck," Mr Farooqui told Reuters.

Rehman Malik, an aide to Ms Bhutto who was travelling with her on the truck, said the blasts went off while she was resting inside the vehicle.

Ms Bhutto herself seemed to expect some kind of attempt on her life as she set off on the last leg of her journey back to Pakistan on Thursday.

"They might try to assassinate me. I have prepared my family and my loved ones for any possibility," she told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Attack condemned

President Pervez Musharraf, in a statement issued by the state run news agency, said the attack represented "a conspiracy against democracy".

In Washington, the White House condemned the attack.

"The United States condemns the violent attack in Pakistan and mourns the loss of innocent life there," Gordon Johndroe, White House National Security Council spokesman said.

"Extremists will not be allowed to stop Pakistanis from selecting their representatives through an open and democratic process."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Pakistani authorities to guarantee the security of politicians in the run up to elections.

Speaking from Dubai, Ms Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari told ARYONE World Television: "I blame government for these blasts. It is the work of the intelligence agencies."

Intelligence reports suggested at least three jihadi groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban were plotting suicide attacks, according to a provincial official.

Some 20,000 security personnel had been deployed to provide protection for the returning Ms Bhutto.

"She has an agreement with America. We will carry out attacks on Benazir Bhutto as we did on General Pervez Musharraf," Haji Omar, a Taliban commander in the Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border, told Reuters by satellite telephone as Ms Bhutto headed for Pakistan.

Ms Bhutto, 54, had returned from self-imposed exile to lead her Pakistan People's Party into national elections meant to return the country to civilian rule.

For years Ms Bhutto had vowed to return to Pakistan to end military dictatorship, yet she came back as a potential ally for General Musharraf, the army chief who took power in a 1999 coup.

The United States is believed to have quietly encouraged their alliance to keep nuclear-armed Pakistan pro-Western and committed to fighting Al Qaeda and supporting NATO's efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.

Dressed in a green kameez, a loose tunic, her head covered by a white scarf, Ms Bhutto had earlier stood in plain view on top of her truck, ignoring police advice to stay behind its bullet proof glass, as it edged through crowds waving the red, black and green tricolour of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Even before Friday's attack, Ms Bhutto's family history has been steeped in violence.

Her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's first popularly elected prime minister, was overthrown and hanged, while her two brothers were killed in mysterious circumstances, one gunned down in Karachi, the other found dead in a French Riviera hotel.







Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI]

The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] was founded in 1948 by a British army officer, Maj Gen R Cawthome, then Deputy Chief of Staff in Pakistan Army. Field Marshal Ayub Khan, the president of Pakistan in the 1950s, expanded the role of ISI in safeguarding Pakistan's interests, monitoring opposition politicians, and sustaining military rule in Pakistan.

The ISI is tasked with collection of foreign and domestic intelligence; co-ordination of intelligence functions of the three military services; surveillance over its cadre, foreigners, the media, politically active segments of Pakistani society, diplomats of other countries accredited to Pakistan and Pakistani diplomats serving outside the country; the interception and monitoring of communications; and the conduct of covert offensive operations.

CDirectorate for Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI]

The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] was founded in 1948 by a British army officer, Maj Gen R Cawthome, then Deputy Chief of Staff in Pakistan Army. Field Marshal Ayub Khan, the president of Pakistan in the 1950s, expanded the role of ISI in safeguarding Pakistan's interests, monitoring opposition politicians, and sustaining military rule in Pakistan.

The ISI is tasked with collection of foreign and domestic intelligence; co-ordination of intelligence functions of the three military services; surveillance over its cadre, foreigners, the media, politically active segments of Pakistani society, diplomats of other countries accredited to Pakistan and Pakistani diplomats serving outside the country; the interception and monitoring of communications; and the conduct of covert offensive operations.

Critics of the ISI say that it has become a state within a state, answerable neither to the leadership of the army, nor to the President or the Prime Minister. The result is there has been no real supervision of the ISI, and corruption, narcotics, and big money have all come into play, further complicating the political scenario. Drug money was used by ISI to finance not only the Afghanistan war, but also the ongoing proxy war against India in Kashmir and Northeast India.

Pakistan's military leader, General Pervez Musharraf, has attempted to rein in the ISI. Since September 11th, Islamic fundamentalists have been purged from leadership positions. This includes then-ISI head Lieutenant General Mahmood Ahmed, who was replaced in October 2001 by Lieutenant General Ehsanul Haq.

Additional reforms of the ISI have been made. Most notable was the decision to disband the Kashmir and Afghanistan units. Both these groups have promoted Islamic fundamentalist militancy throughout South Asia. Some officials have been forced to retire and others have been transferred back to the military. Intelligence experts have estimated that these moves would slash the size of the ISI by close to 40%.

Trailers From Hell

Trailers From Hell showcases classic Previews of forthcoming films punctuated with humourous commentary by iconic genre filmakers

GOTO WEBSITE

Sir Ian Blair facing 'no confidence' vote

Britain's most senior policeman may face a vote of no confidence as calls mounted for him to resign today.

An emergency meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority, the force's watchdog, has been called and is expected to take place on Monday.

There was anger amongst the committee after the MPA chairman Len Duvall issued a statement last night stating that Sir Ian had the "full support" of the body without consulting members.

At least four members of the group have publicly declared Sir Ian should resign and as many as 10 of the 23 members are said to be lining up to vote against him or abstain.

On Wednesday Sir Ian will face questions from the full London Assembly at City Hall.


The Independent Police Complaints Commission is also expected to publish its much-anticipated report into what happened on July 22, the day Mr de Menezes was shot dead.

It has been withheld pending the outcome of court proceedings. It will be critical of Sir Ian for his attempts to keep independent investigators away from Stockwell tube station in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Former senior Met policeman Brian Paddick has said that Sir Ian should await the results of the IPCC report before making a decision.

"There is still a lot of evidence to come out," he said.

Any decision on the Commissioner's future lies with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who today publicly defended Sir Ian, along with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.



"I don't think he should resign" she said. "I have confidence in Sir Ian Blair."

Yesterday Sir Ian, who was at the Old Bailey to hear a jury convict his force on health and safety charges, expressed his "deep regret" but said the case showed no evidence of systematic failure by the force.

The Met was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £385,000 costs after being convicted of exposing the public to risk under health and safety legislation.

After the verdict, the family and friends of Mr de Menezes also called for officers to resign.

His mother Maria said : "Sir Ian should think about what his men have done to my son and consider resigning."





Mr de Menezes, 27, an electrician, was shot by firearms officers at Stockwell Underground station.

The court heard how there were a "catastrophic" series of blunders which led to surveillance and firearms teams believing they were on the trail of a suicide bomber.

The shooting on 22 July 2005 took place a day after four suicide bombers tried to attack London and went on the run when their devices failed.

Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, has leapt to the defence of Sir Ian, agreeing with the Commissioner's own judgement that there were no grounds for resignation because the judge had accepted the failings were a one off.

The commissioner is an "incredibly talented officer" and has the full support of the force, Mr Livingstone said.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme he criticised as "disastrous" the findings of the court, claiming it could make stopping suicide bombers more difficult.

"At the end of the day, mistakes are always going to happen in wars or situations like this. The best you can do is try and make the potential for risk the minimum possible but there will be mistakes.

"Every time Ian Blair has appeared [he has said] we're absolutely terribly sorry, we apologise for what happened. But in this sort of fast-moving situation someone must make the instantaneous decision: is that a terrorist and are they reaching to trigger the bomb?"




In this morning's version of the Metro Newspaper it stated that the Police Fine would go back into Police coffers which if true seems to make the whole thing a bit of a farce if you ask me!!