Remembering Kent State

Judicial Watch Sues to Get bin Laden Death Pics

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Department of Defense seeking all photographs and/or video recordings of Osama bin Laden taken during and/or after the U.S. military operation in Pakistan that resulted in bin Laden's death.

The request to the Defense Department was filed May 3. An identical request was filed with the CIA.

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The cost of bin Laden: $3 trillion over 15 years

As we mark Osama bin Laden's death, what's striking is how much he cost our nation—and how little we've gained from our fight against him. By conservative estimates, bin Laden cost the United States at least $3 trillion over the past 15 years, counting the disruptions he wrought on the domestic economy, the wars and heightened security triggered by the terrorist attacks he engineered, and the direct efforts to hunt him down.

What do we have to show for that tab? Two wars that continue to occupy 150,000 troops and tie up a quarter of our defense budget; a bloated homeland-security apparatus that has at times pushed the bounds of civil liberty; soaring oil prices partially attributable to the global war on bin Laden's terrorist network; and a chunk of our mounting national debt, which threatens to hobble the economy unless lawmakers compromise on an unprecedented deficit-reduction deal.

All of that has not given us, at least not yet, anything close to the social or economic advancements produced by the battles against America's costliest past enemies. Defeating the Confederate army brought the end of slavery and a wave of standardization—in railroad gauges and shoe sizes, for example—that paved the way for a truly national economy. Vanquishing Adolf Hitler ended the Great Depression and ushered in a period of booming prosperity and hegemony. Even the massive military escalation that marked the Cold War standoff against Joseph Stalin and his Russian successors produced landmark technological breakthroughs that revolutionized the economy.

Perhaps the biggest economic silver lining from our bin Laden spending, if there is one, is the accelerated development of unmanned aircraft. That's our $3 trillion windfall, so far: Predator drones. "We have spent a huge amount of money which has not had much effect on the strengthening of our military, and has had a very weak impact on our economy," says Linda Bilmes, a lecturer at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government who coauthored a book on the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

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More than actual security, we bought a sense of action in the face of what felt like an existential threat. We staved off another attack on domestic soil. Our debt load was creeping up already, thanks to the early waves stages of baby-boomer retirements, but we also hastened a fiscal mess that has begun, in time, to fulfill bin Laden's vision of a bankrupt America. If left unchecked, our current rate of deficit spending would add $9 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. That's three Osamas, right there.

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Obama Justifies FEMA imprisonment of civilians!

More on this here:

There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached. Ask yourself if you really want to be on Ashcroft's list.
The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people.
Justification for actions are taken in
EXECUTIVE ORDER 12656
Read the text here:
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12656.html ]
A portion of the highlights are:
Management, control, and allocation of all usable waters from all sources within the jurisdiction of the United States
Control, acquisition of real property
Mining of strategic and critical and other nonfuel minerals for national security emergency purposes
Stockpile strategic and critical minerals
Military assistance to civilian law enforcement authorities
Registration and inquiry, and mortuary services and interment
The use of Federal penal and correctional institutions and resources
Enforcement plans to respond to civil disturbances
Management and control of civil transportation resources and systems, including privately owned automobiles, urban mass transit, intermodal transportation systems, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation and the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
Management of all Federal, State, city, local, and other highways, roads, streets, bridges, tunnels
Control of people entering and leaving the United States
Claimancy for materials and equipment for public water systems.
Provide by induction, personnel that would be required by the armed forces
Methods for interment of the dead

Drug Company Payments to Doctors

Dollars for Docs - What Drug Companies are Paying Your Doctor

Drug companies have long kept secret details of the payments they make to doctors for promoting their drugs. But eight companies have begun posting names and compensation on the Web, some as the result of legal settlements. ProPublica compiled these disclosures, totaling $320 million, into a single database that allows patients to search for their doctor. Receiving payments isn’t necessarily wrong, but it does raise ethical issues.

'The Entire Ukraine Is a Brothel'

From Kiev's Topless Protestors:

Inna Shevchenko, 20, a student from Kiev, is a "Topless Fighter," as activists with the women's rights group Femen call themselves. For two years, the organization has been fighting against sex tourism and prostitution in Ukraine, a country that even Google automatically associates with "dating agencies" and "women." The advertisements to the right of a Google search for "Ukraine" are for "Single Ukrainian Ladies," "Women From Ukraine," or "Partner Search Ukraine." Although the group has only a few dozen activists like Inna and around 300 supporters, the topless protests have established a global reputation for Femen.

One year ago, half-naked activists warning against the "Rape of Democracy" stormed the polling station where presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich was casting his vote. After winning, Yanukovich curbed freedom of speech and the press, and even imprisoned members of his opposition.

Since Yanukovich came to office, the SBU, Ukraine's top secret service, has attempted to intimidate the Femen activists. They claim that SBU officials even threatened to "break the legs" of the group's leader if she didn't cease her attacks on the government.

"The state fears Femen because they are increasingly targeting Yanukovich's government," said Taras Chornovil, an independent member of the Ukrainian national parliament.

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13th annual Global Marijuana March

From International Business Times:

The Global Marijuana March (GMM) is a yearly rally taking place at different locations across the world. It refers to cannabis-related events that happens on the first Saturday in May, or thereabouts, and may include marches, meetings, rallies, raves, concerts, festivals and information tables.

The Global Marijuana March also goes by the name of the Million Marijuana March (MMM). It began in 1999. Around 600 different cities worldwide have signed up since 1999. There are local names for the event too, such as: World Cannabis Day, Cannabis Liberation Day, Global Space Odyssey, Ganja Day, J Day, Million Blunts March and more.

The 13th annual Global Marijuana March was organized to celebrate marijuana for both medical and recreational uses.

Nearly 500 cities across the world has participated in marijuana marches and rallies this year.

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And a psychedelic vid in honor of the struggle:

United Targeted Individuals Europe

Stop the inhuman treatment of people in the name of scientific advancement.