May 2010 – Page 7 – Infinite Unknown

Recalled Tylenol Products Were Knowingly Contaminated, Says FDA

May 6, 2010 by Infinite

– FDA finds grime at J&J plant, urges use of generics (Reuters)

(Reuters) – U.S. inspectors found thick dust and contaminated ingredients at the Johnson & Johnson plant that produces Children’s Tylenol and dozens of other products that were recalled last week.

(NaturalNews) The other day I wrote a story about the massive recall by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, of its infants’ and children’s line of Tylenol products. An FDA inspection report found these drugs to be contaminated with dangerous bacteria (they did not disclose the actual type) as well as “foreign materials” that were visible as “dark or black specks”. But a recent story published by USA Today has revealed that McNeil actually knew about the bacterial contamination and kept shipping the products anyway.

Only the drug industry could get away with this type of careless, reckless behavior with nothing more than a slap on the wrist from the FDA. In fact, the FDA did not even require McNeil to issue a recall after discovering the problem; McNeil did so voluntarily over “theoretical concerns” that were expressed by Deborah Autor, an FDA official who was quick to emphasize that the risk to consumers from the tainted products “is remote”.

So let me get this straight. An FDA report finds that a pharmaceutical company is knowingly using contaminated raw materials to make children’s and infants’ medicines in a factory that is failing to maintain its equipment, properly train its employees and correctly measure and weigh drug ingredients, and FDA officials consider the problem to be “theoretical”?

Can you imagine what would happen if an herbal product manufacturer were found to engage in the same behavior? The FDA would pounce on them, seize their products, issue a public warning and probably fine the company for its reckless behavior. But when Big Pharma pulls the same stunt, it’s just business as usual.

EU Rules: Silent Electric Cars Must Make Noise!

May 6, 2010May 6, 2010 by Infinite

EU rules may mean silent electric cars must make Star Wars noises

Battery cars such as the G-Wiz may be too quiet for cyclists and the blind to hear

The vision of tranquil modern cities, with inhabitants gliding by silently in electric cars, may be shattered by European plans to introduce artificial warning sounds to the new generation of zero-emission vehicles.

Each manufacturer may be permitted to provide its own “signature tune”, with the regulation simply setting a minimum volume to prevent pedestrians, cyclists and especially blind people from stepping into the path of battery-powered cars.

Some manufacturers are likely to opt for an engine noise while others are considering adopting the noises of spacecraft from science fiction films, such as the podracers from Star Wars.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: New NOAA Projection Map; BP’s High-Stakes Mission; And More News

June 6, 2010May 6, 2010 by Infinite

A sea turtle in the gulf surfaced Wednesday to feed, swimming through patches of oxidizing oil mingling with chemical dispersants used by BP to break up oil.

– Poisonous chemicals used to fight Gulf oil slick (MSNBC):

As they struggle to plug a leak from a ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP and federal officials are also engaging in one of the largest and most aggressive experiments with chemical dispersants in the history of the country, and perhaps the world.

With oil continuing to gush from the deep well, they have sprayed 160,000 gallons of chemical dispersant on the water’s surface and pumped an additional 6,000 gallons directly onto the leak, a mile beneath the surface.

– New NOAA Projections Show Slick Curling Ominously Around The Louisiana Coast (Business Insider):

(Click on image to enlarge.)

– Gulf of Mexico oil spill: giant dome sent to capture leaking crude (Telegraph):

BP has dispatched a giant concrete “dome” on a high-stakes mission to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, knowingt that failure would leave crude spewing into the sea for months and magnify the risk of an environmental catastrophe.

– Gulf of Mexico oil spill: Transocean-BP rig had safety valve problem in UK (Telegraph):

UK regulators issued a safety warning over a North Sea oil rig operated by Transocean and leased by BP five years ago.

– Congressmen raised concerns about BP safety before Gulf oil spill (Guardian):

Letter pointed out that three BP pipelines on Alaska’s North Slope had ruptured or clogged, leading to a risk of explosions

In the months before BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig sank in a ball of fire in the Gulf of Mexico, the company had four close calls on pipelines and facilities it operates in Alaska, according to a letter from two congressmen obtained by ProPublica.

– Gulf of Mexico oil slick hits wildlife reserve beaches (Telegraph):

The first tentacles of the giant Gulf of Mexico oil slick have washed up on beaches that are part of a wildlife refuge off the Louisiana coast.

Rusty streaks of crude could be seen closing in on the Chandeleur Islands and small, dark patches of oily sheen lapped ashore in some places close to flocks of birds.

The uninhabited island chain, 60-miles from New Orleans, is home to endangered brown pelicans, least tern and piping plover shore birds.

It is the easternmost point of Louisiana and forms part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, which is the second oldest wildlife refuge in the United States.

Related articles:

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: The Halliburton Connection (Los Angeles Times)

Vampire Zombie Needs More Blood – Freddie Mac Seeks More Government Funds, Asks For Additional $10.6 Billion

May 6, 2010 by Infinite

* Q1 provision for credit losses $5.4 bln

* Focused on improving credit quality – CEO

* Signs of housing market stabilising – CEO

* But expect big rise in distressed sales – CEO

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) – Freddie Mac, the second-largest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funds, on Wednesday asked for an additional $10.6 billion in federal aid after it lost $8 billion in the first quarter.

The company warned it would continue to need billions more in government funds because the housing market remains fragile.

The loss was $6.7 billion before a $1.3 billion dividend payment on senior preferred stock owned by the U.S. Treasury.

CIA Officer Robert D. Steele Explains New World Order’s Demise

August 2, 2016May 6, 2010 by Infinite

Added: 1. April 2010

– Robert D. Steele’s at Wikipedia

Dr. Rima E. Laibow MD reports from the Codex Committee on Nutrition Labeling

May 6, 2010 by Infinite

Added: 2. Mai 2010

Related information:

– Dr. Rima E. Laibow: The Globalist Depopulation Agenda

– Dr. Rima E. Laibow on Codex Alimentarius and Food Nazification

– Dr. Rima E. Laibow on the Contamination of the Food Supply & Deadly Antibiotics

– Codex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection

– Nutricide – Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs

German Professors Challenge Greek Bailout Legislation, Declare it Unconstitutional

May 6, 2010 by Infinite

Commentary:

Greece should (arrest the Goldman Sachs banksters) default on those bonds that are unpayable and let the stupid investors/banksters eat the losses.

Instead the people in Greece and the EU will be presented with the bill, created by corrupt elite criminals.

Now Germany is portrayed as not willing to help the people of Greece.

The Greek bailout is not about helping the people.

It is about looting the people in the EU (and everywhere else) until there is nothing left. This is happening everywhere.

– Max Keiser on Greece: ‘The IMF is a Financial Mafia’:

“The only solution for Greece is to arrest the Goldman Sachs bankers immediately and all those involved in the fabrication of Greek economic data in 2000, when you became a member of the eurozone. The next step is to nationalize all banks like Sweden did in 1993. The International Monetary Fund is that last thing you need. You will lose your sovereignty. It exercises terrorism. You will be raped in such a way, that it will be the worst pain you have ever felt.

If someone burns down your house in order to sell you charcoal, would you consider this logical? That is exactly what Goldman Sachs did to the Greek economy. They burned you down like arsonists and then they tell you not to worry they’ll give you charcoal. It’s outrageous. The IMF has said that it can provide Greece with help. The Wall Street investment hedge funds are attacking Greece’s bond market so that the Greek economy collapses. And they’re doing this for a simple reason; to force the Greek people to ask for help from the IMF. The IMF will say, we came because you asked for our help. Wall Street bankers work very closely with the IMF. It’s a financial mafia and the hedge funds are the assassins. Research conducted on Goldman Sachs in the USA and in Europe show how big a mafia it is. They are involved in illegal activity throughout the world.?

Germany is on the side of the Wall Street bankers. Germany doesn’t care about Greece or the euro. The euro replaced a cheap capital in order to uphold competitiveness in its export market. As long as Greece is a problem, the euro falls, which is something that is in Germany’s interest.

The European Union and the euro are competing with the dollar. Unfortunately, the crisis will destroy the euro. The financial terrorists on Wall Street intend to destroy Portugal, and other countries, after Greece. The destruction of the euro will allow the dollar to be the only international currency, the only fiscal reserve. If a country wants to buy petroleum, it must purchase dollars first. If a country wants to buy copper, it must purchase dollars first. Because these and many other commodities are only sold in dollars. This means that the U.S. is making a continuous profit. The whole world is obliged to buy dollars. The euro threatened the empire of the dollar. It was naturally not appreciated by Wall Street bankers. They are using the crisis to destroy the euro. The Greek people must stand up to the bankers, just like the Icelandic people did.”

The reality is that:

– Elite (Bilderberg) puppet Merkel urges parliament to give more taxpayer money to Deutsche Bank under pretext of “Greek bailout”

– Germany staggers under bank bailout and souvereign debt

– Faces financial meltdown with Greece

– Banks poised to buy up bankrupted countries

– Merkel urges Germany to support Greece with bail-out (BBC News):

“Quite simply Europe’s future is at stake,” Ms Merkel said. “Europe is at a fork in the road.”

Parliamentary approval is needed for the EU and IMF to start disbursing the 110bn-euro ($143bn; £95bn) bail-out.

Elite puppet President Obama, for example, added more to the National Debt in 120 days than all other Presidents did in the past 220 years, yet feels qualified to lecture Americans about ‘fiscal responsibility’.

Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling hail themselves as saviors, who saved the UK from the financial crisis.
What they are really doing is bankrupting the UK and destroying the pound.

– UK budget deficit to surpass Greece’s as worst in EU

The majority of the people is still ignorant about what all this dramatically increased government debt and policies like quantitative easing by their central banks (=printing money = creating money out of thin air = increasing the money supply = INFLATION) mean for them.

Here is (again) what it means:

“When a country embarks on deficit financing and inflationism you wipe out the middle class and wealth is transferred from the middle class and the poor to the rich.”
– Ron Paul

“Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.”
– Ron Paul

“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
– John Maynard Keynes

“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. … This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists’ antagonism toward the gold standard.“
– Alan Greenspan

“The one aim of these financiers is world control by the creation of inextinguishable debts.”
– Henry Ford

“I place the economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit (debt) expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”
– Ludwig von Mises

And Obama knows exactly what he is doing:

“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”
– Barack Obama

After the elite criminals will have bankrupted and collapsed EVERYTHING they will propose the New World Order as the only solution to all the problems that they have created in the first place.

Rise up people (peaceful) … or fall and live as slaves.

Germany should leave the EU and the euro and go back to the German mark, backed with gold.

Professors to challenge Greek bailout legislation in Germany

Elite puppet Angela Merkel

Karlsruhe, Germany – A group of professors who want Germany to be guided by its national interests promised Tuesday to mount a court challenge this week against legislation on bailing out Greece.

They are to demand Friday that the Federal Constitutional Court declare the legislation a breach of the German constitution.

A spokesman said he would file suit straight after Germany’s parliament is expected to pass a law committing Berlin to a 22.4-billion-euro (29-billion-dollar) share in European Union rescue loans to Athens.

The aid is unpopular among Germans, who say they have had to endure lagging wages, high taxes and retirement deferrals for years. News reports in Germany have portrayed Greece as spendthrift, corrupt and undeserving.

“We’ll hand in the docket at 12 noon and announce why,” said Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, a retired professor of public law.

He told the German Press Agency dpa he was backed by three economics professors, Joachim Starbatty, Wilhelm Noelling and Wilhelm Hankel, as well as by retired Thyssen chief executive Dieter Spethmann.

Betty Dukes vs. Wal-Mart reaches Supreme Court

May 6, 2010 by Infinite

US discrimination case between Betty Dukes and Wal-Mart reaches Supreme Court

Betty Dukes is still an employee of Wal-Mart. If the Supreme Court rules in her favour, it could lead to billions in payouts(AP)

A 60-year-old “greeter” from Wal-Mart is at the centre of the largest sex-discrimination lawsuit in American history – a battle that has become known as “Betty versus Goliath” and is about to reach the country’s highest court.

Betty Dukes alleges that Wal-Mart, which owns Asda in Britain, systematically pays women less than men, and promotes men to higher positions at a faster rate.

The class action will list a series of breaches of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race or gender. If Wal-Mart is found to have broken the law, compensation payouts could be worth billions of dollars.

Protestors Storm Parliament in Greece, 3 Killed in a Firebombed Bank

May 5, 2010 by Infinite

Hmmh. I would like to know who really firebombed the bank. (Another Iceland?)

Greek police hit by molotov cocktail (Reuters)

– 3 dead after protesters torch Greek bank (ABC NEWS):

Three people died in a burning bank as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Athens during a general strike over the Greek government’s planned spending cuts.

Some protesters tried to storm parliament while others threw petrol bombs at police and torched buildings in protest against new austerity measures and a decision to raise taxes to meet the conditions of its international bailout.

A petrol bomb hurled at an Athens branch of the Marfin Investment Bank killed two women and a man who were caught in the resulting inferno.

– 3 killed as rioters overrun streets of Greece (Los Angeles Times)

– Greek bank firebombing a ‘raw murderous act’ (Sydney Morning Herald):

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has condemned the killing of three people in a firebombed bank during protests in Athens as a “murderous act”, vowing to bring those responsible to justice.

In an address to parliament on Wednesday, Papandreou denounced “the unfair deaths of our citizens who fell victim to a raw murderous act” hours after the three died when petrol bombs thrown by demonstrators set the bank on fire.

“Nobody has the right to violence and particularly violence that leads to murder. Violence breeds violence,” Papandreou said.

A riot policeman falls after being hit with molotov cocktail near the Greek parliament in Athens. Photo: Reuters

– At least 3 killed as protestors storm parliament in Greece (InTheNews):

At least three people have been killed in Greece as protestors stormed parliament buildings in Athens amid the country’s debt crisis.

Striking workers set fire to a bank, possibly after being hit by petrol bombs, with fire services saying three bodies were found inside the burning building.

Police have responded to the unrest with pepper spray, tear gas and stun grenades.

Transport was at a standstill in the country as the angry protestors began their second day of strikes in the capital today over the government’s response to the country’s huge deficit.

Read moreProtestors Storm Parliament in Greece, 3 Killed in a Firebombed Bank

North Korea masses 50,000 troops along the border with South Korea

May 5, 2010 by Infinite

North Korea has completed deployment of about 50,000 special forces along the border with South Korea, amid high tensions over the sinking of a Seoul warship.

The deployment began two or three years ago and seven 7,000-strong divisions are now in place, an unidentified senior government official told Yonhap news agency.

“The threat that North Korea may infiltrate special forces for limited warfare has become real,” the agency quoted a separate senior defence ministry official as saying.

The defence ministry refused to confirm the Yonhap report, but President Lee Myung-Bak discussed the North’s special warfare capabilities at an unprecedented meeting Tuesday with 150 top officers from all armed services.

At the meeting, Mr Lee hinted strongly that the North was involved in the sinking of a South Korean warship with the loss of 46 lives near the disputed sea border on March 26.

Top Soviet Commander: USSR came close to defeat by Nazi Germany

May 5, 2010 by Infinite

An interview in which a Soviet commander admitted how close Moscow came to defeat by Germany during the Second World War has been broadcast in Russia for the first time.

Russian General Georgi Zhukov (centre) and his officers near the Seelower Hoehen battlefields in April 1945 Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The Soviet Union nearly lost the war in 1941 and suffered from poor planning, according to Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the frank television interview that has been banned since it was recorded in 1966.

Zhukov, the most decorated general in the history of both Russia and the Soviet Union, admitted that Soviet generals were not confident that they could hold the German forces at the Mozhaisk defence line outside Moscow.

“Did the commanders have confidence we would hold that line of defence and be able to halt the enemy? I have to say frankly that we did not have complete certainty.

“It would have been possible to contain the initial units of the opponent but if he quickly sent in his main group, he would have been difficult to stop,” he told the interviewer, the Soviet writer Konstantin Simonov.

Zhukov also revealed details of his exchanges with Joseph Stalin, the wartime leader, in the interview broadcast on state-run Channel One.

He recalled that a flu-struck Stalin summoned him to Moscow in October 1941 to salvage what until then had been a stuttering defence on the Western front outside Moscow.

After arriving at the front, Zhukov found that the defences in place were “absolutely insufficient”.

“It was an extremely dangerous situation. In essence, all the approaches to Moscow were open,” he said. “Our troops on the Mozhaisk defence line could not have stopped the enemy if he moved on Moscow.”

“I telephoned Stalin. I said the most urgent thing is to occupy the Mozhaisk defence line as in parts of the Western front in essence there are no (Soviet) troops.

Shortly afterwards, Stalin phoned Zhukov back to inform him he had been made commander of the Western Front.

Moody’s says very likely to downgrade Portugal’s credit rating

May 5, 2010 by Infinite

* Downgrade now highly likely, review to take 3 months

* Still to discuss austerity with government

* Moody’s says may cut Portuguese banks’ ratings

The historic part of Lisbon, the Portugeuse capital, recreated after an earthquake devastated the City in 1755

LISBON/NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service put its credit rating for Portugal on a three-month review on Wednesday, and a senior Moody’s analyst said that as a result a downgrade of the credit rating is now likely.

Moody’s said it could downgrade Portugal’s Aa2 ratings by one, or at most two, notches, citing “the recent deterioration of Portugal’s public finances as well as the economy’s long-term growth challenges,” especially due to low competitiveness.

“We have sent a signal that it is possible, and I have to say, statistically, there is a very strong likelihood that if we put it on a review for downgrade then we follow through with a downgrade,” Anthony Thomas, vice president at Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group, told Reuters.

He said a downgrade was more likely now than when Moody’s first placed Portugal on negative outlook last year.

UK budget deficit to surpass Greece’s as worst in EU

May 5, 2010 by Infinite

European commission’s spring forecasts put UK budget deficit this year at 12% of GDP – the highest in the European Union and worse than Treasury estimates

The European commission forecast for the UK budget deficit is higher than Alistair Darling’s. Photograph: David Levene

Whoever wins the election must make sorting out the public finances the top priority, the European commission warned on the eve of the poll, as it predicted the British budget deficit would swell this year to become the biggest in the European Union, overtaking even Greece.

The commission’s spring economic forecasts put the UK deficit for this calendar year at 12% of GDP, the highest of all 27 EU nations and worse than the Treasury’s own forecasts.

The country’s budget shortfall was the third largest in the EU last year but will overtake both Greece and Ireland this year, according to the forecasts. Greece’s measures to tackle its public finances problems are projected to cut its deficit to 9.3% of GDP.

Secret tape of Blackwater founder Erik Prince exposed

May 5, 2010May 5, 2010 by Infinite

Erik Prince

Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, the American private security organisation, has claimed that his employees have called in airstrikes in Afghanistan.

He also mocked Afghan military recruits for needing lessons in how to use a toilet, and questioned the value and quality of other countries’ troops in the country.

In a speech in January at the University of Michigan which was secretly recorded, he questioned the will to fight of many Nato troops in Afghanistan, saying that “a lot of them should just pack it in and go home”.

Blackwater, now renamed Xe Services, has been a lightning rod for controversy surrounding America’s use of private contractors in war zones since its personnel killed 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad square in 2007.

Pennsylvania’s Big Brother Tax Collection Scare Campaign: ‘We Know Who You Are’

May 4, 2010 by Infinite

(NaturalNews) Just when you thought the truth couldn’t get any stranger than fiction, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue decides to launch a creepy new Big Brother “Tax Amnesty” program aimed at getting delinquent taxpayers to pay up on their back taxes. But the state agency has stooped to using police state tactics in its advertising to scare people into paying.

If you don’t believe me, watch this YouTube ad (it’s real):

In it, a robotic female voice targets a man named “Tom” who owes back taxes to the State of Pennsylvania. A satellite view from above (eye in the sky) is zooming in on Tom’s house and targeting it in the crosshairs, as if he is some sort of enemy of the state.

The voice says, in classic mob-style shakedown language, “Listen, we can make this easy. Pay online by June 18th and we’ll skip your penalty… because Tom, we do know who you are.” This is followed up by a large on-screen text slogan, “FIND US BEFORE WE FIND YOU.”

The ad almost seems like a hoax, but it’s very real. The official website carries the same Big Brother message: Pay up, or we’ll find you… (and do something scary to you).

GMO Alert: US Attempting Global Censorship of GMO Food Labeling

May 4, 2010 by Infinite

Who would attempt to outlaw non-GMO labeling of foods? Criminals!

It’s a fact that the majority of consumers do not want GM-food.

Who would attempt to press it upon them anyway? Criminals!

AND who would sneak an anti-vitamin amendment into the Wall Street reform bill? Criminals!

– Congressman Henry Waxman Sneaks Anti-Vitamin Amendment Into Wall Street Reform Bill

Dr. Len Horowitz calls Waxman what he is:

– Dr. Len Horowitz: Profitable Depopulation Plot Links JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to Vaccination Contaminations and Big Pharma Corruption:

Another gross example of corrupt government pharmawhores sucking Wall Street’s slime, is Congressman Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) treason against the American people for sneaking dietary supplement regulation language into ‘The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009,’ (H.R. 4173).

But don’t criticize the US government:

– Obama Takes Direct Aim at Anti-Government Rhetoric (ABC NEWS):

In a blunt caution to political friend and foe, President Barack Obama said Saturday that partisan rants and name-calling under the guise of legitimate discourse pose a serious danger to America’s democracy, and may incite “extreme elements” to violence.

Mr. President, the First Amendment gives Americans the right to speak up against their looting and lying elite puppet government. In fact the First Amendment was created for exactly this purpose.

And PS: America is a Constitutional Republic and not a Democracy!

(NaturalNews) I received an urgent alert from Jeffrey Smith today about a dangerous situation taking place right now at the international CODEX conference. The U.S. is attempting to push its agenda to censor all GMO labeling of foods everywhere around the world. This would result in a global GMO cover-up as consumers are left in the dark about whether their foods and grocery products are genetically modified or not.

Your help is urgently needed to send a message to the Secretaries of State (Clinton), Agriculture (Vilsack), and Health and Human Services (Sebelius) to urge them to halt the USA’s nefarious attempts to install a global GMO deception.

Take part in this online petition, go here:
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/GMF…

Please understand that the U.S. is attempting to outlaw non-GMO labeling of foods, thereby making it illegal for a non-GMO food product to even claim “non-GMO” on the label. If the U.S. succeeds in this global GMO cover-up, the FDA could seize any products in the USA that make “non-GMO” claims. Additionally, the USA could file lawsuits through the World Trade Organization against any country that allows non-GMO labeling or claims on its products.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: The Halliburton Connection

June 6, 2010May 4, 2010 by Infinite

Halliburton had completed the final cementing of the oil well and pipe just 20 hours before the blowout last week.

Investigators delving into the possible cause of the massive gulf oil spill are focusing on the role of Houston-based Halliburton Co., the giant energy services company, which was responsible for cementing the drill into place below the water. The company acknowledged Friday that it had completed the final cementing of the oil well and pipe just 20 hours before the blowout last week.

In a letter to to Halliburton Chief Executive David J. Lesar on Friday, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, called on Halliburton officials to provide all documents relating to “the possibility or risk of an explosion or blowout at the Deepwater Horizon rig and the status, adequacy, quality, monitoring, and inspection of the cementing work” by May 7.

In a statement Friday, Halliburton said “it is premature and irresponsible to speculate on any specific causal issues.” The company had four employees stationed on the rig at the time of the accident, all of whom were rescued by the Coast Guard. “Halliburton had completed the cementing of the final production casing string in accordance with the well design,” it said. “The cement slurry design was consistent with that utilized in other similar applications. In accordance with accepted industry practice … tests demonstrating the integrity of the production casing string were completed.”

Marc Faber: China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months

May 4, 2010May 4, 2010 by Infinite

May 3 (Bloomberg) — Investor Marc Faber said China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as declines in stock and commodity prices signal the nation’s property bubble is set to burst.

The Shanghai Composite Index has failed to regain its 2009 high while industrial commodities and shares of Australian resource exporters are acting “heavy,” Faber said. The opening of the World Expo in Shanghai last week is “not a particularly good omen,” he said, citing a property bust and depression that followed the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna.

“The market is telling you that something is not quite right,” Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. “The Chinese economy is going to slow down regardless. It is more likely that we will even have a crash sometime in the next nine to 12 months.”

Billons Of Bee Colonies Die Worldwide

May 3, 2010 by Infinite

Recommended reading:

– Heavy Honeybee Die-Off Continues; New Study Shows Pollen And Hives Laden With Pesticides

– Study: ‘High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Its Toxicity to the Honey Bee’

– Organic Bees Surviving Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)

Catastrophic collapse: More than three million colonies in America and billions of bees worldwide have died since 2006

The world faces a future with little meat and no cotton because of a catastrophic collapse in bee colonies, experts have warned.

Many vital crops are dependent on pollination by honeybees, but latest figures show a third failed to survive the winter in the U.S.

More than three million colonies in America and billions of bees worldwide have died since 2006.

Pesticides are believed to be a key cause of a crisis known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CDD), damaging bee health and making them more susceptible to disease.

But scientists do not know for certain and are at a loss how to prevent the disaster. Other potential factors include bloodsucking parasites and infections.

Some experts believe bees are heading for extinction.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the U.S. fell by 34 per cent last winter, according to a survey by the country’s Agricultural Research Service, and some commercial beekeepers have reported losses of more than 60 per cent over a year.

California Files Legal Brief Opposing Monsanto in US Supreme Court

May 3, 2010 by Infinite

– Conflict of Interest: Ex Monsanto Lawyer Clarence Thomas to Hear Major Monsanto Case:

In Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case which could have an enormous effect on the future of the American food industry. This is Monsanto’s third appeal of the case, and if they win a favorable ruling from the high court, a deregulated Monsanto may find itself in position to corner the markets of numerous U.S. crops, and to litigate conventional farmers into oblivion.

Here’s where it gets a bit dicier. Two Supreme Court justices have what appear to be direct conflicts of interest.

Stephen Breyer
Charles Breyer, the judge who ruled in the original decision of 2007 which is being appealed, is Stephen Breyer’s brother, who apparently views this as a conflict of interest and has recused himself.

Clarence Thomas
From the years 1976 – 1979, Thomas worked as an attorney for Monsanto. Thomas apparently does not see this as a conflict of interest and has not recused himself.

Fox, meet henhouse.

(Watch this video here. More important information at the end of the article.)

California is weighing in on a landmark Supreme Court case with far-reaching implications for agriculture the world over. The Attorney Generals of California, Oregon and Massachusetts have filed amicus briefs along with a coalition of scientists, organic and conventional farmers, food exporters, former government officials and legal scholars in support of the Center for Food Safety, an anti-GMO advocacy group opposing Monsanto.

In Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, the American biotech giant – currently under investigation for anti-trust law violations – is seeking to end an injunction on its patented “Roundup Ready” alfalfa imposed by a federal district court in 2007. Three years and two failed appeals later, Monsanto is taking their case to the the Supreme Court in what will be the first ever High Court ruling on a genetically engineered (GE) crop.

At issue in this case is a lower court’s ban on the planting of the GE alfalfa crop. The USDA approved its use in 2007 without submitting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to asses the ramifications transgenetic plants would have on farmers and surrounding environments. The court determined that by failing to comply with the environmental impact research requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the USDA was derelict in its administrative duties.

US Drones Deployed to Target Yemeni Terrorist

May 3, 2010 by Infinite

Armed US drones have been deployed to target one of the world’s most wanted Islamist terrorists following reports that he was involved in last week’s failed suicide bomb attack against Britain’s ambassador to Yemen.

The U.S. military has deployed armed drones over Yemen ready to attack al-Awlaki at a moment’s notice if credible intelligence is received indicated his precise whereabouts Photo: AP

US President Barack Obama last month authorised the assassination of radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki after he was linked to last year’s Fort Hood massacre and the attempt in December to blow up a Detroit-bound jet by a man wearing explosives in his underpants.

Now senior US intelligence officials say they have stepped up their efforts to target al-Awlaki following new evidence that the American-born cleric is taking an increasingly operational role in the operation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror group held responsible for the failed suicide bomb attack against Tim Torlot, 52, the UK envoy to Yemen.

Climategate: Inventor of Mann-made global warming feels the heat

May 3, 2010May 3, 2010 by Infinite

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli: ManBearPig’s worst nightmare

This blog’s hero of the week is Ken Cuccinelli. He’s the new Attorney General of Virginia and he’s about to launch quite possibly the most delicious and worthwhile law suit in the entire history of litigation: one that could result in Michael Mann – arch-climate-fear-promoter, comedy You Tube Star, creator of the infamous, twice-discredited Hockey Stick – being fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for alleged misuse of state grant funding. (Hat tip: Watts Up With That)

Though Mann now works at Penn State University – an institution which appears to share UEA’s principled belief that the best response to the skullduggery exposed in the Climategate emails is to whitewash, whitewash, whitewash – his Achilles heel is Virginia, where he worked from 1999 to 2005. This, of course, was the period in which Mann sent some of his juiciest Climategate emails.

According to The Hook:

In papers sent to UVA April 23, Cuccinelli’s office commands the university to produce a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann’s receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research conducted while Mann- now director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State- was at UVA between 1999 and 2005.

If Cuccinelli succeeds in finding a smoking gun like the purloined emails that led to the international scandal dubbed Climategate, Cuccinelli could seek the return of all the research money, legal fees, and trebled damages.

“Since it’s public money, there’s enough controversy to look in to the possible manipulation of data,” says Dr. Charles Battig, president of the nonprofit Piedmont Chapter Virginia Scientists and Engineers for Energy and Environment, a group that doubts the underpinnings of climate change theory.

Fingers crossed, eh?

Meanwhile, over at Climaterealists, legal expert John O’Sullivan casts an eye over yet another Mann-related lawsuit, this time one threatened by Mann himself against the creators of the hilarious Hide The Decline song which became a hit on You Tube. He concludes:

US Oil Spill Disaster Is Now ‘Out Of Control’

May 2, 2010May 2, 2010 by Infinite

See also:

– BP warned of rig fault ten years ago (Times)

– US oil spill could bill could exceed $14 billion (Reuters)

– Current timeline to shut down Gulf of Mexico oil spill: three months (Christian Science Monitor)

– BP accused as size of oil slick triples in a day (Independent)

– BP and Shell ‘not meeting safety standards on North Sea oil rigs’ (Guardian)

– Whistleblower: BP Risks More Massive Catastrophes in Gulf (Truthout):

A former contractor who worked for British Petroleum (BP) claims the oil conglomerate broke federal laws and violated its own internal procedures by failing to maintain crucial safety and engineering documents related to one of the firms other deepwater production projects in the Gulf of Mexico, according to internal emails and other documents obtained by Truthout.

A Northern Gannet found in the Gulf of Mexico, south of Louisiana, is given treatment (Reuters)

President Barack Obama will today visit the Gulf of Mexico coastline threatened by the giant oil spill, as experts warn that the spill from a ruptured oil rig might be growing five times faster than previously estimated.

The oil is gushing from BP’s sunken Deepwater Horizon rig at 25,000 barrels a day and could reach 50,000 barrels a day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earlier estimates had put the leak at 5,000 barrels a day.

Professor Ian MacDonald, an ocean specialist at Florida State University, said the new estimate suggested that the leak had already spread 9 million gallons of heavy crude oil across the Gulf. This compares with 11 million that leaked from the Exxon Valdez tanker when it hit a reef off Alaska in 1989.

Hans Gruber, a Miami University researcher, said that satellite images of the slick on Friday showed that it was three time bigger than estimated, covering an area of 3,500 sq miles (9,000 sq km), similar in size to Puerto Rico.

US: 34% Of Bee Colonies Did Not Survive The Winter; World May Be On The Brink Of Biological Disaster

May 3, 2010May 2, 2010 by Infinite

Recommended reading:

– Heavy Honeybee Die-Off Continues; New Study Shows Pollen And Hives Laden With Pesticides

– Study: ‘High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Its Toxicity to the Honey Bee’

– Organic Bees Surviving Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)

Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe

Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

The decline of the country’s estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination, which means that bees contribute some £26bn to the global economy.

Greece Accepts Unprecedented Bailout From EU and IMF, ‘Savage’ Cuts

May 2, 2010 by Infinite

– German Chancellor Angela Merkel Says She Was Right on Greece, Winning ‘Unthinkable’ Cuts (Bloomberg):

May 2 (Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was right to demand International Monetary Fund involvement in the Greek bailout over the objections of her European peers, saying it resulted in previously “unthinkable” budget cuts by Greece.

“This is an ambitious program which contains tough savings measures and on the other hand seeks to improve the efficiency of the Greek economy,” Merkel told reporters in Bonn today. “Three months ago it would have been unthinkable that Greece would accept such tough conditions.”

The elitist solution for the financial crisis:

– ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet calls for ‘Global Governance’ at the Council on Foreign Relations (Forbes)

Greece Accepts Terms of EU-Led Bailout, ‘Savage’ Cuts

Olli Rehn, European Union economic and monetary affairs commissioner, right, holds a chart shows which reads ‘ Greece: reducing deficit, restoring growth’, as Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), left, looks on as European Union finance ministers gather for an extraordinary meeting in Brussels today. (Bloomberg)

May 2 (Bloomberg) — Greece accepted an unprecedented bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund valued at more than 100 billion euros ($133 billion) to prevent default, agreeing to budget cuts that unions called “savage.”

The measures are worth 30 billion euros, or 13 percent of gross domestic product, and include wage cuts and a three-year freeze on pensions, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said in Athens today. Greece’s main sales tax rate will rise to 23 percent from 21 percent. The exact bailout amount will be agreed by euro-region finance ministers currently meeting in Brussels. Germany will provide 28 percent of the euro region contribution.

“Greece will be shielded from the international markets and will be able to put its house in order,” Papaconstantinou said in Athens. Prime Minister George Papandreou said “avoiding bankruptcy is a national red line” and the agreement will demand “big sacrifices” from Greeks to avoid “catastrophe.”