Society

Million French workers march against Sarkozy

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Continental employees burn tyres during a demonstration in Compiègne, north of Paris Photograph: Michel Spingler/AP

More than a million angry French workers took to the streets Thursday in a nationwide strike to force President Nicolas Sarkozy to boost wages and protect jobs as the economic crisis deepens.

“Sarkozy has to take from the billionaires and give a bit back to the poor,” said teacher Jean-Baptiste Voltuain, echoing mounting calls for the right-wing government to boost social spending by hiking taxes on the rich.

Voltuain was one of the marchers at a rally in Paris which was fronted by the leaders of France’s eight main unions as it snaked its way through the east of the city in warm spring sunshine.

The CGT union said three million people took part in protests across the country, but police put the number at 1.2 million.

Related articles:
– France braced for huge street protests over economic crisis (Guardian)
– Sarkozy warned of ‘class war’ (Financial Times)

A million civil servants went on strike, officials said, while protestors from both public and private sectors marched in the capital and in Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and around 200 other towns.

Riot police used tear gas to disperse about 200 youths who threw stones and other objects and lit fires in the street as the Paris march came to an end at Place de la Nation.

In Toulouse, police used batons and flashballs to disperse around 200 protestors who threw bottles and set fire to rubbish bins in the southwestern city. One officer was slightly injured.

Protestors smashed windows at the MEDEF employers’ federation in Rouen in the north.

But mostly the one-day strike, which polls say had the support of nearly 80 percent of the French, was peaceful.

Read moreMillion French workers march against Sarkozy

MadWorld: Most violent computer game ever launched on Nintendo Wii

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Coming to your neighborhood soon.

MadWorld, a new computer game claimed to be “the most violent ever”, is being launched on the Nintendo Wii console.

MadWorld - 'most violent computer game ever' - launched on Nintendo Wii
MadWorld has already caused controversy abroad, being banned in Germany, while parent groups in the US have also called for a ban

Players in MadWorld use chainsaws, spiked clubs, daggers and spears to execute victims

Players in MadWorld use chainsaws, spiked clubs, daggers and spears to execute victims.

They can impale their enemies on road signs, fry them on electrical sockets and rip out their hearts.

The game’s ‘bloodbath challenges’ see characters mown down by trains, crushed in the back of refuse collection vehicles and blown up as ‘human fireworks’.

A challenge called ‘human darts’ sees players pick up Madworld citizens and hurl them onto giant spiked dartboard.

Sega, publishers of the game, said it is “tipped to be the most violent video game in history”.

Read moreMadWorld: Most violent computer game ever launched on Nintendo Wii

Court ruling challenges India’s caste system

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Human beings do not respect themselves, others and also not their home planet. This is a recipe for disaster. All human beings are equal. A caste system looks like stone-age consciousness to any evolved being.

A landmark legal ruling which granted India’s downtrodden ‘untouchables’ the right to defend their reputations has been hailed as a symbolic victory for the country’s lower castes.

An appeal court judge in Jammu and Kashmir decided that all Indians were worthy of respect and entitled to a good reputation regardless of their wealth or social status.

The ruling amounts to a direct challenge to India’s caste-focused society in which attacks on ‘untouchables’ or dalits because of their ‘polluting presence’ are common.

There are cases of dalits killed for daring to drink water from the same well as their caste ‘superiors’ or to complain when their daughters are raped.

Against this background, the ruling has been hailed as revolutionary.

Read moreCourt ruling challenges India’s caste system

Texas jail was an Animal House, authorities say

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MONTAGUE, Texas – For months, perhaps longer, the Montague County Jail was “Animal House” meets Mayberry. Inside the small brick building across from the courthouse, inmates had the run of the place, having sex with their jailer girlfriends, bringing in recliners, taking drugs and chatting on cell phones supplied by friends or guards, according to authorities. They also disabled some of the surveillance cameras and made weapons out of nails.

The doors to two groups of cells didn’t lock, but apparently no one tried to escape — perhaps because they had everything they needed inside.

Read moreTexas jail was an Animal House, authorities say

The Obama Deception

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See also: Ron Paul: Obama Foreign Policy Identical To Bush


1:51:21 – 12.03.2009
Source: Google Video

Mexican drug lord makes Forbes’ billionaire list

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MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) — What do software mogul Bill Gates and banking investor Warren Buffett have in common with wanted Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera?


Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, pictured in 1993, ranks 701st on Forbes’ yearly report on billionaires.


They are all featured in Forbes magazine’s world’s billionaires report as “self-made” billionaires.

Guzman Loera, whose nickname means Shorty, escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001. He heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel, investigators say. Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border blame the Sinaloa and other cartels for a surge in violence in the region.

He ranked 701st on Forbes’ yearly report, with an estimated fortune of $1 billion.

Read moreMexican drug lord makes Forbes’ billionaire list

HR 875 The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard gardener, and violation of the 10th amendment

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This is about taking away ‘real’ food from your table, so that you are left with ‘food’ or better GM trash that is loaded with poisons. More change coming!


5. März 2009
Source: YouTube

Campaign For Liberty

HR 875 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:1:./temp/~c1112RD9bb:e11439:

This bill is sitting in committee and I am not sure when it is going to hit the floor. One thing I do know is that very few of the Representatives have read it. As usual they will vote on this based on what someone else is saying. Urge your members to read the legislation and ask for opposition to this devastating legislation. Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a few.

I have no doubt that this legislation was heavily influenced by lobbyists from huge food producers. This legislation is so broad based that technically someone with a little backyard garden could get fined and have their property seized. It will effect anyone who produces food even if they do not sell but only consume it. It will literally put all independent farmers and food producers out of business due to the huge amounts of money it will take to conform to factory farming methods. If people choose to farm without industry standards such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers they will be subject to a vareity of harassment from this completely new agency that has never before existed. That’s right, a whole new government agency is being created just to police food, for our own protection of course.

DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, READ THIS LEGISLATION FOR YOURSELF. The more people who read this legislation the more insight we are going to get and be able to share. Post your observations and insights below. Urge your members to read this legislation and to oppose the passage of this legislation.

Pay special attention to

  • Section 3 which is the definitions portion of the bill-read in it’s entirety.
  • section 103, 206 and 207- read in it’s entirety.

Red flags I found and I am sure there are more………..

  • Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
  • Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn’t actually use the word organic.
  • Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
  • Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.
  • Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
  • Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. Who do you think they are going to side with?
  • Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
  • Section 207 requires that the state’s agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.
  • There are many more but by the time I got this far in the legislation I was so alarmed that I wanted to bring someone’s attention to it. (to the one person who reads my blog)

Didn’t Stalin nationalize farming methods that enabled his administration to gain control over the food supply? Didn’t Stalin use the food to control the people?

Last word…… Legislate religion and enforce gag orders on ministers on what can and can’t be said in the pulpit, instituting regulations forcing people to rely solely on the government, control the money and the food. What is that called? It is on the tip of my tongue……….

Read moreHR 875 The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard gardener, and violation of the 10th amendment

George Galloway convoy stoned by irate Egyptians

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A British aid convoy led by George Galloway, the east London MP, that was carrying relief supplies for Gaza, was pelted with stones and vandalised in the Egyptian town El-Arish late on Sunday, an organiser said.


George Galloway: A security official said that during a power cut, which is a frequent occurrence in the town, children had pelted the convoy with stones Photo: PA

The convoy, which set out from London last month carrying relief supplies valued at £1 million ($1.4 million), was in El-Arish, a border staging post about 28 miles from the Rafah passage to Gaza.

“It’s an absolute disgrace,” said the organiser of the aid shipment, Yvonne Ridley. “The power was cut. During cover of darkness members of our convoy were attacked with stones.

“Vandals also wrote dirty words and anti-Hamas slogans,” she said. “Several people in the convoy were injured in the attack.”

A security official said that during a power cut, which is a frequent occurrence in the town, children had pelted the convoy with stones.

Read moreGeorge Galloway convoy stoned by irate Egyptians

Why are we fingerprinting children?

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“It’s odd that this drive towards fingerprinting children coincides with the government’s keenness to expand the national DNA database – we already have one of the largest in the world – with more than four million people on file, including nearly 1.1 million children.”

“Odd too that VeriCool is reported to be part of Anteon, an American company that is responsible for the training of interrogators at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.”

Schools claim it cuts costs and time – but the civil liberties implications are vast
Comments

As voters express concern about surveillance technology, is it becoming second nature to the Facebook generation – used to publishing intimate details of their private lives on the worldwide web – who, in later life, may be less vociferous in their opposition to such schemes?

An increasing number of today’s schoolchildren are forgoing the humiliating daily name call of registration, and are instead having to “fingerswipe” in and out of class, or to give it its proper name: biometric registration. According to campaign group LeaveThemKidsAlone, schools have fingerprinted more than two million children this way, sometimes even without their parents’ consent. A statement on its website claims: “It’s part of an enormous softening-up exercise, targeting society’s most impressionable, so they’ll accept cradle-to-grave state snooping and control.”

Read moreWhy are we fingerprinting children?

CCTV installed to monitor classrooms

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CCTV cameras and microphones are being installed in schools to monitor children’s behaviour and teachers’ performance in what union leaders described as ‘Big Brother’ tactics.

CCTV installed to monitor classrooms
Although taking part in the monitoring sessions is voluntary, headteachers say they expect the majority of their staff to participate Photo: GETTY

Four schools in Salford, Greater Manchester, have installed cameras and microphones in special training classrooms.

The 360-degree cameras are so powerful that observers can see what children are writing.

Read moreCCTV installed to monitor classrooms

Motorist pulled over and quizzed… for LAUGHING at the wheel

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Tunnel of laughs: Gary Sanders was pulled over for giggling in the Mersey tunnel

When Gary Sanders was pulled over by police he was sure he had done nothing wrong.

The company director was obeying the speed limit and not driving dangerously.

But to his astonishment he was told he had been stopped for excessive laughing.

Mr Sanders had been talking on a hands-free kit and was chuckling at what his friend had said.

But the officer who ordered him to stop at the exit to the Mersey Tunnel told him: ‘Laughing while driving a car can be an offence.’

If that had been the end of the matter then Mr Sanders, 47, would probably have laughed the whole thing off.

But he subjected him to a 35-minute grilling, with questions about everything from his ethnic group to details of distinguishing scars on his body.

And despite not being charged with an offence, he still had to waste a further 90 minutes of his time producing his driving licence and other documents at a police station.

Read moreMotorist pulled over and quizzed… for LAUGHING at the wheel

Every step you take: UK underground centre that is spy capital of the world

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Visitors from around the world come to marvel at Westminster CCTV system


How the control centre of one of the country’s most extensive CCTV systems works

Millions of people walk beneath the unblinking gaze of central London’s surveillance cameras. Most are oblivious that deep under the pavements along which they are walking, beneath restaurant kitchens and sewage drains, their digital image is gliding across a wall of plasma screens.

Westminster council’s CCTV control room, where a click and swivel of a joystick delivers panoramic views of any central London street, is seen by civil liberty campaigners as a symbol of the UK’s surveillance society.

Related articles:
– Liberty groups unite to defend UK rights (Observer)
– Government plans to keep DNA samples of innocent (Guardian)
– Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warns of surveillance culture (Times)
– Spy chief: We risk a police state (Telegraph):

Using the latest remote technology, the cameras rotate 360 degrees, 365 days a year, providing a hi-tech version of what the 18th century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham conceived as the “Panopticon” – a space where people can be constantly monitored but never know when they are being watched.

The Home Office, which funded the creation of the £1.25m facility seven years ago, believes it to be a “best-practice example” on which the future of the UK’s public surveillance system should be modelled.

So famed has central London’s surveillance network become that figures released yesterday revealed that more than 6,000 officials from 30 countries have come to learn lessons from the centre.

Read moreEvery step you take: UK underground centre that is spy capital of the world

MEXICO UNDER SIEGE: Mexico to send up to 5,000 more troops to Ciudad Juarez

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The increase would triple the law enforcement presence in the border city, which has been racked by drug violence. Its police chief quit recently and its mayor has received threats as well.

Reporting from Mexico City — Amid growing alarm over drug violence in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico will deploy up to 5,000 more troops to the border city, officials said today.

The increase would triple the number of troops and federal police officers operating there as part of President Felipe Calderon’s offensive against drug traffickers.

Related article: Napolitano On The War In Mexico (CBS News):
Acknowledging that the violent drug cartels of Mexico are now operating in many U.S. cities, America’s Homeland Security secretary says every American has a stake in Mexico’s war against the murderous gangs.

Jose Reyes Ferriz, the mayor of Ciudad Juarez, said the added troops would give the military a higher profile by taking control of police functions, including street patrols. Currently, soldiers tend highway checkpoints, guard crime scenes and take part in special operations, such as house searches.

The city is without a police chief since Roberto Orduña Cruz quit last week after several officers were slain and someone posted threats saying more would be killed unless he stepped down.

Read moreMEXICO UNDER SIEGE: Mexico to send up to 5,000 more troops to Ciudad Juarez

California’s Newly Poor Push Social Services to Brink

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The worst financial crisis in seven decades is forcing thousands of previously middle-income workers to seek social services, overwhelming local agencies, clinics and nonprofits. Photographer: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg News

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — In California’s Contra Costa County, 40,000 families are applying for just 350 affordable-housing vouchers. Church-operated pantries are running out of food. Crisis calls have more than doubled in the city of Antioch, where the Family Stress Center occupies the site of a former bank.

The worst financial crisis in seven decades is forcing thousands of previously middle-income workers to seek social services, overwhelming local agencies, clinics and nonprofits. Each month 16,000 people, including many who were making $60,000 to $100,000 annually just a few years ago, fill four county offices requesting financial, medical or food assistance.

“Unless we do things differently, not only will we continue to be on life support, but the power to the machine is going to die,” said county Supervisor Federal Glover, who represents Antioch and the cities of Pittsburg and Oakley about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of San Francisco.

Read moreCalifornia’s Newly Poor Push Social Services to Brink

Brown and Blair among ‘enemies of freedom’

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A report on the loss of civil liberties was launched yesterday and will be sent to Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Jacqui Smith and others identified as “the 10 enemies of freedom”.

The Abolition of Freedom Act 2009 was produced by the University College London Students’ Human Rights programme. It shows how “the liberties that we assumed were somehow guaranteed by British culture have been compromised”.


– Blunkett warns over ‘Big Brother’ Britain (Independent):
David Blunkett, who introduced the idea of identity cards when Home Secretary, will issue a stark warning to the Government tomorrow that it is in danger of abusing its power by taking Britain towards a “Big Brother” state.

– Spy chief: We risk a police state (The Telegraph):
Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, has warned that the fear of terrorism is being exploited by the Government to erode civil liberties and risks creating a police state.

The report comes ahead of the Convention on Modern Liberty, which takes place on Saturday at the Institute of Education, London.

Sunday 22 February 2009
David Smith

Source: The Observer

Coast to Coast: 21 States Declaring Sovereignty

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Alex Jones, Jerome Corsi and Representatives talking about:

The Constitution, gun ownership, gold ownership, home schooling, martial law, FEMA etc.

12 parts:

16. Februar 2009
Source: YouTube

Food banks report 30% increase in demand

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Food banks toss out food linked to peanut recall

CHICAGO – Food banks nationwide are chucking thousands of pounds of food containing peanut products recalled in the salmonella outbreak — a particularly painful process as those same pantries struggle to meet a growing demand to feed families in a floundering economy.

Foods like granola bars, cereals, cookies, nut mixes and peanut butter have long been a mainstay of pantries because of their durability and long shelf life.

“It’s just been rotten. It’s just been a problem for us,” said Betsy Ballard, spokeswoman for the Houston Food Bank, which already has discarded 3,000 pounds of recalled products.

Millions of U.S. families depend on charity organizations to put food on the table, and the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, Feeding America, says food banks across the country reported a 30 percent increase in demand in December 2008 compared with the previous year.

Read moreFood banks report 30% increase in demand

Panasonic orders staff to buy £1,000 in products

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Its electronic gadgetry is gathering dust on the shelves of high street stores, nobody is buying new fridges and the mountain of unsold plasma televisions is growing by the day.

However, in desperation, Panasonic has hit on the perfect counter-attack against the consumer slump: it has ordered every member of staff to go out and buy £1,000 of Panasonic products.

Large swathes of corporate Japan are expected to follow suit, either by directly commanding or indirectly “pressuring” employees to divert part of their salaries towards the goods that their employers produce.

Toyota has already tacitly applauded a “voluntary” scheme in which 2,200 of its top brass decided to buy new Toyota cars, and the president of Fujitsu recently e-mailed 100,000 staff and gently pointed out how nice it would be if “employee ownership rates” of Fujitsu PCs and mobile phones were a little higher.

The 10,000 Japanese staff affected by Panasonic’s unorthodox strategy do not have long to consider their purchases.

Management insists that staff buy their Panasonic goods – whether they need them or not – by the end of July.

Read morePanasonic orders staff to buy £1,000 in products

Filmmaker Michael Moore seeks bankers help for Wall Street expose

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Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore is calling for current and former Wall Street bankers to help him make a film about the financial crisis, which he describes as the “biggest swindle in American history”.



Mr Moore posted a letter on his website yesterday urging people who work or had worked for banks, brokerages and insurance companies to “step up as an American and do your duty of shedding some light” on the crisis.

The implosion of the banking system has already forced banks globally to write down almost £1 trillion and driven many of the world’s major economies into recession.

The filmmaker, whose documentaries include Farenheit 9/11, which dealt with the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, is in the middle of shooting the film, according to his Web site. He claims to have heard from a “few good people” already.

“Based on those who have already contacted me, I believe there are a number of you who know ‘the real deal’ about the abuses that have been happening,” Mr Moore said. “You have information that the American people need to hear. I am humbly asking you for a moment of courage, to be a hero.”

Read moreFilmmaker Michael Moore seeks bankers help for Wall Street expose

India to launch cow urine as soft drink

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cow '9504' after she was milked on a farm in Stellenbosch
(Sasa Kralj/AP)

Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India’s Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink made from cow urine.

The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called “gau jal”, or “cow water” – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched “very soon, maybe by the end of this year”.

“Don’t worry, it won’t smell like urine and will be tasty too,” he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. “Its USP will be that it’s going to be very healthy. It won’t be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins.”

The drink is the latest attempt by the RSS – which was founded in 1925 and now claims eight million members – to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.

Read moreIndia to launch cow urine as soft drink

Champagne, lobster and caviar: Robert Mugabe plans binge in land of hunger

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It is the 85th birthday of President Mugabe this month and the zealots of his Zanu (PF) party are determined that it should be an occasion that their great leader will never forget.

In recent days they have been out soliciting “donations” from corporate Zimbabwe and have drawn up a wish list that is scarcely credible in a land where seven million citizens survive on international food aid, 94 per cent are jobless and cholera rampages through a population debilitated by hunger.

The list includes 2,000 bottles of champagne (Moët & Chandon or ’61 Bollinger preferred); 8,000 lobsters; 100kg of prawns; 4,000 portions of caviar; 8,000 boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates; 3,000 ducks; and much else besides. A postscript adds: “No mealie meal” – the ground corn staple on which the vast majority of Zimbabweans survived until the country’s collapse rendered even that a luxury.

Read moreChampagne, lobster and caviar: Robert Mugabe plans binge in land of hunger

Personal bankruptcies hit new record

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Firms dealing with Britain’s debt problems warned tonight that one in 60 people were facing insolvency after the latest government figures showed that a collapsing economy led to record personal bankruptcies and a 50% jump in company failures late last year.

Industry specialists said the sharp rise in individual and corporate financial distress reported by the Insolvency Service for the last three months of 2008 was “the tip of the iceberg” and that rising unemployment and the credit crunch would deepen the debt crisis this year.

Official figures released today showed that the steepest economic decline in almost 30 years led to 19,100 people being declared bankrupt – a 22% increase on the fourth quarter of 2007.

Read morePersonal bankruptcies hit new record