Opposing Digits

Saying "less is more," a coalition of advertising and public relations groups wants to strip most of the warnings from prescription drug ads aimed at consumers.

Current direct-to-consumer advertisements "over warn and under inform," according to a petition submitted Friday by the Coalition for Healthcare Communication to the Food and Drug Administration. "The result is more confusion than communication."

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:49 AM 0 comments

Researchers at UCSF pored through more than 30 years of studies that seem to show health benefits from moderate alcohol consumption, and concluded in a report released today that nearly all contained a fundamental error that skewed the results.

That error may have led to an erroneous conclusion that moderate drinkers were healthier than lifelong abstainers. Typically, studies suggest that abstainers run a 25 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease.

Without the error, the analyses shows, the health outcomes for moderate drinkers and non-drinkers were about the same.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:44 AM 0 comments

This is the news from Iraq according to Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration. A week after the US Defense Secretary criticized the media for "exaggerating" reports of violence in Iraq, The Independent has obtained examples of newspaper reports the Bush administration want Iraqis to read.

They were prepared by specially trained American "psy-ops" troops who paid thousands of dollars to Iraqi newspaper editors to run these un-attributed reports in their publications. In order to hide its involvement, the Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group to act as a liaison between troops and journalists. The Lincoln Group was at the center of controversy last year when it was revealed the company was being paid more than $100 million for various contracts, including the planting of such stories.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:43 AM 0 comments

A "trigger-happy" US army squad leader shot the foot off an unarmed Iraqi man and soldiers kicked a severed head around like a soccer ball, a US war deserter told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Thursday.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:41 AM 0 comments

One of the most obvious lies in the show trial of Zacarias Moussaoui came when a court-appointed physician, Dr. Raymond Patterson, declared Moussaoui was not suffering from mental illness. Patterson made the assertion after Moussaoui said he wanted to fire his lawyers and represent himself. Moussaoui’s lawyers “became convinced that their client’s mental condition, already precarious, was deteriorating under the stress of solitary confinement, and that he was becoming increasingly paranoid,” writes Seymour Hersh for the New Yorker. In response to Patterson’s assertion that Moussaoui was sane enough to present his own defense, two “mental-health experts retained by the defense, Dr. Xavier Amador, of Columbia University, and Dr. William Stejskal, of the University of Virginia, argued that Patterson’s conclusions were unfounded and that Moussaoui needed further evaluation.” Judge Brinkema did not agree and ruled from the bench on June 13th, 2002, without hearing testimony, “that the defendant met the legal standard of competency.”

In fact, Zacarias Moussaoui is a stark raving lunatic, given to paranoid outbursts in the courtroom, and he was deemed sane for the simple reason that the government needs a conviction to prop up its ludicrous whitewash commission fairy tale about “al-Qaeda” cave dwellers attacking America on September 11, 2001.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:39 AM 0 comments

WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. House of Representatives considered lobbying reforms Thursday — just hours after Republicans and Democrats rancorously split over a politically charged vote to bring convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to Capitol Hill for questioning.

Republicans said the ethics investigation vote, which was pushed by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was a political stunt. Democrats said the vote proved that Republicans are not serious about cleaning up Congress.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:37 AM 0 comments

Bloggers have caught Republican Congressional candidate Howard Kaloogian falsifying evidence of the success of the war in Iraq. Kaloogian posted a photo from "downtown Baghdad" showing how peaceful and calm things were there; bloggers investigated the photo and it was recognized as coming from a suburb of Istanbul -- something that could be proved by comparing it to web-based photo-albums showing the intersection and the surrounding area.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:36 AM 0 comments

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has admitted the US has made thousands of tactical errors in Iraq, but said it was right to remove Saddam Hussein.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:33 AM 0 comments

I have still yet to find out one single victim of Flight 93. Hilda Marcin, the oldest, probably died in the Summer before 9/11 (or moved to Israel). She always went out to CA for the summer and returned to NJ in the fall. That year, she supposedly stayed all summer instead. Only her daughters' word for that -- she had quit her job at the end of the school year. The Governor of CA gave her a tribute naming her an honored citizen of CA. Odd for a citizen of NJ.

Honor Wainio, if anyone by that name ever existed, has the most curious pictures from her family.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:30 AM 0 comments

WASHINGTON - FEMA has broken its promise to reopen four multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina work, including three that federal auditors say wasted significant amounts of money.

Officials said they awarded the four contracts last October to speed recovery efforts that might have been slowed by competitive bidding. Some critics, however, suggested they were rewards for politically connected firms.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:29 AM 0 comments

Audit Rates for Low Income Taxpayers Greater than for Top Earners

IRS Says Release of Statistics that Might Explain Aberration "Would Adversely Affect Tax Administration"

Syracuse, March 28 -- According to new data from the Internal Revenue Service only 30 of the nation's thousands of millionaires were subject to a face-to-face IRS audit in 2005. The very small number selected for the traditional and sometimes intensive audits were drawn from 184,054 individual tax returns reporting a total positive income of $1 million or more.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:22 AM 0 comments

A brutal purge of the senior staff at Popular Mechanics preceded the publication of last month's scandalous propaganda piece about 9/11. Pulling the strings is the grand dame of Hearst Magazines and behind the scene is her obscure husband, a veteran propaganda expert and former special assistant to the director of the C.I.A.

The Reichstag fire, a key event in German history, and the steps that followed en suite leading to the Nazi dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, provide remarkable precedents for what occurred in the United States on 9/11 and since.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:17 AM 0 comments

John W. Dean, Richard Nixon's White House lawyer, told senators Friday that President Bush's domestic spying exceeds the wrongdoing that toppled his former boss.

Bush, Dean told the Senate Judiciary Committee, should be censured and possibly impeached.

"Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented," Dean told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Hopefully the Senate will not sit by while even more serious abuses unfold before it."

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:12 AM 0 comments

The Pentagon has requested hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency funds for military construction in Iraq, fanning the debate about US long-term intentions there.

The money will add to an existing bill of $1.3bn for military construction in the Middle East and South Asia - primarily Iraq and Afghanistan - in the last five years.

Much of the 2006 emergency funding is earmarked for beefing up security and facilities at just a handful of large airbases in Iraq.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:09 AM 0 comments

GPS chips in cell phones can do a heck of a lot more than help 911 workers locate you in an emergency, as Jim Fuentes' son Eric discovered while zooming down a highway at 85 mph.

The elder Fuentes received an SMS "speed alert" on his phone telling him his son was booking it. The same alert was available via an e-mail or on a Web site,

And there's more to this system, known as "Whereabouts, Family Tracking and Navigation" developed by Aurora-based Clarity Communication Systems Inc., a start-up founded by Fuentes and seven other former Lucent wireless software engineers in 1998.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:06 AM 0 comments

Mobile Gazette has learned of a shock move by the British Government - it has decided to take back the part of the radio spectrum currently used for GSM networks in the UK, and will force mobile operators to run a 3G-only service in the future.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:13 AM 0 comments

Fairfax, VA-Today, the Nebraska legislature gave final approval to a measure granting law-abiding Nebraska citizens the right to carry a firearm for personal protection. Legislative Bill 454 now heads to Governor Dave Heineman’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law. Last week, legislators in Kansas overrode Governor Sebelius’ veto of the Right-to-Carry measure in that state.

"NRA has worked patiently and diligently with the state legislature for more than a decade to bring Right-to-Carry to Nebraska, and I want to thank Governor Heineman and the bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Combs (Milligan) for their steadfast support. Their involvement was instrumental in the passage of this pro-Second Amendment legislation for all law-abiding citizens in their great state," NRA Chief Lobbyist Chris W. Cox declared.

LB 454 met with overwhelming, bi-partisan support, as Nebraska senators voted 33-12 in favor of the measure. The bill allows law-abiding Nebraskans to undergo a background check and apply for a permit to carry a concealed firearm for self-protection.

Now of all the 50 states, only Wisconsin and Illinois flatly refuse to recognize the right of law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms for self-protection against criminal attack.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:33 AM 0 comments

NEW YORK Mar 31, 2006 (AP)— Nearly nine hours of emergency calls, some made from inside the doomed World Trade Center, were released by the city Friday, detailing the responses of 911 operators to frantic callers caught in the chaos of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:02 PM 0 comments

For me this is one of the most "hard to believe" aspects of the official story. After the massive explosion on the outer "E" ring wall, up to 10 inches of steel reinforced concrete exterior walls, newly placed steel beams and blast-resistant windows, Kevlar mesh, at least 6 feet of ordinary construction interior walls, 16" of brick, interior steel reinforced pillars, 6" of limestone and all of the office contents, how could any portion of an aircraft be intact enough to punch a near perfectly round hole 9 feet in diameter 310 feet away from the impact point?

The photo above is the earliest photo of the exit hole that I've been able to find. No lines have been stretched by the fire department. Notice that there are no aircraft parts visible and that nothing is on fire. When you look at the "Exit Hole Chronology" you will see the progressive appearance of aircraft parts. For instance, the white board in the left of this photo will later have a twisted metal piece on it and the white pipe in the right of the hole completely vanishes. That pipe is evenly blown in a smooth arc as opposed to having a "dent" or angled damage that would indicate a localized impact from an object. I certainly don't see any pieces of the nose cone as in some of the following reports.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:20 PM 0 comments

Bolsters claims government had informant inside conspiracy to attack federal building

A U.S. District Court judge in Salt Lake City, Utah, has issued a stunning decision that appears to bolster claims that executed bomber Timothy McVeigh was supported by various militia groups, and that the government had an informant inside the bombing conspiracy.

The case in Utah grew out of a dispute between civil attorney Jesse Trentadue and the Oklahoma City FBI over documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

For over a decade, Trentadue has been searching for documents that might shed light on the death of his brother at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, in August of 1995.

The federal government maintains that Kenneth Trentadue killed himself in a suicide-proof cell at the Oklahoma City federal installation, where he was being held on a purported parole violation for failing to report to his parole officer.

In the course of this investigation, Trentadue received "tips" from various sources, including one allegedly from a source close to McVeigh, before McVeigh's execution.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:16 PM 0 comments

Revelations that the Vatican encouraged the castration of choir boys in the name of art for hundreds of years have prompted calls for a papal apology.

Human rights groups, historians and Italian commentators said the Pope, a singer himself, should ask forgiveness for his predecessors' role in the mutilation of castrati singers.

New research suggests that the employment of castrati was tolerated by the Vatican as late as 1959, long after other states had banned it as barbaric.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:13 PM 0 comments

The superior general of the Jesuits, Dutch Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, has informed members of the Society that he intends to step down in 2008, the year he will turn 80.

Catholic News service reports that in a letter sent on Thursday to all members of the Society of Jesus, Fr Kolvenbach said a general congregation to elect his successor and to discuss other important matters would begin on 5 January 2008, in Rome.

Each of the 91 Jesuit provinces in the world will hold a provincial congregation by 1 March 1 2007, to prepare for the Rome gathering.

While the Jesuit superior general is elected for life, the order's constitutions allow a superior to step down.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:11 PM 0 comments

We began making noise about the White House Memo almost two months ago. I don't know if the NY Times finally got mad at Bush blatantly lying or if their lawyers finally gave them the OK to publish without fear of being Dan Rathered, but for one reason or another, two months after citizens began clamoring for coverage, The New York Times has written about the White House Memo and recognized it as evidence that Bush was lying when he recently claimed he had wanted to avoid war (though, of course, the New York Times can't print the word "lying" and the word "President" in the same article).

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says
By DON VAN NATTA Jr., New York Times

LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:10 PM 0 comments

(San Diego, CA) Call in and ask either Sean Hannity or Alan Colmes at Fox News during their radio shows about the Bohemian Grove and you’re likely to get hung up on, yelled at, or personally attacked. It seems there is one aspect to the elite private resort, it’s members which include every Republican President since 1923, many cabinet officials, and directors & CEO’s of large corporations, would rather nobody know about, none the less talk about on syndicated radio.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:06 PM 1 comments

Severe ADHD and impulsivity symptoms showed dramatic improvements with fish oil supplements in teenagers. Durham County Council’s senior education psychologist, Dr Madeleine Portwood, ran a trial on 25 teenagers who had been rated with moderate to severe ADHD and impulsivity symptoms with a combination of omega-3 fish and omega-6 evening primrose oil over a period of three months

94% of these students aged 12 to 15 also had a high rating of inattention.

When these teenagers were assessed again there was a significant improvement in their behavior. It was found that severe ADHD and severe impulsivity had dropped to 28 percent and severe inattention fell to about 17 percent in this group.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:00 PM 0 comments

DOZENS of West Australian families will be urged to join a class action in the wake of evidence that children as young as five are suffering dire side effects after taking stimulant drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

West Australian MP Martin Whitely has been campaigning against the over-prescription of stimulants for the past decade and said revelations in The Australian of adverse reactions in children - including strokes, heart attacks and convulsions - came as no surprise.

Mr Whitely, who warned of the dangers of subsidising the cost of the drug in August last year, said he felt vindicated by statistics showing that prescriptions for Ritalin had increased tenfold since it was placed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:57 AM 0 comments

If medical students like Jonathan Pak represent the future of medicine, the pharmaceutical industry's multi-billion dollar marketing machine may be in trouble.

Pak is saying "no" to all the goodies drug companies lavish on the medical profession, beginning in med school.

The third-year Temple University student refuses free lunches at his Philadelphia hospital. He won't accept free textbooks or stethoscopes, or even pens advertising brand-name drugs. The pen Pak uses says "PharmFREE."

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:38 AM 0 comments

A young Iraqi girl has exclusively given ITV News a shocking first hand account of what witnesses claim amounts to mass murder by US troops in the war-torn country.

Ten-year-old Iman Walid lost seven members of her family in an attack by American marines last November. The interview with Iman was filmed exclusively for ITV News by Ali Hamdani,our Iraqi video diarist.

If Iman's story is true - and it has been disputed by the US military - human rights workers say it is the worst massacre of civilians by US troops in the country.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:32 AM 0 comments

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military plans to detonate a 700 tonne explosive charge in a test called "Divine Strake" that will send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas, a senior defense official said.
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"I don't want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons," said James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Tegnelia said the test was part of a US effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

"We have several very large penetrators we're developing," he told defense reporters.

"We also have -- are you ready for this - a 700-tonne explosively formed charge that we're going to be putting in a tunnel in Nevada," he said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:29 AM 0 comments

Truth crusaders Walter and Rodriguez to appear on Hugo Chavez's weekly TV broadcast

Billionaire philanthropist Jimmy Walter and WTC survivor William Rodriguez this week embarked on a groundbreaking trip to Caracas Venezuela in which they met with with the President of the Assembly and will soon meet with Venezuelan President himself Hugo Chavez in anticipation of an official Venezuelan government investigation into 9/11.

Rodriguez was the last survivor pulled from the rubble of the north tower of the WTC, and was responsible for all stairwells within the tower. Rodriguez represented family members of 9/11 victims and testified to the 9/11 Commission that bombs were in the north tower but his statements were completely omitted from the official record.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:14 AM 0 comments

Have you ever wondered why pharmaceuticals don't work? By that, I mean that they don't make people healthier. Sure, some pharmaceuticals can modify a measurable chemical marker, but they don't make people healthier. We have 40 percent of the U.S. population on at least one prescription drug, yet our nation shows skyrocketing rates of all sorts of chronic diseases, like cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis. If pharmaceuticals work to make people healthier, we should be the healthiest nation on the planet. We have people here taking more drugs than any other nation in the world. The older you get in this society, the more drugs you end up taking. Many of our senior citizens are on a dozen prescriptions a day, and half of those are usually prescribed to cover up symptoms and side effects from the first few prescriptions.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:16 AM 0 comments

As the old saying goes, death comes in "threes" but last week the number changed to nine, as a rash of strange killings with undertones of "government psy ops hits" hidden between the lines hit news stands across the country.

First, there was the flight attendant who at the last minute was bumped off Flight 11 on 9/11, who was killed in an auto accident. Initial police reports list accidental death, but suspicious minds are already speculating she was eliminated for knowing too much about 9/11 being an inside government job.

Next there was the PhD college student and member of the 9/11 truth group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth found shot in the head in uptown Minneapolis. Initial reports claim it was a random act of violence, but again suspicious minds are trying to connect the dots to 9/11.

Although these two incidents are deplorable and have peripheral connections to 9/11, without question the most bizarre and suspicious murder incident of them all took place in Seattle where Kyle Huff, 25, opened fire on an innocent crowd of people, killing six and then shooting himself as police arrived on the gruesome murder scene.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:13 AM 0 comments

Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration. Rove expressed his concerns shortly after an informal review of classified government records by then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley determined that Bush had been specifically advised that claims he later made in his 2003 State of the Union address -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true, according to government records and interviews.

Hadley was particularly concerned that the public might learn of a classified one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate, specifically written for Bush in October 2002. The summary said that although "most agencies judge" that the aluminum tubes were "related to a uranium enrichment effort," the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Energy Department's intelligence branch "believe that the tubes more likely are intended for conventional weapons."

# posted by madthumbs @ 4:24 PM 0 comments

The catalyst for the agenda to intern millions of Americans deemed subversive in a time of manufactured chaos could be race riots kick-started by radicalized Mexican Klan groups and their establishment controllers.

Yesterday we reported on the immigration protests that are a front for the violent separatist Atzlan movement. After watching Spanish TV news stations we were able to ascertain that the marches were not wholly an organic response to the introduction of the immigration bill but were being artificially promoted and organized by the Spanish-language media.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:55 AM 0 comments

Mexico City - Statistically, hundreds of immigrants, both legal and illegal, will seek to cross the border from Mexico to the US Thursday and Friday as the leaders of the North American countries meet in the Mexican resort of Cancun to discuss the issue of migrants.

US President George W Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will convene this week to address this issue, which is linking and affecting their countries.

All over the world, millions of people are on the move from country to country, defying dangerous seas and violence-fraught paths either as refugees or to find a more prosperous life elsewhere. In the Americas, most of the migrants are drawn to the US with its riches and porous borders.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:48 AM 0 comments

There's something fishy going on at the Cleveland Clinic. In a surprising move in December 2005, the prestigious clinic removed Dr. Eric Topol, a well-known cardiologist and vocal critic of Merck's prescription Vioxx arthritis medication, from his position as chief academic officer at the hospital's medical school. Topol was apparently told that the position of academic officer, which also gave him a seat on the clinic's board of governors and conflict of interest committee, had been eliminated just two days after he testified at a federal Vioxx trial that Merck was guilty of scientific misconduct, according to an editorial appearing in The Houston Chronicle

News of the elimination of Topol's position came less than a week before an announcement by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer that the Cleveland Clinic will conduct a $100-million study into the safety of Celebrex, the last of the COX-2 inhibitors (the class of drugs that Vioxx belonged to) on the market in the United States.

Coincidence? No one knows for certain, but the series of events leading up to the elimination of Dr. Topol's position at the clinic has certainly raised some eyebrows.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:54 AM 0 comments

The Ohio attorney, persecuted by the Illuminati for uncovering deep rooted scandals leading to the White House, was jailed again Monday on new charges related to her highly critical web site recently dismantled by authorities.

Treated like a political prisoner with Nazi-like tactics, Elsebeth Baumgartner, 50, was taken into custody Monday after appearing in court in a related criminal case, carrying a maximum sentence of 66 years and 6 months.

The well-respected Ohio bio-tech attorney, who graduated from the University of Toledo Law School first in her class, has already spent approximately 244 days behind bars on a first time misdemeanor charge, including 10 days "locked in a hole" without the right to counsel, clergy or even phone calls.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:52 AM 0 comments

Americans are a decent people, who wouldn't stand for this utterly un-American Bush administration... if they knew what was happening. But most Americans don't know, because corporate-controlled media like CNN are simply not reporting the news.

When so much hangs in the balance, that's beyond irresponsible. It's treason, by either of the two definitions in my dictionary:

1. Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
2. A betrayal of trust or confidence.

It is no exaggeration to describe George Bush as America's enemy. He and his cohorts stand foursquare against every principle America is proud of, from 'open, honest government' to 'freedom of speech', from 'innocent until proven guilty' to 'liberty and justice for all'. American troops are at war in two nations without any sane reason, and the Bush-Cheney administration is leading the nation toward a third war...

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:24 AM 0 comments

Washington, Mar 28 (Prensa Latina) Police in the US have killed 156 people in five years, either purposely or by accident, with tasers, the stun belts used to subdue people by electric shock.

As the weapon grows in popularity among law enforcement ranks so do the number of victims. In 2001 it was used by 1,000 of 18,000 police stations, but the number rose to 7,000 in 2005.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:02 PM 0 comments

No safety concerns have arisen from tests for the cancer-causing chemical benzene in soft drinks, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday, but it did not disclose its findings. The FDA started testing soft drinks after a private study in November found small amounts of benzene in some.

In the vast majority of drinks sampled, benzene was not found or was present at levels below the federal limit for drinking water, it said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:51 PM 0 comments

NEW COMPUTER VOTE MACHINES MALFUNCTION, UNVERIFIABLE

COOK COUNTY, Illinois—Chicago’s use of a flawed computerized voting system operated by a privately held foreign company reveals how
meaningless and absurd the “democratic” process in America has become.
Having observed voting systems across Europe, from Serbia, Germany and Estonia to Holland and France, this reporter has noted that the most honest and transparent elections are also the most simple.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:32 PM 0 comments

Hundreds of deserters from the US armed forces have crossed into Canada and are now seeking political refugee status there, arguing that violations of the rules of war in Iraq by the US entitle them to asylum.

A decision on a test case involving two US servicemen is due shortly and is being watched with interest by fellow servicemen on both sides of the border. At least 20 others have already applied for asylum and there are an estimated 400 in Canada out of more than 9,000 who have deserted since the conflict started in 2003.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:30 PM 0 comments

The Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, has paid thousands of pounds in compensation to servicemen who were fed LSD without their consent in clandestine mind-control experiments in the 1950s. MI6 has agreed an out-of-court settlement with the men, who said they were duped into taking part in the experiments and had waited years to learn the truth.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:28 PM 0 comments

Activists turn tables, offer no amnesty for 'non-indigenous' on 'our continent'

WASHINGTON – While debates about guest-worker programs for illegal aliens take place in the corridors of power, in the streets of America's big cities no amnesty is being offered by activists calling for the expulsion of most U.S. citizens from their own country.

While politicians debate the fate of some 12 million people residing in the U.S. illegally, the Mexica Movement, one of the organizers of the mass protest in Los Angeles this week, has already decided it is the "non-indigenous," white, English-speaking U.S. citizens of European descent who have to leave what they call "our continent."

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:19 PM 0 comments

If you're looking for a reason why Zacarias Moussaoui suddenly testified today to a version of the 9/11 plotline that sounds more like the Official story than even the official Whitewash Commission report, this video may have the answer.

In it, NBC news reporter Pete Williams lets slip that Moussaoui is wearing a "Stun belt" underneath his clothing controlled by US Marshals. MSNBC host Dan Abrams gets some more details on the stun belt.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:24 AM 0 comments

Zacarias Moussaoui has been in US custody for almost 5 years, yet only recently have US authorities seen fit to drag him out into the spotlight in the hope of manifesting their one and only 9/11 conviction and convincing the world of the truth of the official version of the 9/11 event.

The Bushites obviously believe that, if they can get a public court conviction for Moussaoui, then the American and world public will fall in line and the haemorraging that the 'official story' is currently experiencing will stop. The fact that Moussaoui is French is just a bonus, and can only work in the favor of US government and mainstream attempts to associate 'true blue' American patriotism with sending your son or daughter or father or mother to be blown to pieces in a foreign country for no reason.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:17 AM 0 comments

It may seem as though it's been moving along at a snail's pace, but the second part of the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is nearly complete, with attorneys and government officials who have remained close to the probe saying that a grand jury will likely return an indictment against one or two senior Bush administration officials.

These sources work or worked at the State Department, the CIA and the National Security Council. Some of these sources are attorneys close to the case. They requested anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the details of the investigation.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:10 AM 0 comments

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency that claims to be responsible for protecting consumers from dangerous food and drug products, has just surrendered its primary responsibility. Recently, an FDA advisory panel voted to recommend that a dangerous prescription drug Tysabri, which was withdrawn from the market a year ago due to its promoting of a deadly brain disease, should now be put back on the market.

But here's the really shocking part: The justification for this decision to reinstate a drug with known deadly side effects is based on the idea that patients should now weigh the risks of dangerous drugs and decide for themselves whether the risks outweigh the benefits, if any.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:07 AM 0 comments

It seems behind every corner the Illuminati is looming and another dead body turns up in the incredible story of Ambassador Leo Wanta, the trustee of a vast sum of money owed to the American people.

It seems behind every rock there is another dead body when it comes to the incredible case of Ambassador Leo Wanta, the man holding 27.5 trillion dollars in trust for the American people as Illuminati banksters try to rip him off on a daily basis.

First there was attorney Vince Foster, Deputy White House Counsel to President Clinton, found dead in a Washington D.C. park just after Wanta handed him 250 million in Switzerland for the Childrens' Defense Fund, a fund both men thought was legit but turned out to be nothing more than a front for black ops money considered by insiders to be Hillary Clinton's personal slush fund.

Then there was Wanta's business partner, Kok Howe Kwong, and other associates like Freddie Woodruff and Francois de Grosseurve, all found dead, according to Wanta, "strangely for their personal belief in our Great Nation, but by betrayal of others with falsehoods and malice," pointing the finger in the direction of George H. Bush and Clinton.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:05 AM 0 comments

Terrence Tumpey stepped into the laboratory and glanced at the dead mice. Suddenly it hit him -- the significance of what scientists were attempting.

A few days earlier, Tumpey had infected the mice with genes from the 1918 influenza virus. The virus killed 40 million to 50 million people in the worst infectious disease outbreak in recorded history, then vanished.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:45 AM 0 comments

Recently, The Washington Post printed an article about vaccine waivers that could jeopardize your parental rights.1 In the article was the following comment: "The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that doctors ask parents who refuse to vaccinate their children to sign a waiver indicating they are aware of the risks of refusal."

Despite the fact that vaccines have been linked to asthma, autism, diabetes, and sudden infant death syndrome, the author implied that parents are being overly theatrical about the shots.

Know Your Rights

By endorsing this particular waiver, parents would essentially be signing an admission of neglect and/or "abuse" for refusing vaccines. The language contained in this waiver could put parents and caregivers in jeopardy later if they should ever find themselves in the courts due to their child’s health problems, when confronted with child protective services, divorce, or just about any matter pertaining to their child that could be used against the parent(s).

Please read any waiver provided by your child’s doctor, daycare or school carefully before signing. Instead, offer a formally written and signed letter that simply states that you do not wish to vaccinate your child. If you are unsure of the language in the waiver, buy some time by telling your doctor or the school that you need to consult with a lawyer before signing it.

Know your rights—say no to vaccines. Your doctor will try to bully you—you have the right to refuse anything you feel is harmful to your child. If your doctor won’t listen, go to another doctor who will.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:40 AM 1 comments

Documents below prove that it was George Herbert Walker Bush who was commander of the mercenary army that murdered President Kennedy. And note the same Bush Crime Syndicate used the same strategy with another planned contract on America with 9-11 and their own hired mercenary Osama bin Laden.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:36 AM 0 comments

As the US military has difficulties recruiting and retaining soldiers for its never-ending war of occupation in Iraq, the armed services are resorting to increasingly desperate means of coping. The Stop-Loss option in soldiers’ contracts has allowed soldiers to be kept in uniform months or years after their term of service has expired. The National Guard has been sent overseas to a previously unprecedented extent. And military standards have been lowered, so that drug or alcohol abuse, pregnancy, and poor fitness no longer necessarily lead to dismissal of new recruits.

Now word comes that “mentally ill” troops are being sent back to Iraq. [See: Some troops headed back to Iraq are mentally ill] This article refers to “a little-discussed truth fraught with implications,” but the implications discussed all have to do with the effects on the soldiers being returned, and these soldiers’ “effectiveness in combat.” In many instances, being returned to combat, and to a state of constant tension, will exacerbate the soldier’s problems, the article -- correctly -- suggests.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:34 AM 0 comments

Let’s get this straight. The Alabama serial arsonists (Benjamin Moseley, Russell DeBusk, and Matthew Lee Cloyd) were good kids who simply went bad, and the nine Christian churches they burned to the ground (causing over $2 million in damages) was just “a prank.”

But before the guilty parties were arrested, the BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) was conducting an extensive investigation; church-goers in Alabama were horrified that they had psychopath-terrorists on their hands; while the media was going ballistic (ala the Unabomber, Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson).

But then the truth emerged about this matter. It seems three Jewish teenagers were the actual culprits; and all of a sudden the corporate press went silent (hell, they didn’t even mention that they were Jewish); while the religious elite (Amen Corner) didn’t utter a peep.

Still, these kids were just involved in a “joke,” right? WRONG! According to Judicial-inc.biz, these little bastards actually used “specially-designed thermite, or incendiary magnesium” to light the fires. Now ask yourself, how many of you have thermite lying around the house to start your barbeque in the backyard? Or do you think there’s more to the story?

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:22 AM 0 comments

Michael Zebuhr didn’t intervene when two men stole his mother’s purse, but one of the men shot him anyway. The 25-year-old Buckhannon resident and recent Davis & Elkins College died a day later.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:39 AM 0 comments

Now, a study of cells in the human respiratory tract reveals a simple anatomical difference in the cells of the system that makes it difficult for the virus to jump from human to human.

The finding, reported today (March 22) in the journal Nature, is important because it demonstrates a requisite characteristic for the virus to equip itself to easily infect humans, the key development required for the virus to assume pandemic proportions.

The new report, by a research group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, describes experiments using tissue from humans that showed that only cells deep within the respiratory system have the surface molecule or receptor that is the key that permits the avian flu virus to enter a cell.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:17 AM 0 comments

People who get only 6 to 7 hours a night have a lower death rate than those who get 8 hours of sleep. —From a six-year study of more than a million adults

Many Americans are sleep-deprived zombies, and a quarter of us now use some form of sleeping pill or aid at night.

Wake up, says psychiatry professor Daniel Kripke of the University of California, San Diego. The pill-taking is real but the refrain that Americans are sleep deprived originates largely from people funded by the drug industry or with financial interests in sleep research clinics.

"They think that scaring people about sleep increases their income," Kripke told LiveScience.

# posted by madthumbs @ 1:10 PM 0 comments

Long-term use of omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to be beneficial in patients with heart disease and those with cancer. Newer evidence is now showing that omega-3’s can have beneficial effects in other areas such as fighting infection.

A recent study in patients with acute respiratory syndrome showed improvement after only a few days of administration of omega-3 fatty acids. Other studies have shown the improved immune function in animals treated with omega-3 fatty acids against bacteria. One randomized study in patients after surgery found that patients treated with fish oil had less severe infections due to reduced immune suppression. They also had shorter stays in the ICU [Intensive Care Unit] and in the hospital.

A study in the April issue of Critical Care Medicine, examines the effect of omega-3 fish oil on a large patient population. The study authors examined over 660 patients from 82 hospitals. The study included patients that had major abdominal surgery, sepsis (blood infection), trauma, head injury, and other conditions. The authors wanted to determine if survival, length of hospital stay, and antibiotic use would be effective.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:57 PM 0 comments

LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:55 PM 0 comments

Researchers call it insulin resistance, and it could bring down an entire health system. Yet most people could easily save themselves.

Jerry Silva's body was not designed for life in the early 21st century. A 44-year-old financial analyst from Sherborn, Massachusetts, Silva spends most of his time behind a desk tracking high-tech stocks. It's a life far removed from that of his Mexican forebears, who spent their days hoeing maize fields and fishing near Guadalajara. Silva has more than enough to eat, whereas his ancestors often went hungry. The significance of that difference in lifestyle became painfully apparent last January, when he was diagnosed with diabetes. The disease, closely linked with not eating the right foods and sitting around too much, is beginning to look something like a pandemic as millions of people around the world confront a central irony of the modern world: A lifestyle of abundance can be deadly.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:42 PM 0 comments

Monsanto and its affiliates are probably the last place a consumer would want to source their seeds from right now.The corporate behemoth has made it clear that its intent is to control as much of the world’s seeds as possible. The corporation, already one of the leading patent owners of the world’s diverse seeds, recently acquired Seminis, the largest seed vendor on the planet. Monsanto is also the leading producer of genetically modified seeds. Its most popular genetically modified seeds on the market create a plant that is resistant to the company’s own Roundup (glyphosate) pesticide. This allows farmers/gardeners to spray their plants with a nearly endless stream of the pesticide, killing off everything living near the plants while building up high levels of pesticide residues on the food portion of the plant.

Monsanto is also the lead purveyor of the “Terminator” technology. A non-reproductive trait is genetically engineered into a seed so that a plant is created with sterile seeds, thereby forcing farmers to buy seed year after year, rather than save seeds from each year’s crops. The major environmental concern with this technology is that the trait could spread through the plant’s pollen to nearby wild plants, thus passing a sort of suicide trait into the world’s natural botanical ecosystems. Monsanto claims it has a right to implement such technologies in order to ensure the company gets paid annually for its seed fees, known as technology fees. Monsanto currently employs a system wherein farmers are given rewards if they report a neighboring farmer who has collected Monsanto seeds from the previous year’s crops for reuse. When purchasing Monsanto’s genetically engineered seeds, a farmer must sign a contract that states that s/he will not save any seed. Monsanto successfully sues U.S. farmers for millions of dollars each year for reusing the company’s seeds.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:04 AM 0 comments

Med school students rack their brains trying to learn about the 10,000 diseases they are told exist, but according to Dallas-based naturopath and research scientist Dr. Gary L. Tunsky, all they're studying is the big lie told in med school: That these different diseases exist at all. According to Dr. Tunsky, there is only one disease -- cellular malfunction -- and all other "diseases" are just labels that tell us the location of the cellular malfunction.

"Every disease known to man can be explained in seven minutes," Dr. Tunsky explained at his November lecture at the First Annual Arizona Choices Exposition in Tucson, Ariz. He then explained how cellular malfunction develops into the symptoms we know as diseases. To understand this concept, Dr. Tunsky says we must first realize that the biggest error in mainstream medicine and naturopathy is that the body is compartmentalized, suggesting that the systems are not interrelated. In reality, the human body is a complete unit with highly complex systems working together to keep it functioning optimally.

Our bodies are designed to recognize self and non-self, but they're not designed to absorb synthetic materials like soda and pharmaceuticals. When our bodies do absorb these toxins, as well as any emotional toxins, through the environment or through eating and drinking, they are able to expel some of the hazardous material, but not all. As a result, this material builds up until the blood becomes contaminated, according to Dr. Tunsky. For the purpose of self-preservation, the blood then pushes out the contaminants into the genetically determined "weakest link" body systems. This is why certain diseases run in some families but not others. When our "weakest link" body systems become affected by these contaminants, we then develop the symptoms mainstream medicine recognizes as individual diseases, but that are really just our cells "crying out," says Dr. Tunsky.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:00 AM 0 comments

Elsabeth Baumgartner also spent 10 days locked away, held without right to counsel and clergy, for merely speaking out at a city council meeting. Saying she was held as a political prisoner, she now faces a sentence of 66 years and 6 months for what she calls "trumped-up" charges.
27 Mar 2006

The top dogs in Ohio and the White House are "foaming at the mouth" over allegations made by a former Cuyahoga County attorney who uncovered "their illegal bones" buried deep within the fields of political corruption.

Attorney Elsabeth Baumgartner, corruptly disbarred by Ohio officials, dug a hole so deep into local and state corruption it ended up all the way at the doorstep of 1600 Pennsylvania and its illegally installed occupant, George W. Bush.

Baumgartner, a well-respected bio-tech attorney who graduated first in her class from the University of Toledo law school, basically tried to do "something right" against the "wrong people."

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:57 AM 0 comments

CHILDREN as young as five have suffered strokes, heart attacks, hallucinations and convulsions after taking drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Documents obtained by The Australian reveal that almost 400 serious adverse reactions have been reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, some involving children as young as three.

Cases include the sudden death of a seven-year-old, and a five-year-old who suffered a stroke after taking Ritalin. Children also experienced heart palpitations and shortness of breath after taking Dexamphetamine.

Others taking Ritalin or Dexamphetamine - the two most commonly used ADHD drugs - experienced hair loss, muscle spasms, severe abdominal pain, tremors, insomnia, severe weight loss, depression and paranoia.

Almost 60 of the adverse-reaction reports dating back to 1980, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, involved children under the age of 10.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:58 AM 0 comments

Seized by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Osama bin Laden's former chauffeur is now seeking victory over President Bush in a new arena: the Supreme Court.

In oral arguments Tuesday, an attorney for Salim Ahmed Hamdan will ask the justices to declare unconstitutional the U.S. military commission that plans to try him for conspiring with his former boss to carry out terrorist attacks.

Significant as that demand is, its potential impact is much wider, making Hamdan's case one of the most important of Bush's presidency. It is a challenge to the broad vision of presidential power that Bush has asserted since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:09 PM 0 comments

Is the American public apathetic about charges its government uses and sponsors torture in its fight against terrorism?

Not apathetic, according to surveys. Fact is, a majority of Americans actually approve of the use of torture under some circumstances. What’s more, according to one survey, Catholics approve of its use by a wider margin than the general public.

“This may be a reaction to 9/11, the horrible loss of life and the atrocities of those acting in the name of Islam,” says Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., member of the bishops’ Committee on International Policy. “Some people feel the situation is out of control. They feel a vulnerability and a temptation to respond in kind. We have to resist that.”

A survey by the Pew Research Center in October showed that 15 percent of Americans believe torture is “often” justified, and another 31 percent believe it is “sometimes” justified. Add to that another 17 percent who said it is “rarely” justified, and you have two out of three Americans justifying torture under certain circumstances. Only 32 percent said it is “never” justified, while another 5 percent didn’t know or refused to answer.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:41 AM 0 comments

On Wednesday, a panel of the Washington, D.C.-based National Academy of Sciences released a report finding that fluoride is less safe than previously thought, and that the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit on fluoride in water should be lowered. Specifically, it said that levels of the cavity-fighting substance currently allowed under federal water-safety rules cause a harmful variety of dental fluorosis, a mottling of the tooth that in its more severe form actually can cause cavities.

Moreover, it found persuasive evidence that fluoride in water increases bone fractures as well as stiffness in the joints of the elderly, and that it also may be related to Alzheimer’s disease, marginally reduce IQ in children and alter the endocrine and hormonal levels that control most of the functions of the human body — with unknown effects. The chemical may even cause bone cancer, said the NAS — although the evidence is “tentative and mixed.”

“It’s progress,” said Campbell, who heads a group called Oregon Citizens for Safe Drinking Water. But she argued that the report, by failing to directly discuss whether water-fluoridation makes sense, does not go far enough. “We’ve got evidence of cancer, bone fractures and endocrine effects,” she said, adding, “How much longer do we have to wait?”

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:47 AM 0 comments

Documentary links clergy sex abuse with occult imagery

Could the Roman Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis be tied to embedded Satanic and occultic imagery in its artwork – some of it hundreds of years old?

That is the seemingly incredible thesis of a new documentary, "Rape of the Soul," made not by anti-Catholic bigots, but by devout followers of the Church.

"Rape of the Soul" is in theatrical release in major cities, including New York and Los Angeles.

The documentary explores the prevalent use of satanic, sexual, occult and anti-Catholic images in historical and contemporary religious artwork. The film also discusses the mysterious acceptance of the artwork at the highest and most trusted levels of the Catholic Church.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:45 AM 0 comments

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22 (UPI) -- The list of potential contributors to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder extends from liquor to lead, from the womb to the washroom.

"There are environmental factors that can cause childhood behavioral problems, such as lead exposure during childhood, substance and alcohol abuse and smoking during pregnancy an impoverished environment, malnourishment, physical abuse, traumatic brain injury, seizures," said neuropsychologist Donna Palumbo. Research shows children of tobacco users face a higher risk of ADHD.

Palumbo is associate professor of neurology and pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York and principal investigator on a multi-site, government-funded study looking at the appropriateness of diagnosing and treating ADHD in preschoolers.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:44 AM 0 comments

NEW YORK - German scientists say cells from the testes of mice can behave like embryonic stem cells. If the same holds true in humans, it could provide a controversy-free source of versatile cells for use in treating disease.

Embryonic stem cells can give rise to virtually any tissue in the body and scientists believe they may offer treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

But to harvest the cells, human embryos must be destroyed. Some religious groups and others oppose that.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:39 AM 0 comments

Moving America in a new direction is a colossal undertaking. Moving it in a way that requires sacrifice and causes social upheaval is more difficult still. And moving it to prevent devastation a century from now takes both vision and understanding.

But move we must.

Scientific analysis is telling us that global warming is real, that the polar ice sheets and the Greenland ice cap are melting and that carbon dioxide and other gas emissions are speeding the erosion. One study just reported in the journal Science says that by the year 2100, the Earth's temperature could be four degrees higher than today.

Those higher temperatures mean ever-rising seas that eventually could be 20 feet higher than they are now, which would wreak havoc around the world. At some undefined point — and it might be fast approaching — the process will be irreversible.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:37 AM 0 comments