A Little Poverty Never Hurt Anybody

by Jason Miller8/23/06"It is like paradise and hell. They throw our petitions in the dustbin. They have everything. We have nothing… If we protest, they send soldiers. They sign agreements with us and then ignore us. We have graduates going hungry, without jobs. And they bring people from Lagos to work here.”Eghare W.O. Ojhogar, chief of the Ugborodo community in Delta State (of Nigeria)In describing the situation in Nigeria, Eghare presents us with a microcosm of a modern Inferno, Purgatorio, e Paradiso (about which there is little divine or comic). In the timeless struggle between the “haves and “have nots”, alarming numbers of “useless eaters” (“have nots”) are sliding from Purgatorio into the abyss of abject poverty’s Inferno.And what heinous transgression did they commit that necessitated their banishment into the Inferno? They were born, of course. Most of those experiencing the misery of indigence had the misfortune to enter this world bearing a losing lottery ticket.From their birth, the psyches of the poor and homeless in the “developed” nations and those of the impoverished in the “developing” nations are battered with the hopelessness and despair of their harsh realities. (Realities carefully created and perpetuated in a variety of ways by their “betters”).After spending their formative years pitted against nearly overwhelming economic and social forces, the message many of them internalize probably reads something like this:Sorry, washout. You are the wrong color, ethnicity, caste, social class, or nationality. Surviving to age 40 will be no small task for you. And if you manage to do so, your chances of significantly bettering your situation are quite slim. After all, the lottery winners invest a great deal in maintaining structural barriers to hold you down. But the good news is that you can add meaning to your miserable existence by working for slave wages( or simply withering and dying) to ensure that the tiny percentage of humanity enjoying economic Paradiso continues to do so and that the shrinking number of fortunates in Purgatorio experience a degree of comfort and security.To gain some perspective on the extent of human suffering, avarice, and depravity associated with the gross imbalance in wealth and power, weigh these facts:1. More than half of the 6.5 billion human souls populating Earth subsist on less than $2 per day. 790 million of the deeply impoverished suffer from chronic malnutrition (while 65% of US Americans are overweight).2. 20% of the human race does not have access to clean water and 31% of the world’s population has no electricity. 3. Combining the gross domestic products of the 48 poorest nations (representing 25% of global population) yields a figure that is less than the wealth of the three richest people in the world. 4. “Developed nations” account for 80% of the world’s consumption and 20% of the world’s population. 5. The wealth gap between the richest and poorest countries went from 3 to 1 in 1820 to 72 to 1 in 1992. 6. Corporations account for over half of the 100 wealthiest entities in the world.7. And most tragically:“According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year.”(Thanks to Global Issues.org for the above information)Earth’s ruling oligarchs and plutocrats have created and perpetuated a socioeconomic dynamic in which the destitute have little or no access to education, basic healthcare, decent employment, or even basic necessities. From the United States to sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia, those isolated in despairing communities with crumbling or non-existent infrastructures find themselves mired in impoverished breeding grounds for crime, high birth rates, substance abuse, and AIDS.Perhaps an apt message for those impoverished children arriving in this world with three strikes against them would be:“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate”, which is most commonly translated as “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” How humane and politically correct those monopolizing Earth’s bounty have become. Monarchy has essentially been relegated to the dustbin of history. Empire building through brute force is becoming an increasingly rare event. Certainly the ruling elite maintain potent militaries to exercise their right to “defend themselves” (as they are doing in Iraq and Lebanon). But more often then not, the masters of the human race have learned to wield their economic power like a heavy cudgel, capable of battering their foes into submission with a few swift strokes.New age dawning?As humanity basks in the nurturing rays of a long-awaited sunrise marking the dawn of a glorious new paradigm, a determined privileged class is determined to make utopia a reality for themselves. Ushering in a veritable paradise of free trade, “robust economies”, “ownership societies”, “freedom and liberty”, and unprecedented profits generated by massive companies unfettered by frivolous government regulation, predatory human beings now issue their edicts from corporate skyscrapers rather than moated castles.Wage slaves and sweat shop laborers have supplanted serfs and chattel slaves. Five major corporations comprise 90% of the mass media in the United States. What are their specialties? Shaping public opinion to maintain the illusion that one of the world’s most rapacious and bellicose nations is a “benevolent superpower” and enticing those who fall prey to their charms to experience a virtually insatiable desire to acquire more material possessions. A brain-washed complacent citizenry perpetually ready to go on a buying binge is a wet dream for the ruling elite.For many, the survival of their families depends upon the meager pay they receive from corporate behemoths like Wal-Mart. More fortunate wage slaves earn enough to cover the cost of necessities and to attain the goods the corporate media push like Ecstasy. Shopping….what a rush!Between the US Americans who have high discretionary income and the easy credit issued to those who don’t, demand for consumer goods is nearly infinite. With grossly unfair laws (protecting consumers, the environment, and workers) squeezing their profits, those ingenious devils amongst the ruling elite concluded they would locate in "developing" countries where they could truly rape, pillage and plunder. Hence the worsening plight of those beholden to their corporate masters both in the United States and abroad.Where is the wealth?And just how heavily are the world’s assets concentrated into the hands of the elite? While the United States is by no means home to the entire world’s de facto aristocracy, it is the “leader of the obscenely rich world” and by default is the “leader of the (ostensibly) free world”.For example, Professor G. William Domhoff of the University of California at Santa Cruz wrote in 2001:“In terms of types of financial wealth, the top 1 percent of households have 44.1% of all privately held stock, 58.0% of financial securities, and 57.3% of business equity. The top 10% have 85% to 90% of stock, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of America.”And thanks to the Bush administration, that 10% is maintaining a firm grasp on what they own.Pernicious and Enduring LiesThe predator class pacifies its subservient underclass with the myth that in the United States and the satellite “free market economies” it has established (at gun-point or through the subversive activities of the CIA), everyone can become a successful entrepreneur by starting their own business. Yet like the lie that all impoverished individuals except widows, orphans, and the infirm are responsible for their own circumstances, this malicious fairy tale ignores several realities. Like the fiction about the impoverished, it assumes that all people are on a level playing field. However, that notion is far removed from reality. Some people have a higher quality education than others. Individuals receiving a high degree of support from friends and family are much more likely to succeed than those who have little or no support. While some starting a business have financial resources behind them, others have virtually nothing but their drive and ideas. Market forces, weather patterns, competition, health, and many other variables can serve to make or break a “budding capitalist”. And no two people are alike or face the same conditions.Approximately 150 million of those young and healthy enough to work in the United States earn a wage or salary. (Versus a relatively paltry figure of 20 million who are self-employed). 85% of small businesses fail within 5 years. Corporate leviathans like Wal-Mart and Microsoft have defied anti-trust laws to crush myriad competitors, including many small entrepreneurs. Horatio Alger success stories are none too plentiful in the “land of opportunity”. And the grim reality is that the Goliath corporate giants usually prevail against the David small businesses.In 2003, the average worker in the United States was netting $517.00 per week. How much were CEO’s taking home at that time? A mere $155,000. 52 times per year. That is a staggering 301 to 1 differential. In 1982 the ratio of CEO to average worker pay was “a mere” 42 to 1. From 1990 to 2003 US corporate profits rose 128%.To further appreciate the obscene avarice of the world’s plutocracy, consider that the average garment worker in Bangladesh earned 13 cents per hour in 2004. The “10% of the people who own the United States” and their counter-parts in nations around the globe are doing very well thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears of the remaining 6 billion or so human beings on the planet.Incorporating their AvariceCorporations are the Holy Grail for the rich and powerful. They provide moneyed individuals investment vehicles which afford them extremely limited personal liability, financially and criminally. By the late 19th Century in the United States, corporations had acquired many of the legal rights of a human being. Despite their roots in British colonialism and the deep apprehensions of founders like Thomas Jefferson, corporations have come to dominate the United States and much of the world culturally, politically, and economically.Jefferson’s expression of concern to George Logan in 1816 was well-founded:"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."Not only was the aristocracy of moneyed corporations born. Its power has grown to such monstrous proportions that it has virtually crushed the life from a still relatively nascent social experiment based on democratic ideals and Constitutional law.According to the Center for Public Integrity, the pharmaceutical industry alone has spent $675 million lobbying the government to shape public policy over the last seven years. The insurance industry spent even more if one includes campaign donations. Through their corporate proxies, the moneyed elite invest a great deal in the United States’ political system. They expect and receive a great deal in return."Defending" the predator class is an expensive propositionSpending at a clip of $600 billion per year (including Iraqi Occupation costs), the United States accounts for 50% of the world’s military spending. As George Bush (the current public face of the world’s plutocracy) so sagely reminded us, “Free nations are peaceful nations.” To manufacture the many instruments of peace which prove how free we are, the United States relies on 737 defense contractors, sometimes known as the military-industrial complex. Of those 737 contractors, a mere five have received government contracts totaling $284 billion over the last six years. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics do quite well at the public trough. Halliburton has also fared nicely since former CEO Dick Cheney took office and helped lie the United States into the Iraqi Occupation. Facilitating killing is their business, and business is good.Sedating the masses with consumerism, spin, fear-mongering and historical revisions; lobbying heavily; donating huge sums to political campaigns; and maintaining the military industrial complex are powerful means of securing the seats of power in DC and Tel Aviv. However, the predator class has yet another weapon at its disposal: the revolving door between government and major corporations. Men like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are but two stalwarts of the privileged class who have traversed back and forth from roles of great influence in major corporations to positions of power within the government. But they are not pioneers. Theirs is a path blazed by many before them and almost certain to be followed by many after them.A glimpse of the ugly reality of pathological avarice in action...To move beyond an abstract analysis of the machinations of the oppression and exploitation of most of the human race by a select and privileged few, consider one of many specific examples. For years, British and US oil interests have enjoyed the complicity of the criminal ruling elite in Nigeria in plundering an incredibly valuable natural resource. In return a majority of the indigenous people have received land too polluted to farm, brutal attacks by government forces, and extreme poverty.According to an article written for Amnesty International:“It's 10 years since the Nigerian Government executed the well-known Ogoni writer and human rights campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa. But little has changed for the people of the Niger Delta, reports Seth Jordan….…Oil was discovered in the Ogoni region in the late 1950s by the Royal Dutch/Shell Group….by the 1990s an estimated US $30 billion worth of oil had already been extracted, and oil revenues accounted for over 98 per cent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings; the 550,000 local farmers and fishermen who inhabited the coastal land had received little except a ravaged environment. Once fertile farmland had been destroyed by uncontrolled pollution, and virtually all fish and wildlife had vanished. Only a handful of local people were employed by the oil companies or benefited economically in any way….“On 4 February 2005, soldiers from Nigeria's Joint Task Force fired on protesters from the Ugborodo community at the Escravos oil terminal run by Chevron Nigeria. One man was shot and later died from his injuries. Thirty other demonstrators were injured by blows from rifle butts and other weapons. Neither the government nor the oil company provided adequate medical care or helped to transport the injured.”Nigeria provides a potent example of the blatant abuses of the impoverished masses by the privileged few. But sadly, it is but one of many such cases.While the rapacious individuals who wield the power in this world have stacked the deck heavily in their favor, there are glimmers of hope. The United States and Israel are both failing in their wars of aggression in the Middle East. A wave of democratic socialism is beginning to sweep South America. A populist leader may still win the presidency in Mexico. Joe Lieberman was ejected. And checks and balances were at least temporarily restored in the United States when a federal judge ordered George Bush to obey the Constitution.A collective populist movement is slowly evolving. It is only a matter of time before humanity’s oppressed put aside their religious, racial, and nationalist differences to unite against their common enemy. When six billion people act in unison against a few million, there will indeed be a new world order.Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He writes prolifically and his essays have appeared widely on the Internet. He welcomes constructive correspondence at willpowerful@hotmail.com or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/ .

I Dare Any American to Name a Single Bush or Republican National Security Success...Just One

A. Alexander, August 18th, 2006
Republicans are masters at creating a political perception that is entirely divorced from reality. On no other issue is this highlighted more clearly than regarding national security. What is more incredible still, is that the American people buy into these Republican myths regardless of what their own senses tell them.Somewhere in the national security formula must be a variable called competence. How is it possible for a president or party to keep the nation secure, if their strategy has resulted in a string of one failure followed by another? Bush and Republicans began the war in Afghanistan, completed half the job, pulled out most of the military resources, and have done virtually nothing as that country slips back into the hands of al Qaeda and the Taliban. A recent report stated, in no uncertain terms, that the Bush-backed strategy for combating an Islamist insurrection in Pakistan has failed 'badly'. The Bush administration's attempts at preventing Somalia from falling to Taliban-like Islamists, has also failed. All this, of course, says nothing about the complete and utter disaster known as Iraq. Iraq was, is, and will be a Bush and Republican operation. They wanted the war, made up out of thin air the evidence to get the war, fired any General who tried to tell them their post-invasion force was too small to secure the country, and steadfastly refused to alter their policy. Contrary to altering their march toward failure, they've insisted we must 'stay the course'. Further, due to our being trapped in Iraq, Iran has begun developing nuclear weapons and North Korea has actually quadrupled the number of nuclear weapons in their arsenal.Bush and Republicans have not succeeded in a single national security-related endeavor. Indeed, everything they've done has made America less safe. That other nations maintain a healthy fear of our military might is vital to national security but, too, just as important is that world leaders respect American diplomacy and our leadership. Today, few nations take seriously our threat of force because they know we are bogged down in Iraq. Both North Korea and Iran have made a hobby of thumbing their noses at Bush's threats of force. And it would require a determined Sherlock Holmes-like detective to discover many global leaders who respect either America's diplomatic efforts, or our leadership.That the United States has lost all respect within the international community cannot be denied. It is humiliating enough that a ranking member of the British government called the President of the United States 'crap', but it is all the more embarrassing and telling when the Chinese envoy tells the United States to 'shut up'. '''It's better for the U.S. to shut up,' Sha said. 'Keep quiet. It's much, much better.'''"It is better for the U.S. to shut up"? The President of the United States is "crap"? In what parallel universe do the people of America view the sum total of Bush and Republican national security failures and hear world leaders uttering such disrespectful remarks and still, they arrive at the conclusion that Republicans are strong on national security? For the love of all things good and merciful, on whose watch did 9/11 occur? When it comes to the myth that Republicans are "strong" on national security, what will it take for the American people to realize they've been sold a bill of goods?I challenge any American to name a single instance relating to national security, where either Bush or the Republican Party has been a success. Just one example of success...just one!

The UK 'Terror Plot' -What's Really Going On?

By Craig Murray 8-15-6
Mr. Murray was the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004
----

I have been reading very carefully through all the Sunday newspapers to try and analyse the truth from all the scores of pages claiming to detail the so-called bomb plot. Unlike the great herd of so-called security experts doing the media analysis, I have the advantage of having had the very highest security clearances myself, having done a huge amount of professional intelligence analysis, and having been inside the spin machine.

So this, I believe, is the true story.

None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.

In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms.

What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year - like thousands of other British Muslims. And not just Muslims. Like me. Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests.

Then an interrogation in Pakistan revealed the details of this amazing plot to blow up multiple planes - which, rather extraordinarily, had not turned up in a year of surveillance. Of course, the interrogators of the Pakistani dictator have their ways of making people sing like canaries. As I witnessed in Uzbekistan, you can get the most extraordinary information this way. Trouble is it always tends to give the interrogators all they might want, and more, in a desperate effort to stop or avert torture. What it doesn't give is the truth.

The gentleman being "interrogated" had fled the UK after being wanted for questioning over the murder of his uncle some years ago. That might be felt to cast some doubt on his reliability. It might also be felt that factors other than political ones might be at play within these relationships. Much is also being made of large transfers of money outside the formal economy. Not in fact too unusual in the British Muslim community, but if this activity is criminal, there are many possibilities that have nothing to do with terrorism.

We then have the extraordinary question of Bush and Blair discussing the possible arrests over the weekend. Why? I think the answer to that is plain. Both in desperate domestic political trouble, they longed for "Another 9/11". The intelligence from Pakistan, however dodgy, gave them a new 9/11 they could sell to the media. The media has bought, wholesale, all the rubbish they have been shovelled.

We then have the appalling political propaganda of John Reid, Home Secretary, making a speech warning us all of the dreadful evil threatening us and complaining that "Some people don't get" the need to abandon all our traditional liberties. He then went on, according to his own propaganda machine, to stay up all night and minutely direct the arrests. There could be no clearer evidence that our Police are now just a political tool. Like all the best nasty regimes, the knock on the door came in the middle of the night, at 2.30am. Those arrested included a mother with a six week old baby.

For those who don't know, it is worth introducing Reid. A hardened Stalinist with a long term reputation for personal violence, at Stirling Univeristy he was the Communist Party's "Enforcer", (in days when the Communist Party ran Stirling University Students' Union, which it should not be forgotten was a business with a very substantial cash turnover). Reid was sent to beat up those who deviated from the Party line.

We will now never know if any of those arrested would have gone on to make a bomb or buy a plane ticket. Most of them do not fit the "Loner" profile you would expect - a tiny percentage of suicide bombers have happy marriages and young children. As they were all under surveillance, and certainly would have been on airport watch lists, there could have been little danger in letting them proceed closer to maturity - that is certainly what we would have done with the IRA.

In all of this, the one thing of which I am certain is that the timing is deeply political. This is more propaganda than plot. Of the over one thousand British Muslims arrested under anti-terrorist legislation, only twelve per cent are ever charged with anything. That is simply harrassment of Muslims on an appalling scale. Of those charged, 80% are acquitted. Most of the very few - just over two per cent of arrests - who are convicted, are not convicted of anything to do terrorism, but of some minor offence the Police happened upon while trawling through the wreck of the lives they had shattered.

Be sceptical. Be very, very sceptical.

Stop the Madness. Refuse to Fly

by Kate Mucci
http://www.opednews.com
It seems that some "terrorist plot" has been foiled. All that "extra security" to which travelers have been subjected is working. Or so they would have us believe.But if you sit back from a calm, rational place, can you believe that there really was a terror plot, using... liquids? Can you believe that it makes us safer in any way to prevent any of us from carrying hairspray, hand lotion or lipstick onto an airplane?Regarding the "plot", well, I'm not buying it. Every other terror plot that has been exposed since and including 911 has had "false flag" written all over it, and with Bush in big trouble for encouraging Israel to continue murdering innocent civilians in Lebanon and Palestinian, this smells like the old "bait and switch" trick again. Bush and Blair are best buddies. Cheney has disappeared again. Mid-term elections are coming up. Lieberman lost this week.It's no surprise that this plot was uncovered now. It's all about timing.How better to drum up support for illegal and immoral activities than by again invoking the fear of attacks to scare the sheeple into submission? So what are you going to do? Wring your hands in fear as you stand in lines four hours long? Why should you throw away a bottle of baby's milk? You shouldn't. Don't. Don't fall for their terror tactics and DON'T FLY! Call your travel agents or the airlines, and demand your money back for flights you've booked, and even if you haven't made reservations, call them and tell them you're not going to as long as this nonsense is in place. Put these co-conspirators in the war against freedom on notice that we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more and we're not going to fly as long as these ludicrous "security measures" are in place. When the airplanes are flying at 20 per cent capacity or less, and they have to cut back on the number of flights and therefore the amount of fuel being consumed, the airlines and oil companies will make such a fuss that this nonsense about dumping your liquids will be stopped. And while you're at it, tell them you're NOT going to take your shoes off anymore. And you're not going to bare your baby's bottom because there might be something hidden in his diaper.All of those precautions are not about making you safer. They're all about power and making people feel vulnerable and helpless. Don't let them take away your power.While you've got them on the line, tell the airline representatives about 9/11. Tell them you know that the flights that supposedly hit the trade towers were likely remote controlled, and that NORAD stood down. Tell them that no plane hit the Pentagon, and ask them if they saw any plane parts on the news footage. Make them listen to you. Keep calling. Mess up their reservations systems. We only have our voices. Use them. Call in to talk shows. Especially the Right Wing numbnuts. Put your brave suits on and armor up, because you will get blasted by those who don't want to hear the truth. But you can defeat the propaganda of fear with your own quiet insistence on getting the facts out there. Get your facts in before they cut you off. Tell them how the criminal elements in control of major western governments have carried out terror attacks and deliberately manufactured fake alerts for political purposes. Tell them that in 2002, then White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told the Washington Times that terror alerts were issued "as a result of all the controversy that took place last week," referring to political heat bestowed on President Bush when 9/11 prior knowledge evidence first surfaced.This is no different. Any time the government's in trouble, there is some kind of fake terror alert. Tell the right wing listeners about it! Call in to liberal talk show hosts that still believe Osama bin Laden was behind 911. Clue them into the false flag operations. But most important, STOP FLYING! Unless you have a life and death matter, or your livelihood depends on it, you don't need to fly. Disneyland can wait until next year. While you're at it, call the vacation destinations and tell them you won't be visiting because of the nonsense with flying. If enough of us do this, we can stop the madness. There will be such a hue and cry from Disney and Magic Mountain and all the other tourist traps that the government will have to back down. If we are to retain the freedoms we have, and regain the ones we've lost, we all must say, "No way." Stick by it, and stick together. There are more of us than there are of them.

www.outtheretv.com
Kate Mucci is co-host and producer of Out There Television, a weekly one-hour broadcast program airing throughout North America, Europe and The U.K. and worldwide on the web. See the website at www.outtheretv.com.

Four Sorrows

Four sorrows ... are certain to be visited on the United States. Their cumulative effect guarantees that the U.S. will cease to resemble the country outlined in the Constitution of 1787.
First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a spreading reliance on nuclear weapons among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut.
Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co- equal 'executive branch' of overnment into a military junta.
Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions.
Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens.": Chalmers Johnson, Sorrows of Empire

British Petroleum's 'Smart Pig'

The Brilliantly ProfitableTiming Of
The Alaska Oil Pipeline Shutdown
By Greg Palast
The Guardian - UK
8-8-6

Is the Alaska Pipeline corroded? You bet it is. Has been for more than a decade. Did British Petroleum shut the pipe yesterday to turn a quick buck on its negligence, to profit off the disaster it created? Just ask the "smart pig."

Years ago, I had the unhappy job of leading an investigation of British Petroleum's management of the Alaska pipeline system. I was working for the Chugach villages, the Alaskan Natives who own the shoreline slimed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker grounding.

Even then, courageous government inspectors and pipeline workers were screaming about corrosion all through the pipeline. I say "courageous" because BP, which owns 46% of the pipe and is supposed to manage the system, had a habit of hunting down and destroying the careers of those who warn of pipeline problems.

In one case, BP's CEO of Alaskan operations hired a former CIA expert to break into the home of a whistleblower, Chuck Hamel, who had complained of conditions at the pipe's tanker facility. BP tapped his phone calls with a US congressman and ran a surveillance and smear campaign against him. When caught, a US federal judge said BP's acts were "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."

This was not an isolated case. Captain James Woodle, once in charge of the pipe's Valdez terminus, was blackmailed into resigning the post when he complained of disastrous conditions there. The weapon used on Woodle was a file of faked evidence of marital infidelity. Nice guys, eh?

Now let's talk timing. BP's suddenly discovered corrosion necessitating an emergency shut-down of the line is the same corrosion Dan Lawn has been screaming about for 15 years. Lawn is a steel-eyed government inspector who has kept his job only because his union's lawyers have kept BP from having his head.

Indeed, it's pretty darn hard for BP to claim it is surprised to find corrosion this week when Lawn issued a damning report on corrosion right after a leak and spill were discovered on March 2 of this year.

Why shut the pipe now? The timing of a sudden inspection and fix of a decade-long problem has a suspicious smell. A precipitous shutdown in mid-summer, in the middle of Middle East war(s), is guaranteed to raise prices and reap monster profits for BP. The price of crude jumped $2.22 a barrel on the shutdown news to over $76. How lucky for BP which sells four million barrels of oil a day. Had BP completed its inspection and repairs a couple years back - say, after Dan Lawn's tenth warning - the oil market would have hardly noticed.

But $2 a barrel is just the beginning of BP's shut-down bonus. The Alaskan oil was destined for the California market which now faces a supply crisis at the very height of the summer travel season. The big winner is ARCO petroleum, the largest retailer in the Golden State. ARCO is a 100%-owned subsidiary of British Petroleum.

BP could have fixed the pipeline problem this past winter, after their latest corrosion-caused oil spill. But then ARCO would have lost the summertime supply-squeeze windfall.

Enron Corporation was infamous for deliberately timing repairs to maximize profit. Would BP also manipulate the market in such a crude manner? Some US prosecutors think they did so in the US propane market. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) just six weeks ago charged the company with approving an Enron-style scheme to crank up the price of propane sold in poor rural communities in the US. One former BP exec has pleaded guilty.

Lord Browne, the imperious CEO of BP, has apologized for that scam, for the Alaska spill, for this week's shutdown and for the deaths in 2005 of 15 workers at the company's mortally sloppy refinery operation at Texas City, Texas.

I don't want readers to think BP isn't civic-minded. The company's US CEO, Bob Malone, was Co-Chairman of the Bush re-election campaign in Alaska. Mr. Bush, in turn, was so impressed with BP's care of Alaska's environment that he pushed again to open the state's arctic wildlife refuge (ANWR) to drilling by the BP consortium.

Indeed, you can go to Alaska today and see for yourself the evidence of BP's care of the wilderness. You can smell it: the crude oil still on the beaches from the Exxon Valdez spill.

Exxon took all the blame for the spill because they were dumb enough to have the company's name on the ship. But it was BP's pipeline managers who filed reports that oil spill containment equipment was sitting right at the site of the grounding near Bligh Island. However, the reports were bogus, the equipment wasn't there and so the beaches were poisoned. At the time, our investigators uncovered four-volume's worth of faked safety reports and concluded that BP was at least as culpable as Exxon for the 1,200 miles of oil-destroyed coastline.

Nevertheless, m'Lord Browne preens himself with his corporation's environmental record. We know BP cares about nature because they have lots of photos of solar panels in their annual reports - and they've painted every one of their gas stations green.

The green paint-job is supposed to represent the oil giant's love of Mother Nature. But the good Lord, Mr. Browne, knows it stands for the color of the Yankee dollar.

BP claims the profitable timing of its Alaska pipe shutdown can be explained because they've only now run a "smart pig" through the pipes to locate the corrosion. The "pig" is an electronic drone that BP should have been using continuously, though they had not done so for 14 years. The fact that, in the middle of an oil crisis, they've run it through now, forcing the shutdown, reminds me, when I consider Lord Browne's closeness to George Bush, that the company's pig is indeed, very, very smart.

This is just one example of the Matrix we are all living in. The major media is publishing news bites from corporations (BP for example). The media is not researching what is actually going on in the world, they are just reprinting whatever they are told. The truth of the matter is this world has taken a left turn at hell and we are all now surrounded by some really evil people in power...CAN YOU SAY "HELL ON EARTH"? It soon will be when the missiles fly because of Iran. Pay attention, folks, the rides gonna get a little bumpy!!!

Oldie, but a Goody!

Experiment.

Go to Google and type in the word, “failure” and press the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

What a HOOT! I have to laugh every time I do it.

Chris

Major Alaskan Oil Field Shutting DOWN...Gas prices UP!

Major Alaskan Oil Field Shutting Down
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Aug 6, 9:18 PM (ET)By MARY PEMBERTON

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Half the oil production on Alaska's North Slope was being shut down Sunday after BP Exploration Alaska, Inc. discovered severe corrosion and a small spill from a Prudhoe Bay oil transit line.
BP officials said they didn't know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line. "I don't even know how long it's going to take to shut it down," said Tom Williams, BP's senior tax and royalty counsel.

Once the field is shut down, in a process expected to take day, BP said oil production will be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day. That's close to 8 percent of U.S. oil production as of May 2006, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
"We regret that it is necessary to take this action and we apologize to the nation and the State of Alaska for the adverse impacts it will cause," BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone said in a statement.

Malone said the field will not resume operating until the company and government regulators are satisfied it can run safely without threatening the environment.


Gas prices in Maine where I live went up 8cents per gallon before this story hit the wires. I can’t imagine what it is going to cost for fuel oil so my family does not freeze to death this winter. God knows it cost enough to air condition my home because the air is so dirty on hot and humid days, it gets hard to breath.

I would also like to say that I am proud of how our Government has systematically failed the American people from one fiasco to another. I can only hope they act and find some kind of relief for Americans. And please don’t start another war, I can’t afford it!

Chris email me if you want!

Bush/Fed Fail To Honor $4.5 Trillion Wanta Deal

By Greg Szymanski
8-2-6


U.S. authorities failed to meet Ambassador Leo Wanta's July 31 deadline to release $4.5 trillion into the economy, forcing Wanta and his AmeriTrust Groupe, Inc., to try and repatriate $27.5 trillion in offshore funds.

Michael C. Cottrell, treasurer of AmeriTrust, said Tuesday authorities were given "ample time" to make good on the agreed written settlement negotiated by two federal court judges, Wanta and two large law firms from New York and Georgia on behalf of U.S. authorities and overseas bankers.

The $4.5 trillion settlement, earmarked for the American people through private funds controlled by Wanta, was hammered out several months ago as the partial repatriation of trillions of offshore funds in Wanta's control and subsequently transferred to a Bank of America account in Virginia during May and June.

However, instead of the money being put under AmeriTrust control, President Bush unexpectedly and without legal authority ordered the private funds blocked, preventing a legal corporate U.S. entity from paying approximately $1.6 trillion in taxes, placing himself in direct violation of federal law with felony consequences.

Further, Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzalez, aware of the violations of federal law, has failed to take steps to rectify the enormous financial scandal, making him complicit in the crime.

"We are now moving full steam ahead to repatriate the entire amount," said Cottrell Tuesday in an extended conversation with the Arctic Beacon. "I can't be specific exactly what we are going to do as I wouldn't want to tip our hand, but if they want a fight, they've got one."

Cottrell, who has extensive experience in complicated worldwide financial methods, has spoken numerous times in last several weeks, including a guest radio appearance on Greg Szymanski's radio show, The Investigative Journal, saying the story was the "biggest financial story in the history of the world" and all the big political and financial players around the world were fully aware of dire consequences if the Wanta settlement wasn't honored.

He added that Ambassador Wanta's status as legal trustor of the entire $27.5 trillion gives him authority to round up and repatriate the entire aggregate amount, meaning worldwide financial chaos since much of the money has been illegally used, as well as opening up a Pandora's Box of embezzlement, bribery and murder.

The massive amount of money circulating in more than 190 worldwide banks remains a huge problem for the Bush administration, as it clearly shows how much of the Wanta trillions has been improperly used by many higher-ups in the last three Presidential administrations, including President George H. Bush and President William Jefferson Clinton.

Instead of the money being properly taxed and used for American interests, as prescribed by President Reagan when Wanta was assigned the task to amass the rather large sum of money at the end of the Cold War, criminals in the government, better known as the Illuminati, decided to use if for their own personal Globalist agenda which was far removed and beyond the scope of proper governmental oversight.

Documents meticulously gathered and audited by Wanta himself, reveal more than $743 billion diverted illegally, including illegal transactions by Bush I. According to overseas investigators, articles appearing in several overseas financial journals including The International Currency Review, listen to what may only be the tip of the iceberg regarding the massive corruption involving the Wanta money:

For rest of story, more Wanta stories and more informative arcticles, go to www.arcticbeacon.com

See what I mean by corruption in our world governments...you all better wake up before they use all this money for something besides chemtrails!!!

Crime in Pleasantville!

Who mowed down the gulls of Pleasantville?

Police say driver lured birds with French fries, drove through flock, killing 35
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14081362/

Updated: 7:37 p.m. ET July 28, 2006
PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. - Police say it was a cruel trap: French fries stacked on the pavement, a flock of seagulls enticed by food, and a car lying in wait to mow them down.
When it was over, 35 birds were dead — no match for the black Nissan Maxima that plowed through them at 50 mph. Police in this town near Atlantic City are trying to find whoever was responsible for the crime.
"I've never seen a scene like that as far as animals are concerned," said Pleasantville Police Lt. Jose Ruiz. "There were birds squashed dead."
About five passers-by witnessed the crime Tuesday evening in the Pleasantville Shopping Center parking lot, police said. They said they saw a young person stack the fries on the pavement, then join two others in the car as the seagulls began to swarm.
"It was kind of ugly, man, blood everywhere," Wendell McNeal, a witness, told NBC Channel 10 in Philadelphia.
Witnesses couldn't give police detailed descriptions of the suspects, and no one recalled the car's license plate. Police on Friday were awaiting surveillance camera tapes from nearby businesses, Ruiz said.
Meanwhile, the county chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was offering a $100 reward for the capture of the seagull killers.
"I can't even imagine that people can be that cruel," said Nancy Beall, the county chapter's president.
Ruiz hoped someone would come forward with information that will lead to arrest.
"We're just hoping that someone went out there and bragged about what they did," he said.


***I now see there is a need for a federal law that will punish this sort of cruelty. I think Sen. Lautenberg of N.J. should submit a bill that would punish anyone caught killing, hurting, thinking about hurting, has ever thought about what alka-seltzer really does to a seagull, drives in a Micky-D's parking lot with a French Fry, or has ever been in a yelling match with a pesky seagull at the beach, should be banned for life from possession of French Fries. Also, if caught with a potato with the intent to make French fries, home fries, or any fry situated with a potato and hot oil, shall be imprisoned for 10 years and can receive up to a $250.000 fine.
This law will do nothing to curb the killing of seagulls, but it will deny your right to a fast food staple and a life as being branded a potato abuser!****

Chris