I second that! I can't understand how people actually believe nonsense like that. Lack of privacy is, by itself, a form of terrorism when taken to an extreme. I can safely say that I fear our own run-away government much more than "a few riled-up Muslims", as Brzezinski once said.
I don't think these answers were written by RP; compare to his overview of Mises and Austrian Economics below or to his recent speech on economics in Seattle. He is very thorough, these "answers" are anything but. Perhaps he was consulted briefly by a staffer but wasn't told or didn't realize the size of the Slashdot audience (which is actually a bit surprising, but then again as much as he loves the Internet he isn't a geek). I think he would have personally answered the questions if he knew his answers were going to be read by several million readers world-wide (or whatever the Slashdot audience is).
Also worth mentioning is that Ron Paul is not pro-legislation. Much of the questions asked assume the introduction of some type of program or legislation (it seems), but that is not what RP is about. He is about getting rid of shit that doesn't belong. He has said on numerous occasions that he "would never use executive orders to legislate, but would use executive orders to cancel-out bad [pre-existing] executive orders".
Ron Paul on economics (Seattle, Jan 31 2008, six parts ~ 50 minutes -- several versions on YouTube this one seems the best): part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6
While it's true that current prices put gold at around 3.5-4 trillion, if it reaches the inflation-adjusted high of the 80s gold would be closer to $2000 per troy ounce putting total gold value at 7.6 trillion. There is much reason to think it will reach this level: falling gold levels in Western Central Banks after years and years of liquidation and artificially suppressed prices (see GATA), increased demand for physical gold (esp. in the Middle East where they wouldn't know/care what an ETF was if it hit them in the face), inflation concerns, imminent currency and credit collapse, possible dollar hedging with gold by Asian and Russian Central Banks, etc, etc
[I also posted this under the GOP thread, but since this article covers both parties I'm posting twice. Hopefully you read it and see why. The most surprising thing for me was learning that Brzezinski is an adviser to Obama, since I had been considering Obama if "The Doctor" dropped out.]
Independent journalist Allan Nairn and American Conservative
correspondent Kelley Beaucar Vlahos discuss a little-addressed facet of
the 2008 campaign: many of the top advisers to leading presidential
candidates are ex-U.S. officials involved in atrocities around the
world.
[Most likely DemocracyNow can handle plenty of hits, but you never know... so here is the full transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: Presidential candidates are scrambling to win last-minute
support in Iowa ahead of tonight's caucus. Thousands of reporters have
also descended on Iowa this week, covering everything from Mike
Huckabee's haircut to John Edwards's rally with singer John Mellencamp.
But little attention has been paid to perhaps one of the most important
aspects of the candidates: their advisers, the men and women who likely
form the backbone of the candidate's future cabinet if elected
president. Many of the names will be familiar.
Advisers to Hillary Rodham Clinton include many former top officials in
President Clinton's administration: former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, former UN
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Senator Barack Obama's list includes
President Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former
counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, former Middle East negotiator
Dennis Ross.
Rudolph Giuliani's advisers include Norman Podhoretz, one of the fathers
of the neoconservative movement. John McCain's list of official and
formal policy advisers includes former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger, General Colin Powell, William Kristol of The Weekly Standard,
and former CIA Director James Woolsey. One of Mitt Romney's top advisers
is Cofer Black, the former CIA official who now serves as vice chair of
Blackwater Worldwide. Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Elizabeth is
advising Fred Thompson.
As for Mike Huckabee, it's not clear. In December, Huckabee listed
former UN Ambassador John Bolton as someone with whom he either has
"spoken or will continue to speak," but Bolton then revealed the two had
never spoken. Huckabee also named Richard Allen, but the former National
Security Adviser also admitted he had never spoken to Huckabee.
To talk more about the advisers behind the presidential campaigns, I'm
joined by two guests. Kelley Vlahos is a freelance journalist in
Washington. Her article on presidential advisers called "War Whisperers"
appeared in The American Conservative in October. Investigative
journalist Allan Nairn joins us here in the firehouse studio. We welcome
you both to Democracy Now!
I want to begin by going to Washington, D.C., to our guest there, to the
author of "War Whisperers." Talk about why you focused, Kelley, on the
advisers of the presidential candidates.
KELLEY BEAUCAR VLAHOS: Well, it was becoming clear to me and to others
here in Washington in certain circles that the advisers that were
emerging for the campaigns, whether it be Democratic or Republican, were
part of some seriously pro-establishment cliques. And I say "cliques,"
because there is really no other way to describe it. But these cliques
generally can be categorized as not only pro-establishment, but more
pro-interventionist, whether it be the so-called liberal
interventionists on the Democratic side or your war hawks on the
Republican side.
But what became clear is that the candidates weren't reaching outside of
these establishment cliques and that they were getting no fresh ideas,
no vision outside of these pretty standard parameters. And we th
Independent journalist Allan Nairn and American Conservative
correspondent Kelley Beaucar Vlahos discuss a little-addressed facet of
the 2008 campaign: many of the top advisers to leading presidential
candidates are ex-U.S. officials involved in atrocities around the
world.
[Most likely DemocracyNow can handle plenty of hits, but you never know... so here is the full transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: Presidential candidates are scrambling to win last-minute
support in Iowa ahead of tonight's caucus. Thousands of reporters have
also descended on Iowa this week, covering everything from Mike
Huckabee's haircut to John Edwards's rally with singer John Mellencamp.
But little attention has been paid to perhaps one of the most important
aspects of the candidates: their advisers, the men and women who likely
form the backbone of the candidate's future cabinet if elected
president. Many of the names will be familiar.
Advisers to Hillary Rodham Clinton include many former top officials in
President Clinton's administration: former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, former UN
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Senator Barack Obama's list includes
President Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former
counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, former Middle East negotiator
Dennis Ross.
Rudolph Giuliani's advisers include Norman Podhoretz, one of the fathers
of the neoconservative movement. John McCain's list of official and
formal policy advisers includes former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger, General Colin Powell, William Kristol of The Weekly Standard,
and former CIA Director James Woolsey. One of Mitt Romney's top advisers
is Cofer Black, the former CIA official who now serves as vice chair of
Blackwater Worldwide. Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Elizabeth is
advising Fred Thompson.
As for Mike Huckabee, it's not clear. In December, Huckabee listed
former UN Ambassador John Bolton as someone with whom he either has
"spoken or will continue to speak," but Bolton then revealed the two had
never spoken. Huckabee also named Richard Allen, but the former National
Security Adviser also admitted he had never spoken to Huckabee.
To talk more about the advisers behind the presidential campaigns, I'm
joined by two guests. Kelley Vlahos is a freelance journalist in
Washington. Her article on presidential advisers called "War Whisperers"
appeared in The American Conservative in October. Investigative
journalist Allan Nairn joins us here in the firehouse studio. We welcome
you both to Democracy Now!
I want to begin by going to Washington, D.C., to our guest there, to the
author of "War Whisperers." Talk about why you focused, Kelley, on the
advisers of the presidential candidates.
KELLEY BEAUCAR VLAHOS: Well, it was becoming clear to me and to others
here in Washington in certain circles that the advisers that were
emerging for the campaigns, whether it be Democratic or Republican, were
part of some seriously pro-establishment cliques. And I say "cliques,"
because there is really no other way to describe it. But these cliques
generally can be categorized as not only pro-establishment, but more
pro-interventionist, whether it be the so-called liberal
interventionists on the Democratic side or your war hawks on the
Republican side.
But what became clear is that the candidates weren't reaching outside of
these establishment cliques and that they were getting no fresh ideas,
no vision outside of these pretty standard parameters. And we thought--me
and the editors thought it might be a good idea to explore a little bit
under the surface about where these of advisers were coming from, in
hopes of maybe deciphering where foreign policy might be going in the
future.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's begin with Hillary Clinton, Kelley Vla
Re:related to opening of Iranian Oil Bourse?
on
Third Undersea Cable Cut
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
from a post on in the goldismoney forums:
There's a good chance that this is related to the Iranian Oil Bourse. It is scheduled to be opened between Feb 1 and 11 on the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf.
The US can't let it open, due to the damage it would do to the dollar. If it relies heavily on the Internet, then cutting the cables seems like it would be an effective, covert, non-violent way to go. And a totally disgusting manipulation of the free market, of course...
Perhaps if the medical establishment took Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES) more seriously instead of regarding it as Russian pseudoscience similar findings might come from such non-invasive technology. CES has been shown to be of use in depression and anxiety, but there are also anecdotal reports of improved cognitive function. It does make me wonder. I've been meaning to try CES for a while but the units are expensive and require a RX (at least in the US).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranial_electrotherapy_stimulation
Even though this tech is very much in its infancy and it seems this whole story is very much exaggerated, let's pretend that maybe 10-20 years from now that this might be a legitimate privacy issue. I wonder how well it would work (when it is more advanced) on someone who routinely did neurofeedback and who could consciously alter their own brainwaves. I just finished building my Modular EEG, and already I can control my Beta waves to some degree (after just a few days of neurofeedback with BrainBay). If someone was able to achieve deep states (slow wave) or Alpha/SMR brainwave patterns at will (hence reducing Beta waves and conscious thought), my guess is that it would pretty much alter the brainwave patterns significantly enough to greatly complicate detection of thought patterns (since you would essential be able to reduce all thought at will). I wonder how neurofeedback would affect current lie detection technology such as polygraphs. Since biofeedback for galvanic skin response (one method used in polygraphs) already exists, I'm guessing practicing that would greatly skew current lie detection technologies (perhaps in conjunction with neurofeedback).
who came to earth to share his secret art. I'm sure his soul will rise to the pureland of Ramen Buddha (similar to Amitabha's pureland but with Cup Noodles on the menu).
It's theatre. The court he was tried in has no legal standing over crimes that were perpetuated before the court was created. It was in every sense of the word a kangaroo court. He should have been tried in The Hague at the International Court of Justice. The problem with trying him there is that the US would lose control over the proceedings and would not be able to use the trial for their own political gain.
Given Bush & Co.'s rhetoric and laws about their own immunity from war crimes I think that it is almost impossible that Saddam would have ever gone to The Hague. Also, as others have mentioned, a lingering trial may have led to embarrassing moments (such as Saddam or his legal counsel talking about US arms deals, the Iran-Iraq war, etc)... no, they want him dead and quick. What if the court gave him a life sentence and he writes a memoir (leaving in the juice bits, unlike Musharraf)?
There is also the fact that almost the entire European continent is against our illegal war(s) of aggression, and the fact that we blatantly lied to the UNSC about Saddam's WMD. A protracted trial would also bring renewed focus on our own use of chemical and near-WMD type weapons (white phosphorus and depleted uranium, respectively) that are illegal under the Geneva Conventions and other international laws. It might also remind people about how we killed 1.5 million Iraqis with sanctions (500,000 of those under the age of 15). Sanctioned killing plus current post-invasion estimates put our own dealing of death WAY beyond what Saddam did to his own people. Who is going to look like the hypocrite war criminal then?
Air America national radio network, September 2, 2006, 11:30pm
Peter Werbe opens by asking Ray to tell the story of how he confronted Rumsfeld on his lies about the WMDs on national television last May, and the all the media fall-out from it.
* * *
PW:...Looking at an effort called World Can't Wait, and these hugely expensive full-page advertisements in the New York Times, one I believe on Wednesday. Tell us about the organization, what it's all about and what they're trying to accomplish.
RM: We all scraped our piggy banks to get that ad out there. We had no rich gurus to support us. The attempt is to do something new and different. Something akin to what the Polish dissidents did to eventually throw down a very unjust and illegal government. The idea is that something extraordinary is needed because these are indeed extraordinary times where the president is acting as though he were king and the other two branches of government seem to be acquiescing in that. There are also hopeful signs but without massive-- massive participation -- massive demonstration of interest in this whole thing like we had during Vietnam, it's not going to be easy to turn the tide. Unlike some of my colleagues I have a lot of hope for what will happen in November and that hope is that you can fool a certain percentage of the people some of the time, but I have great faith in the basic common sense of the American people. And assuming the voting machines are not fixed as they have been in the past, I have hope that things are going to change. But that hope at the same time gives me great fear of the period of the next two months because God knows what this crowd will come upon as a September or October Surprise. It may begin with Iran.
PW: Yeah. The slogan here is Drive Out the Bush Regime, which has a very strong, almost-- well, I won't use the word I was gonna use because it's misused by the Bush regime. But it's very strong, it almost sounds extra-parliamentary, if you will, and yet so many people that I have great respect for like yourself and other people have signed on to this-- Daniel Ellsberg, Gore Vidal, I mean I could spend another 5 minutes naming all the names who have signed on to this. Tell me what the process was-- and actually if you can, what would it mean to drive out the Bush regime.
RM: Well, I used to say that the Bush regime is arguably guilty of perpetrating a war of aggression. We know now it is not necessary to use "arguably." Nuremberg defined war of aggression, saying that those who initiate such are perpetrating the most serious international crime, differing from other war crimes only insofar as it contains the accumulated evils of the whole. That's a direct quote. Think torture, think kidnapping, think putting people in black holes without even telling the Red Cross, think of illegal wire tapping. Think of the whole gamut. Now on two counts the king -- oops, isn't that interesting-- the president is demonstrably guilty. Hamdan [v. Rumsfeld] says that he has violated the war crimes act of 1996 passed by a Republican-dominated Congress which says you must tie U.S. criminal law inextricably to the Geneva Conventions. Now, on the advice of Cheney's lawyer, Addington, and Gonzalez, [Bush] prescinded -- he set himself apart-- from Geneva. And now he's been told that that was unconstitutional and that was illegal.[Hence the legislation trying to "correct" this illegality] And that was the Supreme Court telling him that-- the Hamdan decision. And more recently, just 3 weeks ago, we had Judge Taylor in Detroit saying he violated the 4t
There are a number of good 9/11 books in print, but none compare to Tarpley's, IMO. Webster Tarpley also has a few lectures on Google Video (based largely on the content of his book with minor additions), but this one I found very good in particular.
You can also find this book on the eMule network (second edit. only I think), but please support the author if you find it enlightening as I did.
About his book:
Product Description
The thesis of Webster Tarpley's 911 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA has been enthusiastically received with its working model of the 9/11 plot: a covert network of moles, patsies, and a commando cell in the privatized intelligence services, backed by corrupt political and corporate media elites. Buttressed by historical examples like the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Gunpowder Plot, this model makes it clear how such a monstrous false-flag or self-terror exploit is possible even under a largely benign government. That paradox is the incredibility gap that has made most Americans reject the evidence about 9/11 as paranoid fantasy. Tarpley brings decades of expertise to the 9/11 issue. In 1978 he exposed the terrorist Red Brigades as patsies of Italy's fascist P2 shadow government, and 9/11 is on the same pattern. The forthright subtitle, Made in USA, is backed up by an analysis of key figures who behave like moles working for the insidious network. 9/11 Synthetic Terror highlights the salient points of sheer physical impossibility of the official 9/11 conspiracy theory. It makes clear that figures like Osama bin Laden are patsies, dupes or double agents, selected for their ethnic coloring as the basis for launching a "Clash of Civilizations," and how absurd it is to imagine that such tools of US intelligence agencies could turn around and infiltrate or overwhelm US defenses unaided. Tarpley shows that the wars on the Islamic world, the Soviet-Afghan, Kosovo and Chechen conflicts, as well as US-UK-NATO synthetic terror incidents like 9/11, Beslan or 3/11 in Madrid, have been contrived to continue the Cold War, in pursuit of the centuries-long campaign for Anglo hegemony over Eurasia and the world. The preface to the second edition explains the significance and superiority of "MIHOP" vs "LIHOP," and the many drills on 9/11 and on 7/7, which were cover and conduit for those false-flag operations. The third edition preface makes clear that 9/11 is the only issue that can stop a new world war and the descent into a police state. It shows up the cowardice of the "left gatekeepers" on this score. The analysis of Moussaoui on trial as a classic weak-minded patsy -- part double agent, part fanatic -- again shows the unique power of Tarpley's mole-patsy model to debunk the lies put out by the war party. For a principled refutation of the 9/11 propaganda myth in all its parts, Tarpley'A bombshell, brilliant book - I strongly recommend 911 Synthetic Terror. Should be required reading for all honest truth seekers, s work is indispensable.
About the Author
The humanist contemporary political philosopher Webster Griffin Tarpley is our most incisive critic of Anglo-American hegemony. As an activist historian he is best known for his George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), a masterpiece of research which is still must reading. He is a 9/11 Truth Scholar and activist; AB Princeton 1966, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; Fulbright Scholar at University of Turin, Italy; and MA in humanities from Skidmore College. He is fluent in Italian, German, French, Latin and Russian. A decades-long expert on international terrorism, his 1978 study for
I don't know who the hell the "AL-Rashedeen Army" is but they claim they are responsible for 2% of IED attacks. It's disturbing but worth watching. It has lots of footage from insurgent attacks so it's a bit disturbing at times to see bodies get blown apart. You have to remember though, these people are fighting for *their* country, that we illegally invaded.
What should be stopped is the deliberate taking of an innocent human life.
The estimated number of dead Iraqis since the U.S. invasion in Iraq is 655,000. The vast majority of those deaths are likely to be Iraqis fighting a foreign occupation (illegal and based on lies), are they innocent? What about the tens of thousands of children kill or orphaned, they are terrorists? They are "worth the price"?
Since the US seems to be preparing to attack Iran or at least engage in some type of 'regime change', they'll probably have to rebuild their infrastructure anyhow. Maybe the new 'supreme leader' will allow broadband, that is, if the Iranians aren't all dead or suffering for radiation sickness from our depleted uranium munitions.
Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine
Abstract: This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software. We obtained the machine from a private party. Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks. For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities -- a voting-machine virus. We have constructed working demonstrations of these attacks in our lab. Mitigating these threats will require changes to the voting machine's hardware and software and the adoption of more rigorous election procedures.
India will never be Tibet!
on
Tibet's Mesh
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I second the above poster, Dharamsala, INDIA will never be Tibet. Yes, the article is about bringing WiFi to Tibetans (in exile) but it certainly IS NOT about bringing WiFi to Tibet.
Nevertheless, thanks for posting it, I enjoyed the article. For those who have never been there, if you ever visit India consider going WAY out of your way to visit Dharamsala. Himichal Pradesh is probably one of the poorest states in India (after Bihar), but it is rather pretty up in the mountains. It certainly does not have the climate of Tibet either, don't worry about freezing to death in the winter, etc. To sum it up, if you ever read Tintin in Tibet as a kid (and liked it) Dharamsala is worth a visit. That said, Dharamsala is about the only thing worth seeing in HP (not kidding). If you go, bring some old computer gear to donate.
If you go, stay at the guest house down the hill from the Dalai Lama's monastery, it is run by a cool Geshe (Geshe is like the equivalent of a Ph.D. in Tibetan Buddhism) who speaks English well and who is also quite kind.
That way they could keep raising it forever! The down side would be that it might be confusing;-)
"In other news, Homeland Security raised the terror alert level from Red to Purple today amid fears of bearded Arab men doing naughty things."
Apparently these users were searching about an email they received, if the names were not right would they have bothered to search? This could turn out to be a REALLY big stink for AOL. AOL, I would hate to be you right now xD (listed just a few)
2502254 dear christopher biggs this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/14/2006 11:55
9641340 dear michael commander this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/6/2006 22:03
385395 dear jan guillory this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/7/2006 12:45
1015205 dear todd bennett this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/3/2006 17:29
3936014 dear chris ballew this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 4/2/2006 23:40
8852669 dear david perkins this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 5/19/2006 16:08
4932438 dear matthew moore this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/3/2006 14:44
3833909 dear tara fickle this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/31/2006 22:16
3286034 dear floyd mann this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 5/24/2006 21:58
2951846 dear carol jones this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/26/2006 22:03
10328054 dear sandra hodum this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 4/1/2006 17:09
14443828 dear patti melton this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 4/8/2006 15:47
10328054 dear sandra hodum this email was sent automatically by the paypal server in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/22/2006 1:00
23101619 dear simon vanson this email was sent automatically by ebay in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 5/14/2006 16:47
8555719 dear robert a. jampol this email was sent automatically by ebay in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/26/2006 12:32
19796609 dear thelronda belts this email was sent automatically by ebay in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 5/4/2006 9:19
181017 dear gary house this email was sent automatically by ebay in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 4/23/2006 22:11
1673527 dear george ernest this email was sent automatically by ebay in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/4/2006 9:55
6582836 dear douglas davis this email was sent automatically by ebay in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 5/21/2006 22:52
6397147 dear david caines this email was sent automatically by ebay in response to your request to recover your password....snipped... 3/31/2006 17:35
2534897 dear mark michelini this email was sent automatically by ebay in response to your re
If you have the original install CD that was used, put in the your CD drive and look at the label that shows in My Computer. Write it down.
Then head over to http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=342 and find out which exact version of XP it is. If it is not SP2 click the other links for SP1 and SP0, etc, until you find it.
Once you have a volume label you'll know what was installed and it will help you find the right solution, legal or not (your choice).
If you don't have the CD, things are a bit trickier:
1. Right click my computer > properties > general and you should see something like the following:
System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Professional or Home or Media Center, etc
Version 2002 or something
Service Pack 2 or something
Registered to:
Name
Company
XXXXX-YYY-ZZZZZZZ-AAAAA (This is your Product ID, not to be confused with product key)
2. Find out which version you are running using the channel ID (YYY above):
# 000 : Other (includes some retail, upgrade and evaluation versions)
# 007 : FIXME : Retail
# 009 : Not for resale - bundle
# 011 : Upgrade (XP Home?)
# OEM : OEM (This does not specify royalty or normal OEM)
# 270 : Volume License
# 296 : MSDN
# 308/347 : Microsoft Action Pack subscription
# 335 : Retail
# 640 through 648, 652 : Volume License (usually generated via 270 CID in setupp.ini)
# 699 : Volume Windows XP Tablet Edition
# 071 : FIXME : Unknown.
Yes, the Bush administration sucks. That's fact. You gotta admit it though, life was more fun with those colorful alert things they used to do! 'What? Bush down it the polls? Ten bucks tomorrow is an Orange Alert day and some bum is arrested for thinking about blowing something up.'
Slashdot Mirror
funniest post I've read on /. in a long time...
I second that! I can't understand how people actually believe nonsense like that. Lack of privacy is, by itself, a form of terrorism when taken to an extreme. I can safely say that I fear our own run-away government much more than "a few riled-up Muslims", as Brzezinski once said.
I don't think these answers were written by RP; compare to his overview of Mises and Austrian Economics below or to his recent speech on economics in Seattle. He is very thorough, these "answers" are anything but. Perhaps he was consulted briefly by a staffer but wasn't told or didn't realize the size of the Slashdot audience (which is actually a bit surprising, but then again as much as he loves the Internet he isn't a geek). I think he would have personally answered the questions if he knew his answers were going to be read by several million readers world-wide (or whatever the Slashdot audience is).
Also worth mentioning is that Ron Paul is not pro-legislation. Much of the questions asked assume the introduction of some type of program or legislation (it seems), but that is not what RP is about. He is about getting rid of shit that doesn't belong. He has said on numerous occasions that he "would never use executive orders to legislate, but would use executive orders to cancel-out bad [pre-existing] executive orders".
Mises and Austrian Economics: A Personal View [PDF]:
http://www.mises.org/books/paulmises.pdf
Ron Paul on economics (Seattle, Jan 31 2008, six parts ~ 50 minutes -- several versions on YouTube this one seems the best):
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6
Official YouTube site (plenty of stuff here):
http://www.youtube.com/user/RonPaul2008dotcom
Official Website:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
While it's true that current prices put gold at around 3.5-4 trillion, if it reaches the inflation-adjusted high of the 80s gold would be closer to $2000 per troy ounce putting total gold value at 7.6 trillion. There is much reason to think it will reach this level: falling gold levels in Western Central Banks after years and years of liquidation and artificially suppressed prices (see GATA), increased demand for physical gold (esp. in the Middle East where they wouldn't know/care what an ETF was if it hit them in the face), inflation concerns, imminent currency and credit collapse, possible dollar hedging with gold by Asian and Russian Central Banks, etc, etc
[I also posted this under the GOP thread, but since this article covers both parties I'm posting twice. Hopefully you read it and see why. The most surprising thing for me was learning that Brzezinski is an adviser to Obama, since I had been considering Obama if "The Doctor" dropped out.]
Independent journalist Allan Nairn and American Conservative correspondent Kelley Beaucar Vlahos discuss a little-addressed facet of the 2008 campaign: many of the top advisers to leading presidential candidates are ex-U.S. officials involved in atrocities around the world.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/3/vote_for_change_atrocity_linked_us
[Most likely DemocracyNow can handle plenty of hits, but you never know... so here is the full transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: Presidential candidates are scrambling to win last-minute support in Iowa ahead of tonight's caucus. Thousands of reporters have also descended on Iowa this week, covering everything from Mike Huckabee's haircut to John Edwards's rally with singer John Mellencamp.
But little attention has been paid to perhaps one of the most important aspects of the candidates: their advisers, the men and women who likely form the backbone of the candidate's future cabinet if elected president. Many of the names will be familiar.
Advisers to Hillary Rodham Clinton include many former top officials in President Clinton's administration: former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Senator Barack Obama's list includes President Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, former Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross.
Rudolph Giuliani's advisers include Norman Podhoretz, one of the fathers of the neoconservative movement. John McCain's list of official and formal policy advisers includes former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, General Colin Powell, William Kristol of The Weekly Standard, and former CIA Director James Woolsey. One of Mitt Romney's top advisers is Cofer Black, the former CIA official who now serves as vice chair of Blackwater Worldwide. Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Elizabeth is advising Fred Thompson.
As for Mike Huckabee, it's not clear. In December, Huckabee listed former UN Ambassador John Bolton as someone with whom he either has "spoken or will continue to speak," but Bolton then revealed the two had never spoken. Huckabee also named Richard Allen, but the former National Security Adviser also admitted he had never spoken to Huckabee.
To talk more about the advisers behind the presidential campaigns, I'm joined by two guests. Kelley Vlahos is a freelance journalist in Washington. Her article on presidential advisers called "War Whisperers" appeared in The American Conservative in October. Investigative journalist Allan Nairn joins us here in the firehouse studio. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!
I want to begin by going to Washington, D.C., to our guest there, to the author of "War Whisperers." Talk about why you focused, Kelley, on the advisers of the presidential candidates.
KELLEY BEAUCAR VLAHOS: Well, it was becoming clear to me and to others here in Washington in certain circles that the advisers that were emerging for the campaigns, whether it be Democratic or Republican, were part of some seriously pro-establishment cliques. And I say "cliques," because there is really no other way to describe it. But these cliques generally can be categorized as not only pro-establishment, but more pro-interventionist, whether it be the so-called liberal interventionists on the Democratic side or your war hawks on the Republican side.
But what became clear is that the candidates weren't reaching outside of these establishment cliques and that they were getting no fresh ideas, no vision outside of these pretty standard parameters. And we th
Independent journalist Allan Nairn and American Conservative correspondent Kelley Beaucar Vlahos discuss a little-addressed facet of the 2008 campaign: many of the top advisers to leading presidential candidates are ex-U.S. officials involved in atrocities around the world.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/3/vote_for_change_atrocity_linked_us
[Most likely DemocracyNow can handle plenty of hits, but you never know... so here is the full transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: Presidential candidates are scrambling to win last-minute support in Iowa ahead of tonight's caucus. Thousands of reporters have also descended on Iowa this week, covering everything from Mike Huckabee's haircut to John Edwards's rally with singer John Mellencamp.
But little attention has been paid to perhaps one of the most important aspects of the candidates: their advisers, the men and women who likely form the backbone of the candidate's future cabinet if elected president. Many of the names will be familiar.
Advisers to Hillary Rodham Clinton include many former top officials in President Clinton's administration: former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Senator Barack Obama's list includes President Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, former Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross.
Rudolph Giuliani's advisers include Norman Podhoretz, one of the fathers of the neoconservative movement. John McCain's list of official and formal policy advisers includes former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, General Colin Powell, William Kristol of The Weekly Standard, and former CIA Director James Woolsey. One of Mitt Romney's top advisers is Cofer Black, the former CIA official who now serves as vice chair of Blackwater Worldwide. Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Elizabeth is advising Fred Thompson.
As for Mike Huckabee, it's not clear. In December, Huckabee listed former UN Ambassador John Bolton as someone with whom he either has "spoken or will continue to speak," but Bolton then revealed the two had never spoken. Huckabee also named Richard Allen, but the former National Security Adviser also admitted he had never spoken to Huckabee.
To talk more about the advisers behind the presidential campaigns, I'm joined by two guests. Kelley Vlahos is a freelance journalist in Washington. Her article on presidential advisers called "War Whisperers" appeared in The American Conservative in October. Investigative journalist Allan Nairn joins us here in the firehouse studio. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!
I want to begin by going to Washington, D.C., to our guest there, to the author of "War Whisperers." Talk about why you focused, Kelley, on the advisers of the presidential candidates.
KELLEY BEAUCAR VLAHOS: Well, it was becoming clear to me and to others here in Washington in certain circles that the advisers that were emerging for the campaigns, whether it be Democratic or Republican, were part of some seriously pro-establishment cliques. And I say "cliques," because there is really no other way to describe it. But these cliques generally can be categorized as not only pro-establishment, but more pro-interventionist, whether it be the so-called liberal interventionists on the Democratic side or your war hawks on the Republican side.
But what became clear is that the candidates weren't reaching outside of these establishment cliques and that they were getting no fresh ideas, no vision outside of these pretty standard parameters. And we thought--me and the editors thought it might be a good idea to explore a little bit under the surface about where these of advisers were coming from, in hopes of maybe deciphering where foreign policy might be going in the future.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's begin with Hillary Clinton, Kelley Vla
sorry for the broken link for presstv.ir, here is a tinyurl version: http://tinyurl.com/3422xw
http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020103
The US can't let it open, due to the damage it would do to the dollar. If it relies heavily on the Internet, then cutting the cables seems like it would be an effective, covert, non-violent way to go. And a totally disgusting manipulation of the free market, of course...
Perhaps if the medical establishment took Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES) more seriously instead of regarding it as Russian pseudoscience similar findings might come from such non-invasive technology. CES has been shown to be of use in depression and anxiety, but there are also anecdotal reports of improved cognitive function. It does make me wonder. I've been meaning to try CES for a while but the units are expensive and require a RX (at least in the US). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranial_electrotherapy_stimulation
Even though this tech is very much in its infancy and it seems this whole story is very much exaggerated, let's pretend that maybe 10-20 years from now that this might be a legitimate privacy issue. I wonder how well it would work (when it is more advanced) on someone who routinely did neurofeedback and who could consciously alter their own brainwaves. I just finished building my Modular EEG, and already I can control my Beta waves to some degree (after just a few days of neurofeedback with BrainBay). If someone was able to achieve deep states (slow wave) or Alpha/SMR brainwave patterns at will (hence reducing Beta waves and conscious thought), my guess is that it would pretty much alter the brainwave patterns significantly enough to greatly complicate detection of thought patterns (since you would essential be able to reduce all thought at will). I wonder how neurofeedback would affect current lie detection technology such as polygraphs. Since biofeedback for galvanic skin response (one method used in polygraphs) already exists, I'm guessing practicing that would greatly skew current lie detection technologies (perhaps in conjunction with neurofeedback).
who came to earth to share his secret art. I'm sure his soul will rise to the pureland of Ramen Buddha (similar to Amitabha's pureland but with Cup Noodles on the menu).
Given Bush & Co.'s rhetoric and laws about their own immunity from war crimes I think that it is almost impossible that Saddam would have ever gone to The Hague. Also, as others have mentioned, a lingering trial may have led to embarrassing moments (such as Saddam or his legal counsel talking about US arms deals, the Iran-Iraq war, etc)... no, they want him dead and quick. What if the court gave him a life sentence and he writes a memoir (leaving in the juice bits, unlike Musharraf)?
There is also the fact that almost the entire European continent is against our illegal war(s) of aggression, and the fact that we blatantly lied to the UNSC about Saddam's WMD. A protracted trial would also bring renewed focus on our own use of chemical and near-WMD type weapons (white phosphorus and depleted uranium, respectively) that are illegal under the Geneva Conventions and other international laws. It might also remind people about how we killed 1.5 million Iraqis with sanctions (500,000 of those under the age of 15). Sanctioned killing plus current post-invasion estimates put our own dealing of death WAY beyond what Saddam did to his own people. Who is going to look like the hypocrite war criminal then?
>Wanna just light that annoying "Bill of Rights" on fire? Seems more direct.
Yes, perhaps they should just rename the damn thing "Bill of Wrongs."
http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_cont ent&task=view&id=2818&Itemid=223
Air America national radio network, September 2, 2006, 11:30pm
Peter Werbe opens by asking Ray to tell the story of how he confronted Rumsfeld on his lies about the WMDs on national television last May, and the all the media fall-out from it.
* * *
PW: ...Looking at an effort called World Can't Wait, and these hugely expensive full-page advertisements in the New York Times, one I believe on Wednesday. Tell us about the organization, what it's all about and what they're trying to accomplish.
RM: We all scraped our piggy banks to get that ad out there. We had no rich gurus to support us. The attempt is to do something new and different. Something akin to what the Polish dissidents did to eventually throw down a very unjust and illegal government. The idea is that something extraordinary is needed because these are indeed extraordinary times where the president is acting as though he were king and the other two branches of government seem to be acquiescing in that. There are also hopeful signs but without massive-- massive participation -- massive demonstration of interest in this whole thing like we had during Vietnam, it's not going to be easy to turn the tide. Unlike some of my colleagues I have a lot of hope for what will happen in November and that hope is that you can fool a certain percentage of the people some of the time, but I have great faith in the basic common sense of the American people. And assuming the voting machines are not fixed as they have been in the past, I have hope that things are going to change. But that hope at the same time gives me great fear of the period of the next two months because God knows what this crowd will come upon as a September or October Surprise. It may begin with Iran.
PW: Yeah. The slogan here is Drive Out the Bush Regime, which has a very strong, almost-- well, I won't use the word I was gonna use because it's misused by the Bush regime. But it's very strong, it almost sounds extra-parliamentary, if you will, and yet so many people that I have great respect for like yourself and other people have signed on to this-- Daniel Ellsberg, Gore Vidal, I mean I could spend another 5 minutes naming all the names who have signed on to this. Tell me what the process was-- and actually if you can, what would it mean to drive out the Bush regime.
RM: Well, I used to say that the Bush regime is arguably guilty of perpetrating a war of aggression. We know now it is not necessary to use "arguably." Nuremberg defined war of aggression, saying that those who initiate such are perpetrating the most serious international crime, differing from other war crimes only insofar as it contains the accumulated evils of the whole. That's a direct quote. Think torture, think kidnapping, think putting people in black holes without even telling the Red Cross, think of illegal wire tapping. Think of the whole gamut. Now on two counts the king -- oops, isn't that interesting-- the president is demonstrably guilty. Hamdan [v. Rumsfeld] says that he has violated the war crimes act of 1996 passed by a Republican-dominated Congress which says you must tie U.S. criminal law inextricably to the Geneva Conventions. Now, on the advice of Cheney's lawyer, Addington, and Gonzalez, [Bush] prescinded -- he set himself apart-- from Geneva. And now he's been told that that was unconstitutional and that was illegal. [Hence the legislation trying to "correct" this illegality] And that was the Supreme Court telling him that-- the Hamdan decision. And more recently, just 3 weeks ago, we had Judge Taylor in Detroit saying he violated the 4t
Great post flyingsquid. I HIGHLY recommend to you Webster Tarpley's new book: 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, Third Edition
There are a number of good 9/11 books in print, but none compare to Tarpley's, IMO. Webster Tarpley also has a few lectures on Google Video (based largely on the content of his book with minor additions), but this one I found very good in particular.
You can also find this book on the eMule network (second edit. only I think), but please support the author if you find it enlightening as I did.
About his book:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6051532545 854068491
I don't know who the hell the "AL-Rashedeen Army" is but they claim they are responsible for 2% of IED attacks. It's disturbing but worth watching. It has lots of footage from insurgent attacks so it's a bit disturbing at times to see bodies get blown apart. You have to remember though, these people are fighting for *their* country, that we illegally invaded.
How about the estimated 5000 Afghani civilians killed during the US invasion (that number excludes indirect deaths and is a 2002 figure). Are they innocent human life?
So you're saying we should kill people because they may wish us harm but either haven't yet acted to or actually have no intention of doing so?
If so, all I can say is you are a sociopath who watches too much TV.
The only crime Iraq truely commited is having too much oil!
Since the US seems to be preparing to attack Iran or at least engage in some type of 'regime change', they'll probably have to rebuild their infrastructure anyhow. Maybe the new 'supreme leader' will allow broadband, that is, if the Iranians aren't all dead or suffering for radiation sickness from our depleted uranium munitions.
h s_nuclear_apocalypse/ 4 71020612 1 6/144204
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601009_bus
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101806Q.shtml
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=981427969
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/
For those of you who still don't believe...
From Princeton University's Center of Information Technology Policy:
I second the above poster, Dharamsala, INDIA will never be Tibet. Yes, the article is about bringing WiFi to Tibetans (in exile) but it certainly IS NOT about bringing WiFi to Tibet.
Nevertheless, thanks for posting it, I enjoyed the article. For those who have never been there, if you ever visit India consider going WAY out of your way to visit Dharamsala. Himichal Pradesh is probably one of the poorest states in India (after Bihar), but it is rather pretty up in the mountains. It certainly does not have the climate of Tibet either, don't worry about freezing to death in the winter, etc. To sum it up, if you ever read Tintin in Tibet as a kid (and liked it) Dharamsala is worth a visit. That said, Dharamsala is about the only thing worth seeing in HP (not kidding). If you go, bring some old computer gear to donate.
If you go, stay at the guest house down the hill from the Dalai Lama's monastery, it is run by a cool Geshe (Geshe is like the equivalent of a Ph.D. in Tibetan Buddhism) who speaks English well and who is also quite kind.
That way they could keep raising it forever! The down side would be that it might be confusing ;-)
"In other news, Homeland Security raised the terror alert level from Red to Purple today amid fears of bearded Arab men doing naughty things."
Apparently these users were searching about an email they received, if the names were not right would they have bothered to search? This could turn out to be a REALLY big stink for AOL. AOL, I would hate to be you right now xD (listed just a few)
...snipped... 3/14/2006 11:55 ...snipped... 3/6/2006 22:03 ...snipped... 3/7/2006 12:45 ...snipped... 3/3/2006 17:29 ...snipped... 4/2/2006 23:40 ...snipped... 5/19/2006 16:08 ...snipped... 3/3/2006 14:44 ...snipped... 3/31/2006 22:16 ...snipped... 5/24/2006 21:58 ...snipped... 3/26/2006 22:03 ...snipped... 4/1/2006 17:09 ...snipped... 4/8/2006 15:47 ...snipped... 3/22/2006 1:00 ...snipped... 5/14/2006 16:47 ...snipped... 3/26/2006 12:32 ...snipped... 5/4/2006 9:19 ...snipped... 4/23/2006 22:11 ...snipped... 3/4/2006 9:55 ...snipped... 5/21/2006 22:52 ...snipped... 3/31/2006 17:35
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If you have the original install CD that was used, put in the your CD drive and look at the label that shows in My Computer. Write it down.
Then head over to http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=342 and find out which exact version of XP it is. If it is not SP2 click the other links for SP1 and SP0, etc, until you find it.
Once you have a volume label you'll know what was installed and it will help you find the right solution, legal or not (your choice).
If you don't have the CD, things are a bit trickier:
1. Right click my computer > properties > general and you should see something like the following:
System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Professional or Home or Media Center, etc
Version 2002 or something
Service Pack 2 or something
Registered to:
Name
Company
XXXXX-YYY-ZZZZZZZ-AAAAA (This is your Product ID, not to be confused with product key)
2. Find out which version you are running using the channel ID (YYY above):
# 000 : Other (includes some retail, upgrade and evaluation versions)
# 007 : FIXME : Retail
# 009 : Not for resale - bundle
# 011 : Upgrade (XP Home?)
# OEM : OEM (This does not specify royalty or normal OEM)
# 270 : Volume License
# 296 : MSDN
# 308/347 : Microsoft Action Pack subscription
# 335 : Retail
# 640 through 648, 652 : Volume License (usually generated via 270 CID in setupp.ini)
# 699 : Volume Windows XP Tablet Edition
# 071 : FIXME : Unknown.
Source: http://wiki.djlizard.net/Product_IDs
Good luck!
Yes, the Bush administration sucks. That's fact. You gotta admit it though, life was more fun with those colorful alert things they used to do! 'What? Bush down it the polls? Ten bucks tomorrow is an Orange Alert day and some bum is arrested for thinking about blowing something up.'