Appalachia Rising

coalstories | 29 September 2010

Appalachia Rising is a mass mobilization in Washington DC on September 27, 2010 calling for the abolition of mountaintop removal and surface mining.

It is a culmination of the national movement against surface mining and a foundation upon which to build a pan-Appalachian movement for prosperity and justice.

Coalfield citizens and organizers envision a vibrant mobilization of thousands -- coalfield residents, students & youth, Christians & people of all faiths, families, celebrities, underground miners, activists, artists, and all who yearn for justice -- to converge on Washington DC for a day of non-violent action and dignified civil disobedience targeting the politicians and agencies who could abolish surface mining with the stroke of a pen.

UN Verdict - "Execution-Style" Murder on the Mavi Marmara

The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos.

The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.

The report says Dogan had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in his face.

The forensic evidence that establishes that fact is "tattooing around the wound in his face," indicating that the shot was "delivered at point blank range." The report describes the forensic evidence as showing that "the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back."

Based on both "forensic and firearm evidence," the fact-finding panel concluded that Dogan's killing and that of five Turkish citizens by the Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmari May 31 "can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions." (See Report [.pdf] Page 38, Section 170)

...MORE HERE...

the Story of F***

http://www.princecharlescinema.com/in...
Special Q&A at Prince Charles Cinema with the film's stars on Tue 5th October 2010!

http://www.networkreleasing.com/relea...

"The Music Industry is a cruel and shallow money trench where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There is also a negative side." (Hunter S. Thompson)

Lewis Sipricosh (Finlay Robertson) is a frustrated A & R at Kosmos Records looking for the next big act to impress his deranged music boss. Aided by his beautiful intern Daisy (Tamsin Egerton) they decide to unleash a band called F**K on UK music lovers - the problem is that the band members can't sing or play their instruments. But when has that ever stopped a group from being successful?

This film is THE STORY OF F***, a biting satire from Adam and James Abadi about the music industry featuring sex, drugs, bondage and crocodiles that also stars Jo Absolom, Ameet Channa, Andrew Thomas Jones and transgender actor and producer Desire Dubounet.

ACS:Law Protection Racket Exposed

The UK information commissioner is investigating the leak of thousands of emails containing personal information from the controversial solicitors' firm ACS:Law after the company's website came under sustained attack by online activists.

The methods used by ACS:Law for pursuing alleged file sharers have been criticised by consumer watchdogs and industry bodies including the British Phonographic Industry. Last month the firm was referred to a disciplinary tribunal after a long-running probe by the Solicitors Regulation Authority into its tactics in the pursuit of alleged file sharers. The company has been criticised for sending out thousands of letters to people it suspects of downloading illegal content, demanding payment of a fine to settle the case. Many who received the letters, which seem to have been based on the internet "IP address" – rather than the physical address – of the recipient have protested that they are innocent, and though hundreds of people are believed to have paid the fines claimed, the Guardian has not found any confirmed reports of any cases proceeding to trial, where ACS:Law's methods and evidence would have been tested.

The firm is believed to have been acting for DigiProtect, a German firm which works on behalf of rights-holders where it thinks their copyright has been infringed. ACS:Law appeared to be sending out letters demanding payment.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, which champions internet users' rights, said: "Looking at the arguments in the emails, it's clear that IP addresses are unlikely to 'prove' copyright infringement and therefore avoid actual court cases."

Consumer watchdog Which? said it has so far received about 250 complaints from people contacted by ACS:Law, up from 150 complaints by the end of January.

...MORE HERE...

...FURTHUR...

ACS:LAW have been dealt a catastrophic blow to their “Speculative Invoicing” Business Model. A staggering amount of emails both internal and external have been released onto the Web for all to see. The leak is allegedto be from a DDos carried out by 4Chan

The leak confirms lots of things that we only thought before but that is for a later post. What is of interest here is the SRA Report and the response from Andrew Crossley. The Report includes a breakdown of money he has taken so far.

...MORE HERE...

Blackwater Procurer Tells All

Howard Lowry: "It was like a frat party gone wild. Drug use was rampant. There was cocaine all on the tables. There were blocks of hash, and you could smell it in the air."

A Texas businessman who has worked extensively in Iraq claims that Blackwater paid him to purchase steroids and other drugs for its operatives in Baghdad, as well as more than 100 AK47s and massive amounts of ammunition on Baghdad's black market. Howard Lowry, who worked in Iraq from 2003-2009, also claims that he personally attended Blackwater parties where company personnel had large amounts of cocaine and blocks of hashish and would run around naked. At some of these parties, Lowry alleges, Blackwater operatives would randomly fire automatic weapons from their balconies into buildings full of Iraqi civilians. Lowry described the events as a "frat party gone wild" where "drug use was rampant." Lowry says he was told by Blackwater personnel that some of the men using the steroids he purchased were on the security detail of L. Paul Bremer, the original head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Lowry also claims that Blackwater's owner Erik Prince tried to enlist his help to win contracts for Blackwater with the Iraqi government using an off-shore security company, Greystone, which Prince owns. The purpose, Lowry says, was to conceal Greystone's relationship to Blackwater.

Lowry made his statements in a deposition on September 10 as part of a whistleblower lawsuit brought by two former Blackwater employees. The suit was filed in 2008 by former employees Brad and Melan Davis. They allege that Blackwater tried to bill the US government for a prostitute for its men in Afghanistan and for strippers in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit claims that Prince personally benefitted from alleged fraud. The Nation obtained Lowry's deposition from publicly available court filings.

Blackwater, Lowry alleges, paid for the steroids using company funds and the purchases were coordinated by Blackwater's Iraq country manager. "Not only did I purchase the pharmaceuticals," Lowry said in his deposition, "but i was also given money and asked to acquire syringes and other forms or modes of injection as well." Lowry said that Blackwater used him to purchase the drugs and other devices because, unlike Blackwater personnel, he could move freely and discreetly around Baghdad. Lowry says he personally witnessed several Blackwater operatives injecting themselves with steroids.

...MUCH MORE HERE...

Pensioner Protest - Chemtrails

From 11am to 4pm on Wednesday the 29th of September 65 year old Breda Murphy will be chained to the gates of the Dáil (parliament) in Dublin. Her protest has been provoked by the on-going aerial spraying being conducted over much of Ireland.

Several governments across the planet have been spraying their civilian populations with different (often harmful) biological and chemical agents since the 1940s. The British Government has even admitted to some of these so-called ‘tests’.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/apr/21/uk.medicalscience

One of the most common techniques in use today is that of civilian airliners being employed to carry out the spraying. Such airliners can be identified by what appears at first glance to be additional exhaust trails. However, the abnormal additional trails emanate from locations on the plane other than the engines.

The abnormal trails also take much longer to dissipate than regular condensation trails (contrails) left by jet engines. Concerned observers have dubbed these abnormal trails, chemtrails. When intensive spraying is being carried out (over cities for instance), the lingering chemtrails often result in criss-crossed patterns in the sky.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/chemtrailsireland/

Chemtrails are suspected to cause a multitude of health problems ranging from nose bleeds to respiratory ailments.

http://www.alive.com/691a2a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=161

Breda Murphy has lived in the town of Kildare for much of her life. So when around the 14th of June this year an intensive program of aerial spraying over Kildare began, she noticed almost immediately. She even witnessed large black helicopters spraying the town. Within days of the commencement of the spraying she, and many of her neighbours, started experiencing severe adverse health effects. These included nose bleeds, migraines and serious respiratory complaints.

...MORE HERE...

Joe Rogan & Eddie Bravo

Alex talks with Joe Rogan and Eddie Bravo in-studio. Rogan is a comedian, actor and color commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Bravo is a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who holds a black belt under Jean-Jacques Machado. Alex covers a move by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to add the so-called DREAM Act -- amnesty for illegal aliens -- to a Defense appropriations bill that will be taken up by the Senate next week.
www.joerogan.net/
http://www.infowars.com/
http://prisonplanet.tv/

[real talk]

Maddbluntz | 25 September 2010

Music:
Peter Joseph
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com

Last words:
Loyd Blankenship
http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?iss...

Victimless Crime

I'm an avid pirate. Although my vinyl collection can stand testament to the fact that I do purchase music, the existence of my digital music collection depends entirely on the kind-hearted people of The Pirate Bay, a notable file sharing site.

Despite industry and government outrage and seemingly growing public scorn, I still feel that piracy is the only logical means by which to acquire and enjoy the artistry of music and that sharing music benefits artists and listeners alike.

I don't deny that musicians deserve revenue. Yet record companies accumulate exorbitant profits under the guise of acting as salesmen of "intellectual property," a concept that effectively warps free artistic discourse. Public libraries indicate that our society values the free exchange of intellectual property in the form of books, but our culture is much slower to condone this same concept of sharing when applied to music.

Pirates resist the arbitrary distinctions that society has drawn between forms of intellectual media. File sharing takes us a step away from the irrational concept of intellectual property and brings us back to the seemingly buried idea that ideas hold value in their absolute accessibility.

File sharing hurts neither music nor musicians. The music industry's emerging belief that ideas are property, however, is a bane to creativity. Music is not a commodity; it is a manifestation of passion. File sharing hurts no one, but it fosters a community of the passionate, who are then able to enjoy the art which musicians seek to share with the world. Sharing music is spreading art and ideas. How can that be wrong?

...MORE HERE...

it's Not Wise to Mock Anonymous

Members of the Anonymous group, who have recently attacked the ACS:Law website, have now published a database containing the company's emails on the Internet.

Anonymous is currently leading a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) campaign dubbed "Operation Payback" against film and recording industry organizations, as well as other associated outfits.

Amongst them are ACS:Law and Davenport Lyons, two UK-based law firms, that sent letters to thousands of alleged file sharers asking for money to avoid legal action.

Following an attack against ACS:Law's website on Tuesday, the firm's head Andrew Crossley, told The Register: "Big whoop. It was only down for a few hours. I have far more concern over the fact of my train turning up 10 minutes late or having to queue for a coffee than them wasting my time with this sort of rubbish."

Several security experts warned afterwards that it's not wise to mock Anonymous, a very determined group, which doesn't hold back from using illegal means to harass organizations. And it looks like they were right.

A torrent uploaded yesterday evening on The Pirate Bay is called "ACS-Law leaked emails" and contains a 365 MB .rar archive with what seems to be a backup of all of the company's mailboxes.

...MORE HERE...

No Accepted Medical Use?!?

Sheppard's Funky Skank

...roll up that Budd 'n' stuff that Popcorn, with a feeling - it's Sheppard on the decks, back with more of that double-dipped funky skank sound from vinyl utopia...

...Side 1
Get James Carter-Brown - Roy Budd/Last Poets
Popcorn with a Feeling - James Brown
Grits & Gravy - the Fame Gang
Bad Luck - Hank Carbo
I Don't Dig No Phony pts 1&2 - Moody Scott
No Answer - Ikebe Shakedown
Love Jah - Cedric 'Im' Brooks
Mushroom - Johnny Osbourne
Acid Rock - the Funkees
Crumbs from the Table - the Young Disciples & Co
You're Starting Too Fast - Johnny Pate
Tighten Up - the Bamboos
If It's Good To Ya (It's Good For Ya) - Eddie Bo
Sinners Where are You Going to Hide - Justin Hinds
Get Up Edina - Desmond Dekker
Shame and Scandal - the Wailers
Machine Shop - Don Drummond
Speakin' of Spokes - the Lovin' Spoonful
Funky Chicken - the Dynamic Concepts
Oily - Juggy
I'm a Carpenter - David Robinson
Turn Your Children Loose - the Fame Gang
Mother Popcorn - Dillard Crome & the Soul Rollers
Chant to Mother Earth - BLO

Side A
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag - James Brown
Solar Level - Johnny Almond Music Machine
Liberation Conversation - Marlena Shaw
You Got It All - the Blenders Ltd
Immigrants Song - Wekner Krupski
Popcorn Willy - King Curtis
Sakatumbe - the African Brothers
the Lama - Jah Lloyd
Stop That Train - Keith & Tex
Problems - Desmond Dekker
the Whip - Ethiopians
Cissy Strut 'n' American Woman - the Willard Posey Reunion
I Don't Understand It - Ice Water Slim & the Fourth Floor
Dap Walk - Ernie & the Topnotes Inc
Rap It Together - Detroit Sex Machines
Pegasus - Mike Vickers
Pepsi - Mohawks
Rose - 50ft Hose
La Da Da - Dynamic Concept
Tighten Up - the Untouchables
Don't Call Me Daddy - Derrik Morgan
Girlstown Ska - Skatalites
Hurry To Me - Roy Budd

...anotherSHEPPARDsound...

Prop 19 - the Hidden Agenda pt3

...Pt1 - Monsanto Marijuana HERE...

...Pt2 - Meet Dr Frankenbeanstein HERE...
...Pt3 - the Patent Plot & the Sativex Connection ...

During the last decade a split has developed within the marijuana community. One group is comprised of those who believe that the community's interests are best served by patenting marijuana strains and marijuana medicines in order to make them safer, more effective, more legitimate, more understood or, perhaps most importantly, more readily accessible since they will be legally available. The other group consists of those who believe that smoked cannabis is the "gold standard" ; the safest, cheapest and, largely because of the ease with which it can be titrated, the most effective form cannabis medicine will take. This second group denies any real advantage of marijuana patents to the consumer, challenges any claim of exclusive rights of the first group to sell a particular strain and opposes the exploitation of a combination of patents and prohibition to force consumers to settle for an inferior product.

Within the first group we find those such as Britain's GW Pharmaceutical, who (with the help of pharmaceutical-giant Bayer) is now selling their whole-plant cannabis spray Sativex. This group also includes the Toronto-based Cannasat Therapeutics, The Nevada-based Dynamic Alert Ltd and various other smaller operations. These companies are looking to patent cannabis medicines, strains of cannabis or both - if they haven't already done so.

In July 1998, Speaking at the International Cannabinoid Research Society conference in Montpellier, Dr Geoffrey W Guy, Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, said that HortaPharm will provide GW with exclusive access to its entire range of cannabis varieties for the development of medicines. The worldwide rights acquired by GW for an undisclosed sum cover varieties grown to date with certain exceptions and all varieties to be bred in the future. Plant registrations arising from the Dutch breeding program will be owned by GW pharmaceutical.

Under the agreement GW Pharma will be responsible for the development of specific drug delivery technologies to administer the pharmaceutical grade medicinal cannabis. This work will include a vaporizer for which HortaPharm has a patent pending.

In addition GW Pharma will fund HortaPharm's botanical research and HortaPharm scientists will assist in the UK Glasshouse propagation, cloning and cultivation program.

David Watson, CEO of HortaPharm has stated “As soon as Dr Guy's clinical research indicates the exact desired composition our scientists can breed and register new medicinal varieties".

In May of 2003, GW Pharma and Bayer Incorporated had reached a Marketing Agreement on Pioneering a New cannabis-based medicinal extract product called Sativex.

Bayer reportedly paid $60 Million to GW Pharma to obtain exclusive rights to market Sativex in the UK, And reportedly paid $14 Million for the marketing rights in Canada.

“Bayer corporation is also one of the largest biotechnology and GM producers in the world and has brought to market genetically engineered strains of rice, corn, rapeseed, and canola. Bayer is the world's leading pesticide manufacturer and the world's seventh largest seed company. Bayer CropScience is responsible for the majority of GM field trials in European countries. Bayer's GM crops are mostly "Liberty Link" - designed to be resistant to its "Liberty" herbicide. In 1925, Bayer was one of the chemical companies that merged to form the massive German conglomerate IG Farben, which was the largest single company in Germany and it became the single largest donor to Hitler's election campaign. After Hitler came to power, IG Farben worked in close collaboration with the Nazis, becoming the largest profiteer from the Second World War.”
SEE: http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-firms/11153-bayer-a-history

“Even the US government has gotten in on the action. Patent #6,630,507 was awarded to the US Department of Health and Human Services in 2003, and states that cannabinoids are neuroprotectants and anti-inflammitory agents, useful in the prevention and treatment of stroke, trauma, auto-immune disorders, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and HIV dementia as well as many other diseases.”

“GW Pharmaceutical was granted a license to grow cannabis for medical research in 1998 and it's partner Bayer was granted a patent for Sativex in 2006. Sativex comes in a 5.5 ml spray bottle for $102 U.S. Dollars, which supplies about 51 sprays - enough for an average ten day supply. It is now available in Canada for MS and cancer pain, and has most recently become available in Britain and parts of Spain for use in the treatment of some other symptoms and syndromes.”

GW's position on intellectual property:

GW adopts an aggressive approach to securing intellectual property rights to protect techniques and technologies involved in the development programme. Protection is sought in the areas listed below:

• Plant variety rights
• Methods of extraction patents
• Drug delivery patents
• Patents on compositions of matter for delivery of cannabis
• Methods of use patents
• Design copyright on devices
• Trademarks

In the last few years our intellectual property portfolio has developed considerably. The patent portfolio has more than doubled in size and comprises 42 patent families, within these families there are numerous granted patents both in the UK and in various territories around the world. GW has also developed a trademark portfolio of 21 UK registered trademarks with equivalent marks registered in many other territories around the world. GW also holds nine registered design rights and nine plant variety rights.

...MORE HERE...

Payback is a Bitch!

4chan is a popular image board community that made lolcats and Rickroll into Internet memes. 4chan users have often defended cats and were credited with leading the "Anonymous" assault on the Church of Scientology. Everyone knows not to cross 4chan, but whether you love them or hate them, hundreds of thousands of sympathizers, who had never before been on 4chan, joined the fight against the entertainment industry this weekend. On Friday, 4chan announced a coordinated and massive DDoS attack. The story was reported by Sean-Paul Correll of Panda Labs and gained attention from people who do not frequent 4chan. Correll was the first to announce,"This is the future of cyber protests."

A massive group of angry cyber protesters, known only as Anonymous, launched successful "attacks" against Aiplex Software, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Aiplex, an Indian firm that works for Bollywood film studios, had deployed DDoS attacks on websites hosting BitTorrent trackers and that had disregarded takedown notices. That is the reason that the DDoS style attack was chosen for "Operation: Payback Is A Bitch."

The reactions to such attacks from Anonymous hackers were mixed with everything from "Woot" to "It's illegal" to SC Magazine calling 4chan a "cyber espionage group." Other commenters asked, "What long-lasting purpose was there to taking down entertainment industry websites?" Perhaps the biggest purpose it served was the warning shot heard around the globe about the collective power of anonymous people. "The Anonymous - We are the unknowns. We are the masked vigilante of our society. And we are everywhere."

...MORE HERE...

Pot vs Alcohol

...a little meditation on the prose and cons of POT vs ALCOHOL...

the Police...

Submitted by john. on Thu, 23/09/2010 - 17:13

If I was asked the question ‘do we need the police on the streets’? Then I would answer yes we do. If I was asked ‘are the police actually doing their jobs properly’? I would answer yes they are. Now this might confuse a few of you, but please bare with me. Firstly, things have got more than a little out of hand and we certainly need peace keepers on the streets, it’s just a shame we don’t have any – but that will come about soon enough. Secondly the police are doing their jobs properly, because they are doing exactly what they were constructed and designed to do - it’s just most of us do not know the history of the police, their conception and their role, so are making completely un-informed opinions – so maybe it’s time to be informed.

A little history of the police and how they came about I feel is needed now, so let’s start with the Bow Street Runners who were founded in 1749/50 by author Henry Fielding….a little issue over the date it seems, not to worry. The Bow Street Runners were very similar to a group called the ‘thief-takers’ or though the thief-takers were unofficial of course…wink wink. The thief-taker would solve petty crime for a fee, a private individual hired to capture anyone accused of a crime. At this time with a rising crime rate and newspapers to bring it to the attention of the public - a bit of de jar vu here, oh well not to worry - thief-takers came about to partially fill the void or in some cases widen it, in bringing those accused of a crime to court - or in their words at the time justice. These were a bit like bounty hunters who were paid by bail bondsmen to catch suspected criminals who had skipped a court appearance and had forfeited (punishment for breach of contract) their bail, whereas thief-takers were generally hired by crime victims. Both thief-takers and bounty hunters also collected bounties offered by the government acting as go betweens negotiating the return of stolen goods for a fee. Most of them were corrupt themselves - no shock there - extorting protection money from the criminals they were supposed to apprehend. Perhaps the most notorious thief-taker was a man called Jonathan Wild who operated in London around the 1720’s, he led a gang of thieves who would arrange for the return of property actually stolen by his own gang. To maintain the belief he was working completely legitimately he would even hand over some members of his gang who would inevitably end up being hung on the ‘Tyburn Tree’ (24 could be hung at once shaped like a triangle at the top) situated where Marble Arch is now. He was hung there himself at Tyburn when this was discovered in 1725...

...FULL ILLUMINATING ARTICLE HERE...

Make Bono History

There was a humdinger of a story about Bono in the New York Post earlier this week that the Mail has picked up on this morning. According to the Post, Bono’s anti-poverty ONE foundation received $14,993,873 in donations from philanthropists in 2008, of which just $184,732 was distributed to three charities. (ONE is an “advocacy organisation” whose main purpose is to change policies, not support charities, it says.) So what happened to the rest? More than $8 million was spent on executive and employee salaries.

This isn’t gossip. The Post’s figures are taken directly from the organisation’s 2008 tax return, the latest year for which records are available. This story follows hot on the heels of the revelation that Edun, Bono’s fashion label, has shifted some of its production base from Africa to China. A perfectly acceptable business decision, were it not for the fact that Edun is an “ethical” fashion house that was set up to aleviate poverty in … Africa.

This isn’t common-or-garden, run-of-the-mill hypocrisy, this is hypocrisy on an epic scale – stadium-filling hypocrisy. Bono browbeats Western governments for not spending more money on aid – taxpayers’ money – while doing his best to avoid paying tax himself. He chastises the private sector for not investing in African businesses, then moves his own business out of Africa. He persuades kind-hearted souls to donate money to charity, then stands by while his own foundation pays its employes 43 times as much as it gives to good causes.

...MORE HERE...

Bob Dylan - Masters of War

An indictment of the Bush administration's lies, war crimes, religious hypocrisy and promotion of a New Fascism within the United States of America. Music: Bob Dylan, 1963 Video: J.J. Barney, 2006 SEE THE LARGE (SMOOTH PLAYBACK) VERSION AT: http://www.masters-of-war.org Dylan, quote from the 60's: "Masters of War, for instance, "is supposed to be a pacifistic song against war. It's not an anti-war song. It's speaking against what Eisenhower was calling a military industrial complex as he was making his exit from the presidency. That spirit was in the air, and I picked it up."

Phrack THIS! - Hacktivism 101

In recent months there has been considerable discussion about the WikiLeaks phenomenon, and understandably so, given the volume and sensitivity of the documents the website has released. What this discussion has revealed, however, is that the media and government agencies believe there is a single protagonist to be concerned with -- something of a James Bond villain, if you will -- when in fact the protagonist is something altogether different: an informal network of revolutionary individuals bound by a shared ethic and culture.

According to conventional wisdom, the alleged protagonist is, of course, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and the discussion of him has ranged from Raffi Khatchadourian's June portrait in The New Yorker, which makes Assange sound like a master spy in a John le Carré novel, to Tunku Varadarajan's epic ad hominem bloviation in The Daily Beast: "With his bloodless, sallow face, his lank hair drained of all color, his languorous, very un-Australian limbs, and his aura of blinding pallor that appears to admit no nuance, Assange looks every inch the amoral, uber-nerd villain."

Some have called for putting Assange "out of business" (even if we must violate international law to do it), while others, ranging from Daniel Ellsberg to Assange himself, think he is (in Ellsberg's words) "in some danger." I don't doubt that Assange is in danger, but even if he is put out of business by arrest, assassination or character impeachment with charges of sexual misconduct, it would not stanch the flow of secret documents into the public domain. To think otherwise is an error that reflects a colossal misunderstanding of the nature of WikiLeaks and the subculture from which it emerged.

WikiLeaks is not the one-off creation of a solitary genius; it is the product of decades of collaborative work by people engaged in applying computer hacking to political causes, in particular, to the principle that information-hoarding is evil -- and, as Stewart Brand said in 1984, "Information wants to be free." Today there is a broad spectrum of people engaged in this cause, so that were Assange to be eliminated today, WikiLeaks would doubtless continue, and even if WikiLeaks were somehow to be eliminated, new sites would emerge to replace it.

It has long been an ethical principle of hackers that ideas and information are not to be hoarded but are to be shared.In 1984, when Assange turned 13, Steven Levy described this attitude in his book Hackers. After interviewing a number of hackers, he distilled a "hacker ethic," which included, among others, the following two maxims: (1) all information should be free; (2) mistrust authority and promote decentralization.

These sentiments were poetically expressed by a hacker named The Mentor, in an essay titled "The Conscience of a Hacker." It was written shortly after his arrest, and appeared in the important hacker publication Phrack in 1986.

We explore…and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge…and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias…and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all.

...MORE HERE...

Die Beauty! on TPB

Written by Ernesto on September 17, 2010

While most filmmakers shy away from anything remotely related to BitTorrent, Swedish director Skina Bergman has partnered with The Pirate Bay for the release of her latest movie. Today the film, titled “Die Beauty”, debuts in Swedish theaters as well as on The Pirate Bay.

Die Beauty is described by its makers as a surreal thriller set in a feverish fairytale world. A story about friendship and alienation, family ties and kindred blood.

The film tells the story of a group of girls who are looking for some excitement. They figure that discovering a dead body floating down the river would be ideal, and as in most fairytales, wishes can come true.

Tonight the film premiered offline at the Bio Rio theater in Stockholm, Sweden. However, the filmmakers didn’t want to limit the release to an offline venue. With that in mind they are quite possibly the first to have also arranged a premiere on the largest BitTorrent site on the Internet – The Pirate Bay.

A dual premiere is quite unusual, and The Pirate Bay fully support the idea as they are actively promoting the release of Die Beauty on their homepage. Obviously, the filmmakers don’t mind being in the spotlight at all.

“For me a release on The Pirate Bay was an obvious thing to do because I believe that it, without competition, is the best way to promote a film today,” director Skina Bergman told TorrentFreak commenting on her unusual move.

While Hollywood traditionally sees The Pirate Bay as a threat, Skina Bergman recognizes that it may actually benefit the film. “Not only do I get thousands of viewers on the web, I am also convinced that the release will increase the number of people watching it on the big screen,” Skina said.

Instead of having a potential audience of a few hundred people, now millions can see it in their own homes at their own convenience. The makers think that the unlimited availability, and the free promotion that comes with it, may actually boost theater visits and thus boost revenues instead of hurting it.

“It’s a fact that people watch more movies when the access increases, and that’s a good thing. As a filmmaker I want to take advantage of that,” Skina noted, adding, “I hope to prolong the life of Die Beauty. I want to give the film a fair chance to be seen by as many people as possible.”

The film, including subtitles for non-Swedes, just premiered on The Pirate Bay and can be downloaded for free. It is released under a BY-NC-SA Creative Commons License which allows the public to copy and remix the film for non-commercial purposes as long as they give credit to the makers.

NO CONTRACT

proving that no contract return to sender has worked for us, but don't take my word try it record and put it up so we can see,
all the best
love and peace

Vitamin D result

(NaturalNews) If scientists discovered something that worked better than vaccines at preventing influenza, you'd think they would jump all over it, right? After all, isn't the point to protect children and adults from influenza?

A clinical trial led by Mitsuyoshi Urashima and conducted by the Division of Molecular Epidemiology in the the Department of Pediatrics at the Jikei University School of Medicine Minato-ku in Tokyo found that vitamin D was extremely effective at halting influenza infections in children. The trial appears in the March, 2010 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Am J Clin Nutr (March 10, 2010). doi:10.3945/ajcn.2009.29094)

The results are from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving 334 children, half of which were given 1200 IUs per day of vitamin D3. In other words, this was a "rigorous" scientific study meeting the gold standard of scientific evidence.

In the study, while 31 of 167 children in the placebo group contracted influenza over the four month duration of the study, only 18 of 168 children in the vitamin D group did. This means vitamin D was responsible for an absolute reduction of nearly 8 percent.

Flu vaccines, according to the latest scientific evidence, achieve a 1 percent reduction in influenza symptoms (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_v...).

This means vitamin D appears to be 800% more effective than vaccines at preventing influenza infections in children.

Web Sheriff Down

The sustained Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks conducted by 4chan members against anti-piracy organizations continue with UK-based ACS:Law Solicitors becoming the new target.

The DDoS campaign is called “Operation Payback” and was started by members of the 4chan image board in retaliation to the actions of an Indian company paid by film studios to harass torrent sites.

The first attack was launched on Saturday against mpaa.org, the website of the Motion Picture Association of America, but after almost 24 hours of downtime, the target was switched to riaa.com (the Recording Industry Association of America).

IFPI.org (the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) was also hit and taken offline at about the same time, but this might have been caused by individuals acting on their own.

A similar attack was scheduled against bpi.co.uk (the British Phonographic Industry), but failed after the IRC channel used by the attackers to coordinate was hacked.

The latest target is ACS:Law Solicitors, a British law firm notorious for sending legal threats to Internet users suspected of copyright.

The company asks the alleged offenders to pay certain sums of money in order to avoid being taken to court, a method, which some people have argued is similar to blackmail.

"Whilst many companies offer anti-piracy measures, these are often costly and ineffective. Our approach is quite the opposite, it generates revenue for rights holders and effectively decreases copyright infringement in a measurable and sustainable way," ACS:Law boasts on its website.

...MORE HERE...

it's Funny cos it's True...

In this O-SPAN clip from 1963, the CIA explains that the accidental overthrow was due to "a little miscommunication" while overthrowing some nearby Central American countries

Collateral Murder 2 - Coming Soon

Scheduled for release in the next few weeks in concert with international and American media outlets, Wikileaks' data dump on Iraq could prove to be just as explosive as its download on Afghanistan.

According to Newsweek, the Iraq collection is already three times larger than the 92,000 Afghan field reports made public in Wikileaks' last release, and perhaps the largest in history. It predictably details American military participation in bloody conflicts as well as detainee abuse conducted by Iraqi security forces. It's unclear at this point if its documents were submitted by Private First Class Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. military intelligence analyst who was charged in July with leaking the chilling Collateral Murder video to Wikileaks. Manning is already looking at over 50 years in prison for Uniform Code of Military Justice violations of "transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system" and "communicating, transmitting and delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source."

...MORE HERE...

Prop 19 - the Hidden Agenda pt2

...pt1 (where we find Monsanto's Grubby Hands pulling the Prop 19 strings via the Drug Policy Alliance) HERE...

...pt2 Meet Dr Frankenbeanstein...

Are your expensive Dutch female seeds hard to clone, or when you try to breed them, all you get are hermaphrodites?

Thank Dr Frankenbeanstein, aka the Skunkman, real name David Watson.

A bit of history:
At a 1997 Vancouver Hemp conference, Watson spoke of his research. His main focus was to stop growers from cloning nor being able to create any seeds, from strains being bred in Amsterdam. The funding for this research came partially from the Dutch Government, the rest from DEA. Watson had been busted for growing in Santa Cruz California 3-20-85 and resurfaced in Amsterdam to start his seed company Cultivator’s Choice. DEA supported the Skunkman’s application for a license to grow for research in Holland, even though they should have been extraditing him back to Cali for his 1985 in Santa Cruz grow bust! DEA endorsement was so strong that he was the first to be granted a permit in Holland when several universities and domestic research groups with PHD’s and legitimate reasons for research were denied! The Dutch government even supplied three greenhouses for Dr. Frankenbeanstein to do his heinous experiments, while normal Dutch growers lost all their equipment and had to serve murder-like sentences at that time! Dutch seed companies have become the Monsanto of the cannabis seed industry, and hope to make us all seed junkies at $20 a seed.!

The license gave Hortapharm/Skunkman/DEA control over what researchers are allowed access to pedigreed seeds of predictable quality! The object is to patent up every possible combination of cannabinoids and terpenes with efficacy for every possible disease they can treat, and every possible genetic sequence! Once ready to make the move, they will shut down every medical cannabis grower for patent fraud, and those they can’t will be run out when they produce a more effective product for significantly less than $250 an ounce the growers are getting! The Skunkman’s company Hortapharm, is the only private organization approved by the Drug Enforcement Agency to supply genetics to researchers to this day!

Dr Frankenbeanstein threatened Skunk magazine to have all Dutch advertizing cancelled, which amount to 60% of their revenue, after printing part one of this article! This is the complete article. Skunk, High Times, Cannabis Culture, Weed-World in reality are trade pamphlets, that support the continuing rip off of our cannabis community by Hortapharm/GW Pharm/DEA, and the Dutch Cannabis Industry.

The one beacon of truth telling is Treating yourself magazine in our community. My only claim to fame being that I have always been a general in Lord Shiva’s Ganja Army. Bom Shiva Bom Shankar Joe Pietri

King of Nepal

...FULL ARTICLE HERE...

Sarkozy Fuhry

President Nicolas Sarkozy's government reacted angrily on Wednesday after the European Commission compared France's expulsion of Roma Gypsies to the tactics of its World War II pro-Nazi regime.

France has been under fire for weeks over Sarkozy's controversial drive to deport Roma living in travelling communities in France back to Romania and Bulgaria, and Paris now faces the threat of European legal action.

An EU founder member and the home of the concept of universal human rights, France was "astonished" and furious on Tuesday when Europe's Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding condemned the clampdown in stark terms.

"This is not about stirring controversy," said an official in Sarkozy's Elysee Palace, speaking under the office's customary condition of anonymity. "Nevertheless, some statements are simply not acceptable.

France tried to play down the row, with the Elysee insisting it is time for "calm dialogue" rather than "sterile controversy" and suggesting that Reding had spoken out of place. But in Brussels, the Commission stood by her.

"Mrs Reding speaks on behalf of the commission," spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen told a news briefing, adding that the investigation of France "is being done in coordination" with commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

On Tuesday, Reding declared she was "appalled by a situation which gave the impression that people are being removed from a member state of the European Union just because they belong to a certain ethnic minority.

"This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War," she added, sparking fury in France, where talk of the Vichy-era persecution of Jews and Gypsies touches a raw nerve.

Sarkozy is to attend an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, and in Paris key ministers are scrambling to his defence, insisting that France's immigration rules are in line with its international human rights commitments.
"Today, France's credibility on the international scene is in ashes," declared France's two Green parties in a joint statement, attacking "the racist policies of Sarkozy's government."

More than 1,000 Roma have been expelled from France since Sarkozy's speech, with the latest batch of 69 flying out from Marseille on Tuesday.

Those who agree to go voluntarily receive 300 euro (390 dollars) grants to restart their lives, those who do not are brought before a judge who can expel them if they have no proven means of support in France.
...MORE HERE...

...UPDATE...

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rubbished a claim by President Nicolas Sarkozy that she planned to follow France's example and bulldoze Roma camps in Germany.

The humiliating disavowal by France's closest ally left President Sarkozy more isolated than ever in his battle with the European Union over his campaign against Roma migrants from eastern Europe.

Mr Sarkozy told journalists after an EU summit on Thursday that Ms Merkel had "indicated to me her desire to proceed in the coming weeks with the evacuation of camps". However, Chancellor Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said yesterday that she had made no such remark and that she had never discussed the issue with Mr Sarkozy.

...MORE HERE...

the Eternal McD

Our intrigue regarding the eternal shelf life of a McDonald’s hamburger began after reading of New York photographer Sally Davies’ exploits involving a Happy Meal Project: Davies purchased a Happy Meal, and perched the McDonald’s hamburger and french fries on a table. As an experiment, she photographed the meal every few days to measure the rate of spoilage. Her photographs revealed that after 145 days, the burger and fries appeared as fresh as the day they were purchased from McDonald’s nearly 5 months ago. Our interest was really piqued when we discovered that several other concerned consumers had conducted similar McDonald’s burger experiments. In these experiments, none of the McDonald’s hamburgers decomposed after extended periods of time raging from 1 year to over a decade. Nutrition consultant Karen Hanrahan kept a McDonald’s hamburger for, get this, 12 years. She purchased the McDonald’s hamburger in 1996 and posted her claim on her website in 2008.

Author and obesity activist Julia Havey stored a McDonald’s cheeseburger and fries for 4 years, and Joann Bruso, a 62-year-old grandmother, held on to a McDonald’s Happy Meal for a whole year. All of these events were either videotaped or photographed. To illustrate what real food looks like when it spoils, Julia Havey’s video visually compares pristine looking four-year old McDonald’s french fries with a regular decomposed potato.

...MORE HERE...

It's the CODEPINK women!

How do we bring liars like Tony Blair to justice? Continue to disrupt their lies everywhere they go. At noon yesterday, Medea Benjamin disrupted Karl Rove at his speaking event in Washington DC. As he backed off from the podium, he exclaimed, "It's the CODEPINK women!" They know they are lying and we can't let them continue to re-write history.

By Jodie Evans

On Monday evening, Tony Blair was in conversation with Katie Couric at the 92nd St Y. I happened to be in town for a board meeting so headed over to a sold-out house to see if I could get in. Luck was with me as I got a ticket about 13 rows from his chair on the aisle. Blair has been traveling across the US and UK recently to promote his new memoir, A Journey. Peace activists from both countries have rightly been calling it "A Journey to Crime," and have even been taking it upon themselves to move copies of the book to the Crime section of their local bookstores.

I had handcuffs in my purse and was ready to get to the front of the room in five strides. Very early on, Katie talked about him being forced out of Ireland by a pelting of eggs and shoes. His answer was that these actions are the 'tyranny of protesters.' "Those that shout the loudest don't necessarily deserve to be heard," he said. Undeterred by his attempt to marginalize people who speak out at his book events I waited to hear what he had to say.

Her next line of questions was about the Iraq War. Did he have regrets? No, he said, because he had acted correctly. Saddam wouldn't allow weapons inspectors in, so therefore there must have been WMDs. My blood was boiling. What about the weapons inspectors who were there, who had been given access to everything who said there were no WMDs??? He continued to say he had done right and it was just like Iran. No weapons inspectors means WMDs.

I leapt up with handcuffs held high above my head. "You Liar. I was in Iraq and met with weapons inspectors before we invaded and they said they had found no WMDs. You are a War CRIMINAL! LIAR!" At this moment I was surrounded by NYC cops and British Secret Service and they slammed me up against the wall and dragged me out of the room to cheers. The British guys were brutal, dragging me, yelling at me and begging the NYPD to arrest me. They looked at them like they were off a bit and didn't really react. One of the NYPD went back to get my purse and handed it to the British SS who has literally just thrown me out into the street. He was so furious that he put my purse far away from me. He told me to thank him for not putting me in jail. Just minutes before, he told me that the broadcast had cost a lot of money and that I have ruined it. I told him if he wanted to arrest me, then go ahead, it makes for a better story. He was not happy with me.

I brushed myself off and went to pick my computer bag, which I had left at Gloria Steinem's. There I met up with awesome feminist activist Shelby Knox, who took a photo of me with the handcuffs, which I somehow managed to leave the event with. I'll have to keep them handy with so many war criminals still on the loose.

...MORE HERE...

Piracy and Profit

An extensive study into the effect of digitalization on the music industry in Norway has shed an interesting light on the position of artists today, compared to 1999. While the music industry often talks about artists being on the brink of bankruptcy due to illicit file-sharing, the study found that the number of artists as well as their average income has seen a major increase in the last decade.

Every other month a new study addressing the link between music piracy and music revenues surfaces, but only a few really stand out. One of the most elaborate and complete studies conducted in recent times is the master thesis of Norwegian School of Management students Anders Sørbo and Richard Bjerkøe.

In their thesis, the students take a detailed look at the different revenue streams of the music industry between 1999 and 2009. By doing so, they aim to answer the question of how the digitization of music – and the most common side-effect, piracy – have changed the economic position of the Norwegian music industry and Norwegian artists. The results are striking.

...MORE HERE...

Pentagon Pulp Panic

US defence department attempts to prevent book by former intelligence officer Anthony Shaffer from reaching the shops

Officials at the Pentagon are scrambling to buy the whole 10,000 print run
of Operation Dark Heart – and then pulp them.
Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters

It’s every author’s dream – to write a book that’s so sensationally popular it’s impossible to find a copy in the shops, even as it keeps climbing up the bestseller lists.

And so it is for Anthony Shaffer, thanks to the Pentagon’s desire to buy up all 10,000 copies of the first printing of his new book, Operation Dark Heart. And then pulp them.

The US defence department is scrambling to dispose of what threatens to be a highly embarrassing expose by the former intelligence officer of secret operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and of how the US military top brass missed the opportunity to win the war against the Taliban.

The department of defence is in talks with St Martin’s Press to purchase the entire first print run on the grounds of national security.

The publisher is content to sell the books but the two sides are in a grinding dispute over what should appear in a censored version and when it should be released.

Now St Martin’s Press says it will put the partly redacted manuscript on sale next week whether or not the defence department likes it – and there doesn’t appear much the authorities can do.

The army had cleared the book by Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer, about “black ops” in the Afghan war when he was based at Bagram in 2003, for publication after relatively minor changes.

But when the intelligence services and defence department officials saw it they were alarmed.

They said it contained highly classified material including the names of American intelligence agents and accounts of clandestine operations, and demanded the book be withdrawn on the grounds it “could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security”.

The Pentagon is using Shaffer’s status as a reserve officer to block him from speaking to the press, but a source close to the publication of the book said that some of the sensitive material had been removed but the defence department was still seeking to purge it of other information that is 20 years old or even in the public domain.

For that reason, there is suspicion that the defence department is less concerned with the nitty gritty of classified material than its broader story of intelligence forays in to Pakistan and his claim that top US military leaders blew an opportunity to win the war years ago.

...MORE HERE...

4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

Written by enigmax on September 18, 2010

Following a call to arms yesterday, the masses inhabiting the anonymous 4chan boards have carried out a huge assault on a pair of anti-piracy enemies. The website of Aiplex Software, the anti-piracy outfit which has been DDoSing torrent sites recently, is currently down having been DDoS’d. They are joined in the Internet wasteland by the MPAA’s website, also currently under huge and sustained attack.

Don’t mess with the Internet they say. Well, actually stronger terms than that are often used, but the end result is the same. When people get organized on the Internet, very strange and powerful things can happen and in few places can this be more true than on the 4chan message boards.

Sometimes things need sorting out, and what better way than getting hundreds of thousands of anonymous users of this notorious message board to work together to achieve it. If they’re not trying to bring down Scientology, they’re teaching foul-mouthed pre-teen girls a lesson or using their combined forces to destroy the lives of stupid bankers who think it’s ‘funny’ to throw cats in the trash.

Yesterday two new targets hit the radars of ‘Anonymous’, the faceless and powerful hoards who carry out 4chan attacks. The beauty is that anyone can join in the action, 4chan ‘membership’ is not even required. People wishing to participate can simply load up their Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) and enter the IP address they want to attack. The resulting assaults are massively distributed making defending against them almost impossible.

...MORE HERE...

Are Tests Biased?

Panelists discuss the many ways in which our educational system caters to students who try, care, are awake.

Pope Plot Panic

A sixth man has been arrested in London by police in relation to a potential threat to Pope Benedict XVI's visit.

His arrest, at 1345 BST, came after five men were seized at 0545 BST after counter-terrorism officers received intelligence of a potential threat.

All six, who were street cleaners, have been taken to a London police station.

The BBC's Danny Shaw said the arrests were carried out as a precaution. Police are searching a number of premises.

At least five of the men were not British nationals.

The cleaners worked for Veolia Environment Services, a major contract cleaning company that works for Westminster Council.

Armed officers arrested the first five men at the company's Chiltern Street depot, Paddington, as they were preparing to go on shift.

In a statement from Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police said that the men had been arrested in a Terrorism Act 2000 operation, launched by officers from the force's Counter-Terrorism Command.

All six men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

They are 26, 27, 29, 36, 40 and 50 years old and most are understood to be Algerian. Police are continuing to search eight residential premises in north and east London and two business premises in central London.

Officers have not found any hazardous items.

...MORE HERE...

Where's My Cannabis?

If an American doctor of the late 19th century stepped into a time warp and emerged in 2010, he would be shocked by the multitude of pharmaceuticals that today's physicians use. But as he pondered this array (and wondered, as I do, whether most are really necessary), he would soon notice an equally surprising omission, and exclaim, "Where's my Cannabis indica?"

No wonder -- the poor fellow would feel nearly helpless without it. In his day, labor pains, asthma, nervous disorders and even colicky babies were treated with a fluid extract of Cannabis indica, also known as "Indian hemp." (Cannabis is generally seen as having three species -- sativa, indica and ruderalis -- but crossbreeding is common, especially between sativa and indica.) At least 100 scientific papers published in the 19th century backed up such uses.

Then the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 made possession or transfer of Cannabis illegal in the U.S. except for certain medical and industrial uses, which were heavily taxed. The legislation began a long process of making Cannabis use illegal altogether. Many historians have examined this sorry chapter in American legislative history, and the dubious evidence for Cannabis addiction and violent behavior used to secure the bill's passage. "Under the Influence: The Disinformation Guide to Drugs" by Preston Peet makes a persuasive case that the Act's real purpose was to quash the hemp industry, making synthetic fibers more valuable for industrialists who owned the patents.

Meanwhile, as a medical doctor and botanist, my aim has always been to filter out the cultural noise surrounding the genus Cannabis and see it dispassionately: as a plant with bioactivity in human beings that may have therapeutic value. From this perspective, what can it offer us?

As it turns out, a great deal. Research into possible medical uses of Cannabis is enjoying a renaissance. In recent years, studies have shown potential for treating nausea, vomiting, premenstrual syndrome, insomnia, migraines, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, alcohol abuse, collagen-induced arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, bipolar disorder, depression, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, sickle-cell disease, sleep apnea, Alzheimer's disease and anorexia nervosa.

But perhaps most exciting, cannabinoids (chemical constituents of Cannabis, the best known being tetrahydrocannabinol or THC) may have a primary role in cancer treatment and prevention.

...MORE HERE...

Lowkey - Terrorist?

Brand new track Produced by Red Skull taken from the highly anticipated album Soundtrack To The Struggle by Lowkey.
Follow his progress on
www.twitter.com/lowkeyuk
and
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lowkey/...

Condemned to Repetition

History is “disappearing” from state schools as growing numbers of head teachers view it as a worthless subject, according to research.

Many secondary schools are squeezing existing three-year history courses into just two or merging the subject with geography to form generic “humanities” lessons, it was claimed.

Some schools are also preventing children from taking history GCSEs to steer them towards easier vocational qualifications.

The Historical Association, which made the disclosure in a survey of 600 schools, warned that the move risked seriously undermining children’s grasp of the past.

Some 16 per cent of teachers reported some form of “restriction” on subject choices, often making courses such as history out of bounds for low achieving pupils.

The proportion rose to 27 per cent among the Government’s flagship academies – independent state schools normally built in deprived areas.

...MORE HERE...

Prop 19 - the Hidden Agenda pt1

The agenda of the government in its policies against Cannabis have always been to deprive the people access to the plant, while maintaining control over it for the governments own self-interest. This self-interest extends to a multitude of industries including the prison and military industry, the petroleum, timber, cotton, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the entirety of the banking and corporate establishment which has become empowered through disconnecting people from their one true source of independence and sustenance, the Earth. Cannabis prohibition has served to redirect human evolution from that of a decentralized agrarian lifestyle and natural economy, to a centralized petro-chemical military dictatorship controlled through the artificial economic will of private banks and other trans-national corporate interests.

The next stage in continuing this control, is in the regulation, licensing and taxation of Cannabis cultivation and use through the only practical means available to the corporate system, which is through genetic engineering and patenting of the Cannabis genome.

To achieve this end, the foundation is already being laid in the form of California’s upcoming initiative on the 2010 ballot. This initiative is called Proposition 19: The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010.

The leading advocate for Proposition 19 is the organization known as the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). The DPA is the leading organization spearheading the reform of Cannabis policies in the United States, and has been made up of some of the most powerful and influential characters in today’s global petro-bio-chemical-military-banking-industrial complex.

Some of the Directors of DPA include the following:

Paul Adolph Volcker is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) whose career is closely associated with that of the Federal Reserve Bank. He was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975-1979, governing board member of the Federal Reserve in 1979, and was Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979-1987.

Volcker is believed to be a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served as Undersecretary of the Treasury from 1969-1974 before his time with the Federal Reserve. Volcker is chairman of Wolfensohn & Co. and has ties to Chase Manhattan Bank. He is also linked to the Brookings Institute, as well as being an Honorary Trustee at the Aspen Institute, chairman of the Group of 30, and on the board of the Institute for International Economics.

Frank Charles Carlucci III is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since at least 1995. His government service included positions as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1980-1982 and Deputy Director of the CIA from 1978-1980.

Carlucci is a director on United Defense Industries (the United States' largest defense contractor), which is owned by the Carlyle Group, a merchant bank based in Washington, D.C., of which Carlucci is the chairman. Carlucci joined Carlyle in 1989.

Before returning to Government service, Carlucci was Chairman and CEO of Sears World Trade, a business he joined in 1983. He was President Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor in 1987 and Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1988.

Nicholas Katzenbach is an Honorary Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and became General Counsel of the IBM Corporation from 1969 until 1986.

Mathilde Krim is a standing Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and was a Trustee for the Rockefeller Foundation in 1980.

George Soros is a standing Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and is Chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros was among the highest paid hedge fund managers in 2009, taking home about $3.3 billion. At the end of 2009, he owned about $6.95 billion distributed among 697 stocks.

Soros’ top 5 investment shareholdings are in gold, Petrobras petroleum company, Hess Corp petroleum company, Monsanto corporation, Citigroup Inc., and Suncor Energy Inc.(petroleum company).

That’s right, George Soros, who is famous for being one of the most powerful and influential persons in world economics and whose speculations alone are said to have ‘broke the Bank of England‘, is one of the key directors for the organization that is leading the charge to regulate, control and tax Cannabis in California. All the while George Soros is one of the major shareholders in the worlds largest GM Seed bio-technology corporation known as Monsanto.

The Monsanto corporation brought you things like Agent Orange, Terminator Seeds, Monsantos Round-up ready Herbicide, and Genetically Modified and Patented Organisms made from Soybean, Corn, and Cotton to name a few. Genetically engineered crops entered the market in 1996 and to this day around 90% of all Soy, Corn, and Cotton grown in the U.S. have been Genetically Engineered and patented by a handful of bio-chemical corporations, with Monsanto owning 90% of all GMO patents.

The value of the Cannabis plant as an industry, without factoring in the value of Cannabis as a food or medicine, was estimated to be in the billions in 1938 by an article published by Popular Mechanics Magazine at that time, so its no wonder why one of Monsanto’s major shareholders would have in interest in advocating for one of the main tenants of prop 19, which is to “Make cannabis available for scientific, medical, industrial, and research purposes” and to “adopt a statewide regulatory system for a commercial cannabis industry”. Prop 19 is doing nothing less then opening the floodgates for Monsanto and other petro-chemical, GMO seed and pharmaceutical corporations to commercialize, regulate, control and tax Cannabis through genetic engineering, patenting and licensing.

...for FULL ILLUMINATING STORY go HERE...