Week 1 June 2008

	A New U.S. Embassy in Iraq
	"none of the climate states in the models correspond even remotely to the current observed climate. In particular, the state of the oceans, sea ice, and soil moisture has no relationship to the observed state at any recent time in any of the IPCC models." Kevin Trenberth, IPCC Coordinating Lead Author
	Initial ABC headline: N Korea urged to send food aid to South ABC headline once someone realised that North Korea is unlikely ever to have any leftover food: S Korea urged to send food aid to North
	If you abide by air transport rules and use the approved lock on your luggage to stop “terrorists”, “drug dealers”, “thieves” and others accessing your luggage, don’t waste your time. Luggage handlers, customs and other security personal can get into your bags.
	IPCC staff is working feverishly on a theory that supports global cooling as proof of global warming.
	111 countries ban the use of cluster bombs, except Israel, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and the US
	Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in Washington for the annual AIPAC conference, will try to convince President Bush Israel has better intelligence than the US proving Iran may soon go nuclear. [Olmert] will try to convince Bush to set aside the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program in favor of data presented by Israel, and determine the administration's policy on Iran accordingly. As for the issue of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, the solution is actually quite simple. Resolutions to declare the Middle East a zone free of nuclear weapons has been on the table of the UN Security Council since 1974, when Iran first moved such a resolution. Egypt moved that resolution again in 1985, and Syria in 1989 and again in 2003, on behalf of the group of Arab states. No such resolution can be seriously considered in the Security Council, because the US would veto it, and the US would veto it because a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East would require Israel to get rid of its nuclear arsenal.
	MCCAIN said “Iran's rulers would be very different if the people themselves had a choice in the matter, and American policy should always reflect their hopes for a freer and more just society. The same holds true for the Palestinian people, most of whom ask only for a better life and a less violent world. They're badly served by the terrorist-led group in charge of Gaza.” The crazy thing about McCain’s words are that these are places where elections do take place and which do see changes of government through the electoral process, which is not what happens in countries chiefly aligned with the US, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the other Gulf countries. McCain calls Hamas a terrorist syndicate, while European observers, as well as the Carter Center—not to speak of the world press—certifies that Hamas won the majority, hence the right to form government in free and fair elections. But facts don't matter to McCain any more than they mattered for Bush. The will to violence prevails over facts, and we may well be witnessing the first stages of preparations for yet another war.
	Part of America’s “War against Terror” Defense budget includes 75 Billion Dollars to build two new submarines. Al-Qaeda doesn’t even have a row boat and Afghanistan is land locked.
	“The FBI has a warrant and large reward out for Bin Laden. For what is this large amount of money offered? This reward is for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and in Kenya. Only these are mentioned, 9/11 is not mentioned. Last year a formal inquiry was made to the FBI Headquarters. The FBI official, Lex Tomb, did answer the request declaring that there is no proven connection between Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. The information given stated that there is no proven evidence available linking Bin Laden to more than those two bombings. According to this FBI information Osama Bin Laden is not officially sought for 9/11. Are you aware of this?” asked Yukihisa Fujita of the Democratic Party of Japan And the former President of Italy, Francesco Cossiga stated, “Yet Bin Laden supposedly confessed to the Al-Qaeda September attack on the two towers in New York, claiming to be the author of the attack, while all the intelligence services of America and Europe, now know well that the disastrous attack had been planned and realized from the American CIA and the Mossad with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic Countries, in order to induce the western powers to take part in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
	Governor declares drought in California HO HUM ... This drought probably won't be as bad as the SIX YEAR DROUGHT 1987-1992 and the THIRTEEN YEAR DROUGHT 1923-1935! It appears that droughts come with the territory, nothing to do with mythical climate change.
	Egyptian sources said the intelligence community had concluded that Israel's military was preparing for a massive invasion. "All of the signals that we have been receiving point to a massive and imminent invasion," an Egyptian source said. On Thursday, an Israeli was killed and three others were injured when an Iranian-origin mortar slammed into a factory in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip. Hamas, in an unusual move, claimed responsibility. Sources said an Israeli invasion would be the leading issue for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, scheduled to return from a brief visit to the United States. Olmert, who discussed the Hamas threat with President George Bush, was said to be ready to approve military plans for a massive operation in the Gaza Strip. "In the end, Olmert will make his decision based on what he heard from Bush," an Egyptian diplomat said. "If there is an Israeli invasion, it is clear that Bush gave the green light."
	http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9199
	NASA scientists find that a little warming and some extra carbon dioxide are great for green: They found that over a period of almost two decades, the Earth as a whole became more bountiful by a whopping 6.2%. About 25% of the Earth's vegetated landmass-almost 110 million square kilometres-enjoyed significant increases and only 7% showed significant declines. When the satellite data zooms in, it finds that each square metre of land, on average, now produces almost 500 grams of greenery per year. Why the increase? Their 2004 study, and other more recent ones, point to the warming of the planet and the presence of CO2, a gas indispensable to plant life.
	"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." -- Albert Einstein
	It's time Kevin Rudd told the truth about the price of his emissions trading scheme, to come in in just two years: It now turns out that even a "soft" start to the ETS where carbon is priced at $20 a tonne will see the average household pay $200 per year more in power costs and petrol would jump 5.6c a litre. At $45 a tonne, three out of the four brown coal power stations in Victoria and others in South Australia, NSW and Queensland would close. Household power bills would be up by 50 per cent. Even more frightening is modeling by Deutsche Bank that suggests the carbon price should at present be $65 a tonne, rising to $105 by 2020. These sorts of estimates explain why one industry association head has speculated that electricity bills could double and petrol could increase by 17c a litre. The Rudd Government has good reason to feel nervous. When asked recently whether they would support a small hike in the price of petrol if the extra money was used to tackle climate change, 63 per cent of survey respondents said no. World temperatures have not risen since 1998, but voter temperatures will sure rise by the next election with a scheme like this. If the Liberals have themselves sorted by then, the once-improbable may turn out highly likely instead - Rudd could be out on his ear in just one term.
	I consider the theory that global warming is caused by mankind to be just one more example of the continuing tradition scientists have of extrapolating well beyond what they think they know. In his 1883 book Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain also expressed perfectly the proclivity of scientists for turning observations of the natural world into long range predictions which were clearly outlandish. Twain humorously extrapolated an observed change in the length of the Mississippi River forward and back in time by millions of years to demonstrate the absurdity of the conclusions one can reach when one assumes something currently observed will continue to happen at the same rate, indefinitely. Twain famously concluded, "There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture from such a trifling investment of fact."
	The most prolific purveyor of failed environmental predictions is the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" recipient, Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich. Beginning in the 1960s, Dr. Ehrlich embarked on a series of premonitions that included dead oceans by 1979, hundreds of thousands of smog deaths in cities, pesticide-related cancers reducing average life expectancy to 42 years by 1980, and such an abuse of pesticides that would cause other countries to launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. out of fear of global poisoning. For some strange reason, the more dire the prediction, the better chance of receiving a prestigious award for scaring the rest of humanity with it - Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize comes to mind.
	Top Pentagon Scientists Fear Brain-Modified Foes There's concern in some corners of the U.S. military about "enemy activities in sleep research," neuro-pharmaceutical performance enhancement, and "brain-computer interfaces." And it's not coming from the Pentagon's scientific fringe, or from some tin-hat kook with a Defense Department badge. The celebrated scientists on the Pentagon's most prestigious scientific advisory panel, JASON, are the ones worried about adversaries' ability "to exploit advances in Human Performance Modification, and thus create a threat to national security." In a recent report, unearthed by Secrecy News, the JASONs are recommending that the American military push ahead with its own performance-enhancement research -- and monitor foreign studies -- to make sure that the U.S.' enemies don't suddenly become smarter, faster, or better able to endure the harsh realities of war than American troops. The JASONs are particularly concerned about (and excited by) new drugs that promote "brain plasticity" -- rewiring the mind, essentially, by helping to "permanently establishing new neural pathways, and thus new cognitive capabilities." The military has already tested these neuro-modulators as a way to keep troops alert after sleepless nights.
	Testifying at today's Senate Judiciary hearing on coercive interrogation techniques, former FBI special agent Jack Cloonan deplored coercive interrogations for being "not effective" and said the perception that the U.S. tortures detainees has "helped to recruit a new generation of jihadist martyrs": Based on my experience in talking to Al Qaida members, I am persuaded that revenge in the form of a catastrophic attack on the homeland is coming; that a new generation of jihadist martyrs, motivated in part by the images from Abu Ghraib, is, as we speak, planning to kill Americans; and that nothing gleaned from the use of coercive interrogation techniques will be of any significant use in forestalling this calamitous eventuality.
	Saved by Senate Republicans, big oil companies dodged an attempt Tuesday to slap them with a windfall profits tax and take away billions of dollars in tax breaks in response to the record gasoline prices that have the nation fuming. GOP senators shoved aside the Democratic proposal, arguing that punishing Big Oil won't do a thing to lower the $4-a-gallon-price of gasoline that is sending economic waves across the country. High prices at the pump are threatening everything from summer vacations to Meals on Wheels deliveries to the elderly. The Democratic energy package would have imposed a 25 percent tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies, which together made $36 billion during the first three months of the year. It also would have given the government more power to address oil market speculation, opened the way for antitrust actions against countries belonging to the OPEC oil cartel, and made energy price gouging a federal crime.
	So, Muslims who "believe" are Evil Doers due to their scriptures that teach, "Those who do not believe as you, must be destroyed." If that is to be accepted Western publicity belief, then the following must be as pertinent to the believers of these following scriptures; Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT) They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB) Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT) But if this charge is true (that she wasn't a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father's house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB) The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses: 'Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.' (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT) When they came to the threshing floor of Nodan, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God to steady it, for the oxen were making it tip. But the Lord was angry with Uzzah; God struck him on that spot, and he died there before God. (2 Samuel 6:3-7 NAB) Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT) "As you watch, I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem," says the LORD. "Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy," says the LORD. "I will raise my fist against you, to roll you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of rubble. You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out," says the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:20-26) (Note that after God promises the Israelites a victory against Babylon, the Israelites actually get their butts kicked by them in the next chapter. So much for an all-knowing and all-powerful God.) Jeez, this makes the Qur'an seem like a children's bed-time book.
	"A Muslim apostate once suggested to me a litmus test for Westerners who believe that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance: try making that point on a street corner in Ramallah, or Riyadh, or Islamabad, or anywhere in the Muslim world. He assured me you wouldn't live five minutes."