please help!

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

www.thebreastcancersite.com

Letter to the Power Plant

This is a letter I sent to the fine people running the "Caithness" project, which is a fossil fuel burning plant set to be constructed ONE mile from my house on Long Island.


To Whom It May Concern:

        From what I understand after attending meetings in opposition to the construction of this energy facility, it appears to be just another fossil fuel burning plant. Except this time, it will be visible from my parent's house. Currently, I am living in New Paltz and I was considering returning to Brookhaven. However, if this power plant is built and running, it is highly unlikely that I will return. The risks of disasters, pollution and contamination of our already deplorable water supply is not the kind of environment in which I would like to raise my family.
        The map of Brookhaven which is featured on your website is dated 1991. There have been extensive additions to our community over the past 15 years, including new homes, grocery stores, home improvement stores and shopping centers. You will be endangering a larger population of people than this maps leads others to believe. There are over 20 schools within in the vincinity of this power plant as well; yet they are absent from your map.
        Furthermore, with the current consumption of oil raising by 2.8% each year world wide, there is only about 30 years of oil left. Building another fossil fuel plant makes no sense. It would be wise to construct a solar energy plant or making use of the off shore breezes by installing fans and turbines to harness the power of the wind. Then you would have my full support. Both of these sources of energy are renewable and cause NO pollution. Nor do they contribute the greenhouse effect and the ever increasing temperature of the Earth. This is our only planet and we need to start treating it that way. As late Chief Seattle stated, "All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth."

curious...

More Effective Than Bush Part 5

More Effective Than Bush Part 4

IN EVERY CORNER

This is a poem written by author Teresa Ortiz. In 1995, she moved with her family from Guatemala to Chiapas, Mexico. Since then she has worked the Zapatista, many of whom are indigenous campesinos (rural subsistence farmers), in order to spread the word of their struggle to preserve their culture and fight for autonomy.

In every corner you see me
every day.
From so much seeing me,
you stop seeing me.
            In every corner you see me.
            and you no longer see me
            because you don't want to see me.
You ignore me,
you pass me by.
I am there and you act as if I weren't there.
When I talk to you
              you don't listen
              you don't answer
              you walk away.
I am there
in every corner of the city,
sitting on the sidewalk
with a child tied to my back
and another one playing by my side.
              I am there
              Wearing a multicolor
              flowered blouse,
              woolen skirt,
              bare feet.
                          I am there
                          selling dolls with ski-masked faces,
                          with rifles in hand,
                          with wooden horses.
                                      And you,
                                      only pass me by.
I wonder:
If I myself had
            a ski-masked face
            and rifle in hand,
                          what then
                          would you do?
                                      would you talk to me then?
                                      would you just pass me by?

Teacher Fired for Discussing Peace??

Teacher Awaits Day in Court
by Matthew Rothschild
Published on Friday, January 27, 2006 by the Progressive

Deb Mayer was a teacher of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Clear Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Indiana, during the 2002-2003 school year.

On January 10, 2003, she was leading a class discussion on an issue of “Time for Kids”—Time magazine’s school-age version, which the class usually discussed on Fridays and which is part of Clear Creek’s approved curriculum.

There were several articles in the magazine that discussed topics relating to the imminent war against Iraq, and one that mentioned a peace march.

According to Mayer, a student asked her if she would ever participate in such a march.

And Mayer said, “When I drive past the courthouse square and the demonstrators are picketing, I honk my horn for peace because their signs say, ‘Honk for peace.’ ” She added that she thought “it was important for people to seek out peaceful solutions to problems before going to war and that we train kids to be mediators on the playground so that they can seek out peaceful solutions to their own problems.”

Mayer claims in a pending federal lawsuit that the school chilled her First Amendment rights because of this one conversation in class, which she says took all of about five minutes, and that the school district refused to renew her contract because of it. (The quotes above are taken from court documents.)

I spoke with Mayer on January 24—more than three years after this incident took place.

“It didn’t dawn on me that people would object to me saying peace was an option to war,” she says. “I didn’t even think it was controversial.”

But it sure turned out to be.

“One student went home to tell her parents that I was encouraging people to protest the Iraq War,” she says. “The parents called the principal and demanded to have a conference. The dad was complaining that I was unpatriotic. He was very agitated. He kept raising out of his chair and pointing his finger at me and yelling, ‘What if you had a child in the service?’ I said, ‘I do have a child in the service.’ ”

At the time, one of Mayer’s sons was a naval nuclear engineer aboard the USS Nebraska, she says, adding that he’s now an officer in Afghanistan.

She told the parent, Mark Hahn, that her son also “doesn’t preclude peace as an option to war,” she recalls. “And that made him even angrier.”

At the end of the meeting, Hahn insisted that the principal, Victoria Rogers, make Mayer refrain from talking about peace again in the classroom. “I think she can do that,” Principal Rogers responded, according to Mayer’s deposition. “I think she can not mention peace in her class again.”

“I was just floored,” Mayer says, “but I said OK because we had a parent out of control, and I didn’t want to be insubordinate. I thought that would be the end of it.”

It wasn’t.

At the end of that day, Principal Rogers circulated a memo, entitled “Peace at Clear Creek,” that said: “We absolutely do not, as a school, promote any particular view on foreign policy related to the situation in Iraq.” And she cancelled the annual “peace month” that the school had been holding.

On February 7, 2003, Rogers also sent Mayer a letter telling her to “refrain from presenting your political views.”

Mayer and her lawyer, Michael Schultz, contend that this illegally infringed on Mayer’s First Amendment rights.

At the end of the spring semester, the school district did not renew Mayer’s contract, and she and Schultz allege that this was in retaliation for her political expression.

“This is a classic First Amendment free speech case,” says Schultz. “It involves, for the first time as far as I can tell, the right of a teacher to express an opinion in a classroom while teaching approved curriculum.”

The school district, the Monroe County Community School Corp., takes a different view.

While neither Principal Rogers nor anyone at the school district would respond to my phone calls because the case is pending, the district is mounting an aggressive legal defense. Represented by the law firm of Locke Reynolds in Indianapolis, the district is seeking summary judgment, asking the judge to throw out the case.

I called Heather Wilson, one of the Locke Reynolds attorneys on the case, but she would not comment, suggesting only that I examine the court documents.

“Ms. Mayer’s one-year contract was non-renewed after ongoing parent complaints about her and her teaching style, and five students being transferred out of Ms. Mayer’s classroom at the parents’ request,” says the brief for the school district. And it summons affidavits from parents finding fault with Mayer’s teaching style.

The brief does not deny the Iraq War discussion took place, or that the Hahns got upset by it. In fact, it acknowledges that Mayer was instructed to refrain from discussing her opinions on the war. But the brief says that during the parent conference on the subject, “according to Principal Rogers, Ms. Mayer was borderline unprofessional.” And it states further that the Hahns alleged that Mayer continued to talk about the war in class, a charge she denies.

The gist of the district’s case, as outlined in its brief, is this: “Ms. Mayer’s speech on the war was not the reason for her ultimate termination. Instead . . . the motivating factor for her termination was her poor classroom performance, the ongoing parental dissatisfaction, and the allegations of harassment and threats towards students.”

Schultz, in his court filing in response to the request for summary judgment, rebuts this argument. He says the affidavits about poor performance are pretexts. They “were signed in the summer of 2005, more than two years after Plaintiff’s termination. . . . Those alleged complaints about Ms. Mayer were not and could not have been relied on by Principal Rogers in making her decision to terminate Plaintiff’s contract with the school.” He also cites an evaluation that Mayer received that had praised her effusively.

Schultz says that Mayer deserves her day in court not only because of what he calls the “wrongful termination” but also because her First Amendment rights were violated.

Mayer says at one time the school district did offer to settle—for $2,500. She had already spent ten times that amount, so she refused it, she says. Plus, she wants to defend the free speech rights of teachers. “If the school prevails on this, teachers have no protected speech at school and can be fired for saying anything,” she says.

The case has cost Mayer dearly, she says. “I have lost my house, my income, my health insurance, my life savings, and my prospects for employment.”

If the judge does not grant summary judgment, the case will begin on March 6.

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him
by Andrew C. Revkin
Published on Sunday, January 29, 2006 by the New York Times

The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.

Dr. Hansen said he would ignore the restrictions. "They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public," he said.

Dean Acosta, deputy assistant administrator for public affairs at the space agency, said there was no effort to silence Dr. Hansen. "That's not the way we operate here at NASA," Mr. Acosta said. "We promote openness and we speak with the facts."

He said the restrictions on Dr. Hansen applied to all National Aeronautics and Space Administration personnel. He added that government scientists were free to discuss scientific findings, but that policy statements should be left to policy makers and appointed spokesmen.

Mr. Acosta said other reasons for requiring press officers to review interview requests were to have an orderly flow of information out of a sprawling agency and to avoid surprises. "This is not about any individual or any issue like global warming," he said. "It's about coordination."

Dr. Hansen strongly disagreed with this characterization, saying such procedures had already prevented the public from fully grasping recent findings about climate change that point to risks ahead.

"Communicating with the public seems to be essential," he said, "because public concern is probably the only thing capable of overcoming the special interests that have obfuscated the topic."

Dr. Hansen, 63, a physicist who joined the space agency in 1967, directs efforts to simulate the global climate on computers at the Goddard Institute in Morningside Heights in Manhattan.

Since 1988, he has been issuing public warnings about the long-term threat from heat-trapping emissions, dominated by carbon dioxide, that are an unavoidable byproduct of burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels. He has had run-ins with politicians or their appointees in various administrations, including budget watchers in the first Bush administration and Vice President Al Gore.

In 2001, Dr. Hansen was invited twice to brief Vice President Dick Cheney and other cabinet members on climate change. White House officials were interested in his findings showing that cleaning up soot, which also warms the atmosphere, was an effective and far easier first step than curbing carbon dioxide.

He fell out of favor with the White House in 2004 after giving a speech at the University of Iowa before the presidential election, in which he complained that government climate scientists were being muzzled and said he planned to vote for Senator John Kerry.

But Dr. Hansen said that nothing in 30 years equaled the push made since early December to keep him from publicly discussing what he says are clear-cut dangers from further delay in curbing carbon dioxide.

In several interviews with The New York Times in recent days, Dr. Hansen said it would be irresponsible not to speak out, particularly because NASA's mission statement includes the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet."

He said he was particularly incensed that the directives had come through telephone conversations and not through formal channels, leaving no significant trails of documents.

Dr. Hansen's supervisor, Franco Einaudi, said there had been no official "order or pressure to say shut Jim up." But Dr. Einaudi added, "That doesn't mean I like this kind of pressure being applied."

The fresh efforts to quiet him, Dr. Hansen said, began in a series of calls after a lecture he gave on Dec. 6 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. In the talk, he said that significant emission cuts could be achieved with existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor vehicles, and that without leadership by the United States, climate change would eventually leave the earth "a different planet."

The administration's policy is to use voluntary measures to slow, but not reverse, the growth of emissions.

After that speech and the release of data by Dr. Hansen on Dec. 15 showing that 2005 was probably the warmest year in at least a century, officials at the headquarters of the space agency repeatedly phoned public affairs officers, who relayed the warning to Dr. Hansen that there would be "dire consequences" if such statements continued, those officers and Dr. Hansen said in interviews.

Among the restrictions, according to Dr. Hansen and an internal draft memorandum he provided to The Times, was that his supervisors could stand in for him in any news media interviews.

Mr. Acosta said the calls and meetings with Goddard press officers were not to introduce restrictions, but to review existing rules. He said Dr. Hansen had continued to speak frequently with the news media.

But Dr. Hansen and some of his colleagues said interviews were canceled as a result.

In one call, George Deutsch, a recently appointed public affairs officer at NASA headquarters, rejected a request from a producer at National Public Radio to interview Dr. Hansen, said Leslie McCarthy, a public affairs officer responsible for the Goddard Institute.

Citing handwritten notes taken during the conversation, Ms. McCarthy said Mr. Deutsch called N.P.R. "the most liberal" media outlet in the country. She said that in that call and others, Mr. Deutsch said his job was "to make the president look good" and that as a White House appointee that might be Mr. Deutsch's priority.

But she added: "I'm a career civil servant and Jim Hansen is a scientist. That's not our job. That's not our mission. The inference was that Hansen was disloyal."

Normally, Ms. McCarthy would not be free to describe such conversations to the news media, but she agreed to an interview after Mr. Acosta, at NASA headquarters, told The Times that she would not face any retribution for doing so.

Mr. Acosta, Mr. Deutsch's supervisor, said that when Mr. Deutsch was asked about the conversations, he flatly denied saying anything of the sort. Mr. Deutsch referred all interview requests to Mr. Acosta.

Ms. McCarthy, when told of the response, said: "Why am I going to go out of my way to make this up and back up Jim Hansen? I don't have a dog in this race. And what does Hansen have to gain?"

Mr. Acosta said that for the moment he had no way of judging who was telling the truth. Several colleagues of both Ms. McCarthy and Dr. Hansen said Ms. McCarthy's statements were consistent with what she told them when the conversations occurred.

"He's not trying to create a war over this," said Larry D. Travis, an astronomer who is Dr. Hansen's deputy at Goddard, "but really feels very strongly that this is an obligation we have as federal scientists, to inform the public."

Dr. Travis said he walked into Ms. McCarthy's office in mid-December at the end of one of the calls from Mr. Deutsch demanding that Dr. Hansen be better controlled.

In an interview on Friday, Ralph J. Cicerone, an atmospheric chemist and the president of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's leading independent scientific body, praised Dr. Hansen's scientific contributions and said he had always seemed to describe his public statements clearly as his personal views.

"He really is one of the most productive and creative scientists in the world," Dr. Cicerone said. "I've heard Hansen speak many times and I've read many of his papers, starting in the late 70's. Every single time, in writing or when I've heard him speak, he's always clear that he's speaking for himself, not for NASA or the administration, whichever administration it's been."

The fight between Dr. Hansen and administration officials echoes other recent disputes. At climate laboratories of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for example, many scientists who routinely took calls from reporters five years ago can now do so only if the interview is approved by administration officials in Washington, and then only if a public affairs officer is present or on the phone.

Where scientists' points of view on climate policy align with those of the administration, however, there are few signs of restrictions on extracurricular lectures or writing.

One example is Indur M. Goklany, assistant director of science and technology policy in the policy office of the Interior Department. For years, Dr. Goklany, an electrical engineer by training, has written in papers and books that it may be better not to force cuts in greenhouse gases because the added prosperity from unfettered economic activity would allow countries to exploit benefits of warming and adapt to problems.

In an e-mail exchange on Friday, Dr. Goklany said that in the Clinton administration he was shifted to nonclimate-related work, but added that he had never had to stop his outside writing, as long as he identified the views as his own.

"One reason why I still continue to do the extracurricular stuff," he wrote, "is because one doesn't have to get clearance for what I plan on saying or writing."

www.wakingplanet.com

More Effective Than Bush Part 3

more on the microchip...

The FDA has approved implanting microchips into patients in hospitals.

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=199

Those microchips, which are the same ones to be put on the passports, are from the company below.

http://www.verichipcorp.com/




http://www.wanttoknow.info/060109microchipimplants


Also,These implants are already in humans, in a top level corporation in Mexico-used for security clearance- and beer drinkers in England. Problem...these chips can be easily copied...http://www.rense.com/general69/vfid.htmIts amazing what you can find when you use google on the word 'verichip'


This is all very, very real.

banned documentary!

Click and scroll up a bit for the banned documentary.

http://currentera.com/blog/?p=495#comments

Curious.

I almost couldn't stand to post these, but these babies should never be forgotten

Let us Never Forget These Souls...



These photos were taken by Iraqi photogragher Nabil Al-Jorai. They depict the result of a US bombing in the No-Fly Zone in the neighborhood of Jumaria in Basra on January 25, 1999. Seven people were killed in Jumaria that day by US bombs, including the children we see in these photos. The bomb was an AG MI 30 with program ground coordinates latitude and longitude accurate within 10 meters. Manual control is possible as it reaches it's target. Manually accurate up to inches. The Washington Post reported that the missile went astray as it ran out of fuel.

Learn the story:
Get informed about the history of the U.S. conflict with Iraq. Visit the Voices in the Wilderness website and the Electronic Iraq website to brush up on the myths and realities of 13 years of sanctions and war. For a helpful digest, read “Sanctions and War: Myths and Realities.”

Using their own blood in a peaceful protest...

Conspiracy for Spilling Their Own Blood at a Recruiting Center?
(I urge you to read this to the end... it is quite beautiful)

On St. Patrick’s Day 2003, two days before the US military invasion of Iraq began, four peace activists, all parents and members of the Ithaca Catholic Worker movement, in an act of non-violent civil disobedience, entered their local military recruiting station, knelt, said a prayer for peace and then carefully poured their own blood on recruiting center posters, walls and flag to symbolize the violence of war and the sanctity of life. Peter DeMott, Danny Burns, Clare and Teresa Grady (sisters) have been on trial in Federal Court in Binghamton NY, facing charges of "conspiracy to impede an officer of the United States by threat, intimidation and force" and other lesser charges for their actions. They face up to 6 years in federal prison and several fines if convicted. A previous trial in State court on charges of criminal mischief and trespassing resulted in a hung jury, with nine of twelve jurors favoring acquittal. This case is the first Federal conspiracy trial of anti-war protesters since the Vietnam War, and represents a chilling effort by the Administration to repress non-violent civil dissent in this country.

Peter De Mott, Closing Statement, Friday, September 23, 2005
We, all four of us, want to thank you jurors who are the conscience of the community. We trust you to use your heads and also your hearts. We also trust you to read between the lines.
Before we began our testimonies we raised our hands and swore to "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." You all know that again and again we have told you in PART of our concerns about our government's actions and behaviors that have moved us to in turn take the lawful actions which we did in December of 2002 and in March of 2003.
The United States went to war influenced by the lies, forgeries and deceptions put forth by the Bush Administration to justify the war. You, the jury, are now being asked by the prosecutor to render a verdict in this case based on half-truths and falsehoods. You also know that our explanations were often interrupted, and I am sorry that we have not been able to tell you the whole truth that prompted us to act as we did. I wish we could have explained more to you about our understanding regarding the constitution and international law and how those beliefs informed, shaped and guided us in the actions that we took.
The prosecution wants to portray us as people who have no regard for law. Meanwhile roughly two thousand of our military personnel have been killed and over a hundred thousand Iraqis. The national treasury has been robbed of billions of our dollars to wage this war, while the infrastructure of our cities continues to erode as we saw so devastatingly in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
I would submit to you that the prosecutor, Mr. Lovric, has failed to prove us guilty. He has failed to show that we used "force, intimidation or threat to impede an officer of the United States in the performance of his duties" or in any other way. We certainly had a specific intent when we went to the recruiting station but it was not, most emphatically not, the government's version.
Our intent in protesting was to warn young recruits, the recruiters themselves and the broader community that the war about to ensue would claim the lives of tens of thousands. We knew that the war could not be waged without a wholesale waste of blood, of human life, of valuable resources. We knew that the war would contaminate the environment with fallout from depleted uranium munitions and would poison our own troops even as it annihilated the Iraqis. We knew that the war on Iraq, just like all modern wars, would murder mothers and their children, the elderly and other noncombatants in the greatest numbers.
Sadly, and you know this, the warning we, and millions of others around the world tried to give did not prevent the war. But the predictions that frightened us, that were described by all codefendants, have come to pass. You do not have to believe what we believe in order to find that the government has not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The government claims that we conspired in one way or another to damage government property and officials. But there is certainly reasonable doubt about whether what the government says we did, was, in fact, WHAT we did.
Protesting rather than conspiring. Causing a mess rather than damaging property. Being friendly, as Sergeant Rachon Montgomery testified to and non-threatening rather than intimidating. These are all reasonable, sensible conclusions compelled by the evidence and consistent with our legal innocence.
In sum and substance, this trial is about the government's attempt to stop peaceful protest against the war on Iraq, to silence dissent and our voices on this issue.
WE ASK YOU TO DO THE RIGHT THING! WE ASK YOU TO DO JUSTICE! WE ASK YOU TO SAY "NO!" TO DEATH AND WAR! WE ASK YOU TO SAY "YES!" TO LIFE!
Thank You!
Danny Burns, Closing Statement, Friday, September 23, 2005
Members of the jury,
We have come before you in the last few days and tried to share with you about ourselves and our reasons for going to the recruiting center and pouring our own blood.
There is a lot we wanted to tell you, but we weren’t allowed to.
We are peaceful, nonviolent people who went to the recruiting center because we did not want to see our troops blood spilled for a war that was wrong and based on lies.
As I shared earlier in the trial, one of the things that has brought me here is my recovery from alcohol addiction. I am hopeful that just as I have been able, with the help of community, family and higher power, to recover from addiction, that together we can all help our country recover from addiction to war and violence.
I don’t know you, but I imagine that each of you is working, in the ways that are right for you, for what is right in your communities and in our world. I believe that there are many ways to work for a better world. As you go into deliberations, I am asking you to trust that going to the recruiting center to plead for the lives of our young troops was the right way for me to work for justice in our country.
We admit that the four of us met together and planned to go the recruiting center and pour our own blood. We don’t deny that there was a mess, that some posters had to be replaced. We don’t deny that Sgt. Montgomery was inconvenienced.
We submit that causing a mess and inconvenience to try to prevent a war that is wrong and has taken the lives of one thousand eight hundred and ninety five US service people and one hundred thousand Iraqi people, is justified.
We live in a great nation. There are many people in our history we can be very proud of: like local juries who refused to convict people for aiding escaping slaves, like Susan B Anthony who was arrested in Rochester for voting when women were not allowed to vote, working people who risked their lives so that we could have weekends and a forty hour work week. Ours is a country with a government "for the people, of the people, by the people". That is a great gift to us, but it is also a great responsibility that you and I and all citizens have.
For our troops who have been killed in Iraq
For our country’s future
For our young children who we hope and pray will never be called to fight in an illegal, unjust and unnecessary war such as this one
I ask you to use your conscience, your heart, and the law to return a verdict of not guilty on all four counts.
Teresa Grady, Closing Statement, Friday, September 23, 2005:
Men and Women of the jury,
We don’t feel that the Prosecution has proven the violent overtone to our actions.
The charges do not embody our philosophy – which has a long history in the country and in the world – of nonviolence.
Our government, on the other hand, has a long history of violence and of suppressing non-violent dissent.
You have a very difficult task in front of you today.
And I am full of hope.
I was reminded this morning of Peter’s gentleness – Whenever our family gets together – and you can see how we can talk - and its always Peter who brings us back to center, back to the gospel and our focus – to love one another. And that love is in every one of our hearts, and that is what gives me hope.
Our nation has been censoring news and information about the war – they haven’t allowed us to see pictures of the injured or of the damage the war has caused or even the flag draped coffins of the beautiful soldiers who have lost their lives.
This same government has been censoring the information we’ve been able to discuss with you in this courtroom. They have limited the information we can tell you on our understanding of international law that is the justification for our actions. In this courtroom, they have censored the images and information about this war. They have censored images of the victims. They have even censored information on Law!
What kind of a government are we living under?
Our government spends 200 billion dollars on a war based on lies while claiming the lives of the innocent.
You tell me – what recourse do we have to stop it, to stop this perversity before another life is claimed or another penny spent!
We know the economic cost of war while our cities, towns, and nations crumble. People are over-worked in order to pay their taxes; the war tax. Our children and their children are bound to pay back the debt of this war.
New Orleans is our taste of what it must be like in Baghdad.
We are hopeful because in spite of this great evil that seems to cover or shadow us, I believe in the spirit of goodness in all human beings.
When truth is spoken, goodness resonates in the human heart.
We have not been allowed to speak the truth, the whole truth, but our spirits are buoyed in that this censorship is an example of the fear our government has to hide the truth, and how they are desperately clinging to keep a footing. But the fact that they are censoring the truth of the face of the victims of war, including our beautiful young service people; that they are censoring international law, suggests to me that they too believe in goodness resonating in the in the human heart.
This admonition or confession gives me great hope that we’re not off the mark, but rather we must be more steadfast in speaking truth so as to compel the goodness in others.
Miraslov [the prosecutor] would like you to believe that we are alone, or part of a small cult. If this were true, then why has he objected to the use of international law? Our government is censoring the people. Why were we allowed to show you the pictures of the bloodied cutouts of soldiers from the recruiting center, but not the pictures of the Iraqi children buried in the rubble of their own home? Both of which were there the day of the alleged offense. What are they afraid of?
I would like to preface that while I speak about the prosecution, and the representative here is Miraslav, know that his office represents a government that has repeatedly lied to its people, stolen money from our children, grandchildren, from the generations to come, in order to brutally maim, torture and kill our brothers and sisters in another land for their oil. Know that deceit is the name of the game.
We have overdrawn on our national budget. Any farmer could tell you that this is bad planning.
While they threatened us with contempt, we are joyous, because we know we have spoken the truth. They cannot dismantle our integrity.
Miraslov would like you to think that we are arrogant and that we somehow feel that we are above the law. Our first law that we abide by is: To love one another, as He loved us!!
Thou shalt not kill. And then the laws which may not be named that give us our legal ground, justifications, have been stripped from us once again to censor, for they don’t want you, the conscience of our community to resonate with the truth in order for goodness to take place.
I invite you to be the conscience of our community.
To read more about this protest and the four's protests at Guantanamo Bay please visit: www.stpatricksfour.org

THEY know where the next revolution lay...

Are Governments Searching For Subversives Through School Exams?
Paul Joseph Watson January 23 2006

According to the Resistance Blog, A-level students (16-18) in Britain are being asked questions about alternative 9/11 beliefs, conspiracy theories and how much faith they have in government.
Is this part of a vetting process to try and identify the next generation of political dissidents or is it simply an assessment of how deep the alternative truth movement has penetrated the mass collective unconscious?
The exam took place in West Yorkshire England and in the first question, the student was asked to discuss the possibility of governments leading populations into believing facts that are not necessarily true. The source given was an individual who presented an alternative explanation behind 9/11.
Other questions centered around how much the student trusted Tony Blair and George W. Bush.
After the exam ended, the student was taken aside by the head of the exam board and asked if he she had spoken about the content with any other students (who as it turned out had taken a different exam with different questions). Upon denial, the student was told that if she kept it quiet then the exam board would look favorably upon her and give her a good grade.
Late last month we highlighted a case in Washington State where 10th grade students were given 'patriotism tests' that evaluated their faith in the state.
Why are education boards choosing this material? Are they taking orders from a fearful establishment who are keen to measure how far alternative perspectives on modern day events and how they affect the balance between the citizen and the state have perforated societal norms?
In any case, the very fact that such material finds its way into school exams is a good indication of how much reach and influence the alternative media now enjoys in popular culture.

Concentrations Camps in the U.S... and guess who gets to build them?
That's right kids! Halliburton!

KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co. (HAL) , said Tuesday it has been awarded a contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to support its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a 1-year base period with four 1-year options. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000 through 2005. The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs, KBR said. The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, the company said.
Source: marketwatch.com

More Effective Than Bush Part 2

More Effective Than Bush Part I

This cartoon will be a series which depicts objects that would make a more effective presidential leader than Mr. George W. himself. Each has been given careful thought and consideration, and received board approval before being published on this website. Enjoy!

yes, the picture is completely real

This poor woman Lolo Ferrari is now dead from an overdose of prescription drugs. She underwent 18 cosmetic surgeries. She became a porn star at a young age and as you can see, had many breast enlargements. This photo is not altered. Today over 2 thousand websites are dedicated to labioplasty, a surgery for women who want to make their crotch look younger by cutting off labial lips.







The following article is from:
Saturday July 2, 2005 The Guardian

"Shoes," Sheila Jeffreys says, "are almost becoming torture instruments. During a woman's daily make-up ritual, on average she will expose herself to more than 200 synthetic chemicals before she has morning coffee. Regular lipstick wearers will ingest up to four and a half kilos during their lifetime." We are talking about Jeffreys' latest book, Beauty And Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices In The West, and she is in full flow about the horrors of what she calls "the brutality of beauty".
Jeffreys is pursuing her 30-odd-year mission to shift women out of their collective complacency. Beauty And Misogyny is her sixth book. Like the others, its central theme is an exploration of the use of sexuality by men to dominate women. Much of it is spent arguing that beauty practices - from make-up to breast implants - should be redefined as harmful cultural practices, rather than being seen as a liberating choice.
In Jeffreys' latest book, she questions why the beauty industry is expanding, and why liberal feminists should see a virtue in women having the power to choose practices that a few years back were condemned as oppressive. The critique of beauty practices, written about by Dworkin in Women Hating, in 1974, has today all but disappeared, making way for procedures that "break skin and spill blood".
The history of the beauty industry is threaded through the book. Cosmetics have been used to alter appearance for thousands of years, sometimes exclusively by prostitutes and others deemed disreputable, other times as a political gesture. The suffragettes fought for the right to look and dress as they saw fit, some wearing red lipstick as a symbol of feminine defiance. After the second world war, a shortage of men meant that women tried hard to look as attractive as possible in the hope of getting a husband, and make-up became, Jeffreys argues, "a requirement that women could not escape, rather than a sign of liberation".
She has taken on a tough battle: the cosmetics industry is bigger than ever (in Brazil, for example, there are more Avon ladies than members of the armed forces). And she has taken on broader targets, too. The sex industry, the misogyny of fashion, what she calls the "mutilation" of transgender surgery and the dangers of sexual libertarianism are all seen by Jeffreys as intrinsically linked to the beauty industry.
In the chapter on cosmetic surgery, she looks at the growing pressure on women to conform to models of femininity derived directly from the sex industry, such as having trimmed labia and Brazilian waxed pubic hair. "Men's desire for bigger and bigger breasts, and clothes commonly associated with prostitution, has resulted from the mass consumption of pornography."

Jeffreys can always be relied upon to back up her arguments by unearthing facts that are both disturbing and hard to believe. She cites one example of a porn actor who sold bits of her genitals to "fans" over the internet after a labiaplasty operation. She points to studies that have found significantly higher rates of suicide among women who have had breast implants. The latest, conducted in 2003 by the International Epidemiology Institute of Rockville and funded by Dow Corning Corp, a former maker of silicone gel breast implants, included a study of 2,166 women, some of whom received implants as long as 30 years ago. Dow Corning also funded an earlier Swedish study, which examined 3,521 women with implants, and found the suicide rate to be three times higher than normal.
There are other unwanted effects. Nipples can lose sensation and, in extreme cases, rot and fall off; stomach stapling can cause severe swelling in the pubic area; and liposuction can leave a patient in serious pain. A number of women have died after surgery, while others have been left in permanent discomfort.
Jeffreys argues that many male fashion designers are "projecting their misogyny on to the bodies of women", and gives examples of collections featuring images based on sexual violence - Alexander McQueen's show for his masters degree was entitled Jack The Ripper, and depicted bloodied images of Victorian prostitutes. A later show in 1995, Highland Rape, featured staggering, half-naked, brutalised models. And John Galliano, in his 2003 collection for Christian Dior, Hard Core Romance, used the imagery of sadomasochism, putting his models in seven-inch heels and rubber suits "so tight they had to use copious amounts of talcum powder to fit into them".
"One notable difference in fashion shows in the past 10 years is that the models are required to show more and more of their bodies," says Jeffreys. "Some are posed to look as though they are about to engage in fellatio. Pole dancing is now a staple of some fashion events."
For Jeffreys, the last thing women should be doing once they achieve a semblance of choice is returning to practices imposed on them during darker periods. After the US invasion of Afghanistan, for example, beauty clinics opened up all over the country, offering cosmetics as an antidote to the enforced wearing of the burka. "You'd have thought the women would have had other things to worry about," she sighs.
She likens cosmetic surgery such as labiaplasty and breast implants to female genital mutilation. She concedes the distinction that genital mutilation is carried out on children who have no choice in the matter, "but the liberal view of choice, which is that women can now 'choose' to engage in harmful, oppressive actions, does not make the practice of slicing up women's genitals to please men any less vile". As Jeffreys points out, hymen repair surgery, which is available through the public health service in the Netherlands, is sought not only by women whose cultures require them to be virgins when they marry, but also by western women whose partners wish to penetrate a tighter vagina.
Jeffreys unearthed some frightening facts - for example, a Home Office paper claiming that BSE can be transmitted through beauty products because many contain bits of dead animal. Breast implants can contain brain, fat, placenta and spleen. A link between hair dye and bladder cancer was discovered in a US study of 3,000 women who use such products regularly, and formaldehyde, found in nail polish, shampoos and hair-growth preparations, has been outlawed in Sweden and Japan, with the EU allowing its use only in small, regulated quantities.
There is much evidence that children are being targeted by the beauty industry. Kiss Products, a cosmetic retailer, has joined forces with Disney to promote lip gloss and nail polish kits through licensed animated characters. Proctor & Gamble is looking to market its Cover Girl cosmetic range to eight- to 10-year-old girls by making the use of make-up resemble game playing. "It is not only the cosmetic industry that is recruiting young customers," says Jeffreys. "It is becoming more common for young women from affluent families to be given breast implants for their 18th birthday."
Again, she blames the fashion industry. "Some designers are using 12-year-old girls in shows because their bodies are perfect to show off the type of clothing being peddled at the moment. Many men are sexually excited by this look, and the industry exploits this." Parisian designer Stella Cadente used models as young as nine in her 2001 show; it was reported that they wore "plunging necklines and high hemlines". And, Jeffreys points out, Cadente is not alone in using child models in the world of fashion.
Jeffreys maintains that transsexual surgery is an extension of the beauty industry offering cosmetic solutions to deeper rooted problems. She argues that in a society in which there was no such thing as gender, there would be no need to undergo such surgery.
She tells me she will never give up. "I cannot imagine living without a purpose of changing the world for the better. It gives life meaning. It is more urgent now than ever. No liberation is possible for women in a world in which inequality is sexy."

It's so cool

Wal-Mart - Profiting off Poverty

Wal-Mart: Profiting off Poverty*

Wal-Mart founder, Sam Walton, found a way to profit off of poverty. The first Wal-Mart stores were located in poor and working class areas, attracting customers with their low prices. The only problem was that in order for business to grow, there had to be more poverty.

This dilemma was solved by creating low paying jobs. On average, a Wal-Mart employee makes just over 8 dollars an hour. If they want health insurance, then they must pay more than a third of the premium. As a result, many Wal-Mart employees can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart; therefore, the corporation further profits from the exploitation of its workers.

Wal-Mart employees have been fired for joining unions and the corporation repeatedly violates overtime laws, often encouraging employees to clock out and keep working. Wal-Mart has also been known to discriminate against women in pay and promotion.

What can you do to help?
Stop shopping at Wal-Mart.
Take their power away by taking your money elsewhere.

Write to Senator Maurice Hinchey
about Wal-Mart workers-rights abuses:
Office of Rep. Hinchey
City Hall, Third Floor
16 James Street
Middletown, NY 10940

For more information on Wal-Mart's violations, visit: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html
http://www.1worldcommunication.org/Walmart.htm
http://www.now.org/issues/wfw/wm-facts.html

*Source: "Down and Out in Discount America" by Liza Featherstone

Some words from Louise Michel (French Anarchist)

"Who am I, Louise Michel? Don’t make me out to be better than I am, or than you are.I am capable of anything, love or hate, as you are. When the Revolution comes, you and I and all humanity will be transformed. Everything will be changed and better times will have joys that the people of today aren’t able to understand. Feelings for the arts and for liberty will surely become greater, and the harvest of that development will be marvelous. Beyond this cursed time will come a day when humanity, free and conscious of its powers, will no longer torture either man or beast. That hope is worth all the suffering we undergo as we move through the horrors of life."

Milk... it does your body harm.

your privacy for sale

It sounds unbelievable—but did you know that anyone can go online and purchase cell phone or home phone records of people like you?
On January 12, AMERICAblog was able to buy Gen. Wesley Clark's personal cell phone records with no problem. Phone companies and congressional leaders have known about this problem, but they've failed to address it.
Please sign this emergency petition to your congressional representatives today at: www.civic.moveon.org/phonesales/

"Congress and phone companies have dealt a stunning blow to the privacy rights of everyday Americans by allowing cell and home phone records to be sold online to anyone. Congress must immediately pass a law that strictly prohibits these unauthorized sales and begin enforcing this law now."
Think your mate is cheating? For $110, Locatecell.com will provide you with the outgoing calls from his or her cell phone for the last billing cycle, up to 100 calls. All you need to supply is the name, address and the number for the phone you want to trace. Order online, and get results within hours!


-Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 8, 2005;
Page D01

Women in Black is an international peace network that says No to war and violence. Silent vigils are held weekly all over the world. Women in Black began in 1988 in Isreal when Isreali women and Palestinian women stood together calling for peace. For more information go to http://www.womeninblack.net

Holocaust Survivors' Thoughts on God

Why are we here? What makes a man evil; nature or nurture? Does evil even exist? Do we all have a divine path or does everything which happens simply happen by chance? Is there a God? Does he/she control our fate, or is God simply an onlooker? These are just a few questions which plague the mind and heart of the modern thinking man. We do not have the answers we seek. Should we have hope for the future, or live as though there is no such thing as tomorrow? I have come to realize, through my readings of testimonies and diaries of Holocaust survivors, that a place rich in answers to our most burning questions about human nature and the spiritual purpose of mankind, can be found within the experiences of these people.
If anyone would know if God exists and if we have a purpose which is written in the stars, it would be a survivor of tragedy. I encounter believers everyday in my own life. I meet people who claim that they feel God, they know for certain that we are all involved in an ultimate plan and that God loves us no matter what. I am stuck in the middle between those people, and people with a lot of doubt, for how can we know the full experience of God- We who live sheltered, overindulgent lives- but still complain? I have always felt that people with pristine faith in God are a little naive, for they know nothing of the experiences on the other side of life, those experiences such as surviving the Holocaust.
I have always felt that spiritual knowledge must come from experience. Otherwise, we can merely intellectualize an experience. Yet when it comes to a tragedy such as six million Jews tortured and murdered, along with several million others, how can we intellectualize, think we understand, and then still believe in God and fate? We have no right to speak of God indefinitely. When we speak of our values and beliefs we must make it clear in our minds and hearts, that what we feel and see is only a result of what we have experienced. Holocaust survivors, in my opinion, have much more authority on the matter, for they have looked God and the devil in the eyes simultaneously, and came out with their own truth. This truth, for me, has become so much more significant than how people in my everyday world approach the issue of God.
When looking for spiritual truths in Holocaust testimonies, there is one major problem that inevitably arises, which is of course, the difference in beliefs. There seem to be two basic ideas, that of God and fate ruling our lives, and the belief that there is no God and everything happens simply by chance. I have come to realize that there is a basic consensus among survivors, that of needing to believe in God, and thanking God for their survival. Not to say that atheistic survivors are not worth listening to. The point is that there is a general shared belief among most survivors I have encountered. Take the oral testimony of Edith Horowitz for example. Horowitz describes the tragic loss of her father, the pain of enduring hunger and a baby stolen from its mother at birth. She tells us of an SS woman who tortured and beat a young girl for eating a peach, but then caring for a cat. She speaks of a man broiling a piece of flesh taken from a corpse and eating it. It is no surprise that she states, "Whoever pushed harder survived." This suggests that she did not believe in a fated survival for anyone, but a more survival of the fittest belief. Who can blame her after the atrocities which she witnessed? Yet then, interestingly enough, in her later years she became quite religious. "Continuation of Judaism is the most important thing in our lives." It cannot even be argued that she believes in God because of the separation in years of the experience, for she says, "I still have nightmares. Every night I dream that I am back in camp." Thirty-eight years later, she still relives her experience of the Holocaust every night. "Not a day passes when I don’t think about it." Although Horowitz practices Judaism, which means a belief in God, she does not believe in fate. "I survived by sheer luck." It seems that Edith Horowitz wove a complicated web of beliefs in her lifetime. Yet there is a solid philosophy behind her words.
Unlike Horowitz, Brandla Small seems to grapple with different beliefs in a higher power, although she may not realize it. She prayed, "God be with me," as she hid with her baby underneath a bed. She believed God had the power to save her baby. Yet then the baby stayed quiet, which leads us to believe that the baby’s random actions led to its survival. Yet then Small says, "That time I saved my child." If she believes she saved her child on her own, then why did she pray to God for help?
Small describes her camp experience where mothers smothered their own children; her four year old daughter was taken from her arms; and also being forced to eat mud out of unbearable thirst. After all of this, Small shows her ideas of luck. "Do I have such bad luck? Not to find anybody of such a big family?" She equates her lone survival to bad luck, providing us with the understanding that she does not believe in fate. Yet then she opens up immensely by saying, "Sometimes God doesn’t forget about us. I believe in God. I’m a believer, a big believer. Thank God." Not only does Small believe in a higher power, she thanks that God for making her a believer! After what this woman witnessed, that is a huge piece of truth!
Elie Wiesel has been portrayed as a tortured spirit and a definite atheist. In his book Night he actually declares his atheism. Yet in his article, "Why I Write: Making No Become Yes," he leads us to believe otherwise. He says, "Our Jewish children had no effect upon the killers, nor upon the world, nor upon God." Now, although this could be taken as a statement proving God’s failure to exist, it can be viewed otherwise when compared to other quotes from the article. For example, he writes, "God? He remains the God of darkness." This suggests, in conjunction with the earlier sited quote, that Wiesel does believe in a God, although that God has been dark and unfeeling." His belief in God is shown completely within the one quote which he sites, "When man, in his grief, falls silent, then God gives him the strength to sing his sorrows." Wiesel ends his article with this quote. If Wiesel agrees that God gives man strength to release his pain, then how can he be called an atheist? As far as fate, his beliefs are quite clear. "I have survived by chance."
There are many other survivors whose beliefs are less enigmatic, such as Rozalia Berke. She states, "God was with us, for after twenty-four hours the Russians were in and the Germans escaped."
Whatever one’s own spiritual and philosophical beliefs are, it is undeniable that many answers lie in the hearts of survivors of the Holocaust. For who are we to decide on a God? For as Wiesel said, "You will not understand, you will never understand, you who never lived under a sky of blood, will never know what it was like." Indeed, we wish not to know, truly, what it was like. Yet we will always have a spiritual obligation to listen.
-Lauren C. Williams

Animal Liberation Front

The ALF (Animal Liberation Front) is considered the number ONE domestic terrorist group. This is group of people that frees ANIMALS from deplorable and torturous conditions. They return the animals to the wild or find homes for them. How is this on the same level as car bombs and assassinations? Some members do use tactics such as arson (mainly on buildings without inhabitants), but wouldn't you want to burn down some rich guy's home or lab if you knew that he was sticking chemicals in the eyes of baby bunnies ?


My best friend has friends in her hometown in Pennsylvannia who have gone to jail for EIGHT years for freeing chickens and then burning down the factory farm they were locked in. What was the crime? Returning intelligent beings, capable of feeling emotion back to nature. Who suffered from this "act of terror?" The meat eaters who missed one night's worth of chicken and the corporate farmers who missed one dime? The nonsense the government is spewing about "domestic terrorist" is just to get your eyes off the real terrorists: THE UNITED STATES.


For more info on the freeing of animals, check out this website, updated daily : http://www.directaction.info/

Letter to Newsday RE: Haiti

Well, the good folks at Newsday decided to publish an article about Haiti. Too bad they got all their information wrong. I wrote them a letter, but they failed to publish that as well. So, instead, I shall post the information here, where it is appreciated:

Letter to the Editor
In Reference to Sunday, January 1st Cover Story: "Haiti A Place of Fear and Havoc"

To Whom It May Concern,

I appreciate seeing information about Haiti being posed in NEWSDAY. However, what I find alarming is that you left out the most crucial piece of information. You claimed that former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by a coup d’etat by local gangs in 2004. Yet, the truth is that the United States orchestrated this overthrow. According to Mark Weisbrott, the U.S. cut off economic aid from the Inter-American Development bank and the World Bank from 2001-2003. This created more misery and poverty in Haiti led to an increasingly intense atmosphere. Using this as an excuse, on February 29th, 2004, "U.S. officials told Aristide that they could not guarantee his safety...they told Aristide he was going to a news conference. They took him instead to the airport where he boarded a plane to an unknown location, which turned out to be the Central African Republic" (Weisbrott, page1 ).

I also heard this story first hand, as reported from Ben Dupuy, the former Haitian Ambassador at Large, at a local meeting of the Mid Hudson Valley activist group, "The Caribbean and Latin-American Support Project," on April 3rd, 2005.

My point being, the United States is not the supreme hero, guardian of freedom or humanitarian protector that it claims to be. Much of the violence in Haiti today is a direct cause of United States intervention in the removal of President Aristide.

Yet the Haitian people continue to take to the streets, demanding the return of their elected president and the release of political prisoners. According to Laura Flynn and Robert Roth, under Aristide, Haitians witnessed the increased construction of schools and literacy centers. Between 1994-2000, they built 195 primary schools and 104 high schools. The government also granted 70% government subsidies for textbooks and uniforms, and the lunch program now served more than 700,000 hot meals per day to students (p. 4-5). In the area of healthcare, Aristide increased the amount money from the national budget to 13.7%, opened 20 new centers for AIDS treatment, and had arranged with Cuba to have 800 Cuban doctors served the poor communities of Haiti, while 247 medical students of Haiti attended free medical school in Cuba(p. 6). Aristide also doubled the minimum wage and organized a land reform act that redistributed land to some of Haiti’s poorest residents (p.7).

These are just a few of the achievements of Aristide’s government. Unfortunately, many of these programs have been shut down after the coup. The people of Haiti are suffering tremendously at the hands of the United States government. I believe it is only fair and respectful to add this information to your article. Printing news that only contains one side of the story suppresses the truth and goes against the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.


References

Dupuy, Ben. (April 3rd, 2005). Caribbean and Latin-American Support Project Speaker: Former Haitian Ambassador. http://www.hvan.org/calendar/cal_event.php?id=2503

Flynn, Laura & Roth, Robert. (February 2005). "We will not forget: Achievements of the Lavalas in Haiti." Haiti Action Committee. http://www.haitiaction.net/News/WWNF/2_28_5.html

Weisbrott, Mark. (March, 7th 2005). "In Haiti, hunger in dark places,’ is Real." The Houston Chronicle.

The True Story of the Aztec Conquest

The True Story of Cortes, the Conquistadors and the Battle for Tenochtitlan

Contray to popular belief, Hernan Cortes was not a hero. He is not a figure to be worshipped. Rather, he was a supreme manipulator, who's greed was only surpassed by his bloodlust. The following is an account of the Rise and Fall of the Aztec Empire, according to sources that were dictated by Aztecs who survived the conquest, recorded by missionaries loyal to the Mexica.* While some of the signs and omens seem a little hard to believe, keep in mind the these same events were witnessed by three separate people, in three different locations in the empire. Futhermore, I am only relaying what they have seen.

The Aztec's ancestors, the Toltecs, lived under the guidance of Quetzalcoatl. But eventually, they had to abandon their home in Tula because of the invading tribes. Quetzalcoatl departed eastward, promising that some day he would return from across the sea. Aztecs in Tenochtitlan and Tlateloco recorded the same events as follows: Centuries later, Quetzalcoatl became a legend and a God. It was predicted that he would return in the Year of Reed One (1519) to rule over the Aztecs. Two years before, Reed One, the Aztec recorded many bad omens (which indicated something was about to happen). The first omen was a fiery signal that was shaped like an ear of corn. The Aztecs said appeared at midnight, burned until the break of day and vanished at sunrise. The second bad sign: the temple of Huitzilopochtli burst into flames, and the people could not put out the mysterious fire. The third sign: the temple of Xiuhtecuhtli was struck by lightening. The fourth bad omen: three lines of fire streamed through the sky during the day. The fifth sign: water of lake Texcoco became violent and flooded the island, destroying many homes. The sixth bad sign: people heard a woman crying at night, saying "My children, we must flee far away from this city." The seventh sign: a strange creature that was captured by Aztecs in a fishing net. It looked like a crane that was the color of ashes. They brought it to King Motecuhzoma. The bird wore a mirror in the middle of its head. Although it was day time, the mirror reflected the moving night skies. The second time Motecuhzoma looked at the mirror, he saw an army moving across a plain in great haste, it appeared that they were riding animals that looked like deer. When the king told his magicians and wise men to look at the mirror, the images had vanished. The eighth sigmonstrousous beings that appeared in the streets, men with two heads. But after they were captured, they too disappeared.

Year of Reed One: An Aztec commoner reported seeing strange objects on the horizon, they looked like floating towers or mountains. Motecuhzoma sent his messengers and magicians to observe these strange things. They too saw the same things in the water. They also saw people with skin and hair much lighter than theirs. They believed that the Gods had descended to Earth and were here to take the throne. It was the Year of Reed One and Quetzalcoatl promise was coming true. Or so they thought.

Motecuhzoma sent messengers to greet the Gods. They brought the finest gold, emeralds, armor, headdresses made with feathers, and rich cloth. The king also sent them with fine foods. The Spanish accepted these gifts. But Cortes had heard the rumors that the Aztecs were great warriors (he had stopped at other island before he reached Mexico). He gave the two messengers Spanish weapons and said they would fight two Spanish soldiers in the morning to see who was really better. Instead of fighting, Motechuzoma sends more gifts (because he does not want to fight with the people who he believed were gods). He also sent magicians to do their magic and make the Spanish leave; however, their spells failed and the Spanish invaders remained.

Now the Spanish knew that there is a large supply of gold in the capital of the Aztec Empire. Cortes and his army decided to march to Tenochtitlan to see how much treasure was there. Along the way, the meet the Tlaxcaltecas, who have been paying in tribute and blood to the Aztecs for many years. They became allies drew closer to Tenochtitlan, Motechuzoma decided, against the advice of his brother and other lords, to let the Spanish into the capital and welcome them. He still believed that they could be the gods.

The Spanish were greeted with food, such as tortillas, hens' eggs, fried chicken, pure water, flowers shaped like hearts, and more gold and precious stones. The Spanish stayed in the King's palace. Then they began to demand more gold. They ripped the feathers off of the shields that the Aztecs gave to them, putting all the gold in one pile, and burning everything else. Then they melted the gold down into bars. The Aztecs became very frightened when they saw the SpaniardsÂ’ greed.

Cortes was now holding King Motecuhzoma prisoner in the palace. Cortes left Tenochtitlan for a while to take care of some business in Cuba. While he was away, an important day on the Aztec Calendar arrived.

The day to honor the God Huitzilopochtil had arrived. The Aztecs begged the imprisoned King to let them celebrate their holiday. The Spaniards decided to allow this; they were curious to see the tradition. The Aztecs gathered in the Main temple, without weapons or armor of any kind. "At this moment, in the fiesta, when the dance was loveliest and when song was linked to song, the Spaniards were seized with an urge to kill the celebrants. They all ran forward, armed as if for battle. They closed the entrances and passageways, all the gates of the patio... They posted guards so that no one could escape, and they rushed into the Sacred Patio to slaughter the celebrants. They came on foot, carrying their swords and their wooden or metal shields... They attacked all the celebrants, stabbing them, spearing them, striking them with their swords. They attacked some from behind and these fell instantly to the ground with their entrails hanging out. Others they beheaded: they cut off their heads or split their heads to pieces... Some attempted to force their way out, but the Spaniards murdered them at the gates. Others climbed the walls, but they could not save themselves. Those who ran into the communal houses were safe there for a while; so were those who lay down among the victims and pretended to be dead..."

When the news of this massacre was heard outside of the Patio, those Aztecs tried to attack the Spaniards. But the Spaniards retreated and hide in the palace, safe for the now. "The Mexicans who had died in the massacre were taken out of the patio one by one and inquires were made to discover their names. The fathers and mothers of the dead wept and lamented. Each victim was taken to his home and then to the Sacred Patio, where all the head were brought together. Some of the bodies were later burned in the place called the Eagle Urn, others in the House of the Young Men."

Cortes began to return to the capital. The Aztecs made plans to ambush him, however, he escaped. Angry at the Aztecs, he ordered the cannons to be fired. The Aztecs renewed their attack on the palace and the battle lasted for 4 days. Motecuhzoma was killed during this battle.

Cortes and his army decided to flee from Tenochtitlan after this battle. They left in the middle of the night, but their retreat was discovered. The Aztecs attacked them as they left by canoes. This became known as the Night Of Sorrows. Spanish bodies and dead horses clogged the canals by the end of the night. The Aztecs had their revenge.

The Aztecs celebrated their victory the next day, convinced that they Spaniards would not return. But their luck ran a short time after. A plague of smallpox struck the city, which lasted 70 days and killed a vast number of people. Aztec account: "The illness was so dreadful that no one could walk or move. The sick were so utterly helpless that they could only lie on their beds like corpses, unable to move their limbs or even their heads. They could not lie face down or roll from one side to the other. If they did move their bodies, they screamed with pain. A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not get up to search for food and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds."

With the Aztecs weakened by the plague, the Spaniards took the opportunity to attack again. They rode in on their horses and set fire to temples. Warriors rallied and began battle with their enemies again. The Aztecs won many small battles, successfully pushing back the Spaniards. But they were no match for the Spanish cannons and guns. They were losing the war. The

Aztecs took refuge in Tlateloco, the market district. Soon the Spaniards set up a blockade around Tlateloco, cutting off all canals and causeways. "The Spanish blockade caused great anguish in the city. The people were tormented by hunger and many starved to death. There was no fresh water to drink, only stagnant water and the brine of the lake. The only food was lizards, swallows, corncobs and the salt grass of the lake. The people also ate water lilies and the seeds of the colorin, and chewed on deer hides and pieces of leather. They roasted and seared and scorched whatever they could find and ate it. They ate the bitterest of weeds and even dirt. Nothing can compare with the horrors of that siege and the agonies of starving. We were so weakened by hunger, that little by little, then enemy forced us to retreat. Little by little, they forced us to the wall."

The Spaniards attacked the city again, the Aztecs tried to defend themselves. Then one night, neither side fought; they watched and waiting for a whole day. That night, the Aztecs witnessed a final omen. "In the sky, was a great fire, it wheeled in enormous spirals, giving off showers of red sparks. It circled the wall nearest the lakeshore, then hovered for a while. It moved out to the middle of the lake and then disappeared. No one cried out when this omen came into view: the people knew what it meant and they watched it in silence."

Many people tried to flee the city. Spaniards searched them for gold, even the women. Many were killed because the Spaniards were angry that the men still wore armor and carried their macanas.

The next day, the new King, Cuahuatemoc called for the warriors to surrender. Out of the 300,000 bravest warriors, 240,000 had been killed. Almost all of the nobility had perished. All that remained were a few lords, knights and the little children.

Cortes demanded the remainder of the gold in the capital. He told some of the remaining Aztecs that they could live in Tlateloco, but they were forbidden to ever return to Tenochtitlan. According to Cortes, the Aztec capital was now home of the Gods.^

Not too much is known about the Aztecs' culture. The codices that contained information about their rituals and traditions were burned by the first missionaries who attempted to Christanize them. Many of their temples were taken apart and new Catholic Churches were built on top of them. To the priests, this signified that the Aztecs' religious beliefs were wrong and that Catholisim was right. Yet the Aztecs had chosen to build their temples on these certain locations based on the belief that the area had spiritual energy. So when they saw the priest building the churches on the same location, it reinforced their belief about the sacredness of the location.

While present day Mexico City now stands upon Tenochtitlan, there are still some surviving ruins. The culture of the Mexica has also survived. Some still speak Nahautl, although it is becoming increasingly difficult. The ancient language does not have words for the technology we have access to today, because these objects did not exist during the times of the Aztecs. For instance, "train" is called "metal snake," and "television" is referred to as "far away pictures. The Mexica are working to build a movement today and calling for recognition of their culture. For more information, please visit: http://www.mexica-movement.org/

*Aztecs were also known as: the Mexica, Nahau and "the people of the sun."

*All quotations take from "Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico" by Miguel Leon-Portilla

^Referring to the Europeans.

please visit:

Micro-chipped Population

...And here we are, the preamble to the micro-chipped population, all in the name of illusory security; security that can never be guaranteed, but will be sold to a fearful public. Freedom is not given away overnight. No, it is instead voluntarily given away, a voice suffocated by an infinity of tiny knots. Then one day, you turn around, and you can no longer breathe.The present Bush administration has formed a veritable noose with its knots. And so, freedom is ushered away with the sound of thunderous applause....1) All new U.S. passports to be micro-chipped, starting Oct. 2006, as per new mandate ordered by the Bush Administration:
http://netscape.com.com/Passports+to+get+RFID+chip+implants/2100-7348_3-5913644.html?part=netscape&subj=5913644&tag=ns_tech2) Computer chips underneath the skin already in domestic use:
(i) for picture (look at the hand)- http://channels.netscape.com/tech/?floc=cp-tos-feat-b-03
(ii) for article- http://channels.netscape.com/tech/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0002/20060106/0940672310.htm

* Remember- government has all technology light years before the public. We experience only the mere tip of the iceberg concerning what they ALLOW us to know exists. Government clearly has implantable technology- as is evident by the fact that it already is in domestic use. It must have traveled through their gate to end up in the hands of a civilian. Furthermore, given that the chips in the passports obviously provide all security information about the individual, and, the chips that are being implanted domestically provide a whole host of other superior technological functions- combine the two, and you have a veritable recipe for implanting those same chips into the individual, and foregoing the paper passport all together (akin to what happened to cash).

We are being prepared.

Consider the passport article. "Out of the 2,335 comments on the plan that were received by the State Department this year, 98.5 percent were negative." These concerns decry the ability for technically savvy identity thieves to swipe these electrical signals straight out of the air- yielding all of your identity. This isn't all that difficult to imagine either...it happens all the time- like in times past when your old phone, or new, picked up another phone's signal. Yet, the Bush Administration pushes on while turning a deaf ear to this next potential problem...which may very likely be framed as follows:
'We need to take these measures to insure your safety...but, terrorists and identity thieves have grown in complexity alongside us...we must take greater precautions.'

Consider the strategy coined by David Icke- 'problem-reaction-solution'; namely, the powers that be desire a 'solution', so they create the climate for the problem (the need for heightened security), which will then elicit a reaction from the public (protect us from terror!) and they will then inject their previously intended 'solution'- added security measures. Just like the USA Patriot Act, and the recent bugging scandals (possible grounds for impeachment?) to name a pathetic two.we now have the passport debacle. This passport chip will evolve into a smart card with our identity information and our cash, and will then ultimately end up under our skin, when theft and security concerns like the ones named above fall from our terrified populace.Combine these two articles, add the government, as well as the omnipresent, forever imminent threat of terror.

Do the math.

Also, do some research and you will see that these chips are already everywhere.

We are being prepared.

The article below, for example, shows how chips similar to the ones used on these passports are already being used on prison inmates and even gillette razors. We will say "oh yeah, I've heard of that. Can't be that bad...and, hey...if we need it to stop those terrorists!...'
http://netscape.com.com/RF-IDing+the+dead/2008-1006_3-6017623.html

It is a brave new world out there...well, at least it better be.

Channeling by Orpheus Phylos

Archangel Michael
Orpheus Phylos
With aid of the Yahweh and Elohim energy, man is able to be birthed back again into higher vibration. That means all souls who are ready are going to come back into the law of One. What does that mean? The law of one is All That Is in its perfection. That means, beloved souls, it is peace; it is love. Terra, the earth as you know it now, is a magnificent school, a great learning place. It is held very close unto the Father's bosom. It was a great sacrifice for the soul to choose to come into this experience. Yes, all souls would have to go through a time when the cell memories would not recall their perfection; therefore, each would remain for a time under the laws of karma or the laws of reincarnation. You are here so your molecular nature may begin to increase in cellular vibration to a higher light quality. When this occurs, your higher mind is going to become more predominant over the nature of the intellect or ego. How you use your gifts in your physical activities demonstrates who you really are.
How did it come to be this way? Those who later abandoned the law of One wanted to take what was not theirs. They wanted to control others, to create adversity and perform demonstrative activities. Therefore two groups existed, those who were of the light and those who created total destruction. As in times gone by, many are using the computer and crystalline sophistication of technology to control man. This energy continues in those beings who have chosen not to change and still favor destructive activities. Yet those energy souls are also coming forth to work for peace and restoration of the law of One.
Think of all those beings over the eons of time who, in spite of rejection, have dropped spiritual seeds to help humanity evolve, thus assuring the planet's educational program. Today there are many of you awakening into your own godhood, who will create a new world by your model. Yes, everything is in a process of evolution now, so the healers and teachers who wish to assist others must recognize that everyone is different.
Learn to relax. Relaxation means you are learning how to open the doors to your inner world. It can be through meditation. It can be just simply sitting alone in a place that is serene. In the concentration level there is surrendering in total trust to entering a God-empowered reality. Those having cancer, AIDS etc. must get into their inner world because it holds the etheric vibration of the Central Sun that can manifest positive change in its outer world body. So as you think it, is will be, which is why you must be very cautious and very careful how you think!
But you must also learn to look at the negative force and become aware of those thoughts as they come into the body, so they can be recognized, stopped... and then processed into the higher supermind as positive.
The unconscious mind is like a doorway. It receives thoughts from the conscious mind which it immediately processes. So if you are aware you are thinking "I can't," and you immediately notice and use the positive power of the central mind from the Central Sun, it is immediately cancelled and shifted. There is nothing a soul cannot do, even the healing of its body self. You must absolutely be in the now. Do this by calling out, "God mind, tell my brain that I am healthy and I am happy today." You never say, "I will be." The key word is now, because remember the word know of knowledge also contains within its vibrational pattern the harmonic sound of the word now. Affirm positive ideas every day, every hour if possible.
Avoid saying "I believe this or that," say, "I know it." When you know it, you now it. Therefore it is.
Mind can always overcome matter. It takes courage. It takes strength. And it takes discipline. Discipline, beloved souls, contains the word disciple.
Every organ holds a different vibration, yet within its composite it holds the total vibration of the law of One. When the vibration becomes imbalanced, it is because you are thinking negatively. The genetic system of mind is being used negatively by humans who believe limited thoughts caused by worldly illusions they see about them. If you believe the illusions of limitation your innate inner power will create it. Every thought is like a "Y" in a road. It is a choice deciding your future destination! You may have heard about this concept of positive thinking many times before, yet have you mastered its practice in your everyday life?
After a great cleansing and rearrangement of the favored few leaders, a new government under the law of One will come forth to empower peace. Historians will hold open the doors of sealed remembrance into long-forgotten truths. You came to bring God into matter. Know, beloved souls, the light comes through thee by your free will decision and application of love and wisdom. Gratitude and appreciation are important, so be grateful to the Creator, for your own light body, for the conscious awakening you are experiencing, for your wonderful planet earth with its beauty and nourishments of food, its animals, birds, rocks, plants and minerals. Be grateful for the greatest and smallest of wonders and remember to acknowledge the sweetness of touch, a joyful smile and the caring of a loving heart and soul.

Keep In Mind

The truth of who we are?

New Cells, New Bodies, New Life!
Virginia Essene
One of your greatest challenges is learning to let go of fear caused by wanting to control earthly circumstances which are presently under divine transformation. A lack of structure is not easy to accept!
Let me assure you that these incoming energies bring healing to your soul and physical genetic body patterns. You must surely recognize that you are more then your body and have the capacity to experience higher energy vibration, as in meditation, for example. Thus, even though you are vibrating at a fairly low frequency rate in order to exist here enfleshed as you are, your body’s genetic intelligence and encoded memory patterns are awakening. Now they must be healed. For this healing to happen, the cells must receive and retain more light and be released of many restrictions, limitations and imperfections caused by your present life. You must be cleansed back as far as four generations, at least, as far as physical body conditions, emotional attitudes, and mental perceptions are concerned.
It will come in varying stages for each person. We wish you could see the rays and waves of energy and light- the minute frequencies and emanations- that are showering down on earth to make your transformation possible. You must use your faith and intuition as guideposts during this present expansion. These energy frequencies of alternating currents, from mechanical motors and a variety of inventions used in the military, business, industry and your personal homes, are not compatible with certain human body frequencies of direct current. Remember that TV's, computers and a host of other gadgets can have harmful effects on your health and emotional stability, depending on exposure and how you use them; we cannot overemphasize the many challenges you face in maintaining positive thinking, emotional stability and a healthy body during this extraordinary time.
In your mind's awareness, you must remain attentive to the journey, take frequent rest breaks to relax and deepen your inner guidance.
Please do all you can to remain calm within and know you are capable of this wonderful shift.
You are a massive complex of biochemical systems and energy currents which must be kept balanced. If you create powerful negative thoughts and store negative emotions over a period of time, these will eventually disrupt the balance of health and be lodged inside the body. You can actually feel, by pressing the skin, the compressed packets or congealed globules of densified, unmoving energy. The flow of energy must be restored. For the seriousness of mental and emotional pain left to fester in the body causes many forms of disease and debilitation.
Your children, still young and being born, need this imformation early on! They need your support to help them maintain a healthy life. Imagine the opportunity you have for your offspring. For do you not say in the secret sweetness of your heart, that you want your child yo have a better life? In ways difficult to describe in your present perception, you could be giving them a start toward eternal life. Every living person should make the understanding of life energy a primary focus in education- at home or in the schools. You are a sacred functional lifeform, slightly out of kilter through ignorance and emotional upheaval, but we are here to help you gain joyful balance in health.
Eat healthy foods, avoid toxic drugs, establish exercise periods for free-flowing bodily movements, have quiet times, commune with nature and don't force yourself to do all the unnecessary running around engendered by materialistic societies. Relax frequently. Reorganize time to serve you, not master you.
If your body is weary or your emotions are malcontent, slow down and merge into the holiness you truly are. Be still. Be loved.
Dancing, singing and joyful sharings from natural things also help to bring heaven to earth. Laugh! Laugh long and hard. Love is your true inheritance. Go outdoors! Breathe! Move! Enjoy the body's vitality. It is a precious resource.
Do you sense that your contacts with other people need fewer words?
You will continue to have more and more synchronistic events and occurences.
Understand that your consciousness in phasing back and forth between two worlds, which is why you may experience an acceleration in the passing of time. Doesn't it seem to evaporate? Simply vanish? Your expanding inner light is affecting your bodily reality. Unsettling things now happen more often, and you need to be soothed, not upset or nervous.
DO NOT FOCUS ON NEGATIVITY.
This is why we direct you into spiritual frindships more and more often, and suggest you group together for frequent discussions and joyful activities. Singing, dancing, hiking, loving interaction and consensus decision-making focused on the highest and best good for all concerned are encouraged. Group consciousness can create higher and more frequent levels of manifestation for personal and planetary good then separate individuals can accomplish.
How many hours do you spend with caring and loving people and animals?
How many hours are you out gardening or walking in nature and how often do you have experiences and activities that make your life meaningful?
There has never been a greater time for you to be relaxed and at peace than now.
Certain laws and principles exist, support and control cosmic existence, and there is a plan for both the physical places (planets, stars etc.) and for man. The evolutionary plan for man is individual and collective.
As a human being your willingness to continue learning and cooperating with the divine plan of evolution is your spiritual signature or soulprint and is recognized by us quite uniquely. Cosmic energies and human consciousness are in synergistic relationship. Consciousness now has only two choices: to join in with the flow or to resist the flow. Joining can bring unbelievable miracles. You can be healed by humanity's positive group intention for peace and the preservation of life. There will be economic collapses caused by excessive material pleasure, misuse of planetary resources, and authoritarian misuse of military power for control over others by war and violence. The divine plan inexorably moves everything closer toward that goal of vital sacredness that cannot be ignored or avoided- only prolonged.
Free will responses of a positive outgoing pattern represent the way by which you can free yourself of darkness. There is a greater divine embrace that awaits you all. Be comforted and comfort one another. True life is just beginning. Your body's rainbow-energy will soon arch in an upward flow of eternal life, toward the heart of its Creator.