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July 21, 2006
OT 06-65
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Chuckle time…Happy Friday —– Some things Really Are Global — Future of Technocratic Culture
Posted by: jj | Jul 21 2006 6:55 utc | 2
U.S. Reduces Testing for Mad Cow Disease, Citing Few Infections
The Agriculture Department said yesterday that it would scale back testing for mad cow disease by about 90 percent, saying the number of infected animals was far too low to justify the current level of surveillance.
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“We think this is just absurd,” said Michael K. Hansen, an expert on the disease at Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, and a frequent critic of the Agriculture Department. “They’re playing Russian roulette with public health.”
Because the department gives few details about animals that are tested, Mr. Hansen said, it is impossible to tell how many truly high-risk animals — those with unsteadiness, aggressiveness and other symptoms of the brain disease — have been screened. Most of the animals were described only as dead on farms or arriving dead at slaughterhouses, from unknown causes.
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This year, the Agriculture Department’s inspector general found serious flaws in the testing process. Testing is voluntary, and the department pays about $100 for samples, so sampling was not random.
Slaughterhouses eager to recoup some of their disposal costs for dead animals, but not eager to be shut down, had an incentive to send in samples from animals less likely to test positive.
About 1,000 tests a day are now conducted, which is about 1 percent of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year. That will drop to about 100 a day, a saving of millions of taxpayer dollars, Mr. Johanns said. Before the first case of the disease was detected, the department was testing fewer than 55 cattle a day.
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The Agriculture Department still prohibits companies from doing their own tests. Creekstone Farms, a company based in Kansas that used to do a large business with Japan, has filed a suit asking the courts to overturn the department’s decision forbidding it to test all its cattle, as its Japanese customers demanded.
The department had ruled that universal testing was scientifically unnecessary and, echoing a concern of larger players in the cattle industry, said that it could make consumers think that untested beef was not safe.
b,
there was a similar attitude in the EU, whee agricultural bureaucrats explaind that taking steps to address the possibility of BSE would unneccesariy upset consumers.
It’s okay, they got over it.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 21 2006 8:20 utc | 6
“In 2006, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)distributed a 38-question survey to 5,918 FDA scientists to examine the state of science at the FDA. The results paint a picture of a troubled agency: hundreds of scientists reported significant interference with the FDA’s scientific work, compromising the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission of protecting public health and safety.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 21 2006 10:57 utc | 9
#1 reason why americans cannot count on the federal government. You don’t get quality decisions about state of the art biochemicals from people making only $65.8K per year.
As someone here often says, Welcome to the yoyo (you on your own) econonmy), Now git ON DOWN to mickey D’s and DON’T forgit to get your unhappy meal.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 21 2006 11:05 utc | 10
@Cloned Poster
Yeah great front page, but remember this cover?
Posted by: RIck Happ | Jul 21 2006 14:14 utc | 11
And now for something rather different – a positive vision of the world transformation that might be within our reach. I’m too pessimistic to think so, myself, but sometimes I’m just too pessimistic in general.
The Great Turning: from Empire to Earth Community
Perhaps you’ve seen David Korten’s book When Corporations Rule the World. Common Dreams recently published an article drawn from Korten’s newly released book The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. An excerpt:
Our nation is on the wrong course not because Americans have the wrong values. It is on the wrong course because of remnant imperial institutions that give unaccountable power to a small alliance of right-wing extremists who call themselves conservative and claim to support family and community values, but whose preferred economic and social policies constitute a ruthless war against children, families, communities, and the environment.
The distinctive human capacity for reflection and intentional choice carries a corresponding moral responsibility to care for one another and the planet. Indeed, our deepest desire is to live in loving relationships with one another. The hunger for loving families and communities is a powerful, but latent, unifying force and the potential foundation of a winning political coalition dedicated to creating societies that support every person in actualizing his or her highest potential.
In these turbulent and often frightening times, it is important to remind ourselves that we are privileged to live at the most exciting moment in the whole of the human experience. We have the opportunity to turn away from Empire and to embrace Earth Community as a conscious collective choice. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
more info at http://www.yesmagazine.org/greatturning
Posted by: mistah charley | Jul 21 2006 15:18 utc | 12
Ordering a pizza in the Bush Panopticon
from: CorrenteWire
Posted by: beq | Jul 21 2006 15:27 utc | 14
Sources: Negroponte Blocks CIA Analysis of Iraq “Civil War”
I’ve learned from two sources that some senior figures at the CIA, along with a number of Iraq analysts, have been pushing to produce a new NIE. They’ve been stonewalled, however, by John Negroponte, the administration’s Director of National Intelligence, who knows that any honest take on the situation would produce an NIE even more pessimistic than the 2004 version. That could create problems on the Hill and, if it is leaked as the last one was, with the public as well.
“What do you call the situation in Iraq right now?” asked one person familiar with the situation. “The analysts know that it’s a civil war, but there’s a feeling at the top that [using that term] will complicate matters.” Negroponte, said another source regarding the potential impact of a pessimistic assessment, “doesn’t want the president to have to deal with that.”
@beq
Yeah, beq I kin smell that pizza from here, all part of the ‘New World Odor’ …
Sarcastic Dadaist juxtapostion of footage from the 1929 version of Phantom of the Opera with George W. Bush who share much in common aside from being ugly mothers. Music by Ministry. Special guest empathy by Michelle Malkin.
Watch it long enough to see:
Don’t run, we’re your friends…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 21 2006 15:45 utc | 16
Just noted that Billmon removed the link to Bull Moose’s blog. Long overdue. In substitution he may want to consider adding urbansurvival.com and glenngreenwald.blogspot.com. Thanks.
Posted by: D | Jul 21 2006 15:52 utc | 17
Tinfoil hat stuff or not?
Rick Happ, Israel has been caught red-handed pulling false-flag operations in the past. Look up the Lavon affair from 1954 as an example.
Posted by: Ensley | Jul 21 2006 16:12 utc | 18
Thank you Uncle. Must wait till later. YouTube gives me fits. I can’t get access on one computer and the other takes forever to download. 😛
Posted by: beq | Jul 21 2006 17:32 utc | 19
This is an as Important a diary as your ever going to read imo..
Take Newt Seriously
As we know, Gingrich is a master of manipulation language, and Doublespeak.
And quite very possiblly, could reign in something that looks like the 1937: Nazi Entarte Kunst, which when you think about it, is merely one step of squashing all descent. I mean look, with the “disruptors” provision already in place, thanks to Homeland insecurity, we could be in for a nasty time. And then the real jackbooting begins.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 21 2006 18:26 utc | 20
CALLING ALL BARFLIES: POUR A SERIOUS DRINK & READ UNCLE’S FIRST LINK….
Ummm………Trivially, I knew the first moment I set eyes on Neut that he was America’s Hitler. McCain is a dangerous Reactionary, but Neut is the real deal – the completely consciousless sadistic woman-hating psychopathic fascist – who will play on tv.
Here are the vegetables & salad to go w/it:
1) Tues. interview w/Ray McGovern -scroll down – he discusses that there’s a Battle Royale going on in the Admin. over whether to attack Iran. Cheney & Rove (who was “separated at birth” from Gingrich) say yes ‘cuz it’s essential to win the elections. Clearly they’re working fist-n-glove w/Neut.
2) Discussion of parallels of triggering incidents for WWI & “now”: A Tale of Two Resolutions on Lebanon
No student of history can escape the parallels between what is going on in Lebanon now and the start of World War I. The question is, do we have political will, and the sanity, to stop it. Those who are not interested in history are at the mercy of the present, so we might as well review.
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The Bush administration, who is green lighting Israel’s every action, is manipulating public opinion at home to escalate this into a nuclear first strike on Iran, to try to regain the dominance lost in Iraq.
….
So what will the United States do? Bush apparently believes that all he has to do is smirk his way through the next couple weeks and he’ll be back on top as something even bigger and better than a war president. Now he wants to be a “nuclear war president”. He will not willingly save us. But if we can get Congress to act there is still hope.
Then he has info. on a Congressional Resolution calling for a cease fire that he urges us to call Congress & demand they support. Yea..I know…AIPAC..but what are our choices……….and who the bloody hell /funds/controls those dumb bastards who organize anti-war actions.
Posted by: jj | Jul 21 2006 19:50 utc | 21
Needs reminding here: In light of my #20
U.S. Silence Impeding Swiss in Nuclear Case I’ll have more on this later..but keep it in mind.
Things to think about
A) Why are we Cheneyco ignoring this…
B) Why has this gotten virtually no coverage.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 21 2006 20:16 utc | 22
Yet more evidence to back up Ray McGovern’s assertions in my link above:
Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday pointed to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah as fresh evidence of the ongoing battle against terrorism that underscores the need to keep President Bush’s Republican allies in control of Congress.
This conflict is a long way from over,” Cheney said at a fundraising appearance for a GOP congressional candidate. “It’s going to be a battle that will last for a very long time. It is absolutely essential that we stay the course.”
Cheney’s visit to Tampa helped raise about $200,000 for the campaign of Gus Bilirakis, a state legislator who is running for the Tampa Bay area congressional seat his father is vacating.
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Cheney said that as Republicans make their case to voters in the midterm elections, “it’s vital that we keep issues of national security at the top of the agenda.” He faulted Democrats in Congress who have pushed for a timetable for withdrawing Americans from Iraq, saying that would send the wrong message to terrorists.
“If anyone thinks the conflict is over or soon to be over, all they have to do is look at what’s happening in the Middle East today,” he said.Cheney uses Mideast as campaign issue
If they don’t light the ME on fire what do they run on? If they do, what keeps the world from exploding, the economy from collapsing, or our gas tanks full?
Posted by: jj | Jul 21 2006 20:37 utc | 23
Of course, the following is speculation on the future, however the facts are on target… and there seems to be a thread that weaves like a tapastry through my last few post’s most importantly, my #20 & 22
AQ Khan’s nuclear smuggling network is reported to have played a significant role in North Korea’s attainment of kowledge…the Safari Club a rightwing Saudi / U.S. intelligence network, yes you read that right, a Saudi /U.S. network which later started major ties to the Republican Ethnic Outreach Committee set up by Rummy and his trusty side kick, Dick (shoot you in the face Cheney) in the 70’s, also later to include the likes of Grover Norquist, and his Islamic Free Market Institute as well as former Secretary of State James Baker’s law firm among other Cheneyco players. It should be noted that the Islamist, Al Qaeda and Al Taqwa, AQ Khan elements that were raided on 3/20/2002 were linked directly to the Republican party’s ethnic outreach organization. “ and all tie back to the The Muslim Brotherhood . . .
Thus, the U.S. is implicated in the A.Q. Khan network’s operations!
Ask yourself, …exactly what is in the minutes of Cheney’s secret energy plan meetings. Therein I’ve long suspected, is the key to everything. I believe this to be ONLY part of an equation, the other parts are “What Sibel Edmonds knows” and what roles “PNAC/AIPAC” (Project for the new American Century) and (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), and explicitly the The Nazi/fascist presence in the Republican ethnic outreach program have in mind. Things like Mushroom clouds? On American Soil? That would surely galvanize the American sheeple behind anything they wanted to Implement, like say a draft, for going into Iran.
Other things:
That a brief conversation [between Norquist and Karl Rove] in Austin, Texas, that helped start a new chapter in Mr. Norquist’s career—and in the political lives of Muslims in this country. The following year, Mr. Norquist started the nonprofit Islamic Free Market Institute. In collaboration with Mr. Rove, now Mr. Bush’s chief political adviser, he and other institute leaders courted Muslim voters for the Bush 2000 presidential campaign. Mr. Norquist even credits gains among Muslims with putting Mr. Bush in a position to win the critical Florida contest . . . To run the nonprofit’s day-to-day operations, Mr. Norquist turned to Khalid Saffuri, a Palestinian-American raised in Kuwait who had been an official of the American Muslim Council, a political group in Washington. The institute’s founding chairman was a Palestinian American, Talat Othman, who had served with Mr. Bush on the board of Harken Energy Corp. and later visited the president in the White House, according to records obtained by the National Security News Service.” (“In Difficult Times, Muslims Count On Unlikely Advocate” by Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson; The Wall Street Journal; pp. A1-A8.
For more on that see my post here. And if your out there, Hannah K. O’Luthon, could prolly add more.
Also, Prelude to Terror
by Joseph J. Trento
2004, Carroll & Graf
ISBN 0786714646
432 pages.
Publisher’s Description
After decades of writing and research about American intelligence, Joseph Trento has written the most authoritative indictment of CIA splinter groups, two generations of Bush family involvement in illegal financial networks, and the funding of the agents of terror. Prelude to Terror reveals the history of a corrupt group of spymasters-led by Ted Shackley-who were fired when Jimmy Carter became president, but who maintained their intelligence portfolio and used it to create a private intelligence network. After this rogue group helped engineer Carter’s defeat in 1980 and allied with George H.W. Bush, these former CIA men planned and conducted what became the Iran-Contra scandal and, through the Saudis, allied the U.S. with extreme elements in Islam. The CIA’s number-one front man, Edwin P. Wilson, was framed by Shackley and his cohorts so that Wilson’s operations could be taken over. For the first time the story of how CIA director George H. W. Bush was recruited into this network, and brought it into the bosom of the Saudi royal family, is told in detail, as well as how this group’s manipulation of the CIA bureaucracy allowed Osama bin Laden’s fundraising to thrive as al Qaeda flourished under Saudi and CIA protection.
Joseph Trento has been an investigative reporter on the national security beat since 1968. He had some scoops in the 1970s, and kept at it through the 1980s and 1990s by cultivating insiders such as James Angleton, William Corson, and Robert Crowley. Through them he managed to interview dozens of other retired spooks. Now he is president of the Public Education Center in Washington DC.
THIS BOOK IS IN PRINT.
More on Joseph J. Trento
Also see, THE COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG
Finally, I’m reminded of the Documentary entitled: The Power of Nightmares, and wonder if these two extremist groups, Our’s i.e. team B, and thiers, the Muslim Brotherhood aren’t working together at the deepest darkest levels.
More to come…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 21 2006 21:33 utc | 24
A fine little film which will, I fear, forever indict my reputation for political objectivity.
Posted by: citizen | Jul 22 2006 4:56 utc | 25
ESPM has an interesting story about American betrayal and three shots: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=tillmanpart1
The good news is that someone knew and investigated the significance of three little shots, the bad news is the rest.
Posted by: razor | Jul 22 2006 18:23 utc | 27