Month: April 2010
Tennessee Horse Slaughter Bill Withdrawn!
The Tennessee legislature makes a good move by putting down a horse slaughter bill. Now if they would just have the guts to take on the Medical Marijuana legislation instead of delaying it by saying they would ‘study’ the issue.
By Laura Allen
Horse Slaughter Update April 28, 2010: Following a hearing yesterday before the full House Finance, Ways and Means, Tennessee state Rep. Frank Niceley withdrew his pro-horse slaughter bill, H.B. 1428, and it is now dead for this legislative session.
John Holland, founder and president of the Equine Welfare Alliance, and Paula Bacon, former mayor of Kaufman, Texas, site of one of the last horse slaughter plants in the U.S., testified in opposition to the bill.
Famed singer and songwriter, Willie Nelson and his daughter, Amy Nelson, and granddaughter, Raelyn Nelson, were at the hearing in opposition to this bill but did not testify before the committee.
Paula Bacon described that she was mayor of Kaufman “during part of 27 years we spent trying to deal with this horse slaughter plant.” She told the committee that a horse slaughter facility was a “burden to taxpayers…a stigma” and almost forced the city to spend “millions to upgrade ..the waste water treatment plant”.
Bacon said that building a horse slaughter facility was “very definitely not desirable economic development.” She said the facility does not create good jobs, just a handful of low paying, dangerous jobs. She described the burden on the local hospital because of the horse slaughter plant employees were often injured, even losing limbs.
She said the city derived no sales tax revenue from the horse slaughter plant. Bacon described that the $1600 in property taxes collected each year equaled about “2 weeks of a month paid in legal fees as we wrangled with this company that refused to comply with environmental laws.” She said income tax records showed in its last year of operation in the U.S., the company paid just $5 in federal income taxes on $12 million in sales and over a five year period paid only .3% of gross sales in taxes.
Bacon showed the committee 1 ½ years worth of violations of the facility’s waste water treatment permit. She noted the permit allowed the facility to release about eight times the sewage permitted other business, yet the company was still often in violation, releasing waste and blood, that overran the town’s wastewater treatment facility.
Bacon said since the closing of the horse slaughter plant by the court in 2007, the town has not needed to proceed with a $6 million+ upgrade to its waste water treatment facility.
Bacon told the committee they would be better off having lead smeltering plants or sex-related businesses in their communities than a horse slaughter plant.
John Holland told the committee “If you get nothing else out of this, you heard how horse slaughter plants closed in 2007 and it caused problems for the horses. This is not true.” He pointed out that horse slaughter remained available in Canada and Mexico and approximately the same number of horses were shipped there as had been slaughtered in the U.S.
Holland pointed out, “There are lots and lots of drugs in these horses. …Because [horsemeat] is sold to foreign countries [for human consumption, our inspectors], looked the other way.” Holland described a study led by Dr. Ann Marini that revealed bute, given to horses like aspirin, is a deadly poison, a carcinogen. Bute never breaks down and remains a danger to consumers. He described the new European Union regulations which beginning this July will require certification that slaughtered horses were drug free for 6 months and that they had never ingested certain drugs. Holland explained that by July, 2013, the EU will require that horses must be tracked from birth. “As of that point, ” said Holland, “none of [the meat] from American horses could go to the EU.” Americans don’t track horses or, for the most part, the drugs given to them. As Holland, explained, “The horses just show up at auction and no one knows [ their history].”
Holland pointed out that though slaughter rates remained the same after the U.S. plants shut down, in 2009 there was a 20% drop in horse slaughter and 125 this year so far because of slowing demand. Holland said, “This is because the EU is figuring out the danger. Europeans are figuring out horse meat is not health food as they were told and instead they are eating New Jersey race horses.” He described it as “irresponsible” for anyone to build a horse slaughter facility in the U.S. given the danger.
Holland closed his testimony by noting that the horse slaughter facility in Canada, Natural Valley, was closed last year by the government for dropping large amounts of blood in rivers with no proper disposal. He said the horse slaughter facility cost the economy of that community $42 million.
Source: Thomas Paine’s Corner
More: Animal Law Coalition
911 CBS Breaking News WTC7 Collapse First Reports "Don’t know if it was Demolition Experts ….."
Superiorgreen has been uploading a wealth of historical MSM reports with an emphasis on 9/11.
~~~~~
Chronology of World Trade Center 7 News Coverage
CIA/Mossad TV Presents New ‘Underwear Bomber’ Training Tape
We haven’t seen a single photo or video of the ‘bomber’ since his arrest. Is who they have in custody the same one as in the officially released images?
Al Qaeda fighters in Yemen have introduced a new tactic designed to strike terror into the Western democracies.
Shocking new footage shows that AQ has moved on from burning flags. Pictures released by AQ’s video wing show fighters shooting the British flag full of holes with large machine guns.
The AQ men risked sunstroke and sand in their shoes to pull off a stunning propaganda coup deep in the desert miles from anyone who could kill them.
The defenceless Union flag was painted onto a sheet of metal and left to swelter under the burning sun as it was used for target practice. The Jewish star and the letters ‘UN’ were subjected to similar treatment.
The man accused of trying to bring down a Detroit bound airliner on Christmas Day is seen in the video pointing his gun at the clearly distressed flags and then justifying his actions saying they were part of a battle because “the enemy is in your lands with their armies, the Jews and the Christians and their agents.”
American intelligence officials believe the tape is authentic. They fear a US flag may be shot at some point and have warned all US flags to be on their guard and not to climb up poles in exposed areas.
A communique AQ might have written, but which was actually made up by myself, said ‘If the Jews and Christians and their imperialist agents do not immediately dismantle their crusader regimes, reject capitalism, and convert to the one true faith, we will find more flags, even unto the Scottish , English and Welsh flags, and shoot them full of holes as well’.{more}
A Child Leads
photo from Nahida
Required reading for the kids who think war and the military are where they belong.
Just another brick in the war …..
Curt Maynard Kills Wife, Self
Wait ’till CNN gets ahold of this story, the spectre of the “White Supremacist” will be trotted out again… it will be mentioned that Maynard was a conspiracy theorist who railed against Blacks, Hispanics and J-ws.
Last night blogger Curt Maynard killed his wife, then turned the gun on himself when about to be apprehended by police.
Houston Chronicle report
Richard Gage Architect talks to News Anchors about 9/11
Why haven’t we seen more local stations report on this over the last year? Lately there’s been a rash of Jesse Ventura and Willie Nelsen talking about 9/11 but Richard Gage is not as easily dismissed so he’s left out of the MSM mix.
Fresno, CA … KMPH Fox 26 … May 29, 2009
Goldman Sachs 33 Year Stranglehold on Nashville
Goldman Sachs and Nashville will boost city-backed debt by almost 40 percent to borrow $633 million for a new convention center.
A riverboat gamble with very little upside?
The city plans to pay off the debt over the next 33 years with a series of revenue streams targeting visitors to Nashville. But it has pledged to use a $130 million-a-year pool of general fund revenues — excluding sales and property taxes — if there’s a shortfall, as critics expect based on the struggles of convention halls around the country.
Metro payments on the debt will average $39 million to $40 million a year. {more}
Lucky for Nashville, the municipal bonds for the center were sold before the SEC civil suit against Goldman was announced.
“I think Nashville’s convention center deal is just another example of how elected officials are induced to approve a financing with promises that the public’s guarantees will never be necessary, that the project will pay for itself,” said council member Emily Evans, who used to work on the other side of the dais in the municipal bond business. “Yet once the votes are counted, the city’s assumption of risk becomes a major sales point for investors, and protecting the taxpayer is forgotten.”
Goldman, Sachs is the book-runner for {the bond} offering. Other members of the syndicate are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Fifth Third Securities Inc., Harvestons Securities Inc., Mesirow Financial Inc., Morgan Keegan & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Stephens Inc. {more}
The Goldman Defense: Caveat Emptor
The essential thrust: buyer beware.
Did Goldman scam the Nashville politicians into a heavy debt for a convention center that will rely on an economy improving to past peak levels in order to pay off the debt with extortion fees to visitors to the city?
Will taxpayers be the losers because revenues will be way short of the Goldman projections? Cutbacks to city services to service the debt? Goldman would love to have Nashville as one of its ‘assets.’
Play with the devil and you may get burned. Buyer beware indeed.
Too Fat to Fight
The military once again uses their assets in the media to issue another national security warning.
No, this time it’s not al-Qaeda or homegrown extremists. It’s fat kids. And kids that are dumb and criminal.
At least 9 million Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are too fat and unfit to serve in the military, says “Too Fat to Fight,” a report being released today by Mission: Readiness, a group of retired military leaders.
The new report follows findings from the senior military leaders group that 75 percent of adults in that age range are unqualified to serve in the armed forces because they lack the physical conditioning, don’t have high school diplomas, or have criminal records.
On Monday, one of the organization’s members, retired Maj. Gen. Wesley E. Craig, said early childhood education {war propaganda} was important to national security.
Speaking before several hundred educators and business leaders at a forum on early education in Harrisburg, Craig said, “Our national security in 2030 is heavily dependent on the boys and girls in preschool and kindergarten right now.”
“I’m here to say that if we don’t take action soon, it’s going to get harder to recruit qualified people to serve,” said Craig, a former commander of the 28th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
Being overweight or obese is the leading medical reason applicants fail to qualify for military service, “Too Fat to Fight” states.
“Every month, hundreds of otherwise excellent candidates for military service are turned away by recruiters because of weight problems,” retired Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in the report.
Since 1995, the proportion of recruits who failed their physical exams because they were overweight has risen by nearly 70 percent, the report says. {more}
Wars without end require planning and the kindergartner of today is the killer of tomorrow. How can a fat fighter chase the terrorists up and down the mountains of Afghanistan? Occupations of foreign lands is no place for the obese.
Now we all cringe every time we see a 200 lb. 12 year old chase down his Big Mac with a Mountain Dew. It’s a sure sign that the corporate jingles have been successful. The health care costs of childhood obesity are bad enough and how do parents afford new upsized clothes every few months?
But I’m thinking that the military is overreacting. New technology can overcome the lack of slim bodies to kill civilians and women and children.
That’s what drones are for …..
Distrust, Discontent and Anger Toward Government But War and ‘Defense’ Get a Pass
A new Pew poll finds historic levels of unhappiness about the federal government and its role in the lives of average Americans, unrest that is at the foundation of what is shaping up to be a strongly anti-incumbent political year.
Nearly one out of three Americans view the US government as a “major threat” to their freedoms, and four out of five say they don’t trust Washington to solve their problems.
Just 19 percent say they are “basically content” with the federal government, against 56 percent who say they are “frustrated” and 21 percent who describe themselves as “angry,” the Pew Research Center survey found.
The Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of the globalist Pew Charitable Trust, number 22 of the 26 wealthiest charitable foundations in the world, so keep that in mind as you read the details of the 142 page The People and Their Government survey report.
The Tea Party movement, health care reform, Wall Street and a variety of other issues are covered but there was not a question that addressed the costs of war, the military and related ‘security’ agendas. If indeed one can give any credence to the survey, despite mistrust and anger toward government, the lies and propaganda of war, national defense and empire seem to be working.
Opinions of the Defense Department also are somewhat less positive than in October 1997, although they remain highly favorable (76% then, 67% today).
Views of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI (currently 67% favorable), Veterans Administration, the VA (57%), the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA (52%), and the Justice Department (51%) are little changed from 1997/1998.
Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS) is viewed slightly more favorably than it was 13 years ago. Currently, 47% say they have a favorable impression of the IRS, up from 38% in 1997. {page 55 & 56}
Almost 80% of Americans don’t trust the government but a majority look favorably at the DOD, FBI and CIA with the IRS not too far behind? There’s a disconnect if I’ve ever seen one. Just who exactly were the people surveyed?
It’s typical that a great many people will accuse the government of lying, cheating and stealing for special interests but when it comes to war they remain silent. They trust the government to kill millions of brown skinned people for lies, waste our soldier youth, spend over a trillion dollars a year lining the pockets of war profiteers and pay billions in interest to the bankers for the ‘privilege’ of their printing money from nothing and loaning it to us. If no enemy exists, create one through deception. It’s not only immoral …. it’s insane.
So the distrustful, discontented and angry public will take to the streets waving their health care reform scam signs, bitch about taxes and government repression and take to the polls to vote for one criminal over another while thinking they are doing something worthwhile.
But they won’t address the biggest destructive force we face that is taking us to ruin …. our war machine.
Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You Think
When President Obama presented his budget recently for fiscal year 2011, he proposed that the Pentagon’s outlays be increased by about 4.5 percent beyond its estimated outlays in fiscal 2010, to a total of almost $719 billion. Although many Americans regard this enormous sum as excessive, few appreciate that the total amount of all defense-related spending greatly exceeds the amount budgeted for the Department of Defense.
In fiscal year 2009, which ended last September, the Pentagon spent $636.5 billion. Lodged elsewhere in the budget, however, other lines identify funding that serves defense purposes just as surely as—sometimes even more surely than—the money allocated to the Department of Defense. On occasion, commentators take note of some of these additional defense-related budget items, such as the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons program, but many such items, including some extremely large ones, remain generally unrecognized.
Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, many observers probably would agree that its budget ought to be included in any complete accounting of defense costs. After all, the homeland is what most of us want the government to defend in the first place.
Other agencies also spend money in pursuit of homeland security. The Justice Department, for example, includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which devotes substantial resources to an anti-terrorist program. The Department of the Treasury claims to have “worked closely with the Departments of State and Justice and the intelligence community to disrupt targets related to al Qaeda, Hizballah, Jemaah Islamiyah, as well as to disrupt state sponsorship of terror.”
Much, if not all, of the budget for the Department of State and for international assistance programs ought to be classified as defense-related, too. In this case, the money serves to buy off potential enemies and to reward friendly governments who assist U.S. efforts to abate perceived threats. About $5 billion of annual U.S. foreign aid currently takes the form of “foreign military financing,” and even funds placed under the rubric of economic development may serve defense-related purposes indirectly. Money is fungible, and the receipt of foreign assistance for economic-development projects allows allied governments to divert other funds to police, intelligence, and military purposes.
Two big budget items represent the current cost of defense goods and services obtained in the past. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which is authorized to spend about $124 billion in the current fiscal year, falls in this category. Likewise, a great deal of the government’s interest expense on publicly held debt represents the current cost of defense outlays financed in the past by borrowing from the public.
To estimate the size of the entire de facto defense budget, I gathered data for fiscal 2009, the most recently completed fiscal year, for which data on actual outlays are now available. In that year, the Department of Defense itself spent $636.5 billion. Defense-related parts of the Department of Energy budget added $16.7 billion. The Department of Homeland Security spent $51.7 billion. The Department of State and international assistance programs laid out $36.3 billion for activities arguably related to defense purposes either directly or indirectly. The Department of Veterans Affairs had outlays of $95.5 billion. The Department of the Treasury, which funds the lion’s share of military retirement costs through its support of the little-known Military Retirement Fund, added $54.9 billion. A large part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s outlays ought to be regarded as defense-related, if only indirectly so. When all of these other parts of the budget are added to the budget for the Pentagon itself, they increase the fiscal 2009 total by nearly half again, to $901.5 billion.
Finding out how much of the government’s net interest payments on the publicly held national debt ought to be attributed to past debt-funded defense spending requires a considerable amount of calculation. I added up all past deficits (minus surpluses) since 1916 (when the debt was nearly zero), prorated according to each year’s ratio of narrowly defined national security spending—military, veterans, and international affairs—to total federal spending, expressing everything in dollars of constant purchasing power. This sum is equal to 67.6 percent of the value of the national debt held by the public at the end of 2009. Therefore, I attribute that same percentage of the government’s net interest outlays in that year to past debt-financed defense spending. The total amount so attributed comes to $126.3 billion.
Adding this interest component to the previous all-agency total, the grand total comes to $1,027.8 billion, which is 61.5 percent greater than the Pentagon’s outlays alone.
In similar analyses I conducted previously for fiscal 2002 and for fiscal 2006, total defense-related spending was even greater relative to Pentagon spending alone – it was 73 percent greater in fiscal 2002 and 87 percent greater in fiscal 2006. In fiscal 2009, the ratio was held down in large part by the reduced cost of servicing the government’s debt, owing to the extremely low interest rates that prevailed on government securities. This situation cannot last much longer. As interest rates on the Treasury’s securities rise, so will the government’s cost of servicing the debt attributable to past debt-financed defense outlays.
For fiscal 2010, which is still in progress, the president’s budget estimates that the Pentagon’s spending will run more than $50 billion above the previous year’s total. Any supplemental appropriations made before September 30 will push the total for fiscal 2010 even farther above the trillion-dollar mark.
Although I have arrived at my conclusions honestly and carefully, I may have left out items that should have been included—the federal budget is a gargantuan, complex, and confusing collection of documents. If I have done so, however, the left-out items are not likely to be relatively large ones. (I have deliberately ignored some minor items, such as outlays for the Selective Service System, the National Defense Stockpile, and the anti-terrorist activities conducted by the FBI and the Treasury.
For now, however, the conclusion seems inescapable: the government is currently spending at a rate well in excess of $1 trillion per year for all defense-related purposes. Owing to the financial debacle and the ongoing recession, millions are out of work, millions are losing their homes, and private earnings remain well below their previous peak, but in the military-industrial complex, the gravy train speeds along the track faster and faster.
National Security Outlays in Fiscal Year 2009
(billions of dollars)Department of Defense 636.5 Department of Energy (nuclear weapons & environ. cleanup) 16.7 Department of State (plus intern. assistance) 36.3 Department of Veterans Affairs 95.5 Department of Homeland Security 51.7 Department of the Treasury (for Military Retirement Fund) 54.9 National Aeronautics & Space Administration (1/2 of total) 9.6 Net interest attributable to past debt-financed defense outlays 126.3 Total 1,027.5 Source: Author’s classifications and calculations; basic data from U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2011 and U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970.
When False Flags Don’t Fly
Those who have studied history know that nothing invigorates and empowers an authoritarian regime more than a spectacular act of violence, some sudden and senseless loss of life that allows the autocrat to stand on the smoking rubble and identify himself as the hero. It is at moments like this that the public—still in shock from the horror of the tragedy that has just unfolded before them—can be led into the most ruthless despotism: despotism that now bears the mantle of “security.”
Acts of terror and violence never benefit the average man or woman. They only ever benefit those in positions of power.
To continue reading, please click here: The Corbett Report
kenny's sideshow 