$12 Billion in Profit while dropping 2.7 million people

2009 - Top 5 insurance companies: $12 BILLION in profit , dropped 2.7 million people. http://bit.ly/dgHu7X

Welcome to Burnsville

Welcome To Burnsville a website dedicated to the detrimental effects of tree topping. Visit welcometoburnsville.com today.

Global Markets Fall on Fears of US Recession

Global economic crisis 'serious': IMF Chief

Investors skeptical of U.S. stimulus package, says IMF's Strauss-Kahn; an American recession would spread globally, he warns.

PARIS (AP) -- The head of the International Monetary Fund called the global economic situation "serious" and said markets worldwide had responded skeptically to a U.S. stimulus plan.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn stressed that a U.S. recession would affect economies across the globe.

"The situation is ... serious," said Strauss-Kahn following a meeting in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "All the countries in the world are suffering from a slowdown in growth in the United States."

He said investors were skeptical that an economic stimulus plan presented last Friday by U.S. President George W. Bush would shore up the economy, which has been battered by problems in its housing and credit markets. The plan, which requires approval by Congress, calls for about $145 billion worth of tax relief to encourage consumer spending.

"It appears that the markets did not appreciate the packet proposed by President Bush," he said, adding that the negative reactions were "perhaps to be expected."

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/21/news/international/europe_econcrisis.ap/index.htm?section=money_latest

Edwards Polls 4% in Nevada Caucus

"I got my butt kicked."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/20/edwards-i-got-my-butt-kicked/

Apparently Obama won 13 of the state's national delegates to Clinton's 12.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/20/who-won-the-battle-for-democratic-delegates-in-nevada-it%e2%80%99s-complicated/

As of today, the national delegate count stands at (out of 2,025 needed to win nomination):
Clinton 210
Obmama 123
Edwards 52
Kucinich 1

Luckily, there is no clear front runner on the Republican Side:
Romney 72
McCain 38
Huckabee 29
Thompson 8
Paul 6
Guliani 2
(With Romney, Huckabee, and McCain having each won a primary or caucus)

Chief Spy Says Govt MUST Have Access to ALL Intenet Traffic

The nation's top spy, Michael McConnell, thinks the threat of cyberarmageddon! is so great that the U.S. government should have unfettered and warrantless access to U.S. citizens' Google search histories, private e-mails and file transfers, in order to spot the cyberterrorists in our midst.

That's according to a sprawling 18-page story on the Director of National Intelligence by Lawrence Wright in the January 21 edition of the New Yorker. (The story is not online).

In the piece, McConnell returns, in flamboyant style, to his exaggerating ways, hyping threats and statistics to further his bureaucratic aims. For example, McConnell regurgitates the hoary myth that computer crime costs America $100 billion a year. THREAT LEVEL traced down the source of that fake-factoid in September to a former privacy officer for the state of Colorado.

Presumably using unsupported stats like that, in May 2007 McConnell convinced President Bush that a massive cyber-attack on a singe U.S. bank would be worse for the economy than than the deadly terrorist attacks of September 11, the article reports. In response, the NSA developed a mind-boggling, but still incomplete, plan to eavesdrop on the internet in order to protect it.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/feds-must-exami.html

NH Primary Recount Began Today

Chain of Custody Issues Loom Over Recount
"We have no control over the ballot chain of custody and we have learned the pain from the 2004 Nader recount, in which only 11 districts were counted, chosen by a highly questionable person, and then nothing showed up. Now all we hear is how the Nader recount validated the machines."

As Tobi says, "A candidate asking for a recount may well be a tool used to 'prove' everything was okay and then that candidate will be further discredited."

http://wbztv.com/racenh/NH.Primary.Recount.2.630861.html

http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2008/01/nh-recount-kucinich-may-be-stepping.html

Diebold STILL Stealing Democracy?

Irregularities in NH Primary Results Prompt Hand Recount

Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich and Republican candidate Albert Howard both ask for hand recounts after New Hampshire Primary.

Analysts at the Election Defense Alliance (EDA) have confirmed that based on the official results on the New Hampshire Secretary of state web site, there is a remarkable relationship between Obama and Clinton votes, when you look at votes tabulated by op-scan v. votes tabulated by hand:

Clinton Optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Optical scan 81,495 47.05%

Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%
Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%

The percentages appear to be swapped. That seems highly unusual, to say the least.

While it may seem a quibble, the fact is that until now, 80% of New Hampshire's ballots have been "counted" only by a hackable, prone-to-error, Diebold optical-scan machine. The systems were entirely programmed, serviced and controlled by one somewhat less-than-reputable company (LHS Associates). The machines are the very same model shown being hacked in the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Hacking Democracy, in which the results of a live mock election were flipped via the gaming of the machine's memory card.

Two hand count towns reported "zero" votes for candidate Ron Paul to the media, even though they did have votes for him. The town of Sutton reported zero, but had 31 votes; the town of Greenville reported zero, but had 25 votes. The two towns had misreported results affecting exactly the same candidate in exactly the same way.

- Results in many locations arrived up to four hours late on Election Night, surprisingly, from machine-counted locations -- not hand count locations;

- A single private entity had control over coding for every memory card in New Hampshire. According to the contract for LHS Associates, this firm requires a right of access to any voting machine at any time, services the machines, maintains the machines and handles repairs, replacements and troubleshooting on Election Day.

- Ken Hajjar, a key employee of this sole source private entity, LHS Associates, has a criminal record for narcotics trafficking. The state of New Hampshire knew of this conviction but approved the contractor anyway. According to a complaint filed with the New Hampshire Attorney General, Hajjar had called the Dan Pierce radio show in 1999 and threatened to rig an election.

- A high number of "other" votes appeared in Manchester, where over 570 people apparently decided to go to the polls and choose none of the first tier OR second tier candidates.

- The voting system in New Hampshire was updated, but to a version that had been proven to be vulnerable in studies in Florida and California. Instead of upgrading to newer versions which at least claim to address known security vulnerabilities, New Hampshire chose to implement none of the beefed up procedures or upgraded versions that other states are using.

Stunning Video of a Hacked Diebold Scanner Counter.

LHS made numerous "servicee calls" prior to the NH Primary.

Tonkin Redux

Massive US Naval Presence Destabilizing Gulf
US Navy engaged by *cough* fleet *cough* of Iranian Republican Guard speedboats. 3 US Navy ships were approached by five..count them FIVE speed boats. Oh the horror.

These are mosquitoes buzzing around elephants.










Dec 19, 2007 - US Fires warning shots at pesky speedboats.

Threats to US Navy ships may have been a hoax. (Filipino Monkey)

US Naval ships may not have been in international waters after all.

Edwards Stirring the Pot for the Little Guy

The Media decided early on that the Democratric primaries were going to be a two-person race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. One could have argued that the two way race is the perfect storm; two big personalities slugging it out. A three-way race would muddy the waters, make it harder to cover. So, you could have argued that for sheer production value alone, Edwards was going to be ignored, marginalized, and possibly vilified.

The truth is more sinister. Edwards has waged his campaign thus far pounding the Populist Drum. He has consistently railed against unbridled corporate power. He has consistently brought the issues of the poor and working class into the spotlight.
* 47 million people with no health insurance.
*37 million people living in poverty.
*Middle class wages are stagnant under Bush, even while the economy has grown.

Edwards is shaking the tree. He's placed 2nd in Iowa and third in New Hampshire. He's neck and neck going into Nevada.

Edwards message prompted big business to respond.

Chamber of Commerce Vows to Punish Anti-Business Candidates

Face of Corporatocracy - Tom Donohue

Cheney Mulls Isreali Pretext for US Attack on Iran

Newsweek Magazine reported Sunday that Vice President Richard Cheney may have considered a plan for Israeli missile strikes against an Iranian nuclear site in an effort to draw a military response from Iran, which could in turn spark a U.S. offensive against targets in the Islamic Republic.

Citing two unnamed sources the magazine called knowledgeable, the magazine quoted David Wurmser, until last month Cheney's Middle East advisor, as having told a small group of people that "Cheney had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz?and perhaps other sites?in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out."

According to the report, "The Iranian reaction would then give Washington a pretext to launch strikes against military and nuclear targets in Iran."

Newsweek said that it had corroborated Wurmser's remarks, which it said were first published by Washington foreign-policy blogger Steven Clemons.

It quoted a spokeswoman at Cheney's office as saying in response that the vice president "supports the president's policy on Iran."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/906386.html

Stampeding to War with Iran

Source: CNN

Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski likened U.S. officials' saber rattling about Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions to similar bellicose statements made before the start of the Iraq war.

"I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq," Brzezinski told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" Sunday.

In October 2002, five months before Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was toppled for what the United States said was his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, President Bush said, "Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

-----

"When the president flatly asserts they are seeking nuclear weapons, he's overstating the facts," he said. "We are suspicious, we have strong suspicions, but we don't have facts that they are."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/23/iran.us/index.html

Naomi Wolf's 10 Steps to Fascism

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens' groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

Link to a Wolf Article in the Guardian about the 10 Steps Link

Link to Colbert Video Link

The End of America, A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot