Internet Censorship on the Rise Worldwide – TECHNEWSWORLD

24 09 2011

At least 25 countries censor their citizens’ access to the Internet, according to new research from OpenNet, a nonprofit partnership of four top-tier universities. The countries with the most restrictive Internet policies regarding the free flow of political information include China, Iran and Vietnam. Some governments also apparently attempt to hide the fact that they are actively blocking sites. While the Internet is widely considered one of the most democratizing tools in history, there still remain countries where the free flow of information over the World Wide Web is restricted.

In fact, at least 25 countries block Web sites for political, social or other reasons, with governments controlling domestic networks, according to a new study.

Censorship Abounds

The OpenNet Initiative, a nonprofit collaborative partnership of four of the world’s leading academic institutions, said the number is likely even higher than 25 nations, but because of limited resources it only had the ability to investigate 40 countries and the Palestinian territories.

Still, the researchers ran into more censorship than they initially anticipated, a sign that the Internet has matured to the point that governments are taking notice, according to the study.

“Not surprisingly, as net penetration keeps increasing, you are going to see even higher rates of filtering,” Mukul Krishna, global manager of digital media practice with Frost & Sullivan, told TechNewsWorld, noting that as Internet penetration continues to grow tremendously in places like India and Africa, we are “going to see more of this Big Brother type of thing.

“There are always going to be certain places you can’t go,” Krishna said.

Web applications such as Google Maps and Skype as well as so-called subversive Web sites were often featured on content blocking lists. However, five years ago only a “couple” of states were exercising similar controls, according to the study.

The Biggest Culprits

The countries with the most restrictive Internet policies regarding the free flow of political information include China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam.

Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and lesbian sites, according to the study.

“Online censorship is growing in scale, scope and sophistication around the world, which is not surprising, given the importance of the medium,” John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, said in the report.

The report was conducted by groups at four universities — Harvard University, Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the University of Toronto — and covered thousands of Web sites and 120 Internet service providers.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., the government has stepped up it its level of monitoring of the country’s netizens.

Hiding Censorship

It appears that not every country wants to advertise their filtering habits, as nine countries, including China, Pakistan and Vietnam, reportedly use technology to conceal their censorship, disguising it with techniques such as flashing network error messages.

Researchers found no filtering at all in Russia, Israel or the Palestinian territories despite political conflicts there.

In some countries, censorship was very limited. In South Korea, for example, the government tends to block only information about its neighboring rival, North Korea.

In fact, Krishna pointed out the United State is not immune to this type of Internet interference. Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., the government has stepped up it its level of monitoring of the country’s netizens.

“Right now there is a lot of monitoring going on,” he said.

Getting Around Filters

Once citizens discover they are being blocked from accessing certain sites, there really isn’t much they can do. Most governments had no mechanism for citizens to complain about erroneous blocking, according to the report.

However, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates do provide an official outlet for complaints.

The report also studied some technical approaches, noting that some are better than others in blocking sites, but all can be bypassed with enough technical expertise and the right software. 





Message To Government: Get Off Of Our Backs! – THE AMERICAN DREAM

22 09 2011

Government in America has gotten completely and totally out of control.  Our founding fathers originally intended to set up a nation where the power of government would be greatly limited, but today government has become a horribly bloated monster that is relentlessly growing.  It is not just the federal government that I am talking about.  All over the country, there are state and local governments that have become monstrous as well.  No matter who we elect, they just want even more of our money, they demand even more of our time and our resources, they pile even more rules and regulations on to our backs, they seek even more control over us and our children and they take even more of our liberties and freedoms away.  They have invented hundreds of different ways to drain money out of us, and yet it is never enough.  They pile up nightmarish debts that they expect our children and our grandchildren to repay, and yet our cities and our infrastructure are crumbling all around us.  Government seems to have a relentless appetite for demanding even more from all of us, and yet they seem to badly mess up everything that they try to accomplish.  Well, I have a message for the government.  Get off our backs!

I was horrified recently when I learned that the state of Virginia plans to put toll booths on Interstate 95.

Talk about a stupid idea!

I used to spend many hours traveling up and down Interstate 95.  It is a traffic nightmare and the last thing anyone needs is for it to become even more congested.

But that is what is going to happen.

So why are they doing this?

Well, it is another way for them to make money.

This is happening all over the nation.  State governments are taking roads that have already been paid for and they are turning them into toll roads.

I am very highly offended by this.  But amazingly, most of the politicians that are doing this keep getting voted back into office.

Another example is the 520 bridge in the Seattle area.  The 520 bridge is the primary connection between Bellevue and Seattle and it has already been paid for.  A lot of hard working people use that bridge to get to work.  But now they are slapping toll booths on it.

Will we eventually live in an America where almost all of the major roads are toll roads?

Don’t laugh – we get a little bit closer to that every month.

It is just another way that government has found to suck us dry.

What is worse is when state governments sell roads that have already been paid for to foreign companies.  These foreign companies are allowed to put up toll booths and charge an outrageous amount of money.

These deals give state governments an immediate injection of cash, but they also subject their citizens to abusive tolling for decades to come.

Of course when it comes to taking our money, the biggest offender is the federal government.

Did you know that when the federal government implemented a personal income tax back in 1913, the vast majority of the population paid a rate of just 1 percent?  The highest marginal rate was just 7 percent.

I sure wouldn’t mind paying 1 percent today.

But we all know what has happened since that time.

Now Barack Obama wants to raise taxes once again.  Obama is portraying his plan as a tax on millionaires, but the reality is that there is a whole lot more to it than that.

The truth is that what he has proposed is so ridiculous that even Bill Clinton is against the Obama tax plan.

You see, the government has learned not to use the word “tax” so much.  Instead, words like “fees”, “fines”, “contributions” and “deductions” are used a lot more often these days.  A recent article posted on Yahoo News documented some of the “fees” that are peppered throughout the Obama tax plan….

Airline passengers would see their federal security fees double from $5 to $10 for a nonstop round-trip flight and triple to $15 by 2017, raising $25 billion over the coming decade. Federal workers would face an additional 1.2 percentage point deduction from their paychecks to contribute $21 billion more for their pensions over the same period. Military retirees would pay a $200 fee upon turning 65 to have the government pay their out-of-pocket Medicare expenses. They’d also pay more for non-generic prescription drugs.

But it is not just the federal government that is doing this kind of thing.

For example, CNN recently profiled Ray Garcia, the owner of Prestige Limousines in Boca Raton, Florida.  Garcia says that complying with government regulations takes up most of his time and he says that the fees are absolutely outrageous….

We will start with Miami, which is Dade County. You have to buy a permit, which costs anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000. Once you acquire that permit, you have to find a vehicle to put that permit on. And it has to be no older than five years old. Once that car is five years old, you have to go out and buy a new one, no matter what kind of condition you keep it in.

You have to get the car inspected every year. And you have to renew the luxury sedan permit every year. It would be better if you could buy just one permit for your entire fleet. But you have to buy one for each car and each car permit costs $675.

It is getting really, really hard to run a small business in the United States today.  Politicians love to give speeches about how much they love small businesses, but when they get into office they just soak them dry.

The number of small businesses in this country continues to shrink.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006.  Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

Life is especially tough for small businesses that try to carry employees.  Things have gotten so bad at this point that it is really hard to justify the expense of hiring new workers.  There are so many rules, regulations and taxes that it is almost always more trouble than it is worth for small businesses.

In a recent column, Charles Hugh Smith shared what one small business owner told him about why he is so hesitant to hire new workers these days….

Once I hire someone, I am party to a relationship that is full of risk. What usually happens is the “check harvesting” situation where just enough work is done to extract a paycheck. I am on the hook for matching Social Security tax, medicare tax, city occupational tax, unemployment tax, federal unemployment tax, workers comp insurance and all the abuse that goes along with that system. I have to withhold State and Federal income taxes with ridiculous penalties for late payments. Often I will get served with a garnishment or child support levy for an employee, and I am on the hook for all this. If I fail to withhold on a garnishment I become liable to pay the debt.

After reading that, can you understand why so many small businesses are not eager to hire more people?

The government is sucking all of the life out of the economy.  Even the smallest businesses get cracked down on hard.

As I have written about previously, all over America lemonade stands that are run by little children are being shut down by police because they are not complying with government regulations.

We have become a nation that is run by bureaucrats.

You know, things ran pretty darn well back before we had an army of bureaucrats running everything.  We had the greatest economy on the face of the planet and things were rolling along pretty good.

But now federal bureaucrats even tell us what kind of light bulbs we are allowed to buy.  (Thank you George W. Bush for sticking it to us with that one.)

If you really stop and think about it, there are very few things that we are still free to do in America today without getting government permission first.

Yes, I know that sounds ridiculous, but if you will stop and really think about it you will see that is correct.

The government has taken all of the joy out of a lot of things that used to be so much fun.

When I was young, I loved to go to the airport.  Flying on a plane was very exciting and most people seemed to really enjoy the process.

But today, our airports have been turned into prison grids.

Did you know that now the TSA says that it has the right to check our hair for explosives?

Yes, you read that correctly.  The following is a brief excerpt from a local NBC News report about one lady that was deeply offended recently when the TSA searched her hair….

Two TSA agents told her she could not go any further until they checked her hair for explosives, Brantley said.

She said she reluctantly allowed them to do it. The agents patted her hair down right there instead of asking to return to a private area for screening.

“And so she started patting my hair, and I was in tears at that point,” Brantley said. “And she was digging in my scalp.”

How would you feel if some TSA goon was running his fingers through your hair?

But we are not seeing this type of security just at airports.  The federal government is even pressuring private businesses to crack down on “suspicious activity”.  For example, NPR recently did a story on the nightmarish security that has now been implemented at Mall of America….

Mall security reported one man because he was sitting on a bench in the corridor, “observing others while writing things down on a note pad.” They worried he might be a terrorist “conducting surveillance.” Turned out he was a musician waiting for a friend. Three security guards surrounded another man because they thought he was looking at them “oddly” and walking “nervously” through the amusement park; he turned out to be an insurance company manager, shopping for a watch for his son.

Do you want to be regarded as a “potential terrorist” every time you go to the mall?

That is what this nation is turning into.

In America today, we are all “potential enemies” and the government always knows better than we do.

Sadly, government keeps trying to even take away the freedom to raise our own children the way that we want to.

According to Natural News, a new law in the state of California will allow health officials to vaccinate children as young as 12 for sexually-transmitted diseases without having to get the approval of parents….

California’s Assembly Bill 499 has already quietly passed both the California House and Senate, and today sits on the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown where it awaits his signature. The bill, which is only a single page in length, contains specific language that will allow children as young as 12 to opt for sexually-transmitted disease (STD) vaccines like HPV (Gardasil, Cervarix), Hepatitis B, and any future vaccines developed to treat STDs, without having to attain parental consent.

The ways that the government is intruding in our lives are endless.  They are putting “smart meters” into our homes, they are putting surveillance cameras in school cafeterias, and in some areas they are actually digging around in our trash to make sure that we are recycling properly.

If you want to live in a totalitarian police state, there are dozens of choices to pick from all over the globe.

This is supposed to be America.

This is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

But right now, government is becoming a little bit more oppressive every single day.

We need millions of Americans to stand up and start talking about these issues, because you will notice that neither major political party is even talking about the horrible abuses of our freedoms that is going on.

Most of us just want to live our lives, and if the government would stop interfering with us so much that would make things a whole lot easier.

So do you think that the government should get off our backs?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below….





Charges Dropped Against Man Facing Life In Prison For Video Recording Police – PAUL JOSEPH WATSON – PRISONPLANET.COM

22 09 2011

Michael Allison, the 41-year old Illinois mechanic who faced life in jail for recording police officers, has had all charges against him dropped after a state judge ruled that his First Amendment rights had been violated, following a trend of similar rulings across the country that underscore the fact that it is not illegal to film cops.

Allison appeared as a guest on Infowars Nightly News yesterday.

Allison was the victim of a vendetta that was being pursued by the state despite the fact that every other case brought against citizens for filming cops had collapsed. A judge slapped Allison with five separate 15-year sentences for “eavesdropping,” four of which involved Allison filming police officers during a dispute over cars he was working on at his home in Bridgeport, and another related to Allison bringing a tape recorder to trial after he was told there would be no official transcript of proceedings.

“A statute intended to prevent unwarranted intrusions into a citizen’s privacy cannot be used as a shield for public officials who cannot assert a comparable right of privacy in their public duties,” wrote Circuit Court Judge David Frankland. “Such action impedes the free flow of information concerning public officials and violates the First Amendment right to gather such information.”

The “eavesdropping” charge was also dismissed by Frankland as completely inappropriate.

“Judge Frankland ruled that Allison had a First Amendment right to record the police officers and court employees. And while a ban on recording devices in the courtroom might be justified, he said, the eavesdropping charge was inappropriate,” reports Reason. “As applied in this case, Frankland said, the eavesdropping law “includes conduct that is unrelated to the statute’s purpose and is not rationally related to the evil the legislation sought to prohibit. For example, a defendant recording his case in a courtroom has nothing to do with an intrusion into a citizen’s privacy but with distraction.”

Frankland’s decision followed a First Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which found that, “The filming of government officials engaged in their duties in a public place, including police officers performing their responsibilities, fits comfortably within these principles [of protected First Amendment activity].”

Indeed, every similar case nationwide has concluded in all charges being dropped against the defendent. It is not illegal to film police officers in public. And yet cops up and down the country are still using intimidation tactics against citizens by threatening them with arrest for using a video camera.

Despite the clear legal precedent of such cases being thrown out, the state was determined to incarcerate Allison and throw away the key, even sending an assistant from the Attorney General’s Office to speak against him during a hearing.

Perhaps there needs to be a national activist day solely devoted to filming police officers in public to get the message across that documenting the performance of public servants is a completely natural and lawful expression of the First Amendment.

Let’s call it “Film a Cop Day” – a reminder that the First Amendment is more powerful than the threats and intimidation that victims of a law being enforced that isn’t even on the books have had to endure repeatedly for years on end.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.





Ron Paul Cheated Out Of Sure Victory In Texas Straw Pole Cancelation; Due To Lack Of Interest By Other GOP Candidates

20 09 2011

Ron Paul is riding high again after his California Straw Poll victory yesterday, but some Paul supporters are questioning why the Texas Straw Poll was cancelled for “lack of interest,” and whether it was actually killed because the Congressman would have inflicted an embarrassing defeat on Governor Rick Perry in his own state.

According to a June 16 Washington Times report, the Texas GOP decided to cancel the straw poll, which was held on September 1 last year, because of a “lack of interest expressed by the candidates,” and due to fears that the event would not recoup the financial outlay needed to stage it.

The claim that the poll was cancelled due to “lack of interest” doesn’t correlate with the firestorm of media attention generated by Rick Perry’s announcement of his candidacy, as well as the building momentum of the Paul campaign, which went supernova after the media hoax of attempting to pretend the Congressman doesn’t exist spectacularly imploded last month.

There seems little doubt that Ron Paul would have defeated Rick Perry in the Texas Straw Poll, sending out the embarrassing message that those who know Perry’s record best, lone star state voters, have no trust in his leadership. This would have been a massive blow to the perception of Perry’s electability nationwide.

A presidential survey of voters in both candidate’s home state conducted by the Azimuth Research Group last month found that Texans would be more likely to vote for Congressman Ron Paul over Gov. Perry by a margin of 22% to 17%.

Indeed, Paul has made it a focus of his campaign, including an expensive TV commercial, to bring attention to what the Perry campaign fears the most, his outing as a globalist RINO (Republican In Name Only).

A Texas Straw Poll win for Paul would have thrown fresh spotlight on Perry’s history as a campaign manager for Al Gore, and his legacy of big government policies such as his support for the Trans Texas Corridor, toll roads owned by foreign companies, and his 1993 advocacy of Hillarycare.

It would not be the first time a straw poll was cancelled by establishment Republicans in order to neutralize a winning platform for Ron Paul’s campaign. The 2007 San Francisco straw poll was cancelled due to there being “too many Ron Paul supporters”. The Colorado straw poll was also cancelled that year, with the Adams County GOP citing the exact same reason.

The establishment media has openly attempted to unfairly marginalize Ron Paul’s campaign this year. Following a September 12 Republican debate in Cincinnati, a straw poll found Ron Paul to be the winner. However, CNN refused to release the results of the poll and instead published an online poll, omitting Ron Paul from the list of candidates.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.





Operation Twist: FED Ready for QE3 – KURT NIMMO FOR PRISONPLANET.COM

20 09 2011

Daily Forex Fundamentals, written by Danske Bank, says the FOMC will probably get QE3 rolling by the end of the year or early in 2012.

“Following the continued deterioration in economic data, we expect the Fed to take action in the form of a twist in the central bank’s portfolio towards longer maturity government bonds,” the Danish bank writes.

Unless we see significant improvements in economic data over the next couple of months we deem it likely that the Fed will initiate QE3 (buying either more government bonds or mortgages). This could happen either by end 2011 or early next year. We will particularly be looking to employment data, where we need sustainable and significant improvement in the coming months, in order for QE3 to be taken off the table.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets on Wednesday and more information on QE3 is expected at that time.

The main scenario for the Wednesday meeting will be for the Fed to start shifting its portfolio of government bonds towards holding more long-term securities and fewer short-term securities. This extension of the portfolio’s maturity is designed to push down long-term interest rates. We see this as a highly likely outcome of the meeting.

The interest rate currently stands at 0.25% and the Fed may move it down to 0.10%, “in order to increase the banks’ incentive to lend.”

Big banks, however, are not in the business of lending money to Main Street. Since the fall of Glass-Steagall, banks have been in the business of buying and selling complex derivatives and writing credit default swaps. “Fees are good, bonuses come in, and the fed or government will always be there to bail them out if things get hairy,” notes UrbanDigs.com.

Interest rates at or near 0% guarantee capital destruction. “Capital destruction is the main byproduct of monetary inflation, a concept totally foreign to the inflation engineers at the USFed and its satellite central banks,” writes Jim Willie for Financial Sense.

They are agents of magnificent systemic devastation. In the wake of each QE round are discouraged creditors who turn away in disgust. The damage and inflation feeds upon itself in stages of intense wreckage. The motive, need, and desperation for QE3 is being formed here and now, to be announced by late summer probably. Prepare for QE to infinity, endless hyper-inflation, a process that cannot be stopped, as the urgent needs grows. Any attempt to halt the process results in almost immediate total annihilation. So continuation of QE rounds serves to manage the deterioration process and guide the financial structures gradually and orderly into oblivion.

Add to capital destruction mounting inflation. The Fed considers this a good thing. “So now we are beginning to hear murmurings about the possible invigorating effects of ‘just a little inflation.’ Perhaps 4 or 5 percent a year would be just the thing to deal with the overhang of debt and encourage the ‘animal spirits’ of business, or so the argument goes,” writes Paul Volcker, former Fed boss, for the New York Times.

Bernanke and the Fed are moving us toward an inflationary depression. The Federal Reserve was established in 1913 specifically for that reason, as Rep. Charles Lindbergh noted. “The new law will create inflation whenever the trusts want inflation. From now on, depressions will be scientifically created,” he warned.

Bernanke admitted the Fed created the Great Depression with its monetary whipsaw weapon. It is now working on the Greatest Depression.

The Federal Reserve is not about saving business and creating jobs. It’s about a slow-motion destruction of the economy that will pave the way toward the bankster nirvana of a global economy that will present humanity with the most effective and insidious mechanism for slavery ever devised.





Civil Rights Group Adopts Resolution Opposing Water Fluoridation: NATURAL NEWS

19 09 2011

(NaturalNews) The days of artificial water fluoridation truly are numbered, and this has been made even more evident by yet another prominent group that has come out in strong opposition to the heinous practice. The Fluoride Action Network (FAN), a truth about fluoride advocacy group, reports that the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the US, recently adopted a resolution decrying water fluoridation as a civil rights abuse.

The resolution declares that adding fluoride to water supplies is essentially an illeg. It also mentions the many current scientific studies that highlight the dangers of ingesting fluoride, particularly among those with pre-existing health conditions — and that public health authorities have ignored this science in favor of their unscientific, pro-fluoride agenda (http://lulac.org/advocacy/resolutio…).

“This is about forcing us to be medicated through our drinking water without our consent or full disclosure of the risks,” said Henry Rodriguez, civil rights chairman of the Texas-based LULAC. His group is vehemently working to end the practice of water fluoridation across the US, where more than 64 percent of public water supplies are fluoridated (http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/sta…).

“Opposition to fluoridation is going to continue building and there is no stopping it. There are millions of Hispanics and other minorities in the US who don’t have the funds to avoid fluoridated water for making their babies’ milk formula. And millions of families don’t know they’re being medicated in their drinking water, or about possible risks for kidney patients and diabetics.”

Based on decades-worth of statistics released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), water fluoridation has provided no substantial oral benefits for those consuming it. Particularly in the Hispanic community, many of those drinking fluoridated water still have plenty of cavities — but they also now have high rates of dental fluorosis, a condition where teeth become brittle, mottled, and brown as a result of fluoride ingestion.

“Watch what develops now as members of the Hispanic legal community are awakening to this issue,” said Daniel G. Stockin from The Lillie Center Inc., another group working to end water fluoridation. “The train has left the station. Fluoridation is ending. You can look for a quickening cascade of cities, water utilities, health officials and others distancing themselves from fluoridation.”

To learn more about the dangers of fluoride exposure, visit:
http://www.naturalnews.com/fluoride…

Sources for this story include:

http://www.fluoridealert.org/Alert/…

http://lulac.org/advocacy/resolutio…





Gore’s 24hr Show Gets Negative Reaction From Fellow Global Warming Activists: Marc Morano; Climate Depot

19 09 2011

[Update - Sept. 18, 2011: Yet Another Key Claim of Gore Bites the Dust! NOAA lead author of U.S. Climate Science Assessment Report on Texas drought: 'This is not a climate change drought' -- For constant updates on Gore see here.]

Former Vice President Al Gore 24 hour climate “reality” show is surprisingly facing strongly negative reviews from Gore’s fellow global warming activists and environmental allies. In addition, two German scientists ridiculed Gorefor his “apocalyptic” tone and his “promise of salvation.”

Climate activist Bob Ward was tepid about Gore’s show. “One could complain that some of the presentations overstated the certainty and wrongly implied that individual weather events could be attributed to climate change,”lamented Ward. Ward is the Policy Director, for the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

M. Shanahan

Mike Shanahan, of the International Institute for Environment and Development, bragged that he purposefully avoided watching Gore’s climate telethon.

“I actually avoided the Goreathon, and I guess that says something in itself,” Shanahan wrote. He added that a journalist sent him a text declaring: “Gore gets gold for most boring and least galvanizing talk on climate, ever…That, and possibly damaging.”

Shanahan was blunt in his opinion of Gore: “Climate Change needs a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King or a Mandela, and Al Gore is none of those.”

Other global warming activists were just as wary of having anything to do with Gore’s attempt to link al bad weather to man-made global warming.

“Overall, I don’t think this (Gore’s) initiative will do much good. For one thing, Al Gore is now as much a hindrance as a help on climate change advocacy, as he’s been characterized (probably unfairly) as a highly partisan figure, and so immediately gets about half of all folks offside,” Barry W. Brook, the director of climate science at the Environment Institute at University of Adelaide in Australia, said.

“Gore is in the situation that certain X-wing fighter pilot was during the assault on the Death Star (in the film Star Wars), when Luke Skywalker called out over the intercom: ‘Pull out Wedge, you can’t do any more good back there!’”

Brook went even further, declaring the entire man-made global warming debate to be futile.

“I think the climate change debate is over. It’s like a snow mobile slipping on slush — it isn’t moving forward any time soon.”

The UK Guardian’s Leo Hickman, a prominent media activist for man-made global warming, was embarrassed by Gore’s extreme weather link to man-made global warming linkage.

“I was a little nervous this morning logging into Climate Reality…And, I have to say, my heart immediately sank,” when viewing it, Hickman wrote. Hickman asked: “Is Gore now a help or hindrance to global warming cause?” See: Hickman on Gore’s ‘Death by PowerPoint’– “I have suffered this torture too many times over the years…[Gore's show had] slide after slide of extreme weather events…& linking everyone, it seemed, to rise in [man-made] emissions…that is a very contentious peg on which to hang your hat…That kind of talk traditionally requires lots of caveats and careful explaining. Done with abandon and raw emotion – as this presenter seemed to be doing – and you are quickly labeled in some quarters as a climate ‘alarmist.’”

Professor Judith Curry, the chair, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta echoed these sentiments.

“If the intent of Al Gore’s telethon is to garner broad support for climate and energy policies such as proposed by the UNFCCC (e.g. the Kyoto protocol), I anticipate that this effort will backfire and energize the opposition to such policies,” Curry, who has shifted her views more towards the skeptical view of global warming in recent years, wrote on her blog.

“As a scientist I find the mantra ‘remove the doubt, reveal the deniers’ to be objectionable and antithetical to the scientific process. Gore’s effort will further polarize an already inflamed and politicized debate surrounding the science and policy response to climate change,” Curry explained. She also noted that Gore’s tactics will lead to more scientists declaring their dissent from man-made global warming. “Just today, Physics Nobel Laureate Ivar Giaever explains his resignation from APS,” Curry noted.

Gore’s ‘promise of salvation’

A pair of German scientists noted the religious overtones of Gore’s 24 hour climate telethon. “There was only one message, an apocalyptic one, with the respective promise of salvation; sometimes the discourse almost switched into a religious sermon: once we behave climate friendly, there won’t be any storms or other natural disasters anymore,” wrote German scientists Hans von Storch & Werner Krauss of the Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Coastal Research in Geesthacht, Germany.

Storch and Krauss chided Gore for seemingly linking every bad thing to man-made global warming. “Highly speculative (and deterministic) assertions such as the interpretation of the Arab upheavals as a result of global warming were made repeatedly, sold as scientific knowledge and without being challenged,” the scientists noted. Also see: DudGate! Gore’s Last Gasp – German Media Completely Ignores His Bitter Slur-athon

Skeptics of man-made climate change fears were also brutal on Gore’s latest climate science effort.

Canada’s Sun TV commentator with Charles Adler compared Gore to scandal ridden U.S. televangelist Jimmy Swaggart and warned of a “dangerous cult of personality” surrounding Gore. Adler mocked Gore as a prophet who was “going to hold back droughts.”

Physicist Dr. Lubos Motl also ridiculed Gore for being a “prophet.” “Gore had to personally train about 3,000 random people from the whole globe. The idea is that he is the prophet so anyone who ever touches him immediately gets the status of a priest in his community, a kind of medium religious rank,” Motl wrote.

“The media almost totally ignored the non-event in this case. Well, in fact, even a huge majority of the alarmist blogosphere (not just Real Climate) remained silent about this bummer,” Motl noted.

A. Watts

Meteorologist Anthony Watts noted how boring Gore’s climate telethon was becoming four hours into it. See: Gore’s 24 hour show a flop!? ‘After hour 4 it is starting to look like a massive dud’

Watts also unloaded on Gore for comparing global warming skeptics to tobacco company propaganda. See: Meteorologist Watts Tells Gore to shove his tobacco analogy up his A@* — ‘For the record, Mr. Gore, both of my parents died of smoking related illnesses. As a result, I abhor everything about tobacco. Therefore Mr. Gore, you can take that comparison and forcefully insert it into the bodily orifice of your choice’

Watts also noted that Gore brought on a former Miss Rhode Island contestant ‘to talk about sea level rise — while warmist Paul Higgins of AMS sputters to non-answers

Steve Milloy of Junk Science, called Gore a “tobacco hypocrite.” “Gore & his family were quite content to profit from tobacco users for more than 20 years after 1964 publication of first Surgeon General report on smoking.” Milloy wrote.

The skeptical website Real Sciencemocked the timing of Gore’s 24 hour climate telethon. Scientist Steve Goddard, the publisher of the website noted the massive cold spell in the U.S. and the inconvenient climate data that coincided with Gore’s event. See: Breaking: Sea Level Continues Its Historic Decline — ‘Envisat shows that the 2 year long decline is continuing, at a rate of 5mm per year’ — The ‘Gore Effect’ extends to sea level! ‘No doubt Gore will pass this good news on to all his viewers’

Goddard also noted that during Gore’s 24 hour show, Arctic ice made impressive gains in size. See:‘Arctic Gained A New Manhattan Of Ice Every Two Minutes Yesterday — ’16 city blocks of new ice forming every second!’ & The ‘Gore Effect’ Hits Arctic Ice! 2,200 Manhattans Of New Arctic Ice Growing In The Last 5 Days — ‘A new Manhattan of ice is being born every 3 minutes!’

The skeptical website Tom Nelson, also noted the so-called “Gore Effect.” See: ‘Gore Effect’ strikes again: During Gore’s 24-hour climate show, and while it’s still summer in the N. Hemisphere, 16 new city blocks of Arctic ice formed every second!’

CFACT (the parent company of Climate Depot) mocked Gore for “jumping the shark.” See: ‘Note to Al Gore: You’ve jumped the shark’ Skeptics at CFACT react to Gore’s 24 show: ‘We tuned in. What we found exceeded our worst expectations’ — ‘Speaker after speaker showed slide after slide of tragedy. Flooded houses, parched crops, starving kids. Shameless…Not only is human progress not responsible for severe weather, it is the best chance we have to meet these children’s nutritional needs in the future’

Climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer pulled no punches in evaluating Gore’s scientific claims. See: Gore’s 24 Hour Climate Astrology Show Slammed: Gore’s beliefs are ‘matters of faith, not observable scientific reality’ — Current weather is NOT ‘outside realm of natural climate variability’

News Round Up of Gore’s 24 Hours of Climate ‘Reality’: (for continuous updates, please go here)

Watch Now: Climate Depot’s Morano on Canadian TV: ‘Gore is a desperate man. Gore has utterly and completely failed…Gore is promoting ‘climate astrology’ (Int. begins at 06:40) – Morano: ‘No matter the weather, it’s just what global warmists would have expected. It is now akin to predictions of Mayan calendar or Nostradamus…But, the science is clear: Big tornadoes are on decline since 1970s, hurricane activity is near 40 year lows, sea level is dropping…polar bears (doing fine), Mt. Kilimanjaro gaining ice. From A-Z, Gore has egg on his face when it comes to man-made global warming’

MUST READ: In Anticipation Of The Gore ‘Lie-A-Thon’ – Severe Weather Reality From The 1950s, 1960s & 1970s

Paging Al Gore: Read this ‘list of severe weather incidents that took place during the 50s, 60s and 70s. These terrible and destructive events occurred well before the current decade’s hysteria about CO2 emissions. These events represent empirical evidence (reality) that refutes Al Gore’s type of climate science’

‘A study published in 2011 in Geophysical Research Letters on causes of the 2010 Russian heat wave deduced that it ‘was due to internal atmospheric dynamical processes’ — Paging Al Gore: Peer-reviewed Study: ‘It is unlikely that the warming attributable to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations contributed significantly to the magnitude of the [Russian] heat wave’

Climate Depot Response to Gore: “Gore has severely overreached in his 24 hour ‘reality’ show by claiming virtually every weather event to be a result of man-made global warming. Even global warming activists are cringing at Gore’s unscientific climate astrology claims. Gore wants us to believe that our SUV’s are weather machines — will he blame witches for crop failures next? Memo to Al Gore from Climate Depot: The UN and Congress cannot legislate, tax or regulate the weather.”

Gore’s spokesperson Maggie Fox ducks radio debate at last minute with skeptic! ‘They know that their claims will not withstand critical scrutiny’
DudGate: Gore’s Climate Reality Project: a massive dud – even warmists are panning it now

Gore brings on Miss Rhode Island to talk about sea level rise — while warmist Paul Higgins of AMS sputters to non-answers

‘Note to Al Gore: You’ve jumped the shark’ Skeptics at CFACT react to Gore’s 24 show: ‘We tuned in. What we found exceeded our worst expectations’ — ‘Speaker after speaker showed slide after slide of tragedy. Flooded houses, parched crops, starving kids. Shameless…Not only is human progress not responsible for severe weather, it is the best chance we have to meet these children’s nutritional needs in the future’

Flashback: Watch Now: Climate Depot’s Morano on Fox News Mocking Gore’s ‘Climate Astrology’: ‘This is now akin to the predictions of Nostradamus or the Mayan calendar’ – Morano: ‘There is no way anyone can falsify the global warming theory now because any weather event that happens ‘proves’ their case…Man-made global warming has ceased to be a science, it is now the level of your daily horoscope’ — Gore [in 2006 film] did not warn us of extreme blizzards and record cold winters coming’

The ‘Gore Effect’ Hits Arctic Ice! 2,200 Manhattans Of New Arctic Ice Growing In The Last 5 Days — ‘A new Manhattan of ice is being born every 3 minutes!’

Arctic Ice fails to reach record low — But Gore still claims record low!?

The ‘Gore Effect’ is Back! Early Freeze Could Severely Damage Minnesota Crop Production

It’s official, NOAA shows the ‘Gore Effect’ hitting America tonight – Cold Wave Has Perfect Timing!

Surprise summer snow in Colorado

Climate Depot Factsheet on the ‘Gore Effect’ Phenomenon: ‘Happens when global warming-related event, or appearance by Gore is marked by exceedingly cold weather’

Hour by Hour analysis: 24 Hours of Climate Reality: Gore-a-thon – Hour 6

Analysis: Gore’s effort to ‘expose’ climate change skeptics will instead show that Gore is a charlatan’

‘It is a mistake to blame human activities for current weather extremes. The NIPCC concluded that ‘the data reveal there have not been any significant warming-induced increases in extreme weather events.’ The report’s authors showed that this was the case whether the phenomenon being studied was precipitation, floods, drought, storms, hurricanes, fire, or other weather-related events’

Wash. University’s College Democrat student says paying well over $100k for Gore to speak on campus was a ‘steal’ — ‘Thank you Treasury for funding Al Gore’

‘The University’s treasury absolutely did the right thing by approving money for the purpose of bringing Al Gore to campus. Gore is a generational figure…Bringing Al Gore will up our ‘going green’ street cred in a big way…this is a steal…the cost to the students, because of the alternate funding, is substantially lower than it would normally be to bring Al Gore to campus’






9 Presidential Traits That Make Dr. Ron Paul the Most Electable Candidate

18 09 2011

Americans need to elect a president in 2012 who is a self-made person with a track record of doing more than throwing empty words and money at problems. No more smooth-talking, self-serving presidents surrounded byWall Street types and lobbyists. We are going on 20 years of electing two lawyers (Clinton for eight years, our current president for three years) and the son of a wealthy man (Bush for eight years). The U.S. needs to elect a true public servant who has the honorable character, wisdom and experience to serve America’s well-being.

Here are the top 10 presidential traits our next president must have.

10. He is not a lawyer. (This eliminates Bachmann,Romney, our current president and Santorum, who are all lawyers.) He is not a Wall Street insider. He is not in the running due to an extremely wealthy and connected father who pulled strings and paved the way for him. (This eliminates Romney for a second time, andHuntsman.) He has a background in business and education and a track record of spending less than he makes and responsibly managing a budget. This leaves us with Rick PerryDr. Ron PaulNewt Gingrich,Gary JohnsonHerman Cain (if his tenure on the Federal Reserve Board doesn’t disqualify him) and Buddy Roemer.

9. He has served in a branch of the military. Protection of the U.S. is one of the most important duties and if soldiers are to be sent overseas, the president should know the reality of that. Applying traits 10 and 9, this leaves us with only Rick PerryHerman Cain and Dr. Ron Paul.

8. He has been faithful to his spouse. Fidelity in a marriage shows honor, self-discipline and the ability to keep a promise. Sex and money are big temptations in positions of power. He needs a track record of being able to keep his word in the face of pressure and temptation. If married, the spouse is someone who would also serve the public well.

7. He has a track record of public service, so she understands how our country and government work. He will follow the U.S. Constitution and not assert hers or her party’s agenda onto citizens, yet at the same time, she would explain and make the difficult changes that might seem unnerving at first.

6. He has strong personal values that are consistent with his voting records as well as his public and private conduct. We Americans know who we are getting when we elect him.

5. He will reverse Roe v. Wade or support defunding Planned Parenthood. He will have the courage and wisdom to initiate intelligent, rational, creative and effective research and discussions that identify the root causes of unwanted pregnancies and develop approaches that lead to reduction and prevention of them in the United States.

4. He does not have a chip on his shoulder or something to prove. He has a calming influence and seems like an ordinary person. Your mind and body feel relaxed listening to him, not on guard trying to catch tricks, evasion or half answers. He is not hypnotic, overly charismatic or charming; this type of person is often not genuine.

3. When you watch videos of him or see her on TV, He is easy to understand and makes sense. He wants to empower others rather than confuse them and keep them dependent, he is like the good teacher you had growing up who made the material understandable.

2. He has a clear written plan for the U.S.’s financial stability, economic recovery, energy independence, spending cuts, social issues, legal immigration and border protection. He eliminates self-dealing and corruption while empowering Americans through self-sufficiency and independence. He has a history and track record of follow-though, integrity and honor in his matching words and actions. He is able to identify root causes of problems and present viable solutions.

1. He is honest, forthright and a true public servant who serves America, his citizens and does not serve himself and his inner circle. You feel comfortable trusting him with your life, the lives of your family members, your security and your money — because that is exactly what you are doing when you elect the president.

Dr. Ron Paul meets nine of these 10 traits – more than any other candidate, including our current president.

Take the time to read their bios and view their campaign sites. Who would best serve the country best based on these 10 criteria?

“In the circumstances, alarm is justified. The man who isn’t alarmed simply doesn’t understand the situation — or he is crazy. But alarm is one thing, and hysteria is another. Hysteria impels people to destroy the very thing they are struggling to preserve.”
Harry Truman





Congressman RON PAUL Wins California Straw Poll!

18 09 2011

LOS ANGELES – Minutes ago in front of the California Republican Party convention delegation at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live, CRP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro announced Congressman Ron Paul as the winner of the 2011 California Straw Poll. A full breakdown of the results is copied below. A total of 833 ballots were cast during the 2011 Straw Poll which included a write-in opportunity for the first time. The 2011 California Straw Poll was held on Saturday, September 17th between 9:00AM – 5:00PM, where CRP members, associate members, and registered guests were allowed to choose their favorite from among the 11 official Republican presidential candidates.

2011 Straw Poll Full Results (Votes, %)

Congressman Ron Paul (374, 44.9%)

Governor Rick Perry (244, 29.3%)

Mitt Romney (74, 8.8%)

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (64, 7.7%)

Jon Huntsman (17, 2.0%)

Herman Cain (15, 1.8%)

Newt Gingrich (14, 1.7%)

Thad McCotter (7, 0.8%)

Rick Santorum (7, 0 Gary Johnson (2, 0.2%)

Fred Karger (1, 0.1%)

Write-ins (15, 1.8%)








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