1,000,000 post thread

[BakedDon]

The Fox debate is excluding Texas Congressman Dr Ron Paul even though he polls higher in New Hampshire and has raised significantly more money, and is campaigning more in New Hampshire than Fred Thompson who is invited.

[BakedDon]

Bush Admin Fails (http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/72498/) to Respond to Halliburton/KBR Rape

alternet.org — The Justice Dept. has refused to bring criminal charges against anyone, and it appears that no “federal agency [is] investigating the case

[BakedDon]

Romney: People don’t want change ‘in the White House.’

[BakedDon]

Subprime Crashes Into Criminal Monetary System

populistamerica.com (http://www.populistamerica.com/subprime_crashes_into_criminal_monetary_system)— Central banking is perhaps the most brilliant scam ever perpetrated, and the U.S. Federal Reserve stands as the most successful of all central banks in history. The Fed is able to transfer wealth away from the people who earned it, and into the hands of the Federal Government and member banks, relentlessly, stealthily, year after year...More… (http://digg.com/political_opinion/Subprime_Crashes_Into_Criminal_Monetary_System)

[BakedDon]

Say No To Iowa & NH (http://www.burbia.com/node/1543)...Their Reply: Get Over Yourselves

burbia.com — More reasons starting caucuses-primaries in Iowa (& NH) is moronic. Includes some amusing, angry emails from Iowa voters. 1 email: "...people who question Iowa are no nothings...Just because you have an education doesn't mean you know sh*t about sh*t..."

[BakedDon]

National Expositor

Mike Huckabee recently named Richard Haas (the President of the CFR) as his advisor on foreign policy. CNN's WOLF BLITZER asked "Who are your principal foreign policy advisers, Governor?" Mike Huckabee responded: "Well, I have a number of people from whom I get policy. I'm talking to Frank Gaffney, I talk to Richard Haas.."
So what does Richard Haas believe in? Here's an article below which was written by Haas for the Tapei Times. It basically states the Bill of Rights and Constitution should be given up in favor of a cooperative world body run by elite consensus. Who needs individual rights in the techno-futuristic world police state? And you thought liberty was in jeopardy now? Just wait till you see what your children will have to deal with. Get activated folks, These police state freaks want to shape your future into a control grid enforced through the fear based reaction to state sponsored false flag terror.

[BakedDon]

Dreamliner hacking scare: Boeing 'aware'
Sydney Morning Herald - 1 hour ago
Passengers may be able to hack into the control systems of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet, according to a report. The plane may have a serious security vulnerability in its onboard computer networks, allowing passengers to get access to the ...

[BakedDon]

check out the documentary called Solarmax

[BakedDon]

Snubbed by Fox, Paul holds own NH forum
Houston Chronicle - 1 hour ago
By BENNETT ROTH MANCHESTER, NH - Shut out of a GOP presidential candidate forum sponsored by Fox News, Ron Paul staged his own televised town hall meeting today in which he fielded questions from undecided voters two days before the key primary ...

[BakedDon]

If you have yet to see the film GoldRing (www.youtube.com/v/ve0WOqA1)it's 9 mins long. What are you waiting for ?

[BakedDon]

Don't forget about (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=submedia&search=Search)submedia.tv

[BakedDon]

We have Troops in over 60 countries... Yet we have a border that is wide open. They shoot you if you try to set foot on Area 51, it has happened before.

[BakedDon]

Get it... they could have the same policy around the mexican border as they do around area 51.

[BakedDon]

Trade Deficit Spikes To Record (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/14/business/main1124297.shtml), Oil Caused Oct.'s High Imbalance ...
The US trade deficit rose unexpectedly to an all-time high in October. ... country's largest trading partner, and a record $4.8 billion deficit with Mexico.

[BakedDon]

American-Mexican Trade and Exchange Analysis
All the numbers in that column are negative, indicating that the United States has a trade deficit with Mexico. The numbers are in billions of U.S. Dollars...

[BakedDon]

But thats what you have to do to bring down a free and prosperous country in order to usher in world rulers.

[BakedDon]

Well Howard Stern (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85CLizP8z3E) gives his vote to Ron Paul says he is Fantastic

[BakedDon]

GOP candidate Ron Paul: Israel can get by without US aid

[BakedDon]

Fox News to be EXPOSED on Jay Leno Tonight - Don't Miss

[BakedDon]

Speaking of Exposed... Alex (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=alex+jones&hl=en&sitesearch=) Jones (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alex+jones&search=Search) might be a replacement (http://www.youtube.com/v/4JHqB7w9WSI&rel=1) for William (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVz_xloNAWw) Cooper (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=william+cooper&hl=en&sitesearch=) but who knows...

[BakedDon]

that big bad boogie man/comic book evil genius (http://www.youtube.com/v/4JHqB7w9WSI&rel=1)

It was an Inside Job Like it always is,

chalk it up to business as usua (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/don+henley/inside+job_20042082.html)l

[BakedDon]

http://www.newswithviews.com/Veon/joan2.htm


CONTROLLING THE WORLD'S MONETARY SYSTEM THE BANK FOR INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS

[BakedDon]

the election has probably already been decided

but we can still...

[BakedDon]

"The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the American Branch of a society which originated in England ... (and) ... believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule
established."-- Professor of History Carroll Quigley, Georgetown University, in his book "Tragedy and Hope".

[BakedDon]

"The Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the
commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States.
The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate
the four centers of power--Political, Monetary, Intellectual, and Ecclesiastical."--U.S. Senator
Barry Goldwater from his 1964 book "No Apologies"

[BakedDon]

A Nobel prize for a film the British government says can't be shown in schools unless it is pointed out that there are at LEAST 11 lies or misrepresentations?

[BakedDon]

Voting Machines Gone Wild

As the federally mandated deadline nears for state election officials to replace lever and punch-card voting machines with electronic systems, disturbing and systemic problems are emerging.
E-voting has obvious downsides-no ability to check recorded votes, no ability to perform meaningful recounts and susceptibility to electronic voting fraud. Nonetheless, the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) mandates that by January 1 states submit plans to make the switch in time for the 2006 elections.
More troubling, the backers of the act and the manufactures of e-voting machines are a rat's nest of conflicts that includes Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed-Martin, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Accenture. Why are major defense contractors like Northrop-Grumman and Lockheed-Martin mucking about in the American electoral system? And who are Accenture and EDS?
Until January 1, 2001, Accenture was known as Andersen Consulting, a part of Arthur Andersen. Despite having offshore headquarters, Accenture is a member of the U.S. Coalition of Service Industries (USCSI), an industry association that promotes vastly extending the privatization and free trade in services via the WTO and GATT. It also is a member of U.S. Trade, the coalition that pushed for fast-track trade authority. In February 2001, Accenture and election.com, the leading global election software and services company, formed "an alliance to jointly deliver comprehensive election solutions to governments worldwide.... The companies will combine their strengths and experience in the development of election software and the use of technology to offer governments new efficiencies that aid election administration." Election.com also has a contract with the Federal Voter Assistance program to provide online absentee balloting for the armed services. It is expected to be completely electronic, that is, have no paper trail against which to check results.
This is worrisome because Accenture already has been involved in scandals in the United States and Canada. In the late '90s, the company was hired to overhaul Ontario's welfare service for $50 million-$70 million. By 2002, the project was capped at $180 million, although the total reached $246 million. To meet its contractual agreement with Accenture, the Ontario government was forced to cut welfare payments to $355.71 per child in poverty and fire large numbers of social service workers. Election.com also had problems in Canada. The company contracted to provide online Internet voting for the National Democratic Party in 2003, but hackers paralyzed the central computer and disrupted voting. The security and accuracy of election.com's voting software has since come under attack by Canadian voters who also challenged the ballotless software.
EDS, another internationally oriented information technology corporation, recently received a $51 million subcontract from Sytel Inc, a software and service provider to the Army, Air Force and Dow Chemical, among others, to "support personnel systems including personnel management, hiring and job postings, employee training, job exchange programs and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint tracking for the Department of Homeland Security."
Partisan ties
Why Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed-Martin, EDS and Accenture have been hired to alter the election process in America becomes clear when personnel is considered. The three largest voting machine companies in America are Election Systems and Software (ES&S), Sequoia and Diebold. Like Accenture, they, too, have tarnished pasts.
ES&S, formerly American Information Systems, is owned by the McCarthy Group, which was founded in the '90s by Michael McCarthy, campaign director to Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) during the 1996 and 2002 elections. In a January interview with Bev Harris on talion.com, McCarthy said that "Hagel still owns up to $5 million in the ES&S parent company, the McCarthy Group" and that "Hagel also had owned shares in AIS Investors Inc., a group of investors in ES&S itself." According to Harris, "Hagel did not disclose owning or selling shares in AIS Investors Inc." to the Senate Ethics Committee, "nor did he disclose that ES&S is an underlying asset of McCarthy Group." In an October article in the London Independent, Andrew Gumbel writes that Hagel "became the first Republican in 24 years to be elected to the Senate from Nebraska, cheered on by the Omaha World-Herald newspaper which also happens to be a big investor in ES&S." In what can only be called a glaring conflict of interest, "80 per cent (sic) of Mr. Hagel's winning votes-both in 1996 and in 2002-were counted, under the usual terms of confidentiality, by his own company."
Sequoia is the second-largest company, with roughly one-third of the voting machine market. In 1999, the Justice Department filed federal charges against Sequoia alleging that employees paid out more than $8 million in bribes. In 2001, election officials in Pinellas County, Florida, cancelled a $15.5 million contract for voting equipment after discovering that Phil Foster, a Sequoia executive, faced indictment in Louisiana for money laundering and corruption.
Diebold is probably the best known of the three because of its recent unsuccessful attempt to quash the release of thousands of inter-office memos over the Internet. The memos show that Diebold executives were aware of bugs in the company's software and warn that the network is poorly protected against hackers. The company also came under scrutiny because of voting irregularities caused by its machines in the 2000 election in Florida.
Diebold's CEO, Walden O'Dell is an avid supporter of George W. Bush and has come under attack for penning a fund-raising letter in which he promised to help deliver Ohio's votes to Bush in 2004. Diebold has been retained by the state of Maryland to provide voting software for the 2004 election, but because of ongoing negative publicity, Diebold hired Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of San Diego, to assess the security of the company's voting software.
But wait, there's more
Many SAIC officers are current or former government and military officials. Retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing, who until last summer served as chief counter-terrorism expert on the National Security Council, is a member of SAIC's board. Also on the board is former CIA Director Bobby Ray Inman, who served as director of the National Security Agency, deputy director of the CIA and vice director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. During the first Bush administration and while on the board of SAIC, Inman was a member of the National Foreign Intelligence Board, an advisory group that reports to the president and to the director of Central Intelligence.
Retired Adm. William Owens, a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who sits on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board, served as SAIC's president and CEO and until recently was its vice chairman. He now is chairman of the board of VoteHere, which seeks to provide cryptography and computer software security for the electronic election industry. Robert Gates, ex-CIA director, former SAIC board member and a veteran of the Iran-Contra scandal, also is on the board of VoteHere.
SAIC has a history of problems. In a 1995 article in Web Review, investigative journalist Stephen Pizzo notes that in 1990 the Justice Department indicted SAIC on 10 felony counts for fraud, claiming that SAIC mismanaged a Superfund toxic cleanup site. SAIC pleaded guilty. In 1993 the Justice Department again brought charges against the company for "civil fraud on an F-15 fighter contract." In May 1995, the company was charged with Iying "about security system tests it conducted for a Treasury Department currency plant in Fort Worth, Texas."
It is not clear how SAIC became the company of choice to evaluate security standards of the voting machine industry. Under HAVA, Bush is required to establish an "oversight committee, headed by two Democrats and two Republicans, as well as a technical panel to determine standards for new voting machinery. The four commission heads were to be in place by last February, but [as of October 13] just one has been appointed. The technical panel also remains unconstituted, even though the new machines it is supposed to vet are already being sold in large quantities," Gumbel says.
Many computer experts agree that electronic voting represents the most feasible means of conducting large-scale elections, but not until security of the software can be established. But the voting machine companies want to retain secrecy over their codes as well as maintain control over the entire voting process, including the counting of ballots.
Most voting machines do not provide a paper trail so, in the case of a recount, all one can do is push a button and watch as the computer spits out the same set of numbers.
Americans are being rushed into this electronic voting frontier with little public awareness of the consequences. Diebold already has between 35,000 and 50,000 machines in place around the country. With the government investing nearly $4 billion in voting machines, those who insist on ensuring that the system is secure have been shunted aside.
Perhaps this is how the administration intends to bring democracy to the world: Hold elections using voting machines supplied by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia and elect friendly governments. Then, hope that those people who have never experienced the democratic process won't know the difference. More troubling is that many Americans may not know the difference, either.

Mark Lewellen-Biddle is working on his Ph.D. in American Studies and Political Science at Purdue University.

[BakedDon]

A few Facts about 911

[BakedDon]

26) The Legal Catch-22
a. Hush Money - Accepting victims'' compensation barred September 11th families from pursuing discovery through litigation.
b. Judge Hallerstein - Those who refused compensation to pursue litigation and discovery had their cases consolidated under the same judge (and as a rule dismissed).

[BakedDon]

2) Air Defense Failures
a. The US air defense system failed to follow standard procedures for responding to diverted passenger flights.
b. Timelines: The various responsible agencies - NORAD, FAA, Pentagon, USAF, as well as the 9/11 Commission - gave radically different explanations for the failure (in some cases upheld for years), such that several officials must have lied; but none were held accountable.
c. Was there an air defense standdown?

[BakedDon]

9) Able Danger, Plus - Surveillance of Alleged Hijackers
a. The men identified as the 9/11 ringleaders were under surveillance for years beforehand, on the suspicion they were terrorists, by a variety of US and allied authorities - including the CIA, the US military''s "Able Danger" program, the German authorities, Israeli intelligence and others.
b. Two of the alleged ringleaders who were known to be under surveillance by the CIA also lived with an FBI asset in San Diego, but this is supposed to be yet another a coincidence.

[BakedDon]

14) All the Signs of a Systematic 9/11 Cover-up
a. Airplane black boxes were found at Ground Zero, according to two first responders and an unnamed NTSB official, but they were "disappeared" and their existence is denied in The 9/11 Commission Report.
b. US officials consistently suppressed and destroyed evidence (like the tapes recorded by air traffic controllers who handled the New York flights).
c. Whistleblowers (like Sibel Edmonds and Anthony Shaffer) were intimidated, gagged and sanctioned, sending a clear signal to others who might be thinking about speaking out.
d. Officials who "failed" (like Myers and Eberhard, as well as Frasca, Maltbie and Bowman of the FBI) were given promotions.

[BakedDon]

18) The Stonewall
a. Colin Powell promised a "white paper" from the State Department to establish the authorship of the attacks by al-Qaeda. This was never forthcoming, and was instead replaced by a paper from Tony Blair, which presented only circumstantial evidence, with very few points actually relating to September 11th.
b. Bush and Cheney pressured the (freshly-anthraxed) leadership of the Congressional opposition into delaying the 9/11 investigation for months. The administration fought against the creation of an independent investigation for more than a year.
c. The White House thereupon attempted to appoint Henry Kissinger as the chief investigator, and acted to underfund and obstruct the 9/11 Commission.

[BakedDon]

20) Pakistani Connection - Congressional Connection
a. The Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, creator of the Taliban and close ally to both the CIA and "al-Qaeda," allegedly wired $100,000 to Mohamed Atta just prior to September 11th, reportedly through the ISI asset Omar Saeed Sheikh (later arrested for the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was investigating ISI connections to "al-Qaeda.")
b. This was ignored by the congressional 9/11 investigation, although the senator and congressman who ran the probe (Bob Graham and Porter Goss) were meeting with the ISI chief, Mahmud Ahmed, on Capitol Hill on the morning of September 11th.
c. About 25 percent of the report of the Congressional Joint Inquiry was redacted, including long passages regarding how the attack (or the network allegedly behind it) was financed. Graham later said foreign allies were involved in financing the alleged terror network, but that this would only come out in 30 years.

[BakedDon]

37) The "Little Game"
a. Why was the WTC privatized just before its destruction?
b. Asbestos removal due by 2007 costs estimates around a billion dollars for a 300 million dollar complex. Practically unworkable and not covered by any insurance for removal.

[BakedDon]

Vote Fraud Expert Warns Of New Hampshire Chicanery

Vote fraud expert Bev Harris has warned that New Hampshire's electronic voting machines are wide open to fraud and that even modestly skilled computer programmers were able to identify key vulnerabilities within ten minutes of assessing them as key Democrat and Republican primaries unfold today.

[BakedDon]

You can Watch it (http://www.politico.com/nhprimaries/nhmap-popup.html) go down

[BakedDon]

Go Vote in the AOL straw poll (http://news.aol.com/political-machine/straw-poll)... I think you know who (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jay+ron+paul&search=Search) I voted for.

[BakedDon]

President George W. Bush squares off with Governor George Bush (http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=117373&title=bush-v.-bush) to discuss his feelings about nation building and the international American image.

[BakedDon]

My Grandpa will school you on some politics if ya give him
2 minutes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBGExbZH4_Q)

[BakedDon]

"ALL the candidates except for Kucinich, Gravell, and Ron Paul are CFR..........

Its Not about Politics, Its about our future and The future of America"

Go to their website (www.cfr.org) and read up..

The Council on Foreign Relations s taken over..

[BakedDon]

Screw Google (http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm) otherwise know as Scroogle... Still not as good as google but no cookies and no search records.. privacy.

[BakedDon]

McCain they voted For McCain

If you were to watch this in under three minutes

you will see a big o l i a r

John McCain vs. John McCain (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI)

[BakedDon]

McCain: 100 years in Iraq "would be fine with me" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFknKVjuyNk)

[BakedDon]

"Troops Support Ron Paul" (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/channel-08/2008/01/new_spot_troops_support_ron_pa.html)

Do you support the troops?

[BakedDon]

They don't make much and of course they write off campaign contributions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qVmVJJaLkM) so you see Ron Paul (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qVmVJJaLkM) got most of their money.

[BakedDon]

Worldwide Coverage of the Sibel Edmonds Bombshell!

bradblog.com (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5527)— Sibel Edmonds has tried to speak TRUTH for 6 Years! She has information that should be publicized across this nation and around the globe. The info she holds is damning to many Corrupt Gov't. Officials...Media Blackout is another symptom of how acceptable Corruption & Nuclear Proliferation has become in the US. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

[BakedDon]

6 Arrested For Hanging Anti-Bush Banners

jpost.com (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517323458&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)— Six youths were arrested Monday night in Jerusalem as they were hanging anti-Bush posters ahead of the American president's visit. The posters depict Bush, Olmert and Peres wearing Palestinian kaffiyehs, with a banner running "accomplices to terror".

[BakedDon]

Israel to brief Bush on options for Iran strike

rawstory.com (http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Israel_to_brief_Bush_on_options_0107.html)— Coincidence? As US reports Iranian ships provocation, Israeli security officials are to brief President George W Bush on their latest intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program - and how it could be destroyed - when he begins a tour of the Middle East in Jerusalem this weekMore…

[BakedDon]

One town in NH is confirmed. Town of Sutton CONFIRMS Ron Paul Totals Were 31 ... "accidentally" turned in 0 instead of 30. Thanks to a family of five from Sutton who noticed their district turned in a big fat Zero. "Human Error" - BackGround Check from my People = Convicted Coke Dealers involved in vote fraud. Ya see the Cocaine Importation Agency is running this shit Son.

[BakedDon]

Politico.com (http://www.rense.com/general79/pal.htm) and other sites have posted Ron Paul received 0 votes in the town of Sutton, NH. A couple of voters stepped forward and said they ..

[BakedDon]

Did you see The Republican Pie where every candidate had a slice of the pie with a different shade of red except for one that beat Rudolph Giuliani, funny RG had a shade of red but the one that beat him almost two to one was grey with stripes and didn't have a name.. I'm like What ! Oh That Grey area Represents Ron Paul.. I see they Don't wanna give Him Play.

[BakedDon]

2005 Use of Gas by Blackwater Leaves Questions
By JAMES RISEN
NYTIMES


WASHINGTON — The helicopter was hovering over a Baghdad checkpoint into the Green Zone, one typically crowded with cars, Iraqi civilians and United States military personnel.

Suddenly, on that May day in 2005, the copter dropped CS gas, a riot-control substance the American military in Iraq can use only under the strictest conditions and with the approval of top military commanders. An armored vehicle on the ground also released the gas, temporarily blinding drivers, passers-by and at least 10 American soldiers operating the checkpoint.

"This was decidedly uncool and very, very dangerous," Capt. Kincy Clark of the Army, the senior officer at the scene, wrote later that day. "It’s not a good thing to cause soldiers who are standing guard against car bombs, snipers and suicide bombers to cover their faces, choke, cough and otherwise degrade our awareness."

Both the helicopter and the vehicle involved in the incident at the Assassins’ Gate checkpoint were not from the United States military, but were part of a convoy operated by Blackwater Worldwide, the private security contractor that is under scrutiny for its role in a series of violent episodes in Iraq, including a September shooting in downtown Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead.

None of the American soldiers exposed to the chemical, which is similar to tear gas, required medical attention, and it is not clear if any Iraqis did. Still, the previously undisclosed incident has raised significant new questions about the role of private security contractors in Iraq, and whether they operate under the same rules of engagement and international treaty obligations that the American military observes.

"You run into this issue time and again with Blackwater, where the rules that apply to the U.S. military don’t seem to apply to Blackwater," said Scott L. Silliman, the executive director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at the Duke University School of Law.

Officers and noncommissioned officers from the Third Infantry Division who were involved in the episode said there were no signs of violence at the checkpoint. Instead, they said, the Blackwater convoy appeared to be stuck in traffic and may have been trying to use the riot-control agent as a way to clear a path.

Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, said the CS gas had been released by mistake.

"Blackwater teams in the air and on the ground were preparing a secure route near a checkpoint to provide passage for a motorcade," Ms. Tyrrell said in an e-mail message. "It seems a CS gas canister was mistaken for a smoke canister and released near an intersection and checkpoint."

She said that the episode was reported to the United States Embassy in Baghdad, and that the embassy’s chief security officer and the Department of Defense conducted a full investigation. The troops exposed to the gas also said they reported it to their superiors. But military officials in Washington and Baghdad said they could not confirm that an investigation had been conducted. Officials at the State Department, which contracted with Blackwater to provide diplomatic security, also could not confirm that an investigation had taken place.

About 20 to 25 American soldiers were at the checkpoint at the time of the incident, and at least 10 were exposed to the CS gas after "rotor wash" from the hovering helicopter pushed it toward them, according to officers who were there. A number of Iraqi civilians, both on foot and in cars waiting to go through the checkpoint, were also exposed. The gas can cause burning and watering eyes, skin irritation and coughing and difficulty breathing. Nausea and vomiting can also result.

Blackwater says it was permitted to carry CS gas under its contract at the time with the State Department. According to a State Department official, the contract did not specifically authorize Blackwater personnel to carry or use CS, but it did not prohibit it.

The military, however, tightly controls use of riot control agents in war zones. They are banned by an international convention on chemical weapons endorsed by the United States, although a 1975 presidential order allows their use by the United States military in war zones under limited defensive circumstances and only with the approval of the president or a senior officer designated by the president.

"It is not allowed as a method or means of warfare," said Michael Schmitt, professor of international law at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. "There are very, very strict restrictions on the use of CS gas in a war zone."

In 2003, President Bush approved the use of riot control agents by the military in Iraq under the 1975 order, but only for such purposes as controlling rioting prisoners. At the time of Mr. Bush’s decision, there were also concerns that the Iraqi Army would use civilians as shields, particularly in a last-ditch battle in Baghdad, and some officials believed that riot control agents might be effective in such circumstances to reduce casualties.

A United States military spokesman in Baghdad refused to describe the current rules of engagement governing the use of riot control agents, but former Army lawyers say their use requires the approval of the military’s most senior commanders. "You never had a soldier with the authority to do it on his own," said Thomas J. Romig, a retired major general who served as the chief judge advocate general of the United States Army from 2001 to 2005 and is now the dean of the Washburn School of Law in Topeka, Kan.

Several Army officers who have served in Iraq say they have never seen riot control agents used there by the United States military at all. Col. Robert Roth, commander of Task Force 4-64 AR of the Third Infantry Division, which was manning the Assassins’ Gate checkpoint at the time of the Blackwater incident, said that his troops were not issued any of the chemicals.

"We didn’t even possess any kind of riot control agents, and we couldn’t employ them if we wanted to," said Colonel Roth, who is now serving in South Korea.

But the same tight controls apparently did not apply to Blackwater at the time of the incident. The company initially got a contract to provide security for American officials in Iraq with the Coalition Provisional Authority, an agreement which did not address the use of CS gas. After the authority went out of business, the State Department extended the contract for another year until rebidding it. Blackwater and two other companies — DynCorp and Triple Canopy — that now provide security are not permitted to use CS gas under their current contracts, the State Department said.

The State Department said that its lawyers did not believe the Blackwater incident violated any treaty agreements.

In a written statement, the State Department said the international chemical weapons convention "allows for the use of riot control agents, such as CS, where they are not used as a method of warfare. The use of a riot control agent near a checkpoint at an intersection in the circumstances described is not considered to be a method of warfare."

Yet experts said that the legal status was not so clear cut. "I have never seen anything that would make it permissible to use tear gas to get traffic out of the way," Mr. Schmitt said. "In my view, it’s an improper use of a riot control agent."

Blackwater’s regular use of smoke canisters, which create clouds intended to impede attacks on convoys, also sets it apart from the military. While it does not raise the same legal issues as the CS gas, military officials said the practice raised policy concerns. Col. Roth said that he and other military officers frowned on the use of smoke, because it could be used for propaganda purposes to convince Iraqis that the United States was using chemical weapons.

Officers and soldiers who were hit by the CS gas, some of whom asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident, have described it with frustration. They said no weapons were being fired or any other violence that might have justified Blackwater’s response.

[BakedDon]

In a personal journal posted online the day of the incident, Captain Clark provided a detailed description of what happened and included photos.

While standing at the checkpoint, he wrote, he saw a Blackwater helicopter overhead.

"We noticed that one of them was hovering right over the intersection in front of our checkpoint," he wrote. "There was a small amount of white smoke coming up from the intersection. I grabbed my radio and asked one of the guard towers what the smoke was. He answered that it looked like one of the helicopters dropped a smoke grenade on the cars in the intersection. I asked him why were they doing that, was there something going on in the intersection that would cause them to do this. He said, nope, couldn’t see anything. Then I said, well what kind of smoke is it?

"Before he could say anything, I got my answer. My eyes started watering, my nose started burning and my face started to heat up. CS! I heard the lieutenant say, "Sir that’s not smoke, it’s CS gas."

After reporting the incident to his superiors, Captain Clark wrote, a convoy that the helicopter was protecting showed up. Because the gas caused a "complete traffic jam in front of our checkpoint," the captain wrote, "armored cars in the convoy made a U-turn — and threw another CS grenade."

"It just seemed incredibly stupid," he wrote. "The only thing we could figure out was for some reason, one of them figured that CS would somehow clear traffic. Why someone would think a substance that makes your eyes water, nose burn and face hurt would make a driver do anything other than stop is beyond me."

Army Staff Sgt. Kenny Mattingly also was puzzled. "We saw the Little Bird (Blackwater helicopter) come and hover right in front of the gate, and I saw one of the guys dropping a canister," Sergeant Mattingly said in an interview. "There was no reason for dropping the CS gas. We didn’t hear any gunfire or anything. There was no incident under way."

[BakedDon]

BlackWater Rising (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHF6rJjXp8I) and it ain't gonna stop.

[BakedDon]

AT&T and Other ISPs May Be Getting Ready to Filter

NY Times | January 10, 2008
Brad Stone

For the past fifteen years, Internet service providers have acted - to use an old cliche - as wide-open information super-highways, letting data flow uninterrupted and unimpeded between users and the Internet.

But ISPs may be about to embrace a new metaphor: traffic cop.
At a small panel discussion about digital piracy here at NBC's booth on the Consumer Electronics Show floor, representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level.

Such filtering for pirated material already occurs on sites like YouTube and Microsoft's Soapbox, and on some university networks.

Network-level filtering means your Internet service provider � Comcast, AT&T, EarthLink, or whoever you send that monthly check to � could soon start sniffing your digital packets, looking for material that infringes on someone's copyright.

�What we are already doing to address piracy hasn't been working. There's no secret there,� said James Cicconi, senior vice president, external & legal affairs for AT&T.

Mr. Cicconi said that AT&T has been talking to technology companies, and members of the MPAA and RIAA, for the last six months about implementing digital fingerprinting techniques on the network level.

�We are very interested in a technology based solution and we think a network-based solution is the optimal way to approach this,� he said. �We recognize we are not there yet but there are a lot of promising technologies. But we are having an open discussion with a number of content companies, including NBC Universal, to try to explore various technologies that are out there.�

Internet civil rights organizations oppose network-level filtering, arguing that it amounts to Big Brother monitoring of free speech, and that such filtering could block the use of material that may fall under fair-use legal provisions � uses like parody, which enrich our culture.

Full article here. (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/att-and-other-isps-may-be-getting-ready-to-filter/index.html)

[BakedDon]

:yeahthat:


US drops 40,000 pounds of bombs in ten minutes on al Qaeda targets in Iraq

UK Daily Mail | January 10, 2008

U.S. warplanes dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs on more than 40 targets on Baghdad's southern outskirts this morning in a major strike on al Qaeda safe havens, the military said in a statement.

The U.S. Air Force dispatched two B-1 bombers and four F-16 fighter jets, aiming at three large target areas in Arab Jabour, an area of date palm groves that has become a haven for al Qaeda fighters driven out of other areas.

The attack was described as part of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a countrywide offensive against al Qaeda guerrillas that U.S. forces launched this week.

Air strikes on such a large scale have been rare in Iraq, especially over the past few months when the intensity of military action tapered off as overall violence declined.

[BakedDon]

Al'CIA-DuH

[BakedDon]

Wait till they are dropping bombs on ALl the CIA Duh spots around your hood... Then you might care right.

[BakedDon]

When someone you know ends up in git mo

then you may care right

[BakedDon]

maybe I'm wrong maybe you will keep watching Football, CSI and Law in Order, while they bomb your hood and carry your loved ones off to unleash a dungeon of tortures on them.

[BakedDon]

But We Are Lead by the Least Among US (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOy3H4yyocQ)

[BakedDon]

My Job is like Slavery. So it g a v e Me HAVS (http://havs.info/). I told my Boss.. No more. I Q U I T.

Very Liberating. I got 20 pounds of Lentils ya know storage food.. I got a F U B o s s F U N D. Buddy. You should too. by the way... Stay away.. From Vibrating Equipment. once in a while ladies not allll the time.

[BakedDon]

I didn't go out with style like this guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0BoFNLgVdw) but it was too good.

[BakedDon]

I mean really aren't you tired of all thee taxation without all that representation you know you deserve.
Slack off (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt9MP70ODNw)

[BakedDon]

Diebold Opti-Scan election hack demonstrated (http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2005/06/30/diebold-opti-scan-election-hack-demonstrated/)

homelandstupidity.us — As it turns out, the hack can be carried out by one person, and the results tampered with in such a way that the tampering is completely undetectable by normal canvassing procedures. The election results have never been in more doubt than now; this Diebold system simply cannot be trusted. (http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Diebold_Opti_Scan_election_hack_demonstrated)

[BakedDon]

US to Send 3,000 (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080109/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_afghanistan) More Marines to Afganistan

news.yahoo.com — The Pentagon is preparing to send at least 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan in April to bolster efforts to hold off another expected Taliban offensive in the spring, military officials said Wednesday.More… (World News) (http://digg.com/world_news/US_to_Send_3_000_More_Marines_to_Afganistan)

[BakedDon]

Gotta protect that poppy pappy

[BakedDon]

Exec at NH's Diebold Vote Counting Firm Convicted Narcotics (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5537)

bradblog.com — Ken Hajjar, Director of Diebold's Exclusive Sales & Service Provider in New England Pled Guilty to Criminal Charges for narcotics trafficking. Does the NH Secty of State have any idea that a key executive in the private firm that programs and "counts" 80% of the state's ballots on hackable, error-prone Diebold voting machines is a convicted felon

[BakedDon]

Pentagon: US-Iran (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/degrees-of-confidence-on-us-iran-naval-incident/index.html?ex=1357621200&en=e45fafeb6410b481&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)Warboat Encounter Could Be Fake

thelede.blogs.nytimes.com — According to the Pentagon and military observers, the audio of the incident, which included threats that American vessels "will explode", could be fake since it contains none of the expected background noise and chatter expected on naval transmissions in the area.More…

[BakedDon]

Black Box Voting dot ORG (http://www.blackboxvoting.org/) is no joke.

Do you understand. They are destroying US by ushering in Fascism

[BakedDon]

Can you deal with your life and get your head above water long enough to see whats happening, to help the movement. The internet has freed us.. Take advantage.

[BakedDon]

I just learned about the GrannyWarriors (http://www.grannywarriors.com/)


:rofl3:

Now I know there is hope

[ThumperZ1]

Wowsers....long time no post!

[ThumperZ1]

It's been a beautiful day in the neighborhood. 26 degrees and the sun is shining.

[ThumperZ1]

Hmmmm, winamp has chosen Astronomy - Blue Oyster Cult with Stephen King's spoken intro, to kick off this afternoon's entertainment.

[ThumperZ1]

It's official..... Vista still sucks!!

[ThumperZ1]

Now Microsoft is bringing some Vista elements to XP with service pack 3. Changing the way it activates so that it activates like Vista. Also more Vista-like security. (hmmm, more vista-like DRM?????)

[ThumperZ1]

Do You Wanna Touch - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

[ThumperZ1]

I've Gotta Get A Message To You - Bee Gees

[ThumperZ1]

Microsoft has stopped promoting Vista. They are now promoting "Windows". The next operating system is due out in 2009. XP will more than be able to last that long.

[ThumperZ1]

Hungry - Lita Ford

[ThumperZ1]

Feb 5th is Super Tuesday as far as the nomination process is concerned.
It will be interesting to see how everything shakes out by then. More corporate-bought candidates winning or some of the little guys.

[ThumperZ1]

Let's see, music, politics, weather, and Microsoft... I'm a well-rounded chatist. LOL

[ThumperZ1]

Born In The USA - Bruce Springsteen

[ThumperZ1]

Bruce's new CD "Magic" is pretty good. A little more political than his last couple.

[ThumperZ1]

New CD's that are worth listening to... (according to my tastes) Due out on the 26th of the month in Europe...01011001 - Ayreon It's a rock opera about where man is going in the future.

[ThumperZ1]

A new self-titled disk from Mystery.

[ThumperZ1]

Voices of Rock (Various Artists)

[ThumperZ1]

All I Wanted - Kansas

[ThumperZ1]

I wonder if we will ever get to 1,000,000? will we reach 500,000?

[ThumperZ1]

There appears to be a MAJOR discrepancy in the number of posts we have made.

[ThumperZ1]

If Carrie has 12,885.... Mathmission has 13,750....I have 4,554...and riscy has about that number.... that is over the 23+k that is listed.

[ThumperZ1]

I demand a recount!!!!!!

[ThumperZ1]

Eternal Flame - The Bangles

[ThumperZ1]

I noticed that none of Nilly_Chipples posts were counted... errors recovering the database? OR IS IT A COVERUP??

[ThumperZ1]

I think we will need a Congressional investigation to uncover the facts in this one. :eek:

[ThumperZ1]

Sweet City Woman - Stampeeders

[ThumperZ1]

And another thing.... Why am I still a cow-in-developement?? I should be a well developed cow now that I have over 4500 posts and been a member for 4 1/2 years.

[ThumperZ1]

I should at least be a "Bull... full of ****"!! or something like that. :poop:

[ThumperZ1]

I wonder if it would do any good to complain to the new management?

[ThumperZ1]

:bricks: I guess not....

[ThumperZ1]

Call It Love - Poco

[BakedDon]

I demand a recount!!!!!!




I am With ya on that one... I remember bout four months were deleted er something..

[BakedDon]

Ron Paul Votes Not Counted In New Hampshire District. Sutton Township
Vote fraud confirmed, Clinton reversed mammoth pre-polling deficit to beat Obama, Diebold machines aid Giuliani, Romney. Gave RP 0 & his thirty one votes were given to McCain.

[BakedDon]

Do you guys know about thee initiative process.

People could see thee effect of big money on big gov. and didn't feel like they were being properly represented.
So the people fought and fought for thee initiative process and once they got it, it was repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court.

Until the people passed a law that the Feds didn't like, then they said F u you are under arrest under federal law, F state law and F thee initiative process. A good example of what happeneds is
Peter Alexander McWilliams who was born to a Roman Catholic family and raised outside of Detroit in Allen Park, Michigan.
After attending Eastern Michigan University, he became a writer, poet and activist. Medical Marijuana was thee only thing that controlled him constant vomiting from Chemotherapy. Nothing else worked. So he became a vocal supporter of medical cannabis due to being terminally ill with AIDS and cancer.
McWilliams was investigated by the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration and convicted for violating federal marijuana laws, even though medical marijuana was legal under California State Law. While the judge deciding, he forbid Peter from using Medical Marijuana. Thats when Peter choked to death on his own vomit when he was forced to switch from cannabis to Marinol in order to remain free on bond pending sentencing.

[BakedDon]

ABC breaks the ice for us: in the future, and not too far into it, the process of getting and renewing a driver's license will become more difficult, stressful, and fraught with all manner of unnecessary nonsense supposedly designed to protect us from terrorists, or rather CIA patsies paraded about to frighten us into submission, and as well prevent illegals from taking to the roads, never mind Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and West Virginia allow illegals to hold a license, thus demonstrating the above is little more than a threadbare excuse.

Of course, when the rubber meets the road, we discern the real reason a national ID, complete with RFID and possibly biometrics, is all about easing us into the control grid.

According to apparatchik Michael Chertoff and the commissariat of Homeland Security, the whole affair is a matter of national security. "We are now over six years from 9/11," Chertoff impatiently declared, "we live every day with the problems of false identification. Simply kicking this problem down the road year after year after year for further discussion, further debate and analysis is a time-tested Washington way of smothering any proposal with process."

In other words, never mind that most people oppose Real ID and civil libertarians warn of vexing abuse, Chertoff and the neocons are itching to get us all in lumbering databases, the next step in a plan that will ultimately result in the chipping of the population at large.

"I think the time has come to bite the bullet," Chertoff continued, "and get the kind of secure identification I am convinced the American public wants to have," or rather the government tells them they must have, as most people hate the idea and eighteen states have passed legislation rejecting the law and Congress has refused to put any money into implementing it.

But never mind. It is a win-win situation for AOL, Microsoft, Verizon and Yahoo, all who stand to clean up if Chertoff manages to force his card on Americans at large. "The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) sent a letter to Congress this week begging for more federal funding for Real ID," Privacy Digest noted last October. In addition to the above corporate culprits, we can add Digimarc and Northrop Grumman, "companies that specialize in creating high-tech ID cards, as well as Choicepoint and LexisNexis, data brokers that make their money selling personal information about you to advertisers and the government. These companies stand to make millions in contracts from states who are struggling with a federal mandate to overhaul their licensing systems and share more data by the May 2008 deadline," a date right around the corner, thus explaining Chertoff's impatience.

"Real ID is so unpopular because in addition to being a $23 billion unfunded mandate, it will build a vast national database of personal information, expose us to a greater risk of identity theft, and move us ever closer to a total surveillance society.'

It may also be a way to keep "terrorists" off the roadways not the Muslim cave dwelling brand of terrorist, mind you, but the kind that exercises his or her right to petition the government under that rusty old anachronism, the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the Constitution.

As we know, thousands of Americans are on the Federal Aviation Administration's No-Fly List and the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center has compiled a terrorist watch list of over 700,000 people. Moreover, as Dave Lindorff writes, the government is in the business of passing this information out to private companies. "The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI made its list of people with even remote links to terrorism having associated, perhaps inadvertently, with a terror suspect, for example available to a wide range of private companies, from banks and rental-car companies to casinos."

And who exactly are these primary terrorists, the ones you don't want to associate with, that is if you ever want to fly again? They are "law-abiding Americans" who were detained and questioned we used to call this harassment "based on their political viewpoints," according to Nancy Chang, a senior litigation attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. "I think what they are doing is harassing people who are opposing the war and publicly speaking out against administration policy," John Dear, a Jesuit priest and member of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi, told Lindorff.

vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbMsOGWN_ts)

[BakedDon]

Back in 2003, we learned that the FBI "collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads," the New York Times reported. Of course, this is simply a continuation of the FBI's COINTELPRO, initiated in the 1960s to "neutralize" the opposition i.e., render activists not only politically impotent, but often wreck their lives as well.

In 2006, we discovered that COINTELPRO didn't go away, as the official history would have it, but lives on to this day at the Pentagon. "An antiterrorist database used by the Defense Department in an effort to prevent attacks against military installations included intelligence tips about antiwar planning meetings held at churches, libraries, college campuses and other locations," reported the New York Times. The database, known as Talon, "showed that the military used a variety of sources to collect intelligence leads on antiwar protests, including an agent in the Department of Homeland Security, Google searches on the Internet and e-mail messages forwarded by apparent informants with ties to protest groups."

In short, the FBI and the Pentagon are still in the business of compiling lists and checking them twice, and many if not most of these people end up grounded, as noted above.

Now we have Chertoff and ABC telling us the same rules may soon apply to driving a car. As Chertoff told ABC, the Real ID is about preventing "terrorists" from driving with illegal immigration tacked on as a selling point and, if the behavior of the FBI and the Pentagon are any indicator, the real terrorists are not Muslim guys who were trained on U.S. military bases and had a fondness for cruising topless bars, but are antiwar activists and other troublemakers.

Soon enough, many of us those who believe the Constitution says what it means may be reduced to walking to work and the grocery store that is until a Real ID card will be required to hold job or buy a loaf of bread.

[BakedDon]

Big pharma invest more in advertising than research

zmescience.com (http://www.zmescience.com/big-pharma-spends-more-on-advertising-than-research) — about twice as more; 24.4% of the sales is allowed to advertising and 13.4% for research and development

[BakedDon]

McCain: “ economics is not something I’ve understood

nytimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/opinion/14krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin) — “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” he says........ “I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”.......His self-deprecating humor is attractive, as always. But shouldn’t we worry about a candidate who’s so out of touch that he regards Mr. Bubble, the man who refused to regulate subprime mess More… (http://digg.com/business_finance/McCain_economics_is_not_something_I_ve_understood)

[BakedDon]

New-Hampshire primaries scandal: independent probe. Video! (http://www.youtube.com/v/rzBFIH-96O4&rel=1)

[BakedDon]

Romney: It's not torture unless you admit it

rawstory.com — Geneva Convention be damned! GOP hopeful and former Massachusetts governor reserves his right to leave all options on the table when it comes to what US agents are allowed to do to detainees behind closed doors

[BakedDon]

Jeb Bush: 'The truth is useless'

tv.com — "You have to understand this right now. You can't deposit the truth in a bank. You can't buy groceries with the truth. You can't pay rent with the truth. The truth is a useless commodity that will hang around your neck like an albatross all the way to the homeless shelter. And if you think that the million or so.....More…

[BakedDon]

And thats really sums it up folks. How these people think. The Truth is useless. Because he knows if ya add it all up and live in a world where truth is it then he would be useless. I mean Why did Jeb issue this new EO four days before 911. Anyways there it is in his own words. Creating Chaos where there was none. Adding to the growing pile of zombies in this world that if ya talk to em long enough, you will wanna eat your own brain.

[BakedDon]

Once you've encountered this repeatedly, for thee entirety of your life, you may begin to argue that being a tip of a spear is the only way to obey your heart.

[BakedDon]

New Rome is Burning

I figured out how to download mp3s off myspace that are disabled so I could get this (http://www.myspace.com/payze) and this (http://www.myspace.com/royshiversrap)

firefox and download helper

[BakedDon]

(NewsTarget) (http://www.newstarget.com/022499.html)The FDA, emboldened by its transformation into a drug company, has embarked upon an anti-American plan of interfering with business and intentionally eliminating various dietary supplement companies from the market. The FDA announcement came on Friday, June 22, 2007 under the guise of a final rule for dietary supplement good manufacturing practices (CGMPs). Within this 800 page rule the FDA states, "We find that this final rule will have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities... Establishments with above average costs, and even establishments with average costs, could be hard pressed to continue to operate. Some of these may decide it is too costly and either change product lines or go out of business... 140 very small [less than 20 employees] and 32 small dietary supplement manufacturers [less than 500 employees] will be at risk of going out of business... costs per establishment are proportionally higher for very small than for large establishments... The regulatory costs of this final rule will also discourage new small businesses from entering the industry." (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Elrd/fr07625a.html)

This FDA rule will directly raise the price of dietary supplements for all consumers. The FDA acknowledges this and says "We expect that the majority of these costs will be borne by consumers of dietary supplements, who will likely respond to the increase in prices by reducing consumption." Thus, the FDA is intentionally seeking to shrink the size of the dietary supplement industry and reduce the influence of safe and effective options to improve the dreadful trend in the health of Americans. The goal is to leave toxic drugs as the primary health option.

Independent analysis of this FDA rule has placed cost of compliance at 10 fold what the FDA estimates with as many as 50% of small companies unable to comply.

The gutless cowards of Congress, a majority of whom are on the Big Pharma payroll or will be on it once they leave Congress, have delegated their lawmaking powers granted by the U.S. Constitution to a bunch of Big Pharma-friendly unelected bureaucrats at the FDA, who are in turn using this power to undermine free commerce and help Big Pharma eliminate competition from the market. This is the behavior of a government in tyranny, inviting a revolution by the people. It is noteworthy that fascist governments of the past have eliminated health freedom and health options as a necessary condition to enslave and brainwash a population (http://www.fee.org/publications/the-freeman/article.asp?aid=2108&print_view=true) . Congress has delegated its responsibility to the people to such an extent that over half the laws in this country are now concocted by unelected bureaucrats with vested interests.

A Vehicle for Unprecedented Harassment

Any company that can afford to comply with the costs and regulations of this new FDA rule can be targeted and eliminated at will by the FDA. In essence, the FDA is seeking to make the dietary supplement industry document every phase of production, including expensive testing at multiple points in the production process. Massive record keeping will be required, including all customer complaints and returns for any reason! This is utterly draconian and an unnecessary interference and burden to free commerce. It is completely Anti-American.

No doubt, the FDA will impose user fees as an additional charge so that FDA agents will have the funding required to enforce the regulations. Under the new rule any flaw in bookkeeping can result in a company's products being declared adulterated, allowing the FDA to remove them from the market even though nothing is wrong with them! A company can then be forced out of business because they won't be able to sell any products to raise the money to comply. The rules are so complex and vague that the FDA can selectively target any company it chooses, even those attempting to comply in good faith.

The FDA is doing this under the pretense of improved consumer safety. Consumer safety could readily be guaranteed by simply having all companies test their final products for purity and potency. Instead of this simple approach the FDA has gone to the extreme of burdening the dietary supplement industry with regulations in excess of the drug industry. Supplements are foods, not drugs. The food industry couldn't begin to comply with these FDA rules, even though food contamination is far more dangerous to health than dietary supplements.

The FDA intends to phase this rule in over the next three years. This means that within five years half the industry and many of the health options individuals rely on will either be gone or significantly more expensive.

Even more chilling is that forces within the dietary supplement industry itself are in no small part responsible for this FDA final rule.

Trade Groups and their Big Companies Turn on America

The Natural Products Association (formerly the National Nutritional Food Association – NNFA) and the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) have been instrumental in forcing these drug-like rules on dietary supplements. These globalist organizations are selling out America, destroying American jobs, undermining the U.S. Constitution, and working in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies to usher in Codex and the New World Order. Consumers of dietary supplements should learn who these companies are before buying their products and helping to inadvertently fund the destruction of health freedom in this country.

When DSHEA was passed in 1994 part of that law required the FDA to establish current good manufacturing practices (CGMPs) for the dietary supplement industry. During a period of FDA outreach to the industry the FDA was surprised to learn that CRN and NPA were in favor of drug-like CGMPs for the dietary supplement industry. These trade groups, working closely with Senators Orin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), have intentionally taken the supplement industry down a slippery slope. It is noteworthy that Hatch takes in more money from Big Pharma than he does from dietary supplement companies. Not only is Hatch a big supporter of the Medicare Part D drug rip off of Americans he has saved Big Pharma billions by protecting them from generic competition, as he is currently attempting to do with his legislation for new biologic drugs. Hatch also has a son working for NPA and another son that lobbies for NPA and the dietary supplement industry. When Hatch leaves the Senate he will be first in line for a six or seven figure Big Pharma salary.

The CRN has been taken over by multinational drug and food companies. Key players are the nutritional divisions of Bayer, BASF, Cargill, Monsanto, Wyeth, and Archer Daniels Midland (http://www.crnusa.org/who_omc.html). Nutrition companies that participate are in most cases owned by pharmaceutical companies, heavily invested in pharmaceutical companies, or jockeying for position in the international market as part of the New World Order. Key names include Mannatech, Shacklee, Herbalife, GNLD International, The Vitamin Shoppe, and GNC. These companies are glad to eliminate competition from small companies and start up ventures.

[BakedDon]

Carrying on the general theme of Big Pharma ownership and a globalist agenda are the companies that control the NPA. One need only look at the new NPA China board to understand who these key players are (http://www.naturalproductsassoc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=abt_China) . Jarrow Formulas, Now Foods, GNC, and Herbalife top the list. At the end of 2006 Jarrow and Now helped lead the charge with Senators Hatch and Harkin to burden the dietary supplement industry with bizarre Adverse Event Reporting legislation (AER) which insisted that dietary supplement companies keep extensive records on any type of consumer complaint. Aspects of this AER law are now implemented in the FDA final rule on CGMPs. Of course, NPA was quick to offer expensive training to its members to indoctrinate them into how to comply with the rules that NPA, working on behalf of the FDA, just forced on its own members. Are their member companies really this stupid? Or are they all working together? I would recommend that any NPA member that believes itself to be a true American company that values our constitution immediately withdraw from NPA membership – consumers will be looking to see who you are (http://www.naturalproductsassoc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=abt_Board) .

The picture is now crystal clear for any person who cares to look. Numerous dietary supplement companies are anti-American and actively selling out our country and our constitution, working hand-in-glove with the FDA and Big Pharma. The majority of such companies can be found as members of CRN and NPA. It will be up to the American consumer to save the dietary industry from itself and preserve their own access to safe and effective natural health remedies. This is a relatively simple task. Quit buying products from or quit being a distributor in these fascist organizations. Support the small companies that are the backbone of America, otherwise they will soon be extinct.

Update on S.1082 Threat to Dietary Supplements

Many of you have been following the extreme threat to dietary supplements posed by S.1082 (http://www.wellnessresources.com/health_freedom.php) . Similar legislation has now cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is headed for the floor of the House in the next week or two. The House version of this bill now contains the "food and food ingredients" language that the FDA can use to apply drug-related risk/benefit analysis to dietary supplements and have them removed from the market at their whim.

It is noteworthy that both CRN and NPA have posted on their websites information stating that S.1082 is not a threat to dietary supplements. Both organizations are flat out wrong. They cite a colloquy by Hatch, Harkin, Kennedy, and Enzi as their evidence. This colloquy was a direct result of our grassroots campaign to alert the American consumer to this major threat. In no way does this colloquy protect dietary supplements. Until the language in the bill is changed the threat exists and is very real. CRN and NPA also tell their members that the Codex initiative to scare consumers into thinking that dietary supplements are unsafe above minuscule amounts and need to be regulated by international laws is also no big deal. It is clear that CRN and NPA, again working hand-in-glove with the FDA, are a major part of the problem and are actively engaged in forwarding the globalist agenda of the New World Order. While pretending to represent the dietary supplement industry these organizations are in fact shooting the industry in the back and undermining health options for Americans.

The FDA is Out of Control

The FDA is a tyrannical organization that is now emboldened and completely out of control. It is not surprising that the FDA is seeking to eliminate competition to Big Pharma, they have been doing that for much of the past century. What is surprising is that they are openly stating in their final rule a plan that directly eliminates small businesses from existence. This fascist organization believes itself to be above the rule of law and is actively working against America and the rights of Americans (http://www.emord.com/events/speeches/fda_violation.htm) . It must be stopped.

About the author
Byron J. Richards, Founder/Director of Wellness Resources (www.wellnessresources.com), is a Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist, a charter professional member of the International and American Associations of Clinical Nutritionists (IAACN) since 1991. He is a nationally-renowned health expert, radio personality, and educator. He is the creator and pioneer of The Leptin Diet® and has been a featured expert consultant on Fox News Live, CBS Infinity television (national syndication), and The Wall Street Journal. Richards has appeared on hundreds of radio programs throughout the country. He is the author of Mastering Leptin (www.wellnessresources.com/products/mastering_leptin.php), The Leptin Diet (www.wellnessresources.com/Books/leptin_diet.php), and Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America(www.wellnessresources.com/Books/fight_for_your_health.php).
Richards encourages individuals to take charge of their health, stand up for their health rights, and not blindly succumb to propaganda from the vested-interests who profit from keeping Americans sick. As founder of Wellness Resources, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN, an independently-owned nutraceutical-quality dietary supplement company since 1985. He has personally developed 75 effective nutritional formulations. (www.wellnessresources.com)
FREE Subscription to Byron's Health Newsletter, click here(www.wellnessresources.com/store/newsletter.php)
E-mail: byron@wellnessresources.com

[BakedDon]

(NewsTarget) The Andrew von Eschenbach FDA era is upon us. The Avandia scandal is the tip of the iceberg. Is anyone ready? The words "illicit financial collusion" have been replaced by the politically correct term, "collaboration." On May 30, in defense of his cozy relationship with Big Pharma and Big Biotech von Eschenbach told reporters, "This is a collaboration, but it's not just a collaboration with drug companies, it's a collaboration with academia and with other agencies". And he forgot to include that it is also a collaboration with various Senators, such as Senator Bennett (R-UT) and Senator Hatch (R-UT), as can be seen by the highly lucrative Critical Path Initiative program for cardiovascular disease research at the University of Utah.

Plainly stated, the FDA is set on becoming a drug company involved in every aspect of drug development for the next century. This pipe dream involves using sophisticated FDA software and related technologies to set the standards for the future of medicine, which will soon require your DNA in an FDA-owned supercomputer if you would like medical care. The FDA will help design all drugs from the ground up. The FDA, through the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, will control all patents and licensing arrangements regarding the drugs that are developed (http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron30.htm) .

Under this plan the fox will not only be in charge of the henhouse, the fox will eat hens at will. Privacy issues, genetic discrimination, and required implantable RFID chips will be the order of the day. Billions of dollars are at stake. Wall Street can't wait. Drug safety and the health options of all Americans hang somewhere in the balance, including access to safe and effective dietary supplements, the only true competition (http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron31.htm) .

What will the FDA do when safety problems surface in the drugs it develops? Will the FDA put consumer safety ahead of its own financial interests? What legal liability will the FDA face when their drugs injure or kill? The FDA has already thought this through and is doing what it can to make sure citizens have no rights to sue when injured by FDA-approved medications (http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron2.htm) .

Senators have already approved this FDA plan as part of the recently passed S.1082 – without asking a single question about it! The battle now moves to the House (HR.1561). A hurdle has been placed in front of the FDA, the unfortunately timed Avandia scandal is prying open the door to FDA and industry financial collusion, wherein tens of thousands of people die based on FDA management decisions while Big Pharma makes billions. It is time for Americans to wake up, as your health options are about to seriously diminish.

The Avandia Scandal

On June 6, 2007 von Eschenbach and various FDA employees testified before Henry Waxman's (D-CA) Committee on Oversight and Reform (http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1325) . Waxman set the tone by reviewing the FDA history of Avandia approval and post marketing activities, outlining what he called "a number of missed opportunities." Von Eschenbach skirted all issues by saying the FDA is still reviewing data and will hold an advisory committee hearing on July 30, thus attempting to delay the spotlight on this scandal so that HR.1561 can come to the floor of the House without the Avandia scandal hanging over its head.

The Avandia scandal is becoming quite a dog and pony show. On June 6, 2007 the New York Times revealed a stunning event that occurred in March of 2006 wherein FDA safety supervisor Dr. Rosemary Johann-Liang approved a black box warning on Avandia to warn about the risk for congestive heart failure (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/health/06fda.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1181134287-GoZ27pFnLfDZW+O8VgbuHA&oref=slogin) . The von Eschenbach team ordered her to retract her approval of the warning. She was then stripped of her power to make such warnings and removed from supervision of the safety of Avandia. In other words, FDA management actively blocked a needed public warning regarding the dangers of this drug, consistent with eight years of FDA failures to ensure proper post-marketing studies of Avandia regarding heart attack risk.

Of particular interest is the FDA's technical defense of its position regarding the approval of the drug in the first place. The drug was approved based on a "biomarker" or surrogate endpoint – meaning that approval of the drug was based on its ability to change blood sugar levels, not whether it improved the health of a diabetic. Avandia works by throwing a gene switch known as PPAR that is involved with multiple chemistry reactions at the cellular level, a fundamentally unpredictable and powerful drug target. By focusing on the biomarker called blood sugar the FDA was able to ignore the key safety question which was, "At what expense to health is blood sugar being lowered?"

It now turns out that Avandia has a whopping 43% increased risk for heart attacks as well as an increased risk of death from using the drug. This information is only coming to light after eight years of use. The FDA sat on the heart attack risk data and failed to warn the public, enabling the drug to become a blockbuster and rake in 3.2 billion in annual sales. GlaxoSmithKline made no proper effort to determine the heart attack risk of Avandia in proper post-marketing studies, which the FDA condoned. And as stated in the testimony of Bruce Psaty, MD, "FDA failed to warn or inform in timely manner." (http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070606125204.pdf)

It is important to understand that the future of all drug development under the Critical Path Initiative and the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA will rely on this type of biomarker evaluation (surrogate endpoints) to rush drugs to the market faster with virtually no proof of desired clinical outcomes. The American public will then be subject to a safety experiment. This approach to new drug development will sentence unsuspecting citizens in our country to a never-ending stream of Avandia-like scandals.

I'll Stroke Your Back, You Stroke Mine

It is not an accident that Andrew von Eschenbach's permanent appointment to head the FDA was slipped through at the end of last year during the Lame Duck session, with most Senators asleep at the wheel. About the only Senator not sleeping was Charles Grassley (R-IA), who stated during von Eschenbach's confirmation hearing:

"People ought to be ashamed of saying Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach has done a superb job in the position he is currently occupying [acting head of the FDA]. That is an insult. In my interactions with the Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA these last 8 months, I have seen a complete and utter disrespect for congressional authority and hence the law. This body [the Senate] should not walk hand in hand with the executive branch and sit idly by as instances of abuse and fraud continue to endanger the health and safety of American people."

As Grassley's warning fell on deaf ears Orrin Hatch (R-UT) rose in defense of von Eschenbach:
"To me it is simply unconscionable that the Food and Drug Administration, one of the best little agencies in Government, has gone leaderless for such a period of time. I know Dr. von Eschenbach well. He is a man of integrity... I urge my colleagues - no, I implore my colleagues - to do what is right and vote [for] this nomination... it is what the American people deserve."

[BakedDon]

Apparently we got what we deserve. Why was Hatch so adamant about placing a bio-tech sales rep at the top of the FDA? Hatch is a large recipient of Big Pharma money. He holds a key position on the HELP committee that created Senate bill S.1082. He is currently designing legislation to protect Big Pharma and Big Biotech from generic competition in the next generation of biological drugs – a windfall worth billions for the industry. Hatch wants to place this legislation into S.1082/HR.1561 as an amendment when the bill goes to conference committee.

It is obvious that Hatch has his hand in the Big Pharma cookie jar. Von Eschenbach is certainly playing his role in rewarding Hatch for his support, helping us to gain a clear picture of what von Eschenbach means by "collaboration." On June 1, 2007, von Eschenbach was in Utah promoting a new Critical Path Initiative project with the University of Utah. It is called the Cardiovascular Drug Safety and Biomarker Research Program (http://www.fda.gov/ola/2007/criticalpath060107.html) . This project could be worth hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars to the state of Utah. I wonder why the FDA chose Utah for this no-bid contract known as a collaboration?

Hatch Walks an Interesting Fence

A key problem with S.1082 is that it contains a sneak attack on dietary supplements that will enable the FDA to remove helpful dietary supplements from the market at its whim in order to protect drugs from competition (http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron30.htm) . This is being done through trick language the FDA has installed in bill S.1082, specifically relating to the Critical Path Initiative and the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA.

Because there are many dietary supplement companies in Utah, Hatch has also been a major supporter of the dietary supplement industry and is responsible, along with Tom Harkin (D-IA) for the law known as DSHEA which provides access to dietary supplements in this country.

In the past month Hatch and Harkin were flooded with objections and concerns regarding this sneak attack on dietary supplements. This led to a conversation between Hatch, Harkin, Kennedy, and Enzi wherein they state that S.1082 will not affect dietary supplements (http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron26.htm) . However, until the language is changed in the bill itself the threat to dietary supplements is very real and is a huge problem. This is fully explained by Jonathan Emord, our nation's leading health freedom attorney, in an interview he recently had with me that can be heard by clicking here (http://www.wellnessresources.com/health_freedom.php).

The Senator's conversation, called a colloquy, has been used by the Natural Products Association (NPA) to neutralize concerns of its health food stores regarding this issue. It is obvious that NPA takes its marching orders from Hatch. Why are Hatch and the NPA trying to convince consumers that they are protected when nothing could be further from the truth? I've asked this question to David Seckman, head of NPA, and received no answer. It is quite a disservice to the dietary supplement industry when leaders pretend real problems do not exist.

Hatch takes in more money from Big Pharma than he does from dietary supplement companies – and as a veteran politician he walks both sides of the fence with considerable skill. It is vital that Hatch and Harkin help change the language within Senate bill S.1082 to actually protect dietary supplements.

This will require a major public demand, in both the House and to these Senators, to make this happen. You can take action now by clicking here (http://www.wellnessresources.com/health_freedom.php) .

[BakedDon]

n a country where people want massive amounts of choice and freedom to make such choices, Ron Paul fights for our rights. A former medical doctor who hails from Texas, Ron Paul is fighting for the right to choose the healthcare methods that you desire as well as the ability to choose to take health supplements such as vitamins at your own free will. This may sound silly to some, but there a millions of Americans who use alternative health care methods for relief of injury and illness. As the FDA grows greedier for power to control these practices these Americans run the risk of losing these beneficial health choices. Consider the fact that if the FDA has full power over vitamin supplements such as Vitamin C or even a mulit-vitamin, do you thinks you will be able to walk to your local grocery to buy a bottle?

No longer will you have this freedom. You will instead be required to pay a physician to provide a health check up and a prescription for a supplement. Most of the people in the United States do not have health Insurance and cannot afford to even visit a physician for life threatening conditions. The government is about power and control. The FDA is a part of that. Ron Paul wants to fight for you to remain in control over the health options that we still have available to us. Polls show Paul at a national average for December at CNN 6.0, NBC 4.0 and USA Today at 3.5. These polls as well as the following state averages are seen at usaelectionpolls.com and presidentelectionpolls.com. The December state averages for Mr. Paul in the polls presidential race are New Hampshire at 6.6, South Carolina t 6.5, Iowa at 5.5, Wisconsin at 4.5 and Pennsylvania at 4.0. Perhaps as the American people realize that Ron Paul is fighting for our rights big and small.

[BakedDon]

Montana Calls for Real ID Rebellion; Dares DHS to Reject IDs (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/montana-governo.html)

blog.wired.com — Montana's governor called on 17 other states Friday to join its rejection of the fed's Real ID rules, but DHS says rebel states will be punished. Starting May 11, citizens of rebel states can't use their driver's licenses to enter any federal building or board a plane without a patdown. States that agree can get extension on pricey regs until 2014

[BakedDon]

MSNBC Projects Ron Paul 2nd Place in Nevada!

msnbc.msn.com — With 14% of the vote with 0% of precincts reporting.More… (US Elections 2008)

[BakedDon]

Huckabee gave speech to white supremacists
[Reported by Diggers as Possibly Inaccurate]

rawstory.com (http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Huckabee_gave_speech_to_white_supremacists_0118.ht ml) — well before he was a nationally known political star, Huckabee nurtured a relationship with America's largest white supremacist group, the Council of Conservative Citizens. The extent of Huckabee's interaction with the racist group is unclear, but this much is known: he accepted an invitation to speak at the group's annual conference in 1993.

[BakedDon]

School destroys video of students being shocked (http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Official_Video_destroyed_in_shock_c_01182008.html)

rawstory.com — After being ordered not to destroy video footage of school officials shocking students, the school destroyed them anyways

[BakedDon]

473 days of White House email missing

rawstory.co (http://rawstory.com/news/2007/White_House_no_email_archived_on_0118.html)m — There are 16 days of no archived e-mails from Sept. 12, 2003, to May 23, 2005, for the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to Waxman's letter announcing the hearing. There are a dozen days of no archived e-mails for the White House Office inside the EOP, starting Dec. 17, 2003, and ending on Feb. 8, 2004, Waxman's letter added.More… (Political News)

[BakedDon]

Reporter Gets Into Fight With Mitt Romney Over Lobbyist Ties

huffingtonpost.com — Romney and an AP reporter had words over the candidate's statement that lobbyists aren't running his campaign at an event in Columbia, S.C. The reporter interupted to point out that Ron Kaufman, a senior advisor, is a lobbyist

[BakedDon]

So-called long shot candidate Ron Paul managed to finish 2nd place in the Nevada caucuses held today, which proves the Texas Representative may have more support around the country, and especially out west, than he's getting credit for.

[BakedDon]

World not running out of oil, say experts

Carl Mortished
London Times
Saturday January 19, 2008

Doom-laden forecasts that world oil supplies are poised to fall off the edge of a cliff are wide of the mark, according to leading oil industry experts who gave warning that human factors, not geology, will drive the oil market.

A landmark study of more than 800 oilfields by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Cera) has concluded that rates of decline are only 4.5 per cent a year, almost half the rate previously believed, leading the consultancy to conclude that oil output will continue to rise over the next decade.

Peter Jackson, the report's author, said: “We will be able to grow supply to well over 100million barrels per day by 2017.” Current world oil output is in the region of 85million barrels a day.

(Article continues below)

The optimistic view of the world's oil resource was also given support by BP's chief economist, Peter Davies, who dismissed theories of “Peak Oil” as fallacious. Instead, he gave warning that world oil production would peak as demand weakened, because of political constraints, including taxation and government efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Speaking to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil, Mr Davies said that peaks in world production had been wrongly predicted throughout history but he agreed that oil might peak within a generation “as a result of a peaking of demand rather than supply”.

He said it was inconceivable that oil consumption would be unaffected by government policies to reduce carbon emissions. “There is a distinct possibilty that global oil consumption could peak as a result of such climate policies,” Mr Davies said.

The BP economist's remarks were echoed yesterday by Mr Jackson. “It is the above-ground risks that will influence the rate [of oil output],” he said.

Cera analysed the output of 811 oilfields, which produce 19 billion barrels a year, out of total world output of 32 billion. These included many of the giants, including Saudi Arabia's Ghawar, the largest known oilfield, which has been at the centre of the debate between peak oil analysts and their detractors.

In his book Twilight in the Desert, Matthew Simmons of Simmons & Co, the consultancy, said the big Saudi fields reached their peak output in 1981 but Cera yesterday said that Ghawar was not failing. “There is no technical evidence that Ghawar is about to decline,” said Mr Jackson.

Cera reckons that oil output, including unconventional oil, such as tar sands, could allow oil to peak at much higher levels of as much as 112 million barrels per day, with average rates of more than 100million bpd.

[BakedDon]

Power to the People cause the People want Peace

[BakedDon]

Bush, Cheney meet with 9/11 panel
President cites 'good discussion'

Friday, April 30, 2004 Posted: 1:28 PM EDT (1728 GMT)


President Bush: "I'm glad I did it." (http://www.youtube.com/v/C9AoaU7LlTk&rel=1)



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Thursday he "answered every question" posed to him by the 9/11 commission during what was described as an extraordinary session at the White House with the panel investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"It was wide-ranging, it was important, it was just a good discussion," Bush told reporters in the White House Rose Garden, shortly after the closed-door session ended.

The entire 10-member bipartisan commission -- known formally as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States -- attended the meeting in the Oval Office.

Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney answered questions from the commissioners for more than three hours.

The president dismissed suggestions that he appeared before the panel with Cheney to coordinate stories.

"If we had something to hide, we wouldn't have met with them in the first place," Bush said. "We answered all their questions."

Bush said it was important for him and Cheney to appear together so that commission members could "see our body language... how we work together."

Bush described the session as "cordial," but declined to provide any details about topics discussed. He said he was never advised by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales -- who attended the session, along with two members of his staff -- not to answer a question.
'We are vulnerable'

Bush stressed that the United States remains vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

"So long as there's an al Qaeda enemy that's willing to kill, we are vulnerable," Bush said.

A statement from the 9/11 commission described the meeting as "extraordinary" and thanked the two men for their cooperation.

"The commission found the president and the vice president forthcoming and candid," the statement said. "The information they provided will be of great assistance to the commission as it completes its final report."

Commission member Tim Roemer, a Democrat and former congressman from Indiana, said Bush was "very direct" in his answers.

"He was cooperative, he was frank, he was gracious with his time," Roemer told CNN.

The commission is investigating what has become the defining moment of the Bush presidency -- the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, carried out by 19 hijackers who commandeered four U.S. commercial jets.

Two of those jets slammed into New York's World Trade Center, causing the towers to collapse, a third jet crashed into the Pentagon, and the fourth slammed into a field in western Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people were killed.

The commission is charged with coming up with an authoritative account of the attacks, including any intelligence and security lapses. The commission will also draft recommendations on how to safeguard against possible future attacks.

It is rare for a sitting president to talk to such a panel. There have been only a handful of appearances since 1862, when President Lincoln discussed relieving a Civil War general.

Bush had only positive words for the session.

"They had a lot of questions and ... I'm glad I did it," Bush said. "I'm glad I took the time."

But the administration initially opposed the creation of the commission. The White House relented amid pressure from some 9/11 family members and it later backed down from its opposition to an extension of time for the commission.

The commission now has until July 26 to finalize its report, but that report may not be released publicly at that time, pending a security review by the White House.
No transcript

Bush and Cheney did not testify before the panel -- they were not under oath and there was to be no recording made of the session nor a stenographer in the room.

The two members of the White House counsel's staff were expected to take notes during the session, and the commission members were also allowed to take handwritten notes.

Bush brushed off a question from a reporter Thursday on whether 9/11 families were entitled to a transcript of the session.

"You asked me that question yesterday," Bush replied. "I got the same answer."

He did not repeat the answer, but the White House has said there will not be a transcript of the session. Bush said he expects details of his "conversation" with the commission to go into its final report.

The Oval Office session began at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 12:40 p.m., although two commission members -- Lee Hamilton, the vice chairman, and Bob Kerrey -- left about an hour earlier.

In a written statement, Kerrey said he left early to attend "a previously scheduled meeting with Senator Pete Domenici on Capitol Hill."

Former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore have also met with the commission. Their sessions were also private and, like Bush and Cheney, they were not under oath. However, Clinton and Gore appeared separately before the panel, and their sessions were recorded.

Bush and Cheney had spent several hours over the past few days preparing, aides said.

Bush, for example, reviewed intelligence briefings from 2001 and spent time talking to Gonzales, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and chief of staff Andrew Card, who was traveling with Bush in Florida on the morning of the September 11, 2001, attacks. (Rice delivers tough defense of administration)

A senior administration official said Bush's preparations also included conversations with Cheney.

Officials said that among the documents prepared for both men to review were intelligence reports from the months and weeks before the attacks and what one senior official called "chronologies and other records of events in that time period."

They also reviewed transcripts and summaries of previous testimony to the commission -- including that of former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, officials said.

Clarke was critical of the Bush administration in his testimony before the commission, saying it considered terrorism "important" but not "urgent" before the 9/11 attacks. (Clarke vs. Rice: Excerpts from testimony)

The commission recently held a series of public hearings, during which some witnesses faulted Bush's anti-terrorism policies before the 9/11 attacks. And statements prepared by the commission staff have faulted the FBI and CIA for their policies and lack of cooperation before that time. (9/11 commission faults U.S. intelligence)
White House rebuke

The commission has been the subject of increasing criticism from some Republican lawmakers who say Democratic members appear to be more interesting in casting blame than finding solutions. (Republicans amplify criticism of 9/11 commission)

The Justice Department has also released documents on its Web site about Jamie Gorelick -- a Democratic member of the commission who served in the Justice Department under President Clinton -- and her role in developing a legal "wall" on the sharing of intelligence information.

Some witnesses who appeared before the 9/11 commission said bureaucratic hurdles impeded the effort to thwart terrorism.

That wall was initially affirmed by Justice Department under Bush, but the restriction on sharing intelligence information was lifted as part of the post-9/11 Patriot Act.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was "disappointed" by the release of the documents.

"That's what the Justice Department did; we were not involved in it," McClellan said. He added that Bush expressed his disappointment to the commission.

"The president does not believe we ought to be pointing finger during this time period," McClellan said.

CNN's John King and Sean Loughlin contributed to this report.

[BakedDon]

Together, behind closed doors, and not under oath... (http://www.youtube.com/v/C9AoaU7LlTk&rel=1)

Not Separate, in public, under oath as they were asked.