Karl Rove voted as in Contempt!

I've been waiting for something like this pretty much ever since I heard who Karl Rove is and all the wicked and underhanded things he's done in rigging campaigns, sabotaging opponents' campaigns, and generally making a worse mess of an already messy democracy.

Karl Rove was voted in contempt of court for failing to respond to a subpoena to appear before a committee to answer questions in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

read the full story here.

Doing a little bit of research, it looks like this was another one of Rove's diabolical sabotages - Siegelman was the only democrat in the state government of Alabama, and they wanted to get rid of him. He's been lauded for making good policy, so the bribery doesn't fit his character description.

If there is a hell, Rove will no doubt take tea w/Fallwell.

How's this for lying?

So, with all the hullabaloo in the past two presidential elections, the justice department is remaining passive, sucking their thumbs at the evidence laid before them of fraud acts in voting machines.
Read the full story here.

And if you have a moment, watch this video on just how 'hard' it is to hack into a voting machine:



On another note, the British government is releasing UFO report information, and officials in the U.S. are calling for the Pentagon to show us our own country's records of activity. Will Durst may think it's humorous that a certain ex-Governor of Arizona would admit seeing one, but so many people have seen one that I think they should be removed from the context of trailer parks and rednecks a little bit. Whether world governments are just not telling us how advanced humanity's aircraft have become, or whether we really are being observed and examined, and occasionally abducted, by beings from another plant/galaxy/dimension, the things themselves exist. To solve the mystery of what something is, the presence of that thing must be acknowledged. To admit you've seen one is not the same as admitting you think they're extraterrestrials.

...and that's my rant for the day.

>>ROFL<<

Ha! So, I visited this bitch's web site, togetherforus.com, (dot COM, not dot org, upperclass twit laugh) and I'm not even going to repost this whole thing, it's just too ridiculous that this woman is getting covered on Fox and all the conservative media outlets like this blog:

http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=1702

and because my comment will pro'ly not get published, and I spent so much time on it:

Haha, thanks for covering this. Yeah, the Dems ditched "Lady Rothschild" because she is a sham and represents NOTHING of what the Democratic party ideally stands for. She's on the board for Estee Lauder and positively reaks w/her noble depravity. Ha! Unfortunately, ALL the major candidates from BOTH parties are ~95% likely in the pockets of big oil/banking/$$ - you may say that this is how things are supposed to go, but I have a problem w/the idea of being a wage slave - *don't you??* Didn't we fight the Revolution for change in the system? This transcends 'right' and 'left'. This is about the fate of humanity. Grain prices have pretty much doubled since 2006. Think on it.

And here's some other, more important stuff.
http://www.rense.com/general33/legal.htm

(I promise I did not name this blog after this site:)
http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Frances_Moore_Lappe.html

Blackwater was at Katrina, and they bragged about it!

Um, so, yeah. for those who want to look at the source, check http://www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2005/archive/090505btw.html. Some people in the state of Louisiana don't even know that Blackwater was there, in New Orleans, for Katrina. Their web site may have flown the flag, but our media surely did not. The media has covered Blackwater's presence in Iraq because of the bloody wake they leave, but it's hard to find anything talking about people's reactions to the private contractors being in New Orleans during September of 2005, or of their assignment to confiscate weapons from citizens at that time, and herd them into the Super Dome.

Please visit http://www.alternet.org/katrina/25858/ for a full account.

Mood: disgusted.

GMO's may increase production, but not quality, and not livelihood

Monsanto Bio-Pirating Indian Wheat

Monsanto's chapati patent raises Indian ire

Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi

The Guardian

Monsanto, the world's largest genetically modified seed company, has been awarded patents on the wheat used for making chapati - the flat bread staple of northern India.
The patents give the US multinational exclusive ownership over Nap Hal, a strain of wheat whose gene sequence makes it particularly suited to producing crisp breads.

Another patent, filed in Europe, gives Monsanto rights over the use of Nap Hal wheat to make chapatis, which consist of flour, water and salt.

Environmentalists say Nap Hal's qualities are the result of generations of farmers in India who spent years crossbreeding crops and collective, not corporate, efforts should be recognised.

Monsanto, activists claim, is simply out to make "monopoly profits" from food on which millions depend. Monsanto inherited a patent application when it bought the cereals division of the Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever in 1998, and the patent has been granted to the new owner.

Unilever acquired Nap Hal seeds from a publicly funded British plant gene bank. Its scientists identified the wheat's combination of genes and patented them as an "invention".
Greenpeace is attempting to block Monsanto's patent, accusing the company of "bio-piracy".

"It is theft of the results of the work in cultivation made by Indian farmers," said Dr Christoph Then, Greenpeace's patent expert after a meeting with the European Commission in Delhi.

"We want the European Patent Office to reverse its decision. Under European law patents cannot be issued on plants that are normally cultivated, but there are loopholes in the legislation."

A spokesperson for Monsanto in India denied that the company had any plan to exploit the patent, saying that it was in fact pulling out of cereals in some markets. "This patent was Unilever's. We got it when we bought the company. Really this is all academic as we are exiting from the cereal business in the UK and Europe," said Ranjana Smetacek, Monsanto's public affairs director in India. Campaigners in India say that there are concerns that people might end up paying royalties to Monsanto for making or selling chapatis.

"The commercial interest is that Monsanto can charge people for using the wheat or take a cut from its sale," said Devinder Sharma, who runs the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security in Delhi. The potential market in developing countries is huge. Rice production in India alone exceeds that of the American maize market.

The number of patents relating to rice issued every year in the US has risen from less than 100 in the mid-1990s to more than 600 in 2000. Mr Sharma says there is little hope of the Indian government intervening to prevent the chapati being patented by Monsanto. It simply cannot afford the legal fees, having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting a US decision to grant a Texan company a patent on basmati rice in 1997. That case became a cause celebre for the anti-globalisation protests of the 1990s, and was only settled when the patent was watered down. "The ministry of commerce sent a circular out last year which said that there is no money to fund these cases any more," said Mr Sharma.

Offshore Drilling Bans - Coastal Areas at Risk

reposted from Bloomberg.com

Bush Will Urge End to Offshore Oil Drilling Ban (Update3)

By Holly Rosenkrantz and Roger Runningen

June 18 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush today will urge Congress to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling, a move that is in line with a similar call from Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

``With gasoline now over $4 a gallon,'' Bush ``wants to work with states to determine where offshore drilling should occur,'' and have ``the federal government to share revenues with the states,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday.

Democrats have long opposed Republican efforts to end the ban on offshore drilling that has existed in some areas since 1981. Expanded offshore exploration also has faced opposition in the coastal state of Florida, which will be a battleground in the presidential campaign between McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

``I don't see how either house of Congress passes this,'' said Pete Davis, president of Davis Capital Investment in Washington. ``This has been a long-standing issue and the lines are very hardened.''

Still, rising oil prices are creating a drag on the U.S. economy and energy costs have become a top political issue.

Bush ``is under a lot of pressure to show that he can still be effective on an issue that matters to voters, so this is one they've pulled out of the closet,'' Davis said.

Arizona Senator McCain, 71, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, yesterday called for letting states open up more territory to offshore oil drilling, even as he promised a break from the energy policies of the Bush administration.

Obama Disagrees

Obama, 46, an Illinois senator who the presumptive Democratic nominee, said there is no evidence that lifting the ban on oil drilling would provide relief to consumers.

``This is not something that is going to give relief now, and it's not a long-term solution,'' Obama said yesterday.

Bush's push for offshore oil drilling is a one of several steps he wants Congress to take to boost the U.S. energy supply, Perino said. Bush, 61, wants Congress to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling as well. McCain opposes drilling in the refuge.

Perino said Bush will make his statement at 10:35 a.m. at the White House. The statement will include no presidential directives, she said.

The proposal may touch off a political firestorm between energy companies and environmental groups, between members of Congress from coastal states such as New Jersey, Florida, Virginia or California, and draw a contrast between Republican governors.

Crist, Schwarzenegger

Florida Governor Charlie Crist joined Bush and McCain in seeking an end to the ban. Crist reversed his longstanding opposition to drilling off the shores of his state hours after McCain made his call and administration officials said Bush will ask Congress to allow ``environmentally friendly'' drilling, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Crist had opposed offshore drilling on concern it would damage Florida's beaches and drive away tourists. ``We must be pragmatic in protecting both our beaches and our economy,'' Crist said in a written response to the newspaper.

A telephone call to Thomas Philpot, a spokesman for Crist, wasn't immediately returned.

In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes lifting the moratorium but ``still absolutely supports'' McCain, said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for the Republican governor, the Los Angeles Times reported. ``They're going to disagree from time to time, and this is one of those cases.''

Reserve Estimates

The nation's Outer Continental Shelf, including areas in the Gulf of Mexico that are already being drilled, has an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. Of that, almost 18 billion barrels* of oil and more than 76 trillion cubic feet of gas are off states where drilling isn't allowed, agency spokesman David Smith said.

Estimates for offshore areas where drilling is prohibited are likely low because there has been no exploration since the 1970s, Smith said. Advances in deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico revealed deposits that increased reserves in areas that are open to drilling, he said

The U.S. had proved oil reserves of 29.4 billion barrels at the end of 2007, according to an estimate by BP Plc.

Republicans in the House plan to use Bush's remarks to prod the Appropriations Committee to ease energy restrictions as the panel considers a $27.9 billion spending bill for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency.

Oil Shale

With oil prices up about double what they were a year ago and up about 40 percent this year, Republicans want to focus on domestic energy production, including removal of the current offshore drilling moratorium.** They also may offer amendments to permit the Interior Department to lease land in some western states for oil-shale extraction and open the refuge in Alaska for to drilling.

Oil futures in New York have surged fourfold since the end of 2003, including a 40 percent jump this year, and touched a record this week at $139.89 a barrel.

Crude's rise pushed gasoline and diesel prices above $4 a gallon in the U.S., dragging down profits for businesses ranging from shipping services to department stores and contributing to a drop in truck sales by Ford Motor Co. and other manufacturers. Record jet-fuel prices forced U.S. Airways and other carriers to cut more than 10,000 jobs and ground more than 400 aircraft.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.netRoger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 18, 2008 10:24 EDT

* Blog author's note: A 2004 estimate placed US daily oil consumption at 20.73 million barrels per day (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html). Based on that estimate, the 18 billion barrels that are estimated to be in water where offshore drilling is permitted, would last the US for approximately two years. The effects of offshore drilling on the environment would last for way, way longer than that. So basically, once again, the president wants to take actions w/long term consequences for a short term benefit.
**BA's note: this apparently does not include putting further $$ towards research of alternative energy sources: wind, solar, etc. Biofuel is another short term solution, but even it has shorter term effects on the environment than offshore drilling.

I found this on a truth site dedicated to an unidentified flying object site around the towers which may or may not be a plane. See more images here.

On another note, I am starting to wonder if all this alien presence business is real. Supposedly 14% of people surveyed said they have had encounters w/UFOs. I have, too. How many of us are out there who never admit it?

I'll have to post my own encounter at some point, a memorate for whoever reads this. Apparently some 11/13 year olds (wtf, mate?) do. But luckily so do intelligent people w/a sharp sense of humo(u)r. Or is anything as it seems on the web?

My cat's really sick. I've been kind of preoccupied with it. I don't want to lose her - she's a year and a half old - I feel like she deserves a chance, and guilty as hell that something we've done has made her sick. Keeping chemicals under the sink? Not catering to her taste for wet food soon enough? It seems like she's just turned down everything. Searching through all this shit that's on the web for wedding plan ideas at the same time, I just see all these high society bull shit blogs about Faye and Greer (whoever the fuck they are), and it just makes me feel anonymous. Kind of lost. Disconnected? Sure.

Yeah, I rant. But that's my news for today. Oh, yeah. And I was hit by a car. I've spilled on my bike before, but this is the first time I have been hit. By a car. The car wasn't going very fast, and neither was I, too bad for me, but he just went 'tap' and I went 'whoomp' *crash* What's going on in the stars? Is life telling me to hurry up, or slow down? I have to be poised for action at just the right moment.

Not so fun. Join us for the next installation in Faustina's Freaky Fun House!