Monday, October 12, 2009

What Happened in New York on 9 11 2009 This Year? I Don't Think You Knew About This, Did You?

Check this link ...... http://bit.ly/19tWA9

2009 Wheat Forecast From OK Ag Statistics

Oklahoma Wheat Forecast at 81 Million Bushels

The State’s May 1, 2009, wheat production is forecast at 80.5 million bushels, down 52 percent from last year, according to the USDA-NASS Oklahoma Field Office. Acres expected to be harvested for grain, at 3.5 million acres, are down 1 million acres from last year. Average yield is forecast at 23.0 bushels per acre, down 14 bushels from 2008.

Final 2008 cotton production is set at 262,000 bales, down 7 percent from 2007. The 155,000 harvested acres were down 6 percent from last year. An average yield of 811 pounds per acre was down 6 pounds from 2007.

Cottonseed production for Oklahoma totaled 90.5 tons, down 15 percent from 2007.

United States:

Winter wheat production is forecast at 1.50 billion bushels, down 20 percent from 2008. Based on May 1 conditions, the U.S. yield is forecast at 44.2 bushels per acre, down 3.0 bushels from last year.

9/11: Mohamed Atta loved pork chops, cocaine, hookers and 49 other things you may not know

about the 9/11 Florida connection.

I just finished Daniel Hopsicker's Welcome to Terrorland. He exposes the cover story of the Florida flight schools, and the ongoing cover-up. The whole thing stinks of Iran/Contra and CIA drugs. It's the same, bloody game.

Though his style can be annoyingly breezy, I highly recommend the book. There's original research you won't find anywhere else but here and on his website: http://www.madcowprod.com /.

Here are some archived threads that touch on similar material:

"Jeb Bush seized flight school records at 2 AM on September 12"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

"Heroin, Al Qaeda and the Florida Flight School"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

And FYI, here are some notes I kept while reading the book:

1. In Venice Florida, Mohamed Atta lived for two months with an American stripper/lingerie model named Amanda Keller.

2. Atta loved to party. He was out with Keller nearly every night they were together. He was a heavy drinker, snorted coke, was a stylish dresser and wore expensive jewelry.

3. According to Keller, Atta loved pork chops.

4. Keller dumped him after he embarrassed her at a night club by dancing, poorly, atop a speaker ("doing that old 'Roxbury head bob' thing, you know"?)

5. Atta revenged himself later on Keller by returning to the apartment they’d shared and killing her cat and kittens, disemboweling and dismembering them in her apartment for her to find.

6. In Miami, Atta consorted with women known to be linked to the Mafia.

7. Atta’s email list included names of people who worked for defense contractors. One, for instance, worked for Canadian firm Virtual Prototypes, which helped develop the avionics for F-15, F-22 and B-2.

8. Atta was enrolled as a student at the International Officer’s School of Maxwell Airforce Base, and witnesses recall him having been introduced around at an officers' club party.

9. Atta was fluent in at least Arabic, English, German, French and Hebrew.

10. One day when Atta was rummaging through his flight bag, Keller got a look inside. Her words:

"The thing the FBI was most interested in was his pilot bag. They asked about it a lot. He kept it locked, and they wanted to know whether I had ever seen anything in it. I told them yes. One day he opened it briefly, and there were a lot of papers in it, and there was a blue log book in a different language. Mohamed was fluent in almost any language you can think of. He had a kind of Daytimer in there, too. And a folder with all these different ID’s in it. And that’s when I saw one – because it fell out – a little blue and white thing the size of a driver’s license. It had his picture on it, and it looked like a mug shot, or a prison shot. And it didn’t look like him, and I asked him, 'Who is this?'

"And he said, 'that’s me.' He told me it had been taken back when he was in some kind of militia-type deal, like a military-type deal, he said. He compared it to our military only they teach you different tactics. He didn’t elaborate.

"He didn’t say where it was from, either. But the writing looked like a cross between Hebrew and Arabic, those frilly little lines. He told me he spoke Hebrew. I said bullshit. So he started speaking it, and I guess he did.

"He told me that he went to different countries and studied. He had pilot’s license from several different countries. But all the pictures looked different. All the names were different. He had a license to fly from just about every country he had been to. He went to pilot’s school in all these countries."

11. Atta, Keller, a stripper named Linda and two Germans, Peter and Johan, partied for three days in Key West. Atta paid for everything. Rented three rooms, one just for the men’s luggage, which Keller says contained drugs. The men had a business meeting the women were not permitted to attend. Met with people, Keller says, who flew in just to meet Atta. Somber and quiet after meeting. (Key West Airport a known drug transit point. The Sheriff used to be under orders to keep the dope sniffing dogs off airplanes, and at one time even sent patrol cars to escort the drugs to Miami.)

12. Atta was already a licensed pilot when he arrived in the US. Licenses from many different countries. He had the privileges of an instructor while he was at Huffman Aviation, and may have helped pilot South American drug runs.

13. The FBI timeline says Atta left Venice Florida in December 2000 after completing his flight training. But he didn’t. Dozens of locals say different – his landlord, neighbours, cab drivers, restaurant employees and his girlfriend, for a few instances – and have been told not to talk about it by federal authorities. The FBI publicly sought information regarding Atta’s time in various US locations, but not Venice Florida, where he spent most of his time in the US. Why the intentional misdirection? What are they trying to keep hidden?

14. Under pressure from the FBI, and despite numerous witnesses who had known them together, Keller publicly retracted her story of having lived with Atta, saying he’d been another hijacker named Mohammed, no last name, who seems to have only existed to get Atta out of this story that didn’t fit the official version.

15. Six nights before the attack, at a bar called Shuckums in Ft Lauderdale, Atta and two companions got drunk. The FBI showed up at the bar just 12 hours after the attack with pictures of two of them, one Atta, saying only “they were on the plane and passed away.” Manager Tony Amos and bartender Patricia Idrissi identified both. Manager Amos said they’d gotten "wasted," Atta drank Stoli vodka for three straight hours. Atta blasphemed: "F*ck God!" he’s said to have cursed.

16. The witnesses then retracted the story of Atta being drunk. They now said he’d only drank cranberry juice the entire evening. Both Amos and Idrissi have gone, no one knows where, but the current bartender says she believes their leaving was somehow 9/11 related.

17. Fourteen of the 9/11 hijackers made Florida their base of operation, and clustered around two flight schools. What is it about Florida, and these flight schools, that drew them?

18. Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi paid $28,000 each to Rudi Dekkers’ Huffman Aviation for flight instruction that, the chief instructor of a neighbouring school said, was available at dozens of other nearby locations for a fraction of the price. Why did they pay an inflated price to Dekkers?

19. Dekkers’ and his financier, Wally Hilliard, purchased the flight school just months before Atta and the other hijackers began arriving. Before their purchase, the flight school catered to largely American students. After, student body became 80% foreign, mostly Middle Eastern. Yeslam bin Laden, Osama’s brother, sent students there for his business.

20. Atta also "trained" for a time at Arne Kruithof's Florida Flight Training Center, a block away from Huffman Aviation. Amanda Keller says it is where he would go to replenish his cocaine stash.

21. Though Dutchmen Dekkers and Kruithof claimed they had not known each other before each coincidently purchased flight training schools in Venice shortly before terrorists began arriving for training, witnesses claim the two had known each other well for years before.

22. Wally Hilliard is a supposedly-retired, born again insurance executive from the Midwest (motto for his insurance company had been "Hate Sin, Fight Communism, Back the Pack!"), who upon arriving in Florida entered into aviation businesses with an assortment of criminal and covert intelligence elements.

23. Dekkers and Hilliard had not been in the flight school business before they made the purchase. They paid an inflated price for the school, and did no due diligence before the purchase. They lost millions, but this was apparently not a problem. Charlie Voss, former employee of Dekkers and an Iran/Contra pilot who’d also flown "Northern Alliance guys" in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and who had given Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi a place to stay for a few weeks when they first arrived in Venice Florida: "Rudi’s greedy, and when you’re greedy you can be used for something.... When something doesn’t make obvious business sense, sometimes it’s because things are being done for another reason that doesn’t have a lot to do with dollars and cents. His business did not add up."

24. Dekkers went from broke to flush very quickly, without having business success with the flight school. One observer said “He didn’t even have the money to buy gas for an airplane… and yet a year later he shows up and plops a million seven, a million eight or two million dollars on the table as if it were paper money.”

25. The deputy in charge of Venice Fl airport security: "Wally and Rudi never talk inside a building, they go out to an airplane and talk inside the plane."

26. Dekkers’ claimed he had very little interaction with Atta, and that he never saw him again after December 2000. But numerous witnesses in Venice claim Dekkers and Atta were close, and were seen at a restaurant together just two weeks before the attack.

27. Hilliard denied knowing Atta. Keller recalled, on a visit to the airport, having Hilliard ask her, "What’s a nice girl like you doing with a guy like Mohamed?"

28. Before the attack, Dekkers was having trouble paying rent on flight school. It was so bad, it was a story in the Venice paper when he paid rent. One month before attack, he stopped having trouble. Since attack, every aviation concern at Venice airport has been late at least once with their monthly rent, except for Dekkers’.

29. Both the DEA and US Customs had been interested in Dekkers as far back as 1993. He was suspected of smuggling drugs and computer chips.

30. Less than three weeks after Atta and Marwan Al-Shehi began flying lessons at Huffman Aviation, a Lear jet owned by its financier, Wally Hilliard, carrying 43 pounds of heroin was seized by the DEA. Authorities called it the biggest seizure of heroin ever in central Florida.

31. The passengers, Venezuelan nationals, were arrested, but the pilot wasn’t charged, said a DEA spokesman, "because of lack of evidence." This, despite the fact the pilot, Diego Levine-Texar, ignored agents demands that he drop his cell phone, which had to be pried from his hand at gunpoint. Affidavit of the DEA agent: "Based on my experience I know that narcotics traffickers maintain frequent contact with one another while transporting narcotics… I believe Levine-Texar attempted to contact other accomplices as to the presence of agents and other law enforcement officials." Information about Levine-Texar is considered "sensitive."

32. But the DEA refused to return the plane to Hilliard. It was auctioned off. DEA said they had "reasons." Unusual for a so-called "innocent man" to be denied the return of his possession, or compensation.

33. After Hilliard lost his plane to the DEA auction, he was loaned a plane worth $2 million for just one dollar by Truman Arnold, former chief fundraiser for the Democratic Party, who figured in the Whitewater investigation.

34. John Villada, an aviation executive in Naples Florida: "After Wally’s plane was impounded with the heroin and his pilots had machine guns stuck in their faces, the DEA came to visit our maintenance facility and Wally shouted out to me – right in front of the DEA guy – 'Make sure all the heroin and cocaine gets hidden!'" Hilliard's mock warning seemed to show the DEA how little he thought of them, and how well he was protected.

35. The paperwork showed the same plane had made approximately 30 weekly round trips to Venezuela with the same passengers, and they always paid cash. “They obviously weren’t even bothering to hide what they were doing,” said one observer.

36. Hilliard had got his Lear jet from World Jet Inc, owned by drug smuggling brothers Don and Bill Whittington, who had supplied the plane to CIA drug smuggler Barry Seal.

37. The Sarasota County Drug interdiction people were told that Dekkers and Hilliard had a green light to operation and that they were to stay away from them, that they... may have had some type of government protection. And the local Venice Police Department were also warned to leave them alone.

38. A former Huffman executive, speaking about the hijackers: "Early on I gleaned that these guys had government protection. They were let into this country for a specific purpose. It was a business deal."

39. The FBI visited the home of this executive just four hours after the attacks. The purpose has been not to investigate, but to intimidate him into silence. The man says his phones were bugged, and thinks pilots were "double agents." He quit the flight school fearing for his life, and claims he knows too much about Wally Hillier, saying he "has a family to think about."

40. Jeb accompanied the FBI when they removed the flight school records on the early morning of September 12, and flew them to Washington.

41. Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris have flown and endorsed Hilliard’s air carrier.

42. In the days following 9/11, a number of Saudis fled the country from Florida after the attacks. They flew on Wally Hillier’s charter aircraft to private fields of military contractor Raytheon, and departed on a 747.

43. After the attacks, a virtually non-existent company that operated out of Venice Airport under Huffman’s license called Britannia Aviation was awarded a five-year, multi-million dollar contract to run the maintenance facility at Lychburg Virginia Regional Airport. (FYI, Lynchburg is the home of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Baptist University.) Britannia did not have an FAA license to work on planes and showed assets of only $750. It was chosen over Virginia Aviation, which showed a multi-million dollar balance and boasted more than 40 employees.

44. Britannia executive Peter Martens boasted that his company had been providing maintenance at Venice Airport for "Caribe Air," which is a notorious CIA proprietary carrier.

45. A source at the Drug Enforcement Agency says that Britannia has a "green light" from the DEA, and that local police had been warned to leave Britannia alone.

46. Martens also has ties to Falwell, having met his wife at his university in Lynchburg.

47. Many of the Venice flight trainers moonlight by flying "missionary flights" to Central and South America, for such organizations as Pat Robertson’s Operation Hope. (Are mission groups being used as fronts for covert ops?)

48. Most of Atta's closest associates in Venice were not Arabs, but Europeans with connection to the drug trade.

49. Though flight school owners Dekkers and Kruithof had before crashed, within weeks of each other in 2002, both had near fatal crashes. Wreckage was destroyed before it could be examined.

50. According to his girlfriend, Atta was a big Beastie Boys fan.

Bought and Paid For

Lobbyists from the financial industry have paid hundreds of millions to Congress and the Obama administration. They have bought virtually all of the key congress members and senators on committees overseeing finances and banking.

This is easy to confirm in black-and-white. See for yourself: here, here, here, here, here and here.

Manhattan Institute senior fellow Nicole Gelinas says:

The too-big-to-fail financial industry has been good to elected officials and former elected officials of both parties over its 25-year life span

And economic historian Niall Ferguson says:

Guess which institutions are among the biggest lobbyists and campaign-finance contributors? Surprise! None other than the TBTFs [too big to fails].

No wonder two powerful congressmen said that banks run Congress.

No wonder two leading IMF officials, the former Vice President of the Dallas Federal Reserve, and the the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City have all said that the United States is controlled by an oligarchy.

With the exception of a handful couple of Congress members who have the American people’s interest in mind, Congress is bought and paid for.

Note: A friend on the Hill made an important point to me by email.

Maxine Waters and Ron Paul get almost nothing [from the financial sector lobbyists. He mentioned a couple of other Congress members who have kept clear of lobby money from the FIRE sector].

The story isn’t just that a lot of members are bought and paid for, it’s that some aren’t.

泰國‧要求政府下台‧泰數千紅衫軍示威

(泰國‧曼谷)泰國前首相塔辛的數千名“紅衫軍”支持者,週日(10月11日)在曼谷集會,要求政府下台並舉行新選舉。

“紅衫軍”示威者週日要求國會,恢復在政變後被撤銷的1997年憲法,還要求解散政府。

一名示威領袖納塔烏說:“如果政府是真心誠意的,為何不恢復舊憲法,那個為民而治、為民而享的憲法,並還政於民?”

他補充,示威者也收集簽名,呼吁撤換首相阿比希。

他表示:“且誰得到多數票,我肯定不會是現任政府。”

示威者聚集曼谷市中心廣場

示威者從下午起陸續湧到市中心廣場。截至傍晚,警方預測現場已有約6000人,預料人數將達到8000人。市副警長沃拉薩說,1500名警察駐守當地維持秩序。

約旦‧水位劇降危急‧紅海抽水救死海

(約旦‧安曼)死海快死了!

這個世界上最低點、鹽含量比普通海水高9倍、可讓遊客浮在水面上書的內陸湖泊,水位持續急降。死海垂危,約旦政府宣佈,明年起開始第一階段營救行動,從紅海抽鹽水注入死海。

死海位於約旦、以色列和巴勒斯坦地區交界,夾在地球兩個最深地質斷層崖之間,湖面海拔負418米,是地球表面最低點。

死海湖水含鹽量至少達30%,浮力特強,人躺在水面上不會下沉,湖水含有數十種礦物質,不時浸浴有助紓緩痛楚及治療關節炎、頭痛等病並有助容,每年吸引不少遊客。

死海水位越來越低,過去20年水深大跌逾26米,湖泊面積縮減了三分之一。死海海水持續減少,原因是上游約旦河水源,被大量抽水作飲用、農耕和工業用途,令流入死海水量50年來大減90%。約旦估計,長此下去,死海50年會消失得無影無蹤。

有專家提出紅海──死海輸水計劃,從死海以南117公里的紅海抽水到死海,當中大部份海水先輸送到全球最大海水化淡廠化淡,再將含鹽廢水透過隧道輸入死海。

這個計劃,約旦、以色列和巴勒斯坦都同意,評估工作未完成,但約旦已迫不及待宣佈單方面行動。

瑞典‧經濟學獎備受關注‧美專家法馬大熱門

(瑞典‧斯德哥爾摩)今年諾貝爾獎的最後一個獎項─經濟學獎將於大馬時間週一(10月12日)晚7時揭曉,在全球經濟陷入金融危機尚未完全復甦之際,經濟學獎花落誰家備受關注。

據報導,被喻為“效率市場理論之父”的國經濟學家法馬被視為大熱門。英國博彩公司立博開出的法馬奪獎賠率僅1賠2。

與去年相同,今年諾貝爾獎每項獎金仍為1000萬瑞典克朗(約合475萬令吉)。

現任芝加哥大學教授的法馬可能與新罕布什爾達特茅斯大學塔克商學院教授弗倫奇同享這個獎項。

兩人同時質疑測量市場報酬的傳統方式,並另外研發一個稱為“法馬-弗倫奇3個因素模型”的替代方法。

媒體紛揣測熱門人選

美國媒體揣測的其他奪獎熱門人選包括羅默、雷賓以及諾德豪斯。

瑞典《每日新聞報》則推測,蘇黎士大學的奧地利裔經濟學家費爾可能獲獎。費爾專門研究社會組織、合作以及公平的重要性。

其他熱門人選還包括芬蘭的霍姆斯特龍以及法國的蒂羅勒,兩人專研博弈論以及經濟決策心理學,以及紐約哥倫比亞大學印度裔經濟學教授巴戈瓦迪,他也是《國際經濟學刊》創辦人。

去年的經濟獎得主是身兼《紐約時報》專欄作家的美國經濟學家克魯格曼,他以新觀點分析貿易與全球化問題,以及全球都市化背後的驅動力而得獎。

美國‧“明星醫院”嚴重醫療失誤‧輻射超標7倍致脫髮

國‧洛杉磯)美國洛杉磯有“明星醫院”之稱的Cedars-Sinai醫療中心,發生嚴重醫療失誤事故,逾200名病人暴露於超標7倍的輻射,但院方在1年半後才發現問題。

院方上週五(10月9日)承認,自去年2月開始,令到逾200名接受電腦斷層掃描(CT Scan)的病人,暴露於達超標7倍的輻射,其中約40%人更出現頭髮脫落等問題。

院方職員聲稱他們在今年8月發現這一事件,在完成內部檢查後,已立即向衛生部門報告,現時已恢復為病人做掃描。

1年半才發現問題

當局正調查導致事故的原因,以及院方為何在有關醫療失誤發生了1年半,才發現問題,以致多名病人受影響。

今次出事的Cedars-Sinai醫療中心過去亦曾發生多宗醫療事故,其中在2007年,萊塢影星丹尼斯奎特一對剛出生的龍鳳胎,便在這間醫院因護士錯誤注射比預定劑量高1000倍的薄血藥,幾乎送命。

今年6月,這間醫療中心一名前僱員承認偷取病人資料,賣給保險公司,被判囚4年8個月。調查人員在他的寓所搜出逾1000名病人的個人資料。

東帝汶‧釋放大屠殺嫌犯‧反對黨提不信任動議

(東帝汶‧帝力)東帝汶政府應印尼要求釋放一位民兵領導人,週一(10月12日)面對不信任動議。

反對派獨立革命陣線週一在眾議院提出議案,抗議總理古斯茂8月30日下令釋放貝雷的行動。最高法院也同意這次行動違反憲法,已經展開調查。

據報,雷10年前在教堂殺戮牧師、婦女與小孩,犯下戰爭罪行。

東帝汶首任總統、2007年8月出任總理、被稱為獨立時代象徵的古斯茂週一在辯論開始時向法院表示,他願意為釋放貝雷一事負責。

他說:“這純粹是一個出於政治考量的決定,們跟印尼發展友好關係。”

這個案件對東帝汶而言是一項考驗,突顯東帝汶在2002年脫離殖民主義後,建立獨立可行的司法機構時所面對的持續挑戰。

如果眾議院65個議席有超過一半票數支持這項動議,政府將立即解散,新選舉必須在3個月內舉行,很可能爆發新一輪的動亂。但由於眾議院出現嚴重分歧,票數很可能會非常接近。

獨立革命陣線的動議指出:“政府釋放貝雷先生的決定很明顯地違反了憲法。只有法院有權力和權限讓一個囚犯擺脫羈押。”

新加坡‧為陪父母放棄居留權‧網民轟中國女

(新加坡)報章早前報導,28歲中國女子張元元在獅城當華文教師,並取得永久居民權,後來卻放棄獅城生活回中國,當上中國國慶閱兵隊的一員,還在電視上說最大的心願是“報效祖國”,結果被網民炮轟。

身為獨生女的張元元週一(10月12日)早受訪時說,她很喜歡新加坡,對這裡的環境和人贊不絕口。不過,如果父母想要她陪在身邊,在北京的工作又穩定,她不介意放棄獅城永久居民權。

“北京畢竟是我的家,父母已近60歲,我想花多點時間陪他們。”

她也表示沒被批評聲浪困擾,因為在網絡上有言論自由,每個人都能發表自己的法。

“很多外國人,國人英國人也在新加坡拿了永久居民權,也是會回到自己的國家去。”

據中國網站資料,在中國考到大專文憑的張元元,於2003年遠赴新加坡留學,並取得一份當華文教師的工作,月薪約4000元(約馬幣9600令吉)。

張元元曾在獅城開辦學前教育至中學課程的學習中心就職,學習中心的華文教師分為助理教師、培訓教師和主講教師。

Julia Gabriel發言人受詢時表示,張元元是在2005年加入Julia Gabriel,薪水不超過2000元。她任職期間的表現令人滿意,公司對她沒有任何不滿。

張元元則說,她向中國媒體透露她的月薪是2000新幣,可是媒體在進行兌換時夸張了一些,主要的用意是突出她放棄新加坡高薪工作回國。

她表示,自己在2006年成為獅城永久居民,在當地除了工作,她也教補習,每個月的收入差不多2000至3000元。

新加坡‧沉迷賭海40年欠債‧男子戒毒嘆大半生白活

(新加坡)一名中年男子沉迷賭海40年,以為賭博能致富,卻搞到滿身債務。所幸他的家人對他不離不棄,他最終在兒女用親情感化下戒賭,惟感嘆大半生都白活了。

這名中年男子姓王,他在輔導員的安排下現身說法,警惕讀者不要爛賭。

他說,他曾經贏過錢,貪心地想贏更多,陷入賭博的深淵。他十賭九輸,卻執迷不悟,借錢繼續賭,希望能翻本。

半年前,已當上阿公的他,在兒女的勸告下,去找輔導員求助,決定金盆洗手,不再賭博。他目前也正在考巴士執照,決心好工作錢還債。

王聲稱,半年前戒賭後,他本來欠下的5組阿窿共3萬元(約馬幣72萬令吉)債款,到現在還不清。

“按阿窿的算法,我每週都要還6600元利息,我根本無法招架,只能走一步算一步。”

他說,本來他還欠幾個朋友36萬元,他們知道他已戒賭,表示同情,大方把債務一筆勾銷。

他披露,戒賭後前面的路豁然開闊,他感到很開心。“再辛苦,我也要改過自新,希望好好陪家人,不要再留遺憾。”

他指出︰“我以前每逢三五六日賭馬,其他天就賭球,根本無心顧家,忽略兒孫的感受,也從不珍惜家庭聚會。現在我很珍惜家人團聚的時光,心靈很滿足。過去40年我根本不快樂,每次輸錢就要忙借錢,還連累最愛我的家人受苦。”

台灣‧受颱風芭瑪影響‧宜蘭縣再降大暴雨

(台灣‧台北)繼上週大淹水後,台灣東北部的宜蘭縣地區週一(10月12日)再因連日豪雨傳出淹水災情,很多公路中斷,縣政府已緊急撤離低漥地區的數百人。

這已是短短一週內宜蘭第二次淹水,“芭瑪”颱風上週襲台帶來豪雨,宜蘭慘遭洪水襲擊,豪雨終在7日緩和,但才放晴2天,又下起豪雨。

宜蘭地區原本週日(10月11日)晚雨勢已經稍為緩和,但週一上午11時起雨下得愈來愈大,路面又開始淹水,原本上午正常上班上課的南澳鄉,也因野溪暴漲道路落石,緊急宣佈下午停班停課。

雨量等同一個中度颱風

宜蘭氣象站指出,這次超大豪雨2天內在宜蘭寒溪降了740毫米,雨量等同一個中度颱風,目前災情最嚴重的是冬山鄉的太和村。

由於雨還是持續在下,冬山鄉的三奇村和補城村還在淹水中,週日晚上緊急撤離了包括南澳、冬山、三星和大同等地共數百人,週一中午南澳武塔村因附近野溪暴漲,鄉公所緊急下令全數居民強制撤離。

軍方週日已再度出動4部兩棲登陸戰車,進駐設於冬山鄉丸山活動中心的前進指揮所,還有近百名阿兵哥以及12艘陸戰膠舟氣艇,隨時待命協助撤離。

香港‧帶惡菌令抗生素無效‧吃未熟雞豬可致死

(香港)們每天吃的豬隻及雞隻,有多達80%帶有抗藥性惡菌,足以令抗生素無效,人類進食未熟肉類等於吞下抗藥惡菌!

香港大學一項最新研究進一步證實,85%帶有抗藥惡菌的動物均具有可傳染的“抗藥基因匣”,進入人體後,抗藥基因可傳染給人類,進行基因洗牌,令腸道內的大腸桿菌也具抗藥性。惡菌橫行,長者及手術病人易因併發症而無藥可救,提高死亡率。

香港大學傳染及感染中心總監何柏良指出,一向抗生素失效,主要原因是濫用所致,但近年已陸續發現,人類帶有具抗藥能力的惡菌,源頭可能來自食用動物。

他解釋,抗藥惡菌必須帶有一個基因匣(integron)才具有傳播能力,可令惡菌由動物向人類散播。

香港大學傳染及感染中心收集了174個抗藥性大腸桿菌樣本,包括64個食用動物的糞便、59個 健康大學生及兒童,以及51個患尿道炎的婦女樣本。這項香港首次進行的抗藥惡菌研究結果令人驚訝,48.4%動物樣本能抵禦7至8種抗生素,人類的樣本也 有31.8%達這種抗藥威力。

他說,如進食未熟的肉類時,或者生熟食物交叉污染,都可以吞下抗藥惡菌,較常見的惡菌是大腸桿菌。惡菌可致尿道炎、膀胱炎,兒童及長者抵抗力較差,感染後或可致病,甚至會增加死亡機率。

Steep losses pose crisis for pensions

The financial crisis has blown a hole in the rosy forecasts of pension funds that cover teachers, police officers and other government employees, casting into doubt as never before whether these public systems will be able to keep their promises to future generations of retirees.

The upheaval on Wall Street has deluged public pension systems with losses that government officials and consultants increasingly say are insurmountable unless pension managers fundamentally rethink how they pay out benefits or make money or both.

Within 15 years, public systems on average will have less than half the money they need to pay pension benefits, according to an analysis by Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Other analysts say funding levels could hit that low within a decade.

After losing about $1 trillion in the markets, state and local governments are facing a devil's choice: Either slash retirement benefits or pursue high-return investments that come with high risk.

The urgent need for outsize returns by these vast public pension funds, which must hit high investment targets year after year to keep pace with rising retirement costs, is in turn fueling a renewed appetite for risk on Wall Street.

Before the crisis, many public pension funds had experimented with risky trading techniques or committed more of their money to hedge funds and other nontraditional firms, which in turn invested some of it in complex mortgage securities. When these melted down, pension funds got burned.

Now, facing an even bigger funding gap, some systems are investing in the same securities, betting that a rebound in their value will generate huge returns.

"The amount that needs to be made up is enormous," said Peter Austin, executive director of BNY Mellon Pension Services. "Frankly, they are forced to continue their allocation in these high-return asset classes because that's their only hope."

Some pension experts say the funding gap has become so great that no investment strategy can close it and that taxpayers will have to cover the massive bill.

The problem isn't limited to public pension funds; many corporate pension funds have lost so much ground that they are also pursuing riskier investments. And they, too, could end up a taxpayer burden if they cannot meet their obligations and are taken over by the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.

Public systems still have enough to meet their current obligations. If governments take no action, retirees could keep drawing full benefits for the foreseeable future even under the most pessimistic projections.

Government struggling
But already, some funds are seeking to trim benefits to conserve money. Some governments have also proposed increasing the amount of public money paid each year into the funds. In practice, however, some political leaders have begun doing the opposite -- cutting annual contributions to pension funds -- as a way of balancing state and local budgets buffeted in the recession by falling tax revenue and rising costs.

Around the country, governments are struggling with the pact they've made with employees.

In New Mexico, lawmakers passed legislation this year requiring public employees to contribute about 1.5 percent of their salary to cover retirement benefits. Labor unions representing 57,000 of the workers sued the state in response.

In Philadelphia, officials delivered an ultimatum to state lawmakers: Allow the city to take a two-year break from contributing to its pension system or Philadelphia would lay off 3,000 workers and cut sanitation and public safety services. Last month, the lawmakers not only granted the request, but extended the funding holiday to thousands of cities and counties, despite severe pension deficits in many of these places.

In Montgomery County, officials last year committed to setting up an investment fund to finance about $3 billion in retiree health-care benefits promised to employees. But when it came time to put the first round of seed money into the fund this year, county officials balked, citing budget constraints.

"We know we've got a huge health-care liability," chief administrative officer Timothy L. Firestine said. "Our plan was to work gradually to fund that. And this year we abandoned that plan."

Swift change of fortunes
Just a few years ago, it seemed far-fetched that Virginia's pension system would hit hard times. In 2003, the state's primary pension funds either had more money than they needed or, at a minimum, were nearly fully funded. And like their counterparts across the country, state officials assumed they would earn around 8 percent a year from investing in financial markets for years to come given the outstanding performance of stocks in the 1980s and 1990s.

But officials in Virginia and elsewhere soon began to wonder whether those two decades were a fluke. As pension deficits began to rise, officials questioned whether the investment assumptions were too optimistic. In 2006, Virginia's pension officials suggested scaling back benefits or requiring current employees to begin paying into the pension fund. The state's lawmakers took no action.

Then the crisis hit. Virginia lost 21 percent of the value of its portfolio, or about $11.5 billion. Maryland and the District, meantime, suffered drops of 20 percent.

The losses were typical of what pension funds suffered around the country. State and local government officials had predicted before the crisis they would have $3.6 trillion in their accounts by now, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Today, they are $1.2 trillion short of that mark.

By David Cho

Obama and the Nobel Prize: When War becomes Peace, When the Lie becomes the Truth

When war becomes peace,

When concepts and realities are turned upside down,

When fiction becomes truth and truth becomes fiction.

When a global military agenda is heralded as a humanitarian endeavor,

When the killing of civilians is upheld as "collateral damage",

When those who resist the US-NATO led invasion of their homeland are categorized as "insurgents" or "terrorists".

When preemptive nuclear war is upheld as self defense.

When advanced torture and "interrogation" techniques are routinely used to "protect peacekeeping operations",

When tactical nuclear weapons are heralded by the Pentagon as "harmless to the surrounding civilian population"

When three quarters of US personal federal income tax revenues are allocated to financing what is euphemistically referred to as "national defense"

When the Commander in Chief of the largest military force on planet earth is presented as a global peace-maker,

When the Lie becomes the Truth.

Obama's "War Without Borders"

We are the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US in partnership with NATO and Israel has launched a global military adventure which, in a very real sense, threatens the future of humanity.

At this critical juncture in our history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President and Commander in Chief Barack Obama constitutes an unmitigated tool of propaganda and distortion, which unreservedly supports the Pentagon's "Long War": "A War without Borders" in the true sense of the word, characterised by the Worlwide deployment of US military might.

Apart from the diplomatic rhetoric, there has been no meaningful reversal of US foreign policy in relation to the George W. Bush presidency, which might have remotely justified the granting of the Nobel Prize to Obama. In fact quite the opposite. The Obama military agenda has sought to extend the war into new frontiers. With a new team of military and foreign policy advisers, the Obama war agenda has been far more effective in fostering military escalation than that formulated by the NeoCons.

Since the very outset of the Obama presidency, this global military project has become increasingly pervasive, with the reinforcement of US military presence in all major regions of the World and the development of new advanced weapons systems on an unprecdented scale.

Granting the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama provides legitimacy to the illegal practices of war, to the military occupation of foreign lands, to the relentless killings of civilians in the name of "democracy".

Both the Obama administration and NATO are directly threatening Russia, China and Iran. The US under Obama is developing "a First Strike Global Missile Shield System":

"Along with space-based weapons, the Airborne Laser is the next defense frontier. ... Never has Ronald Reagan's dream of layered missile defenses - Star Wars, for short - been as....close, at least technologically, to becoming realized."

Reacting to this consolidation, streamlining and upgrading of American global nuclear strike potential, on August 11 the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, the same Alexander Zelin cited earlier on the threat of U.S. strikes from space on all of his nation, said that the "Russian Air Force is preparing to meet the threats resulting from the creation of the Global Strike Command in the U.S. Air Force" and that Russia is developing "appropriate systems to meet the threats that may arise." (Rick Rozoff, Showdown with Russia and China: U.S. Advances First Strike Global Missile Shield System, Global Research, August 19, 2009)

At no time since the Cuban missile crisis has the World been closer to the unthinkable: a World War III scenario, a global military conflict involving the use of nuclear weapons.

1. The so-called missile defense shield or Star Wars initiative involving the first strike use of nuclear weapons is now to be developed globally in different regions of the World. The missile shield is largely directed against Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

2. New US military bases have been set up with a view to establishing US spheres of influence in every region of the World as well as surrounding and confronting Russia and China.

3. There has been an escalation in the Central Asian Middle East war. The "defense budget" under Obama has spiraled with increased allocations to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

4. Under orders of president Obama, acting as Commander in Chief, Pakistan is now the object of routine US aerial bombardments in violation of its territorial sovereignty, using the "Global War on Terrorism" as a justification.

5. The construction of new military bases is envisaged in Latin America including Colombia on the immediate border of Venezuela.

6. Military aid to Israel has increased. The Obama presidency has expressed its unbending support for Israel and the Israeli military. Obama has remained mum on the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza. There has not even been a semblance of renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

7. There has been a reinforcement of the new regional commands including AFRICOM and SOUTHCOM

8. A new round of threats has been directed against Iran.

9. The US is intent upon fostering further divisions between Pakistan and India, which could lead to a regional war, as well as using India's nuclear arsenal as an indirect means to threaten China.

The diabolical nature of this military project was outlined in the 2000 Project for a New American Century (PNAC). The PNAC's declared objectives are:

defend the American homeland;

fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars;

perform the "constabulary" duties associated with shaping the security environment in critical regions;

transform U.S. forces to exploit the "revolution in military affairs;" (Project for a New American Century, Rebuilding Americas Defenses.pdf, September 2000)

The "Revolution in Military Affairs" refers to the development of new advanced weapons systems. The militarization of space, new advanced chemical and biological weapons, sophisticated laser guided missiles, bunker buster bombs, not to mention the US Air Force's climatic warfare program (HAARP) based in Gokona, Alaska, are part of Obama's "humanitarian arsenal".

War against the Truth

This is a war against the truth. When war becomes peace, the world is turned upside down. Conceptualization is no longer possible. An inquisitorial social system emerges.

An understanding of fundamental social and political events is replaced by a World of sheer fantasy, where "evil folks" are lurking. The objective of the "Global War on Terrorism" which has been fully endorsed by Obama administration has been to galvanize public support for a Worldwide campaign against heresy.

In the eyes of public opinion, possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central. A war is said to be Just if it is waged on moral, religious or ethical grounds. The consensus is to wage war. People can longer think for themselves. They accept the authority and wisdom of the established social order.

The Nobel Committee says that President Obama has given the world "hope for a better future." The prize is awarded for Obama's

"extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."

...His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population. (Nobel Press Release, October 9, 2009)

The granting of the Nobel "peace prize" to president Barack Obama has become an integral part of the Pentagon's propaganda machine. It provides a human face to the invaders, it upholds the demonization of those who oppose US military intervention.

The decision to grant Obama the Nobel Peace Prize was no doubt carefully negotiated with the Norwegian Committee at the highest levels of the US government. It has far reaching implications.

It unequivocally upholds the US led war as a "Just Cause". It erases the war crimes committed both by the Bush and Obama administrations.

War Propaganda: Jus ad Bellum

The "Just war" theory serves to camouflage the nature of US foreign policy, while providing a human face to the invaders.

In both its classical and contemporary versions, the Just war theory upholds war as a "humanitarian operation". It calls for military intervention on ethical and moral grounds against "insurgents", "terrorists", "failed" or "rogue states".

The Just War has been heralded by the Nobel Committee as an instrument of Peace. Obama personifies the "Just War".

Taught in US military academies, a modern-day version of the "Just War" theory has been embodied into US military doctrine. The "war on terrorism" and the notion of "preemption" are predicated on the right to "self defense." They define "when it is permissible to wage war": jus ad bellum.

Jus ad bellum has served to build a consensus within the Armed Forces command structures. It has also served to convince the troops that they are fighting for a "just cause". More generally, the Just War theory in its modern day version is an integral part of war propaganda and media disinformation, applied to gain public support for a war agenda. Under Obama as Nobel Peace Laureate, the Just War becomes universally accepted, upheld by the so-called international community.

The ultimate objective is to subdue the citizens, totally depoliticize social life in America, prevent people from thinking and conceptualizing, from analyzing facts and challenging the legitimacy of the US NATO led war.

War becomes peace, a worthwhile "humanitarian undertaking", Peaceful dissent becomes heresy.

Military Escalation with a Human Face. Nobel Committee grants the "Green Light"

More significantly, the Nobel peace prize grants legitimacy to an unprecedented "escalation" of US-NATO led military operations under the banner of peacemaking.

It contributes to falsifying the nature of the US-NATO military agenda.

Between 40,000 to 60,000 more US and allied troops are to be sent to Afghanistan under a peacemaking banner. On the 8th of october, a day prior to the Nobel Committee's decision, the US congress granted Obama a 680-billion-dollar defense authorization bill, which is slated to finance the process of military escalation:

"Washington and its NATO allies are planning an unprecedented increase of troops for the war in Afghanistan, even in addition to the 17,000 new American and several thousand NATO forces that have been committed to the war so far this year".

The number, based on as yet unsubstantiated reports of what U.S. and NATO commander Stanley McChrystal and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen have demanded of the White House, range from 10,000 to 45,000.

Fox News has cited figures as high as 45,000 more American soldiers and ABC News as many as 40,000. On September 15 the Christian Science Monitor wrote of "perhaps as many as 45,000."

The similarity of the estimates indicate that a number has been agreed upon and America's obedient media is preparing domestic audiences for the possibility of the largest escalation of foreign armed forces in Afghanistan's history. Only seven years ago the United States had 5,000 troops in the country, but was scheduled to have 68,000 by December even before the reports of new deployments surfaced. (Rick Rozoff, U.S., NATO Poised For Most Massive War In Afghanistan's History, Global Research, September 24, 2009)

Within hours of the decision of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Obama met with the War Council, or should we call it the "Peace Council". This meeting had been carefully scheduled to coincide with that of the Norwegian Nobel committee.

This key meeting behind closed doors in the Situation Room of the White House included Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and key political and military advisers. General Stanley McChrystal participated in the meeting via video link from Kabul.

General Stanley McChrystal ias said to have offered the Commander in Chief "several alternative options" "including a maximum injection of 60,000 extra troops". The 60,000 figure was quoted following a leak of the Wall Street Journal (AFP: After Nobel nod, Obama convenes Afghan war council, October 9, 2009)

"The president had a robust conversation about the security and political challenges in Afghanistan and the options for building a strategic approach going forward," according to an administration official (quoted in AFP: After Nobel nod, Obama convenes Afghan war council October 9, 2009)

The Nobel committee had in a sense given Obama a green light. The October 9 meeting in the Situation Room was to set the groundwork for a further escalation of the conflict under the banner of counterinsurgency and democracy building.

Meanwhile, in the course of the last few months, US forces have stepped up their aerial bombardments of village communities in the northern tribal areas of Pakistan, under the banner of combating Al Qaeda.


Global Research Articles by Michel Chossudovsky

Robert Kiyosaki: Silver Best Hedge Against Inflation

Robert Kiyosaki is a motivational speaker, businessman, investor and author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series. In the following interview with Newsmax.tv Kiyosaki explains the reasons why Americans should be investing in silver.

Kiyosaki says silver is the best hedge against inflation and that in many ways the precious metal is a better investment than gold. He is a very strong buyer of silver and has been investing heavily in for over 10 years.