I know the world is one major messed up place when people who want PEACE get arrested and people who KILL people get medals*

*Before you start - This is not against the brave soldiers of each country around the world fighting. They are just used, manipulated and played with, like you and I would do with toy soldiers. War does not in any way benefit you and me. (If you can think of a reason please let me know and enlighten me). Until we ALL wake up and refuse to kill each other - then the cycle of war,death and destruction will carry on.

Goering said it best:

Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.

A mum called Cindy Sheeham got herself arrested for wanting peace.Unfortunately the war in Iraq has hit her personally as she lost her son.
She was arrested just outside the White House for 'obstructing a government function' i.e. they don't want any bad publicity especially during the mid-term elections.

Hold on - the first amendment states:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

She never broke this amendment so why is she being arrested??

Does anyone agree with her being arrested?

She was airing her grievances and where better than outside the presidential residence. If the government refuses to hear our problems, refuses to acknowledge or even arrest anybody that disagrees with it's policies - then that it is not a democracy!

The U.S. government time and time again has ignored the constitution. I thought when the president was sworn in, he/she was supposed to uphold - not destroy the constituion !

i.e. 'Patriot' Act and Military Commissions Act (good article)

What hope do we have when governments can seemingly do what they want and we have no say? We just have to pay our taxes and follow orders..welcome to imperialism.


Original article

Peace Mom Sheehan Arrested in Washington

By DERRILL HOLLY

The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; 11:20 PM

WASHINGTON -- Activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Wednesday as she led about 50 protesters to a White House gate Wednesday to deliver anti-war petitions she said were signed by 80,000 Americans.

The Berkeley, Calif., woman, whose son was killed in Iraq more than two years ago, was arrested along with three other women on the sidewalk outside the White House gate, said Lt. Scott Fear, a U.S. Park Police spokesman. They were charged with interfering with a government function after they blocked the gate and ignored orders to move, he said.

Before she was arrested, she joined the protesters in hailing the outcome of Tuesday's elections and chanting "Stop the War" outside the gate.

"It was taking too long for them to decide whether to accept them or not, so we just delivered them," said Sheehan, who waited about 15 minutes with other protesters before tossing the petitions over the fence.

The petitions opposed use of military force to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

Sheehan, 49, and other grieving families met with Bush about two months after her son died, before reports of faulty prewar intelligence surfaced and caused her to speak out. She has tried repeatedly to speak with the president again, including a 26-day vigil last year outside Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Wednesday's protest came as Republicans lost control of the House and the White House announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"He's being offered as a sacrificial lamb," Sheehan said.

Posted by Bananaramadrama at 6:40 pm | Permalink | Comments

Superb piece by Vernon Coleman. Original Article here


1. A former British Ambassador reports that none of the arrested terrorists who were alleged to be preparing to blow up a British airliner in the summer of 2006 had even bought a plane ticket. Many didn't even have a passport - and had been under surveillance for over a year. Nothing from the surveillance had suggested that the Government needed to start a major panic among airlines and start confiscating bottled milk intended for babies. `The timing is deeply political,' reports the former Ambassador. `This is more propaganda than plot.'

2. USA Vice President Dick Cheney has done well out of the no-bid/no-audit contracts his former firm Halliburton has been given by the American Government. The value of his stock options rose more than 3,000 per cent between 2004 and 2005. In 2004 the Vice President's options were worth $241,498. A year later they were worth over $8,000,000.

3. There's a growing myth that corn and other food commodities will cure the problems created by the coming shortage of oil. The reality is that using corn to create petrol for cars will result in much of the world starving to death. In the American State of Iowa 25 ethanol plants are now operating, and 30 being built or planned. Once built they will consume half the State's crop production. Prices for sugar, corn and wheat are already up because foodstuffs are being used for fuel and a huge chunk of world grain consumption is going into American petrol tanks. This will result in greater starvation in a world where there is a continuing and (because of global warming) developing food shortage.
The grain needed to fill a petrol tank with ethanol would feed one person for a whole year. Enthusiasts also ignore the fact that turning corn, soybeans, sugar cane and rice into fuel requires fuel. Ethanol costs more in terms of energy to get it than it delivers (you have to factor in the energy cost of building and running tractors, and transporting the stuff etc). Astonishingly, if you include the energy needed to plant the corn, water it, harvest it and turn it into alcohol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make a gallon of ethanol but that gallon of ethanol only produces 77,000 BTU. This means a loss of 54,000 BTU for every gallon of ethanol produced. Finally, using crops to provide fuel still contributes to the global warming problem.

4. Halliburton is accused of selling key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian company. This was allegedly done as recently as January 2005. Halliburton is, of course, the company where USA Vice President Dick Cheney used to work.

5. The number of homeless people in American cities continues to grow.

6. Several recent studies have confirmed that genetically modified foods do damage human health. Meanwhile, despite this, the USA controlled World Trade Organisation looks like upholding the ruling that European countries have violated international trade rules by refusing to import genetically modified foods.

7. The Bush Administration in the USA plans to resume production of anti-personnel landmines.

8. The World Bank funds the Israel-Palestine Wall. Its vision of economic development in the region avoids any discussion of the Wall's legality despite the fact that the International Court of Justice has called for the Wall to be torn down. Paul Wolfowitz, formerly Deputy Secretary of Defense in the USA, is head of the World Bank.

9. The American Civil Liberties Union has released documents on 44 autopsies performed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Twenty one of the deaths are listed as homicides and the documents show that detainees died during or after interrogations by American military.

10. Research from oceanographic specialists, marine biologists, meteorologists and glaciologists reveals that the oceans are changing in ominous ways. Global environmental changes are having a serious effect on our oceans.

11. American lobbyists funded by the American oil industry have launched a campaign in Europe which is designed to persuade European politicians, voters and the media that commitments under the Kyoto protocol should be abandoned.

12. Brigham Young University physics professor Steven E Jones has done research which led him to the conclusion that the official explanation for the collapse of the World Trade Centre buildings on 11/9 was `implausible according to the laws of physics'. At least 74 other American professors believe that 11/9 was arranged or orchestrated by warmongers inside the White House.

13. Between 6 and 7 million people have died in the Congo since 1996 as a result of wars and invasions sponsored by Western nations trying to gain control of the mineral wealth in that country.

14. The American Government's Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $385 million contingency contract to a Halliburton subsidiary to pay for detention camps each able to hold 5,000 people.

15. Drivers working for the Ministry of Defence were involved in 7,781 road traffic accidents in 2005. (That's a rate of 2.36 road traffic accidents every 100,000 miles). As a result 11 MOD employees were killed on duty on the roads and 41 were killed while off duty. The estimated total cost of all these accidents was £142.80 million.

16. The latest survey of Americans shows that 36% believe that it is `very likely' or `somewhat likely' that their Government was involved in the 11/9 attacks.

17. British Airways lost one bag for every 60 passengers in the second quarter of 2006. That was before laptops and other handluggage had to go into the hold.

18. The UK Treasury is late again providing evidence to the enquiry into how the Government failed to protect British citizens whose pensions were held with the company Equitable Life. It is now estimated that the Treasury will not provide the information required until well into 2007. (By when, of course, many aggrieved pensioners, who might have had a claim against the Government, will have died.) These delays are saving the Government millions of pounds in compensation.

19. Americans didn't just lose the Ryder Cup recently. Earlier this year the Americans didn't even make the semi-finals in the World Baseball Classic competition. The Americans were knocked out by Mexico. And the Americans lost to Greece in the semi-finals of the World Basketball Championship. Global dominance, eh?

20. President George W Bush has appointed a special counsel to oversee the virtual elimination of whistleblower-rights in the American Government.

And finally: a woman in New York wants $114 million in damages from coffee house Starbucks. The chain refused to honour a coupon for a free coffee. The woman's lawyer says the claim is a `very conservative figure' considering how `betrayed' his client feels.

Posted by Bananaramadrama at 10:14 am | Permalink | Comments

Superb!

Now I'll feel so much safer. With all the cameras spying, I mean looking after me I will feel invincible . No criminal or terrorist will dare mess with the UK again .
CCTV obviously stops crime, anti-social behavior and terrorism AND they make good trash TV.

.....despite official Home Office statistics showing that CCTV cameras have 'little effect on crime levels'.

Well we'll ignore that like the ignorant humans we have turned into. I feel much safer honest. Hell I feel like a contestant on Big Brother! I hope the fascist spies sorry camera operators don't laugh when I'm in the shower.

Its totally uplifting that the government have wa.. err spent 500 million on CCTV .

Super dooper - stop complaining you people on the NHS's waiting list especially my uncle who is still waiting for a back operation (5 years and counting). Now uncle you will have people watching you uncomfortably walking around, now that is progress!

Still its only 78% of the crime prevention budget. Its definitely a positive. There is still one thing nagging me. I'm still working out how CCTV actually prevents crime, but being a sheep I'll agree with CCTV and not look at it logically.
Maybe they'll shoot lasers or maybe they'll get people shouting at you to stop being so naughty (Hmmm I'm getting a deju-vu moment- see here - scroll to 25th September)

Now there are serious plans in place to have us all micro-chipped quite literally like sheep. Doesn't the bible warn us against this - the mark of the beast? 666 and all that?

13:16 He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads;

13:17 and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name.

13:18 Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.

It's not like the UPC barcode has 666 in every barcode..hang on...

Blimey 666 is on every UPC barcode (it's on me beer can, its on me recently bought DVD)! Still that doesn't mean anything, it is just one of them silly little coincidences.


Anyway that is beside the point. Which sheep I mean human would not want to be chipped? The state would be able to track our every moment and correlate your chip with CCTV and know exactly where you are and what you are doing.

Great. I will be definitely safe from terrorism and crime because they'll be able to erm stop them somehow. But it works honest. We've seen a massive reduction in crime in the UK. Really we have. Maybe if I keep saying it I can convince myself.

In their Report on the Surveillance Society, the authors now warn: "The call for everyone to be implanted is now being seriously debated."

I bet they'll debate it with us Joe Public like they did with us say like going into War with Iraq/Afghanistan. Phew good job we agreed with Mr Bliar, I'm sure we'd be microwaved right now with all their nasty Weapons of MASS DESTRUCTION. Oh looking forward to the trial of Bin Laden. Should be good TV.

I'm also totally sure that these RFID chips will be totally hack proof. It's mega advanced technology. So I feel safe that my personal data will be secure and the state won't use the info for their own agenda.

Yesterday a spokesman for civil liberties campaigners Liberty said: "We have got nothing about these surveillance technologies in themselves, but it is their potential uses about which there are legitimate fears. Unless their uses are regulated properly, people really could find themselves living in a surveillance society."There is a rather scary underlying feeling that people may worry that these microchips are less about being a human being than becoming a barcoded product."

SHUT UP - Stop using logical and well thought out arguments! Don't you realise in order to obtain liberty and freedom:

• we MUST be controlled
• we MUST be ordered
• we MUST be spied on

Human beings may be forced to be 'microchipped' like pet dogs, a shocking official report into the rise of the Big Brother state has warned.

The microchips - which are implanted under the skin - allow the wearer's movements to be tracked and store personal information about them.

They could be used by companies who want to keep tabs on an employee's movements or by Governments who want a foolproof way of identifying their citizens - and storing information about them.

The prospect of 'chip-citizens' - with its terrifying echoes of George Orwell's 'Big Brother' police state in the book 1984 - was raised in an official report for Britain's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas into the spread of surveillance technology.

The report, drawn up by a team of respected academics, claims that Britain is a world-leader in the use of surveillance technology and its citizens the most spied-upon in the free world.

It paints a frightening picture of what Britain might be like in ten years time unless steps are taken to regulate the use of CCTV and other spy technologies.

The reports editors Dr David Murakami Wood, managing editor of the journal Surveillance and Society and Dr Kirstie Ball, an Open University lecturer in Organisation Studies, claim that by 2016 our almost every movement, purchase and communication could be monitored by a complex network of interlinking surveillance technologies.

The most contentious prediction is the spread in the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

The RFID chips - which can be detected and read by radio waves - are already used in new UK passports and are also used the Oyster card system to access the London Transport network.

For the past six years European countries have been using RFID chips to identify pet animals.

Already used in America

However, its use in humans has already been trialled in America, where the chips were implanted in 70 mentally-ill elderly people in order to track their movements.

And earlier this year a security company in Ohio chipped two of its employees to allow them to enter a secure area. The glass-encased chips were planted in the recipients' upper right arms and 'read' by a device similar to a credit card reader.

In their Report on the Surveillance Society, the authors now warn: "The call for everyone to be implanted is now being seriously debated."

The authors also highlight the Government's huge enthusiasm for CCTV, pointing out that during the 1990s the Home Office spent 78 per cent of its crime prevention budget - a total of £500 million - on installing the cameras.

There are now 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain and the average Briton is caught on camera an astonishing 300 times every day.

This huge enthusiasm comes despite official Home Office statistics showing that CCTV cameras have 'little effect on crime levels'.

They write: "The surveillance society has come about us without us realising", adding: "Some of it is essential for providing the services we need: health, benefits, education. Some of it is more questionable. Some of it may be unjustified, intrusive and oppressive."

Yesterday Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, whose office is investigating the Post Office, HSBC, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland over claims they dumped sensitive customer details in the street, said: "Many of these schemes are public sector driven, and the individual has no choice over whether or not to take part."

"People are being scrutinised and having their lives tracked, and are not even aware of it."

He has also voiced his concern about the consequences of companies, or Government agencies, building up too much personal information about someone.

He said: "It can stigmatise people. I have worries about technology being used to identify classes of people who present some kind of risk to society. And I think there are real anxieties about that."

Yesterday a spokesman for civil liberties campaigners Liberty said: "We have got nothing about these surveillance technologies in themselves, but it is their potential uses about which there are legitimate fears. Unless their uses are regulated properly, people really could find themselves living in a surveillance society.

"There is a rather scary underlying feeling that people may worry that these microchips are less about being a human being than becoming a barcoded product."

Posted by Bananaramadrama at 7:30 pm | Permalink | Comments