Tornadoes, 28th april 2011 Haarp? Hundreds Dead, Tuscaloosa, Alabama .mp4 W. Stewart Horsley, MD Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tornadoes Alabama Tornadoes 2011: Massive Tuscaloosa Twister Filmed (VIDEO) Tuscaloosa, Alabama — a city of over 83000 and home to University of Alabama — was one of the hardest hit areas in the state. The mayor said that the city’s police and emergency services were devastated, and has reported at least 15 … Tuscaloosa Alabama Tornado Caught on Tape | Internet Today This is the best footage I could find of the monster tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa, AL yesterday. I also put some photos of the aftermath of the. Tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama » Trends Videos Tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama . Posted on Apr 28, 2011 in Trends · Tweet. Tuscaloosa, AL … Excerpt from: Tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama . 468 ad. ©1996-2010 GLOOD.TV. All rights reserved. VOLTAIRE Member News » Tuscaloosa, Alabama Terrorized by Tornadoes … For more unbelievable tornado video, go here: abcn.ws For more on this story, go here: abcnews.go.com. Author: ABCNews. Duration: 135. Published: 2011-04-28 12:43:10. Tuscaloosa, Alabama Terrorized by Tornadoes, Dozens Dead. Voltaire … Frantic Search For Survivors Underway in Tuscaloosa Alabama … Frantic Search For Survivors Underway in Tuscaloosa Alabama · Truth Researchers Expose Disinformation And Fascist Tactics From Big Media Reporting on Obama’s Birth · Alex Jones Reports Obama Birth Certificate is Fraudulent, Altered, … _Twonzo says: That Tornado messed up Tuscaloosa, Alabama up…
Continue reading …Eugene Robinson Finally Understands: The View From Versailles Is Very Different From Reality
April 28, 2011 No Comment
enlarge He actually seems to think this deficit “debate” is about facts, and not disaster capitalism. But at least he’s noticed that their version is in conflict with reality, which is a good start. Eugene Robinson: What is it about the word “jobs” that our nation’s leaders fail to understand? How has the most painful economic crisis in decades somehow escaped their notice? Why do they ignore the issues that Americans care most desperately about? Listening to the debate in Washington, you’d think the nation was absorbed by the compelling saga of deficit reduction. You’d get the impression that in households across America, parents put their children to bed and then stay up half the night sifting through piles of think-tank reports on the kitchen table, trying to calculate whether there will be enough in the Social Security trust fund to pay benefits beyond 2037. And you’d be wrong. Those parents are looking at a pile of bills on the kitchen table, trying to decide which ones have to be paid now and which can slide. The question isn’t how to manage health care or retirement costs two decades from now. It’s how the family can make it to the end of the month. President Obama gives signs of beginning to perceive this disconnect. His Republican opponents, not so much. Two new polls, both released last week, tell the story. A New York Times/CBS News survey found that four out of 10 respondents believe the economy is getting worse — up from three out of 10 last October. Economists insist that things are improving; obviously, not so that anyone would notice. A worrisome 70 percent of those surveyed said the country is heading in the wrong direction. Bad news for Obama is that the poll found his approval down to 46 percent; good news, as far as the president is concerned, is that his most visible GOP antagonist, House Speaker John Boehner, has an approval rating of just 32 percent. Clearly, Americans are not excessively pleased with their leaders. A Washington Post/ABC News poll found greater pessimism about the economy than at any time in the past two years — possibly because of the sharp hike in gasoline prices, which 71 percent of respondents said had caused financial hardship. Yet if you followed the debate in Washington, you wouldn’t hear much about the cost of keeping the minivan on the road. All that Americans care about, you’d have to assume, is the national debt and its long-term evolution. If you listened carefully, you’d conclude that the solution — cutting federal medical and retirement benefits — was basically settled, and that the only question is whether to do it with a scalpel or a chain saw. Amen! But they can only pull this off if there’s some buy-in from the general public. That’s why we need to fight, fight, fight them every step of the way.
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enlarge Credit: Corbis George Meany: The Nixon Years were fraught with double standards. Click here to view this media In his address to the National Press Club on April 7, 1972, AFofL-CIO President George Meany gave an assessment of how Labor viewed the nation. As always, and seemingly synonymous with a Republican administration, Labor was deemed the enemy of Corporate America and Corporate America seemed impervious to why Labor existed in the first place. As deregulation crept in, almost unnoticed until the Reagan Years when it was too late, the average worker (i.e. Middle Class) was being slowly dismantled and abandoned from the workplace. While, oddly but not surprisingly, corporate profits continued to soar and quality of life continued to plummet. In 1972 George Meany was there to point out these seemingly innocuous findings. George Meany: “One of the most shocking examples of the Administration’s double standards was the flouting of the intent in Congress to exempt low-wage workers from wage controls. On January 19th (1972) the Cost of Living Council headed by Secretary of The Treasury John Connolly and director Donald Rumsfeld decontrolled most retail stores and almost half of the nations rental units. That’s on Prices and Rents. Ten days later, in the face of the clear intent of the Congress, the same Council exempted only wages below one dollar and ninety an hour, less than the amount needed to meet the Government defined poverty line for an urban family of four. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has documented the fact that wages are being held down. On April 7th, today the Bureau reported that the average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers in private employment, about 47 million people, was three dollars and fifty-seven cents in March. There was an increase of one cent between January and February, and an increase of only 3 cents an hour from January to March. While prices are going up, workers wages are being very effectively held down. Under these conditions profits have begun to soar, although the levels of sales are disappointing and unemployment remains high. In the second half of nineteen hundred and seventy-one the Commerce Department reports that after-tax corporate profits were up nineteen percent from the same period of 1970. The major gains in profits are going to the big banks, corporations and conglomerate giants. The Gallagher President’s Report shows that the nations one hundred largest corporations scored a 76% rise in profits in 1971 over 1970. If you exclude the special case of General Motors because of the strike situation in 1970, then the record of the other 99 giants was a 70.8% rise in after-tax profits.” And almost 40 years later, the hand-wringing continues. The Corporations are too big to fail, the banks laugh and the people continue to be mystified. And the definition of insanity is . . . . . .? Speaking of quality of life and poverty . . . There’s no support, only you.
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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela understood to have given English- and Xhosa-language opera her blessing ahead of Pretoria debut The opening night of Winnie the Opera won a standing ovation, but the biggest cheer of the night was for Mrs Madikizela-Mandela herself, as she took to the stage saying the moment had “surpassed all previous accolades”. The 74-year-old sat among family and friends at the State Theatre in Pretoria to watch last night’s world premiere of the much-anticipated opera which tells the story of her life as the wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela, and her role in the country’s anti-apartheid struggle. As the curtain came down, she was escorted to the stage to beam at the audience, who broke into chants of “amandla” – power. “In all my career of fighting, I’ve never been short of words, but tonight I am,” she said. “This is the first time I have got such accolades from my country, this surpasses anything I have known.” Praising the young, all-South-African cast, Madikizela-Mandela said: “This reminds us as leaders what we fought for and sacrificed so much. I am glad and proud that this production had its world premiere in our nation’s capital.” She said it was the first time she had been inside the theatre, which had been a party bomb target long ago. Pulling the actor who played her, Soweto-born Tsakane Maswanganyi, out of the lineup, she joked that she wished she had been so slim herself. The former social worker has been the subject of a number of retrospectives in the past 18 months, both factual and fictional. She was played by the British actor Sophie Okonedo in the 2010 film Mrs Mandela. A Hollywood film reportedly starring Jennifer Hudson is said to be in the offing. The libretto was sung in English and Xhosa, one of the 11 official South African languages and the Mandelas’ Eastern Cape mother tongue. The story centres on Madikizela-Mandela’s appearance before the post-apartheid truth and reconciliation commission, and her implication in killing and torture carried out in Soweto in the late 1980s. Through flashbacks in court, a window is opened on her struggle as a wife and mother separated from her husband and children, and the political persecution she faced – which included internal exile, imprisonment, torture and 13 months of solitary confinement. “There has certainly been enough drama in her life to justify making her the subject of an opera,” said Brooks Spector, a former US diplomat and now acting head of Johannesburg’s Market Theatre. “You have the gap between heights of her successes and the depths of her tragedy, all taking place in the middle of a major historical moment.” Madikizela-Mandela’s lows include being sentenced to six years in prison for kidnap and accessory to assault over the 1989 murder of 14-year-old Stompie Moeketsi Seipei by her former bodyguard. This was later reduced to a fine and, despite being convicted of fraud in 2003, she has reascended the ranks of the ANC. In the 2009 election she was fifth on the party’s candidate list. In January she hit the headlines after allegedly driving 93mph in a 75mph zone, and her bodyguard reportedly accused the police officer who stopped her of victimisation. Spector added: “Much of South Africa’s history is so contested and works like this are helpful, because it helps people think about what has happened and to think for themselves what it all means. I, for one, am very interested to see how she reacts and also how her family and ANC colleagues react.” Winnie the Opera mixes classical and African music performed by the KwaZulu-Natal philharmonic orchestra. The South African-Canadian producer and librettist Warren Wilensky said: “This is such an important story to tell. Winnie is truly an icon of South Africa’s chequered past and her story is as compelling as it is relevant.” Winnie the Opera runs until 3 May at the State Theatre in Pretoria. An international tour is expected, although no details have been announced. South Africa Nelson Mandela Theatre guardian.co.uk
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Soldier now detained among medium-security inmates at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas as he awaits court martial Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking classified cables to WikiLeaks, is no longer being held in solitary confinement and is now being allowed to move among other military prisoners, according to the Pentagon. Reporters were allowed to view the kind of accommodation in which Manning is currently being detained, at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, after he was moved earlier this month from Quantico marine base in Virginia as he awaits court martial. His treatment in Virginia– which included 23 hours in his cell and being stripped down to a smock at night – was widely condemned by human rights groups including Amnesty International and the UN rapporteur on torture, who subsquently launched an investigation into conditions. Manning is now detained among other medium-security inmates also awaiting military trial, according to Associated Press, which took part in a media tour of his new accommodation. The move implies that Manning has been cleared as a suicide risk, as any detainee deemed a risk of suicide would be held on their own. It has long been a complaint of Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, that the advice of psychiatrists at his old prison in Quantico was ignored. Records show that mental health professionals regularly assessed him and found him to be no risk to himself, but Manning was kept on a “prevention of injury” order, which required him to be segregated from other inmates. Reporters were told that Manning will, in future, be housed alongside another 10 or so prisoners, all of whom are awaiting trial. AP said he will have his own cell, wear standard prison clothing and have open access to a communal area except overnight. With concern receding about the way Manning is being treated, the focus is now likely to swing towards the trial. No date has yet been sent for the court martial, though it is understood that the first subpoenas have been sent out for acquaintances of Manning to appear before a grand jury investigating the charges. Manning faces multiple counts relating to the leaking of hundreds of thousands of documents and videos to WikiLeaks, which include the Iraq and Afghan war logs, and the US embassy cables disclosing secret diplomatic intelligence from around the world. Last week President Obama was accosted by Manning supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco. The president spoke to one supporter and reportedly said: “He broke the law.” The supporters interpreted Obama’s words as referring to Manning, and have complained that by declaring the suspect guilty the president has destroyed the chance of a fair trial. Bradley Manning WikiLeaks Kansas United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
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Police arrest three anti-royal wedding protesters who had been planning a mock execution of Prince Andrew Three anti-capitalist activists who were planning a mock execution of Prince Andrew with a guillotine to mark the royal wedding have been arrested and detained at Lewisham police station. Officers arrested Professor Chris Knight, a leading member of the G20 Meltdown group, outside his home in Brockley, south east London at around 6.15pm, according to an eyewitness. Also arrested were Knight’s partner Camilla Power and Patrick Macroidan, who was dressed as an executioner, said fellow activist Mike Raddie, of north London, who was with them. The three activists were preparing to drive their theatrical props, including a home-made guillotine and effigies, into central London when three police cars and two police vans drew up near Knight’s home in Brockley, said Raddie. “Chris was arrested first. He lay down on the pavement opposite his house to make the arrest difficult,” said Raddie. “He was pulled up by four police officers and two bundled him into the back of a van. “Camilla was put in the back of one of the police cars. Patrick was dressed up as an executioner when he was arrested.” Raddie said the police also seized a van containing the group’s props, which included a wooden guillotine. “It’s a working guillotine but it doesn’t have a blade – just wood painted silver,” he added. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “This evening, 28 April, officers arrested three people – two males aged 68 and 45, and a 60-year-old woman – in Wickham Road, SE4 on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance and breach of the peace. “They are currently in custody at Lewisham police station.” The group has advertised the Zombie Wedding on its website and via Facebook . The event was billed as a “right royal orgy” with “rumpy pumpy and guillotines.” It also states: “PS govt of the DEAD disclaimer: this is a totally non-terrorist event and bears absolutely no resemblance to the Jacobin Terror of 1793-94.” The website said the event would start with a Zombie Wedding Breakfast in Soho Square at around 9.30-10am, after which participants would head to Westminster for mock executions. Knight was sacked by the University of East London in 2009 over claims he incited violence at the G20 protests. Raddie said the event was peaceful and the organisers did not expect to get near Westminster Abbey, where William and Kate are getting married. The plan was to join Republic’s Not the Royal Wedding Street Party in Red Lion Square, Holborn, central London. Also with the protesters at the time of their arrest was a Channel 4 film crew, filming for the Unofficial Royal Wedding , due to air at 7.10pm on Monday. Some of their equipment, which was in the activists’ van, was also confiscated. Royal wedding Protest Monarchy Crime Weddings Police Channel 4 Television industry David Batty guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …It’s not about sex. There’s something about yourself you have to come to terms with, says Pamela Stephenson Connolly Last night I had a sexual dream about my father. I don’t often have sex dreams but when I do, my dad features in them quite a lot. In the dream it is never taboo or unpleasant, but I wake up feeling disturbed and disgusted with my subconscious. In real life I have a good relationship with him and I’ve never been abused. I’ve had a couple of satisfying sexual relationships with guys my own age (I’m in my mid-20s) and am not aware of any issues relating to this topic except that my dad came out when I was a young teenager, and for a while I was worried anyone I ended up with would also turn out to be gay. Could the dreams be confronting that fear? Or is it fairly normal to have taboo dreams? It is certainly common to have dreams depicting taboo acts, but their meanings are usually more complex. Your recurring dreams are not really about having sex with your father. Dreams give an insight into the unconscious mind. If your father in your dream represents a part of you, which part would it be? Perhaps it’s a part of you with which you have a strong, unconscious desire to connect – but of which you’re afraid. The feeling of the dreams is pleasant, so if there is something about yourself you have yet to come to terms with (whatever your father in your dream represents) it’s something you’ll eventually welcome on a conscious level. • Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders. •Send your problem to private.lives@guardian.co.uk Sex Relationships Pamela Stephenson Connolly guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …It’s not about sex. There’s something about yourself you have to come to terms with, says Pamela Stephenson Connolly Last night I had a sexual dream about my father. I don’t often have sex dreams but when I do, my dad features in them quite a lot. In the dream it is never taboo or unpleasant, but I wake up feeling disturbed and disgusted with my subconscious. In real life I have a good relationship with him and I’ve never been abused. I’ve had a couple of satisfying sexual relationships with guys my own age (I’m in my mid-20s) and am not aware of any issues relating to this topic except that my dad came out when I was a young teenager, and for a while I was worried anyone I ended up with would also turn out to be gay. Could the dreams be confronting that fear? Or is it fairly normal to have taboo dreams? It is certainly common to have dreams depicting taboo acts, but their meanings are usually more complex. Your recurring dreams are not really about having sex with your father. Dreams give an insight into the unconscious mind. If your father in your dream represents a part of you, which part would it be? Perhaps it’s a part of you with which you have a strong, unconscious desire to connect – but of which you’re afraid. The feeling of the dreams is pleasant, so if there is something about yourself you have yet to come to terms with (whatever your father in your dream represents) it’s something you’ll eventually welcome on a conscious level. • Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders. •Send your problem to private.lives@guardian.co.uk Sex Relationships Pamela Stephenson Connolly guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Oh look. The Birthers are already playing with the new toy President Obama gave them.
April 28, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Memo to President Obama: You may have thought you finally shut the Birthers up yesterday . But you will never shut them up. These are people who are deeply invested, emotionally and otherwise, in believing that you are not a legitimate president. It’s the only way they can cope with the concept of you holding the office of the presidency in the first place. All you really did yesterday was give them a nice shiny new toy to play with. The proof was on Fox Business News last night, where Eric Bolling hosted a panel led by wingnut extraordinaire Pam Geller, one of the most reptilian creatures of the entire wingnutosphere . The entire show was a discussion of Bolling’s evident belief that what the president presented yesterday was a forgery: BOLLING: Pamela, were any of these notation on here – I don’t know if our camera can get it in too close — you can see some of these numbers that are clearly written in handwriting on the side. We don’t know what they are. Trying to figure out a zero, a two there, an X up over here, a one up here. Were they on the short form? GELLER: Look, this is a certification of live birth. When I left the hospital, I left with a birth certificate. I’m sorry, I didn’t bring with it me, but it looked very much like Donald Trump’s. It’s a little piece of paper, you’ve got the nurse — you know what I’m talking about? Certificate – you know, birth certificate. This is a certification of a live birth. This is actually not a birth certificate. BOLLING: I need to know this. You see this fold. This has clearly been photocopied from a book. You see that? It kind of folds back to, like, almost like a binding of a book. And then for some reason, there’s a green border around it that had to be Photoshopped in. Trying to figure out why they would do that. GELLER: Well, this whole border is suspect. I mean, if you’re taking a scan of something, it would, to your point, it would be white. Why is this the color of the same — BOLLING: Note this – note this, you guys, April 25, 2011 — two days ago — is when this was requested from the state registrar, Alvin Onaka. So we’ll keep our eye on it. We’ll keep digging. Hey, listen. It may or may not be, but certainly opens up the can of worms that there are at least questions for it. The absurdity didn’t end there. Perhaps the height of absurdity came when, as Ben Dimiero at Media Matters points out, Bolling suggested that the doctor who delivered Obama should have traveled forward in time in order to know that he had delivered the president: BOLLING: Very quickly, Pamela, this doctor right here, the guy who signed it four days after the birth. He passed away, but his wife today, TMZ had his wife saying I had no idea. She didn’t know about it. His son said I had no idea. It came as a complete shock to him as well. If you gave birth to the president of the United States, don’t you think your family would know about it? GELLER: Maybe he doesn’t know about it, either. I mean, I think it’s very telling that for three years he didn’t release it. There’s a big question there. We have to say why — why didn’t he release it after three years? As Dimiero acidly observes: The doctor died in 2003. Let that sink in for a second. At the time, Barack Obama was a little-known state senator in Illinois. If the doctor had told his family before he died that he delivered the future president, that would have spawned a much more interesting conspiracy theory (he’s a wizard!). Apparently Eric Bolling thinks obstetricians give their families a list of the most interesting people they delivered — with a special section for “potential future presidents” — before they die. Then Monica Crowley chimed in with the argument that Obama might now be disqualified because he was not “a natural born citizen” because his father was African: Rather hilariously, Crowley claims that the “courts have not adjudicated” the issue of the meaning of “natural born citizen” — when, in fact, they have done so numerous times. Most recently, the current Supreme Court rejected this argument without comment. Crowley is just promoting the next phase of the Birthers’ claims, one that’s been floating out there for awhile and has gone nowhere — for good reason. But that never matters to these fanatics.
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Islamist faction makes demand as part of Palestine unity pact with Fatah, set to be signed in Cairo next week Hamas has insisted on the departure of Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister favoured by Israel and the west, under a deal agreed with its rival faction Fatah for a unity government, according to sources in Gaza. The Islamist organisation also said it would keep control of the Gaza Strip under the accord, which is expected to be formally signed by leaders of the two factions in Cairo next week. The plan drew further criticism on Thursday from Israel, which has said it would not deal with a Palestinian government that included members of Hamas. However, the interim Hamas-Fatah government will have no involvement in negotiations with Israel. Talks will still be conducted by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, headed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas said a caretaker government would feature technocrats and exclude Hamas members. “The people will be independents, technocrats, not affiliated with any factions,” he said. He said it was “too early to tell” whether Fayyad, an independent and non-elected prime minister, would continue in post. Under the reconciliation deal, presidential and legislative elections will be held next year. Egypt said it would send a security team to Gaza. “An Egyptian security delegation will head to Gaza to help settle and organise the internal security situation there, now that the reconciliation agreement is finally in place,” an Egyptian security source told Reuters. Egyptian negotiators, who brokered the deal in a series of secret meetings, persuaded Hamas to accept a non-political cabinet, which will not deter foreign donors, and convinced Fatah to allow Hamas to maintain its security control of Gaza, sources told the Guardian. But Hamas insisted on the removal of Fayyad as prime minister. Although his stewardship of the Palestinian Authority and success in reforming its institutions has been praised by the international community, Fayyad is seen as anti-Hamas and his continued premiership would seem like a defeat for the Islamist faction. Abbas will appoint the new prime minister. The most popular candidate is Munib al Masri, a US-educated businessman respected by both factions. Meanwhile, Israeli leaders continued to criticise the agreement. President Shimon Peres called it a “fatal mistake that will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and will sabotage chances of peace and stability in the region … the world cannot support the establishment of a state that part of its regime is a terror organisation”. Israel’s hardline foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told the Army Radio station: “Hundreds of terrorists will flood the West Bank and therefore we need to prepare for a different situation.” The opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, urged the international community to put pressure on the Palestinians to ensure the new government renounced violence and recognised Israel’s right to exist. The two factions were persuaded by “friends in the Arab World and the European Union that it was time to finish the split”, said Faisal Abu Shahla, a Fatah legislator in the Gaza Strip. But some expressed scepticism about the extent of reconciliation. Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science at al-Azhar University in Gaza, described the agreement as “a very vague format which will allow Palestinians to speak with one voice but, at a practical level, there will remain two separate entities in the West Bank and Gaza in terms of security. “Hamas will be able to maintain its militias and its rhetoric of resistance to Israel. There will not be many changes on the ground. Each one will be in charge of their territory,” he said. Hamas officials indicated that the organisation understood the unity agreement could be jeopardised by any militant operations. “We have to be careful of how we respond to Israel because they will do everything to dismantle the agreement,” said Ghazi Hamed, Hamas’s deputy foreign minister. “It is clear that Israel does not like us. They want to divide us because it gives them more power. I expect they will try to provoke us and create chaos to put pressure on Mahmoud Abbas. All sides admit that the agreement is the first step of a complicated process. Hamed said: ” The challenge will be to implement the agreement. If we succeed in choosing a strong PM and a strong minister of interior, we stand a better chance of success.” Abu Shahla said one consequence of the agreement would be that Fatah would be able to operate openly in Gaza for the first time since 2007 and Hamas would be able to do the same in the West Bank. Following the signing of the deal, Abbas may make his first visit to Gaza in more than four years. Palestinian territories Middle East Israel Hamas Fatah Gaza Conal Urquhart guardian.co.uk
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