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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud.

With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies.

Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.

Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too," she said.

Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.

Yolen Jeunky, 45, collects dried mud cookies to sell in Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince,Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007. Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's fragile stability, and the mud cookies, made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening, are one of very few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger.
(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Calif. farmers want to sell water

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer

FRESNO, Calif. - With water becoming increasingly precious in California, a rising number of farmers figure they can make more money by selling their water than by actually growing something.

Because farmers get their water at subsidized rates, some of them see financial opportunity this year in selling their allotments to Los Angeles and other desperately thirsty cities across Southern California, as well as to other farms.

"It just makes dollars and sense right now," said Bruce Rolen, a third-generation farmer who grows rice, wheat and other crops in Northern California's lush Sacramento Valley.

Instead of sowing in April, Rolen plans to let 100 of his 250 acres of white rice lie fallow and sell his irrigation water on the open market, where it could fetch up to three times the normal price.

What effect these deals will have on produce prices remains to be seen, because the negotiations are still going on and it is not yet clear how many acres will be taken out of production. But California grows most of the nation's winter vegetables and about 80 percent of the world's almonds, and is the No. 2 rice state, behind Arkansas.

Environmental restrictions, booming demand for water, and persistent drought along the Colorado River have combined to create one of the worst water shortages in California in the past decade, and prices are shooting up in response.

A 'taste' of what's to come?...

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/01/kucinich_drops_presidential_bi.html

Dennis Kucinich is staying home.
Two weeks after insisting he could run for Congress and president at the same time, his decision Thursday to drop his second bid for the White House suggests he is concerned about winning a seventh term in Congress.

He faces four candidates in the Democratic primary, including Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, who has become his chief rival by raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and winning media attention.

Kucinich, 61, who has easily won re-election, wouldn't say Thursday what influenced his contested congressional race had on his decision to drop out of the presidential contest. Kucinich will hold a news conference at noon today at a downtown union hall to explain his decision.

He cited his exclusion from national debates and the practical strains of running a national campaign as reasons for leaving.

"There is a point at which you just realize that you, look, you accept it, that it isn't going to happen and you move on," he said during a Congressional endorsement interview with The Plain Dealer editorial board and reporters. Kucinich stayed in the 2004 presidential race until late summer, when he had little competition for re-election back home.

[The coming financial collapse of the U.S. government: Fed papers reveal what's in store for Americans]

The coming financial collapse of the U.S. government: Fed papers reveal what's in store for Americans
by Mike Adams
Originally published July 17 2006

The bankruptcy of the United States government has been talked about for years by independent observers. If you've read the book, "Empire of Debt," then you know where the U.S. is headed financially. But most people have no idea about the ultimate financial consequences of decades of borrowing and spending by Washington, and they remain irrationally convinced that the status quo will remain intact for eternity. No one in any position of authority, you see, has yet admitted that the U.S. government is indeed going bankrupt.
Until now, that is.

In a remarkable paper posted by the Federal Reserve of St. Louis, and authored by a Boston University teacher named Prof Kotlikoff, it is revealed in blunt, powerful language that the era of borrowing and spending without consequence may soon come to a close. The paper, entitled, Is the United States Bankrupt?, may not remain posted for very long once the public gets word of what it actually says.

And what, exactly, does it say? For starters, Kotlikoff explains, "Unless the United States moves quickly to fundamentally change and restrain its fiscal behavior, its bankruptcy will become a foregone conclusion."

The country is bankrupt

He goes on to explain, "[that] the United States is going broke, [and] ...that radical reform of U.S. fiscal institutions is essential to secure the nation?s economic future."
Failure to engage in these massive reforms will inevitably result in the financial demise of the United States, Kotlikoff says: "[W]e have a country at the end of its resources. It?s exhausted, stripped bear, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, and wrecked (at least in terms of its consumption and borrowing capacity) in consequence of failure to pay its creditors. In short, the country is bankrupt and is forced to reorganize its operations by paying its creditors (the oldsters) less than they were promised."

We might possibly be saved, he explains, if the nation engages in massive, radical reform in three areas: 1) Eliminating the current income tax system and moving to a national retail sales tax of 33 percent. 2) Privatizing social security so that workers own their savings accounts and the federal government can no longer swipe funds from Social Security. 3) Launching a national health insurance program that covers everyone and relies on a system of government-issued vouchers that citizens can spend with health insurance companies.

These radical reforms are necessary because the future gap between what the government owes and what it stands to receive in revenues is already monstrously large, and it's growing by the minute. This gap, called the Gokhale and Smetters measure, currently stands at an astonishing $65.9 trillion. (Yes, with a "T".) As Kotlikoff explains, "This figure is more than five times U.S. GDP and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap one?s head around $65.9 trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments are needed to eliminate this red hole. The answers are terrifying. One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143 percent."

If you read that last paragraph with any presence of mind, you now begin to understand the magnitude of the fiscal problem facing the United States. It could be solved, as explained above, by doubling all personal and corporate income taxes. But then what's the point in working? It could also be solved by slashing promised benefits in Social Security and Medicare. But what about the inevitable street riots?

None of these solutions are likely to occur. And that leaves the Ace up the sleeve. It's the Ace that all government eventually play on their way to bankruptcy and collapse, and it's the Ace that the United States will ultimately be forced to play, too: hyperinflation. The U.S. will have to print more money to escape the financial consequences of its unbridled spending




The article continues here - http://www.newstarget.com/z019659.html

This topic has been moved to Questions/Comments on the Quran.

http://free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=16043.0

This topic has been moved to Questions/Comments on the Quran.

http://free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=16179.0

http://thinkprogress.org/iraq-timeline

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/23304-rudy-the-next-crisis-is-a-moment-away?play=1

NAIROBI, Kenya - A mob torched a church sheltering hundreds of Kenyans fleeing election violence Tuesday, killing up to 50 people as four days of rioting and ethnic clashes marked some of the darkest times in this country's history.

President Mwai Kibaki ? sworn in Sunday in a vote that opponents say was rigged ? said political parties should meet immediately and publicly call for calm. The violence has killed at least 270 people in what had been east Africa's most stable and prosperous democracy. The opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, refused the offer.

"If he announces that he was not elected, then I will talk to him," Odinga told The Associated Press. He accused the government of stoking the chaos, saying Kibaki's administration "is guilty, directly, of genocide."

The violence ? which has erupted from the shantytowns of Nairobi to resort towns on the sweltering coast ? has exposed tribal resentments that have long festered in Kenya. Kibaki's Kikuyu people, Kenya's largest ethnic group, are accused of turning their dominance of politics and business to the detriment of others.

Odinga is from the Luo tribe, a smaller but still major tribe. In the slums, which are often divided along tribal lines, rival groups have been going at each other with machetes and sticks as police fire tear gas and live rounds to keep them from pouring out into the city center.

The church fire in Eldoret, some 185 miles from the capital, killed at least 50 people, said a Red Cross volunteer who counted the bodies and helped the wounded. But she asked that her name ? which would identify her tribe ? not be published, saying gangs were even checking on the tribal affiliations of aid workers.

Anne Njoki, a 28-year-old Kikuyu, said she fled her home in the slums after she saw Kikuyus being attacked and their homes looted. She was camped out near a military base with her sister, 3-year-old nephew and 7-year-old niece.

"They have taken our beds, blankets, even spoons," she said of the looters. The children had not eaten for days.

The European Union and the United States have refused to congratulate Kibaki, and the EU and four top Kenyan elections officials have called for an independent inquiry.

In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged Kibaki and Odinga to hold talks.

"The violence must be brought to an end," he said Tuesday in London.

Also Tuesday, Odinga insisted he would go on with plans for a march of a million people in the capital Thursday against Kibaki, who had been trailing Odinga in early election results and opinion polls before pulling ahead.

The government banned the demonstration, but Odinga said: "It doesn't matter what they say."

My family is there right now. 

[MOHAMED FARAG AHMAD BASHMILAH]

BROADCAST EXCLUSIVE: Yemeni Man Imprisoned at CIA ?Black Sites? Tells His Story of Kidnapping and Torture

Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, a victim of the CIA rendition program?kidnapped, held in secret jails, and tortured?speaks out in his first broadcast interview. In the fall of 2003, Bashmilah was detained in Jordan and turned over to the CIA. He was eventually flown to a secret prison he later found out was in Kabul, Afghanistan. In CIA custody, Mohamed says he was held in a freezing-cold cell, interrogated, shackled, force-fed and subjected to sleep deprivation and loud music for days. He attempted suicide at least three times. He talks about his interrogators and the American psychiatrists or psychologists who also played a role. Bashmilah has brought a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary, accused of abetting his kidnapping. In an in-depth and detailed interview from his home in Yemen, Bashmilah tell us his harrowing story.

MOHAMED FARAG AHMAD BASHMILAH: [translated] It was approximately six days, but what I endured there is worth years. They took me there, and in the evening they started their interrogations process. They started putting some psychological pressure on me. They wanted me to confess to having some connections to some individuals of al-Qaeda. They tried several times to get me to confess, and every time I said no, I would get either a kick, a slap or a curse. Then they said that if I did not confess, they will bring my wife and rape her in front of me. And out of fear for what would happen to my family, I screamed and I fainted. After I came to, I told them that, ?Please, don?t do anything to my family. I would cooperate with you in any way you want.?

Read more of this horror story here, or listen to the actual interview. God help us all.
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/18/exclusive_yemeni_man_imprisoned_at_cia

http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/

I signed up and added - Impeach Bush! 



Michael Vick (NFL player) got 2 years in jail for participating in dog fighting. Saddam got hanged for approving the killing of 148 people.
What should Bush and the 'Cheney Gang' get? 

Friends and classmates of a 16-year-old girl who police say was murdered by her devout Muslim father in a Toronto suburb told local media Tuesday she was killed for not wearing a hijab.
Police said in a statement they received an emergency call at 7:55 am local time Monday from "a man who indicated that he had just killed his daughter."

The victim, Aqsa Parvez, was "rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries, but tragically passed away late last night."

Her father, Muhammad Parvez, 57, was arrested at the scene and will be formally charged with murder when he appears in court Wednesday, said police.

The girl's friends, meanwhile, told local media she was having trouble at home because she did not conform to the family's religious beliefs and refused to wear a traditional Islamic head scarf, or hijab.

"She wanted to go different ways than her family wanted to go, and she wanted to make her own path, but he (her father) wouldn't let her," one of her classmates told public broadcaster CBC.

"She loved clothes," another of her friends, Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, told the daily Toronto Star. "She just wanted to show her beauty ... She just wanted to dress like us, just like a normal person."

According to her friends, Aqsa had worn the hijab at school last year, but rebelled in recent months.

They said she would leave home wearing a hijab and loose-fitting clothes, but would take off her head scarf and change into tighter garments at school, then change back before going home at the end of the day.

The victim's 26 year-old brother was also charged with obstructing police in the investigation.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071211175557.p3d3kaah&show_article=1

Morgan Spurlock?s Where In The World is Osama Bin Laden?

I was at Sundance in 2004 when Morgan Spurlock took over the festival with his documentary Super Size Me. Four years later, Spurlock returns to Park City with Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?, a film documenting the director?s search for the most wanted man on the planet. The Weinstein Co quickly snapped up the documentary, after seeing only 15 minutes at the Berlin Film Festival. Distributors who saw the footage were asked to sign draconian nondisclosure agreements.

Many people are speculating that Spurlock may have done what the U.S. government has been unable to do, and actually found Bin Laden. The film?s director of photography, Daniel Marricone added fuel to the fire, telling the press that Spurlock ?definitely got the holy grail.? Not much information has leaked about the film, and even the director is keeping quiet. When asked if the rumors, Spurlock would only say ?Until there?s something to see, why talk about it??

http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/12/02/first-look-morgan-spurlock%E2%80%99s-where-in-the-world-is-osama-bin-laden/

?We?ve definitely got the holy grail,? Morgan Spurlock?s New York-based director of photography on the project, Daniel Marracino, told Variety magazine.


My guess - they got information that he's dead.

...will have had an abortion by the age of 45.



http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-112905abortion-g,0,5198075.graphic?coll=la-home-center

I can't believe, I was thinking about this just yesterday. When I read an article about Kucinich complaining about the Democratic party. How it's still going to be mired in the war and their not doing anything about it. I think he's the only one in the Democratic Party who wants all the military forces out of Iraq and wants no bases left there after.

So then I see this article and I think, why not??? Both candidates believe their parties have moved away from what the people want. The Republican party has lost it way for decades. The Democratic Party was voted in by people who were tired of the adminstration and wanted CHANGE. Yet the first thing madam speaker had to say after she was sworn in was - we're not going to impeach Bush. And what have they done ever since, keep giving Bush every single Billion he asked for to fund the war.

Elizabeth Kucinich: My Husband Would "Absolutely" Consider Running With Ron Paul
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/23/elizabeth-kucinich-my-hu_n_73905.html

... and re-open 9/11 investigation!