h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There have been reflections this anniversry about how we (US) have done and what we have to show for the last 2 years. It is dissapointing to have in the news this week;
the man that crated and flew himself in an out of 2 airports as cargo.
The news agency that purposely smugged radiation into the US to prove detection is no better. They are under charges for having not declared the item. As was pointed out-- a terorists would not claim it! The great american work projects have been stripped of their funding.

The states budgets are broke and the Federal debt is skyrocketing.
The security of the internet is obviously not better.

Less due process and no concern for the previous innocent until proven guilty philosophy.
Checks and Balances of the Federal government are being ignored or dismantled.
The Patriot act is wanted for use on civilians but was always denied. They say they want to go after the mob and drugs and other organized crime.
SO does that mean corporate mobs and the stealing of state rights and the Rep party plans to have most of the US redristrcited before the next election. Election reform . Massive corporate welfare. Corporate and military refusal or exemption of environmental and health concerns/standards.

Encouragement in penalising to the full expent of the law and using the death penalty MORE often and for younger ages. Keeping track of judges sentancing records.

It is said No International criminal or Terrorist has been caught with the new laws. I really do not know how anybody would know that since all is kept secret.



http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0912/p01s04-uspo.html
This is an excellant article. The followig is a small excerpt.

On the eve of Thursday's 9/11 anniversary, President Bush called on Congress to expand the government's ability to go after terror suspects.

The most controversial proposal would
allow federal law-enforcement agencies to issue their own subpoenas in terror-suspect cases, bypassing the check of going to a judge or grand jury.

Bush also proposed allowing judges to deny bail for terror suspects and called for expansion of the death penalty in terror-related crimes.

These could become a permanent features of the legal landscape. Their list includes:

• The indefinite imprisonment without charge of three "enemy combatants" - Jose Padilla, Yasser Hamdi, and Ali Saleh al-Marri.

• The planned use of military commissions - with relaxed evidentiary rules and diminished defendant rights - to try terror suspects. It would be the first time since World War II that military tribunals, not federal courts, are used in the US for such cases.

• The holding in indefinite detention of material witnesses as a means of coercing testimony or confessions from anyone who might possess intelligence information federal agents deem useful.

• The detention and interrogation of 660 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects as war criminals facing possible death sentences at a new US terrorism prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

• The open-ended detention of thousands of Muslim noncitizens as suspected terrorists or terrorist sympathizers as a means of extracting information from them or preventing future terrorism by keeping them locked up.


May the scales of justice our forefathers setup for the balancing of government powers (checks and balances)be exercised! In previous history the rules have been changed temporarily and with a definite end date.

Hi Abbi, its all going wrong isn't it.

People over here are protesting against the Defence Systems Equipment International Fair, police are using the new terrorism laws to arrest protestors. But they are protestors not terrorists, we have a right to protest. Good though it that the media have picked up and it and also believe the police have gone too far.

We seem incapable of stopping the people who really matter.

Then again when you consider that the Afganistan war was planned before 9/11 and Condoleeza Rice made that comment about people not rallying around the cause until we have a pearl habour size event, then I think we can see who the people we really need to stop are. And that ain't gonna be easy.

Mother Jones has a great rundown on where we are - 2 years later

http://www.motherjones.com

I wondered how the arms show was going, we have not heard many details about it.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/index.html

Better link if the first does not work

Great link. I copied it to RCO. Thanks.

Good and thanks

http://www.911independentcommission.org/questions.html
The unanswered questions the widows of 911 have. They have learned a lot in this time.

Another excellant 2 year summary
http://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/index.html

Safire on the topic
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/july-dec03/ss_9-12.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/connect.html

For those who like flash presentations here is a timeline from the Frontline program "the Man Who Knew"
Frontline is an excellant PBS program

http://www.opensocietypolicycenter.org/html/whats.html#new03

Anyone ever heard of this place or the founder?
Mr. Soros is a Billionaire that has quite a number of plans on a number of fronts. He is pro Democracy and has problems with the ethics of the corporate climate globally.

He seems to have a questionable past to some ,in some areas, but it is hard to tell no more than I have read what the whole picture is.

I have read quite a lot but there is much more available. He has disturbed the UK and has an appeal on a conviction in German Court. He has been active at irritating the status quo. I do not know who he is. Any one feeling adventurous check it out and tell me what you think.
*cautious curiosity*

http://www.ukar.org/soros01.shtml

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/personal_finance/3026933.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crash/interviews/soros.html

http://www.sorostrading.com/

Typical of such wheeler/dealers it's hard to pin him down, but my impression is that he's disputing control of the former Soviet Union and satelites with the Amerikans somehow under the guise of philanthropy.

Had you heard his name before?
There may be countless other Billionaires around doing similar, he seemed interesting and unfamiliar to me and of course I know his name now because they were interviewing him.
In his interview with the NOW program, he considered the current US administration an extreme one. The program semed to present Soros as an extreme in the other direction. He was certainly outspoken!

I thought maybe he has been around, just invisible to me.

Yeah, I've heard of him before but I can't place the reference just yet. I'm thinking it wasn't very good because it had something to do with bad effects on indigenous stuff but like I said, I can't place it yet. But I will one of these days.

I signed up to yahoo again-i swear everytime I go there they want me to sart over.

Did you see the article where there was a brief put forward so that Ashcroft will not have to testify to breaking a gag order. I thought he believed in no exception.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030913/ap_on_go_pr_wh/terror_subpoenas_2

He messes with countries economies!

Most of the articles talk about Russia but one says he is most involved and well known in China as the crockadile.
What a character, seems all are interested but wary of him.

I think he's taken advantage of the international banking system. Most of those guys operate out of the spotlight if they can since they normally use governments to collect debts from other governments who try to default. That's why there's so many little wars going on probably.

And of course the exchange rates make a big difference in how much interest you can collect on loans and stuff.

http://www.progressive.org/mcwatch03/mc051103.html

This is appalling!

I clicked. I clicked again. I read the "traitor list." I found the link to have someone added to it. I clicked yet again. I gave them my legal name.

I encourage everyone who reads this to do the same, whether you live in the United States or not.

0

http://www.probush.com/traitor.htm

This might help for that.

Which slot did you buy?

I was thinking maybe we should start a probush list at RCO and charge 87 billion dollars for slot #1. These jerks peddling traitor slots are really cheap you know?