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Current Events Bulletin
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Apr. 1st, 2005 @ 11:46 am
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Poor Judgement
Well, it's official. Again. While the Bush-appointed Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction unsurprisingly cleared President Bush of actively manipulating intelligence in the run up to the Iraq invasion, it makes clear that the White House expected intelligence officials to find evidence of Iraqi WMD whether it was there or not, "...it is hard to deny the conclusion that intelligence analysts worked in an environment that did not encourage skepticism about the conventional wisdom."
The Bush administration's conclusion that Iraq had WMD and was a threat to the United States and its allies was a result of incestuous amplification within the intelligence community and the administration "in an environment that did not encourage skepticism." The Washington Post describes it as "a kind of echo chamber in which plausible hypotheses hardened into firm assertions of fact, eventually becoming immune to evidence."
As one example, the commission notes that, while Secretary of State Colin Powell was preparing his now infamous presentation to the UN, leading CIA analysts were making frantic phone calls to CIA director George Tenet telling him they had grave doubts about the credibility of one of their sources,
According to the division chief, Mr. Tenet replied with words to the effect of "yeah, yeah," and that he was "exhausted." The division chief said that when he listened to the speech the next day, he was surprised that the information from Curveball had been included.
That's important to note, because many of our allies at the UN were looking at the same intelligence. If you ever wondered why they didn't believe us, it's because the administration was spewing garbage that our own intelligence services didn't even believe.
Powell had his doubts, too. As he gave his UN presentation on Iraqi WMD, he knew it was probably bogus, "At one point during the rehearsal, Powell tossed several pages in the air. "I'm not reading this," he declared. "This is bullshit."
Hell, even President Bush didn't think the intelligence was solid. Drawing on interviews with Bush and others in the administration, Bob Woodward describes Tenet's "Slam Dunk" presentation in his book, "Plan of Attack",
"Nice try," Bush said. "I don't think this is quite - it's not something that Joe Public would understand or would gain a lot of confidence from."
Card was also underwhelmed. The presentation was a flop.... Bush turned to Tenet. "I've been told all this intelligence about having WMD and this is the best we've got?"
From the end of one of the couches in the Oval Office, Tenet rose up, threw his arms in the air. "It's a slam dunk case!" the DCI said.
Bush pressed. "George, how confident are you?"
..."Don't worry, it's a slam dunk!"
...The president later recalled that McLaughlin's presentation "wouldn't have stood the test of time." But, said Bush, Tenet's reassurance - "That was very important."
"Needs a lot more work," Bush told Card and Rice. "Let's get some people who've actually put together a case for a jury." He wanted some lawyers, prosecutors if need be. They were going to have to go public with something.
One of the main recommendations made by the commission to keep future administrations from cherry-picking data to fit a pre-ordained conclusion is to encourage the dissemination of dissenting opinions - especially to Congressional oversight committees. I have an alternate solution: Americans should stop electing (and re-electing) leaders who consistently exhibit poor judgment.
Posted by American Pundit at April 1, 2005 03:31 AM
From: http://www.watchblog.com/democrats/archives/002185.html#more
Because apparently sometimes you can't reiterate it enough. |
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Bad News
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Apr. 1st, 2005 @ 11:28 am
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http://www.whitehouse.org/index.asp
Whitehouse.org has been hacked. At least that's what I'm getting out of this.
Personally if you're not into supporting conservative "punk" hackers I wouldn't go visit their websit, but that's just me.
For those of you who are wondering. Whitehouse.com is a porn site, Whitehouse.gov is the official government site for the Whitehouse, and Whitehouse.org (the one that seems to have been hacked) was a relatively liberal funny site mocking Whitehouse.gov and a source of news and information.
OH WAIT!
Hahaha! Happy April Fools. Damnit. lmao
*goes to go find actual bad news*
Oh! Yes, I actually have rather bad news.... It can be found at http://www.fcw.com/article88461-04-01-05-Web
Here is the article:
Student tracker proposed
BY Florence Olsen
Published on Apr. 1, 2005
More Related Links
The Education Department wants congressional approval to create a federal database that would track individual students throughout their college careers and give federal officials better information for policy decisions.
A feasibility study released this month by the department's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) states that the center can handle the technological and privacy challenges of such a database, but adds that it would impose additional costs on colleges to update their administrative systems.
The proposed tracking system would require a centralized database and secure off-line storage to manage millions of student records initially, along with millions of new records that would be added each year.
If lawmakers approve the new database, NCES officials would conduct field tests in the 2006-07 academic year and begin full-scale implementation of the new system in the 2007-08 academic year, according to the study.
NCES officials say the database would replace the student-related components of the current Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which provides only institution-level statistics on college enrollment, graduation rates, tuition fees, student financial aid and other student-related data.
The proposed database would provide individually identifiable student information, including names, Social Security numbers, number of courses taken and credits earned, degrees completed, and actual education costs.
The study acknowledges the privacy concerns that already have been raised. But it states that NCES operates under legislation that makes it a Class E felony to violate data confidentiality rules. The study also states that no cases have occurred in which confidential data collected by NCES has been wrongfully disclosed.
According to the study, federal officials and lawmakers need the database of student records to obtain more accurate measures of institutional accountability and program effectiveness. It states that the proposed database would help policy-makers calculate, for example, the net price of college education and to monitor in real time federal student aid programs, such as Pell grants, and variations in aid packaging.
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Now don't get me wrong,, this could be perfectly neutral news, but it has such great potential to be bad (such as becomign pat of a life-long tracking system) that I think as proposed right this moment it is bad news. |
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Fact Fucker 2005
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Mar. 31st, 2005 @ 09:45 pm
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It's a fact that corporations are led by people and it's another fact that these people often use their corporations to donate to the political parties et cetera they like.
Be aware of where you shop and get your own Fact Fuck at http://www.choosetheblue.com/main.php |
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The Man Behind The Curtain
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Mar. 31st, 2005 @ 09:34 pm
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Funen bakers have taken up the challenge to find a new recipe for communion wafers
For centuries, Danish churchgoers have received the body of Christ in the form of a small, bland communion wafer. Now, competition is on the way.
Ninety master bakers from the island of Funen have taken up the challenge to experiment with new recipes for the holy flesh, daily religious newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad reported on Thursday.
‘We have never tried anything like this before,’ Svendborg baker Gerner Pedersen said. ‘It’s very exciting. I think I will go for a baguette made out of a mixture of wheat and rye flour. That would give a good, strong taste of bread.’
Copenhagen deacon Finn Laugesen said he wished the bakers all the best. ‘But for as long as I have been responsible for the communion wafers, I’ve gone for the most neutral taste I could find,’ he said. ‘After all, the bread should symbolize the body of Jesus, and the wafer shouldn’t be getting all the attention. Just imagine if the pastor at the altar would say ‘This is the body of Jesus Christ. Would you like that with chocolate, vanilla or strawberry taste?’
From: http://www.cphpost.dk/get/86354.html |
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Mar. 25th, 2005 @ 10:24 pm
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My apologies...this weeks resumption is not going to happen, resumption will be held next week, for sure. |
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Oh dear gods.
SpawndeLoki will resume updating as though nothing has happened as of tomorrow. My apoloies, life has been kicking my ass these (last) two weeks.
Mar. 23rd, 2005 @ 01:06 pm
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TGIF!
It's Thursday and SpawndeLoki is being updated again. I dn't know if anyone has ever noticed but this blog is almost always updated on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Why is that? Well, it's because these are the days that the government likes to quietly release controversial and "big deal" news. Assisted by the newspapers especially, who put first page news on the back page with a tiny article.
The whole entire POINT of SpawndeLoki is to counteract that. It (I) attempt to do this in two ways. First of all by updating on these dates and second of all by updating with news and subjects that are important, probably more so than some other ones, and yet are...for some odd reason or another being rather quiet.
Good news for the Whitehouse; it's almost Friday:
It's TGIF for the White House when it has bad news
By Judy Keen and Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration seems to be following an axiom that guided many of its predecessors: To keep negative headlines to a minimum, release bad news on a Friday.
For at least 15 years, the Census Bureau has released its annual reports on the nation's income and poverty statistics on a Tuesday or a Thursday. This year, when indicators suggest that the reports will document downward trends, they will be released Friday.
Census spokesman Lawrence Neal says the agency "picked a date out of the air." But the Bush administration has a pattern of announcing controversial or unfavorable news as the weekend begins.
To attract little attention, the strategy makes sense. Friday night's network news broadcasts are the least-watched of the workweek. Saturday newspapers are the week's least-read editions.
Robert Lichter, director of STATS or Statistical Assessment Service, a group that monitors the use of numbers by the news media, says Fridays are ideal for "throwing the news into a black hole."
This administration isn't the first to try to bury bad news.
On a Friday in 1996, for example, the Clinton White House released long-sought records from Hillary Rodham Clinton's former law firm, saying the files had just been found. In 1989, the first President Bush lifted trade sanctions against two Chinese companies on a Friday soon after China's crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square.
This Bush administration has had many bad-news Fridays:
•On a Friday last November, the Environmental Protection Administration said it would relax enforcement of the Clean Air Act so older coal-fired power plants could renovate without having to install anti-pollution equipment.
•On a Friday in January, the administration said it would consider removing Clean Water Act protections from up to one-fifth of the nation's streams, ponds, lakes, mudflats and wetlands.
•The resignations of Army Secretary Thomas White and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill were announced on Fridays.
•Last December, Census officials admitted on a Friday that the 2000 Census undercounted the nation by 3.3 million people.
Politicians on Capitol Hill know about stealth Fridays, too. When Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., announced in December that he would resign as majority leader because of controversy over racial comments he had made, he did it on a Friday.
The week between Christmas and New Year's and the day before national holidays also are popular times to try to slip controversial news under the radar. Last year, the administration said on the eve of Thanksgiving that it would give managers of national forests more authority to approve logging with less study of potential environmental problems.
Neal says he had planned to release the poverty and income reports Tuesday, but they are more complex this year.
"We just moved it to the 26th," he says. Asked if that indicates the numbers will not be very positive, he says: "They weren't positive last year, either," and the numbers were released on a Tuesday.
Last year's reports showed that median household income in 2001 registered the first significant decline since 1991 and the percentage of Americans living in poverty rose from 11.3% to 11.7%, the first increase in five years.
The Friday strategy works best if the story is a "one-day wonder," and isn't dramatic enough to dominate Sunday's widely read newspapers and popular TV news talk shows, Lichter says. "You want that one-day wonder to be the day that nobody wonders about the news."
Mar. 10th, 2005 @ 08:51 pm
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This section has been delayed (and possibly removed) from this update due to a lack of articles or information that met the standards and philosphy of this blog.
Mar. 10th, 2005 @ 08:34 pm
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I am adding two new sections. They will both be occasional.
New section is: The Man Behind the Curtain.
Covered in the new section will be everything from humorful inanities, such as will be shown this week, to frightening important things. Things all dealing with what is really going on behind whatever veil there may be.
New section is: Satire.
Covered in the new section will be satiric works that I found amusing. They aren't meant to be true or balanced or anything like that. Just amusing. For me, personally.
Mar. 10th, 2005 @ 08:20 pm
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This week's update will not be happening due to the fact that I will be away for several days on school stuff.
Don't let it stop you though.
Mar. 2nd, 2005 @ 08:51 pm
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| » Fundie/Neo-Con Watch |
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Current 'Fundie to Fuck':
Idiots who make sites like these:
http://www.silentscream.org/
(abortion image site)
Pure emotional (as opposed to logical) christian fundamentalist propaganda.
Thanks goes to LJ user: majorjake for the site.
Feb. 25th, 2005 @ 09:24 pm
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Libel law review over McDonald's ruling
Clare Dyer, legal correspondent
Wednesday February 16, 2005
The Guardian
The government is to review the libel laws after two penniless environmental campaigners who were sued by McDonald's, the global burger chain, yesterday won a ruling at the European court of human rights that their rights to a fair trial and freedom of expression were violated when they were denied legal aid.
The libel battle pitted Helen Steel, a part-time barmaid earning £65 a week, and David Morris, a single parent on income support, against an expert legal team headed by a £2,000-a-day libel QC in a 313-day trial, the longest in English legal history.
Their victory in Strasbourg, hailed by their QC, Keir Starmer, as a "turning point" in the law of libel, will force the government to take steps to redress the balance between rich and poor in defamation cases.
Mr Starmer said: "Until now, only the rich and famous have been able to defend themselves against libel writs. Now ordinary people can participate much more effectively in public debate without the fear that they will be bankrupted for doing so. This case is a milestone for free speech."
The Strasbourg court awarded damages of £13,750 to Ms Steel and £10,300 to Mr Morris.
Apart from paying the damages, the government will have to open the legal aid purse strings to impecunious defendants sued by multinational corporations or wealthy individuals in complex cases.
At present, defamation is excluded from the scope of legal aid. Funding can be granted in exceptional cases, but the conditions are so tight that only one defamation case has been funded in the five years since the law was amended.
The unanimous ruling from Strasbourg will also prompt a re-examination of the libel laws, which many believe are too technical and complex and too heavily weighted in favour of claimants.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs said the government would be looking at the libel laws generally "in the context of this judgment".
The judgment could also exert a downward pressure on libel awards, obliging judges to consider for the first time the defendant's means in fixing damages.
The world's biggest fast-food chain spent an estimated £10m on the case, which involved 28 pre-trial applications; the pair had to represent themselves with sporadic free help from friendly lawyers and £40,000 raised from supporters to help cover expenses such as transcripts and photocopying.
McDonald's sued Ms Steel and Mr Morris, both from north London, in 1990 over leaflets headed What's Wrong With McDonald's?, which they distributed outside the burger chain's restaurants
These accused the chain of exploiting children, cruelty to animals, destroying the rainforest, paying low wages and peddling unhealthy food.
The human rights court in Strasbourg ruled that the "inequality of arms" between the two meant they were denied a fair trial and there was a "chilling effect" on their freedom of expression
The size of the damages awarded against them - £60,000 by the high court, reduced to £40,000 by the court of appeal - also had a disproportionate effect on their right of free speech, the judges said.
Mr Starmer had told the Strasbourg court that "without legal assistance, the [defence] case was underprepared, unready for trial and was advanced by two inexperienced, untrained and exhausted individuals who were pushed to their physical and mental limits. In short, it was patently unfair."
Despite the obstacles, the two campaigners won a ruling from the high court that some of the claims in the leaflet were true, in what was described as "the biggest corporate PR disaster in history". Mr Justice Bell ruled that the leaflet was correct when it accused the company of paying low wages to its workers, being responsible for cruelty to some of the animals used in its food products, and exploiting children in advertising campaigns.
McDonald's said the leaflet related to practices in the 1980s and the world and the company had "moved on" since then.
Mark Stephens, the campaigners' solicitor, said: "McDonald's had virtually bottomless pockets to finance the case and Mr Morris and Ms Steel certainly did not. This was a serious unfairness which the human rights judges have now recognised."
Roger Smith, director of the law reform group Justice, said: "This is a wonderful victory for the sheer perseverance of two litigants who have just stuck to the task and insisted upon justice.
"It's also a recognition of legal aid as a basic human right which should be available in all types of cases where it is absolutely necessary."
Feb. 24th, 2005 @ 08:58 pm
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Thanks to Rob for giving me this news:
The Labor Department and Wal-Mart signed a rather one-sided agreement regarding a recent child labor case and future investigations.
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the nation (and also, interestingly enough, the second most often sued entity in the country, behind the government1) recently signed a settlement with the US Department of Labor over some child labor issues. Most of them (18 of 24) involved workers under 18 using hazardous machinery. The company settled the case for $135,540 (hardly difficult for a company whose profits topped $10 billion this year2).
But what's odd about this is that another part of the settlement was that the Department of Labor would give Wal-Mart 15 days' notice before investigating any child labor complaints3. Why on Earth would a regulatory body of the government give one of the largest companies it's supposed to be regulating notice that it's about to investigate them?
John R. Fraser, the top wage official in the Department of Labor under President Bush I said, "Giving the company 15 days' notice of any investigation is very unusual. The language appears to go beyond child labor allegations and cover all wage and hour allegations. It appears to put Wal-Mart in a privileged position that to my knowledge no other employer has." The assistant labor secretary for employment standards, Victoria Lipnic, said that the notice only applies to child labor violations3.
Even if this is the case, I find it odd that they would give such notice. Ms. Lipnic said that "giving Wal-Mart notice before conducting investigations would encourage the company to correct the problems sooner."3 Nonetheless, it seems counter-productive and downright obsequious for the Labor Department to agree (especially considering this was a settlement involving something Wal-Mart had done) to tell Wal-Mart whenever they were about to investigate them for something, especially since Wal-Mart doesn't have the greatest track record vis- -vis the law, having already been sued for deleting hours off employees' timecards4, to one of the largest class-action lawsuits in history, alledging gender discrimination in payment and promotions5. With these (and many others) in mind, it again seems like this is the last company that should be given notice when the Labor Department is about to come knocking on their door.
For more please click on "Are you a moron?" That's why I link to morons.org. For more on tihs specific issue (which you'd probably rather have) go here: http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=1&id=5994
Feb. 24th, 2005 @ 08:48 pm
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ROCHESTER, N.Y., Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest Harris Poll conducted
following the recent elections in Iraq finds that on many aspects U.S. adults
have not changed their basic views about Iraq with one important exception:
The number of adults who favor bringing troops home in the next year has
increased significantly to its highest level since October 2003 when Harris
Interactive(R) first measured the public's opinions on this issue.
Specifically, almost six in 10 (59%) adults now favor bringing most troops
home in the next year and 39 percent favor keeping a large number of troops in
Iraq until there is a stable government there. In November, less than half
(47%) favored bringing troops home and half (50%) favored keeping troops in
Iraq.
However, the public remains split on whether the invasion of Iraq
strengthened (46%) or weakened (48%) the war on terrorism.
These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,012 U.S.
adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive between February 8 and 13,
2005.
On other issues concerning Iraq, the attitudes of large majorities of the
public have not changed significantly in the past few months.
-- 88 percent of U.S. adults believe that Saddam Hussein would have made
weapons of mass destruction if he could have (down slightly from 90% in
November).
-- 76 percent believe that the Iraqis are better off now than they were
under Saddam Hussein (same as November).
-- 64 percent believe that history will give the U.S. credit for bringing
freedom and democracy to Iraq (up slightly from 63% in November).
-- 64 percent believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda (up
slightly from 62% in November).
-- 61 percent believe that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, was a serious
threat to U.S. security (down slightly from 63% in November).
More surprising perhaps are the large numbers (albeit not majorities) who
believe the following claims not made by the president and which virtually no
experts believe to be true:
-- 47 percent believe that Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the
hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001 (up six
percentage points from November).
-- 44 percent actually believe that several of the hijackers who attacked
the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis (up significantly from 37% in
November).
-- 36 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the
U.S. invaded (down slightly from 38% in November).
Another interesting finding is that only 46 percent believe that Saddam
Hussein was prevented from developing weapons of mass destruction by the U.N.
weapons inspectors, a fact which most reports now support.
More: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/02-18-2005/0003030433&EDATE
Feb. 24th, 2005 @ 08:46 pm
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Schools urged to drop antidrug program
Scientology-linked teachings inaccurate, superintendent says
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
State Superintendent Jack O'Connell urged all California schools on Tuesday to drop the Narconon antidrug education program after a new state evaluation concluded that its curriculum offers inaccurate and unscientific information.
"We'll get a letter out to every school district today, saying this program is filled with inaccuracies and does not reflect widespread medical and factual evidence," O'Connell said of Narconon Drug Prevention & Education, a free program with ties to the Church of Scientology.
O'Connell requested the independent evaluation in July after The Chronicle reported in June that Narconon introduced students to some beliefs and methods of Scientology without their knowledge.
The stories reported that Narconon's instruction rests, in part, on church beliefs that drug residues remain indefinitely in body fat, causing people to experience repeated drug flashbacks and cravings. Some teachers also reported that Narconon instructors taught their students that drug residues can be sweated out in saunas and that colored ooze is produced when drugs exit the body.
Scientology correspondence obtained by The Chronicle said Narconon's instruction is delivered in language purged of most church parlance, but includes "all the Scientology and Dianetics Handbook basics."
Narconon classroom instructors made presentations in at least 39 California school districts since 2000, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento.
San Francisco and Los Angeles schools banned Narconon after The Chronicle reports appeared. Narconon had had unfettered access to San Francisco classrooms from 1991 until last summer.
"Now we need to get a memo out to schools saying that because of the state superintendent's recommendation, which concurs with the San Francisco finding, schools are not to be using Narconon," said Trish Bascom, director of school health programs for the San Francisco schools.
The report, funded by the state and released today by the Hayward-based California Healthy Kids Resource Center, did not evaluate whether Narconon crossed the church-state line in public schools.
Instead, five medical doctors and nine school health education specialists evaluated Narconon for scientific accuracy and how well its teaching methods might help students avoid taking drugs.
Information provided to students by Narconon "does not reflect accurate, widely accepted medical and scientific evidence," the researchers said. "Some information is misleading because it is overstated or does not distinguish between drug use and abuse."
The report offered these examples of Narconon's inaccuracies:
-- Drugs burn up vitamins and nutrients.
-- Drug-activated vitamin deficiency results in pain.
-- Marijuana-induced, rapid vitamin and nutrient loss causes food cravings known as "munchies."
-- Small amounts of drugs stored in fat are released at a later time (and) cause the person to re-experience the drug effect and desire to use again.
Examples of "misleading statements" include the ideas that the amount of a drug taken determines whether it acts as a stimulant or sedative, and that drugs "ruin creativity and dull senses."
The report also criticized Narconon for using ex-addicts to make its presentations.
"Authorizing ex-addicts to teach drug prevention in schools may tacitly reinforce student perceptions that drug use really isn't risky," the researchers said.
And they found fault with Narconon for making no distinction between what presenters tell young children versus teenagers; lecturing to students without giving them a chance to practice drug-refusal skills; suggesting to students that drug-taking is more widespread than it is; and using scare tactics, such as telling students that too much caffeine can kill.
"Narconon is proud that throughout our nearly 40 years of service we have been able to help millions of youth worldwide to turn away from drug experimentation and a life on drugs," Narconon's president, Clark Carr, said after reading the report.
"We are always open to suggestions how we can achieve even better results. Narconon staff will continue to do everything they can to help youth learn true information about drugs so they can make informed choices."
Carr was reached by phone in Hawaii, where he said he had been invited to introduce Narconon to classrooms there.
Hawaii state school officials had already contacted their California counterparts, O'Connell said, to ask about the report's findings.
The one positive nod researchers gave Narconon was that it could be entertaining. The report quotes from a Narconon script advising presenters to tell kids that "People don't decide to become addicted to a drug. Nobody goes home at the end of a a school day and says, 'What am I going to do tonight? Wash my bicycle ... and become a drug addict.' "
That kind of engaging approach is what got biology teacher Gary Sninsky of Gardenia High in the Los Angeles Unified School District to invite Narconon presenters to his class year after year. He was among many teachers who said they were disappointed when their district banned the antidrug program.
"I was impressed by their ability to hold a passel of teenagers' attention," Sninsky said Tuesday, adding that he just assumed what Narconon presenters said was accurate.
Deborah Wood, executive director of the California Healthy Kids Resource Center, said inaccurate programs should not be permitted in classrooms even if they are free to cash-strapped schools and entertaining to glazed-eyed students.
"Ask instead if that would be appropriate for a math or science class," Wood suggested. "The standards need to be the same when we're talking about valuable instructional time."
In his letter advising district superintendents not to allow Narconon in their classrooms, O'Connell wrote: "Fortunately, many programs are available to schools that have evidence of efficacy in preventing violence or drug use."
The new state report will be available on the Web at www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/at/research.asp.
Feb. 24th, 2005 @ 08:38 pm
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Ahaha. This inforwar's site is hilarious but this article is very good to know!
I'd like to thank Nichole for passing this on!
New Freedom Initiative/Mandatory Mental Health Screening of American Children Passes
Infowars.com | November 23, 2004
On Monday morning, Alex talked to Jeff Diest from Congressman Ron Paul's office.
Diest confirmed that Ron Paul's amendment requiring parental consent prior to government psychological testing/mental screening of all school children was not added to the bill.
The New Freedom Initiative passed sans amendment, as it stood.
Congress Funds Mandatory Psychological Tests for Kids
Newsmax | November 23 2004
One of the nation's leading medical groups, the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS), decried a move by the U.S. Senate to join with the House in funding a federal program AAPS says will lead to mandatory psychological testing of every child in America – without the consent of parents.
When the Senate considered an omnibus appropriations bill last week that included funding for grants to implement universal mental health screening for almost 60 million children, pregnant women and adults through schools and pre-schools, it approved $20 million of the $44 million sought, Kathryn Serkes, public affairs counsel for AAPS, told NewsMax.
This $20 million matches a like amount already approved by the House, Serkes advised.
While the funding cut of some $24 million was a little good news, suggested Serkes, whose organization has zealously opposed the the measure, she said the organization was most worried about the failure of Congress to include “parental consent” language sought by the AAPS.
Last September, AAPS lifetime member Rep. Ron Paul, M.D., R-Texas, tried to stop the plan in its tracks by offering an amendment to the Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Act for FY 2005. The amendment received 95 “yes” votes, but it failed to pass.
According to Serkes, Paul is now mulling offering stand-alone legislation in the next session to once again try and get a provision for parental consent.
The federal bill on its face does not require mandatory mental health testing to be imposed upon states or local schools, explained Serkes.
However, the HHS appropriations bill contains block grant money that will likely be used – as is often the case with block funding – by the various states to implement mandatory psychological testing programs for all students in the school system.
The spending bill has its roots in the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, created by President Bush in 2002 to propose ways of eliminating waste and improve efficiency and effectiveness of the mental health care delivery system.
Although the report does not specifically recommend screening all students, it does suggest that “schools are in a key position to identify the mental health problems early and to provide a link to appropriate services.”
The bottom line, explained Serkes, is that a state receiving money under this appropriation will likely make its mental testing of kids mandatory – and not be out of synch with the federal enactment.
The other telling point, said Serkes, is that although the relatively minimal funding at this point is certainly not enough to fund mandatory mental testing for kids countrywide, it's an ominous start:
“Once it's established and has funding, a program exhibits the nettlesome property of being self-sustaining – it gets a life of its own. More funding follows.”
Officials of the AAPS decry in the measure what they see as “a dangerous scheme that will heap even more coercive pressure on parents to medicate children with potentially dangerous side effects.”
One of the most “dangerous side effects” from antidepressants commonly prescribed to children is suicide, regarding which AAPS added, “Further, even the government's own task force has concluded that mental health screening does little to prevent suicide.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Paul says the mental testing scheme is a looming feature of "Big Brother" that if unchecked will push parental rights out of the picture:
“At issue is the fundamental right of parents to decide what medical treatment is appropriate for their children. The notion of federal bureaucrats ordering potentially millions of youngsters to take psychotropic drugs like Ritalin strikes an emotional chord with American parents, who are sick of relinquishing more and more parental control to government.
“Once created, federal programs are nearly impossible to eliminate. Anyone who understands bureaucracies knows they assume more and more power incrementally. A few scattered state programs over time will be replaced by a federal program implemented in a few select cities. Once the limited federal program is accepted, it will be expanded nationwide. Once in place throughout the country, the screening program will become mandatory.
“Soviet communists attempted to paint all opposition to the state as mental illness. It now seems our own federal government wants to create a therapeutic nanny state, beginning with schoolchildren. It's not hard to imagine a time 20 or 30 years from now when government psychiatrists stigmatize children whose religious, social, or political values do not comport with those of the politically correct, secular state.
“American parents must do everything they can to remain responsible for their children's well-being. If we allow government to become intimately involved with our children's minds and bodies, we will have lost the final vestiges of parental authority. Strong families are the last line of defense against an overreaching bureaucratic state.”
Background:
Bush to screen population for mental illness
Sweeping initiative links diagnoses to treatment with specific drugs
WorldNetDaily.com | June 21, 2004
President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration.
The New Freedom Initiative, according to a progress report , seeks to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing "services in the community, rather than institutions," the British Medical Journal reported.
Critics say the plan protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public.
The initiative began with Bush's launch in April 2002 of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which conducted a "comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system."
The panel found that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children.
The commission said, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders."
Schools, the panel concluded, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.
The commission recommended that the screening be linked with "treatment and supports," including "state-of-the-art treatments" using "specific medications for specific conditions."
The Texas Medication Algorithm Project, or TMAP, was held up by the panel as a "model" medication treatment plan that "illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes."
The TMAP -- started in 1995 as an alliance of individuals from the pharmaceutical industry, the University of Texas and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas -- also was praised by the American Psychiatric Association, which called for increased funding to implement the overall plan.
But the Texas project sparked controversy when a Pennsylvania government employee revealed state officials with influence over the plan had received money and perks from drug companies who stand to gain from it.
Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General says in his whistleblower report the "political/pharmaceutical alliance" that developed the Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, was behind the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission, which were "poised to consolidate the TMAP effort into a comprehensive national policy to treat mental illness with expensive, patented medications of questionable benefit and deadly side effects, and to force private insurers to pick up more of the tab."
Jones points out, according to the British Medical Journal, companies that helped start the Texas project are major contributors to Bush's election funds. Also, some members of the New Freedom Commission have served on advisory boards for these same companies, while others have direct ties to TMAP.
Eli Lilly, manufacturer of olanzapine, one of the drugs recommended in the plan, has multiple ties to the Bush administration, BMJ says. The elder President Bush was a member of Lilly's board of directors and President Bush appointed Lilly's chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, to the Homeland Security Council.
Of Lilly's $1.6 million in political contributions in 2000, 82 percent went to Bush and the Republican Party.
Another critic, Robert Whitaker, journalist and author of "Mad in America," told the British Medical Journal that while increased screening "may seem defensible," it could also be seen as "fishing for customers."
Exorbitant spending on new drugs "robs from other forms of care such as job training and shelter program," he said.
However, a developer of the Texas project, Dr. Graham Emslie, defends screening.
"There are good data showing that if you identify kids at an earlier age who are aggressive, you can intervene ... and change their trajectory."
Rep. Ron Paul seeks to yank program, decries use of drugs on children
WND |September 9, 2004
By Ron Strom
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, plans to offer an amendment in the House of Representatives today that would remove from an appropriations bill a new mandatory mental-health screening program for America's children.
"The American tradition of parents deciding what is best for their children is, yet again, under attack," writes Kent Snyder of the Paul-founded Liberty Committee. "The pharmaceutical industry has convinced President Bush to support mandatory mental-health screening for every child in America, including preschool children, and the industry is now working to convince Congress as well."
As WorldNetDaily reported, the New Freedom Initiative recommends screening not only for children but eventually for every American. The initiative came out of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which President Bush established in 2002.
Critics of the plan say it is a thinly veiled attempt by drug companies to provide a wider market for high-priced antidepressants and antipsychotic medication, and puts government in areas of Americans' lives where it does not belong.
Writes Snyder: "The real payoff for the drug companies is the forced drugging of children that will result – as we learned tragically with Ritalin – even when parents refuse."
Paul's amendment to the Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005 would take the new program out of the funding bill.
The congressman, who is known for his strict adherence to the Constitution, wrote in a letter to his colleagues: "As you know, psychotropic drugs are increasingly prescribed for children who show nothing more than children's typical rambunctious behavior. Many children have suffered harmful effects from these drugs. Yet some parents have even been charged with child abuse for refusing to drug their children. The federal government should not promote national mental-health screening programs that will force the use of these psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin."
The New Freedom Commission found that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental-health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children.
The commission said, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders."
Schools, the panel concluded, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.
The state of Illinois has already approved its own mental-health screening program, the Children's Mental Health Act of 2003, which will provide screening for "all children ages 0-18" and "ensure appropriate and culturally relevant assessment of your children's social and emotional development with the use of standardized tools."
Members of the Illinois Children's Mental Health Partnership have held several public hearings on the program in recent months, hearing from parents and others who oppose the mandatory screening.
Karen R. Effrem, M.D., is a physician and leading opponent of mandatory screening. She is on the board of directors of EdWatch, an organization that actively opposes federal control of education.
"I am concerned, especially in the schools, that mental health could be used as a wedge for diagnosis based on attitudes, values, beliefs and political stances – things like perceived homophobia," Effrem told WorldNetDaily.
"There are several violence-prevention programs that do say if a person is homophobic, they could be considered potentially violent."
Continued Effrem: "This mental-health program could be used as an enforcement tool to impose a very politically correct, anti-American curriculum."
Effrem emphasized the new program has no guarantees of parental rights, noting some children have died because parents were coerced to put their kids on psychiatric medications.
Snyder says the following groups have come out in opposition to the screening program: Eagle Forum, Gun Owners of America, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Concerned Women of America, Freedom 21, the Alliance for Human Research Protection, and the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology.
A screening program in Paul's home state began nearly ten years ago. The Texas Medication Algorithm Project, or TMAP, was held up by the New Freedom Commission as a "model" medication treatment plan that "illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes."
The TMAP – started in 1995 as an alliance of individuals from the pharmaceutical industry, the University of Texas and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas – also was praised by the American Psychiatric Association, which called for increased funding to implement the overall plan.
But the Texas project sparked controversy when a Pennsylvania government employee revealed state officials with influence over the plan had received money and perks from drug companies who stand to gain from it.
Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General says in his whistleblower report the "political/pharmaceutical alliance" that developed the Texas project, which promotes the use of newer, more expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, was behind the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission, which were "poised to consolidate the TMAP effort into a comprehensive national policy to treat mental illness with expensive, patented medications of questionable benefit and deadly side effects, and to force private insurers to pick up more of the tab."
Jones points out, according to a British Medical Journal report, companies that helped start the Texas project are major contributors to Bush's re-election. Also, some members of the New Freedom Commission have served on advisory boards for these same companies, while others have direct ties to TMAP.
Mental Health and World Citizenship
Dr. Dennis Cuddy | August 11 2004
In a recent article, I related that the Bush administration's Secretary of Education Rod Paige last October 3 declared that the U.S. is pleased to rejoin UNESCO where we could develop common strategies to prepare our children to become "citizens of the world."
Then on June 21 WorldNetDaily published "Life With Big Brother: Bush to screen population for mental illness" describing President Bush's "New Freedom Initiative" that would have every citizen receive a mental health screening. What one needs to guard against is the use of mental health to pursue world government.
The theme of the administration of President Woodrow Wilson was "The New Freedom" and it pursued the ideals of PHILIP DRU: ADMINISTRATOR, written in 1912 by President Wilson's chief adviser, Col. Edward M. House, who wrote of "socialism as dreamed of by Karl Marx." Education would be a primary vehicle for achieving the objective, and John Dewey, the father of progressive education, promoted socialism. He said the society or group is most important, and that independent individualists have a form of "insanity."
By the late 1940s, Dewey's progressive education was becoming dominant in American public schools. And in 1948 an International Congress on Mental Health was held in London with publication of a document "Mental Health and World Citizenship," declaring that "world citizenship can be widely extended among all peoples through the application of the principles of mental health." The Congress promoted the U.N. as the vehicle for promoting this objective, and UNESCO's director-general Sir Julian Huxley the same year wrote in UNESCO: ITS PURPOSE AND ITS PHILOSOPHY that "political unification in some sort of world government will be required."
The 1950s and 1960s saw the growing strength of Dewey's progressive educational philosophy and mental health advocacy, and in 1965 the Joint Commission on Mental Health of Children was established. In 1969, the Commission released its report, which stated: "As the home and church decline in influence...schools must begin to provide adequately for the emotional and moral development of children....The school...must assume a direct responsibility for the attitudes and values of child development. The child advocate, psychologist, social technician, and medical technician should all reach aggressively into the community, send workers out to children's homes, recreation facilities, and schools. They should assume full responsibility for all education, including pre-primary education."
In the 1970s, a representative of HEW (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare) approached North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. about developing a model for child health care around the nation. The N.C. Plan was called "Child Health Plan for Raising a New Generation," and included establishing a "health care home" for every child, stating "responsibilities belonging to child and family are required." The plan was released in 1979, the same year the N.C. State Health Plan was adopted, linking in two places religion with mental illness and mental retardation.
In the same year (1979), Bill Clinton (supported by Hillary Clinton) began Arkansas' Governor's School for the Gifted and Talented, modeled after the first Governor's School in the nation which was established in 1963 in N.C., was funded in part by the Carnegie Corporation, and was attended by the writer of this article. We were given various psychological tests which, I believe, looked at us as guinea pigs to be remoulded for the Brave New World of the future.
When Hillary Clinton became First Lady of the U.S. in 1993, she was in charge of a health care task force, about half the members of whom were connected with the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation. On the NBC "Today Show" (January 23, 1990), Dr. Michael Lewis of the New Jersey Robert Wood Johnson Medical School had claimed: "Lying is an important part of social life, and children who are unable to do it are children who may have developmental problems."
What Hillary Clinton's task force was proposing was basically socialized medicine. Hillary's friend, former N.C. Gov. Hunt, became director of RWJ's Mental Health Services for Youth program. And regarding a January 4-5, 1996 symposium in Frankfurt, KY, attended by attorney Kent Masterson Brown, the attorney said: "He (former Gov. Hunt) came to Governor Wallace Wilkinson in Kentucky and told him that RWJ would like Kentucky to become part of this mental health program for youth, and said we'll give you $100,000 to plan a program....That's what they do. I mean, you think that's just buying legislation. Well, it is."
The next year, early in 1997, former Gov. Hunt was chairman of the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) and promoted the Early Childhood Public Engagement Campaign that actor Rob Reiner and others were starting, with the Carnegie Corporation once again playing a critical role (the Carnegie Institution in 1904 had financed the establishment of a biological experiment station related to eugenics at Cold Spring Harbor, NY). The NEGP indicated a desire for the creation of a nationalized system of child care from age zero based upon the principles of brain research (mental health). Roy Roemer, Governor of Colorado at the time, stated: "The ideal system would be...in every community or county you have an organizational structure that is responsible for the zero to 6, zero to 3 age level for the child....And then finally put in a hooker and say, 'Hey, you don't get any payments from state on their highways until you do this job.'"
It may be this same type of coercive tactic that is used to facilitate the current New Freedom Initiative. Mental health screenings may be attached to the current vaccines most children are required to receive to attend public schools. And for older people, they may be asked by insurance companies to "voluntarily" accept the screenings if they don't want their premiums to increase.
In 2001, President George W. Bush worked with U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy to pass the federal "No Child Left Behind" legislation, which includes provisions for expanding school-based mental health programs. This fits with the report of The New Freedom in Mental Health Commission, which stressed that "schools must be partners in the mental health care of our children."
Where is all this leading? In the third volume of Arthur Calhoun's A SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN FAMILY, published in 1919 and widely used as a social service textbook, one reads: "The new view is that the higher and more obligatory relation is to society rather than to the family; the family goes back to the age of savagery while the state belongs to the age of civilization. The modern individual is a world citizen, served by the world, and home interests can no longer be supreme....As soon as the new family, consisting of only the parents and the children, stood forth, society saw how many were unfit for parenthood and began to realize the need of community care....As familism weakens, society has to assume a larger parenthood. The school begins to assume responsibility for the functions thrust upon it....The kindergarten grows downward toward the cradle and there arises talk of neighborhood nurseries....Social centers replace the old time home chimney....The chlld passes more and more into the custody of community experts....In the new social order, extreme emphasis is sure to be placed upon eugenic procreation....It seems clear that at least in its early stages, socialism will mean an increased amount of social control....We may expect in the socialist commonwealth a system of public educational agencies that will begin with the nursery and follow the individual through life....Those persons that experience alarm at the thought of intrinsic changes in family institutions should remember that in the light of social evolution, nothing is right or valuable in itself."
Relevant to this, Clinton administration official Mary Jo Bane said almost 30 years ago that "in order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them." (TULSA SUNDAY WORLD, August 21, 1977) And about that same time, HEW Executive Assistant Eddie Bernice Johnson (who would later become a Congresswoman from Texas) advocated the licensing of parents before they would be permitted to have children. Licensing of parents has also been proposed by Prof. Gene Stephens (THE FUTURIST, April 1981) and Dr. Jack Westman (LICENSING PARENTS, 1994).
Under the American socialism planned for our future, government will increasingly control our lives via mental health screening and education, among other means. Only if the American people resist these efforts as soon as possible will we be successful in thwarting the plans of the power elite.
SO...don't believe it?
http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/
Poke around. I DARE you.
(Thanks goes, once again, to Nichole for finding this website for me!)
Feb. 24th, 2005 @ 08:28 pm
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Changed the layout.
Also, now a member of moron.org partnership program. If you'd like to visit the site, which, by the way, is freaking awesome and a news source for me, go down and click on the link that says "Are you a moron?" on the sidebar.
Every time someone clicks on that I get like 8 or 10 little advertisement things on their page. *crosses fingers* I want to share this with as many people as possible because I always find that the information on her is relevant, and oftentimes so urgent that it needs to be shared with as many people as possible and as fast as possible. I'm looking at this as a way to further that essential goal of this blog.
That's all.
Feb. 22nd, 2005 @ 10:37 pm
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Bush urges renewal of Patriot Act
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Monday urged Congress to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, the Justice Department's widely criticized anti-terrorism law.
"We must not allow the passage of time or the illusion of safety to weaken our resolve in this new war" on terrorism, Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department.
The president also argued that the Senate must give his nominees for the federal bench up-or-down votes without delay to fill vacancies in the courts.
The Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, bolstered FBI surveillance and law-enforcement powers in terror cases, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado for months, and allowed secret proceedings in immigration cases.
Civil liberties groups and privacy advocates lambasted the law because they said it undermines freedom. But Bush said the act "has been vital to our success in tracking terrorists and disrupting their plans." He noted that many key elements of the law are set to expire at the end of the year and said Congress must act quickly to renew it.
The Patriot Act was pushed by Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft, who was in the audience as Gonzales took his oath from Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Bush lauded Ashcroft's tireless efforts to make America safer as he oversaw a drop in violent crime besides his counterterrorism work.
Gonzales, who served as White House counsel during the last four years, said he would be a part of Bush's team but his first allegiance will be to the Constitution.
"I am confident that in the days and years ahead we in the department will work together tirelessly to address terrorism and other threats to our nation and to confront injustice with integrity and devotion to our highest ideals," Gonzales said.
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Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. [whatever fuckers]
Feb. 18th, 2005 @ 09:23 pm
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Well, I guess this is more like really amusing news, but whatever.
University launches satanism course for priests
Associated Press in Rome
Friday February 18, 2005
The Guardian
Worried about the lure of the devil, a Vatican-linked university launched its latest course yesterday: a class on satanism, black magic and exorcism.
The class for clergy and seminarians at Rome's pontifical academy, Regina Apostolorum, has arisen as a result of alarm about satanic practices among young people, especially in Italy, and is designed to help priests understand what makes people turn to the occult.
The class is billed as the first of its kind, with wide-ranging instruction by exorcists, psychologists and a police criminologist.
The theme of the first day's course was how to tell the difference between someone who is possessed and someone who simply has psychological problems.
The theologian Gabriele Nanni touched on the pitfalls of driving the devil from someone's body.
Priests must never be proud of their ability, remembering that they are merely conduits of Christ, he said.
They must not perform exorcisms on people they suspect have psychological problems. And they should not get carried away and invent mystical gestures.
"Everything must be carried out in extreme sobriety," cautioned Mr Nanni, himself an exorcist. Among the few acceptable tools are a crucifix and prayer.
Rome exorcist Francesco Bamonte described how he works with a team of priests and psychologists to determine whether to go through with an exorcism.
"If not, I would be inundated with requests from people who don't need me," said Mr Bamonte, who added that he performs about 20 exorcisms a year.
The Vatican is concerned about a growing number of young people who develop personal forms of satanism, outside the sects which are closely monitored by police. They often learn about the devil through the internet.
"It's a more spontaneous and hidden phenomenon, a problem of loneliness and isolation, a problem of emptiness, that is fulfilled by the values of satanism," said another of the teachers, Carlo Climati, a specialist in youth culture and satanism.
Mr Climati said concerned parents had been asking for a special course for priests.
The pontifical academy is run by the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative order, and teachers for the class include a number of exorcists and psychiatrists.
In 1999, the Vatican issued its first new guidelines since 1614 for driving out devils, offering cautions to exorcists about tak ing psychiatric problems into account.
The updated exorcism rite, first issued in Latin and contained in a red, leather-bound book, was a reflection of Pope John Paul II's efforts to convince the sceptical that the devil is very much in the world. At the time, he gave a series of homilies denouncing the devil as a "cosmic liar and murderer".
Among widely accepted signs of possession by the devil are speaking in unknown tongues and physical force beyond one's natural capacity.
Feb. 18th, 2005 @ 09:07 pm
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We have a very good Fact Fucker edition for this weekend, I am proud to present:
50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons
- Except where noted all figures are in constant 1996 dollars
READ IT! I promise it's interesting!
1. Cost of the Manhattan Project (through August 1945): $20,000,000,000
2. Total number of nuclear missiles built, 1951-present: 67,500
3. Estimated construction costs for more than 1,000 ICBM launch pads and silos, and support facilities, from 1957-1964: nearly $14,000,000,000
4. Total number of nuclear bombers built, 1945-present: 4,680
5. Peak number of nuclear warheads and bombs in the stockpile/year: 32,193/1966
6. Total number and types of nuclear warheads and bombs built, 1945-1990: more than 70,000/65 types
7. Number currently in the stockpile (2002): 10,600 (7,982 deployed, 2,700 hedge/contingency stockpile)
8. Number of nuclear warheads requested by the Army in 1956 and 1957: 151,000
9. Projected operational U.S. strategic nuclear warheads and bombs after full enactment of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty in 2012: 1,700-2,200
10. Additional strategic and non-strategic warheads not limited by the treaty that the U.S. military wants to retain as a "hedge" against unforeseen future threats: 4,900
11. Largest and smallest nuclear bombs ever deployed: B17/B24 (~42,000 lbs., 10-15 megatons); W54 (51 lbs., .01 kilotons, .02 kilotons-1 kiloton)
12. Peak number of operating domestic uranium mines (1955): 925
13. Fissile material produced: 104 metric tons of
plutonium and 994 metric tons of highly-enriched
uranium
14. Amount of plutonium still in weapons: 43 metric tons
15. Number of thermometers which could be filled with mercury used to produce lithium-6 at the Oak Ridge Reservation: 11 billion
16. Number of dismantled plutonium "pits" stored at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas: 12,067 (as of May 6, 1999)
17. States with the largest number of nuclear weapons (in 1999): New Mexico (2,450), Georgia (2,000), Washington (1,685), Nevada (1,350), and North Dakota (1,140)
18. Total known land area occupied by U.S. nuclear weapons bases and facilities: 15,654 square miles
19. Total land area of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey: 15,357 square miles
20. Legal fees paid by the Department of Energy to fight lawsuits from workers and private citizens concerning nuclear weapons production and testing activities, from October 1990 through March 1995: $97,000,000
21. Money paid by the State Department to Japan following fallout from the 1954 "Bravo" test: $15,300,000
22. Money and non-monetary compensation paid by the the United States to Marshallese Islanders since 1956 to redress damages from nuclear testing: at least $759,000,000
23. Money paid to U.S. citizens under the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act of 1990, as of January 13, 1998: approximately $225,000,000 (6,336 claims approved; 3,156 denied)
24. Total cost of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program, 1946-1961: $7,000,000,000
25. Total number of nuclear-powered aircraft and airplane hangars built: 0 and 1
26. Number of secret Presidential Emergency Facilities built for use during and after a nuclear war: more than 75
27. Currency stored until 1988 by the Federal Reserve at its Mount Pony facility for use after a nuclear war: more than $2,000,000,000
28. Amount of silver in tons once used at the Oak Ridge, TN, Y-12 Plant for electrical magnet coils: 14,700
29. Total number of U.S. nuclear weapons tests, 1945-1992: 1,030 (1,125 nuclear devices detonated; 24 additional joint tests with Great Britain)
30. First and last test: July 16, 1945 ("Trinity") and September 23, 1992 ("Divider")
31. Estimated amount spent between October 1, 1992 and October 1, 1995 on nuclear testing activities: $1,200,000,000 (0 tests)
32. Cost of 1946 Operation Crossroads weapons tests ("Able" and "Baker") at Bikini Atoll: $1,300,000,000
33. Largest U.S. explosion/date: 15 Megatons/March 1, 1954 ("Bravo")
34. Number of islands in Enewetak atoll vaporized by the November 1, 1952 "Mike" H-bomb test: 1
35. Number of nuclear tests in the Pacific: 106
36. Number of U.S. nuclear tests in Nevada: 911
37. Number of nuclear weapons tests in Alaska, Colorado, Mississippi, and New Mexico: 10
38. Operational naval nuclear propulsion reactors vs. operational commercial power reactors (in 1999): 129 vs. 108
39. Number of attack (SSN) and ballistic missile (SSBN) submarines (2002): 53 SSNs and 18 SSBNs
40. Number of high level radioactive waste tanks in Washington, Idaho and South Carolina: 239
41. Volume in cubic meters of radioactive waste resulting from weapons activities: 104,000,000
42. Number of designated targets for U.S. weapons in the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) in 1976, 1986, and 1995: 25,000 (1976), 16,000 (1986) and 2,500 (1995)
43. Cost of January 17, 1966 nuclear weapons accident over Palomares, Spain (including two lost planes, an extended search and recovery effort, waste disposal in the U.S. and settlement claims): $182,000,000
44. Number of U.S. nuclear bombs lost in accidents and never recovered: 11
45. Number of Department of Energy federal employees (in 1996): 18,608
46. Number of Department of Energy contractor employees (in 1996): 109,242
47. Minimum number of classified pages estimated to be in the Department of Energy's possession (1995): 280 million
48. Ballistic missile defense spending in 1965 vs. 1995: $2,200,000,000 vs. $2,600,000,000
49. Average cost per warhead to the U.S. to help Kazakhstan dismantle 104 SS-18 ICBMs carrying more than 1,000 warheads: $70,000
50. Estimated 1998 spending on all U.S. nuclear weapons and weapons-related programs: $35,100,000,000
Every one of these facts' sources are documented and sited at the site I pulled them from: http://www.brook.edu/FP/PROJECTS/NUCWCOST/50.HTM
Also, this weeks edition of Fact Fucker would be very well augmented by the following site: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/ It is a Russian woman's photodiary of her motorcycle rides through the area devestated by Chernobyl accident.
WARNING! Please, if you go to the above site, PLEASE keep in mind that it is a very serious thing. In other words every single human being who visits that page will be creeped out, and most of all very sobered.
Also, think about, if these are the facts that, for the most part have been released by the government, what on earth are they HIDING? Not to make you paranoid or anything.
Feb. 18th, 2005 @ 08:33 pm
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