Gibson Guitar factories raided by Government – millions of dollars worth of wood confiscated.

Monday, August 29th, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff   Find Full Article Here:-

Due process under the law and assumed innocence before being proven guilty are two concepts that are apparently no longer applicable in the United States of America, at least as far as the federal government is concerned.

For the second time in two years, armed federal agents have illegally raided the manufacturing facilities of Gibson Guitars Corp., this time confiscating more than a million dollars worth of imported wood and ebony — and they did so without proper notice or warning, without any valid reason, and without lawful charges of any kind.

Gibson, one of the world’s premier guitar manufacturers, and a company that has continually tried to honestly and readily abide by domestic and international laws concerning its material sourcing while continuing to provide quality products to its customers, has for some reason landed in the cross fire of the federal gestapo.

Though Gibson has not violated any laws, and has gone above and beyond mandated requirements for sourcing sustainable wood and other materials for its instruments, the heavy hand of a bloated and out-of-control government has decided to unlawfully target the company for extinction.

According to a recent press statement made by Henry Juszkiewicz, Gibson’s Chairman and CEO, armed marshals stormed the company’s Nashville, Tenn., and Memphis, Tenn., manufacturing facilities on August 24, and proceeded to evacuate the buildings, shut down production, order all employees to go home, and steal more than a million dollars worth of rosewood and ebony that had been legally imported from India.

“It is extremely troubling,” stated a calm and collected, but obviously shaken, Juszkiewicz during a recent press conference. “What is more troubling is that the Justice Department’s position is that any guitar that we ship out of this facility is potentially an obstruction of justice, and to be followed with criminal charges.”

US officials have actually refused to tell Gibson what it allegedly did wrong, and why the raid was conducted. The company was never notified of any potential violations prior to the raid, and no official charges were ever filed. By all appearances, the government simply decided one day to unlawfully storm the company’s manufacturing units with loaded weapons, and is now attempting to destroy one of the last honest American manufacturers in existence.

“It is not illegal, it was exported legally, endorsed by the Indian government, it was Forest Stewardship Council recognized wood,” stated Juszkiewicz concerning the stolen wood. “We’re not in the wrong. We haven’t actually been charged with any wrongdoing. And yet our entire operation has effectively been noticed to be shut down.”

Obama approves oil pipeline from Alberta tar sands to Texas coast.

Campaigners disappointed as White House says 1,700-mile pipeline will not cause significant environmental damage.

• Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 26th August 2011.  Find Article Here:-

The pipeline will carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta (above) to the Texas coast.

Photograph: Jeff McIntosh/AP

The Obama administration gave an important approval yesterday to a controversial pipeline that will pump oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the Texas coast.

In a blow to campaigners, who have spent the last week at a sit-in at the White House, the State Department said the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline would not cause significant damage to the environment.

The State Department in its report said the project – which would pipe more than 700,000 barrels a day of tar sands crude to Texas refineries – would not increase greenhouse gas emissions. It also downplayed the risks of an accident from piping highly corrosive tar sands crude across prime American farmland.

Campaigners accused the State Department of consistently overlooking the potential risks of the pipeline.

“The State Department… failed to acknowledge the true extent of the project’s threats to the climate, to drinking water and to the health of people who would breathe polluted air from refineries processing the dirty tar sands oil,” Friends of the Earth said in a statement.

But Kerri-Ann Jones, the assistant secretary of state, rejected the charges. She argued that other government agencies had still to sign off on the project.

“This is not the rubber stamp for this project,” Jones told reporters, adding that the pipeline would not lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, claiming Alberta was going to produce the crude anyway.

“The sense we have is that the oil sands would be developed and there is not going to be any change in greenhouse gas emissions with the pipeline or without the pipeline because these oil sands will be developed anyway,” she said.

Jones said that the State Department review had addressed some safety concerns, directing TransCanada, the pipeline operator, to bury the pipeline deeper.

The State Department will hold a series of public meetings on the pipeline next month and into October.

But with Friday’s decision the pipeline is now expected to come on line in 2013.

Over the last three years, the pipeline has become a central focus of environmentalist concerns, and Friday’s decision was rendered at the midpoint of a two-week sit-in at the White House against the project which has seen more than 100 arrested.

But the Canadian government and oil companies with a stake in tar sands production fought back with an intense lobbying effort.

Environmental campaigners argued the pipeline would encourage production of Alberta tar sands, which imposes a far heavier carbon footprint than other oils.

There was also opposition from homeowners along the Keystone’s proposed route through South Dakota, Nebraska, and Texas.

They warned the highly corrosive nature of tar sands oil put the pipeline increased the risk of accidents, and damage to important sources of groundwater.

Bill McKibben, who helped organise the protests at the White House, said the approval from the State Department had been expected. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, indicated last year that she favoured the pipeline.

“Everyone has known exactly what they would say all along. And everyone knows that they’ve valiantly ignored the elephant in the room – the fact that this would go a long ways towards opening up the world’s second-largest pool of carbon,” he wrote in an email.

However, McKibben held out hope that Obama – who still has final authority over the project – might step in to stop the pipeline.

Scientists find underground river beneath the Amazon.

AFP – Thursday August 25th, 2011.   Find Article Here:-

Brazilian scientists have discovered an underground river some 4,000 meters (13,000) feet deep, which flows from west to east like the country’s famous waterway.
A statement this week from Brazil’s National Observatory named the underground river Hamza and said it represents one of two different draining systems for the large rainforest region.
A team of scientists led by Elizabeth Pimentel came to the conclusion from studying 241 wells drilled by the state oil giant Petrobras in the Amazon region.
Even though the two rivers cover a similar path they have differences.  The underground river flows at a far slower pace and empties into the ocean deep underground.
“It is likely that this river is responsible for the low level of salinity in the waters around the mouth of the Amazon, ” the statement said.

AFP – Thu, Aug 25, 2011

New Oil Leak Confirmed From BP Macondo Well.

by Alexander Higgins – August 25th, 2011.    Find Full Article Photos and Video Here:-

The Alabama Press Register has gathered photos, video, and oil samples that BP and the Coast Guard are lying about oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon Macondo well.

As reported previously, a new huge oil slick has been found at the site of the BP Gulf Oil Spill well. BP and the Coast Guard responded to those reports as baseless, asserting there was absolutely no merit to claims that the Macondo well was leaking again or that there was even an oil slick at the site of well.

The Alabama Register confirms that BP and the Coast Guard are lying about oil leaking from the Macondo well, having traveled to the well site and collected photos and videos of the oil leaking to the surface from the site.
Samples were taken of the oil from the water and had the samples analyzed.
The scientific test matched the oil samples collected to the oil in the deepwater horizon well.

BP and the Coast Guard still claim they can’t find any oil leaking from the well, yet the video, photos and scientific tests prove they are lying.

De-Classified Document Admits Lee Harvey Oswald Was CIA.

August 25th, 2011.  Find Article Here:-

Back in 2004 a government document was de-classified that proves Lee Harvey Oswald was trained by the CIA.

But we knew that anyway…didn’t we ?

Japan’s prime minister resigns.

Fri Aug 26, 2011 5:16AM GMT   Find More Here:-

Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan has announced his resignation as head of the Democratic Party of Japan, effectively ending his tenure as the country’s fifth leader in five years.

Naoto Kan announced his resignation as president of the Democratic party of Japan.

Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

The Japanese prime minister, Naoto Kan, announced his resignation on Friday amid widespread criticism of his handling of the aftermath of the 11 March tsunami and the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

But uncertainty grew over the identity of Japan‘s next leader – the country’s seventh in six years – after Ichiro Ozawa, an influential member of the governing Democratic party of Japan [DPJ], indicated he would not support the early favourite, Seiji Maehara.

Japanese Government’s move to monitor online postings sparks public outcry.

By KAZUYO NAKAMURA   August 24th, 2011.  Find Full Article Here:-

While the government defends its new monitoring program of online postings concerning the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to stem the spread of “inaccurate” information, critics say it harkens back to Big Brother.

The Agency for Natural Resources and Energy said tweets on Twitter and postings to blogs will be monitored for groundless and inaccurate information that could inflame and mislead the public.

The agency said it is trying to “track down inaccurate information and to provide correct ones instead.”

But critics are skeptical about the agency’s motive, especially because the government has been under fire for failing to provide an accurate picture of what has been occurring at the plant and the spread of radioactive contamination.

The cost for the project was earmarked in an extra government budget to finance the rebuilding of northeastern Japan ravaged by the March 11 disaster.

The agency announced details of the monitoring project in late June when it solicited bids.

An advertising company in Tokyo won the contract, which is estimated at 70 million yen ($913,000).

The project started this month and will likely continue until March.

The agency said the Internet is overrun by discussions that are often unsubstantiated. One example, it said, is a posting that recommended mouthwash containing iodine as a safeguard against possible exposure to radiation.

Mainstream Censors Radiation Fukushima Threat

August 19th, 2011.  By Keith Johnson.  Find Full Article Here:-

For several months, there has been a news blackout in the United States concerning the devastation and human suffering caused by a 9.0 earthquake that rocked the east coast of Japan on March 11. The resulting tsunami claimed nearly 16,000 lives and made hundreds of thousands homeless.

On the island of Honshu, three reactors at the Daiichi nuclear power facility in Fukushima went into full meltdown. Explosions and fires caused additional damage to other reactors and released vast quantities of poisonous radioactive materials into the environment. Livestock, crops and drinking water within a 75-mile radius of the accident were immediately contaminated. Now, reports of lethal doses of radiation as far as 200 miles away are starting to become more commonplace.

In the United States, a recent report by Janette Sherman, M.D. and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano indicate a 35-percent spike in infant mortality throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Meanwhile, the true extent of the damage and radioactive contamination caused by the Fukushima disaster continues to be downplayed or ignored entirely by the mainstream media. Getting to the truth has been difficult.

“Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind,” says Arnold Gunderson, a nuclear power expert who served as an expert witness in the investigation of the Three Mile Island accident. In an exclusive interview with AFP, Gunderson gives a timely assessment of the ongoing crisis in Japan and aprises us of what he expects to unfold in the future.

“On the bright side, the reactors are in better condition than they’ve been in the last three months,” sayd Gunderson. “Right now, TEPCO has managed to avoid creating new pools of contaminated water by treating existing water through the Areva system.”

Areva is a process, devised by a French firm of the same name, whereby radioactive isotopes are bound together by chemicals that are injected into the contaminated water of a reactor’s cooling system.

Gunderson continued, “They’re cooling the reactors by pouring treated water into the top and onto the floor. That has a tendency to build up lots more radioactivity in the filters that are trapping it, but it’s not building up any more water, and that’s a good thing because they’ve run out of space on site.”

“What’s happening off site is frightening,” says Gunderson. “Dangerous levels of radioactive contamination are being found in kids’ urine, mothers’ breast milk and animal meat. I’m estimating that over the course of the next 20 years, there’ll be a million cancers. If they’re not caught soon enough, many of those will be fatal.”

“The first cancers will affect the thyroids,” Gunderson predicts. “They take about three years. In three to five years it’ll move on to the lungs. In the northern prefectures, I expect a 20 percent increase in lung cancers.”

Instead of taking steps to raise public awareness about the dangers of exposure to contaminated food products that will contribute to these cancer risks, the Japanese government is doing just the opposite. “They’re raising the radiation standards,” Gunderson reports. “Before, 600 becquerels [measure of radioactivity] were the most you could have in beef. Now they’ve raised the bar to 6,000. They’re telling people it’s safe.”

These standards are also being applied to humans. According to Gunderson, “Kids are now allowed to get the same dosages as adult nuclear workers would get in the U.S. It’s a complete distortion of radiation physics.”

Another recent development that has Gunderson concerned is the buildup of radioactive sewage that poses a catastrophic risk to drinking water. “Before the accident, they used to turn the sewage into building blocks,” says Gunderson. “Now they can’t. So they have these enormous
piles of sewage sludge that can’t be disposed of.  It’s not yet in the ground water, but it’s heading that way.”

The Japanese have also initiated a campaign to get people to return to homes as close as 20 miles from the site of the accident. They’re clearing streets and playgrounds, but everything else is still contaminated.

“On the sides of the roads where the runoff is, we’re seeing 50,000- 60,000 becquerels in a pound of dirt,” adds Gunderson.

Inside the 20-mile radius, Gunderson said: “It’s all ghost towns. No one is walking around except stray dogs and cattle. . . . [I]t’s a nightmare.”

Though these are disturbing developments in themselves, Gunderson has saved the worst for last. “My biggest concern is that the Japanese are burning rubbish,” he says. “Farmers in rural areas are burning their contaminated crops and those in urban areas are burning their trash. If two pounds of material has less than 8,000 becquerels, the government allows it to be burned.”

Gunderson says the government also allows blending of highly contaminated material with material that isn’t, creating an even more lethal mix that, when burned, revolatilizes the deadly, cancer-inducing cesium. The resulting plumes not only drift into neighboring communities, he said, but are also caught up in wind currents that reach the western coast of the United States and Canada.

Monsanto GM Corn in Peril: Beetle develops Bt-resistance.

Thursday, August 25th, 2011.  Rady Ananda    Activist Post

Find Full Article Here:-

Nature herself may be the best opponent of genetically modified crops and pesticides.  Not only plants, but insects are also developing resistance.  The Western rootworm beetle – one of the most serious threats to corn – has developed resistance to Monsanto’s Bt-corn, and entire crops are being lost.

Farmers from several Midwest states began reporting root damage to corn that was specifically engineered with a toxin to kill the rootworm.  Iowa State University entomologist Aaron Gassmann recently confirmed that the beetle, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, has developed resistance to the Bt protein, Cry3Bb1.

Bacillus thuringiensis – Bt – is a bacterium that kills insects.  Different proteins are engineered into cotton as well as corn plants.

Two-thirds of all US corn is genetically modified per the USDA, and the bulk of that is Bt-corn. Monsanto has the biggest market share in the US, reporting about 35% in 2009.

In response to the July 2011 study, Monsanto said only the “YieldGard® VT Triple and Genuity® VT Triple PRO™ corn products” are affected.

“It appears he has demonstrated a difference in survival in the lab, but it is too early to tell whether there are implications for growers in the field.”

However, Kansas State researchers summarized the study, indicating that the specimens tested came from fields suffering severe rootworm damage and compared them to those from unaffected fields.  In other words, it was a field study.

Resistance developed where the same Bt corn had been grown at least three years in a row.  Gassmann found “a significant positive correlation between the number of years Cry3Bb1 maize had been grown in a field and the survival of rootworm populations on Cry3Bb1 maize in bioassays.”

Ag Professional’s Colleen Scherer explains that “the Cry3Bb1 toxin is the major one deployed against rootworms. There is no ‘putting the genie back in the bottle,’ and resistance in these areas is a problem that won’t go away.”

‘Into Eternity’ a documentary by Michael Madsen about the Onkalo Nuclear Repository.

By Neil  August 25th 2011.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_Eternity_%28film%29

Today I watched a very interesting film about “Onkalo”  (“cave” or “cavity”)  the Finnish Nuclear Waste Storage Facility, on Olkiluoto Island, which is on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia in the municipality of Eurajoki in western Finland.

The Finnish Nuclear Energy Act  was amended in 1994 to specify that all nuclear waste produced in Finland must be disposed of in Finland and Olkiluoto was selected in 2000 as the site for a (very) long-term underground storage facility for Finland’s spent nuclear fuel. The facility is being built in the granite bedrock a few miles from the Olkiluoto power plants. The municipality of Eurajoki issued a building permit for the facility in August 2003 and excavation began in 2004.

The film asks some very relevant questions regarding safety and the 100,000 years that this Nuclear Waste needs to remain away from all life.  Scientists and Technicians give their thoughts and opinions and consider the future Ice Age that might occur within the next 60,000 years.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olkiluoto_Nuclear_Power_Plant

I feel a little sorry for the Finns.  The world has an estimated 250 to 300,000 tons of Nuclear waste and the Finns are Global forerunners, in building a safe site for their dangerous by-product.  They have gone to so much trouble to keep their own waste to themselves whilst other countries including  Japan, are blatantly wreckless in their attitudes to world safety, having contaminated the Earth’s air, land and sea for everyone.

Onkalo is only half finished.  It’s construction is scheduled to end sometime after 2012, when the excavation reaches a final depth of 520 metres (1,710 ft).  It will be operational from around 2020 and is expected to be large enough to accept canisters of spent fuel for around one hundred years, i.e. until around 2120.

Watch the Film online here,  http://www.watchthisfree.com/movies/2010/into-eternity/watch/   it’s well worth a look.