Senate backs tough new Iran sanctions

Senator Robert Menendez, pictured in 2010
© AFP/Getty Images/File Chip Somodevilla

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Senate on Thursday unanimously approved harsh new economic sanctions on Iran, dismissing warnings that they risked fracturing global unity on isolating Tehran over its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Lawmakers voted 100-0 to include the measure, which aims to cut off Iran's central bank from the global financial system, in a must-pass annual military spending bill expected to pass by late in the day.

The measure, crafted by Democratic Senator Robert Menendez and Republican Senator Mark Kirk, calls for freezing US-based assets of financial institutions that do business with the central bank, including foreign central banks that do so for the purposes for buying or selling petroleum or related products.

Defense and Aerospace Industry Pollutant Now Found in Virtually All Humans Tested

Sayer Ji, Contributing Writer
Activist Post 

Perchlorate is an environmental pollutant primarily associated with releases by defense contractors, military operations and aerospace programs, as it is a key ingredient in rocket fuel.

It is now found in virtually all humans tested, and it is continually making its way up the food chain through ground and drinking water, into feed and edible plants, animals products, milk and breast milk -- contaminating conventional and organically grown food, alike.

It is now distributed widely throughout North America, as depicted by the image below:

The Colorado River is so thoroughly contaminated with perchlorate (1.5-8 micrograms per Liter) that 90% of the lettuce consumed during the winter months in the United States produced in the Lower Colorado River region contains this powerful endocrine disruptor. (Source).

What does it do?

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White House refuses apology over Pakistan strike

Pakistani students shout anti-US slogans 
© AFP A. Majeed

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Thursday dismissed the notion of offering an apology to Pakistan over the NATO air strikes that killed 24 soldiers, insisting an inquiry was still ongoing as to how the men died.

"I, speaking for the White House and the president, offered condolences on behalf of him, the administration, the American people, for the tragic loss of life," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. "It was a tragedy."

But he and other US officials have stopped short of offering any apology.

Big Brother, Come Clean: The FBI is Misusing "Community Outreach" Programs for Intelligence Gathering

ACLU

The FBI, in true Big Brother fashion, is secretly and deliberately collecting information about innocent Americans for its intelligence files, and illegally recording information about their speech, beliefs, and First Amendment-protected activities. This is bad enough. But to make it worse, the FBI is doing this intelligence collection through community outreach programs — programs that are supposed to build trust and rapport with the public — without telling community groups or their members what it is doing.

The proof is in the FBI’s own documents. Today, the ACLU issued our latest Eye on the FBI Alert as part of our Mapping the FBI campaign. The alert highlights FBI documents from San Francisco and Sacramento showing that the FBI is systematically storing in intelligence files memos containing the names, identifying information, and opinions of people who attend FBI outreach programs; the expressive activities of community groups; the names and positions of group leaders; and the racial, ethnic, and national origin of group members. A few examples:

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How to End the Federal Reserve and the Bailout Madness (Videos)

Eric Blair
Activist Post

As the Super Committee failed to agree on a measly $1 trillion in budget cuts, Bloomberg recently reported yet another secret bank bailout totaling $7.7 trillion courtesy of the private Federal Reserve bank.  This disclosure is in addition to the first-ever Congressional audit of the Fed that revealed a startling $16 trillion in secret bailouts.

This brings the grand total of previously unknown theft to $23.7 trillion which, interestingly enough, is the exact figure Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, estimated in July 2009.

As Americans are being told that they need to tighten their belts and that Congress must do the same or the country will fall into economic ruin, these private bank bailouts, nearly double the size of the national debt, are handed out without any benefit to the public.

Introduction to Emergency Survival Shelters

Note: This is first in a series by SnoMan 

The Berkey Guy, Sponsor 
Activist Post

If your plane crashes, your car gets washed away in a mudslide, or your boat sinks and you’re stuck on an unknown coast, your first priority might not be food or water, but an emergency shelter.

It depends on the conditions -- weather primarily.

Of course, the best alternative is to get out of the wilderness and back home, but you might have to hunker down before you can leave. In case you do, you’ll need to know how to build an emergency survival shelter.

Major Poll: 63% Agree Parents Should Decide Childhood Vaccine Schedule, Not Government

Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post

After a new report confirmed that childhood vaccination exemption rates were climbing across the United States, a flurry of mainstream media reports began to surface discussing whether or not it was ‘irresponsible’ to opt out of vaccinations due to medical, philosophical, or any other reasons.

Despite the heavy demonization of parents taking the health of their child into their own hands, a new poll hosted on a mainstream media website has revealed that the general public still heavily supports the right of parents to choose what they feel is the best for their child.

The poll, hosted on an MSNBC article targeting parents who opt their children out of the recommended vaccine schedule, asked “Do you think it’s OK for parents to opt out of vaccines for their kids?”.

Chinese General Threatens “Third World War” To Protect Iran (Video)

US dispatches three more warships to Middle East

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet

A military General from the Chinese National Defense University says that China should not hesitate to protect Iran, even if it means launching world war three, as more US warships are dispatched to the region amidst heightening tensions.

According to NDTV, a Chinese news station based outside the country, in regard to recent speculation that Iran would be the target of a US-Israeli military assault, Major General Zhang Zhaozhong commented that, “China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third world war,” remarks described as “puzzling to some”.

Do not be deceived: S. 1867 is the most dangerous bill since the PATRIOT Act

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Recently I reported on the highly controversial bill S. 1253, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year of 2012 which was introduced back in June.

This bill was replaced by the one introduced on the 15^th of November, S. 1867. Today Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator John McCain of Arizona faced off on the floor of the Senate over a proposed amendment to S. 1867.

The minimal coverage this bill is getting in the corporate-controlled establishment media, especially when it comes to the massive danger it poses to everything America was built upon, is nothing short of deplorable.

Dangerous Levels of Arsenic, Lead Found in Commercial Apple and Grape Juice

Mike Barrett
Activist Post

A new report was recently released by Consumer Reports showing that many common apple juice and grape juice brands actually contain high enough levels of arsenic to increase the risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

These chronic illnesses are the top health problems rising today.

Unfortunately, children are especially prone increased risks for these diseases as they make up a very large portion of individuals who consume fruit juices such as apple and grape.

Turns out the ‘Government Sachs’ conspiracy theorists were right all along

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

In a shocking article published in Reuters, Felix Salmon confirmed what the so-called conspiracy theorists have said all along: former Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Hank Paulson was giving insider tips to his cronies at Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street titans which directly benefited them.

The article is entitled, “Hank Paulson’s inside jobs,” emphasizing the fact that this wasn’t some one-off lapse of ethics on Paulson’s part, but instead a disturbingly regular practice.

For those who are unaware, Paulson was the CEO and chairman at Goldman Sachs from 1999-2006 and he clearly provided them with actionable information that epitomizes the plague upon our economy, and the greater global economic system, that is crony capitalism. 

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The European Central Bank Fiddles While Rome Burns

Wiki image

Ellen Brown
Global Research

“To some people, the European Central Bank seems like a fire department that is letting the house burn down to teach the children not to play with matches.”

So wrote Jack Ewing in the New York Times last week. He went on:

“The E.C.B. has a fire hose — its ability to print money. But the bank is refusing to train it on the euro zone’s debt crisis. 

“The flames climbed higher Friday after the Italian Treasury had to pay an interest rate of 6.5 percent on a new issue of six-month bills . . . the highest interest rate Italy has had to pay to sell such debt since August 1997 . . . . 

“But there is no sign the E.C.B. plans a major response, like buying large quantities of the country’s bonds to bring down its borrowing costs.”

When Governments Go Rogue

Anthony Freda Art

Brandon Smith
Alt-Market

There are those today who would claim that the lifeblood of a nation is dependent upon the graces of its government. That government is the focal point of cultural growth, and that we as citizens should respect it as such. I would be more inclined to agree if the public did not so easily confuse the ideals of leadership with the actions of criminals. That is to say, regardless of what we wish our government to be, bureaucracies rarely, if ever, embody the spirit of the common man (a necessity for any system that purports to defend the citizenry). Instead, bureaucracies almost inevitably deteriorate into vehicles for the perpetuation of tyranny driven by the very worst of all stewards; elitist minorities with delusions of godhood.

Unfortunately, despite this fact, the masses often treat these industrious vermin and the plagues of society that they build with the same reverence as they would a sincere and honorable body politic.