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8/6/2004

Outsource This: Stocks Fall Sharply on Weak Job Figures :.

Investors sold off stocks Friday, sending prices sharply lower, as the market flinched at a new report showing the economy created far fewer jobs in July than had been expected.

Payroll figures released early Friday showed employers added just 32,000 jobs last month, data low enough to warrant worries that a slowing in the economy in June may have been more just a brief pause.

The July job report reflects the weakest increase in hiring since December and comes after a revised gain of just 78,000 in June, even less than previously reported. Economists had forecast the creation of roughly 243,000 jobs for July.


Related: CNN Survey Results

The survey on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight web page asks:

Does the current economic environment feel like a recovery to you?

Yes
No


Here is a screen shot of the results:




Onion Routing with Tor :.

I'm running Tor with Privoxy and have my system behind two firewalls... Would someone please pass the aluminum foil? I think my hat needs another layer (shiny side out, of course):

Computer programmers are modifying a communications system, originally developed by the U.S. Naval Research Lab, to help Internet users surf the Web anonymously and shield their online activities from corporate or government eyes.


8/5/2004

OIL SURGES TO $44.40 :.

OPEC came out and said they just happened to have spare capacity. How convenient. I guess the people who throw these oil futures contracts around will believe it when they see it. Until then, new highs:

Oil prices zoomed higher on Thursday as fears of a potential loss of supply from Russia returned. Crude futures rose more than 3 percent in afternoon trading, topping $44 a barrel.



Meow: The End :.

Two kittens have been born using a new cloning method that may be safer and more efficient than traditional methods, a U.S. company said Thursday.

Genetic Savings & Clone promises to clone anyone's pet---for $50,000 or so---and started with chief executive officer Lou Hawthorne's own pet cat.

The two kittens, Tabouli and Baba Ganoush, were born to separate surrogate mothers in June, the company said.

Its report was not submitted for the traditional scientific review process and has not been scrutinized by cloning experts. But the company says it's less interested in the scientific questions and medical promise of cloning and more interested in its business model---helping people make copies of their beloved pets.


8/4/2004

Stressed Israeli Soldiers to be Treated with Cannabis :.

Ahhh, heavily armed and stressed out potheads! Excellent! The fascist state of Israel turns to smacking up its war criminal soldiers:

Israeli soldiers suffering from combat stress after tours of duty in the Palestinian territories could soon be treated with cannabis to relieve their symptoms, the Maariv daily reported Wednesday.

Related: Cryptogon Special Report: Are U.S. Troops Being Drugged for Urban Combat Operations in Iraq?



Future Warrior Exhibits Super Powers :.

Borg-style supersoldiers?! I doubt that the insane whims of these madmen will have a chance to materialize. Hopefully, society will collapse before this nonsense emerges from the prototype phase:

"The 2010 Future Force Warrior system will meet the more immediate, short-term demands of our fighting warriors in the battle space, while the 2020 model will remind you of an ominous creature out of a science fiction movie," DeGay said.



Crude Oil Rises to Record on Concern About OPEC's Capacity :.

If a butterfly so much as farts, watch out:

Crude oil futures rose to a record in New York on concern OPEC, the source of more than a third of the world's oil, can't boost production fast enough to meet rising demand in the U.S., China and India.



Key Iraqi Oil Pipeline Blown Up :.

A major attack on the main pipeline connecting the oilfields of Kirkuk with the Turkish port of Jihan has halted limited exports from northern Iraq, a Northern Oil Company official said.



Statue of Liberty Reopens

What's wrong with this picture?


8/3/2004

"Your tax dollars went into a lot of civilians. I was there. I pulled the trigger." :.

U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey, eye-witness to, and participant in, U.S. war crimes in Iraq:

"We shot a man with his hands up," he said, "We even shot women and children."

Massey was one of three Iraq War veterans to speak yesterday at a forum sponsored by the Veterans Education Project and the American Friends Service Committee.

Massey told the audience of his disillusionment with the war. The only one of the three to engage in combat, the 12-year veteran from North Carolina said he was fully prepared to kill or be killed. But that was before the war.

Today he said he takes five different anti-depressant and anti-anxiety pills to help him deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Firing on civilians and securing oil fields was not the duty he signed up for, he said.

"Why are Marines learning to shut down oil wells - are we the Environmental Protection Agency now?" he asked as he told the audience of his realization that this war was not one he agreed with.

He started asking questions and was reassigned to combat duty.

"I'm in the desert, I'm gung-ho, ready to kill," he said, putting "your tax dollars to work. Unfortunately, your tax dollars went into a lot of civilians. I was there. I pulled the trigger.



Compulsory Mental Health Screening for Children and Pregnant Women :.

This crosses the line, in my opinion. When shrinks, backed by cops, are knocking on peoples' doors, well... you'll know what to do.

I would like to hear stories of illegal births in Illinois, or elsewhere. I would like to hear from anyone who is planning to resist this by ALL possible means. Send email via anonymous methods. Review this article for information on how to send anonymous email:

The mental health program will develop a mental health system for "all children ages 0-18 years," provide for screening to "ensure appropriate and culturally relevant assessment of young children's social and emotional development with the use of standardized tools."

Also, all pregnant women will be screened for depression and thereafter following her baby's birth, up to one year. Follow-up treatment services will also be provided.

Trainor said that he is trying to get parents and citizens out to voice their opinion about the new program.

Apparently, children's mental health will be assessed along with their academic standards in the new proposed testing. The Illinois State Board of Education has been given the responsibility to develop the appropriate tests, according to last year's legislation.



Latest Memory Hole Directives :.

Last week, the American Library Association learned that the Department of Justice asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents to instruct depository libraries to destroy five publications the Department has deemed not "appropriate for external use." The Department of Justice has called for these five these public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library.

The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).



Boston Martial Law Pictures :.

From Alex Jones.


8/1/2004

U.S. Raises Threat Level at Key Financial Sites :.

Blah:

The United States on Sunday raised the terrorism threat level to code orange (high) for the financial services sector of New York City, northern New Jersey and Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced.

Ridge cited "new and unusually specific information about where al Qaeda would like to attack."




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