Recreational marijuana clubs open in Colorado

Associated Press
December 31, 2012
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/12/recreational_marijuana_clubs_o.html

Colorado and Washington, which on Nov. 6, 2012 legalized the recreational use of marijuana, have a history with marijuana law reform. More than a decade ago, they were among the first to approve its medical use.

A marijuana den in Denver opened Monday for members-only group smoking, The Denver Post reported. Reggae music was on the stereo and a projector showed "The Big Lebowski."

Another club opened Monday in Del Norte, in southern Colorado. The clubs are not open to the public.

An attorney for Denver's new Club 64 says the clubs are permissible under Colorado's new constitutional amendment on marijuana. Marijuana will not be sold at the clubs. He said Club 64 has 200 members over age 21 who paid $29.99 for a one-time club event. It is named for Amendment 64, which voters approved last month

Nearly an hour after opening, no police were seen outside Club 64.

Were the Batman murders a covert op?

Friday, July 27, 2012
Jon Rappoport
http://www.naturalnews.com/036612_Batman_massacre_covert_op.html

(NaturalNews) The obvious way to begin an investigation is to look at the event itself for any obvious contradictions or unexplained details.

For example, in the Batman murders, we have two witnesses who were in the theater and implied there were accomplices.

One witness, Corbin Dates (aka Dayton), told Aurora news outlets a man sitting in the front row took a cell phone call and went to a side exit, propped the door open with his foot, and seemed to be signaling somebody. Ten to 15 minutes later, James Holmes appeared in full gear with weapons as the exit door swung open The other witness (no name as yet) stated that, during the massacre, a gas canister was thrown from a direction where Homes wasn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-fcD7pyfL8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4MW_qhAPAU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=Hoaiw2jrpmE&NR=1

Despite the statements of these apparent witnesses, Aurora Chief of Police Daniel Oates claims he is sure James Holmes acted alone.

But we need to back up. First of all, neither witness actually IDed Holmes. They IDed a man who was dressed in black from head to toe, wore a helmet, body armor, and a gas mask. Actually, no one has identified Holmes as the man in the theater. How could they? His face and body were covered and concealed.

How did the shooter get into the theater? Clad in black, wearing body armor, carrying several weapons, he buys a ticket and walks in with everyone else? Authorities suggest he came through a side door. If so, how did he know the door would be unlocked? After a few months of meticulous planning, he simply hoped it would be?

Watching these two witnesses being interviewed by TV news reporters is extremely frustrating. The reporters have their hands on potentially explosive information and they don't follow up. Nor do they press police for comments on the witness statements.

Nevertheless, from what we can provisionally surmise about the crime scene, there are huge gaps in the official scenario---if we can even call it a scenario.

Standing out above everything else is the fact that no one can ID Holmes as the shooter.

We are told by police that, after Holmes was done killing people in the theater, he exited a side door (the same door through which he had entered?), stood quietly, and surrendered himself to the authorities. This, too, is unclear. The police were already stationed at the exit door? Holmes waited until they arrived? Was he still holding weapons?

It's said he was calm. He gave himself up.

After killing scores of people and wounding others, the first-time shooter was calm? How could this be? Well, drugs would enter the equation. What drugs? Vicodin. Others? Where were these drugs obtained? Who wrote the prescriptions? Where is the doctor? Why have we heard nothing about a doctor? What, exactly, going back into childhood, is Holmes' pharmaceutical history?

If this was a true covert op, it would have been easy for a pro shooter to decimate the people in the theater, slip out the exit door with his accomplice or accomplices, where the patsy, Holmes, drugged, was waiting with other operatives. After dousing Holmes with gunpowder residue, the pros left the scene, disappeared into the night, leaving a pre-programmed Holmes there to confess to the crime and state that his apartment was rigged with explosives.

If this is how things happened, it would explain how Holmes, possessed of no apparent knowledge about constructing bombs, could have had his apartment wired with exotic devices. Holmes didn't put them together. The pros did.

At Holmes' court appearance on Monday, he certainly looked drugged as he moved slowly in the courtroom and sat in his chair. If so, who gave him the drugs in jail?

Of course, huge gaps exist in Holmes' life story. We have no explanation for his transformation from a young eager science student into a blank-faced defendant in a mass-murder case. Had he ever been to see a psychiatrist? If so, what drugs were prescribed? Ritalin, which can cause violent behavior? Antidepressants, which can cause violent behavior?

Had he ever been enrolled in a clinical trial of an experimental drug? During his brief matriculation at the University of Colorado, Denver, had he been used in a neuroscience experiment? The web page for the University neuroscience department, where Holmes studied on a government grant, has been taken down.

One oddity about the investigation of the killings: the FBI presence is minimal. We don't know what the FBI is doing behind the scenes, but by contrast, in the 1999 Columbine massacre the FBI was all over the scene in a very visible way. They interviewed witnesses, processed evidence, and made public statements. Here, they're in the background. Why?

I offer one possible explanation. In Columbine, the FBI became a lightning rod for doubts and questions, and accusations of overlooking/suppressing evidence that would lead to more than two shooters. Here in Aurora, it's all local: "we have the killer, he's in jail, the case is proceeding, nothing to see, move along." This appears to be an intentional strategy. Keep it simple, don't stir up the populace.

We'll have to watch, as the disposition of the court case unfolds, to see whether the "simple" strategy is extended. Perhaps we'll have a guilty plea and a quick sentence. Or perhaps court-appointed psychiatrists will decide Holmes is incompetent to cooperate in his own defense, in which case he'll be remanded to a mental facility for a period of time, after which he'll quietly enter a guilty plea and be sentenced. But what does "incompetent" mean? Drugged into submission?

I believe there are specific items of evidence which, if known, would provoke new questions on top of the witness statements above. For example, was an older model (outdated) police car seen leaving the area of the theater after the shootings? What was the blood evidence on Holmes' clothing and shoes? Whose blood was it? Did it belong to victims inside the theater? Was Holmes, as he stood at the exit to the theater and surrendered himself, covered in more blood than he would have accumulated as a shooter? In other words, was he set up as the designated patsy?

And are there more witnesses in the theater who saw accomplices? If so, as in Columbine, they will, no doubt, be told by law enforcement to keep quiet. If there is a trial, will Corbin Dates and the other anonymous witness mentioned above be asked to testify? The chances are slim to none.

If the Batman murders are indeed a covert op, the motives behind it don't need much explanation. The UN Arms Trade Treaty, which has been under final discussions in New York since July 3rd, and is due to wrap up on July 27th, is a new step in the direction of gun confiscation, despite its announced aim of limiting only the export of weapons from one nation to another. Once the Treaty is signed, it will need senate ratification to go into effect and impact the 2nd Amendment. That ratification is the hard part for gun-control advocates. The tragedy at the Batman premier on July 20 could act as a pressure wave-front on senators to rubber-stamp the treaty.

Other motives to stage the shootings in Aurora? The manufacture of a consensus for massive "crime prevention," and that means the extended use of medical drugs to influence behavior and the brain toward the goal of passivity and conformity---with the victims ENJOYING IT. (See Soma, the drug of choice in Huxley's Brave New World.)

"Say something, see something" is only part of the picture. Creating a nation of snitches is certainly on the DHS's to-do list. But we are in the Century of the Brain. Researchers are eager to pawn off their discoveries for the development of technology that can literally limit behavior and thought. Behind the facade of "curing mental disorders," this is where brain research is heading. Free will and choice are considered flimsy outmoded notions that need to be cast aside, so the Brave New World can emerge. James Holmes becomes a classic case of a man whose brain needs "restructuring." The globalist technocrats want every inch they can win in the battle to convince the public that brain manipulation holds a promising future for the human race. Of course, their idea of the future is synaptic and neuronal control. Holmes is one more poster child for their chilling agenda.

Brad Garrett, a former FBI profiler and now an analyst for ABC News, is one of the prime go-to experts who deliver pronouncements on mass murderers. Garrett supplies the public perception of these killers.

Here are his off-the-shelf conclusions about James Holmes: "[Mass killers are] insecure, they start having, perhaps, dark thoughts that people are following them or that there are voices---auditory voices---that are directing them...some version of this happened to Mr. Holmes...the onset of whatever this chemical imbalance might be, it starts taking over, and he starts withdrawing..."

It's a well-recognized fact that there are no chemical or biological tests to confirm a diagnosis of any so-called mental disorder. The whole hypothesis of "chemical imbalance" as the basis for mental disease is just that, a hypothesis. Nevertheless, Garrett promotes it as if it's accepted science, and he doubles down by suggesting that Holmes was hearing voices directing his actions.

But psychiatric drugs (e.g., Ritalin, Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Haldol, etc.), used to curb mental problems, instead actually CAUSE patients to experience paranoia and hallucinations and withdraw---and plan and commit violence. It's the drugs. Garrett is providing cover to explain Holmes' actions as mental illness, when in fact he knows nothing about what Holmes experienced or why. If Holmes was, in fact, a mind-control subject, that is hidden behind psychobabble.

Garrett supplies exactly the kind of narrative that calls for "early intervention," prevention of crime throughout society before it occurs, which, in the hands of brain researchers, means chemical and other means of controlling "anti-social" impulses.

It is noteworthy that a young neuroscience student, Holmes, who was at one point studying "the biological basis of mental disorders," winds up as an accused mass murderer who is "obviously deranged" and "suffering from a chemical imbalance in the brain."

At this point, we go down the rabbit hole, and the pieces of the puzzle are strange and tantalizing.

A video has emerged of Holmes, at age 18, six years ago, lecturing to fellow attendees at a science summer camp at Miramar College in San Diego.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lotOPjLlbDU

Holmes explains he has been studying temporal illusions and subjective experience. A temporal illusion, he states, is the idea that you can change the past.

At the Cannonfire blog (http://cannonfire.blogspot.com) there are comic-book panels posted from what Joseph Cannon calls "the most famous passage in the most famous of all Joker stories, Alan Moore's 'The Killing Joke.'"

The Joker is asked: "I mean, what is it with you? What made you you the way you are? Girlfriend killed by the mob? Maybe brother carved up by some mugger...?"

The Joker replies: "Something like that happened to me, you know...I'm not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha!"

James Holmes, at 18 years of age, said he was studying temporal illusion, "the idea that you can change the past," a feat the fictional Joker had obviously accomplished.

In the last ten years, the film that explored this subject---and Holmes' other interest, the subjectivity of experience---most deeply, through its treatment of dreams and the insertion of synthetic experience in the mind, was Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, who of course also directed the recent Batman trilogy, including The Dark Knight Rises. In yet another version of changing the past, in 2000 Nolan directed Memento, which unraveled its story backwards, as a victim of anterograde amnesia, who can't store memories, tries to revenge his wife's murder by leaving clues for himself that will lead him to the identity of her killer.

Are we simply talking about a neuroscience student's (Holmes') interest in comics and films, or did he participate in experiments that attempted to alter his subjective view of the world and his own past?

For example, there is wealth of information about the criminal experiments conducted by Canadian psychiatrist, Dr. Ewan Cameron, who operated with funding from the CIA during the 1950s. Cameron ran MKULTRA Subproject 68, during which he used massive electroshocks, sensory isolation, drug-induced periods of sleep (7-10 days), and audiotapes of "re-patterning" commands to attempt to wipe out patients' pasts, their memories, their former subjective mindsets, their very personalities---in favor of recreating these patients as "new and improved people."

As a teen, Holmes interned at the Salk Institute in San Diego. Salk carries out studies using functional MRI, a technique of brain mapping that involves correlating read-outs with various mental activities. It's only speculation at this point, but somewhere along the line, did Holmes participate in such experiments, and were the results used to map regions of his brain for later inputs, so someone could achieve behavioral/thought control over him?

To even suggest Holmes may be a mind-control subject brings immediate criticism, to which I would offer this counter: why accept the scenario of the crime put forward by the Aurora police? Why do they deserve the benefit of the doubt? Why limit and narrow the investigation to their story?

Was law enforcement correct about the JFK and JFK and MLK assassinations? Was law enforcement correct about the Columbine massacre, in which 101 witnesses state they saw other shooters? Was law enforcement correct about the lone duo of plotters in the Oklahoma bombing? Was law enforcement correct about 9/11?

In all cases---no.

I'll tell you this. If the authorities really wanted to know what makes James Holmes tick (a prospect I strongly doubt), their best chance would be to send someone into his cell who could talk to him about Christopher Nolan, Inception, Memento, functional MRI, the TV series, Lost, which contained time-travel themes and was a show he and his friend, Ritchie Duong, used to watch together every week when they attended UC Riverside. Talk to Holmes about what he wants to talk about. Who knows what would eventually unravel?

It might be far more than the police wish to uncover.

Sources:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Nolan

About Jon Rappoport

The author of an explosive new collection, THE MATRIX REVEALED, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.

NoMoreFakeNews.com
QJRConsulting@gmail.com

The Underground Base Earthquake Conspiracy

From BeforeItsNews.com:

While just the idea that earthquakes could be attacks on underground bases by nukes and/or HAARP type earthquake-prompting technologies, questions surrounding the Virginia earthquake event keep surfacing, including a massive sinkhole that appeared in the vicinity following the quake.

Even more intriguing is the fact that the only two admitted military underground base facilities in the US, besides some "storage" locations, are the NORAD facility in Colorado, and the Mount Weather underground base housing a back-up government in Virginia, nearby the US capital.

Yes, a back-up government, or so they said many years ago when it was first disclosed. Since then is hush hush, as usual.

What Is Mt. Weather?

Just 46 miles from Washington DC, a mysterious and secretive underground military base exists, located deep inside a mountain near the rural town of Bluemont, Virginia. Here lies Mount Weather, also known as the Western Virginia Office of Controlled Conflict Operations.

In March, 1976, The Progressive Magazine published an astonishing article entitled "The Mysterious Mountain." The author, Richard Pollock, based his investigative report on Senate subcommittee hearings and upon "several off-the-record interviews with officials formerly associated with Mount Weather." His report, and a 1991 article in Time Magazine entitled "Doomsday Hideaway", supply a few compelling hints about what is going on underground.

Mount Weather is virtually an underground city, according to former personnel interviewed by Pollock. Buried deep inside the earth, Mount Weather was equipped with such amenities as:

•private apartments and dormitories
•streets and sidewalks
•cafeterias and hospitals
•a water purification system, power plant and general office buildings
•a small lake fed by fresh water from underground springs
•its own mass transit system
•a TV communication system

Mount Weather is the self-sustaining underground command center for the Federal Emergency Management Agency - FEMA. The facility is the operational center of approximately 100 other Federal Relocation Centers, most of which are concentrated in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. Together this network of underground facilities constitutes the backbone of America's "Continuity of Government" program. In the event of nuclear war, declaration of martial law, or other national emergency, the President, his cabinet and the rest of the Executive Branch would be "relocated" to Mount Weather.

Source: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread61324/pg1
FEMA's our back-up government?

First of all, I can only assume that's a partially true cover story for a multitude of covert operations. But if even that part's true that's even scarier. How was that response to Andrew or Katrina, boys? Or the gulf oil disaster? Anybody in anybody's back pocket?

At least that explains the ineptness. Disaster exploitation is more like it. They're amassing resources for a manipulated national disaster on a scale we can't even imagine. And with dire consequences for the American people.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency

Some people have referred to it as the "secret government" of the United States. It is not an elected body, it does not involve itself in public disclosures, and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of dollars. This government organization has more power than the President of the United States or the Congress, it has the power to suspend laws, move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and hold them without trial, it can seize property, food supplies, transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution. Not only is it the most powerful entity in the United States, but it was not even created under Constitutional law by the Congress.

FEMA was created in a series of Executive Orders. A Presidential Executive Order, whether Constitutional or not, becomes law simply by its publication in the Federal Registry. Congress is by-passed. Executive Order Number 12148 created the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding. An "emergency czar" was appointed. FEMA has only spent about 6 percent of its budget on national emergencies, the bulk of their funding has been used for the construction of secret underground facilities to assure continuity of government in case of a major emergency, foreign or domestic.

Source: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread60684/pg1

OK, so what's the connection

This supposedly manipulated earthquake happened in a very peculiar location, quite close to Washington DC. According to the nuke theory people, this was a take down by forces opposing what the US/London based cabal is up to; the military and financial subjugation of the world in order to impose their new, improved wicked system, affectionately called the "New World Order".

Well, it seems equally powerful forces might be wanting to send a signal back to these unchecked overlords of darkness to let them know "we're not gonna take it".

Man, wouldn't that would be good news.

But we don't know yet. And it's doubtful we'll get any kind of disclosure of anything of that nature. Shoot, they haven't fessed up to Pearl Harbor or Vietnam, never mind Oklahoma City, 9/11, chemtrails etc...or even who the hell Obama is! Underground bases and tunnel system to house the elites and "essential personnel" during a serious catastrophe?

Are you kidding me?

Connecting More Dots

What made me think about Mt. Weather is the fact that it and NORAD are the only two acknowledged government involved underground bases in the US and they're both near where these almost simultaneous, atypically large quakes struck...

The Colorado Underground Base and Quake

An unusually large 5.3 quake hit central Colorado within hours of the big DC/Virginia quake in question. Again, this time it's a huge "defense" installation under Cheyenne Mountain operated by NORAD.

Cheyenne Mountain is a mountain located just outside the southwest side of Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., and is home to the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and its Cheyenne Mountain Directorate, formerly known as the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center (CMOC).

Throughout the Cold War and continuing to this day, the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center and the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate collect data from a worldwide system of satellites, radar, and other sensors and process that information in real time. Operations are conducted year-round in the Air Warning Center, Missile Correlation Center, Operational Intelligence Watch, Systems Center, Weather Center, and the Command Center.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Mountain

Epilogue - A LOT of forces at play makes for many possibilities

Well, as always I'm just wondering.

The fact that these are two significant bases are two they do admit exist, besides a few "storage facilities", and that large earthquakes struck both within hours with strange circumstances including very unusual signatures, and then we hear claims that these were nuke attacks on underground bases....well, let's just say the jury is still out, but the important thing is it's very interesting and perhaps extremely significant.

I like to bring awareness of peripheral information when a plausible theory is put out there, especially when the knee jerk reaction is to dismiss it as "impossible". And just as it's healthy to challenge what you're told NOT to believe, it's also a very sane reaction to challenge what you are told TO believe.

There are a lot more forces at play than most people can begin to believe or realize, including not just the black-ops types of 'spy vs spy' operations continually struggling amongst themselves, but there are extraterrestrial influences way beyond even some people's imagination well at work on our planet.

Even if nukes weren't involved, when quakes happen I look for how they COULD be induced, by cosmic forces and alignments such as we're apparently experiencing with Elenin and other cosmic influences. But also the likelihood that they're being manipulated or exacerbated by the PTB-directed scientific madmen, knowing full well this HAARP-type technology exists in the hands of MANY countries and forces...

To read the whole article:

Were NORAD And Shadow Gov't Bases The Nuke/Quake Targets?
Zen Gardner
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1121/374/Were_NORAD_And_Shadow_Govt_Bases_The_Nuke_Quake_Targets.html

More 'cannabis shops' than Starbucks in Denver

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6938607/More-cannabis-shops-than-Starbucks-in-Denver.html

More 'cannabis shops' than Starbucks in Denver
Denver has been named the 'cannabis capital' of America after it emerged that is has more "pot shops" than Starbucks coffee houses.
By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
05 Jan 2010

The city in Colorado has issued more than 300 licences for medical marijuana dispensaries, more than there are state schools or shops that can sell alcohol.

More than half of those licences were issued last month. The surge has been attributed to the introduction of new regulations on Jan 1, 2010 which will prevent new dispensaries from opening within 1,000ft of another one.

Denver has subsequently been described as "America's Cannabis Capital" by the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

In October a local newspaper in the city advertised for a medical marijuana reviewer.

Users of marijuana in the city's dispensaries are required to hold a state-issued Medical Marijuana Registry identification card, asserting that they require it to alleviate a medical problem.

Colorado is one of 14 states in the US where marijuana is allowed for medicinal purposes.

The others are Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Growing, possessing, distributing and smoking marijuana are still illegal under US federal law, which makes no distinction between medical and recreational use.

What's your favorite place to go hiking?

What's your favorite place to go hiking? Mine is Arches in Southern Utah. I went there with some friends about a month ago. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Delicate Arch had been blown up by a mining company, it's remains dumped into the Colorado River along with tons of chemicals and pollutants, choking off the mighty river.

Obviously, that didn't happen - because our predecessors, in their wisdom, protected Arches as a national park. Sadly, most of the mountains of Appalachia don't have that protection - and the scene I described happens there every day.

It's mountaintop removal mining. And it has to be stopped. Click the link below, or paste it into your browser, and tell EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson we need to ban this horrific practice:

http://www.environmental-action.org/epa-should-ban-mtr?id4=ES

To date, mountaintop removal mining has destroyed 800 miles of Appalachian mountains, and poisoned or choked 1200 miles of rivers and waterways.

It's a national disgrace to treat our wild treasures this way - and it needs to be stopped. The Obama Administration's EPA is undertaking a review of hundreds of mountaintop removal mining permits - a good first step.

Make your voice heard - tell the EPA we need a permanent ban on mountaintop removal mining.

http://www.environmental-action.org/epa-should-ban-mtr?id4=ES

Sincerely,

Dan Stafford
Environmental Action Organizer
DanS@environmental-action.org
http://www.environmental-action.org

Arena Football League cancels 2009 season

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=497237

Arena Football League cancels 2009 season
December 15, 2008
Sporting News staff reports

The Arena Football League will suspend the 2009 season as it tries to improve its long-term economic model, the league's board of directors announced Monday.

"Every owner in the AFL is strongly committed to the league, the game, and, most importantly, the fans," said acting commissioner Ed Policy. "Owners, however, recognize that, especially in light of the current unprecedented economic climate, the AFL, as a business enterprise, needs to be restructured if it is to continue to provide its unique brand of this affordable, fan-friendly sport."

A source told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the "deal-breaker was ESPN saying it would not televise a six-, seven- or eight-team league." The league, which has been operating since 1987, had 16 teams in the 2008 season. The owners of several teams said they wanted to leave the league unless its financial model was changed.

"We, the owners of the Arena Football League, realize we have the most fan-friendly, affordable and accessible sport anywhere," said Jon Bon Jovi, co-owner of the ArenaBowl champion Philadelphia Soul. "These are trying economic times. The revamping will ensure that the AFL continues to provide value to its fans and not only survives but thrives in the years to come."

Two players told the Plain Dealer that they doubted the league would come back if the 2009 season was scuttled, but owners strongly disagreed.

John Elway, co-owner of the Colorado Crush, said, "Although it is disappointing to suspend the 2009 season, the Arena Football League and its owners feel it is essential to reevaluate the current business model to ensure the livelihood of the AFL in the future."

The arenafootball2 league, the official development league of the Arena Football League, will play in 2009. The af2 operates entirely on its own and is not directly affected by the AFL's current situation.

Spoiling America

Excerpted from Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Steal Back Your Vote" investigative comic. You can download all 24 pages at http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/.

Odd thing about the 207 voters of precinct 999 in Dona Ana County, New Mexico.

Not a single one could choose between George Bush and John Kerry in 2004.

Or at least that’s what their ballots said.

The Secretary of State at the time told me, “Some of those people just can’t make up their minds.” Dirt-poor Dona Ana is 63% Hispanic and the precinct is made up entirely of overseas voters, mostly the Chicano soldiers in Iraq or on duty. The machines say that Hispanic soldiers don’t care who becomes their commander-in-chief.

Or maybe, the machines failed to register their votes.

Few Americans realize that in 2004, 1,389,231 ballots were never counted because they were “spoiled.” How do ballots spoil? They get left out of the ‘fridge? No, they’re supposedly unreadable, blank, or just somehow lost in the machines.

Here’s an unfun fact: not everyone’s vote spoils the same. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission found that the chances of an African-American voter losing their vote is 900% higher than a white voter. Hispanic votes vanished at a rate 500% higher than Anglo votes.

Something’s rotten.
************************
Go to http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/ to download the guide for free or pick up print copies of the investigative comic book by Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Every donation you make for copies of the comic allows us to send more out to low income groups in states like Ohio, New Mexico and Colorado. Get the guide now - all copies will be sent out via priority mail. If your group would like to distribute the Steal Back Your Vote guide please contact keri (at) gregpalast.com for special rates.

After you've picked up the comic book get the t-shirt. Wear it into the polling place and tell them that they can't steal your vote! Support the fund by picking up the Steal Back Your Vote t-shirt by the cool people over at Clothing for the American Mind. A portion of every purchase goes to support the Palast Investigative Fund.

"Voting fraud itself is a fraud"

"Voting fraud itself is a fraud"
Buzzflash.com interviews Greg Palast

"However, the Republican cry of 'Vote Fraud!' has become the cover for purges and challenges to legal voters by the millions. I even tracked down and filmed some of these so-called fraudulent voters handed me from a GOP list. Every one was a legal voter."

-- Greg Palast, Intrepid Investigative Reporter and Author
* * *
Greg Palast and BuzzFlash go back to the election of 2000. At that time, large progressive political news sites were hard to come by – and there was only one investigative reporter who was able to unravel the theft of the Florida election: Greg Palast.

Greg didn’t just expose the mugging of democracy. As a University of Chicago trained researcher, he was able to detail how Katherine Harris used an outside vendor to create caging lists that prevented legitimate voters from casting their ballots. In fact, Greg has a laptop presentation that actually shows you the lists that Harris’s office worked from in keeping minorities from voting.

Of course, Greg’s investigation on vote theft – which has branched out widely in the intervening years – is persuasive and thorough enough for the BBC and British newspapers, but not for the corporate press in America! We kid you not. To this day, Palast is effectively banned from reaching the mainstream American voter because television stations and big papers are owned by companies that don’t want to rock the vote. It might hurt their tax cuts or efforts to deregulate media ownership.

BuzzFlash thought that now would be a good time to revisit with our most interviewed expert on BuzzFlash, Greg Palast. After all, we have an election coming up.
* * *
BuzzFlash: You have been investigating the coordinated and vigorous GOP effort to suppress and steal votes since the theft of the election in 2000. You and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just did a BBC Documentary on what nefarious voter suppression tactics the Republicans have in store for us in 2008. Can you summarize some of the methods that the GOP are using to disenfranchise non-Republican voters prior to the election, to prevent them from voting during the election, and to keep their votes from being counted after the polls close?

Greg Palast: It's ugly. Consider: - In the swing state of Colorado, we found that the Republican Secretary of State wiped out 19.4% - one in five - voter names in an unnoticed mass purge. - In swing-state New Mexico, in the February caucus, one in nine Democrats found their names missing from the voter rolls supplied by the State. The elections supervisor of San Miguel County - whose own name was missing from the rolls - has no confidence the state contractors will fix it. Our statistical analysis showed there was a direct relationship between your name and your race and income. The poor and the dark were disappeared. - In Indiana, you heard about 10 nuns who lost their vote because their ID - drivers' licenses - had expired (they were all over eighty). But what about the others? We've calculated that 143,000 others were turned away - disproportionately Blacks and new voters. And so on and so on.

BuzzFlash: BuzzFlash has been covering one public relations effort by the Republican National Committee to create a false context for claiming voter fraud. In short, they have been attacking a national community organizing group called ACORN with news releases, lawsuits, surrogate assaults, etc., falsely claiming (as they did in 2004 and 2006) that ACORN is engaged in the massive illegal registration of primarily minority voters. Can you explain the significance of the ACORN slander by the RNC?

Greg Palast: As RFK and I report, there are only about SIX voters found guilty of federal voting fraud in a year. SiX! Out of 178 million registered voters. So the GOP (and Fox and CNN) are running stories about ACORN signing up zillions of illegal voters. Yep, there are a handful of phony names - but 'Mary Poppins' has never shown up to vote. However, the Republican cry of 'Vote Fraud!' has become the cover for purges and challenges to legal voters by the millions. I even tracked down and filmed some of these so-called fraudulent voters handed me from a GOP list. Every one was a legal voter. Tell us a bit about the site and downloadable comic book that you launched with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on how to prevent the theft of millions of votes by the Republicans, yet again in 2008. The website is: http://www.stealbackyourvote.org.

Greg Palast: Our Rolling Stone report that's out this week is all about how they've stolen so many legitimate votes. The comic book, which includes the Rolling Stone findings also includes the SEVEN WAYS TO STEAL IT BACK. And the whole thing is illustrated brilliantly by comic crazies Ted Rall, Lukas Ketner and Troubletown's Lloyd Dangle. I loved doing it. You can download the whole comic book for a penny or more (donate more please) at StealBackYourVote.org. And better yet, you can order bunches of the comic book there as well (and see the short movies). Cool eh?

BuzzFlash: Can you briefly explain the role of ProsecutorGate at the DOJ in efforts to suppress the Democratic vote in 2006? How did this fit in with Karl Rove’s grand voter suppression and theft plan?

Greg Palast: You betcha! Fired prosecutor David Iglesias told us something astonishing: He said that he was fired because he refused to arrest innocent citizens for voter fraud that didn’t happen. That's obstruction of justice. It was all about creating a hysteria over fraudulent voters that didn’t exist. This is what Iglesias basically said: "They wanted some splashy pre-election indictments [Rove and the RNC] that would scare these alleged hordes of illegal voters away." Only the voters were legal.

BuzzFlash: Isn’t there one bright spot? You cut your teeth on GOP voter disenfranchisement with brilliant reporting on how the Bush campaign team, Jeb Bush, and Katherine Harris prevented tens of thousands of valid minority voters from voting through a scheme to use an outside vendor, ChoicePoint, to create an inaccurate list of felons who could not vote in 2000 in Florida. Hasn’t the current GOP governor, Charlie Crist, had the right to vote of ex-felons restored?

Greg Palast: Crist is a duplicitous phony. On the one hand, he pretends they'll let ex-cons vote as in almost every state. On the other hand less than a handful of the half million ex-cons in the state have been able to get through the insane rigamarole required to actually register. In most states ex-cons can vote like anyone else.

BuzzFlash: As a follow up, from a practical matter, don’t the Republicans have to be within a certain striking distance to steal the election. If Obama keeps trending up, or ends up with a double-digit popular vote victory, how could the GOP steal the election? After all, if Nader weren’t on the ballot in Florida – despite all the nefarious Republican voter suppression and theft – Al Gore would be president, right?

Greg Palast: That's what RFK and I say: you can't steal ALL the votes ALL the time.

BuzzFlash: Okay, it’s less than a month before the election, what can anyone do to halt another theft of the White House?

Greg Palast: Go to STEALBACKYOURVOTE.ORG. Get the comic book. Now was that so difficult?*

BuzzFlash: For 8 years, you’ve been covering this issue. Some others have joined you over time and it’s a bit of a movement, albeit still relatively small. But, as in 2000, not much has changed with the corporate media. They are still pretty much ignoring the clear evidence of a coordinated GOP effort to keep non-Republicans from voting and to steal votes wherever they can. Is there any reason to think that they might awaken to their journalistic responsibility to report on the mugging of democracy?

Greg Palast: Zero. That's why we have BuzzFlash. Bless you. [*In brief, Palast advises voters to vote early; do not mail in your ballot; check on your registration in advance to make sure there is not a glitch; don't vote a provisional ballot; volunteer on election day; go to the polls with someone for mutual support; and use the resources that you can get at stealbackyourvote.org.]

BuzzFlash interview conducted by Mark Karlin.
* * *
Resources:

Greg Palast website: http://www.gregpalast.com

To Download "Steal It Back" comic book: http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/

To Purchase "Armed Madhouse" by Palast: http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/566

To view the documentary on Republican election theft just released and available for free on the Internet (with the participation of Palast), go to: http://www.freeforall.tv

The May 17, 2007, BuzzFlash interview with Palast, "Greg Palast, Author of Armed Madhouse, on How Rove May Have Already Stolen the 2008 Election": http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/061

For a BuzzFlash Editor’s Blog on how the Republicans Use A.C.O.R.N. to achieve racist goals, go to: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/128

[BuzzFlash Afternote: The GOP assault on the right of every American to vote is so widespread that we can barely touch upon it in one interview. Of course, there is the whole additional issue of electronic voting theft, for example. The Republican effort to disenfranchise legitimate voters is a vast criminal enterprise.]

Manmade Flood Coming to Grand Canyon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030501219.html

Manmade Flood Coming to Grand Canyon
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

PAGE, Ariz. -- Federal agencies are gearing up to release a manmade flood aimed at refreshing the ecosystem of the Grand Canyon.

A three-day torrent of water will be released from Glen Canyon Dam on the Arizona-Utah state line beginning Wednesday morning.

The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon downstream from the dam used to be warm and muddy. But the dam now traps silt and the river runs cold and clear through the canyon. The shift has helped speed the extinction of four fish species.

The agencies including the Interior Department and Park Service hope the flooding will redistribute sediment in the canyon.

Lake Mead Will Be Dry By 2021?

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/this-is-what-wa.html

Fifty Percent Chance Lake Mead Will Be Dry By 2021, Models Show
By Alexis Madrigal
February 13, 2008
Categories: Sustainability

Last month, we reported about Scripps Oceanographic Institute researchers' work on the impact of climate change on the Western water crisis. Now, the same researchers are back in a smaller scientific journal to answer a simple question posed in the title of their paper: "When Will Lake Mead Go Dry?"

Based on models constructed from the analysis of historical records from the Federal Bureau of Land Reclamation, the researchers, Tim Barnett and David Pierce, say there is a ten percent chance the reservoir will be dry in 2014, and a 50 percent chance no water will be left by 2021.

Lake Mead was created by the Hoover Dam's blockage of the Colorado River. The river is fed by snow pack from Rockies, which has been decreasing. The dam, of course, was one of the prototypical megaengineering efforts of the 20th century and a symbol of how human ingenuity could conquer any obstacle, including supplying water to a city the size of Las Vegas in the middle of the desert.

But the sheer amount of water that natural and manmade climate changes and human usage is drawing out of the Colorado River system is staggering. The researchers estimate that 1 million acre-feet, or 326 trillion gallons, of water are being leached out of the system each year. They say that's enough to supply 8 million people.

Their conclusion is dire:

Today, we are at or beyond the sustainable limit of the Colorado system. The alternative to reasoned solutions to this coming water crisis is a major societal and economic disruption in the desert southwest; something that will affect each of us living in the region.

We've nudged what has been a naturally replenishing system into a downward spiral. While everyone hopes that there is a technological answer to generating fresh water--say, desalination, or wastewater recycling-- those things cost money and energy, and will almost certainly drive up the cost of water.

But take a step back and look at the system, it defies reason to build huge cities in a desert that's getting even dryer. I have no doubt that as the price of water and air conditioning rise in Vegas and Phoenix, the low upfront housing costs and hot sun will start to lose their appeal. I just hope that happens before we permanently break the Colorado River water system.

Looming Water Crisis in Western U.S.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1237236/looming_water_crisis_in_western_us/index.html

Looming Water Crisis in Western U.S.
Scientists foresee a looming water crisis within the next two decades in the western United States due to human-caused global climate change.

The Rocky Mountains have warmed by 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The snowpack in the Sierras has dwindled by 20 percent and the temperatures there have heated up by 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit. All could lead to dire consequences for the water supply in the Western United States.

Led by a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, researchers wrote in the journal Science that there has been a noticeable trend over the past half century of an intensifying decline in water which has already changed river flows, snow pack and air temperatures, accounting for 60 percent of changes.

Tim Barnett, a climate expert at Scripps Institution, part of the University of California at San Diego, told Reuters that this could cause a severe backlash for those living in the western U.S.

"It foretells of water shortages, lack of storage capability to meet seasonally changing river flow, transfers of water from agriculture to urban uses and other critical impacts,” he said.

The scientists claim that the issue has been determining whether the climate change was caused by natural variability or by human-produced greenhouse gases. Their conclusion hints that humans are to blame.

The researchers looked at water flows in three major western river systems -- Columbia, Colorado and Sacramento/San Joaquin rivers and noted that over the past half century, changes have meant less snow pack and more rain in the mountains, rivers with greatly reduced flows by summer and overall drier summers in the region.

Barnett, who worked with experts at the U.S. government's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Washington in Seattle and the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan, said that he doesn’t think that much can be done to change the trend at this time.

"We're going to have to adapt our infrastructure and some of our societal needs to fit the way the world is changing," Barnett told Reuters. "Water shortages throughout the west, hydroelectric power reductions, heat waves -- the whole litany of things that go with global warming."

The notion that historical water patterns could be relied on to continue normally has now changed due to the human-caused shifts in the Earth’s climate, Christopher Milly of the U.S. Geological Survey said.

"Our best current estimates are that water availability will increase substantially in northern Eurasia, Alaska, Canada and some tropical regions, and decrease substantially in southern Europe, the Middle East, southern Africa and southwestern North America," Milly said.
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On the Net:

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

University of California at San Diego

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Casa Bonita

Wikipedia Entry of the Week:

Casa Bonita
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Casa Bonita in Colorado
This article is about the restaurant. For the South Park episode, see Casa Bonita (South Park episode).

Casa Bonita is the name of a Mexican-themed restaurant (formerly a chain of restaurants) which originated in Oklahoma City. As of 2006, only one location remains open, in the western Denver suburb of Lakewood, Colorado.

Contents
1 History
1.1 Lakewood, Colorado
1.2 Tulsa
2 Similar restaurants
3 External links

History

Casa Bonita was founded by Bill Waugh in 1971. The restaurants could be found in many cities in Oklahoma and adjacent states until the 1990s. The most popular dishes are the "all you can eat" beef or chicken plates that feature 2 enchiladas,a taco, refried beans, and Spanish rice. Sopaipillas - small squares of fried bread served with honey - come with every meal. The restaurant also offers some standard menu items like fajitas or salads that are not "all-you-can-eat". There is also a children's menu. Each table had a small flag that you would raise any time you needed a refill of food or drink. The food is reasonably priced but is not an authentic experience in Mexican cuisine - in fact, you don't really go to Casa Bonita for the food.

In 1982, the company (including Taco Bueno fast food restaurants) was sold to Unigate (now Uniq). In 1992, Unigate sold the restaurants to CKE Restaurants, owners of Carl's Jr. In 1997, the two remaining Casa Bonita restaurants were spun off by CKE as part of South Salt Lake, Utah-based Star Buffet.

The Tulsa location closed 30 September, 2005, leaving the Lakewood, Colorado location as the last remaining Casa Bonita restaurant.

Lakewood, Colorado

The Lakewood location, west of Denver on Colfax Avenue opened in early 1974. It features strolling mariachis, flame jugglers, and a 30-foot waterfall with cliff divers. Casa Bonita is designed to be an entertaining place for children and adults alike, although it is obvious that the children are the primary audience. It also has a small puppet theater, a "haunted tunnel" called Black Bart's Cave, an arcade with a large skee-ball room (extra charge), and a magic theater. The building is nearly 16,000 square metres and has seating for approximately 1,100 customers. This location was featured on an episode of the animated TV series South Park.

The restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner and is popular with tourists and tour groups. Arriving early is advised during the summer or on weekends.

Tulsa

The Tulsa location, which opened in 1971, was designed to create a nighttime, outdoor atmosphere. There were full-size artificial trees, and the entry way featured large aquarium tanks which at one time housed live tropical fish. There were various themed dining areas, including a volcano room, complete with lighted eruptions; a cave room, and a room resembling an aristocratic dining hall with strolling mariachis. The Tulsa location also included a video arcade, including an original Frogger machine, as well as other video and arcade games, skee-ball, a working carousel, and a gift shop. The location shut its doors Friday, 30 September 2005 due to the end of their lease. The Tulsa location has since reopened, under the new name of Casa Viva.

Similar restaurants

Bill Waugh, founder of Casa Bonita, founded Casa Viva, opening the first location in 1995 at the site of a former Casa Bonita in Little Rock, Arkansas. (This restaurant closed however, in early 2006). Plans have been made to open a second location at the site of the closed Tulsa Casa Bonita (source: Tulsa World, October 1, 2005).

Larry H. Miller, owner of the Utah Jazz, opened a restaurant called "The Mayan" in Sandy, Utah in 2000. Casa Bonita has sued Miller for copyright infringement [4] due to similarities with their restaurant, which Miller visited several times.

A subsidiary established in the 1960s, Taco Bueno, is a major fast food chain throughout Oklahoma and Texas.

Restaurante Arroyo, in Tlalpan, Mexico, the grandaddy of all "super-size" Mexican restaurants, which seats 2,200 people and is likely the world's largest Mexican restaurant. Like Casa Bonita, Arroyo has an array of customer diversions including its own bullring.