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102-year-old woman parachutes from Idaho bridge

“Dorothy Custer celebrated turning 102 on Sunday by parachuting from a bridge in Idaho. For her 101st birthday last year, Custer zip-lined over the Snake River Canyon. This year, however, she told KMTV that she had planned to have a ‘very calm birthday.’ But those plans changed when her family gave her a tandem jump with professional BASE jumper, Sean Chuman, for her birthday. In BASE jumping — which stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans, and Earth — participants jump off of platforms and then parachute to the ground. ‘That was a thrill,’ Custer says just after landing. ‘But it was so quick! It was over with before I knew it.’ ‘There’s nothing much left to do but just live now,’ she explains.” Continue reading →

All-seeing eyes focus on the sea

“The center, operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, can track as many as 50,000 aircraft at any moment. Officials say the center has reduced illegal cross-border flights from thousands per year in the mid-1980s to a handful. Initially, the focus was on drug trafficking, but has expanded over the years to include human trafficking, the smuggling of counterfeit products, and terrorist activities. The center now is testing software that will allow similar scrutiny of maritime traffic. The system would provide a comprehensive view of marine vessels within 100 miles of the U.S. coastlines. The omniscient view allows for greater coordination of agencies that might respond to a potential emergency.” Continue reading →

Michael Scheuer: Use the Constitution to prevent war with Syria

“Amidst the developing momentum for the U.S. to enter another war that will strengthen al-Qaeda and its allies — like the one Obama fought in Libya and the anti-democratic one in Egypt he authorized this month — perhaps it is worth reviewing three salient and crystal clear facts. –1st : The United States has no genuine national-security interests in Syria. –2nd: Unless America is attacked first, no U.S. president has the constitutional authority to take America to war without a formal declaration of war by Congress. –3rd : Today’s status quo in Syria benefits U.S. national-security interests without Washington having to take any action at all.” Continue reading →

Bill Kristol’s Empire of Death

“What do Bill Kristol’s enterprises all have in common? They traffic in murder and mayhem worldwide. They provide well-paid sinecures to ‘intellectuals’ to argue the case for a permanent revolution to be fought by the US to the benefit of the military industrial complex. They are heavily subsidized by the mega-wealthy who have an international agenda that does not necessarily reflect US interests. They are oblivious to public opinion in the US and are impervious to market forces. Though purporting to advocate the spread of democracy worldwide, they are disdainful of majority opinion in the US, preferring to adhere to the Straussian view that the non-elites must be lied to continuously.” Continue reading →

Pentagon requests more funding for Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’

“The Pentagon has requested $220.3 million in 2014 to bolster Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system despite broader cuts to US military spending, according to budget documents. The US Missile Defense Agency also is asking for an additional $175.9 million in fiscal year 2015 for Israel’s homegrown missile defense network, according to the agency’s budget proposal posted online. The Pentagon already invested $204 million on the system in 2011 and $70 million in 2012. US military assistance to Israel comes to about three billion dollars a year to ensure the country’s ‘qualitative military edge’ in the region, as mandated by Congress.” Continue reading →

McCain’s Next Stop: Guantanamo?

[May 2013] “First, it has emerged that the some of the individuals he met with in Syria are actually ruthless kidnappers, who snatched men, women, and children from a Lebanese bus. Second, McCain’s Free Syrian Army in Aleppo have announced that they are merging with the US-designated terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is effectively a branch of al-Qaeda. Finally, McCain’s Free Syrian Army are reported to have entered the Christian-populated al-Duvair village near Homs on May 27th and massacred the entire Christian civilian population of the village. Section 1021 of the infamous 2012 National Defense Authorization Act prescribes indefinite detention for: [..]” Continue reading →

Will The US Really Condemn Terrorism in Syria?

[March 2013] “The US government’s various reports on religious freedom are largely politicized affairs designed to demonize practices in countries out of favor and skip over abuses among its allies. One could hardly imagine a more direct attack on religious liberty than to set off a bomb in a building of religious worship. But this attack has been perpetrated by US allies in Syria, who have benefited recently from 3,000 tons of sophisticated weapons shipped in by the US government and paid for by paragons of religious tolerance such as Saudi Arabia.” Continue reading →

US ‘Elects’ New Syrian Leader…A Guy From Dallas!

[March 2013] “In the name of democracy, the US government has supported a variety of armed opposition fighters in Syria seeking to overthrow that country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, who according to a wide variety of information sources enjoys support from the majority of the Syrian people. So to promote democracy in Syria, the US government has taken it upon itself to choose a new leader for Syria. This democratic answer to Syria’s problems lives in Dallas, TX, and was educated in Indiana. He has not set foot in the country he now ‘rules’ in more than thirty years. Also, he is an Islamist from the Muslim Brotherhood. That is what the US government calls ‘democratic legitimacy.'” Continue reading →