World court upholds German immunity in Nazi cases
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The U.N.'s highest court confirmed Friday that Germany has legal immunity from being sued in foreign courts by victims of World War II Nazi atrocities. The International Court of Justice said that Italy's Supreme Court violated Germany's sovereignty in 2008 by judging that an Italian civilian, Luigi Ferrini, was entitled to reparations for his deportation to Germany in 1944 to work as a slave laborer in the armaments industry.
 
GM giant quits Britain amid backlash
Mail Online - A massive victory against Monsanto and genetically engineered seeds has been achieved in the United Kingdom today. Monsanto has announced a total withdrawal from the UK, shuttering its Cambridge-based wheat production operation. UK newspaper Daily Mail was instrumental in promoting opposition against Monsanto through its "Frankenstein Foods" educational campaign.... Monsanto is also seeking to sell off crop-breeding centres in France, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Is Israel preparing to attack Iran?
Washington Post - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb. Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon — and only the United States could then stop them militarily.

C.I.A. Says Iran Makes Progress On Atom Arms - 10 Years Ago
New York Times - Published: November 30, 1992 - A draft Central Intelligence Agency report on Iran concludes that the country is making progress on a nuclear arms program and could develop a nuclear weapon by 2000, senior Administration officials say.

Panetta surprises NATO, Afghans with earlier date for end of mission
National Journal - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s comment while en route to a NATO conference in Brussels -- that the U.S. would end its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2013, a year earlier than thought -- surprised key U.S. allies, alarmed many Afghans, and forced the White House to spend more than a day trying to walk it back.

YouTube: Split over Syria: Russia holds war hawks to letter of law
RT - Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said an embargo on arms supplies to Syria is out of the question -- along with any resolution that could threaten to aggravate conflict in the country.

Dangerous Terrorists Planned to Blow Up Toilet at London Stock Exchange
AFP - Four British Islamists inspired by a former al-Qa’ida leader have admitted in court to plotting to blow up the London Stock Exchange in 2010. The men belonged to a group of fundamentalists who plotted a spate of mail bomb attacks during the run-up to Christmas that year and discussed launching a “Mumbai-style” atrocity, Woolwich Crown Court in London heard. Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, and Shah Rahman, 28, both from London, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism by planning to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.

EU official: Greece needs extra $20 billion
MSNBC _ Greece needs about an extra €15 billion ($20 billion) to get its debt down to manageable levels — and the rest of 17-country eurozone is being asked to help foot the bill.

VIDEO: TEPCO: Not to Worry About Latest Leak at Fukushima
Kurt Nimmo - TEPCO reported today that more than eight tons of radioactive water has leaked from the number four reactor at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant after a frozen pipe burst. The electric company said none of the water reached outside of the stricken reactor containment building. TEPCO failed to winterize the reactor’s cooling system and this oversight led to fractures in pipes due to frozen water inside, according to reports.

China Rejects Genetically Modified Rice in Opposition to GMO Crops
China recently suspended the distribution of genetically modified rice within its commercial food supplies.... This action helps to preserve the sovereignty and safety of their food supply, something that largely must still be addressed in our own country. In the United States GMO foods are not only accepted by loose regulation standards, but are not even labeled appropriately.

Firecrackers Cover Up Large-Scale Forced Demolition on Chinese New Year
Epoch Times - Nearly one thousand Chinese shopkeepers lost their businesses in the early hours of Chinese New Year’s Day. Under the cover of firecrackers, a mob hired by a local real estate developer, backed by local officials, turned an entire shopping mall in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen into rubble–without any prior public announcement or notification of shop owners.... When people woke up the next day, they found half of the market collapsed, with jewelry, cell phone, shoe, and grocery stores buried under the debris.

Water Industry and World Bank Partner on Scheme to Drive Public Water into Private Hands
Corporate Accountability International - A partnership quietly launched in October with funding from the World Bank, Coca-Cola and Veolia will report on progress towards its stated mission to “transform the water sector” by establishing “new normative approaches to water governance” that put the private sector in the driver’s seat in water management. Calling itself the Water Resources Group (WRG) and headed by Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathei, the corporation has already targeted the countries of Mexico, Jordan, India and South Africa to “shape and test governance processes” that would make water privatization more feasible and profitable.

Government ADMITS secretly SPRAYING POISON on us!!!
Also admit secret tests hundreds of times!

House ready to consider insider trading ban
WASHINGTON (AP) - With members of Congress convinced their political survival depends on their image, the House is wasting no time in considering a Senate-passed bill that would ban insider trading by lawmakers and thousands of executive branch officials. Stock trades would have to be posted online within 30 days. The Senate showed a rare display of bipartisanship Thursday to pass the bill 96-3, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said it would be before the House next week. President Barack Obama repeated a pledge to sign it immediately.

Contraception mandate outrages religious groups
The Obama administration's decision requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control was bound to cause an uproar among Roman Catholics and members of other faiths, no matter their beliefs on contraception. The regulation, finalized a week ago, raises a complex and sensitive legal question: Which institutions qualify as religious and can be exempt from the mandate.

Air Force punished whistle-blowers for exposing mishandling of the fallen
RT - For exposing the US military’s mismanagement of body parts at the Armed Forces’ mortuary in Dover, Delaware, whistle blowing almost cost four civilian workers an arm and a leg. An investigation has revealed that those that exposed the misconduct were disciplined for doing so.

Americans to rally against war with Iran
Press TV- According to the StopWarOnIran website, “No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations against Iran” will be the demand of the coordinated demonstrations which will be held across the US on February 4, 2012. The ad hoc group organizing the demonstrations has agreed “on the need to stop US imperialism and/or Israel from launching a military attack on Iran.” They all believed that the new sanctions imposed against Iran by the United States “were themselves an act of war aimed at the Iranian people.”

VIDEO: US reduces expenses by using depleted uranium in wars
(Warning graphic material) The United States is using depleted uranium in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because the deadly weapons are inexpensive and abundant, a professor tells Press TV. "It's cheap. It's cheap and plentiful. Depleted uranium is a by-product of uranium enrichment after a certain percent," Lawrence Davidson, professor at West Chester University, told Press TV. The US government has used depleted uranium arms on humans in its two recent wars, at least 1,000 tons in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2,400 tons in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Americans get closer to building weapon of the future
The US Navy may have the world's most powerful electromagnetic gun - the so-called railgun - during the forthcoming 15 years.... Raytheon Company, one of the USA's largest defense suppliers, signed an agreement with the Naval Sea Systems Command for the creation of the power system for the railgun. The agreement was evaluated at $10 billion, a message on the website of the company said.

Bill Introduced To Challenge Authority Of NDAA
Steve Watson - Five Washington state representatives have introduced legislation in an attempt to override provisions the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 that would allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens without trial. Reps. Jason Overstreet, Matt Shea, Vincent Buys, Cary Condotta, and David Taylor introduced HB 2759, the Washington State Preservation of Liberty Act this week.

Holder: I Knew Nothing About 'Fast and Furious' Gun-Walking
Attorney General Eric Holder vigorously denied a "cover-up" by the Justice Department over "Operation Fast and Furious," telling a House panel investigating the botched gun-running program that he has nothing to hide and suggesting the probe is a "political" effort to embarrass the administration.

VIDEO: Slain Border Patrol Agent’s Family Files Lawsuit in Fast & Furious Scandal
Kurt Nimmo - The family of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the federal government. Terry was killed on December 14, 2010, by drug cartel bandits in Arizona. Investigators found two AK47s at the scene that were linked to the government’s Fast and Furious gun-running operation.

Forgeries of Obama’s Kenyan Birth Certificate
Shortly after the urban legend reference site Snopes “shredded” the story, Jeff Rense, America’s favorite alternative truthslinger, published the image above and the following closeups, he says, “in the interest of reporting the full scope of what is being discussed and displayed online.” His way of saying, ‘feast your eyes on these’...

This Is Your Day! Birther Summit Thursday, March 29th
Thursday, March 29 will start with a Birther Extravaganza, a massive rally at which many of the previous day's conference attendees will address the huge crowd assembled to make our presence known to Washington and the rest of the country. The rally, with poignant messages from some of our leaders, as well as other presentations, will culminate in the reading of our Declaration of Constitutional Dependence.... Stay tuned. Following the rally, we will take our message to the streets in a unified march, protesting Washington's continued cover up of the fraud that has been perpetrated upon us.

Who is Presidential Candidate Dr. Laurie Roth and Why is She Suing Obama?
One of the eight plaintiffs behind the Georgia Obama Ballot Challenge hearings, Laurie is one of the five Presidential candidates openly challenging Obama’s eligibility (NONE of them have been allowed on the MSM debates, NONE are talked up by any of the political parties or MSM).

Secret NYPD Document Describes Which Muslims to Spy On
Details of the NYPD's widespread surveillance of local Muslim communities after 9/11 are now widely known thanks to an ongoing Associated Press investigation of the secretive programs, and the material just keeps mounting. The latest info comes from a confidential NYPD intelligence report, which can be viewed here, entitled, "US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City."

COPS: TSA agent at JFK stole $5K in cash from passenger
Authorities say a TSA agent stole $5,000 from a passenger as he was going through security at Kennedy Airport. Police and the Transportation Security Administration say Alexandra Schmid took the cash from a passenger's jacket as it went along an X-ray conveyor belt around 8 p.m. Wednesday in JFK's Terminal 4. Police spokesman Al Della Fave (fahv) says surveillance video showed Schmid wrapping the money in a plastic glove and taking it to a bathroom.

More than 3000 Private Security Work Hand in Hand with DHS for Super Bowl
Intel Hub - According to Napolitano, no credible terror threats will interrupt the face off between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots in the massive stadium Sunday. Typically security of the game is left up to the local authorities. However, in recent times, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has become much more involved with security of any major event.

VIDEO: 11 Maine State Legislators endorse Ron Paul
Freedom Watch Feb 2, 2012 - Rep. Aaron Libby, (R-Maine), on why he endorsed Paul and how he was able to rally ten of his fellow Congressmen and women to do the same ahead of the Maine Caucuses. List of Representatives at the Daily Paul.

Dr. Paul will be on CNN's Piers Morgan for the Entire Hour on Fri, Feb. 3rd, 9pm EST!
Daily Paul - I believe this maybe the first time that Piers would be actually interviewing him for the entire hour! Piers is also asking his viewers to email and tweet in questions for the Doc, so fire away!

Paul: States should resolve land management issues
ELKO, Nev. (AP) -- Republican Rep. Ron Paul railed against the federal government during campaign stops in Nevada on Thursday, saying states are in the best position to resolve conflicts over the management of wild horses and roads on public lands.

THE TRUTH ABOUT NEVADA: Ron Paul Has Never Looked Happier
Business Insider - The usually all-business candidate interrupted a press conference on the economy this afternoon to surprise his wife Carol with a huge bouquet of flowers — and a big hug — to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary. It was a surprisingly candid moment of marital bliss, particularly for a political event. Mrs. Paul seemed genuinely surprised by the gift, and her husband was clearly elated that he had pulled off the trick. He was practically blushing. See the video here.

YouTube: Ron Paul Interview on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston"
Over 20 minute interview with Ron Paul in Nevada for "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" February 1st, 2012. Aired on several local NV news stations.

RON PAUL EXPOSED!!! Is this the man we want to see running the U.S.A.?
Ron Paul is a great man and this video shows he has been fighting for the American people for decades and will be there to end the tyranny of psychopathic criminals that have hijacked our great nation. This video exposes the Truth of Ron Paul.

VIDEO: Mitt Romney 'Not Concerned About The Very Poor'
Huffington Post - It took the DNC less than a day to turn Mitt Romney's comment that he's "not concerned about the very poor" into an attack ad. "I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it," Romney told CNN Wednesday morning. "I'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling."

Illinois State Board of Elections Overruled 3 Ballot Challenges Against Obama
Barack Obama's Name Will Appear on Illinois Ballot

5.6 Million Americans Have Switched Their Banks In The Last 90 Days
Think Progress Feb 2, 2012 - Bank Transfer Day and the Occupy Movement have received tremendous attention, and for the first time we have market research data to measure the impact on the financial services industry. Javelin’s research estimates that 5.6 million U.S. adults with a banking relationship changed providers in the past 90 days. Of those switchers, 610,000 US adults (or 11% of the 5.6 million) cited Bank Transfer Day as their reason and actually moved their accounts from a large to a small institution.

Obama planning to release Taliban leaders
Foreign Policy January 31, 2012 - Top Obama administration officials briefed eight senior Senate leaders Tuesday on a pending deal to transfer as many as five Taliban prisoners from the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Qatar.... The identities of the administration briefers were not shared, but we were told it was a high-level interagency briefing team. All of the senators refused to discuss the contents of the briefing as they exited the secure briefing room in the Senate Visitors' Center. But Levin and McCain both discussed the issue in question before entering the briefing, namely the administration's negotiations with the Taliban over transferring the Taliban prisoners into Qatari custody.

Rothschild Bank AND Goldman Sachs Are Both On The LIST Of Bondholders Getting U.S. Taxpayer Billions In Ireland
Daily Bail - Guess what, Ireland. Brian Lenihan and Brian Cowen just sold you down the IMF river. Why? To bail out bank bondholders and giant European banks. Of course! That's what governments are for these days, apparently. And they'll tell you that the bailout policy is all for you own good. And for little old ladies and pensioners and orphans. Just don't tell that to the cancer patients. Yep, another nation made IMF debt slaves on behalf of the international banking cartels. And Goldman Sachs and Rothschild & Compagnie are on the list.

Taliban "poised to retake Afghanistan" after NATO pullout
Reuters - The U.S. military said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw, raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war. Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed the existence of the document... But he said it was not a strategic study. "The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions," he said. "It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis." Nevertheless, it could be interpreted as a damning assessment of the war, dragging into its 11th year and aimed at blocking a Taliban return to power.

UN nuke official: New trip to Iran planned
VIENNA (AP) — A senior U.N. nuclear expert on Wednesday announced plans to revisit Tehran soon after a "good trip," indicating progress on his team's quest to probe suspicions that the Islamic Republic is secretly working on an atomic arms program.

Think Tank Calls On US To Deploy Another Warship To Threaten Iran
Paul Joseph Watson - An influential bipartisan think tank has called on Washington to deploy yet another carrier battle group in a bid to threaten Iran, despite the presence of two U.S. warships already in the region.... The organization behind the call, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), is a think tank that counts amongst its directors Norman R. Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation, as well as Jane Garvey, an executive director at JPMorgan. The group is headed up by former Senators including Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George J. Mitchell.

US Nuclear Sub Heads Towards Persian Gulf
Paul Joseph Watson - Following the announcement that a third US aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, would be heading to patrol waters near the Strait of Hormuz in March, it has also been revealed that the nuclear submarine USS Annapolis and the destroyer USS Momsen are also likely to heading towards the Persian Gulf in the build up to a possible attack on Iran.

Petrodollar is pumping US policy on Iran – backfire looms
RT - As tensions between the US and Iran heat up, author Michael T. Winter believes the main reason behind America’s harsh stance is Tehran’s move to seek an alternative to the dollar as an oil currency. Economic sanctions, spearheaded by the US and, less willingly, the EU could have a disastrous effect on both of their respective economies. If Iran cannot sell their oil to Europe, there are plenty of customers waiting in the wings, and if they come bearing not petrodollars, but gold and sovereign currencies, then all the better for Iran.

Disgraceful Reporting by the Boston Herald and Others on Iran
LRC Blog - The best way to get news is to read actual testimony, reports, transcripts, and speeches. The worst way is to read headlines, unless you like to be subjected to distortions and misunderstandings.... Case in point: the testimony of Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper today. See here for his actual testimony in written form. Most important is that he said clearly that Iran is not building nuclear weapons and CIA chief David Petraeus said the same thing, and the latter said he had met with the head of Mossad to convey his view. This portion of his testimony was not reported in the Boston Herald article. Instead, it pieced together two unconnected parts of his testimony and left the impression that Iran was making enriched uranium in order to conduct an attack on the U.S.!! See here.

Japan snowstorm kills 52, crushes steel bridge
Heavy snowfall has crippled much of Japan's western coast, killing more than 50 people and injuring nearly 600. The worst snowstorm in six years has dumped more than 10 feet of snow in the hardest-hit regions, causing at least one bridge to collapse and forcing school closures across the region.... Western Japan has been battered by one snowstorm after another since the beginning of the year, overwhelming cash-strapped cities struggling to keep up with cleanup efforts.

AP Exclusive: US No-Fly list doubles in 1 year
WASHINGTON (AP) - Even as the Obama administration says it's close to defeating al-Qaida, the size of the government's secret list of suspected terrorists who are banned from flying to or within the United States has more than doubled in the past year, The Associated Press has learned. The no-fly list jumped from about 10,000 known or suspected terrorists one year ago to about 21,000, according to government figures provided to the AP. Most people on the list are from other countries; about 500 are Americans.

VIDEO: Sen. Rand Paul Proposes Amendment 1490 to the STOCK Act which would force former elected officials to forfeit their benefits if they choose to become lobbyists
January 31, 2012 - Sen. Rand Paul today took to the Senate floor to introduce an amendment to the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. The amendment would bring an end to the revolving door between federal employees and companies lobbying for federal funding or loans. This corrupt relationship has led to billions in wasted taxpayer dollars—money awarded on highly debatable grounds to companies who were better politically connected than they were capable of actually repaying a government loan. Below is transcript of his speech and background information regarding the amendment.

ACLU Sues U.S. for Information on Targeted Killing Program
ACLU Feb 1st, 2012 - Our suit overlaps with the one recently filed by The New York Times insofar as it seeks the legal memos on which the targeted killing program is based. But our suit is broader. We’re seeking, in addition to the legal memos, the government’s evidentiary basis for strikes that killed three Americans in Yemen in the fall of 2011. We’re also seeking information about the process by which the administration adds Americans to secret government “kill lists.” We think it’s crucial that the administration release the legal memos, but we don’t think the memos alone will allow the public to evaluate the lawfulness and wisdom of the program.

Justice, House GOP tangle over access to documents
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department and Republicans on a House committee looking into a flawed gun smuggling probe called Operation Fast and Furious appear to be headed for an impasse over congressional demands for internal Justice documents. The dispute is expected to be a prime topic at a congressional hearing Thursday, when Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before a panel whose chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has alleged that the Justice Department is engaging in a cover-up.

'Gasland' Journalists Arrested At Hearing By Order Of House Republicans
Huffington Post - In a stunning break with First Amendment policy, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Initial reports from sources suggested that an ABC News camera was also prevented from taping the hearing; ABC has since denied that they sent a crew to the hearing.

YouTube: BLOCKBUSTER REVELATION! - MINI Documentary - Illegal Obama "Propped Up" By Congress!
Evidence that we have a fraud and a usurper currently residing in the people’s White House is overwhelming, despite the overt lack of journalistic investigating on the part of the American press. But now new evidence indicates that the conspiracy to carry out that fraud was much broader than originally thought. Continue to read the original article here.

US Intel Director Prepares Public for False Flag Event
Tony Cartalucci - “…it would be far more preferable if the United States could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly, the more outrageous, the more deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the United States would be.

Obama’s drones remarks put White House on the defensive
Washington Post - White House spokesman Jay Carney rebuffed questions Tuesday about whether President Obama had violated intelligence restrictions on the secret U.S. drone program in Pakistan when he openly discussed the subject the day before.

Murphy condemns purchase of 9/11 commemoration bracelets from China
New Haven Register - In a letter sent to TSA Administrator John Pistole on Tuesday, Murphy called on agency officials to explain the legal authority by which the contract was awarded. Murphy is co-chairman and founder of the congressional Buy American Caucus. “I was frustrated to learn that your agency recently purchased 70,000 bracelets commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the September 11th 2001 attacks that were made in China,” Murphy wrote to Pistole. “These bracelets cost U.S. taxpayers $17,500, and was another poor decision in a long line of contracting awards throughout the federal government that have cost American jobs and sent American tax dollars to manufacturers overseas.

TSA discovery prompts New York bomb scare – six hours later
CNN - A New York airport screener who removed two pipes from a traveler's bag and set them aside Monday morning prompted a security scare six hours later when the next shift saw the pipes and feared they might be pipe bombs, local and federal officials said.... The bomb squad removed the devices at 5:30 p.m. -- six hours after they were taken from the passenger. The devices were taken to a remote location for examination or disposal, one official said. "We have still not been told what it was or what it was composed of," Della Fave said. Several law enforcement sources told CNN the objects were determined to be homeopathic medical devices.

VIDEO: Senator Rand Paul Joins Lawsuit Against President Obama’s Recess Appointments
Jan 31, 2012 - Today, Sen. Rand Paul announced he will submit an amicus brief supporting a recent lawsuit filed by the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW), the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and others, challenging the legality of President Barack Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sheriff Who Challenged Feds for Amish Raw Dairy Farmer Receives Award for "Meritorious Valor"; CA Sheriff Vows to Protect Herdshares
One of the best ways to get elected county sheriff these days is to campaign against the encroachments by the federal government on basic rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. And then, to act on your campaign agenda...well, that could win you an award. A good number of the 125 or so sheriffs attending the first convention of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) in Las Vegas over the last couple of days (together with another approximately 100 other enforcement personnel), appear to have been elected in just the last year or two. One of the most heartwarming stories by a recently elected official came from Sheriff Brad Rogers of Elkhart County in Indiana.

Sheriffs Who Won't Be "Milk Police" Gather in Vegas
County sheriffs and federal officials bickering over land, guns and water policies are as old as the West, but the Constitutional Sheriffs Convention, underway for the past three days in Las Vegas, has something new on the menu --- food safety regulation. "I made the decision that the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office was not going to be the milk police," Sheriff John D'Agostini told his Board of Supervisors in California ahead of the convention.

Missouri sheriff tries flashing signs to fight crime
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Short on deputies, a Missouri sheriff's office has turned to electronic stand-ins to combat a surge in crime. Officials in rural Greene County, in the southwest part of the state, are using flashing signs to alert residents to recent burglaries in their neighborhoods and to urge people to report suspicious activity. "We want to let the bad guys know that neighbors will be watching out for neighbors," said Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott.

Kansas Business Coalition Working Toward Backdoor Amnesty Plan
Rant of the Day - As of December 2011, there were 95,507 unemployed U.S. Citizens in Kansas, but a coalition of business groups, including the Kansas Chamber of Congress, are proposing that Kansas start a new program to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the state. According to the coalition, illegal immigrant labor is necessary to avoid “labor shortages” in agriculture and other industries, such as landscaping, roofing, construction. State officials and backers do not have any hard numbers for how many jobs are in “danger of going unfilled,” but estimate the number of illegal-immigrant workers at 45,000 – just under half the total number of unemployed Americans in the state.

Rhode Island Voters Overwhelmingly Support Immigration Enforcement
PR Newswire Nearly three-quarters of Rhode Island voters, 74 percent, say that illegal immigration negatively affects the state. Voters also overwhelmingly oppose an executive order signed by Gov. Chafee preventing Rhode Island police from notifying federal authorities when they arrest or detain an individual they suspect is an illegal alien. The poll also indicates widespread opposition to a new policy which allows illegal aliens to attend public colleges and universities at subsidized in-state tuition rates.

Drug war hypocrisy: drug trafficking's big money benefits Big Brother and corrupt banksters
(NaturalNews) The hypocrisy of the war on drugs is outrageous when compared to the amount of drug trafficking that benefits the CIA and international banking system. The son of a convicted notorious mobster, John Gotti Jr, when asked in court if the family still dealt drugs cracked, "No, we can't compete with the government." Today in Afghanistan, American troops have been seen guarding poppy fields used to make heroin. Those fields were all but wiped out by 2001 when the Taliban destroyed them and forbade that agricultural pursuit. Now they're flourishing again after the American occupation.

VIDEO: Ron and Rand Paul Vindicated On “Civil Rights Act / Right To Discriminate” Issue
Both Congressman Ron Paul and his son Senator Rand Paul have been repeatedly vilified by the mainstream media for stating certain parts of the 1964 Civil Rights Act go too far when violating a private business owners right to discriminate. Yet today CNN is lauding a private business owner, who discriminated against a customer, as a hero.

Paul campaign: Newt must pay medical bills for broken foot
Daily Caller - The Ron Paul campaign is demanding that Newt Gingrich pay the medical bills for Eddie Dillard, a Paul supporter whose foot was broken Tuesday after Gingrich staffers intentionally stomped on it. Campaigning at a Florida polling place Tuesday, Gingrich was greeted by Dillard, who held his Paul sign as Gingrich supporters rallied around their candidate. Gingrich staffers were not pleased with this and, according to a report by Yahoo! News’ Chris Moody, encouraged one another to physically impede the flip-flop wearing Dillard.

GALLUP: State polls predict huge Obama loss
Gallup released their annual state-by-state presidential approval numbers yesterday, and the results should have 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue very worried. If President Obama carries only those states where he had a net positive approval rating in 2011 (e.g. Michigan where he is up 48 percent to 44 percent), Obama would lose the 2012 election to the Republican nominee 323 electoral votes to 215.

Sources: Trump to endorse Newt
Word started leaking out in Las Vegas earlier that Donald Trump's "major announcement" is to back Newt Gingrich, and sources are confirming it to POLITICO. The move is a bit unexpected since Trump had talked even within the past few days about how he may be compelled to run a third-party campaign of his own if he didn't see a Republican candidate who he thought could beat President Barack Obama.

Republican Establishment Excludes Ron Paul From 2012 CPAC Event
Paul Joseph Watson - Despite winning the event’s annual straw poll for the last two years running, Ron Paul has seemingly been excluded from this year’s CPAC conference... The exclusion of Paul is likely a maneuver by GOP insiders to re-align CPAC, the biggest annual conservative confab, with the Republican establishment and prevent an embarrassing straw poll defeat for likely presidential pick Mitt Romney, who Paul beat in 2010 and 2011. According to the CPAC website, fellow presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum will all address the event scheduled to take place Feb. 8-11 in Washington, but Ron Paul will be absent.

Ron Paul campaign raises $13 million
Politico - About 56 percent of Paul’s contribution total came from people donating $200 or less, federal disclosure reports his campaign filed just before midnight Wednesday indicate. The haul is about $3.5 million more than fellow GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich raised during the same period but still well off the torrid cash-collecting pace set by Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama.

Why Ron Paul Has A Good Chance Of Winning In Nevada & Maine
Steve Watson - Paul’s campaign has a lot riding on Nevada where the Congressman, scheduled to hold a major press conference in Las Vegas today, has polled consistently high for weeks. Indeed, Paul has been running ads in The Silver State since last summer in anticipation of the caucuses which begin this Saturday, Feb 4th. When Paul unveiled his centerpiece budget plan last October, he did it in Las Vegas. Four years ago Paul placed second in Nevada behind Mitt Romney. This time around Paul’s support has grown exponentially, while Romney’s has more or less remained the same.

New Poll Shows That Only Paul Or Romney Can Beat Obama
Steve Watson - A new USA Today/Gallup poll indicates that of the four remaining contenders for the GOP nomination, only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are capable of challenging and defeating the incumbent president. According to the poll, Congressman Paul trails Obama by just three percentage points at 49 to 46 percent. That is within the five point margin of error and could easily be overturned if Paul were to win the nomination.

Gingrich Ballot Fraud: Virginia Election Officials Confirm Criminal Investigation
The Brad Blog has received confirmation from two different state agencies that the 1,500 alleged cases of ballot petition fraud said to have been carried out on behalf of the Gingrich campaign, in their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Republican primary ballot in Virginia, are now being carried out by the state Attorney General’s office. In late December, after Gingrich had failed to turn in enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, he was caught on video tape telling a supporter in Iowa that the reason for the failure was due to a campaign worker who created 1,500 fraudulent signatures.

Iraq veterans reveal horrors of war at N.Y. forum
Soldiers share their harrowing combat experiences

Bid to halt no-camping rule for DC protesters denied
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge denied a petition on Tuesday that would have allowed anti-Wall Street protesters to keep camping - at least temporarily - in two parks in the nation's capital where they have lived for months.

Obama, Saakashvili and a telling slip of the tongue
RT - ... during a press conference with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in the White House on Monday, Obama had a rare slip of the tongue that revealed far more than anything that was properly articulated. “One of the first things that I did was to express my appreciation for the institution building that’s been taking place in Russia,” Obama declared, before quickly correcting himself. “Er, in Georgia…” Then, after speaking about the possibility of a free trade agreement with Georgia, Obama held out the golden bait of NATO membership to Saakashvili. We talked about how we will strengthen our defense cooperation,” Obama said. “I reaffirmed to the president and assured him that the United States will continue to support Georgia’s aspirations for ultimately becoming a member of NATO.”

US, allies urge UN action to end violence in Syria
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Vowing to avoid "another Libya," the U.S. and its allies challenged Russia on Tuesday to overcome its opposition to a U.N. draft resolution demanding that Syrian President Bashar Assad yield power and end the violence that has killed thousands. "It is time for the international community to put aside our own differences and send a clear message of support to the people of Syria," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the U.N. Security Council in backing an Arab League plan for the country.

Serbia buys U.S. Steel plant; Price: $1
(AP) BELGRADE, Serbia - The Serbian government on Tuesday bought a loss-making plant from U.S. Steel for the symbolic sum of $1, hoping to avoid its closure and keep 5,400 workers employed at a time of widespread joblessness and economic hardship in the Balkan country. Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said the deal was a "forced move" caused by the global economic crisis and that the government aims to restructure and resell the plant.

Iran, perceiving threat from West, willing to attack on U.S. soil, U.S. intelligence report finds
Washington Post - Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said in prepared testimony that an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington that was uncovered last year reflects an aggressive new willingness within the upper ranks of the Islamist republic to authorize attacks against the United States....The assessment signals a potentially dire new direction in the adversarial relationship between the United States and Iran, at a time when there are indications that a covert campaign is already underway to thwart Iran’s alleged ambition to develop a nuclear weapon.

Turkey defies US, EU ban on Iran oil
Press TV - Turkey is the latest defector from Washington economic gang stalking of Iran. A Turkish Energy Ministry spokesman said on Monday, “We are not bound by EU or US decisions.” On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu ruled out the possibility of Ankara complying with the unilateral sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, saying Turkey is currently trying to facilitate talks between Tehran and Western nations on Iran's nuclear program.

Intervention in Syria is coming
Lebanon Now - The United States faces a terrible conundrum regarding Syria. The Obama administration wants the regime of Bashar al-Assad gone, but it does not want to see the unfolding of the very processes—conflict and possible international intervention—that seem to be emerging as the only viable means to achieve that. This means that the United States has condemned itself to thus far playing an almost entirely reactive role, even in the context of the limited means at its disposal to influence events in Syria. However, standing on the sidelines and warning all players not to do what they are already doing.

Opposition Leader Wants Syrian President and His Family Sodomized and Murdered
Kurt Nimmo - Haitham Maleh, a founding member of the executive committee of the Syrian National Council, has called for murdering president Bashar al-Assad, his British wife and three children. Maleh wants the al-Assad family murdered the same way Muammar Gaddafi was.

Landmark Case: Greek Court Writes Off EMPLOYED Bank Customer’s Debt
Zero Hedge While previously we have reported that Greek courts had written off "untenable" debts of unemployed Greeks owed to local banks, Kathimerini describes a landmark case which may have profound implications for the indebted country, in which a fully employed woman has had the bulk of her debt written off. From Kathimerini: "In what could turn out to be a significant ruling for Greeks suffering from the economic crisis, a court in Hania, Crete, has become the first in the country to order that the majority of the debt owed to banks by someone still in full employment be wiped out.

EU to spend 3 million Euros promoting insects ‘as alternative source of protein’
Food experts agree that insects would probably have to be disguised for European audiences, so the insect 'food' could be used as an additive in burgers and other fast food. The UN's Food Standards Authority says of the research: 'While insects have not traditionally been used for food in the UK or elsewhere in the European Union, it is estimated that about 2.5 billion people across the world have diets that routinely include insects.

China Buying Record Quantities of Gold
Forbes - Analysts believe China bought as much as 490 tons of gold in 2011, double the estimated 245 tons in 2010. “The thing that’s caught people’s minds is the massive increase in Chinese buying,” remarked Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a London gold brokerage, this month.

Homeowner stunned as hailstorm showers his garden with goo-like material
Mail Online - When it comes to the weather, the British have proudly come to expect the unexpected. But blue jelly-like balls descending from the heavens is perhaps pushing it. That is what Steve Hornsby, 61, saw when he was caught in a freak 20-second hail storm. He sheltered beneath the eaves of his garage amid the downpour, which turned the sky over Bournemouth a peculiar dark yellow.

VIDEO: Shipwreck hunters find mysterious ‘Millennium Falcon’ object at bottom of Baltic Sea
Daily Mail - Shipwreck surveyors found a remarkable object in the depths of the Baltic Sea, but before they start celebrating, they need to figure out what it is. A Swedish company named Ocean Explorer have discovered an unidentified object using their sonar technology in a secret location in the Baltic Sea. Because of a lack of funding and bad timing, they have not been able to pull a team together to see for themselves.

California Nuclear plant shuts down reactor as precaution
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of two reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power station in Southern California was shut down on Tuesday after a small leak was detected in a steam generator tube, but the incident posed no risk to the public or plant workers, the facility operator said.

SHOWDOWN: Issa threatens Eric Holder with contempt
Politico - House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) threatened Tuesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if the Justice Department did not provide certain documents in response to the committee’s subpoena. In a letter to Holder, Issa wrote that “this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress” if Holder and the DOJ didn’t produce documents they demanded relating to the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal. Holder has until Thursday, Feb. 9. to comply, according to Issa.

VIDEO: New Jersey Government Moves to Force Fluoridation on Public
Kurt Nimmo - Despite numerous studies showing the danger of fluoride and cities and municipalities deciding to no longer poison their citizens with the neurotoxin, officialdom in New Jersey has moved to add it to the state’s water. Disregarding the warnings of environmentalists and utility officials, New Jersey’s Health Committee, at the behest of Assemblyman Herb Conaway, a Camden Democrat, has required the state’s water companies to add fluoride.

Senate Bill Will Force Radiation Testing Of TSA Scanners
Steve Watson - The ranking Republican Senator on the Homeland Security Committee is poised to introduce legislation this week that would force the TSA to have independent tests carried out on the Backscatter radiation body scanners currently in use in hundreds of airports nationwide. “Our bill would require the independent study on the possible health effects of the x-ray radiation emitted by some of the scanning machines and give airline passengers, especially those passengers in sensitive groups, such as pregnant women, clear notice of their ability to choose another screening option in lieu of exposure to ionizing radiation,” Senator Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) told The Register in an email.

Obama plays his Catholic allies for fools
Washington Post - In politics, the timing is often the message. On Jan. 20 — three days before the annual March for Life — the Obama administration announced its final decision that Catholic universities, hospitals and charities will be compelled to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives and abortifacients.

Park ranger zaps man with stun gun for walking dogs off-leash
A Montana man walking two lapdogs off leash was hit with an electric-shock gun by a National Park Service ranger after allegedly giving a false name and trying to walk away, authorities said Monday.... Witnesses said the use of a stun gun and the arrest seemed excessive for someone walking two small dogs off leash.

YouTube: Ron Paul Gives Energetic Speech In Nevada After Florida Voting
MSNBC - The Congressman rouses his supporters, explains why he has chosen to focus on the caucus states, and talks of the long campaign ahead.

Florida Primary Election Results

Drudge Report Poll 1/31/12
Ron Paul 30%, Mitt Romney 28%, Newt Gingrich 24%, Rick Santorum 18%.

Holder plots to stop states from enforcing "Voter ID" laws, says legal group
Examiner - The Attorney General, in a speech, stated that "all citizens should be automatically registered to vote" and is critical of voter ID laws passed in Arizona, Texas and other states. In fact, Holder has put the wheels in motion for a series of DOJ federal lawsuits against states that attempts to require photo identification before a person is allowed to vote.

PayPal co-founders fund pro-Paul Super PAC
(Reuters) - PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek and Scott Banister, an early adviser and board member, put their support behind the Endorse Liberty Super PAC, alongside Internet advertising veteran Stephen Oskoui and entrepreneur Jeffrey Harmon, who founded Endorse Liberty in November.... "Too often in this country we learn things the hard way ... With its unsustainable deficits, government spending is heading down the same path. Men and women who want freedom and growth should take action. A good place to start is voting for Ron Paul," Thiel said in a statement.

Thiel’s $900,000 makes him the single largest contributor
Politico - Endorse Liberty, a super PAC supporting Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, received nearly a million dollars from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, new documents show. Thiel’s $900,000 makes him the single largest contributor in the short time since the PAC was founded on December 20, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Since founding PayPal in 1998, Thiel now runs the hedge fund Clarium Capital. His net worth has been reported to be at least $1.5 billion.

Romney wins Florida GOP primary, Fox News projects
Fox News - Mitt Romney defeated Newt Gingrich in the Florida Republican presidential primary Tuesday night, Fox News projects, surging from a second-place finish in South Carolina to sweep the winner-take-all contest and reassert his frontrunner status.

Ron Paul Draws 1,200 Colorado Supporters in Fort Collins
2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul again drew a huge crowd of supporters. The 12-term Congressman from Texas attracted more than 1,200 supporters and undecided voters in Fort Collins, Colorado earlier today. The crowd gathered for Dr. Paul in the Lory Student Center’s Main Ballroom at Colorado State University. Video of the event here.

Ron Paul to Make Statewide Campaign Visit to Nevada
On their 55th wedding anniversary, Dr. & Mrs. Paul to tour the Silver State for a consequential visit Henderson, Nevada – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul will make a far-reaching visit to the early voting state of Nevada, cementing the aggressive posture his campaign has taken as it presents Dr. Paul as the sole authentic conservative vying for the Republican nomination.

Ron Paul: Stop taxing tips
Las Vegas Sun - I’ve introduced the Tax Free Tips Act in Congress, which would exempt tips from federal income and payroll taxes, meaning no more taxes on tips. That’s because I understand ending taxes on tips will give these workers a pay raise, letting them keep more money to put toward things like a house or car payment, their retirement, or their own and/or their children’s education. If elected president, I will end this injustice on service-industry workers all across our nation by abolishing all taxes on tips once and for all.

VIDEO’09 Recording Reveals Gingrich’s Support for an Individual Health Care Mandate
Newt Gingrich has spent the leadup to the state’s presidential primary casting Mitt Romney as Barack Obama’s Republican twin, telling reporters this morning that Romney’s Massachusetts healtcare reform law “is Obamacare.” But it turns out Newt has some serious Obamacare problems of his own.

Gingrich sued for using Rocky III theme song at rallies
The claim for copyright infringement, lodged on Monday by Rude Music Inc in an Illinois federal court, relates to Gingrich's use of the song at his political rallies. Rude Music Inc is owned by Frank Sullivan, who co-wrote the Grammy award-winning song. In addition to Gingrich, the complaint names as defendants his campaign, Newt 2012 Inc, and the American Conservative Union, an advocacy organisation. The complaint states that the violation it alleges is intentional since Gingrich is "sophisticated and knowledgeable" concerning copyright laws.

‘Everyone step on his toes!’ Gingrich security harasses Ron Paul supporter
WINDERMERE, Fla.--Next time, Eddie Dillard won't wear flip-flops. “Everyone step on his toes!” a Gingrich campaign aide said. Gingrich aides and security personnel swarmed Dillard, trying to intimidate him into moving. One of Gingrich's security agents stepped in front of him. When Dillard didn't budge, the agent lifted his heeled shoe over Dillard's bare foot and dug the back of it into his skin, twisting it side-to-side like he was stomping out a cigarette. Shocked, Dillard kept his ground and took a picture of the agent with his phone, which was quickly knocked out of his hand. Dillard slipped off his flip-flop to pick up the phone with his foot, and a Gingrich supporter kicked the sandal away.

YouTube: Veterans March on the White House
February 20th at 12:00 PM EST in front of the Washington Monument as we prepare to march to the White House. The march itself will start at 2:00 PM EST. Please share this with any vet you know and spread the word. We are marching to raise awareness that Ron Paul is the choice of the troops to be our commander in chief. Ron Paul has more active military donations than all other candidates combined. Come join us to see why.

Twitter is being asked to turn over Occupy-related tweets for the second time
New York City has issued a subpoena for Twitter, Inc., demanding that the company hand over a collection of tweets and related information pertaining to an account belonging to an Occupy Wall Street protester.... Neither Twitter nor the NYC Court has explained the subpoena so far, but the social networking site is asked to hand in all material on February 8 to be used in a criminal action against Harris.

VIDEO: Former Israeli army commander heading private security firm says he's ready to crush #OccupyMiami
Huffington Post - A sign of uncertain times, or marketing of questionable taste? As Occupy Miami received its most certain eviction notice yet, possibly leading to a sunset showdown of sorts with police, a Miami security company issued a statement boasting their readiness to "intervene, should riots occur." Apparently, should Tuesday's deadline send tents flying, police should look for help from Bryant Security -- who recommend the community prepare for "data protection...community/group support, natural disasters/hurricanes, and a two-day continuous plan" "in case of riots or other emergencies." Referring to Bryant's president, listed as a former long-range reconnaissance unit commander for the Israeli Defense Force, the release claims...

Occupy Oakland protesters split over violence
SF Gate - For many Occupy activists outside Oakland and San Francisco, the violent clashes with police and destruction that attended protests in those cities over the past two weeks not only went against the Occupy message - they've started to undercut its essence. Even within the cities, there is a deepening split between those who accept violence as a tactic and those who oppose it.

Iran Business Ties to Be Revealed Under U.S. Senate Legislation
Bloomberg - Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, and senior Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama circulated a legislative draft yesterday that would require companies traded on U.S. stock exchanges to reveal any Iran-related business to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The proposed sanctions come on top of an array of new penalties imposed on Iran by the U.S. and the European Union over the past three months. The senators said they plan to seek a committee vote on their bill Feb. 2.

Iran vows to stop "some" oil sales as inspectors visit
(Reuters) - Iran sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions, vowing to stop oil exports soon to "some" countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to crude sales to the European Union.

Gulf Arabs have plans against Hormuz closure: official
(Reuters) - Coastguards and naval forces of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) group of Arab countries have contingency plans for a possible attempt by Iran to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a Kuwaiti maritime official said on Monday. Five of the six GCC members - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Kuwait - rely on the world's most important energy shipping lane being open to export most of their oil or gas.

VIDEO: China infuriated by US-Philippines defense plans
RT - The US decision to station forces in the Philippines could have dangerous repercussions. Beijing may enact economic sanctions after Manila invited in US troops in response to an escalating territorial dispute over the South China Sea. Dr. Pak-Nung Wong of the City University of Hong Kong told RT that the Philippines is merely cashing in on America's move.

Iraqis terrified of US drones
RT - America’s War in Iraq has finally ended, but the same can’t be said about the United States’ presence overseas. Iraqis are now outraged that the US is operating a fleet of surveillance drone aircraft planes over the country.... Adnan al-Asadi, the acting minister of interior in Iraq, tells the New York Times, “Our sky is our sky, not the USA’s sky.” To American authorities, however, policing the world requires no boundaries. Military contractors speaking of the case seem to think that other nations are next, too.

State Dept: Americans take refuge at Cairo embassy
(AP) - Three American citizens barred from leaving Egypt have sought refuge at the American Embassy in Cairo amid growing tensions between the two allies over an Egyptian investigation into foreign-funded pro-democracy groups. The White House said Monday it was disappointed with Egypt's handing of the issue, which U.S. officials have warned could stand in the way of more than $1 billion in badly needed U.S. aid.

France will tax all financial transactions
RT - France is to introduce a tax on financial services in August this year. The 0.1% Tobin Tax, as it is called, could bring in as much as a billion Euros to the national budget.

Mexican official flies with $1.9M in luggage
(AP) - A Mexican state official was detained as he got off a government-owned plane with $1.9 million crammed into a briefcase and a backpack, prosecutors announced Monday, touching off allegations of campaign finance violations tied to the upcoming presidential election.

Australia: Lobby Group Formed to Remove Alternative Medicine, Chiropractic Courses from Universities
The mainstream medical practitioners in Australia seem to think that alternative medicine has no place, and chose to form a powerful lobby group to pressure universities to get rid of any alternative medicine degrees. The group, comically calling themselves ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’, have even openly denounced alternative medicine as ‘quackery’. They specifically stated that universities offering these alternative degrees are ruining their reputation by giving “undeserved credibility to what in many cases would be better described as quackery” and by “failing to champion evidence-based science and medicine.”

Lockheed Martin leads super lobbying from U.S. defense industry
Washington Post - Defense contractors Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon spent a combined $33.4 million on lobbying in Washington last year, a 10 percent increase from 2010, as Congress and the Obama administration weighed cuts in the Pentagon budget. A review of lobbying disclosures filed with the Senate by a Jan. 20 deadline showed that Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense company, led such spending last year with $15 million for lobbying, a 19 percent increase.

Doctor who led us to bin Laden was CIA agent, says US - The Independent
Independent - The United States has confirmed publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor long suspected of collecting vital evidence before the assassination of Osama bin Laden was indeed working for them. Dr Afridi, the medic in charge of health in the Khyber, was recruited by the CIA to collect DNA evidence from the children inside the compound to confirm that they were Bin Laden's – he rarely went anywhere without them for long. The plan was to mount a local hepatitis vaccination programme; ostensibly a public health initiative, its real purpose was to establish the genetics of the people inside the compound.

UK riots: paratroopers are trained in riot control
Telegraph - Hundreds of soldiers from 3rd battalion The Parachute Regiment spent last week learning how to contain and arrest "rioters" in a series of exercises mirroring last summers violence. Defence sources have confirmed that if violence were to return to British cities, especially during the Olympic Games, the Paras would be "ideally placed" to provide "short-term" support to police forces around the UK.

Bridge in Mexico is freighted with dreams
Washington Post - Mexico’s $1.5 billion “superhighway” could be hijacked by the country’s powerful drug cartels. “This is a symbol of the prosperity we want for Mexico, a symbol of the Mexico of the future,” President Felipe Calderon declared at the dedication ceremony for the bridge. That the Baluarte was built by Mexican engineers was a special point of pride, he said — proof that the country stands with the industrial giants of the world. But there is ample reason to worry that Mexico’s superlative road could also serve as a super-conduit for drug trafficking.

U.S. Defense Department can't account for billions for Iraq, audit - CNN
CNN - The U.S. Defense Department cannot account for about $2 billion it was given to cover Iraq-related expenses and is not providing Iraq with a complete ... records are missing," the report says, adding that the department is searching for them.

Prescription heart drugs kill dozens of hospital patients in Pakistan
(NaturalNews) Tainted pharmaceuticals from unnamed manufacturers are confirmed to have killed dozens of people, and likely many more, in Pakistan. Reuters reports that thousands of doses of contaminated heart drugs freely distributed by the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, a government-run hospital in Lahore, caused patients to experience heavy bleeding and symptoms described as being similar to dengue fever -- and at least 77 patients have died because of the tainted drugs.

Emboldened GOP wants to abolish state income taxes
(AP) - A year after Republicans swept into office across the country, many have trained their sights on what has long been a fiscal conservative's dream: the steep reduction or even outright elimination of state income taxes. The idea has circulated among academics and think-tank researchers for years. But it's moving quietly into mainstream political discourse, despite the fact that such sweeping changes would almost certainly mean a total rewiring of tax systems at a time when most states are still struggling in the aftermath of the recession.

British Pair Arrested in United States on Terror Charges Over Tweet Joke
Intel Hub - Two British tourists were arrested by the Department of Homeland Security and denied entry to the country after posting two tweets that were apparently considered terrorist threats by overzealous agents who did not posses even rudimentary knowledge of the difference between British and American English.... The tweets that caused their detention as possible terrorists were so obviously non threatening that the fact that agents tasked with protecting our country would not see this shows just how far down the police state hole America has actually gone.

Indy Super Bowl: National Security State Protects Sports Fans from Prostitutes
Kurt Nimmo - In Indianapolis, local cops and the FBI have set-up a massive surveillance grid ahead of the Super Bowl, slated for February 5th. The heightened security – including a smartphone photo and video surveillance network, the installation of 150 new manhole covers, and the virtual lockdown of a 44-block area – is not in response to a possible attack by al-Qaeda, but will be used to detect “signs of pickpocketing, prostitution or other trouble.”

California lawmaker wants ban on ICE detainers… despite risk to the public
Examiner.com - Don’t look now: illegal alien advocacy groups are dictating Federal policies. On Saturday, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) held a press conference at St. Mary’s Cathedral to announce he is sponsoring legislation to counter the federal Secure Communities program, which requires local law jails to share the fingerprint data of all arrestees with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Many illegal alien advocacy groups are complaining that the federal program has resulted in too many deportations.

VIDEO: Government School: Six Year Old Guilty of Sexual Assault After Playing Tag
Kurt Nimmo - In politically correct San Francisco, a six year old boy was charged with sexual assault after playing a game of tag on the playground. The child was accused of brushing his best friend’s leg or groin while the two were playing on the playground at Lupine Hills Elementary in Hercules two months ago, according to CBS in San Francisco. The parent of the child said his son was held in the principal’s office and interrogated. The school coerced a confession from the child. He was suspended and a sexual battery charge was placed on his permanent school record, even though there is no such thing as sexual assault for a six year-old in California.

Ron Paul to be the #2 Candidate by mid-February
The Monitor - This week, Ron Paul is likely to win more delegates to the 2012 GOP convention than either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum. In fact, he’s likely to win more delegates than Gingrich and Santorum combined. “Hold it”, you’re saying, “How can that be? Rep. Paul’s polling in single digits in Florida. He’s going to finish behind Gingrich and Santorum, as well as Mitt Romney, in Tuesday’s Florida primary. How can that translate into beating any of his rivals at all?” We’ll tell you how – because he’s not winning those delegates in Florida. He’s winning, or will probably win, at least a few delegates in Maine.

VIDEO: Ron Paul for the Long Haul
Freedom Watch Jan.30, 2012 - Rep. Ron Paul, (R-Texas), gives us an update from the campaign trail and his strategy to win in 2012.

YouTube: Ron Paul On The Kudlow Report 01-30-12
Dollar Would Be Linked To Gold At Fixed Rate.

YouTube: Ron Paul backer: "You would never hear of a 'former' Ron Paul supporter"
RT - On Tuesday, Florida is holding its primaries where Floridians will take to the polls to voice who will best represent the Republican Party. Although Mitt Romney is the GOP favorite, Ron Paul refuses to go away and many feel he is taking votes away from the other candidate. But now some conservatives are saying enough is enough and are asking Ron Paul to remove himself from the race. A petition has started an attempt to make this happen, but many argue that's what votes are for. Mary Willison, a Ron Paul supporter and volunteer organizer, joins us to give us her take on the petition.

VIDEO: Oregon Tests Voting On iPads
ABC News Watch - Oregon's secretary of state is in Medford unveiling new ways to bring in more voters in the next election. Some of the options include being able to register to vote online and being able to vote on a device like an iPad. The Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown says the best way to reach voters is to use technology, whether that's by letting students know they can register to vote online, or by allowing people with disabilities to vote on an iPad.... The state is giving a test run to let disabled people vote on an iPad for the District 1 Special Election this month.

VIDEO: Dr. Funny Bone: A "King Killer;" GOP should "Laugh at him, at their own peril" - 1/29/12 MSNBC Video
MSNBC's 'Now w/Alex Wagner' featured a small piece that focused on Ron Paul, calling him "Dr. Funny Bone" and "The King of the One-Liner," due to all his great humor in the last debate. Surprisingly, they actually praised Paul, with one saying "He's gonna be in this race for the long haul", followed by a commentator saying "the longer he can use his momentum and the spotlight to get his ideas out there, all the better.. As long as the liberal media stops making fun of him so much". - MSNBC bashing FOX, and themselves, kind of funny.

'We Like Ron Paul' - Fox News Focus Group and Fox Five Panel
America Live with Megyn Kelly on Fox News: January 27, 2012.

Wolf Blitzer says that Ron Paul is the only candidate that will reduce spending
Wolf Blitzer of CNN, The Situation Room, says that Ron Paul is the only candidate that will actually reduce spending. The other candidates are only committed to reducing the rate of the increase in spending. He says this is an important difference between the Republican Presidential Candidates.

YouTube: Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 1/30/12
Failed Fed Policies Prolong the Agony.

Newt Gingrich's agenda-setting big donor
Sheldon Adelson's Super Pac funding has heavily backed Gingrich – and found him a firm pro-Israel and anti-Muslim ally. By donating $10m to the pro-Newt Gingrich Super Pac campaign, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, one of the richest men in the US, and his physician wife, Dr Miriam Adelson, have kept Gingrich in the Republican primary race, and given him the resources to win in South Carolina and, potentially, in Florida, without having to build a large donor base.

'World eternally contaminated by US DU'
The United States has perpetually contaminated the world, particularly the Middle East, by using massive amounts of depleted uranium (DU) in its wars, an analyst tells Press TV. The US government has notoriously used weaponized depleted uranium on humans, including in the following instances: 340 tons during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991; in every missile used during the 1998 Yugoslavian invasion; at least 1,000 tons in Afghanistan in 2001; and 2,400 tons in Iraq in 2003. Depleted uranium is radioactive and extremely destructive to humans. It takes 4.5 billion years for one kilogram of depleted uranium to reduce to a half a kilogram.

Arrests in Oakland protests rise to more than 400
(Reuters) - Crews cleaned up Oakland's historic City Hall on Sunday from damage inflicted overnight during violent anti-Wall Street protests that resulted in about 400 arrests, marking one of the largest mass arrests since nationwide protests began last year. At a press conference on Sunday, Oakland police and city officials said they did not have a final tally of arrests. Earlier in the day, the city's emergency operations office put the figure at around 400. The skirmishes injured three officers and at least one demonstrator.

Mayor Jean Quan wants OWS to disown Occupy Oakland
RT - In Oakland, California where the Occupy Wall Street movement has spawned a series of intense demonstrations, Mayor Jean Quan has run out of ways to try and put out the flames of the fiery protests.

United Nations Preparing to Manage Global Mental Health
Activist Post - Unfortunately, national sovereignty rarely enters into the equation anymore, as the average citizen tends to look straight to the United Nations to address their concerns, bypassing their own governments. As case in point, a recent report by AFP, entitled, “Experts urge U.N. to address mental health,” discusses how a recent article in PLoS Medicine, a reputable medical journal, has called for the United Nations General Assembly to develop a plan to tackle mental, neurological, and substance-abuse disorders (MNS).

VIDEO: On a mission: UN nuclear watchdog arrives in Iran
RT -January 28, 2012 - UN nuclear inspectors have arrived in Iran to examine the county’s atomic activities. Tehran says it hopes the visit will remove western allegations of nuclear weapon development.

Pentagon Seeks Mightier Bomb vs. Iran
WSJ - Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan.

US and Israel revive largest joint anti-missile drills
RT - Now after a brief delay, America will send thousands of troops and its anti-missile defense systems to Israel, albeit a few months later than planned. With the exercise back in the books, it could mean that an eventual war between the US and Iran is still in the works — and now the world has a timeline to see it through. Speaking off the record, both US and Israeli authorities tell the JTA news wire that tensions with Iran indeed played a role in the rescheduling, but declined to say how exactly.

Navy wants commando ‘mothership’ in Middle East
Washington Post - The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats. In response to requests from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.

YouTube: USS Enterprise False Flag???
Interesting observation. Possible False flag operation on USS Enterprise to blame Iran…

US to expand network of secret bases
The new strategy would assign specific US-based army brigades and marine expeditionary units to different regions of the world, where they would travel regularly for joint exercises and other missions, using permanent facilities and the forward-staging bases that some advisers call “lily pads”.

Gulf States to arm Syrian opposition?
RT - Gulf State opponents of the regime in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have reportedly come to an agreement to offer financial aid to Syria’s flagging opposition movement for the purchase of much-needed arms. A secret meeting has been conducted between opposition leaders and Saudi and Qatari officials to discuss funding for the movement’s dwindling weapons supply.

Syria: Watch the weather forecast
RT - Ankhar Kochneva, writer and sole foreign journalist permanently living in Syria, tells RT what is really up in the country, who funds the opposition, how international media fake images of unrest and why it is so important to watch weather forecasts.

Iran arrests journalists, to execute bloggers
Washington Examiner - "In the past two weeks, security forces have reportedly arrested four journalists," the U.S. State Department said in a statement, "including Shahram Manouchehri, Sahamedin Bourghani, Parastoo Dokouhaki, and Marzieh Rasouli, and Iranian courts confirmed death sentences for bloggers Saeed Malekpour and Vahid Asghari, both of whom were not accorded due process and now face imminent execution on charges of 'spreading corruption.'"

European Parliament Official In Charge Of ACTA Quits, And Denounces The 'Masquerade' Behind ACTA
This is interesting. Kader Arif, the "rapporteur" for ACTA [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement], has quit that role in disgust over the process behind getting the EU to sign onto ACTA. A rapporteur is a person "appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue." However, it appears his investigation of ACTA didn't make him very pleased...

120 people convicted for not filling in UK census form
Guardian - At least 120 people have been convicted for failing to complete their 2011 census forms, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. While some may have simply forgotten, others see themselves as conscientious objectors who are being prosecuted for refusing to fill out the forms because of the involvement of the defence contractor Lockheed Martin UK, which won the £150m contract to run the census.

Wrong addressee? Large stash of cocaine arrives at UN HQ
RT - Police in New York have seized two bags containing 16 kg of cocaine at the UN’s mail center. The unusual shipment had been sent from Mexico City and apparently was not intended to end up at the global organization’s headquarters.

Costa offers $14,460 per person for ruined cruise
(AP) — Costa Crociere SpA is offering uninjured passengers euro11,000 ($14,460) apiece to compensate them for lost baggage and psychological trauma after its cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany when the captain deviated from his route.... The deal does not apply to the hundreds of crew on the ship, the roughly 100 cases of people injured or the families who lost loved ones. Passengers are free to pursue legal action on their own if they aren't satisfied with the deal.

Monsanto Investor Bill Gates Says GMO Crops Needed to Fight Starvation
Activist Post - Bill Gates, the heavy Monsanto investor who purchased 500,000 shares of the biotech giant in 2010, has been touting Monsanto’s genetically modified creations as a tool that is necessary to prevent starvation in poor nations. The same poor nations where thousands of farmers routinely commit suicide after being completely bankrupt by Monsanto’s overpriced and ineffective GM seeds.

U.S. Defense Department can't account for billions for Iraq
The U.S. Defense Department cannot account for about $2 billion it was given to cover Iraq-related expenses and is not providing Iraq with a complete list of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects, according to two new government audits.

Welfare Drug Testing Bill Withdrawn After Amended To Include Testing Lawmakers
Huffington Post - A Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his Democratic colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers. The Supreme Court ruled drug testing for political candidates unconstitutional in 1997, striking down a Georgia law. McMillin said he withdrew his bill so he could reintroduce it on Monday with a lawmaker drug testing provision that would pass constitutional muster.

BirtherReport.com/ObamaReleaseYourRecords.com Leads to Arrest of an Obot who Threatened to Kill Sheriff Joe for his Investigation into Obama's Eligibility
(Warning: Contains disturbing language) A 33-year-old man in Phoenix has been arrested for threatening to kill Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his family. The threat comes in response to the Sheriff's office's investigation into the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate. Cox's mother confirmed with police that he is an avid supporter of president Obama and police say he has a history of assault.

YouTube: Susan Daniels Testifies in Atlanta: Obama's Social Security Number is Fraudulent
P.I. Susan Daniels Testifies that Obama's Social Security Number is fraudulant in the January 26 2012 hearing in Atlanta Georga. This interview was given by Ms. Daniels after the noon recess was granted.

Obama Blocked In 5 States From Primary Ballot
Obama’s Worst Nightmare, Legal Immigration. Constitution Stands in the State of Georgia,Alabama,New Hampshire,Mass, Illinois. Related article here.

Politicians Who Received Money for SOPA Vote
North Shore Tea Party - Here is a list of politicians in favor of the bill known as SOPA and PIPA and the amounts of money they received from the SOPA backers who bought their favor in voting yes for both bills.

New Jersey bill aims to ban all handgun, some rifle ammo
Aaron Dykes - In an end-run around an all out gun ban, the New Jersey Assembly Law & Public Safety Committee is set to consider legislation that would ban ammunition under the auspices of protecting police. The language seemingly targets the already prohibited ‘armor piercing ammunition’ but would encompass any ammo that is deemed to “pose a threat to the safety and well being of law enforcement.” Ammoland is reporting that “Common hunting, target, and self-defense ammunition would be subject to ban, along with BB’s, airgun pellets, and non-metallic ammunition like plastic airsoft pellets.”

VIDEO: Florida Police roll out video surveillance truck called The Peacemaker
Sun Sentinel - "Warning: You are under video surveillance," reads the bold message on the side of the truck. From the front bumper of the menacing vehicle, another sign taunts: "Whatcha gonna do when we come for you?" The truck is a new weapon for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department in the fight against drugs and neighborhood nuisances, and it looks like a Winnebago on steroids. They call it "The Peacemaker," and it may be a first in South Florida.

Militarized Drills Continue: Stadiums Prepped to Be Used as Martial Law Staging Centers
Intel Hub - By now you may have heard of the many FEMA camps located throughout the United States which will serve as holding centers for U.S. citizens during times of civil unrest. The camps are no conspiracy theory and they happen to be popping up at a rapid rate in the Continental United States (CONUS). In fact, Infowars recently reported on a new detention hub located at the Los Angeles Airport (LAX). But what about the fact that every stadium is a FEMA camp hiding in plain sight, stagnantly awaiting its grim use one day in the near future? (Think New Orleans Super Dome)

Pentagon's new budget: Rise of the machines
RT - The Pentagon detailed the Defense Department cuts on Thursday that US President Barack Obama hinted at earlier in the month.

Obama hosts George H.W. and Jeb Bush at White House
Unbeknownst to the press, President Obama met Friday evening with former president George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, in the Oval Office.... When asked what the men discussed and why it wasn't on the schedule, the White House released a statement saying, “The three men enjoyed a personal visit in the Oval Office – as they have done on previous occasions when President Bush is Washington.”

Washington State Looking to Follow Constitution and Legalize Gold and Silver
Daily Paul - HB 2731 was dropped this week by Rep. Cary Condotta, Rep. Matt Shea, and Rep. Overstreet to legalize gold and silver as legal tender in WA St. as directed by the US Constitution.

New Mexico man arrested, drugged, detained for two years; now wins $22 million reward verdict in lawsuit
(NaturalNews) After spending two years in solitary confinement without ever having been convicted of a crime, 58-year-old Stephen Slevin has finally been awarded a whopping $22 million from a federal jury for his improper treatment by Dona Ana County in New Mexico. The Miami Herald reports that Slevin had originally been arrested for drunk driving back in 2005, but ended up spending most of the following two years alone and neglected in solitary confinement, thanks to someone checking a box on a form that categorized Slevin as "suicidal."

YouTube: Ron Paul on CNN State of the Union 01/29/12
1/29/12.

Ron Paul WINS Tennessee Republican Assembly Straw Poll
January 28, 2012 - Ron Paul: 200 votes (63.3%), Rick Santorum: 62 votes (19.6%), Newt Gingrich: 38 votes (12%), Mitt Romney; 15 votes (4%).

VIDEO: 'Endorse Liberty' Super PAC to Broadcast 30 Minute Ron Paul TV Special in Florida
MIAMI, Jan 27, 2012 (Business Wire) -- Endorse Liberty, a political action committee supporting Ron Paul for President, announced today that it has purchased multiple 30 minute prime time slots on Florida's WHDT TV, the largest independent broadcaster in Florida and America's first HD network, to air a special program in advance of the Florida Republican primary. The special features short films about the candidate, including "Blowback," which outlines Ron Paul's foreign and military policy for America.

BREAKING: Nevada GOP Changing The Rules!
The presidential campaign of Texas Rep. Ron Paul is calling it “underhanded” and “completely unacceptable” that the Nevada GOP has scheduled a special evening caucus in Las Vegas on Feb. 4 to accommodate billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Carl Bunce, Nevada campaign chair to the Paul campaign, reacted forcefully to a Chronicle report that the state GOP Thursday confirmed the decision to go ahead with the special caucus beginning at 6 p.m. A party official told the Chronicle the special caucus would “accommodate those with religious restrictions.”

VIDEO "Why Paul Sees An Opening To The Nomination, In Maine"
Jan 27, 2012 - Ron Paul in Maine looking for delegates.

Ron Paul Endorsed By Maine State Rep. Aaron Libby
FALMOUTH, Maine – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul was endorsed today by Maine State Representative Aaron Libby (R-Waterboro). Representing the 139th District, Rep. Libby serves an area comprised of Waterboro and part of Lyman. At a town hall event featuring Ron Paul in Alfred, Rep. Libby made his endorsement public before the crowd of Paul supporters....

Ron Paul endorsed by Linda Bean, the granddaughter of L.L. Bean Co and founder and a prominent Republican activist in the state
Washington Post - The Texas congressman was campaigning Saturday in Maine, which holds caucuses beginning Feb. 4. He spoke to an overflow crowd at the University of Southern Maine and held an outdoor rally outside the famed L.L. Bean store in Freeport. He picked up the endorsement of Linda Bean, the granddaughter of the Bean company founder and a prominent Republican activist in the state.

VIDEO: Ron Paul To CNN's John King: "I don't know how long you want to beat a dead horse!"
January 27, 2012 - CNN is still asking about Ron Paul's "racist" news letters, Later asked about his medical records, Ron Paul mentions that he doesn't even take any medications.

REDSTATE: The Jacksonville Brawl
Then there was Ron Paul. Many of us quickly dismiss Ron Paul, but his performance was stellar. He offered extremely sound responses on healthcare, education, border security, and more. Very few of the questions were on foreign policy, which is where he tends to go off the reservation. Last night he came off as warm, funny, and right on the mark. It was his best debate performance.

VIDEO: Colonel Douglas Macgregor: "Ron Paul Best For National Defense"
Daily Paul - On Freedom Watch Retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor explains why Rep. Ron Paul's plan would actually strengthen the U.S. military: "As Ron Paul has pointed out, we do need to scale back our overseas footprint. Our presence in many parts of the world today is actually a catalyst for conflict. We're not cultivating peaceful conditions, in many cases we're doing the opposite..." "Ron Paul is the only man who is in touch with reality"!"

VIDEO: Fox News says Ron Paul is the biggest threat to Barack Obama
Not Mitt Romney!

Ron Paul raises $250K to ‘end the TSA’
USA Today - Ron Paul appears headed toward reaching his latest fundraising goal: $250,000 to help end the Transportation Security Administration. The GOP presidential candidate began a "money bomb" shortly after his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, got stopped at the Nashville airport on Monday after setting off an alarm on a body-scanning machine. The younger Paul declined a pat-down search by the TSA but was allowed to board a later flight.

After Getting Groped By The TSA, I May Just Vote For Ron Paul
Business insider - Yesterday I was subjected to an illegal, warrantless, and groundless "physically invasive" pat down by a TSA agent. A stranger grabbed my genitals -- this wasn't your simple frisking before entering an airport terminal. This was how you treat a prisoner in a maximum security prison. I posted the chilling details of my encounter on my Google+ profile here.

National Debt Grew by $1 Trillion When Gingrich was Speaker
From Treasury Direct.gov: • In 1994, the year before Gingrich become Speaker the National Debt was $4, 693 trillion. • In 1995, the year he become speaker the debt was $4,974 trillion. • In 1996 the debt was $ 5,225 trillion. • In 1997 the debt was $5,413 trillion •In 1998– the last year of his speakership– the debt was $5,526 trillion.

Tired and broke, Santorum heads home to do taxes
(AP) - Jan 27, 2012 - Rick Santorum is tired, almost broke — and going home. The former Pennsylvania senator is taking a pause from Florida campaigning just days before the Tuesday primary that even he expects to deal him a third consecutive loss. The cash-strapped candidate acknowledges that he simply can't keep up with the GOP front-runners in Florida. Update - Santorum is staying home in Philadelphia to be with his hospitalized daughter and is canceling campaign stops in Florida.

President John Tyler’s grandson says Newt Gingrich is a 'jerk'
President John Tyler’s grandson Harrison Tyler, 84, says he’s not impressed with the state of politics today and particularly thinks Newt Gingrich is a “big jerk” for his three marriages. Incredibly, President Tyler, who was born in 1790 and became the 10th president in 1841, has two grandchildren still alive today. His grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, currently maintains the Tyler presidential home, Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation in Charles City, Va.

Newt Gingrich wants to make the moon the 51st state
RT - From the campaign trail in Florida on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich told supporters that earlier in his career he introduced something called the Northwest Ordinance for Space. He acknowledged that it was the “weirdest thing” he’s ever done, but today he says he stands by what it called for. “I think the number is 13,000 — when we have 13,000 Americans living on the moon, they can petition to become a state,” recalled Gingrich. The crowd in Cocoa, Florida responded with both laughter and applause.

Police Get Help With Confronting Veterans
The Justice Department is funding an unusual national training program to help police deal with an increasing number of volatile confrontations involving highly trained and often heavily armed combat veterans. Developers of the pilot program, to be launched at 15 U.S. sites this year, said there is an "urgent need" to de-escalate crises in which even SWAT teams may be facing tactical disadvantages against mentally ill suspects who also happen to be trained in modern warfare.

St. Louis parade on Iraq War's end draws thousands
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Looking around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, Army Maj. Rich Radford was moved that so many braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.... With 91,000 troops still fighting in Afghanistan, many Iraq veterans could be redeployed - suggesting to some that it's premature to celebrate their homecoming. In New York, for example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said there would be no city parade for Iraq War veterans in
the foreseeable future because of objections voiced by military officials.

VA Changes Emergency Care Policy
The new regulation extends VA's authority to pay for emergency care provided to eligible veterans at non-VA facilities until the veterans can be safely transferred to a VA medical facility. More than 100,000 veterans are estimated to be affected by the new rules.

Cops fire tear gas at Oakland 'Occupy'; 300 arrested
LA times - Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a U.S. flag, and officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center. Saturday's protests -- the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November -- came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

VIDEO: Magazine Calls Occupiers To Come To Chicago In 'Tradition of' 1968 Rioters
CNS News - Adbusters, the radical, Vancouver-based anti-consumerist magazine, credited by many media outlets for launching the Occupy Wall Street protests, has put out an ad calling for 50,000 protestors to “Occupy” the G8 summit in May.... According to the official statement of Adbusters (titled Tactical Briefing #25), “On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month. With a bit of luck, we’ll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen.”

Anonymous claims Stratfor spied on OWS
RT _ Anonymous promised that after hacking the intelligence firm Stratfor, called by some a “shadow CIA,” they’d prove that they were more than just a consulting firm. Now it looks like the private company worked along with law enforcement in attempting to bring down the Occupy movement.

Raw milk vending machines growing in popularity across Europe
(NaturalNews) While American health authorities continue to peddle unfounded superstition about the so-called dangers of raw milk, which has spawned authoritarian policies that prevent millions of Americans from freely accessing it, unpasteurized dairy is all the rage throughout Europe. And one Polish manufacturer of raw milk vending machines explained to The Bovine in a recent interview that the installation of such machines is rapidly spreading both in Poland and across Europe.

Iran is ready to return to nuclear talks
(AP) - Iran is ready to revive talks with the U.S. and other world powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday, but suggested that Tehran's foes will have to make compromises to prevent negotiations from again collapsing in stalemate. Iran's insistence that it will never give up uranium enrichment — the process that makes material for reactors as well as weapons — scuttled negotiations a year ago and still looms as a potential deal breaker even as tougher Western sanctions target Iran's critical oil exports.

EU signs ACTA, global internet censorship treaty
Activist Post - Today, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. They have now joined the US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October.Digital ‘right to be forgotten’ will be made EU law Telegraph - The move will mean that social networks such as Facebook or Twitter will have to comply with users' requests to delete everything they have ever published about themselves online. It will also mean that consumers will be able to force
companies that hold data about them, such as for Tesco's Clubcard, to remove it.

Polish Web Sites To Go Dark To Protest ACTA
Sci-Tech Today - Poland's support for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has sparked days of Internet protests by groups who fear it could lead to online censorship. Now several sites plan to go dark in protest. ACTA shares some
similarities with the hotly debated Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S., which was shelved by lawmakers last week.

Egypt bans travel for US official's son, 9 others
(AP) - Egypt banned at least 10 Americans and Europeans from leaving the country, including the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, hiking tensions with Washington over a campaign by Egypt's military against groups promoting democracy and human rights. The United States warned Thursday that the campaign raised concerns about Egypt's transition to democracy and could jeopardize American aid that Egypt's battered economy needs badly after a year of unrest.

YouTube: Why Switzerland Has The Lowest Crime Rate In The World
The key to freedom is to be able to have the ability to defend yourself &, if you dont have the tools to do that, then you're going to be at the mercy of whomever wants to put you away. Guns are deeply rooted within Swiss culture - but the gun crime
rate is so low that statistics are not even kept. The country has a population of six million, but there are estimated to be at least two million publicly-owned firearms, including about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000 pistols. This is in a very large part due to Switzerland's unique system of national defence, developed over the centuries.

Mexico ups swine flu screening as cases increase
(AP) - Three years after swine flu closed Mexico City and caused an international scare, the Mexican government and local media are at odds over the severity of this season's flu virus. Newspapers are warning of an alarming increase in cases while
the government insists there is no cause for alarm. Federal and state health officials agree there is an increase, but they say the number of cases is within the range of a normal flu season. The Mexican health ministry, however, has listed confusing numbers on its website and it hasn't specified the rise in cases despite repeated requests from The Associated Press.

'Cash-Mob' Rallies Behind Popular Small Town Hardware Store
The story of how one Ohio community rallied behind a favorite family-run hardware store in an act of solidarity, and profits, has captured the nation's attention, and left the family in awe.

US has arrested Iranian scientist
Fox News - The United States has arrested and charged an Iranian semiconductor scientist with violating U.S. export laws by buying high-tech U.S. lab equipment, a development likely to further worsen Iranian-U.S. tensions. Prison records show the U.S. has been holding Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, 54, a microchip expert and assistant professor at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology, in a federal facility in Dublin, Calif., outside San Francisco. The Iranian interest section in the Pakistani embassy in Washington said it was aware of the arrest.

New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who’s accountable?
The Navy’s new drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay stretches the boundaries of technology: It’s designed to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, one of aviation’s most difficult maneuvers. What’s even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all. The X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone’s ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.

Security video shows police lied about Rand Paul’s behavior
After being briefly detained by police officers on Monday, Paul appears to be getting some vindication in the form of a security camera’s video. Although police described him as “being irate” in an incident report, footage published Thursday shows Paul sitting calmly inside an airport checkpoint, and occasionally picking up his phone.

Hawaii police state? Government may track all website visits by residents
(NaturalNews) It is becoming increasingly obvious, and highly embarrassing, that many members of the US Congress have absolutely no idea what the Constitution says, or how the justice system works. Rep. John Mizuno (D-Hawaii) recently introduced a bill that intends to keep a log of every website visited by every person using the internet in Hawaii in order to target internet harassment, in direct defiance of the Fourth Amendment.

Georgia Hearing: Judge Wanted To Immediately Enter Default Judgment Against Obama
UPDATE: From Plaintiff, in one of the Georgia challenges, Carl Swensson: To all my friends in battle, The Judge pulled the lawyers for the three cases into chambers before it all began and advised them that he would be issuing a default judgment in
our favor, since the Defense council failed to show, and wanted to end it there.... Now we’re merely awaiting the publishing of this Judge’s ruling which, as previously stated, will be a Default Judgment. - Carl

Obama Eligibility Court Case...Blow By Blow
Given the testimony from today’s court case in Georgia, Obama has a lot of explaining to do. His attorney, Jablonski, was a NO SHOW as of course, was Obama. The following is a nutshell account of the proceedings. Related WND article here.

An “Empty Chair” Defense in Atlanta
Obama’s attorney is pulling out all the stops to disrupt justice in America, to stop the removal from the ballot of an Unconstitutional presidential candidate. First, he tried to dismiss the case. Then he tried to stop legal subpoenas. Then he advised his client to skip the hearings. Now, he’s trying behind the scenes to take the case out of its proper jurisdiction. They are playing hardball. They are desperate. If everything is legitimate, why not just show up in court, produce the evidence and make the legal arguments? I think we know the answer.

Sen. Paul 2012 March for Life Remarks
Jan 24, 2012 - On Monday, Sen. Rand Paul was scheduled to speak at the 2012 March for Life on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., but was improperly detained by the TSA and forced to miss the event. However, after the rally, Sen. Paul
hosted a reception welcoming marchers from Kentucky and those across the country. Below are the remarks Sen. Paul would have delivered at the 2012 March for Life. "The question remains, can a nation long endure or can a civilization long endure that does not respect Life? Our Liberty comes from our Creator and our freedoms depend upon a respect for Life...."

U.S. Army chief admits he's 'comfortable' with fewer troops as Pentagon readies cuts
Mail Online - As the Pentagon prepares its major budget announcement today, the U.S. Army boss says he's comfortable with plans to shrink the size of his force and shift the military's focus to Asia, saying troops there will remain relevant and
capable. Gen Raymond Odierno declined to disclose figures the Pentagon is due to unveil that envision a smaller Army and the withdrawal of two brigade combat teams from Europe. Those fixed brigades will be replaced by rotational units.

Maryland man pleads guilty in U.S. military bomb plot
(Reuters) - A Baltimore man angry about American policy toward Muslims pleaded guilty on Thursday as part of a plot to bomb a U.S. military recruitment center in Maryland and faces a 25-year prison sentence, the Justice Department said. It said
Antonio Martinez, also known as Muhammad Hussain, pleaded guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, a car bomb, in what had been an FBI sting operation.

VIDEO: Military Helicopters Conduct Covert Exercises Over U.S. Bank Building
Steve Watson - Video was captured last night of five military helicopters buzzing over downtown LA, conducting what the LAPD has described as a special ops urban warfare drill. The footage, captured by CBS Los Angeles, shows a huge Black Hawk
helicopter hovering over the US bank building along with four other OH-6 choppers, known as “Little Birds”.

City Denies Request For Ticker-Tape Parade Honoring 9/11 First Responders
CBSNewYork Gilmartin said he filed all the correct paperwork and received approval from the community board but he believes the decision came down to the cost of the event. “I did everything they asked of me, and I assume, but I can’t say for sure,
that it’s all about the money,” Gilmartin said. He believes the first responders deserve a parade for the sacrifices they made on and after Sept. 11, 2001.

CHICAGOLAND: Gun purchases in city soar after ban lifted
CBS News - Significantly more Chicagoans are arming themselves with guns. As WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, over the past two years, the city has seen a 16 percent spike in the number of people holding state Firearm Owner’s
Identification Cards. About 122,000 people possessed FOID cards at the beginning of this year compared to 105,000 at the beginning of 2010, said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Police. Illinois residents must possess a FOID card to buy guns in the state.

DNA sample to be taken from students before SAT college entrance exams
Jonathan Benson - Standardized testing is a common method by which colleges and universities evaluate the competency of applying high school students. But an increasing amount of students are cheating on such tests, which has caused lawmakers in New York to consider actually harvesting “digital DNA” from students and applying it to special ID cards that students would be required to furnish both before and after taking the SAT or ACT exams to prove their identities.

Ron Paul is sweeping the GOP youth vote
Across the country, the youth vote is down. Registration is low. Voter enthusiasm for Republican candidates has been lackluster. Unless that candidate’s name is Ron Paul. The 76-year-old U.S. representative from Texas has energized — and
gained —young voters at a time many people under 30 are turned off to politics.

Ron Paul Resonates with Hispanic Voters in Florida
US News - Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's strategists say they have discovered a surprising source of support for their candidate—Latinos in Florida. Paul hasn't made any overt appeals for the Hispanic vote, his advisers say... But a
Paul spokesman cites a new poll indicating that the Texas congressman has the support of 41.5 percent of likely Hispanic Republican voters in Florida, with former House Speaker New Gingrich second at 25.3 percent, former Gov. Mitt Romney of
Massachusetts at 9.2 percent, and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at 4.1 percent.

VIDEO: O'Reilly Tries to Tie Child Molestation to Ron Paul, Doyle Fires Back 'I Have the Dirt on O'Reilly'
The Showdown begins to heat up between Doyle and O'Reilly as Doyle shows that O'Reilly tries to connect Ron Paul to child molestation in American. Jerry Doyle exposes threats made to him after his endorsement of Ron Paul by Fox News in behalf of Bill O'Reilly. Doyle respond 'I have the dirt on Bill O'Reilly'.

We must construct a serious, sustained boycott of the mainstream media advertisers
We must begin to construct a serious, sustained boycott of the mainstream media advertisers (their lifeblood) with the goal of either fundamentally changing the msm’s behavior or ending their existence. Yes, the media distorts Ron Paul, but that’s only part of the problem. The truth is the mainstream media does a terrible job of keeping us informed about everything! We’re never going to fix America, have honest and real debates about real and relevant issues, unless we change the way the mainstream media operates.

Romney’s Bain Capital ‘earned’ $342 million by bankrupting company, firing 850 staff
Daily Kos - One of corporate vampire Bain Capital’s victims was Dade International, Bain stripped them and cashed in. Via McKay Coppins, you can add The Miami Herald to the list of people and organizations who Mitt Romney says are attacking free enterprise. That's because today's edition takes a look at how Bain Capital "earned" $342 million from investing $30 million in the acquisition of medical technology firm named Dade International. Despite profiting by hundreds of millions of dollars from the deal, Romney's company led Dade to bankruptcy, laying off thousands of workers throughout the country—including 850 in Miami alone.

Romney Failed to Disclose Swiss Bank Account Income
ABC News - Mitt Romney's campaign is amending the financial disclosure forms he filed in 2007 and 2011 to acknowledge that a Romney trust held a Swiss bank account, a detail that had been missing from both reports. "An amendment is being filed to address this minor discrepancy," a campaign official told ABC News in an email Thursday in response to questions about the apparent omission.

VIDEO: Petition: Pelosi must tell America her Gingrich Secret
Nancy Pelosi is withholding information that the public should know now. This is our electoral process and Nancy Pelosi is playing games with it. If she garnerd information about a current presidential candidate during her time as a public
official she is obligated to tell us what she knows.

U.S falls to 47th in press freedom rankings after Occupy crackdown
Mail Online - Sweeping protests around the world made it an extremely difficult year for the media, and tested journalists as never before, the annual report into press freedom reveals. The annual report by Reporters Without Borders has been released, showing the United States fell 27 points on the list due to the many arrests of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street protests. The slide in the United States places it just behind Comoros and Taiwan in a group with Argentina and Romania.

YouTube: Adam Kokesh Veterans March for Ron Paul Announcements
Adam Kokesh talks about the speakers, the rally at noon, vehicle arrangements for veterans unable to march, and a video contest where the first place winner will receive $1000.00. Also, there will be a Ron Paul "Money Grenade on 2/1/12 to help
raise money to help cover the basic expenses of the event and to provide transportation for veterans who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it.

Vets oppose speech by general who demonized Islamists
(Reuters) - A veterans' advocacy group urged the U.S. Military Academy on Thursday to withdraw a speech invitation to a retired general who portrayed the U.S. fight against Muslims radicals as a battle with Satan. VoteVets, which describes
itself as the biggest U.S. progressive veterans' organization, said West Point's invitation to retired three-star general William Boykin to speak at a February 8 prayer breakfast endangered U.S. troops.

Hackers launch fresh attacks on Israeli websites
Breitbart Jan 25 - Arab hackers claimed responsibility Wednesday for a series of attacks on prominent Israeli websites, including that of daily newspaper Haaretz.... In a Twitter message, the Palestinian wing of the global hacker collective Anonymous claimed responsibility for taking down Haaretz's Hebrew-language site, which was still out of commission by late Wednesday. The paper's English section was also targeted but was up again by the afternoon.

Iran oil ban will up oil prices by 30%: IMF
Press TV - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says sanctions imposed by the US and European Union on Iran's oil and financial sectors will cause the global oil price to rise by 20-30 percent.... The IMF further stated that financial sanctions against Tehran may be "tantamount to an oil embargo" and would imply supply declines of about 1.5 million barrels per day from the world's fifth-largest oil producer.

Hurt Iran, and don’t stop hurting Russia’
RT - Blasting Iran with new sanctions won’t stop the west from working with Iranian energy companies if the stakes are high enough, it seems. UK lobbyists have ensured that BP and others can continue a multibillion dollar gas project vying with Russia. A political balancing act was needed to protect investment into Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz natural gas field, where BP works with Iran. The second stage of this project operated by British Petroleum worth $20 billion is meant to decrease Europeans’ dependence on Russian fuel, reports the Wall Street Journal.

U.S. to grant three-year extension of loan guarantees to Israel
The U.S. government has informed Israel that it will recommend that Congress approve a three-year extension of loan guarantees to Israel, worth $3.8 billion. The announcement came after several months of worry in Israel that the loan guarantees would not be extended, despite Israel's request.

VIDEO: Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians cram into Tahrir Square on the one year anniversary of the January 25th uprising
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians cram into the iconic Tahrir Square on the one year anniversary of the January 25th uprising that sent shockwaves throughout the globe. The crowds chanted "Today is not a festival, it's another revolution!"

Companies Face Fines as Much as 2% of Sales Under EU Privacy Law
Bloomberg - The 27 EU data-protection agencies would be able to sanction companies that don’t comply with tougher rules on handling personal information, proposed by the European Commission today. Online-advertising and social networking sites will also be covered by the policy, updating the EU’s 17-year- old data-protection policies. The EU overhaul would also clamp down on data lapses such as Sony Corp.’s six-day delay in warning customers about a cyber attack that exposed more than 100 million customer accounts, the second-largest online
data breach in U.S. history.

Mexico drug war violence blamed on failed U.S. drug policies and false flag gun-running ops
(NaturalNews) The 2011 Global Commission on Drug Policies in Geneva, Switzerland was motivated, according to its website, by successful Latin American conferences convened with national leaders concerned about the impact on democracy in Latin America from drug use, trafficking, and gang or cartel violence. One wonders how the Global Commission managed to consider that conference a success, considering what is actually going on in Mexico now. The current Mexican drug gang related death toll of 47,515 contradicts any sense of progress coming from that Latin American drug conference.

Mexico offers $2.6 billion to aid victims of record drought
Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday announced a 2.6-billion-dollar program to help victims of a record drought, including food and water handouts, as rural victims protested in the capital. The "unprecedented sum would attend to a catastrophic situation in Mexico," Calderon said during a public act. The aim "is that no family is without water or food due to this drought." Immediate measures included the delivery of 4,000 water trucks to affected areas, mainly in the north of the country, and the distribution of corn.

VIDEO: Obama’s new fairytale: Peace and prosperity for war-bent US
RT - As the US presidential race picks up pace ahead of November's vote, Barack Obama is trying to ratchet up support for re-election. In his third State of the Union speech, he pledged another program for change. As the US presidential race picks up pace ahead of November's vote, Barack Obama is trying to ratchet up support for re-election. In his third State of the Union speech, he pledged another program for change. The president started his address praising those who fought in Iraq, “generation of heroes” who “have made the United States safer and more respected around the world.”

Obama doubles down on Anti-Liberty Insanity: Students should be FORCED to stay in school
In his 2012 State of the Union Address, President Obama stressed the importance of teachers and offered to give them the resources they need while calling on every state to require students to stay in high school until graduation or they turn eighteen.

Exclusive: Senate investigating HSBC for money laundering
(Reuters)- HSBC Holdings PLC is under investigation by a U.S. Senate panel in a money-laundering inquiry, the latest step in a long-running U.S. effort to halt shadowy money flows through global banks, according to people familiar with the situation and a company securities filing.

Subculture of Americans prepares for civilization's collapse
(Reuters) - When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon. "In an instant, anything can happen," she told Reuters. "And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared." Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as "preppers." Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.

"The Ron Paul Song" - 3 minutes
If this doesn't do it for you, nothing will.

Florida GOP / CNN Debate - Jan 26 - 8pm ET
Dr. Ron Paul will participate in the Florida Debate sponsored by the Republican Party of Florida and CNN, held at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday, January 26th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Live stream at CNN.com.

Fight for Your Civil Rights
Freedom Watch January 25, 2012 - Ron Paul senior advisor Doug Wead joins the Judge to talk about the significance of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign from a civil rights perspective.

Obama's Attorney Jaberwoki Slapped Down By Georgia Secretary of State
1/25/2012 - Letter to Obama's Attorney from the Secretary of State. Obama's eligibility hearing is still on for Thursday, January 26th.

Obama's Attorney Refusing To Show Up At Obama's Georgia Ballot Challenge Hearings
1/25/2012 - Letter to the Secretary of State from the Attorney for President Barack Obama.

YouTube: John Stossel on Ron Paul’s Non-Interventionist Views
John Stossel contrasts the differences between a non-interventionist ideology and an
isolationist perspective.

YouTube: O++peration CNN Debate Blackout #OpDebateBlackout - Ron Paul
We will do this by making a mass number of requests to the CNN servers starting at 8PM on Thursday, January 26 until the conclusion of the debate. We will cease making requests during those periods of time when Ron Paul is speaking. To succeed, you will need the following free tool to enable you to make many requests automatically:

US Presidential Candidates’ Positions on Israel/Palestine, War, and Civil Liberties
CNI summarizes the policy positions of President Obama and the top Republican nominees.

Jay Leno & NBC Sued Over Mitt Romney Joke
Jay Leno thought he was poking gentle fun at the lifestyles of rich and famous Republican presidential candidates — Mitt Romney in particular. But last Thursday when Leno’s slide show came to a location cited as Mitt Romney’s summer home — in reality an image of the Sikh holy shrine Golden Temple in Amritsar, India — it sparked a diplomatic incident. And now, a lawsuit charging Leno and NBC with libel.

Castro calls the GOP race a "competition of idiocy"
RT - At Monday’s Republican debate, both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich came to an agreement on something: they each wish Fidel Castro would just die already. Days later, the former Cuban president fired back and offered some words of his own for the GOP. According to Castro, the race on the right is full of idiots.

White House to field veterans’ questions this Thursday
The White House is planning a series of online follow-ups and forums after Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, including a veterans-focused session Thursday morning featuring Matt Flavin, the administration’s point person on veterans issues and wounded warrior policy. He’ll take to Twitter around 10 a.m. on Thursday, answering messages posted with the #WHChat hashtag. White House officials said they’ll have a full transcript posted at
WhiteHouse.gov later in the day and an interactive recap at their Storify site as well.

VIDEO: Mitt Romney DESTROYED by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show
Daily Show Tuesday January 24, 2012 - Indecision 2012 - I Know What You Did Last Quarter. Mitt Romney justifies making more in one day than the median American family makes in a year, while paying the same tax rate as the guy who scans his shoes at the airport.

Happy wake up
Happy is Maltese & Daschund mix.
 

Iraqi authorities hang 34 people in a single day
More than 30 people were executed by Iraqi authorities on Thursday following their conviction for various crimes, the United Nations reported on Tuesday. It is the largest number of confirmed executions within a single day in years.

US launched cyber attacks on other nations
RT - Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence at the National Security Agency under George W Bush, tells Reuters this week that cyber war is more than a distant possibility. According to the current vice chairman at Booz Allen Hamilton, the US has already launched attacks on the computer networks of other nations. McConnell did not add any input as to what countries have been hit with American cyber warfare in the past, but he did confirm that the US has already used the

Japan's first trade deficit since 1980 raises debt doubts
(Reuters) - Japan first annual trade deficit in more than 30 years calls into question how much longer the country can rely on exports to help finance a huge public debt without having to turn to fickle foreign investors. The aftermath of the March earthquake raised fuel import costs while slowing global growth and the yen's strength hit exports, data released on Wednesday showed, swinging the 2011 trade balance into deficit.

Japanese Delegation Wants the U.S. Out of Okinawa
A 24-member delegation from Japan is in Washington, D.C., this week opposing the presence and new construction of U.S. military bases in Okinawa. Participating are members of the Japanese House of Councilors, of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, and of city governments in Okinawa, as well as leading protest organizers and the heads of several important organizations opposed to the ongoing U.S. military occupation of Okinawa.

VIDEO: Iran Summons Danish Envoy, Renews Threat to Close Hormuz
Kurt Nimmo - Iran’s foreign minister Ali Asghar Khaji summoned the Danish ambassador in Tehran to protest the European Union’s decision to go forward with an oil embargo on the country. Denmark currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

Danish ambassador summoned over Iran oil embargo
On Tuesday, The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Danish ambassador to Tehran, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, to protest about the EU’s decision to impose sanctions on Iran’s oil industry.

VIDEO: Sanctions dodge: India to pay gold for Iran oil, China may follow
RT - India has reportedly agreed to pay Tehran in gold for the oil it buys, in a move aimed at protecting Delhi from US-sanctions targeting countries who trade with Iran. China, another buyer of Iranian oil, may follow Delhi’s lead. The report, by the Israeli-based news website DEBKAfile, states that Iran and India are negotiating backup alternatives with China and Russia, should the US and EU find a way to block the gold payment mechanism.

Israel orders jail without charge for PLC speaker
An Israeli military court on Tuesday ordered the detention of Palestinian parliamentary speaker Aziz Dweik for six months without charge. Dweik, who was seized by Israeli forces at a Ramallah checkpoint on Thursday, heads the Palestinian Legislative Council. His lawyer Fadi Qawasmi said Ofer military court gave the administrative detention order early Tuesday, after a Sunday hearing was postponed. The PLC speaker's office denounced the order as an "abusive decision without any charge or legal justification," accusing Israel of trying to stop a parliamentary session scheduled for next month.

Russia to deliver combat jets to Syria: report
AP - A newspaper is reporting that Russia has signed a contract to sell combat jets to Syria in a show of support for President Bashar Assad’s regime.The business daily Kommersant said Monday without identifying its source that the $550 million deal envisages the delivery of 36 Yak-130 aircraft. A spokesman for Russia’s Rosoboronexport state arms trader refused to comment on the report. If confirmed, the deal would mark an open defiance of international efforts to put pressure on Assad’s regime, which has faced broad condemnation for its brutal crackdown on an uprising.

TEPCO has just announced - Radiation being emitted from Fukushima is 70 million becquerels per hour - It is increasing - Up 12 million from last month.
All the explosions (quakes) people have been feeling around Fukushima that are listed as earthquakes on the Japan sensors. The fact that they could not find the fuel rods when they looked in Reactor 2, was obvious something big is going on at Fukushima. Now TEPCO has announced 70 million becquerels per hour of radiation is being leaked into the air.

Magic mushroom therapy' to treat depression could happen in UK inside a year
Mail Online - A clinical trial of 'magic mushroom therapy' could take place in the UK within a year following two ground-breaking studies. Doctors plan to treat depressed patients who cannot be helped by modern drugs or behaviour-based psychotherapy with the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms. Psilocybin would slowly be infused into their bloodstreams while they receive a carefully tailored 'talking therapy'.

VIDEO: State of the Union Address: Haven't We Heard this Before?
The Republican National Committee has compiled this video comparing lines President Obama used tonight in his State of the Union Address with lines he used in previous addresses before Congress.

Obama Speech Makes Pitch for Economic Fairness
President Obama pledged on Tuesday President Obama pledged on Tuesday night to use government power to balance the scale between America’s rich and the rest of the public, trying to present an election-year choice between continued leadership toward an economy “built to last” and what he called irresponsible policies of the past that caused an economic collapse.

Obama Makes Populist Pitch
WSJ - President Barack Obama offered Americans a populist economic vision in his State of the Union address Tuesday, seeking to draw a contrast with his eventual Republican rival and demonstrating the widening policy gulf between the two political parties. Mr. Obama's laundry-list of initiatives—steep tax increases on wealthier Americans, fresh investigations into the mortgage crisis and support for domestic manufacturing—was aimed at buttressing a re-election message that posits him as defender of Americans beset by inequality in the tax code and broader economy. "It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts and no copouts," Mr. Obama said. "An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody."

Ron Paul Responds To Obama's State Of The Union Speech
Chicago Sun-Times - "Tonight, President Obama once again showed that he does not represent the fundamental change this country needs. Instead of offering solutions to the problems our country faces, the President was intent on delivering a campaign speech, further dealing in the typical Washington political gamesmanship that has gotten us exactly nowhere close to improving the lives of the American people.

VIDEO: Shock Docs: Total Federalization of Police Under New Homeland Security Mission
Aaron Dykes - A new white paper presented to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence carves out an ‘evolving mission’ for Homeland Security that moves away from fighting terrorism and towards growing a vast domestic intelligence apparatus that would expand integration with local/state agencies and private-public partnerships already underway via regional fusion centers. Crafted by the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group, co-chaired by former DHS chief Michael Chertoff and composed of a who’s who of national security figures, the report outlines a total mission creep, as the title “Homeland Security and Intelligence: Next Steps in Evolving the Mission” implies....

LA Military Exercises
KFI News - Joint military training exercises will be held evenings in downtown Los Angeles through Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD will be providing support for the exercises, which will also be held in other portions of the greater Los Angeles area, police said.

Is The NYPD Experimenting With Drones Over The City? Evidence Points To Yes
CBS New York - They’re used in war zones for surveillance and military strikes. But are there plans to deploy drones in the Big Apple to keep an eye on New Yorkers? More and more people believe it’s inevitable, reports CBS 2’s Don Dahler.

AUDIO: US corporations 'treating prisoners like commodities'
Press TV - Craig Hennecke, board chairman of Portland-based Central America Solidarity Committee, criticizes U.S. financial institutions and big banks for investing in and profiting from private prison industry in America. “It's unacceptable to be investing in prisoners and treating them like their commodities and profiting off of people,” Hennecke said in a phone interview with Press TV's U.S. Desk on Monday. He cited Wells Fargo, a giant financial services company, as a notable example of big financial corporations' involvement in private prison system in the United States.

Ruling could force Americans to decrypt laptops
American citizens can be ordered to decrypt their PGP-scrambled hard drives for police to peruse for incriminating files, a federal judge in Colorado ruled today in what could become a precedent-setting case.... Blackburn, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the Fifth Amendment posed no barrier to his decryption order. The Fifth Amendment says that nobody man be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," which has become known as the right to avoid self-incrimination.

VIDEO: Pelosi On A Gingrich Presidency: "That Will Never Happen"
CNN - Pelosi: "There is something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him that's their prerogative. I don't even think that's going to happen."

Why Democrats Think the GOP Race Might Last Until June
ABC - Why would this go on for awhile? Because a combination of an elongated schedule, new Republican National Committee rules, and some quirks of fate have diminished the importance of individual contests and reduced the ability for knock-out punches.

YouTube: The Ron Paul FIX is in
SGTreport.com - Eric Blair asks, "Could the conspiracy to keep Ron Paul out of the Oval Office be this coordinated? This pervasive?"

VIDEO: Ron Paul Campaign Releases New Ad ‘Three of a Kind’ Challenging Rivals in South Carolina
Ad condemns serial hypocrisy, counterfeit conservatism and flip-flopping of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney.

Ron Paul Announces ‘End the TSA’ Money Bomb
Steve Watson - Slams “out-of-control police state” in email to supporters. In the wake of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s run in with the TSA this week, his father, GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, has launched a new fundraising effort with the theme ‘End the TSA’. In an email to supporters Monday, Ron Paul wrote that the Senator “simply stood up for his right not to be the latest victim of the TSA’s disgusting full body pat-down.” “The elderly. The disabled. Little kids. All victims of an out-of-control police state that, while doing nothing to make us safer, is working overtime to strip away our freedoms, our rights, and our basic dignity,” Paul added.

Ron Paul Commands a Strong Plurality of Hispanic Republican Voters in Florida
KISSIMMEE, Florida – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul wins a strong plurality of Hispanic voters in the early voting state of Florida, according to a new poll. Paul earns a commanding 41.5 percent among this large voting segment, with Newt Gingrich a distant second with 25.3 percent. Mitt Romney in third place and Rick Santorum in fourth place fare quite poorly, garnering just 9.2 and 4.1 percent, respectively, in the survey of registered Republican voters who respond that they will vote in the Tuesday, January 31st primary.

VIDEO: Ground report from Ron Paul supporter outside Florida debate 1/23/2012
Daily Paul - This was the scene driving to the University of South Florida Republican primary on Jan 23rd, 2012...We stood on the street outside the actual building where we understood the debate would take place from 6 p.m. In all that time, I saw a total of only 7 small signs for Santorum, 2 lonely little signs for Gringrich that were held by two guys in dark suits (spooky), and again, just on that one street, HUNDREDS of Ron Paul signs and supporters. They had megaphones and we chanted back and forth across the street. It was all in good spirits and there was no bad behavior.

Fox Attempts to Discredit Ron Paul with “Oklahoma Inside Job” Newsletter
Kurt Nimmo - On the heels of Ron Paul’s South Carolina promise to continue forward with his quest to gain the Republican nomination and the presidency, Fox News has dredged up an yet another newsletter attributed to him in an effort to sabotage the Paul campaign. “Full of racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic statements, not to mention a variety of quack science and conspiracy theories, the newsletters have once again become an issue as Paul seeks to stay in the Republican presidential primary for the long haul,” Fox Nation reported on Monday in a repost of a BuzzFeed article.

Article II Super PAC Providing Live Internet Video Stream From Inside Obama's 3 Georgia Ballot Hearings
Article II Super PAC is providing live internet video stream coverage of Obama's 3 Georgia Ballot Hearing on January 26th in Atlanta, GA starting at 9AM ET. The live video stream will be located at this page and on the home-page of this website.

Romney’s Answer on Illegal Immigration: “Self-deportation”
Miami Herald Blog - The topic of immigration, mainly what to do about illegal immigration, got plenty of reaction from the Republican candidates on Monday night - and on Twitter. Perhaps the most interesting - and the one most tweeted about - was Romney's "self-deportation" idea for helping curb the number of illegal immigrants.'... "The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to allow them to work here," Romney said.

Romney ‘Proud Of The Fact’ That He Pays ‘A Lot’ Of Taxes, But His Plan Would Cut His Own Taxes In Half
[Citizens for Tax Justice] calculated what Romney would pay if his own plan passed. That is, if you kept the Bush tax cuts in place, including keeping the capital gains tax at 15 percent, and scrapped the Medicare tax, as Romney wants to do. Under that system, Romney would pay a rate of a little under 15 percent — because virtually all his income is from capital gains and dividends. The group calculates that this means Romney’s plan would give him a tax cut of more than 40 percent.

How To Avoid Voting For A Globalist Puppet
Alt-Market - How can the people of this country avoid making the mistake of voting for such disingenuous candidates when they seem so adept at telling us what we want to hear until they are comfortably in office? The key is to stop listening to what they SAY, and start looking closely at what they DO. We must ignore their rhetoric, their speeches written by proxy, and their bad jokes slapped together by hired staff, and begin examining their actions and their backgrounds.

Florida police nab 3 Occupy protesters
Press TV - Three protestors from Occupy Miami and Occupy Palm Beach were arrested in the city of Boca Raton in Palm Beach County, Florida on Monday evening for trying to block a bridge near the venue for the 2012 (Global Alternative Investment Management) GAIM conference. GAIM presents itself as one of the most important conferences of the hedge fund industry, with 'over 75 percent of attendees...at the managing director level and above' and thus belonging to the one-percent wealthiest in the US as opposed to the remaining 99 percent.

VA assigns officer to verify claims involving secret missions
Lack of records access has been seen by many spec ops veterans as a roadblock to filing claims, especially for disabilities such as post-traumatic stress, for which there may be nothing in military health or personnel records to verify any treatment while the veteran was in uniform. Now, the Veterans Affairs Department has assigned a liaison officer to the U.S. Special Operations Command with direct access to classified files.

La. lawmakers may enhance veterans’ benefits
Lawmakers are considering whether to broaden a program for permanently disabled veterans and to loosen rules on Louisiana’s free college tuition program so more veterans can be eligible, members of the House and Senate veterans affairs committees said Thursday.

VA expands list of ships with Agent Orange risk
The Veterans Affairs Department has added 47 vessels to its list of Navy and Coast Guard ships whose crews may have been exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange.