Money Will Expand On Studies For Treatment, Bringing Us Closer To Identifying A Cure

WASHINGTON – July 31 -

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) secured a major victory for veterans of the first Gulf War by garnering $8 million for Gulf War Illness (GWI) research in the Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations bill that passed the House yesterday.

“This research will build on previous studies on Gulf War Illness.” Kucinich said. “This funding will take giant steps forward in identifying a treatment or a cure for Gulf War Veteran’s illness.”

In its landmark 454-page report delivered in November, the Congressionally-mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans Illnesses at the Department of Veterans Affairs (RAC) reported that “Gulf War illness is real, that it is the result of neurotoxin exposures during Gulf War deployment and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time.”

For the first time, the report identified several suspected causes and two known causes: exposure to pesticides and a drug given to troops to protect them from nerve gas.

“There are currently no effective treatments for these conditions. With research, we learn the true causes of GWI and the possibilities open up. We must continue to attack GWI and fund the research with an amount commensurate with the scope of the problem,” said Kucinich.

Kucinich’s request for funding received bipartisan support from Reps. Henry Brown, Holt, Filner, Michaud, Baldwin, C. Brown, Conyers, Edwards, Grijalva, Hall, Maloney, McDermott, D. Moore, G. Moore, Pascrell, Pingree, Ross, Sestak, Stark and Yarmuth.

commondreams.org

Global warming may be taking another black eye as AccuWeather.com reports an unusually cold July, which is most pronounced in the Northeast of the United States.

While it has been unusually hot in the Southwest, AccuWeather reports that 1,044 daily record low temperatures have been broken thus far in the month of July, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NCDC).

NCDC has also recorded “low highs” for the month as well, and when that figure is added to the mix, the number of record-breakers increases to 2,925 slated to pass 3,000 before the end of the month.

The period of July 17-20 was the worst, according to AccuWeather’s gleaning of the NCDC records with more than 1,600 weather stations scattered across the country breaking records.

Furthermore in the survey, there are some dramatic ‘departure from average temperatures’ figures thus far in July. That compilation of departures includes “-10.0″ in Pennsylvania. Double-digit deficits over a month are rare, notes AccuWeather.

The majority of stations are reporting departures below normal thus far with only Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas having stations reporting above normal.

With temperatures usually peaking in the dog days of July, there are temps in the 50s in every state, and 40s in most, with some 30s.

There is also an significant lack of 85-degree days in the Northeast through July 20th.

Buffalo, Albany, Boston, Chicago, and Cincinnati have all logged 0 days in July above 85. Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New York have logged only 1 each.

Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 22 July 2009

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10671.shtml

The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback and comment sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitter and Facebook may not be all that it seems.

Israel’s foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel.

Internet-savvy Israeli youngsters, mainly recent graduates and demobilized soldiers with language skills, are being recruited to pose as ordinary surfers while they provide the government’s line on the Middle East conflict.

“To all intents and purposes the internet is a theater in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” said Ilan Shturman, who is responsible for the project.

The existence of an “internet warfare team” came to light when it was included in this year’s foreign ministry budget. About $150,000 has been set aside for the first stage of development, with increased funding expected next year.

The team will fall under the authority of a large department already dealing with what Israelis term “hasbara,” officially translated as “public explanation” but more usually meaning propaganda. That includes not only government public relations work but more secretive dealings the ministry has with a battery of private organizations and initiatives that promote Israel’s image in print, on TV and online.

In an interview this month with the Calcalist, an Israeli business newspaper, Shturman, the deputy director of the ministry’s hasbara department, admitted his team would be working undercover.

“Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the hasbara department of the Israeli foreign ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis,” he said. “They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the foreign ministry developed.”

As the US feels the strain on its armed forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the country’s defense secretary talks of plans to expand the Army by 22,000 soldiers.

Speaking at a Pentagon news conference with Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the military has reached a point where “its ability to continue to deploy combat units at acceptable fill rates is at risk.”

Gates argued that the goal of the increase is to ease the strain of deployment, as many troops have faced repeated lengthy rotations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“This is an important and necessary step to ensure that we continue to properly support the needs of commanders in the field, while providing relief for our current force and their families,” Gates explained.

The defense secretary said the increase will last three fiscal years, expanding US troop levels from the current 547,000 to a maximum of 569,000.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a 30,000 increase in the number of US soldiers could add between $2 billion and $4 billion a year in costs.

This is while previous reports indicate that the US House of Representatives and Senate committees have passed bills that would funnel more money into the department in charge of foreign policy.

Under the bills, the State Department will receive about 25% more from what was spent in 2008 and nearly double the amount in 2005.

Meanwhile US President Barack Obama’s 2010 defense budget seeks to “rebalance military spending,” giving greater weight to funding irregular warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under the new plans, the Pentagon may be forced to cut traditional weapons spending, and expand resources to protect ground troops and computer networks.

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=101233&sectionid=3510203

As the Obama administration struggles to fix the economy, fifteen US states hit 10 percent unemployment, the US Labor Department says.

The department announced on Friday that unemployment topped 10 percent in 15 states across America and the District of Columbia for the month of June.

In Michigan, the jobless rate surpassed 15 percent. It is the first time in 25 years that any US state has been challenged with an unemployment rate so high, ever since 1984 in West Virginia.

The other 14 states are Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee.

The previous report in May recorded thirteen states and the District of Columbia surpassing a jobless rate of 10 percent. Alabama and Georgia joined the latest list in June.

The Federal Reserve this week projected that the national unemployment rate, currently at a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, will pass 10 percent by the end of this year.

Most Federal policymakers say it could take “five or six years” for the economy and the labor market to get back on a path of long-term health.

President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, said that the administration and other independent forecasters had underestimated job losses.

He said it was unclear why employers had shed so many workers in this downturn, the New York Times reported

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=101016&sectionid=3510203

Global warming warrants cool reception

Deroy Murdock, Scripps Howard News Service

As cap-and-trade advocates tie their knickers in knots over so-called “global warming,” Mother Nature refuses to cooperate. Earth’s temperatures continue a chill that began 11 years ago. 

As global cooling accelerates, global-warmists kick, scream and push their pet theory – just like little kids who cover their ears and stomp their feet when older children tell them not to bother waiting up for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

Consider how the globe cooled last month:

• June in Manhattan averaged 67.5 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.7 degrees below normal – the coldest average since 1958. The National Weather Service stated July 1: “The last time that Central Park hit 85 in May . . . but not in June was back in 1903.”

• In Phoenix, June’s high temperatures were below 100 degrees for 15 days straight, the first such June since 1913. In California’s desert, Yucca Valley’s June average was 83.5, 8.5 degrees below normal. Downtown Los Angeles averaged 74.5 degrees, five below normal.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090717/OPINION04/307179972

ATLANTA–11Alive has learned Cynthia McKinney has entered Gaza.

A spokesperson for the former Georgia Congresswoman issued a release just after midnight indicating she entered Palestinian territory Wednesday.

11Alive has obtained photos from a Palestinian support website which appear to show her there. Mckinney and the group of activists she is traveling with are reportedly delivering aid.

This would make McKinney’s third attempt to enter Gaza. Twice before she tried entering Gaza by boat and was turned back or detained by Israeli officials. According to the release from a McKinney spokesperson, the group entered by caravan from Egypt.

11Alive’s Brenda Wood spoke exclusively with McKinney last week in Washington after the former Representative was released from Israeli custody.

“Why didn’t you go the accepted route and take the humanitarian aid by land?” Wood asked.

“The aid isn’t getting isn’t getting in,” McKinney said. “And the aid that does get in is certainly disproportionate to the need.”

Stay with 11Alive and 11Alive.com for the latest on this developing story.

By RHONDA COOK, LARRY HARTSTEIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, July 05, 2009

Cynthia McKinney’s mom said she’s learned that her daughter is on the way home.

Leola McKinney said a friend who contacted the U.S. Embassy in Israel reported that the former congresswoman was released from Israeli custody and taken to Ben Gurion International Airport.

“We finally got word that she was released,” Leola McKinney said late Sunday afternoon. “We don’t know what time she is supposed to fly out. All we know is that they took her to the airport.

“I would be more relieved when I know she’s on the flight,” Leola McKinney added. “But I am relieved that she’s away from there.”

McKinney had been in custody since Tuesday, when she and 20 others were swept up by the Israeli Navy while allegedly trying to sail through a navy blockade. The group says it was attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

McKinney and the rest of her group could have been released soon after they were taken into custody but they refused to sign a document admitting they violated Israel’s blockade, according to McKinney’s parents. The group was due to appear in an Israeli court Sunday.

Leola McKinney said she had no information about the court hearing.

Leola McKinney said she had not spoken with her daughter since shortly after she was taken into custody.

Cynthia McKinney and other members of the “Free Gaza Movement ” left Cyprus Tuesday on the Greek-registered ship Arion.

Their ship was stopped when they tried to pass through the Israeli Navy’s security blockade at Ashdod. The group was taken into custody and their ship was seized. Israel officials promised to deliver by ground all of the humanitarian supplies that were on the boat.

Family, friends and supporters say Cynthia McKinney believed she was in international waters and was free to pass.

“The Israelis hijacked us because we wanted to give crayons to the children of Gaza,” Cynthia McKinney said in a recorded statement delivered via telephone and posted on the internet site YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkPvzSZRuDo].

The office of the Consulate General of Israel in Atlanta said in a statement released Friday, “According to Israeli law Ms. McKinney and her fellow crew members were suggested to sign a form acknowledging their deportation… Since Ms. McKinney has refused to do so, she is expected to appear before an Israeli judge on Sunday, July 5, and afterwards be returned home as soon as possible.”

Civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery, head of the Atlanta-based Coalition for the People’s Agenda, said he and others have spoken by phone with the Consulate General of Israel.

“Whatever happened, there was no harm done,” Lowery said. “She was not carrying munitions, but medicine. We hope Israel will show compassion and release her and let her go on to deliver the much-needed medicine to the Gaza Strip. … If she were carrying guns, that would be a different thing. [But] she was carrying humanitarian aid.”

Israeli officials blame McKinney and her group for the controversy, saying they were looking for confrontation to attract publicity. The officials note that Palestinian Authority and the rest of the international community had agreed to the off-shore blockade to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which is classified by the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist organization.

Leola McKinney said the trip would have received no “publicity if they had been allowed to deliver supplies to Gaza. They [Israel] made an issue out of it by taking the boat and escorting them into Israel.”

Billy McKinney, Cynthia McKinney’s father and a former state legislator, said his daughter was only trying to show “the devastation in Gaza… Anybody who has a humanitarian spirit would not want to see those people live in those conditions.”

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/2009/07/05/mckinney_israel.html

Dr. Paul has the cure for America’s ills By Eric S Margolis / Washington

Republican Congressman Ron Paul became a hero to many Americans last year when he ran for president against the political establishment.  The 11-term Texas congressman is the most respected and admired American politician around the world after Barack Obama.

Representative Paul is a vocal critic of America’s foreign wars; he sits on the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Dr Paul invited me to Washington to address his weekly luncheon in his office on Capitol Hill on the intensifying wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  A group of independent-minded Republican congressmen attended.

During last year’s presidential race, I called Paul, “the only candidate who is telling Americans the truth about foreign affairs”.  I came to respect and admire Paul’s courage, honesty, and refusal to accept special interest money.

Speaking of today’s US Congress, Dr Paul observes: “Special interests have replaced the concern the Founders had for the general welfare.”

In fact, Representative Paul has been a model of the legislators envisaged by America’s founding fathers: men of high moral standards and intellect dedicated to the nation’s wellbeing.

He reminds me in many ways of the fiercely upright senators of the early Roman Republic.  The Roman Senate served as the model for the United States Senate.

Paul, a physician, used to deliver babies on Mondays and Saturdays while serving in office.

The 74-year-old doctor from Texas electrified young Americans with his grassroots campaign, providing voters a real alternative to the Republicans and Democratic establishment which often appears to be one party with two factions.

Paul’s clear, cool voice challenged all the government and media propaganda about Afghanistan and Iraq. Dr Paul is also waging a  determined battle against the runaway spending and soaring national debt being promoted by the Obama White House and Congressional Democrats.

Paul and his fellow libertarian Republicans advocate individual rights, strict adherence to the US Constitution, limited government, and free enterprise. They oppose   American global domination, “nation-building”, and all foreign wars not waged in the direct defence of American territory.

Paul opposes US involvement in other nation’s internal affairs.  As anti-Iranian hysteria gripped the nation last month, Paul was the only House member who voted against a bill condemning Iran for its recent election.  That’s real courage.

“There is no area in which Republicans have further strayed from our traditions than in foreign affairs,” writes Paul. He dismisses claims by pro-Israel neoconservatives that “we have to either fight them over there or over here” as a “false choice”. America has no business policing the world.  US foreign policy is undermining America’s national security, says Dr Paul.

Only Congress, he insists, has the right to declare war, not the president.  Congress cravenly abandoned this right during the buildup to the Iraq War that was fuelled by the Bush administration’s shameless lies and  war-mongering by the US media.

Dr Paul’s amiable manner and lack of the bloated self-importance that so typifies Washington bigwigs conceals a very keen intellect and depth of knowledge.  He also has one of the capital’s sharpest foreign affairs staff chiefs, Daniel McAdams.  It is a relief to find key decision-makers in Washington who actually understand the outside world.

As I talked with Dr Paul, it occurred to me that he and his fellow libertarians are the potent remedy that the dreadfully sick Republican Party so desperately needs. Paul’s Liberty Caucus will hopefully form the core around which a vigorous, new party grows that addresses America’s real needs.

President George Bush and the neocons almost destroyed the Republican Party, as this columnist predicted before the  2003 invasion of Iraq.  What’s left of the Republicans has become a rump dominated by Christian religious fundamentalists, Southerners, and war-loving neoconservatives. No longer a place for a moderate, New York Republican like myself.

Republicans have also been suffering a series of lurid sex scandals that have made its members look both extremely hypocritical and awfully stupid.  Meanwhile, extreme right-wingers like the odious Rush Limbaugh and former speaker Newt Gingrich are vying to become the party’s voice.

Dr Paul and his fellow libertarians offer Republicans and Americans a real alternative to the dumbed-down Republicans and to the wildly spending Democrats whose expanded Afghanistan war and reckless economic policies are leading the nation into growing danger.

AE911Truth to Speak in Washington DC

We’re off to Washington DC! And we need your help…

AE911Truth flies to DC July 11th with a team of five to produce these events:

1. Sign Up Architects at Our AIA Booth

We will host a 10′ x 10′ exhibit booth at the DC Convention of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) – July 14, 15, and 16. We will be speaking to several hundred architects over the three-day period and giving them DVDs and brochures.  We hope to sign up at least one hundred more architects on our website!  Consider flying/driving to DC and helping us in our booth if you are in the area. You would need to competently convey the essential points of the explosive evidence at the 3 World Trade Center high-rises – while wearing professional attire. To find out more or RSVP, contact Dave Slesinger at 410-499-5403 and/or davidslesinger (at) yahoo.com.

We will also host room #141 in the Convention Center where our new 30-minute version of 9/11: Blueprint for Truth – Companion Edition will be playing every hour on the hour followed by live Q&A.  We are making major inroads into the building professional community with these AIA conventions.  The reverberations throughout the country, from San Francisco, where we started, to DC and beyond, have been and will be deep and penetrating.  The AIA is already supporting us, though silently, by deliberately approving the AE911Truth booth at their events.  We have also already been approved for the November AIA Richmond, Virginia event.  We are all feeling that the dam of official denial might be about to break.

2. Speak at Busboys and Poets

On Thursday night 7/16 we will be speaking at 6pm and at 8pm at an unusual restaurant designed for this kind of event, called “Busboys and Poets.” See details below. Send the poster below to all your contacts in the area and let them know to bring their friends as well. We also hope to attract dozens of architects from the convention.

3. Speak to Congresspeople

Here is where we need you the most! On both Monday 7/13 and Friday 7/17 we will be speaking individually to your Congressional Representatives and Senators. We have several appointments already and expect to have a couple of dozen appointments. The key is that you have to be there! Some of you may be able to drive or even fly out to DC to attend a meeting with your representative on these dates. And we will be there with you to make the 10- or 15-minute presentation at the appointment. We’ve done this a few times already and have it down now. The trick is that you have to be there as a constituent for us to have access. As soon as you have successfully made an appointment, call Dave Slesinger at 410-499-5403 and/or email him at davidslesinger (at) yahoo.com.

Don’t worry about the schedule. Just make the appointment for any time on these two days that you can be there physically. Chances are you will only be able to make an appointment with a staffer. That’s OK! You can call them and ask for a 15-minute appointment because you are bringing a representative of over 700 Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth — some of whom live in their district — who are all calling upon Congress for real investigation of the destruction of the 3 World Trade Center high-rises on 9/11. And that you believe it is a matter of grave importance to the United States that this new explosive evidence be brought to their attention immediately.

AE911Truth DC Flyer

AE911Truth PDF Flyer for DC
(Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Forward this link to DC-area people with high-speed Internet who might want to download the high-resolution file for printing:

http://www.ae911truth.org/downloads/DC_AE_Event.pdf