ConstitutionDay

Read the US Constitution

I like to read source texts that are talked often but not read. Some of these I have read include the religious text like bible, the qaran and now I have moved on to read the US constitution and bill of rights- full text here.

As texts go it is actually pretty succinct. Like my other experiences it was quite enlightening and really makes you question the “consensus opinion” when so many people who have an opinion about it have never read it. It lays down a number of limitations of government powers. The current US Government ignores parts of the constitution even though it is supposed to be bound by it. Recently the government has been passing bills to gain more government power. Below is an example of yet another bill that moves power to the Government and out of the hands of the citizens.

I was going to write this but then I thought I’d just use the source

I’ve copied this everything below straight from http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/03/a-detention-bill-you-ought-to-read-more-carefully/37116/
It quotes the US government bill that I have read on which can be found on govtrack

“Why is the national security community treating the “Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010,” introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration’s choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of the bill suggests it would allow the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens without trial indefinitely in the U.S. based on suspected activity. Read the bill here, and then read the summarized points after the jump.

According to the summary, the bill sets out a comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of suspected enemy belligerents who are believed to have engaged in hostilities against the United States by requiring these individuals to be held in military custody, interrogated for their intelligence value and not provided with a Miranda warning.

(There is no distinction between U.S. persons–visa holders or citizens–and non-U.S. persons.)

It would require these “belligerents” to be coded as “high-value detainee[s]” to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team established by the president. (The H.I.G., of course, was established to bring a sophisticated interrogation capacity to the federal justice system.)

Any suspected unprivileged enemy belligerents considered a “high-value detainee” shall not be provided with a Miranda warning.
The bill asks the President to determine criteria for designating an individual as a “high-value detainee” if he/she: (1) poses a threat of an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the U.S. or U.S. facilities abroad; (2) poses a threat to U.S. military personnel or U.S. military facilities; (3) potential intelligence value; (4) is a member of al Qaeda or a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda or (5) such other matters as the President considers appropriate. The President must submit the regulations and guidance to the appropriate committees of Congress no later than 60 days after enactment.
To the extent possible, the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team must make a preliminary determination whether the detainee is an unprivileged enemy belligerent within 48 hours of taking detainee into custody.
The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team must submit its determination to the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General after consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  The Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General make a final determination and report the determination to the President and the appropriate committees of Congress.  In the case of any disagreement between the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General, the President will make the determination. Note that the president doesn’t make this call
rick-astley

Never Gonna Give you up by Rick Asterly

Bill Drummond of the 90’s band the KLF who wrote the masterly book “How to have a number 1 hit single the easy way” download here . In it he stated  that Rick Asterlys song “Never gonna give you up by Rick Asterly” is probably the best pop song ever written.

Rick Asterlys wikipeadia page is here

So what would Rick do?

In the event that you cannot remember this song or have never heard it I have included a video for you education.

I also thought you may find this amusing

holiday

Holiday in Wonderland (The Grampians)

I went away camping this weekend in the Grampians

On the way we hired a 4wd (we wanted more space than a Hyundi getz) and this was all they had. I have to say it is a really silly vehicle to hire. It uses loads of gas and is not that big inside is uncomfortable to drive and you loose your bond on the vehicle if it gets so much as scratched (so no off-roading). Why do people hire these?

It rained friday night and kept us both up all night. On Saturday we bought ear plugs which meant we slept well on Saturday.

Anyway we also hit a number of bird sized moths on the way. Below is a picture of the vehicle and a moth I prized from the bumper.


Highlights
Grampains is awesome we went here first (Mckenzie falls or black fish falls)

and here (Wonderland)

and here (the grand canyon in Wonderland)

Details
Got to Eurpoecar at 4:00 left at 4:30 went hope and packed. Left house at 6:30 arrived at campsite at 10:30.

put tent up in 15 mins

pumpkins

Sex Starved Pumpkins

Although the pumpkin plants in my garden are huge they keep producing little baby pumpkins that just fall when about the size of a tennis ball.

A friend of mine has suggested it is casued by the fact that they have not germinated. The cure?

Get a flower (that has no bulge under it)
Wipe the stamen over the flowers on top of the little pumpkins

I have now tried this – wait and see I guess!

marysville

The Cathedral Ranges National Park & Fire

I have just got back from the cathedral ranges National Park. We bought a new canvas tent. The tent was good and easy to put up although the bag has ripped allready hmm.

From Catherdral Ranges 5/04/10 11:15 AM

Cathedral Ranges national Park last year 98% of it was burnt by the fire.

We were close to the town of Taggerty which had an exhibition and a sausage sizzle on the fire from the previous year which included small books written by the survivors. We went to the town of Alexandra (Which has a statue of Princess Alexandra of Denmark shipped from the UK).

We also went to Marysville – a town that was burnt down in one of the 400 fires that raged during the the Black Saturday bush fires. We both found it quite  sombre but also positive as the town is starting to be rebuilt. (Details here )

A short video of Marysville before the fire

Marysville after the fire

haiti earthquake

Haiti Earthquake

It is true that the US reaction to the Haiti earthquake has been strange and amounted to a military takeover. There have also been a number of earthquakes at strategically sensitive areas recently . So I did a bit of digging.

It didn’t take me long to find news comming from countries unfriendly to the US. The claim is that the Haiti earthquake was caused by the US Navy using a new weapon called HAARP.

Hugo Chavez from Venezuala went as far as accusing the US of trialing this weapon on Haiti so it can be used on Iran later.



So the key questions are


1. Could such a weapon be built?
2. If it was built would the US use it?


In answer to the first question 


The an official on the US State department claims that it would be likely that other countries have such a weapon.


Here’s the exchange, taken verbatim from the transcript of  Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen posted on the Defense Department’s Website:

“Q: Let me ask you specifically about last week’s scare here in Washington, and what we might have learned from how prepared we are to deal with that (inaudible), at B’nai Brith.

A: Well, it points out the nature of the threat. It turned out to be a false threat under the circumstances. But as we’ve learned in the intelligence community, we had something called — and we have James Woolsey here to perhaps even address this question about phantom moles. The mere fear that there is a mole within an agency can set off a chain reaction and a hunt for that particular mole which can paralyze the agency for weeks and months and years even, in a search. The same thing is true about just the false scare of a threat of using some kind of a chemical weapon or a biological one. There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least. Alvin Toeffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco- type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves. 

So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It’s real, and that’s the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that’s why this is so important.”

The entire transcript can be accessed at the Defense Department’s Website here.



Below is a video about HAARP



In answer to the question  “If it was built would the US use it?” well I’m not sure. But I know is that it’s pretty scary and I think the US government is pretty out of control right now. hmmm.


Below is a theory as to why Haiti was taken over. The theory is that Venezuela signed a deal with China to supply oil to China at the end of the year. The reason Haiti was occupied was so Venezuela could be blockaded to prevent China from getting the oil hmm interesting. I need to research this.


More research on this

  • It is true that Venezuala and China signed a significant agreement in Nov 2010 click here
Another video that claims that the US army were in the middle of a drill to save Haiti from a hurricaine

I have just spent a little time looking into the “drill” and it looks like it really did happen.

“On Monday, Jean Demay, DISA’s technical manager for the agency’s Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project, happened to be at the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami preparing for a test of the system in a scenario that involved providing relief to Haiti in the wake of a hurricane. After the earthquake hit on Tuesday, Demay said SOUTHCOM decided to go live with the system.”

see full article here

This link may be of interest it gives more details about the drills the day before the earthquake.

hyperinflation

Hyperinflation in the US its likelihood and worldwide impacts

This post was first in my other blog http://fatcatsfinance.blogspot.com/ I don’t normally copy contents over but I thought it a mention here.

It’s a bit depressing but more people are now talking about the US and it’s likelyhood for having huge inflation.

Ron Paul (video above) is my favourite US politition (I only really like him and Ralph Nadar). He serves on the House Financial Services Committee, the International Relations committee, and the Joint Economic Committee and on the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Paul serves as the vice-chairman of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee.

There is another interesting article about the fed here all in all the more I understand about the subject the bleaker it looks.

As part of my investment startegy and as a hedge against hyperinflation I am looking into how I buy land with some of my superannuation. I will let you know how I get on