911 artifacts of melted concrete & steel

by Geezer Power …10:07 pm

Click picture to see the detail

Concrete disintigrates at about 1000 degrees fahrenheit but doesn’t melt untill it reaches approximately 3000 degrees. Steel melts at around 2500 degrees so this conglomerate must have formed at around this temperature as some of the gun parts are melted. If the whole thing was to exceed the melting point of the agragate in the concrete it would end up being a form of lava or obsidian.

If a geologist in the distant future were to find one of these artifacts he would probably have no idea what he was looking at or why these man made objects ended up in the conglomerate.

Some speculation on thermite.

One of the things that could possibly cause temperatures of this magnitude would be thermite. The other one is the use of direct energy weapons which is easily diverted because it sounds like such a crazy idea to anyone who hasn’t seen the information on them. However Youtube has some interesting videos that show that such things do exist and are indeed being used and have been operational for some time.

Why write about such a mundane subject?

I suppose it’s because I wonder how the NIST could be working on an explanation of what happened on that fateful day, and still has not completed their report, although it already contains 10,000 pages. I suppose that it’s because I think that there should be an independent and open investigation. You know…like things are done in a democracy…G:

Read Full Post »

Stop-Loss: Iraq Film Misses the Mark

By Paul Rieckhoff @ 11:09 PM (EST)

Stop-Loss is Hollywood’s latest attempt to define the Iraq war and the American troops who have fought in it. And is it the latest to fail.

I’m not a film critic, so I’ll skip over the weak script, melodramatic music, and atrocious “southern” accents. But I feel an obligation as a veteran, and especially as the head of the largest Iraq and Afghanistan veterans group in America, to comment on films that attempt to define our experiences. Iraq and Afghanistan vets must serve as pop culture watchdogs, and help the American public understand what is an accurate portrayal of the Iraq experience… and what is not.

First of all, the movie contains some inaccuracies any vet could have spotted. For instance, in one scene, a wounded enlisted soldier repeatedly calls his enlisted squad leader (a Staff Sergeant) “sir.” “Sir” is a title for officers. Calling a two-tour staff sergeant “sir” would probably bring on a response familiar to anyone who has served in the Army: “Don’t call me Sir. I work for a living.” It may seem like a minor critique, but it is one of the many little things that erode Stop-Loss’s authenticity.

But what really bothers me about Stop-Loss is the stereotyping of combat veterans. When they aren’t pro-war, beer-swigging, handgun-toting, Toby Keith-singing super-patriots with flags tattooed on their arms, troops in Stop-Loss are driving drunk, getting in fistfights and hitting their wives. This “Rambo” stereotype is sure to scare the hell out of most Americans — and definitely my neighbors. Many veterans already feel isolated when they come home from combat. Films like Stop-Loss will only ostracize them further.

Some may argue that on balance, the film is good because it shows that America is in a war that impacts real men and women. Psychological injuries and stop-loss are very real issues. At least one in three Iraq veterans, or about half a million people, will face a serious mental health injury, and over 70,000 service members have been affected by a shortsighted and unfair “stop-loss” policy that keeps troops in the military after their contracts are up. But Hollywood and the media must find a balanced way to address these issues with sensitivity and understanding, not cheap generalizations and made-for-TV sensationalism. And if it takes Stop-Loss to open your eyes to the effects of the war, then you have been sleeping for way too long, and should go back to watching My Super Sweet 16 on MTV.

Maybe HBO’s Generation Kill or Matt Damon’s The Green Zone will be the first feature film to hit the mark. We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, if you want to understand the struggle of combat veterans, I suggest you check out a great documentary: The War Tapes. It’s the true story of a National Guard unit serving in Iraq, filmed by the troops themselves. These troops tell their own stories, and it makes for compelling watching. But when it comes to Hollywood, Iraq veterans are still waiting to have their stories properly told.

Cross posted at Huffington Post

Read Full Post »

McCain: Married To The Mob?

By- Suzie-Q @ 7:30 PM MST

Good Evening Justice Bloggers! 🙂

I’ve posted the link to this story on my blog a couple of times but never posted the actual story.

This isn’t exactly a bedtime story but I think it is time to publish it again…

S-Q

From: Deep Thought

Monday, December 18, 2006

Married to the Mob

Ever since the 2000 election, when Vietnam combat veteran John McCain burst onto the scene in the Republican Presidential primaries as a ‘moderate alternative’ to George W. Bush, it seems that he has led a charmed political life. George Bush is known to detest McCain personally, but he has needed him. Liberals held their fire because every now and then McCain throws them a bone (in fact John Kerry wasted valuable time and effort trying to convince McCain, who was the chair of the Bush campaign in Arizona, to defect and run on a ticket with him; what it also meant was that when John Kerry picked John Edwards for the ticket, everyone knew he was a second choice.) Independents ooze over the conservative McCain (and conservative he is, just look at his voting record,) as if they think he is one of them. Even Bush backers, like Pat Robertson (who thoroughly trashed McCain in South Carolina) have warmed up to him.

And one of McCain’s biggest assets, according to most of these people is that he eschews negative campaigning.

There is a good reason for that though. It’s a tale that involves organized crime, corruption and murder. Let’s say that John McCain never runs a negative ad against his opponents because he doesn’t want them to dig too hard.

It’s because McCain is where he is because of his marriage to his second wife, Cindy. No, Cindy Hensley McCain is not where the story begins. She was a young 25 when McCain married her (he was 43). According to the Arizona Republic on June 5, 1999, McCain joked that his marriage was based on a ’tissue of lies.’ Both he and she had lied to each other, she claiming to be older than she was and he claiming to be younger. Yeah, I know– what a good foundation for a marriage to start off on. To their credit the McCains however have stayed together. Or maybe there are other reasons…

One wonders what Cindy told McCain about her father. When did McCain learn how his father-in-law Jim Hensley made his fortune? Sooner or later he had to be dealt in on the ‘family jewels.’ After all, they helped finance a run for Congress and not long after that for the Senate.

Jim Hensley and his brother Eugene went to work after World War II for Kemper Marley, a wealthy wholesale liquor distributor. Marley, in fact, had once been a bookie, getting his start working for the Transamerica Wire Service, a betting service established by mafiosi Gus Greenbaum (who was murdered with his wife when their throats were slashed in bed in 1958). Until 1947, liquor was rationed by the government. Apparently Marley did quite well in spite of the restrictions, and in 1948 the reason why became clear. Eugene and Jim Hensley were convicted of falsifying records on behalf of Marley’s distributorship, United Liquor (along with fifty other Marley employees) to conceal the illegal distribution of hundreds of cases of liquor. Jim Hensley got a six month suspended sentence.

In 1953, Jim Hensley, then the General Manager for United Liquor, was once more charged for doing the same thing again. Marley paid for top notch legal representation though (future Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.) Hensley still went to prison, but took the fall when the rest of the company was cleared. According to an article in American Mafia.com, Marley rewarded Hensley for his loyalty to the organization:

When Hensley strolled out of the joint, Marley bought his silence with a lucrative Phoenix-based Budweiser beer distributorship.

That distributorship and the rest of Marley’s empire did very well over the decades for both Hensley and Marley, making both men multi-millionaires.

In fact, Marley was interested in more than just liquor. In 1976, then Gov. Raul Castro, a Democrat, appointed Marley, then a billionaire and the state’s richest man, to the state racing commission.

And that’s when one of those pesky investigative reporters got in the way. The reporter’s name was Don Bolles and he worked for the Arizona Republic. Bolles discovered a land fraud ring and other crimes that appeared to lead to Sen. Barry Goldwater and other movers and shakers in Arizona. And he discovered that Kemper Marley, newly appointed to the State Board Racing Commission, had connections to the Mafia. In fact, Marley was a close associate of Peter Licavoli, the mob boss for Arizona. Marley had also served as Chairman of the Board for Valley National Bank, which helped bankroll Bugsy Siegel’s construction of the Flamingo in Las Vegas. Digging into Marley’s past also uncovered his earlier work for Gus Greenbaum. The revelations forced Marley to resign from the commission.

And Kemper Marley and his associates in the Mafia weren’t people whose business you interfered with lightly.

Read Full Post »

Write A Caption…

By- Suzie-Q @ 4:30 PM MST

Bush was booed when he threw the first pitch at the Nationals home opener

Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil

Read Full Post »

Proposal For Greatest Restructuring Of The Nation’s Financial Networks Since The Great Depression

By- Suzie-Q @ 12:30 PM MST

Paulson Suggests Massive Oversight Changes

Proposal Would Be the Largest Overhaul of Financial Regulators Since the Great Depression

By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit
March 31, 2008

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced this morning a sweeping plan to restructure the hodgepodge of federal agencies and regulators who oversee the nation’s financial networks.

But don’t expect to see any changes soon — or any relief out of this plan for Americans struggling to pay their bills.

Paulson’s plan is not aimed at fixing the current economic crisis, but at preventing future meltdowns in the market.

The proposal would give the Federal Reserve more power at the expense of several other agencies, most notably the Securities and Exchange Commission. Other agencies would be folded into other existing or new agencies.And with presidential and congressional elections just a few months away, it is highly doubtful that any changes outlined here will be implemented before the Bush administration leaves Washington.

“These long-term ideas require thoughtful discussion and will not be resolved this month or even this year,” Paulson said.

Read Full Post »

Antarctic ice shelf continues to break up

by Geezer Power …12:28 pm

~VIDEO~

A large chunk of the Wilkins ice shelf has broken off showing the long lineal fractures and right angle corners of these huge blocks of ice. A scientist from the British Antarctic Survey predicted this break-up in 1993.

In the following article is an awesome video of the ice shelf taken from an old Twin Otter Aircraft. Whether caused by something called Global Warming or a natural warming cycle, this cannot be ignored. I believe that the primary cause of the current warming trends is the unprecedented harvesting of trees and plantlife by mankind on virtually every part of the planet. The cooling effects of the transpiration of water from trees when removed in large areas like Brazil has an effect on weather patterns, and at the same time decreases Mother Natures ability to replenish the very oxygen that is necessary for animal life. The Earth’s resources, fossile fuels in particular, are like a natural battery, providing fire to run the technology we feel is necessary to enhance our existence, and we are using it up like there is no tomorrow.

This whole thing probably started when Zog Earlyman cooked up his first Mastedon steak and our technology hasn’t really advanced much since those times. Mankind has learned how to burn the crap out of everything, but hasn’t even came close to replicating the natural ability of plant life to utilize carbon dioxide in the production of oxygen.

End of rant…G:

British Antarctic Survey

25 Mar 2008

Glaciologist Ted Scambos from the University of Colorado alerted colleagues Professor David Vaughan and Andrew Fleming of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) that the ice shelf looked at risk. After checking daily satellite pictures, BAS sent a Twin Otter aircraft on a reconnaissance mission to check out the extent of the breakout.

Professor Vaughan, who in 1993 predicted that the northern part of Wilkins Ice Shelf was likely to be lost within 30 years if climate warming on the Peninsula were to continue at the same rate, says,

“Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened. I didn’t expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread – we’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.”

Jim Elliott was onboard the BAS Twin Otter to capture video of the breakout for Vaughan and colleagues. He says,

“I’ve never seen anything like this before – it was awesome. We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage. Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they’ve been thrown around like rubble – it’s like an explosion.”

The breakout is the latest drama in a region of Antarctica that has experienced unprecedented warming over the last 50 years. Several ice shelves have retreated in the past 30 years – six of them collapsing completely (Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and the Jones Ice Shelf.)

Professor Vaughan continues,

“Climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula has pushed the limit of viability for ice shelves further south – setting some of them that used to be stable on a course of retreat and eventual loss. The Wilkins breakout won’t have any effect on sea-level because it is floating already, but it is another indication of the impact that climate change is having on the region.”

Read Full Post »

Afternoon Jukebox… BREAK THE ICE

By- Suzie-Q @ 12:25 PM MST

BRITNEY SPEARS – BREAK THE ICE

Read Full Post »

A third American war crime in the making

anthony @ 20:53 BST

Paul Craig Roberts | Online Journal | Monday, March 31, 2008

The US Congress, the US media, the American people, and the United Nations, are looking the other way as Cheney prepares his attack on Iran.

If only America had an independent media and an opposition party. If there were a shred of integrity left in American political life, perhaps a third act of naked aggression — a third war crime under the Nuremberg standard — by the Bush Regime could be prevented.

On March 30, the Russian News & Information Agency, Novosti, cited “a high-ranking security source: ‘The latest military intelligence data point to heightened US military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran.’”

According to Novosti, Russian Colonel General Leonid Ivashov said “that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran’s military infrastructure in the near future.”

The chief of Russia’s general staff, Yuri Baluyevsky, said last November that Russia was beefing up its military in response to US aggression, but that the Russian military is not “obliged to defend the world from the evil Americans.”

On March 29, Chris Floyd cited a report by the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz, which was picked up by the German news service, DPA. The Saudi newspaper reported on March 22, the day following Cheney’s visit with the kingdom’s rulers, that the Saudi Shura Council is preparing “national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts’ warnings of possible attacks on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactors.”

And Admiral William “there will be no attack on Iran on my watch” Fallon has been removed as US chief of Central Command, thus clearing the way for Cheney’s planned attack on Iran.

Read Full Post »

Two Of McCain’s Top Advisers Lobbied For Ameriquest

By- Suzie-Q @ 9:30 AM MST

Two McCain aides lobbied for ’shady’ mortgage lender.»

On Friday, the Politico reported that the past anti-regulatory and lobbying efforts of one of Sen. John McCain’s top economic advisers, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, “contributed significantly to today’s economic turmoil.” Today, the New York Daily News reports “that two of his top advisers were recently lobbyists for a notorious lender in the mortgage meltdown“:

John Green, the senator’s chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.

Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show.

“They would be defined as the most blatant and aggressive predatory lenders out of everybody,” said Bruce Marks, head of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.

Read Full Post »

Battle for Haditha

anthony @ 15:50 BST

There are many ways to see the same story.

An investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by 4 U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. The movie follows the story of the Marines of Kilo Company, an Iraqi family, and the insurgents who plant the roadside bomb.

Warning: Some viewers may find some of the scenes depicted in this film distressing.

Part 1 Of 10

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLLtkS8XV8E]

Read Full Post »