Filed under: 1st amendment, 9/11, 9/11 commission report, 9/11 coverup, 9/11 Firefighters, 9/11 investigation, 9/11 Mysteries, 9/11 questions, 9/11 Truth, 9/11 workers, Afghanistan, bloomberg, catastrophic event, Coup, daniel sunjata, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, False Flag, first responders, free press, George Bush, giuliani, Ground Zero, Hegelian Dialectic, History Channel, inside job, Iraq, Michael Bloomberg, Military Industrial Complex, Mineta Testemony, nation building, New York, NYCCAN, occupation, Official 9/11 Story, petition, PNAC, Police State, Problem Reaction Solution, qui bono, Rudy Giuliani, State Sponsored Terrorism, truth movement, twin towers, u.s. constitution, War Crimes, War On Terror, World Trade Center
‘Rescue Me’ Star Makes Powerful 9/11 Truth Speech
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 Families, 9/11 Firefighters, 9/11 Truth, 9/11 victims, 9/11 workers, FDNY, fealgood foundation, first responders, Ground Zero, House, Michael Bloomberg, New York, NYPD, senate congress, World Trade Center | Tags: health care, Health Care Bill, Healthcare, world tr
Congress Ends 9/11 Workers’ Health Care Bill
http://www.fealgoodfoundation.com
Filed under: Britain, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Co2, Economy, environmental taxation, Europe, global tax, Global Warming, london, Michael Bloomberg, New York, tax, United Kingdom, US Economy | Tags: David Paterson, Sheldon Silver, Stu Loeser
New York Driving Tax Blocked
AP
April 8, 2008
Lawmakers rejected a proposal on Monday to charge Manhattan motorists an extra fee to drive in the city, a plan advocates hoped would reduce traffic and curb pollution.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced the decision after a survey of Democratic Assembly members in a private conference. The decision comes after days of closed-door negotiations, and means the city will forfeit $354 million in federal funding for trying to kick-start the plan.
The concept aimed to cut traffic and pollution by forcing more commuters onto mass transit. It would have charged most drivers $8 to drive below 60th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Truckers would have paid $21.
The Legislature faced a Monday deadline to act on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal, which was already endorsed by Democratic Gov. David Paterson, the Republican-led Senate and the City Council.
Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser did not immediately comment.
The plan ran into strenuous objections from legislators from outer boroughs and New York City suburbs who said it would unfairly target commuters and their constituents.
“The conference has decided that they are not prepared to do congestion pricing,” Silver said. “Many members just don’t believe in the concept. Many think this proposal is flawed. It will not be on the floor of the Assembly,” he said.
Silver said part of the problem with the proposal, which Bloomberg had said could begin next year, is that it doesn’t immediately provide funding to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He said the agency that runs the city’s mass transit is already underfunded and needs to be bolstered before it takes on more commuters.
It Could Cost $50 A Day To Drive In London
MSNBC
April 5, 2008
As New York commuters brace for possible charges for driving into the midtown area, they can at least be thankful they don’t live in London, where Mayor Ken Livingstone has staked his re-election hopes on boosting the “congestion tax” to as much as $50 a day.
The New York State Legislature still needs to approve Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s pricing plan this month or the city stands to lose $354 million in funding to help kick-start the project.
The proposal involves raising tolls for entering New York via tunnels and bridges as well as charging drivers an $8 fee to drive in the area below 60th Street between during daytime hours on weekdays.
Livingstone, locked in a bruising contest with conservative candidate Boris Johnson, has proposed levying a £25 (about $50) charge on vehicles deemed to be causing the worst pollution, including four-wheel drives such as “Chelsea Tractors,” Land Rovers dubbed as such because of their predominance in London’s ritzy southwestern borough.
New York council urges lawmakers to tax driving for $8 or $9 a day
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com..-pricing-measure/?ref=nyregion
Filed under: Alan Greenspan, bernanke, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Federal Reserve, George Bush, global elite, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, Greenback, housing market, Inflation, Merrill Lynch, Michael Bloomberg, Stock Market, subprime, subprime lending, tax rebates, US Economy, Wall Street
Greenspan Says U.S. Economy Is on Edge of a Recession
Bloomberg
February 15, 2008
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy is on the verge of its first recession in six years as falling home values hurt consumer spending.
“We are clearly on the edge,” Greenspan told a group of energy-industry executives yesterday at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ 27th annual CERAWeek conference in Houston. He reiterated comments from last month that the odds of an economic contraction are “50 percent or better.”
Greenspan’s view has evolved from a year ago, when he saw a one-in-three chance of a recession, citing slowing profit growth and becoming one of the first economists to warn of the risk. Now, Wall Street firms including Merrill Lynch & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are forecasting a contraction in the aftermath of the worst housing downturn in a quarter century.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Greenspan’s successor, acknowledged “downside” risks to the expansion yesterday, while telling lawmakers he expects growth to pick up later this year. He reiterated the central bank is prepared to take “timely” action to aid the economy as needed.
Treasuries rose, pushing the 10-year yield 1 basis point lower to 3.81 percent at 3:37 p.m. in Tokyo.
“While we are at stall speed in the U.S. at the moment, we haven’t yet seen the discontinuity that characterizes recession,” Greenspan said during a question-and-answer session yesterday. “American business was in such extra-good shape before this problem hit. Otherwise we would be talking about how long and how deep. We are not there yet.”
Bloomberg: US Economy Resembles A “Third World Country”
WCBS-TV
February 15, 2008
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has unleashed another flurry of jabs on Washington, ridiculing the federal government’s rebate checks as being “like giving a drink to an alcoholic” on Thursday, and said the presidential candidates are looking for easy solutions to complex economic problems.
The billionaire and potential independent presidential candidate also said the nation “has a balance sheet that’s starting to look more and more like a third-world country.”
President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that will result in cash rebates ranging from $300 to $1,200 for more than 130 million people.
The federal checks are the centerpiece of the government’s emergency effort to stimulate the economy, under the theory that most people will spend the money right away.
But Bloomberg does not believe it will do much good. And his harsh words at a news conference Thursday reflect the view among some of his associates that the country’s economic woes present a unique opportunity for him to launch a third-party bid for the White House.
Filed under: Al Gore, al-qaeda, Bill Clinton, car tax, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Co2, energy, environmental taxation, EPA, G7, global tax, Global Warming, Michael Bloomberg, Neolibs, New York, Senate, tax, UN, War On Terror, washington, WMD
Bloomberg: Global Warming “As Lethal” As Terrorism
Gothamist
February 12, 2008
Explaining why global warming needs to be stopped in an urgent way, Mayor Bloomberg said, “Terrorists kill people. Weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill an enormous amount of people. [But] global warming in the long term has the potential to kill everybody…This really is just as lethal. It’s just the results are something we will face long term.”
The Mayor was addressing reporters after speaking at the United Nation’s conference on climate change. He mentioned the city’s plan to reduce the use of tropical hardwoods because the deforestation accounts for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. NYC is one of the world’s biggest consumers of tropical hardwoods, as they are used in park benches, promenades, docks, etc. Bloomberg also emphasized that the U.S. should have a carbon emission tax.
Last summer, Mayor Bloomberg and mayors from around the world convened to discuss environmental issues at the NYC Climate Summit; Bloomberg said another would be held this June. And for fun, during his speech, he said, “Of course, being the Mayor of New York – the world’s most international city – is a bit like presiding over the United Nations every single day of the year.”
Washington May Charge Greenhouse Gas Tax
KXLY
February 11, 2008
Vehicle licensing fees in Washington State could spike dramatically, all in the name of global warming. Six Seattle Democrats in the state Senate are trying to push through a bill that would require the Department of Licensing to collect a greenhouse gas tax. Sponsors say the tax in Senate Bill 6923 is an effective way to fight global warming by giving the state more money to fund transportation alternatives. If it passes, there will be an extra tax on your yearly license tab fees, based on EPA estimated miles per gallon your vehicle gets. The bill states vehicles getting below 15 miles per gallon will be charged between $200 and $240 extra every year. Vehicles that get between 15 and 25 miles per gallon, will pay $100 to $180 dollars extra every year. Vehicles getting over 26 miles per gallon, will pay between $40 and $100 extra every year. Vehicles that don’t have an estimated fuel economy rating will be charged a fee based on engine size.
Recent News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap..E4zumG0bVyV7zmKn0ppxieAA
Shutting Off Lamps To Fight Climate Change
http://www.dailymail.co.uk..in_page_id=1770&ct=5
G7 Calls For Investment To Fight Climate Change
http://news.yahoo.com/s..gPOCGP2SGePtdcM3cwG4_QOrgF
UN calls water top priority for global agenda
http://news.yahoo.co..h5RpXeqlxvNN824vSPaais0NUE
SUV Tax To Fight Global Warming
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/g..html?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Bill Clinton: Pauperize the Populace to Cure Global Warming
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/310108_cure.htm
European Union set to ban patio heaters
EU global warming crackdown will cost every family £730 a year
Lord Save Us from Useful Green Idiots
Bono Confesses Eco-Sins To Father Gore
Gore: Climate Change Worse Than Feared
Lawyers Embrace Climate Change Practice
The Carbon Disclosure Project
Russian Scientist: Earth Facing Ice Age
Abu Dhabi To Build Zero Carbon City
Brussels urged to fight climate change with tax
Sarkozy Pushes Carbon Tax On Trade
Marshall Plan For Climate Change
Global Warming Engineered By Chemtrails?
Filed under: Big Brother, Drudge, Michael Bloomberg, new jersey, New York, Oppression, police brutality, Police State, Propaganda, Surveillance, Taser Guns
Cop Talk: ‘Seeing Someone Get Tasered Is Second Only to Pulling the Trigger. That is Money, Puts a Smile on your Face’
What happens when the boys in blue get too close to their keyboards.
Eve Tushnet
Reason Online
November 9, 2007
“I crushed a dude’s eye socket from repeatedly punching him in it and then I charged him with menacing and harassment (of me).”
“Seeing someone get Tasered is second only to pulling the trigger. That is money-puts a smile on your face.”
Those are two of the statements posted by corrections deputy David B. Thompson of Multnomah County, Oregon to an Internet chat room. The inflammatory rhetoric sparked an ongoing investigation by the county sheriff’s office, as well as reporting by the Portland Tribune
Thompson may also have filed a false police report to hide the eye-socket incident he brags about in his post. Although the sheriff’s department can’t comment on the investigation while it’s still underway, he could be fired and prosecuted if he’s found guilty.
Many police departments across the country have experienced similar bulletin board crises over the last few years, putting police officers’ freedom of speech in conflict with the public’s need to be protected from, well, cops who get off on using Tasers.
This March, the New York Observer reported that commenters on the “NYPD Rant” site were posting pictures of local bicycle activists from the group Transportation Alternatives with comments like, “These lawbreaking cycle pirates must be stopped!!” and “Someone please hammer these 2 turds this weekend” (at a Critical Mass event).
In June, St. George, MO resident Brett Darrow incurred online cop hostility when he posted a video of a disputed traffic stop. According to TheNewspaper.com, one poster at St. Louis CopTalk wrote, “I’m going to his house to check for parking violations.” Another, using the pseudonym “STL_finest,” went further: “I hope this little POS punk bastard tries his little video stunt with me when I pull him over alone-and I WILL pull him over-because I will see ‘his gun’ and place a hunk of hot lead right where it belongs.”
Those posts were deleted, and discussion of Darrow has been banned from the boards. But these online threats have been accompanied by face-to-face death and arrest threats made at Darrow, including a second videotaped encounter with an officer who screamed at Darrow in a parking lot. and other local news outlets.
In September, a Columbus, OH officer resigned after the Columbus Dispatch revealed that she
and her sister had posted videos on YouTube blaming Jews, blacks, and immigrants for the country’s
problems. Susan L. Purtee was neither on duty nor in uniform when she said Jews “started to tell us—the gentiles—how to live, because if we did, they’d make a lot of money” and black people use “mangled English, dirty and filthy”; but neither was she entirely anonymous, since the sisters’ website
revealed that she was a law-enforcement officer. Purtee was reassigned to a desk job, and then
resigned.
Unsurprisingly, many of these conflicts have a racial component. In 2006, the Montgomery County, MD police chief got into a highly-publicized battle with the county’s branch of the Fraternal Order of Police over postings on the police union’s online forums. Some pseudonymous postings referred to Hispanic immigrants as “beaners,” insulted another officer and threatened her husband—posting the officer’s name, badge number, and station, and, in one case, threatening to attack her husband if he “scream[ed] profiling” after a traffic stop. The county responded by blocking access to the forums from county-owned computers.
“It was basically perceived as an attack from outside,” says Walte Bader, who was the Montgomery County FOP president during the controversy. Bader adds that the union was working on civility rules
for the forum when the controversy went public, but “when the government, the police department, tried to interfere we saw that as a totally different matter of government interference with First Amendment rights. We would not shut that website down on the basis of [the government] calling for it or the Washington Post calling for it.”
Bader has a point. “Courts have said that there are limits on what public employees can say because of the nature of their responsibilities. You could say that the government has more leeway to clamp down on the speech of employees to the extent that it’s inconsistent with their duties,” explains Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group and a specialist on Internet speech and anonymity. But Levy notes that the Internet offers ways to “separate the position from the identity of the person” in a way that may allow government employees more room to rant.
Levy suggests that the Internet, with its possibilities of total anonymity, is an especially valuable free-speech forum: “People ought to be able to blow off steam. It’s the marketplace of ideas—people ought to get it out there.”
John Gilmore’s classic line about the Internet is that it “interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it.” The Montgomery County FOP boards, for example, were shut down during the comments controversy, but a number of other boards maintained by individual cops sprung up to take their place.
Levy adds that the specifics of each case matter a lot: Personal threats can be treated differently from more general ugly comments. “Is it a true threat?” he asks. “The courts distinguish between vague ‘this is outrageous, people ought to be up in arms’ and ‘watch out, I know where you live, this is your address, I’m coming to get you.’ There’s a continuum.”
Levy argues, “If police officers are having these awful thoughts, it’s nice to know about it so we can do something about it administratively.” He has a list of questions to ask about incidents like these: “Are there morale problems here that need to be addressed? Are there community problems that need to be addressed? Simply by their intemperate speech, they reveal the existence of a problem.”
Mary Shelton, the Californian proprietor of the weblog “Five Before Midnight”, took a different view after she found herself targeted. In 2005 and 2006, the local activist (she started her blog to monitor how the police department would respond to the end of a court-ordered reform plan) got a spate of threatening and racist blog comments from people claiming to be police officers. “I felt really intimidated,” Shelton says. “It makes you look at them differently—is it this police officer, that police officer? …I think that’s one of the most difficult things of all, that you can’t put a face on it.”
The threats escalated: Shelton recalls that one poster gave details of what she was wearing and what she was doing during the day. Finally, a comment—”The reason [cops] beat up the Mexicans is because it’s a fiesta, you beat them and candy comes out”—led her to close comments.
Shelton doesn’t know exactly what happened after the department investigated the threats. “The official word was discipline was given out,” she says, but California confidentiality laws prevented her from learning more.
She acknowledges that the department’s investigation raises free speech concerns: “That’s a hard one for me, too.” But she argues, “They have to operate under the understanding that they have rules to follow. They’re police officers. They have a lot of authority. They have arresting power. They have this expectation that when they speak they will be truthful, because they have to testify in court. And they have to deal with different parts of the community.”
Shelton is left wondering. “If they’re going around saying these statements anywhere, how do you know that’s where it’s being left, and it’s not impacting their job performance? They have a lot of privileges and rights that come with their position, and there are responsibilities that come with that as well.”
Man Threatened With Taser For Cleaning Beach
Marinji.com
November 13, 2007
No good deed goes unpunished.
At least that’s how Muir Beach resident Sigward Moser felt Friday after he says he was threatened with a Taser gun, forced to the ground and handcuffed by a National Park Service ranger for refusing to stop cleaning up the oily beach beneath his home.
NJ School Cams Fed Live To Cops
http://wcbstv.com/technology/surveillance.demarest.cameras.2.565939.html
Proposed Fines For Feeding Pigeons
http://wcbstv.com/local/pigeon.feeding.ban.2.565918.html
Propaganda: ‘Making U.S. a police state will lower cost of health care, prevent national disaster
http://yaledailynews.com/articles/view/22365
Cops Gun Down Brooklyn Teen Holding Hairbrush
http://wcbstv.com/local/nypd.hairbrush.unarmed.2.566278.html
Sober Diabetic Man Tasered, Accused of DUI
http://www.dothaneagle.com/gu…EA-2007-11-09-0006.html
Seattle man jailed for taking photos of police arrest
http://seattletimes.nwsource…rapher09m.html
Drudge Report even thinks we’re in a police state
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot…-internet-news-hub.html
Filed under: Al Gore, Bill Clinton, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Co2, environmental taxation, gas prices, George Bush, global tax, Global Warming, Michael Bloomberg, tax
Bloomberg Calls for Tax on Carbon Emissions
Sewell Chan
New York Times
November 2, 2007
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg plans today to announce his support for a national carbon tax. In what his aides are calling one of the most significant policy addresses of his second and final term, the mayor will argue that directly taxing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change will slow global warming, promote economic growth and stimulate technological innovation — even if it results in higher gasoline prices in the short term.
Mr. Bloomberg is scheduled to present his carbon tax proposal in a speech this afternoon at a two-day climate protection summit in Seattle organized by the United States Conference of Mayors. (A copy of the speech was provided to The New York Times by aides to the mayor; the full text is below.) The summit’s other keynote speaker, former President Bill Clinton, on Thursday announced an effort by his private foundation and the mayors’ conference to help 1,100 American cities buy energy-efficient products as groups and qualify for volume discounts.
In calling for a carbon tax, Mr. Bloomberg is again speaking out on national issues, as he has on gun control and public health matters like smoking and obesity. The mayor, who was elected in 2001, left the Republican Party in June of this year and declared himself a political independent, fueling speculation that he might run for president. While the presidential talk has simmered down lately, today’s environmental address could revive it.
At the least, the tone and scope of Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal suggest that he is eager to maintain a national profile on major issues and determined not to be seen as a lame duck for the remaining two years of his term. (He is barred by term limits from seeking re-election in 2009.) Mr. Bloomberg’s speech accuses the federal government of failing to develop a meaningful response to global warming and asserts that both major political parties have dodged the issue.
In 1993, President Clinton persuaded the House to adopt a B.T.U. tax (a tax on the heat content of fuels), but the effort died in the Senate. Many American politicians have considered endorsing a carbon tax politically suicidal; among the few who publicly support the concept are Senator Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat and presidential candidate who has called for a corporate carbon tax, and former Vice President Al Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his work on climate change.
The idea of a carbon tax has slowly been gaining support, not only among scholars and environmentalists, but also in an unlikely quarter: business groups and even the companies that emit carbon dioxide and would be the most directly affected. Earlier this year, several businessmen formed the Carbon Tax Center to argue for a revenue-neutral carbon tax. Under that proposal, the revenue from a carbon tax could be used to reduce the deficit or to finance cuts in income taxes or the alternative minimum tax.
Most economists consider a carbon tax a more effective instrument for reducing greenhouse gas emissions than the other major policy alternative, a cap-and-trade system that would require plant-by-plant emission measurements and could prompt companies to cheat. Mr. Bloomberg’s staff cited research by Gilbert E. Metcalf, a Tufts University economist who is on leave to work with the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Kenneth P. Green, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, in support of that argument.
Mr. Bloomberg’s speech calls on political leaders to make necessary if unpopular choices — citing, as an example, his call for a congestion pricing plan that would tax vehicular traffic in Manhattan during the busiest weekday periods. Despite the support of the Bush administration, which has offered to help finance the effort as a model for traffic mitigation, the plan has been controversial, and it is being studied by a commission made up of state and city lawmakers.
Related News:
Al Gore’s ‘nine Inconvenient Untruths’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.j…gore111.xml
The deceit behind global warming
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2007/041107deceit.htm
Think Tank: Climate Affects Security
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/C…2007-11-03-03-13-55
Keeping People Poor And Stupid For the Environment
http://www.thought-criminal.org/article/node/910
Global Warming Enslavement Bill Advances
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_go_co/congress_warming_1
Dana Perino: Global Warming Helps the Cold, Poor
http://wonkette.com/politics/turn-up…d-poor-315039.php
Power Plant Rejected Over CO2
http://www.washingtonpost.co…R2007101802452.html
Al Gore’s lecture disrupted by protesters
http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/151007_gore_disrupted.html
Quebec introduces carbon tax, Canada CEOs urge more
http://investing.reuters.co.u…NADA-QUEBEC-TAX.XML
Plan Uses Taxes to Fight Climate Change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/….09/26/AR2007092602127_pf.html
Gore Calls For Global Marshall Plan
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/633d030a-6c5d-11dc-a0cf-0000779fd2ac.html
Labour ‘is brainwashing pupils with Al Gore climate change film’ says father in court
George Hunt:UN UNCED Earth Summit 1992 – The dark side of the sustainable development movement
Humans!
Call to ban petrol cars by 2040
Fox News: Trees Cause Global Warming
Hypocrite Gore Caught Using Private Jet
Public Wary Of Green Tax Motives
Majority Of Scientists Do Not Support Man Made Warming Theory
Priests To Take Confessions of Eco-Sinners
Edwards: Americans Should Give Up SUVs
UN: Mankind To Blame For Warming
Colbert Report on the Northwest Passage
Science Chief: Cut Birthrate To Save Earth
Al Gore Serves Endangered Fish at Daughter’s Party
Exclusive: Another “Global Warming” Claim “Debunked”!
The truth is, we can’t ignore the sun
9/11 Truth Banner Seen Worldwide on Live Earth
Families Should Have No More Than Two Children – Thinktank
Global Warming Advocate Claims Jupiter & Saturn Are Closer To The Sun Than Earth
Only Two Children Per Family To Fight Warming
“Stranded Polar Bears” Global Warming Hoax Exposed
9/11 Truth Invades Live Earth
How Polluting is ‘Live Earth’?
Is It Really Wrong To Have More Than Two Children?
Expert Questions Gore On Global Warming
Plastic bottles do not cause global warming
BBC Receive 150 Complaints Over Use of Foul Language During Live Earth
Europe May Ban Sports Cars To Fight Warming
The Live Earth Global Warming Fraud
Guyana Criticizes Carbon Credit Scheme
Low Temps Blamed For Small Crowd At Live Earth
Counting on Failure, Energy Chairman Floats Carbon Tax
Live Earth Branded A Foul-Mouthed Flop
Low temp blamed for small crowd at global warming fest
Al Gore slams global warming doubters at Live Earth
Climate change concert star Madonna accused of hypocrisy
One Child Policy: Children “Bad for the Planet”
Enviro-Crime Snoops Paid £30,000 Just to Check Your Rubbish
Green future demands a radical shift in lifestyles for British
Huge Price Tag on Carbon Emissions for Canadians
Big show, big impact? Live Earth hopes so
Live Earth Seeks Carbon Emissions Cut of 90 Percent by 2050
Live Earth Celebrities’ Carbon Footprint Huge
Quebec to Bring in Canada’s First Carbon Tax
Mike Gravel Wants a Carbon Tax
Taxing Us for Breathing
The Great Global Warming Swindle
IN-DEPTH GLOBAL WARMING ANALYSIS PAGE
Filed under: 9/11, Deutsche Bank, Ground Zero, Michael Bloomberg, New York, Sabotage, World Trade Center
Possible Sabotage With Deutsche Bank Fire?
NY Daily News
August 23, 2007
The FDNY was supposed to inspect the condemned former Deutsche Bank building – where two firefighters died in a horrific blaze – every 15 days, the Daily News learned yesterday.
The spot checks should have included inspecting the crucial standpipe system, which was broken when the inferno erupted Saturday and failed to deliver water to the upper floors.
The discovery came as a bitter blame game erupted with city firefighters ripping FDNY brass, another firefighters group blasting the demolition contractor, and Mayor Bloomberg struggling to reassure everyone the incident would be thoroughly investigated.
It also came as the Manhattan district attorney and the state attorney general announced separate probes into the fire that claimed the lives of Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joe Graffagnino.
Among other issues, investigators were expected to look into why a piece of the standpipe was found lying on the basement floor and whether it was an act of sabotage – or gross negligence.
“Nobody at this point knows whether that was a contributing factor to the two tragic deaths or not,” Bloomberg said. “That’s what an investigation is for.”
The city’s administrative code clearly spells out what the FDNY’s responsibilities are when it comes to buildings that are being demolished.
“Deputy chiefs shall cause continued inspections of buildings in the course of construction and demolition at least every fifteen (15) days, but more often where conditions dictate,” it states.
Steve Cassidy, the head of the city’s fire union, said the Fire Department had told the local firehouse over a year ago to stop inspecting the standpipe system because of health concerns in the toxic building.
“They were told that they should no longer do that because the air quality in that building was not safe,” he said.
Cassidy also called on state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate “not only the FDNY’s actions,” but also the contractors and the government agencies that were supposed to supervise the demolition.
“We’re not saying this fire should not have been fought, but we’re saying that firefighters shouldn’t take unnecessary risks in empty buildings, especially ones that are about to be torn down,” Cassidy said.
A high-ranking FDNY source disputed Cassidy’s claim that the inspections were called off.
“We did not inspect the site every 15 days,” he said, adding that the decision was made in part because specialized equipment was needed to enter certain areas of the building.
But he also said, “We have no evidence that the local units were told not to conduct inspections.”
The FDNY has not officially released any inspection records for the building, but the source told The News that it was checked in 2005 – with a complete evaluation of the standpipe system – and again sometime in 2006.
Uniformed Fire Officers President John McDonnell said firefighters arriving at the burning building were not given critical information by Bovis Lend Lease, the contracting agent in charge of the demolition, or its subcontractor, John Galt Corp.
For example, McDonnell said, they did not know the stairway doors were sealed on every other floor – and were stunned to discover open shafts in the floors that allowed the fire to race up and down the building.
The contractors have not spoken publicly about the fire.
“We talked to Bovis,” said Avi Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which owns the building.
“They haven’t answered all of the questions yet. We will pursue the truth until we get it.”
Investigators suspect a discarded cigarette or improperly secured equipment sparked the fire. They have questioned many of the workers, most of them Polish or Ecuadoran, who were toiling in the building when the fire broke out, but have made no arrests.
There are precedents for bringing criminally negligent homicide charges against people whose actions caused the deaths of firefighters.
After Lt. Curtis Meyran and Firefighter John Bellew died while battling a Bronx blaze in January 2005, the building manager and two tenants were charged for allegedly carving the structure into a maze of illegal apartments.
The 41-story Deutsche Bank building overlooking Ground Zero was badly damaged in the Sept. 11 attacks. The LMDC has been criticized for the slow pace of demolition. The structure had been whittled down to 26 stories when the fire broke out.
Esther Regelson, 48, who lives on Washington St. near the building, said at a Community Board 1 meeting last night that officials have learned nothing.
“It was 9/11 revisited,” she said of the fire. “I stood there, watching the building burning, wondering if it’s going to collapse.”
Video: Fire at the Deutsche Bank – (8/18/2007)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6086630393081775806&hl=en
Ground Zero Building Catches Fire, Doesn’t Collapse
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2007/190807Building.htm
Bloomberg to Manhattan Residents: Ignore Toxic Peril of Deutsche Bank Fire
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=957
More Photos of the Deutsche Bank Fire Incident
http://www.pbase.com/sproket/7_alarm_fire&page=all
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 Firefighters, 9/11 Physics, Controlled Demolition, Deutsche Bank, Ground Zero, Michael Bloomberg, New York, windsor building, World Trade Center, wtc-7
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6086630393081775806&hl=en
Ground Zero Building Catches Fire, Doesn’t Collapse
Prison Planet
August 19, 2007
The 40 story Deutsche Bank building next to the ground zero site in New York, where the world trade center once stood, caught fire yesterday and burned intensely for seven hours without collapsing
This represents another modern day miracle in light of the commonly accepted premise that since 9/11, all steel buildings that suffer limited fire damage implode within two hours. This building had even suffered structural damage on 9/11 and had been partially dismantled.
The raging fire, which killed two firefighters, was finally declared under control late saturday afternoon, a full seven hours after it had begun to burn.
On 9/11 the south tower of the WTC burned for just 56 minutes before collapsing, while the north tower lasted around an hour and 45 minutes. According to the official transcripts of the firefighter tapes, fires in both towers were almost out immediately before the collapses.
The saving grace that could have prevented Deutsche Bank from imploding may have been the fact that it was not hit by a plane, as the twin towers were on 9/11.
However, the absence of a jet strike wasn’t enough to prevent WTC 7 from crumbling into its own footprint within 7 seconds later that fateful afternoon.
Hundreds of buildings worldwide suffered major fires that gutted the entire facade of their structure before 9/11 and did not collapse, but since the twin towers behaved differently, rather than consider an alternative explanation for the collapse of the towers, experts simply decided to reverse the fundamental precepts of all known physics to make it easier for everyone to understand.
Since that time, it has been commonly accepted that limited fires in tall buildings are 99% certain to cause an almost instantaneous collapse.
More pictures and an AP report on the latest blaze follow.
Firefighters Die in Blaze by Ground Zero
Verena Dobnik
AP
August 19, 2007
NEW YORK – A seven-alarm fire ripped through an abandoned skyscraper next to ground zero in Lower Manhattan Saturday, killing two firefighters who were responding to the blaze.
Officers at the scene were preventing nearby residents from returning to their homes, telling them that authorities were concerned the former Deutsche Bank office building, vacant since the 2001 terrorist attacks turned it into a toxic nightmare, could fall. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that fear turned out to be unfounded.
The plume of gray smoke that trailed above the site of the World Trade Center raised concerns that toxic substances in the building could be spreading.
Bloomberg sought to reassure residents that the chemicals in the building likely did not present a significant health risk, saying air-quality tests so far showed no danger.
“Having said that, we are extremely careful. We don’t want to prejudge anything,” the mayor added. Tests were to continue overnight, he said.
One of the firefighters killed was identified as Joseph Graffagnino, 34, of Brooklyn. He was a member of Ladder 5, which lost 11 members on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Today’s events really are another cruel blow to our city and to our fire department,” Bloomberg said. He said the fire had “expanded our loss.”
Also killed was Robert Beddia, 53, of Staten Island. Bloomberg said both firefighters had become trapped, inhaled a great deal of smoke and gone into cardiac arrest.
Five or six other firefighters were taken to a hospital but were expected to be released, Bloomberg said. No civilians were hurt.
Construction crews had already dismantled 14 of the building’s 40 stories — reaching the 26th floor on Tuesday. Some firefighters used stairs to reach the burning upper floors of the building, just steps from where 343 firefighters lost their lives in the 2001 terror attacks.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Smoke pouring from the burning building was visible from midtown Manhattan and the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. Fire officials declared the blaze under control late Saturday.
The acrid smell of smoke, which hung over the neighborhood for days after Sept. 11, returned to lower Manhattan along with the wail of emergency vehicles. More than five dozen fire vehicles, with more than 270 firefighters, responded to the blaze as pieces of burning debris fell from the building to the streets.
Residents said they weren’t allowed home even to rescue their pets.
“We heard this crackling,” said Elizabeth Hughes, who saw the fire start from her rooftop deck across from the tower. “And then a huge fire that went up three floors fast. It was massive. … Oh my God! I can’t even go in and get my cats.”
By late Saturday evening, nearby residents who had been evacuated were told they could return.
The 1.4-million square foot office tower was contaminated with toxic dust and debris after the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed into it. Bloomberg said the chemicals in the building did not present a significant health risk.
Efforts to dismantle it were halted by a labor dispute last year, along with the ongoing search for the remains of attack victims.
City officials announced in June they had completed recovery efforts at the structure. More than 700 human remains were found at the site.
Errol Cockfield, a spokesman for the Empire State Development Corp., which is overseeing redevelopment at ground zero, said authorities were investigating whether the smoke at the scene could pose any environmental danger.
Bloomberg to Manhattan Residents: Ignore Toxic Peril of Deutsche Bank Fire
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=957
More Photos of the Deutsche Bank Fire Incident
http://www.pbase.com/sproket/7_alarm_fire&page=all
NY Hikes Security On Dirty Bomb Threat
Reuters
August 11, 2007
New York police stepped up security throughout Manhattan and at bridges and tunnels on Friday in response to an Internet report — which authorities said they could not verify — that al Qaeda might be plotting to detonate a dirty bomb in the city.
New York City police said in a statement the threat against the city was an “unverified radiological threat,” stressed the increased security was precautionary and said the city’s alert status for an attack was unchanged at “orange.”
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stressed there was no reason to believe this threat was any different from countless others since the September 11 attacks.
One law enforcement source told Reuters that authorities were responding to Internet chatter reported on Israeli Web site http://www.debka.com, but that the information reported there could not be verified.
That site reported that there has been a rush of electronic chatter on al Qaeda sites, one saying there would be an attack “by means of trucks loaded with radio-active material against America’s biggest city and financial nerve center.”
Another al Qaeda message mentioned New York, Los Angeles and Miami as targets, the Jerusalem-based DEBKAfile Internet news site reported.
The New York Police Department said in a statement it had increased the deployment of radiological sensors on vehicles, boats and helicopters, and had set up vehicle checkpoints in lower Manhattan’s financial district and at bridges and tunnels.
Police confirmed the increased security was in response to receiving information that a dirty bomb may go off on Friday evening around 34th street in Manhattan — a neighborhood with the Empire State Building, New York City’s tallest building, Madison Square Garden and Macy’s department store.
‘NO CREDIBLE INFORMATION’
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington said the threat to New York was “unsubstantiated” and there was “no credible information telling us there is an imminent threat to the homeland at this time.”
New York has remained on an orange alert — the second highest such level, below red — since the September 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center.
New York police played down the increased security.
“It is stressed that these deployments are strictly precautionary and not the result of any verified threat,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said in a statement.
Bloomberg also sought to soothe New Yorkers.
“Earlier this evening, the NYPD began taking several public precautionary measures visible to New Yorkers to guard against an unverified threat that was found on the Internet,” he said.
“These actions are like those that the NYPD takes every day — precautions against potential but unconfirmed threats that may never materialize,” Bloomberg said.
At Herald Square, the heart of the 34th Street area, late on Friday evening, there was no visible sign of increased police security as New Yorkers went about their regular activities.
Related News:
Biological Protection Program Delayed
http://www.washingtonpos….007081001328.html
FOXNews Defends Idea That Another 9/11 Would Help America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIRcXUc11nw
Cheney Urging Military Strikes on Iran
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18834.html
Pitching For More Dead Americans: A Neo-Con Fetish
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2007/100807_dead_americans.htm
Ideological Terrorists
We Need Another 8/8
Expert Suspiciously Reverses Stance On Doctored Al-Qaeda Tapes
Italy: U.S. Allegations On Iran Baseless
Analyst: Al-Qaeda Videotapes Digitally Doctored
Novak: Bush Considering Military Action In Turkey
Foxnews: U.S. Terror Attack — ‘Ninety Days at Most’
Al-Qaeda not ‘monolithic’ group: US officials
CNN says “just kidding” after terror scare
Al Qaeda’s Best Publicist: George W. Bush
CNN: TSA knew ‘dry run’ terror alerts were bogus
Martial Law Threat is Real: Lucky that the Military is Breaking Down
Plan Outlines Government to Use Military Force Against U.S. Citizens Over Political Issues
Homeland General: Attack ‘Could Happen Any Day’
CIA Bin Laden Chief: Next Attack ‘Bigger Than 9/11’
Bush Insists Al-Qaeda In Iraq Threatens U.S.
Airports warned about terror dry runs
Neocons Press Pakistan Endgame
U.S. threatens action in Pakistan
US academics admit aiding Iran “Democracy Drive”
Christians United for Israel call on US to attack Iran immediately
Sam Brownback: I’m Ready To Strike Iran
Cheney Pushes Bush to Act on Iran
Neocon Bill Kristol expects Bush to attack Pakistan
White House Gets Defensive Over Accusation Bin Laden is Dead
Senior Qaeda figure in Iraq a myth: U.S. military
Old-line Republican Warns ‘Something’s in the Works’ to Trigger a Police State
White House Preparing to Stage New 9/11 – Reagan Official
Former Reagan Official: Bush May Stage False Flag Events To Reinstate Draft
My wake-up call: Watch for another 9/11-WMD experience
Proof Bin Laden Tape Is 5-Year-Old, Re-Released Footage
“New” Osama video released; Update: Mystery solved — new video matches video shot in 2001
Tonkin Gulf II and the Guns of August?
Absurd Terrorism Theories Invade The Homeland
Bin Laden Uncovers Secret Formula to Halt Ageing Process
Another Dubious Osama Tape Appears When The Neo-Cons Need It Most
London Times: Al-CIAda Terrorist Given Sanctuary By MI5
U.S. Intel Officer: Al Qaeda Leadership Allowed To Operate Freely
AOL Attacks Ron Paul For Tonkin Warning
Terror Commander: New Attack Will Dwarf Failed Bomb Plot
Ron Paul: U.S. In “Great Danger” Of Staged Terror
The Politico Covers Ron Paul’s Staged Terror Warning
Sheehan: Distinct Chance Of Staged Attack, Martial Law
Bush Administration Prays For More Dead Americans
Signal to Attack? Worries Over Latest al Qaeda Tape
Bill Kristol Expects Bush To Attack Pakistan
Bush: Insurgents in Iraq same as 9/11 attackers
Military Analyst: West Needs More Terror To Save Doomed Foreign Policy
White House Claims No Specific Terror Threat
Al-CIAda Has Rebuilt Strength U.S. Says
Iraq’s Al-Qaeda Threatens To Attack Iran
Al-CIAda Cell In The U.S. Or On Its Way
Bush denies al Qaeda as strong today as pre-Sept 11
Olberman Rips Into Chertoff on “Countdown”
Al-CIAda Warns of Fresh Terror Attacks
On Cue, “al-Qaeda” Threatens Iran
U.S. Government Uses Al-Qaeda to Attack Iran
Rick Santorum predicts “some unfortunate events” will give Americans a “very different view of this war”
Officials worry of summer terror attack
NBC: ‘Dirty bomb’ danger at home?
Secret ..: U.S. Fears Terror ‘Spectacular’ Planned
BREAKING: A Potential Attack on Chicago in the Works?
GOP memo touts new terror attack as way to reverse party’s decline
Basra Bizarre: SAS Commandos Arrested and Sprung
9/11 Victims Families Barred From Ground Zero
CNN-IBN
August 7, 2007
New Delhi: The sixth anniversary of September 11 attacks is about a month away. And the families of 9/11 victims in United States are being told they may not be able to walk down into ground zero this year.
New York city officials say the sight is now a construction zone. Standing among the scores of visitors at the site of the world trade center, Deputy New York Fire Chief Jim Riches says he will always be drawn to Ground Zero.
His son Jimmy was one of the more than 300 city firefighters who died when the twin towers fell on 9/11.
“We found my son’s body on March 25, 2002. And we went down there, took his body out of the pit and walked him up a ramp,” he said.
On the anniversaries, since that day, authorities have allowed the victims’ families to walk down that ramp to remember their loved ones. However this year may be different.
Construction is underway to build the skyscrapers that will replace the trade center. Mayor Michael Bloomberg may block the families from entering ground zero saying it’s no longer safe.
“It doesn’t work. And you know we just have to get used to the fact that there’s a lot of construction going on there,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
But Riches says, he is not buying this logic. He points out that the construction is supposed to stop on 9/11 this year.
“All we want to do is walk down the pit, we pay our respects where our loved ones died and spent their last hours, and go down there and honor them,” he said.
Officials want the families to gather at a park which a few steps away from the site. Not good enough says riches. He notes more than a thousand families still haven’t recovered the remains of their loved ones—remains that are quite possibly still here.
“Did we realize that the day will come that you won’t be able to walk down there as you have for these past three years? We’ve, we’ve well you have to be reasonable, yes. There’s going to be buildings there and we know that, to me it will always be a cemetery,” says Jim Riches.
Big Brother in the Big Apple
Bob Barr
Washington Times
August 7, 2007
Though the lion’s share of publicity surrounding Tony Blair’s recent departure as Britain’s prime minister focused on his legacy as George W. Bush’s top foreign cheerleader, a more lasting legacy for Mr. Blair’s lengthy tenure as Britain’s chief “decider” will be that he greatly accelerated Great Britain’s ascendancy to the position of the “most surveilled” society in the world. Still, Michael Bloomberg, the Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent mayor of New York is giving Mr. Blair a run for the money as the most surveillance-hungry public official in the world.
Even though officials in other cities are embracing and installing surveillance cameras in huge numbers — Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C., to name a few — the latest plan unveiled by Mr. Bloomberg and his equally surveillance-enamored police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, leaves these other American cities in the surveillance dust. Truly what we are witnessing being created here is a 21st-century Panopticon.
The Panopticon, as envisaged by British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), was a society (initially proposed as a prison) in which surreptitious surveillance of the citizenry was always possible and ever-known. Control was exercised not by being surveilled continuously but by each person knowing they might be under surveillance at any time, or all the time.
Bentham was a man ahead of his time. His pet project was never fully carried out because the technology available at the time, relying as it did on direct, physical surveillance (electricity as a harnessable force, with which Benjamin Franklin was just then beginning to experiment, was still more than a century away) made creation of a workable Panopticon infeasible. Were Bentham alive today, he probably would be the most sought-after consultant on the planet.
The key to the surveillance society foreseen by Bentham more than two centuries ago was control. Crime was rampant in late 18th-century and early 19th-century London. Controlling the populace by modifying behavior became the central problem for Bentham and other social scientists of the day.
Of course, the notion that surveillance is key to control was not new with Bentham; centuries before, the Greek philosopher Plato had mused about the power of the government to control through surveillance, when he raised the still-relevant question, “Who watches the watchers?”
More recently, of course, George Orwell gave voice to the innate fear that resides deep in many of our psyches against government surveillance, in his nightmare, “Big Brother is Watching You” world of the novel “1984.”
Whether in Bentham’s world, or Plato’s or Orwell’s, the central task is to modify behavior by convincing people that the government — that entity with power over their lives — may be watching them all the time or at any particular time. As 20th-century American philosopher and advocate of personal freedom Ayn Rand noted, taking away a person’s privacy renders to the government the ability to control absolutely that person.
Related News:
Police Surveillance Cameras Online Downtown
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6900227
New York police must turn over surveillance reports
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0644709420070806?sp=true
WSJ Online: Snoop Nation is All Good
Maybe surveillance is bad, after all
‘Surveillance society’ warning on data sharing
Cops with head cams visiting homes in Lancashire
Filed under: 9/11 Truth, bloomberg, Camera Ban, Michael Bloomberg, We Are Change
We Are Change Confronts Mayor Bloomberg on Subway
Bloomberg Takes the Ride of His Life.
Mike Knarr
We Are Change
August 6, 2007
http://video.google.com/videopla….mp;amp;amp;hl=en
Mayor Bloomberg takes the subway periodically, about once a month according to his staff, so that he can be with the people. Unfortunately he picked the day when WeAreChange.org and Infowars.com reporters were outside City Hall. The ride lasted about 15 minutes and Luke, Tom, Nate and several other concerned citizens used every minute to bring up questions from parking tickets to 9/11.
Luke started in with an attack on the Ground Zero Memorial. Why are you disrespecting the family members by moving the memorial off the grounds of the World Trade Center? Read a great article about this and the massive money spent by Pataki and Bloomberg after 9/11 here by Debra Burlingame. www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008478
Debra Burlingame is the sister of Captain Charles “Chic” Burlingame, III, pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He participated in the very pentagon drill which envisioned just such an attack and his daughter Wendy died under mysterious circumstances in a fire later. It’s all just a coincidence.
Luke moved on by adding that 45% of the remains have not been found, why do you want to build on holy ground? By the way family members this year are just asking to go down the ramp but Bloomberg said in an earlier interview ,”It doesn’t work. And you know we just have to get used to the fact that there’s a lot of construction going on there.” I guess everyone is supposed to move on and stop bugging the government about trivial issues like this. Why are you ignoring the rescue workers who are sick and dieing? How did building 7 come down? The EPAs lies are causing the deaths of thousands of first responders. Still no response from the Mayor.
With the film ban going into effect there was plenty of questions about the constitutionality of it all. Even Keith Olbermann said it was the worst constitutional attack he could think of. Questions came fast and furious like, why do you want to destroy the constitution? You want to run for President, aren’t you concerned with destroying the constitution? Nate was right on the mark when he added, “If it’s unconstitutional it’s null and void, you know we will win in court don’t you?” Luke reminded Mayor Bloomberg that he has money invested in a media company and doesn’t he see the conflict of interest, “you want to ban filming?”
Other points were made like, your just trying to put fear into us hoping we won’t film, we will continue to film even if you declare martial law. Your making criminals out of ordinary citizens by arresting bicycle riders (See the Critical Mass Video by WeAreChange) and now people with cameras. Stop selling out to the corporate banks, sir. There’s lots of questions, It’s you opportunity as mayor to actually address these questions.
The Mayor’s goons make a big deal about the fact that our reporters do not have official New York City issued press passes. However this does not excuse the Mayor from not answering the questions put forth even if they are from his constituency. However this just shows that the media is controlled and if they were to ask these questions they might fear having their passes revoked.
Tom Foti said it best when he said “Until we get answers, this is how it’s going to be”
Related News:
We Are Change Confronts Mayor Bloomberg on Camera Ban
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aYNV1WlamoM
Citizens Protest NYC Camera Ban
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yKmbhg7vtk
C.H.A.N.G.E. fights for Camera Rights
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5866973918481742762&hl=en
Mayor Bloomberg Attacks 1st Amendment
http://infowars.net/articles/june2007/300607Bloomberg.htm
New York Moves To Ban Public Filming And Photography
http://infowars.net/articles/june2007/290607Filming.htm
We Are Change Confronts Mayor Bloomberg on Camera Ban
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aYNV1WlamoM
Citizens Protest NYC Camera Ban
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yKmbhg7vtk
C.H.A.N.G.E fights for Camera Rights
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5866973918481742762&hl=en
Mayor Bloomberg Attacks 1st Amendment
http://infowars.net/articles/june2007/300607Bloomberg.htm
New York Moves To Ban Public Filming And Photography
http://infowars.net/articles/june2007/290607Filming.htm
noworldsystem.com 
