Link: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/148686/pot_prohibition_is_the_cornerstone_of_a_police_state/

The simple truth about America's marijuana prohibition: any law that allows the easy incarceration of any citizen any time those in power want to do it is the ultimate enemy of democracy. With 800,000 annual arrests over an herb used by tens of millions of Americans, it is the cornerstone of a police state.

Link: http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.com/2010/10/leaked-trade-agreements-and-hidden.html

Canada’s National Farmers Union wants the Canada-EU trade deal scrapped. US farmers face the same assault by agribusiness and the biotech industry under S 510. Epoch Times noted: “Under provisions in CETA [Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement], using saved seed could result in a farmer’s land, equipment, and crops being seized for alleged infringement of intellectual property rights attached to plant varieties owned by corporations such as Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, and Bayer.

Link: http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.com/2010/10/top-clinton-official-only-terror-attack.html

A former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton says that the only thing which can rescue Barack Obama’s increasingly tenuous grip on power as his approval figures continue to plunge is a terror attack on the scale of Oklahoma City or 9/11, another startling reminder that such events only ever serve to benefit those in authority.

Link: http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=229526

In his latest reflections Fidel Castro refers to fragments of the text “The War Crimes of Stanley McChrystal, U.S. General” which, among other things, “reveals examples of how the Obama Administration continues walking in Bush`s footsteps”. That’s terrific! So I exclaimed when I read down to the last line about the revelations of the famous journalist Seymour Hersh, printed in Democracy Now! and collected as one of the 25 most censored news items in the United States.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2010/10/worlds-monetary-system-is-in-process-of.html

The world’s monetary system is in the process of melting down. We have entered the endgame for the dollar as the dominant reserve currency, but most investors and policy makers are unaware of the implications. The only questions are how long the denouement of the dollar reserve system will last, and how much more damage will be inflicted by new rounds of quantitative easing or more radical monetary measures to prop up the system.

Link: http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=229526

We are in the grip of yet another so-called terror plot designed to terrify the wits out of everyone. Anyone of a nervous disposition was sent in to a tailspin of panic over the increasingly dramatic news coverage… this manifested itself in a tsunami of 911 calls in America which paralyzed parts of New York, Maine and Philadelphia for several hours.

Link: http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=49264&t=1&cg=4

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has switched 15% of its national reserves into gold, reported the official news agency IRNA Saturday, citing the CBI governor. "When the price of each ounce of gold worldwide was on average US$656, a few hundred tons of gold were imported," Mahmoud Bahmani was quoted as saying Saturday at a banking conference in Tehran. "At present, the price of each ounce of gold is $1,230. Consequently, the value of the national reserves has risen by a few billion dollars," he said.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/net-neutrality-and-broadband-access-a-civil-rights-issue64618

"Every man is our brother, and every man's burden is our own. Where poverty exists, all are poorer. Where hate flourishes, all are corrupted. Where injustice reigns, all are unequal." - Whitney Moore Young Jr. Is net neutrality just a matter of the marketplace, or is it also a matter of ethics - a civil rights issue? And if the latter, how should broadband optimally serve the nation?

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/10/2010103111557376134.html

Conservationists worried as government plans to sell off about 150,000 hectares of forest land. The UK government has confirmed plans to sell off up to half of its state-owned forests to private companies. The around 150,000 hectares of land could be used for commercial development, which worries many conservations. Harry Smith reports from Sherwood Forest, one of England's most popular woodlands. The people of the UK have no say in their destiny or in the destiny of their country. It will be sold off just as America was sold off. For the corporate super rich the world has no boarders, it all belongs to them to do with as they please. This is why America fights endless war that the people don’t want, and France cuts the peoples retirement to profit the banks, and now the UK's forrests are sold off to the highest bidder. All the wars are fought for ‘them’, all the wealth and power belongs to ‘them’, and the people of the earth are their cattle, fighting dieing and starving to suit the will of the privileged, the chosen ones, the super rich.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/washpost-war-iran-rescue-economy/

Washington Post political correspondent David Broder has kind words for President Barack Obama in in his opinion column Sunday, arguing that it isn't the president's fault the economy is stuck in reverse. But the four-decade-plus veteran of Washington politics offers a startling solution to the president's political and economic woes: March off to war with Iran.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=13712

Normally we wouldn’t post “readers comments” but this is different. Sent in by a reader, it indicates the extent to which people are no longer buying the official version of the “War on Terror”. Below are readers comments to the article “Al Qaeda ink cartridge bomb found on jet was linked to mobile phone SIM card”. In fact the readers comments are more interesting than the article itself, which repeats the official line that "Fears have been growing rapidly over the terror threat posed to the West by Islamic fundamentalists based in Yemen" etc, etc. Too few, too late

Link: http://www.ogaden.com:80/hornnews/ogaden/972-chilling-news-from-ogaden.html

Reports reaching the Ogaden Online service desk confirm an increasing trend of new extra judicial killings, severe forms of torture and lootings of civilian property by the Ethiopian (Woyane) militias throughout Ogaden.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1290527/Airport-body-scanners-deliver-radiation-dose-20-times-higher-thought.html

The X-ray machines have been brought in at Manchester, Gatwick and Heathrow.
But scientists say radiation from the scanners has been underestimated and could be particularly risky for children.

Link: http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/10/were-the-chosen-people-picked-for-their-virtues-or-vices/

The recent Vatican synod on the deteriorating situation in Palestine-Israel did the right thing by pointing out that Israel ought to discontinue the use of the controversial concept of “the chosen people” to torment and dispossess the Palestinians. Perhaps the Roman Catholic hierarchy has woken up to the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinian Arab Christians are forced to leave their ancestral homeland as a result of the brutality and oppression stemming from the ongoing Israeli

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53409

The world is ill-prepared for the human toll from the expected increase in floods, droughts and extreme storms and hurricanes on the horizon. So say experts like Peter Walker, director of the Tufts University-based Feinstein International Center near Boston. In late 2008, his organisation authored a report titled "Humanitarian Costs of Climate Change" for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Link: http://www.uruknet.de:80/?s1=1&p=71335&s2=31

Throughout my conscious years, I have witnessed with disbelief and increasing hopelessness the limitless human capacity for cruelty and barbarism- quite often comfortably cloaked in terms of righteousness and piety. A vast number of instances of this ongoing blot upon the soul of humanity are readily attributable to the audacity of power, and the ability of the human animal to compartmentalize, commit the most inhuman acts, and go on living unperturbed to see another day.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/29/from_murder_to_congress_unrepentant_tea

A former US Marine who killed two unarmed Iraqis is running for a congressional seat in North Carolina and has received backing from the Tea Party. Ilario Pantano has said he has no regrets about fatally shooting the two at point-blank range after detaining them near Fallujah in April 2004. Despite his admission, the military cleared Pantano of wrongdoing in 2005. He is now in a tight race with incumbent Democrat Rep. Mike McIntyre in North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District. For more on this story, we talk to Salon.com reporter Justin Elliott, who has been following this race closely.

Link: http://fightingforliberty.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2881777:BlogPost:49989&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

The TSA investigator arrived and asked for my account of the situation. I explained that the agents weren’t allowing me to pass through the checkpoint. He told me he had been advised that I was refusing security screening, to which I replied that I had willingly walked through the metal detector with no alarms, the same way I always do when commuting to work. He then briefed me on the recent screening policy changes and, apparently confused, asked whether they would be a problem for me. I stated that I did indeed have a problem with the infringement of my civil rights and liberty. His reply: “That’s irrelevant.”

Link: http://ironboltbruce.com:80/

In our dying democracy, those with power and the puppets they parade in election charades every two years are above the law and think nothing of breaking it. And in our raped republic, those with wealth from stealing the Sheeples’ tax money and savings by the billions have no problems paying millions in penalties for doing so. But in this wasteland of unbridled greed and moral decay, those of you with character and courage can still prevail...

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2010/10/29/barack-obama-the-oligarchs-president

The director of "Inside Job" writes about Obama's depressingly rational decision to give in to Wall Street. When I first decided to make a documentary about the financial crisis, in late 2008, my biggest question was how to handle Barack Obama. Alas, the answer rapidly became all too clear, as my film "Inside Job" shows in painful detail.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/pers-o29.shtml

With only a few days remaining in the 2010 election campaign, one thing is certain: the Obama administration and the Democratic Party are preparing a further lurch to the right. Four years after a massive turnout at the polls to repudiate the Republican-controlled Congress and give the Democrats the majority, and two years after the election of Barack Obama to the White House by a margin of 7 million votes, the administration’s right-wing policies have shattered the popular illusions raised by Obama’s vague appeals to “hope” and “change.”

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/fran-o29.shtml

Millions of workers and students took to the streets across France Thursday to protest final approval by the National Assembly of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension “reform” bill. The French economy was still crippled by gasoline shortages due to ongoing refinery and port strikes.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/news/148658/bluegrass_tea%3A_how_rand_paul%2C_tea_party_darling%2C_learned_to_love_mitch_mcconnell_and_the_gop_establishment/

Rand Paul came to to the GOP table as an outsider, but there's no way to win without holding hands with the ultimate insider -- the Senate minority leader. So he is.

Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1029/1224282234551.html

FTSE 100 company directors saw their total earnings soar by an average of 55 per cent during the past year in a startling recovery from short-lived restraint during the recession, according to research to be published today.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/foreclosuregate-explained-big-banks-brink64621

Scandal is spreading across Wall St. like a very bad case of poison ivy. A rash of fraudulent home foreclosures has exposed some of the nation's biggest banks to an even worse condition ... bankruptcy.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53324

Paraguay's economy is currently growing at the fastest rate in Latin America, due to by growing demand and high prices for agricultural products, especially soy, which is driving the expansion. But the question is whether the benefits of the boom will trickle down to the poor majority.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10282010.html

Now that a few Democrats and the remnants of the AFL-CIO are waking up to the destructive impact of jobs offshoring on the US economy and millions of American lives, globalism’s advocates have resurrected Dartmouth economist Matthew Slaughter’s discredited finding of several years ago that jobs offshoring by US corporations increases employment and wages in the US.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/10/2010102822231134125.html

Internet users could be prosecuted for downloading certain content under a proposed trade agreement, critics say. A new trade agreement being negotiated behind closed doors by officials from the United States, European Union and other countries could drastically reduce internet freedom, a group of more than 70 legal experts have warned. The government of Barack Obama, the US president, could initiate the far reaching Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at the beginning of next year, without a vote in congress, leading critics to call it anti-democratic in a letter released on Thursday.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2010/10/20101027132136220370.html

Investigation by Al Jazeera online correspondent finds toxic illnesses linked to BP oil dispersants along Gulf coast. Denise Rednour of Long Beach, Mississippi, has been sick with chemical poisoning since July. Two-year-old Gavin Tillman of Pass Christian, Mississippi, has been diagnosed with severe upper respiratory, sinus, and viral infections. His temperature has reached more than 39 degrees since September 15, yet his sicknesses continue to worsen. His parents, some doctors, and environmental consultants believe the child's ailments are linked to exposure to chemicals spilt by BP during its Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. Gavin's father, mother, and cousin, Shayleigh, are also facing serious health problems. Their symptoms are being experienced by many others living along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/a-boot-head-michael-moore64636

There she was, thrown to the pavement by a Republican in a checkered shirt. Another Republican thrusts his foot in between her legs and presses down with all his weight to pin her to the curb. Then a Republican leader comes over and viciously stomps on her head with his foot. You hear her glasses crunch under the pressure. Holding her head down with his foot, he applies more force so she can't move. Her skull and brain are now suffering a concussion. The young woman's name is Lauren Valle, but she is really all of us. For come this Tuesday, the right wing -- and the wealthy who back them -- plan to take their collective boot and bring it down hard on not just the head of Barack Obama but on the heads of everyone they simply don't like.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2010/10/baby-boomers-get-out-of-stock-market.html

If you're a baby boomer who still believes in the stock market since the financial collapse of 2008, listen up. The floor of this Ponzi scheme is about to drop out, leaving you punching a clock for some time to come and holding an empty retirement bag for your effort. The engineered crash is coming and the elite are jumping ship in droves -- you should join them and get out ASAP.

Link: http://refreshingnews9.blogspot.com/2010/10/fed-is-fuelling-catastrophe-of-fast.html

The OECD predicts that by the end of the decade, average wheat and coarse grain prices will be 15pc to 40pc higher in real terms. The answer to this question, according to a recent OECD and UN Food and Agriculture Organisation report is a definitive no; global agricultural production is on track to satisfy the expected long-term increase in demand, the OECD reckons. Yet it's little thanks to public policy, which in combination with the current craze among financial speculators for commodities, seems hell bent on driving up prices to what for millions of the world's poor may be starvation levels.

Link: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/10/gulf-oil-spill-news-update.html

There is a flood of information coming out on the Gulf oil spill. Why? The reappearance of huge plumes of oil is making it hard to pretend that it has all gone away. Here's a roundup of some of the Gulf oil headlines from just the last 4 days:

Link: http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/10/u-s-asks-to-seal-courtroom-to-guard-goldman-secrets.html

U.S. prosecutors asked a federal judge to seal the courtroom for part of the upcoming criminal trial of a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. computer programmer, an effort to protect the secrecy of the bank’s high-frequency trading platform. Prosecutors said in a court filing that there is a “compelling interest in favor of privacy” for Goldman in the trial of the former employee, Sergey Aleynikov.

Link: http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/2010/20101027053427.aspx

Good Morning America on Wednesday was the only network morning show to highlight Barack Obama's exhortations that Latinos should help him "punish our enemies." Host George Stephanopoulos played the clip while discussing the issue with conservative Laura Ingraham.

With the Plutocracy now in total control, what happened to them after the Savings and Loan Crisis has been turned on its head as America’s elite bankers are set to receive record bonuses for 2010 topping the previous records they set in 2008 and 2009, all with the approval of the US government and to be paid for by the American taxpayer in what can only be likened to this elite class “flipping the bird” at their own citizens and, basically, telling them to go away. All of the facts cited in this report are, of course, not being told to the American people whose so called liberal media continues to stamp out all expressions of freedom from reaching them, but are, in fact, known the rest of the world over…including in Europe where a literal “lynch mob” is warned is about to descend upon the United States largest bank for defrauding them of billions of dollars; in China where the communists, of all people, are warning that the United States printing of Dollars will destroy everything; in Germany where that government is accusing the US of Dollar manipulation; and most importantly with Transparency International who ranked the United States as one of them most corrupt regimes in the world.

Link: http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/5000-people-block-oil-vessels

Thousands of people took oil giant abuse matters in their own hands after years of continual leaking crude oil affecting their health and safety. They closed the passage of vessels for the important Amazon River, at height of the Puerto Orlando community. Indigenous Peruvians of the upper Maranon basin, Nauta district achieved what their neighbors to the north in the US have not come near doing after the world's greatest oil spill and public health catastrophe that occurred six months ago in the Gulf of Mexico.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/drug-laws-trump-constitutional-rights/

Michael Lapihuska is facing a sentence that could be as severe as 10 years in prison, not for rape, burglary or assault, but for the possession of a single joint’s worth of marijuana. Michael suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and has used cannabis for many years to combat the symptoms of his illness. After suffering arrests for possession, he moved to California. There a doctor recommended he take marijuana for his disorder, and he became a legal patient in the state’s medical marijuana program. On December 15, 2009, Michael was hitchhiking home from California to see his family for Christmas when he was stopped, searched – apparently for no reason – and arrested for possession of one gram of marijuana.

Link: http://wonkette.com/428167/17000000-americans-have-college-degress-for-no-reason

Here is a Paradox, if you like such things: America is a Nation of Semi-Literate Buffoons, but America is also a Nation of Over-Educated (but still dumb) service workers. What? “In all, about 17 million people in this country have completed college only to end up working jobs that require a skill level below that of a bachelors degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” That includes 5,057 janitors with Ph.Ds. What is so wrong with being a “maintenance engineer,” we ask? At least it’s a job, right? There’s nothing wrong with it at all, it’s just that you don’t really need eight years of college and a hundred grand in student loan debt to mop up shit and blood in the emergency room, at night.

Link: http://kennysideshow.blogspot.com/2010/10/nullification-of-chosen-ones.html

Archbishop Cyrille Salim Butros of Newton, Mass, the leader of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the U.S., has caused a little 'spat' in Catholic and Jewish relations by remarks made at a Vatican meeting of Middle Eastern bishops. Unless I'm mistaken, until the jewish creation of "christian zionism' what Butros said was standard Christian theology. Basically it's that Jesus' teachings nullified the concept of the 'chosen ones' and introduced the novel idea that everyone is equal. It was out with the old and in the new. Jewish supremacists don't like that kind of talk so they had the ADL's hatchet man Abe Foxman do what he's paid to do ... attack. Butros said: "We Christians cannot speak of the ‘promised land’ as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people,” adding: "This promise was nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people – all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.”