Only days after giving the rich (and themselves)an unfunded tax cut, they can't give medical benefits to the 911 responders?? This is the definition of shameless.
And this is the party of American Patriots? I don't think so.
Anybody who continues to doubt the absolute moral bankruptcy of the republican party -- this should clear that up for ya.
Wow! They are concerned about the cost for this bill, yet are enthusiastic about borrowing $900 billion to cover this new tax bill. So deficits are okay when they cover tax breaks for the wealthy, but not when they help pay for the health costs of the very brave people that helped after 9/11. I guess I will never understand.
The republicans are showing their appreciation for the patriotism of the emergency workers and volunteers that stepped up to help our country in a moment of need.
$800 billion to extend tax cuts for the very rich? No problem.
$7 billion for health needs of those who helped our country? No way.
Great country.
There's your Republicans for you...I bet if Georgie had gotten sick as a result of being at Ground Zero, there's be no problem -- but then again, he's rich and doesn't need the money. Kind of like the rich and their tax cuts...they don't need the extra money but they'll make sure the poor and middle class don't get a tax cut either... God is watching you, Republiscums!
$700 billion tax cut for the top 2%, but no health aid for American heros. How much more proof do we need? They play us against each other as Democrat and Republican, then make back room deals that betray all but the most powerful and well connected.
Where is the justice?
Oh yes - we can start so many wars but can we take care of our 9/11 aid workers - who did so much for us here in New York, and the country! Maybe the Senate Republicans could give up their Health Care Benefits to help these courageous Workers. As someone who lives downtown near ground Zero please remember - we were all told that there were no health issues regarding the air by the Bush Administration - as we all know this was a "lie".
I think Republicans owe the 9/11 Workers at least $1 for everytime they invoked 9/11 in one of their speeches which should tally around $10 billion.
Seriously though, I'm absolutely disgusted by this. I'd like to hear the Republicans arguments against the bill. I believe if they had let the tax cuts expire for the wealthy, it would have covered this cost...
FASCISTS at Amazon that banned WikiLeaks are now making money selling the same.
Well done Amazon, you get rid of wikileaks because papa US gov asked you to do so and now you are selling wikileaks cables !!! I mean do you have any moral at all ??? Buy wikileaks cables in Amazon with your mastercard or visa card !! Strange world... (by "freedomofspeech)
It's not fair and rude. Father of WikiLeaks project is in jail in UK, and Amazon is selling result of his work.
Shame to Amazon. (by Viacheslav)
Really love amazon, but you must be kidding me. I have spent thousands of dollars on here over the past couple years due to your low prices and good quality used books. But this is it, we are over. I hope you lose a lot more business than just mine. You don't deserve to be making money on the cables and hopefully one of your employees will leak something to the world that ruins your PR. (by Maltman)
I can't believe you would kick Wikileaks off your server then try and sell the cables for profit. I just started to use amazon and now I will never use them again. It is really a shame.(by Jkoch)
Are you freaking kidding me? Had given you the benefit of the doubt (be it a small and very fragile one), because maybe you'd lift the ban on hosting WikiLeaks, but this? This is the purest form of hypocracy if ever I've seen it in my life. Grow a clue, you fools at amazon. You've lost yet another customer. Bye now! (by J.B. Thijssen)
How hypocritical, amazon. I used to love you, but this is a blot upon what I believed [was?] a great company. (by Timothy D. Stoltenburg "tech-idea)
Amazon you are doing a super job !
1) Eliminate the competition on your servers (Wikileaks as they provide this for free!)
2) Start selling the documents
3) Profit !!
Seriously, you're a sad excuse for a company.
Bowing down to everything the US government wants even though they are NOT charged for any crime.
You would be very popular in countries such as China and Iran !!
A Shame on you, bigger shame on me if I purchase anything from Amazon in the future... (by Patrik)
What is wrong with this company? You succumb to US pressure to take off Wikileaks from your servers, yet you think its acceptable to sell the cables that they protest? I will be glad when Anon avenges this. (by John Stuart)
Man, this is so embarrasing. The world seems like a big joke to you guys at Amazon. Since the US government put pressure on you, you stepped back like a little girl. But it's its going to give you profit, you sell these information. It's disgusting. Amazon just lost another good customer. (by Flater Master)
Incredible. Amazon's arrogance and hypocrisy selling this product in this light of its treatment of WikiLeaks is breathtaking. What prison term can Amazon executives look forward to for selling US states secrets, I wonder? (by Moksha)
I'm quite speechless and in lack of words.
Luckily, more eloquent people wrote pretty much everything there is to write about this.
Amazon, you greedy phony *******! (byJaroslaw Sehn) I find it saddening that the general public is so hopelessly brainwashed that they will still continue to stand up for their own murderous Government against people who simply point out that Governments's actions. Anybody who has a negative view on outdated diplomatic cables being leaked showing the true intentions and actions of their own leaders needs to seriously think about what they're standing up for rather than blindly calling those who care "terrorists". You sheep disgust me. (by Will)
The reason Amazon stopped the DNS of wikilinks was, they said, because the information was theft - a crime.
So why on earth are they selling it ?
If they believe what they are saying when will they hand themselves in (suggest they shouldn't confess to Alaska prosecutors or assassination may happen).
Amazon, thy names are Hypocrite and Opportunism. (by Triffid)
The reason Amazon stopped the DNS of wikilinks was, they said, because the information was theft - a crime.
So why on earth are they selling it ?
If they believe what they are saying when will they hand themselves in (suggest they shouldn't confess to Alaska prosecutors or assassination may happen).
Amazon, thy names are Hypocrite and Opportunism. (by Fed-up)
This makes absolutely no sense. I am pretty sure that I won't be supporting a company that contradicts itself so extremely and conspicuously, not to mention blatantly takes advantage of the situation. This is beyond inappropriate.
So, with our current "World Police" title, I hope the United States takes Amazon offline for distributing this. (by Dylan W. Sampson "film maker")
So wait, Assange is being chased down for releasing the same documents YOU GUYS ARE SELLING?!
Hypocritical to the fullest. If i would have known this before the holidays, I would have taken my business elsewhere... which I will do from here on out. (by Mark)
Morally deranged fascists go amok in their calls to assassinate the messenger, in this case Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. http://wlcentral.org/ has a nice collection of fascists calling for the same. However, one should enjoy doublespeak by the Choosen One:
“The more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free internet — or unrestricted internet access is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged," (The U.S. President Barack Obama, talking in China)
The morally deranged nation whose "leaders" want to kill a messenger does need a deep self re-evaluation. Listen to Gerald Celente's take on the issue. But the Granny wonders WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG with Australians? They allow fascists to rule their country? Perhaps John Pilger offer a glimmer of hope?
"The defence of Julian Assange and Wikileaks is one of the most important issues of my lifetime. There are now two superpowers in the world — the military power of Washington and the power of public opinion and justice, which Wikileaks represents.
If the Australian prime minister doesn’t understand this, we Australians need to remind her that she may head a mercenary government but we are not a mercenary people.
Those of us in London who are working to free Julian, knowing that the Swedish prosecution is a political stunt that would never produce a fair trial, will be at his side, and we call on the support of every decent Australian."
That Liar-In-Chief said that tax plan is intended to help short-term job creation.
Baloney, I say!!! The Bush tax cuts were in effect during the entire time that this disastrous unemployment situation developed, so it is a proven fact that they don't produce jobs. What I see the outcome of these tax cuts to be is that off-shoring of jobs and investment by American corporations and wealthy Americans in foreign countries will increase. Of course this means even more job cuts for Americans.
If making the rich even richer truly created jobs, then every American would have five by now instead of 15 million Americans having none.
The argument that the President got the best deal possible is ludicrous...This President is gutless and unprincipled...I thought the world "compromise" suggested that both sides give up something...I can't see what the Republicans gave up. I hope that this "compromise" will insure that the Democrats have an alternative in the primary battles for 2012...I think Roger Hodge got it correct in "The Mendacity of Hope".
In a nutshell Obama is telling you that you all should be happy that you will be taking home a few extra dollars with every measly recession paycheck you receive, while your kids grow up to live in a nation with no social services, a devastated environment and sky-high national debt. All this so the rich can continue to grow richer. I don't buy it, Obama.
That idiot Obama said how his new appeasement (tax break to the rich extension) would create "millions of jobs". I guess it would be the same as the "millions of jobs" already created during the 8 years of the said tax cut.
I hope at least few million would go to unemployed over 50 years. Here’s a chart showing the monthly unemployment level (in thousands) of Americans 50 years and older based on Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey (not seasonally adjusted).
In January 2006, there were 1,374,000 unemployed Americans 50 and older.
In December 2007, at the start of the Great Recession, there were 1,398,000 unemployed Americans 50 and older.
In November 2010, there were 3,475,000 unemployed Americans 50 and older.
The unemployment level among Americans 50 years and older has increased almost two and one-half times since the start of the Great Recession.
The following is a letter from members of the University of California San Francisco - to Dr John P Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology
Dear Dr Holdren,
We, a number of University of California, San Francisco faculty, are writing -- see attached memo -- to call to your attention our concerns about the potential serious health risks of the recently adopted whole body backscatter X-ray airport security scanners. This is an urgent situation as these X-ray scanners are rapidly being implemented as a primary screening step for all air travel passengers.
By way of introduction one of us (John Sedat) met you recently when he and his wife Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, a 2009 Nobel Laureate, talked with President Obama last December.
Dr Sedat is Professor Emeritus in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California San Francisco, with expertise in imaging. He is also a member of The National Academy of Sciences. The other co-signers include Dr Marc Shuman, an internationally well known and respected cancer expert and UCSF professor, as well as Drs David Agard and Robert Stroud, who are UCSF Professors, X-ray crystallographers, imaging experts and NAS members.
Sincerely Yours
Professors John Sedat, Elizabeth Blackburn, Marc Shuman, David Agard, Robert Stroud
LETTER OF CONCERN
We are writing to call your attention to serious concerns about the potential health risks of the recently adopted whole body backscatter X-ray airport security scanners. This is an urgent situation as these X-ray scanners are rapidly being implemented as a primary screening step for all air travel passengers.
Our overriding concern is the extent to which the safety of this scanning device has been adequately demonstrated. This can only be determined by a meeting of an impartial panel of experts that would include medical physicists and radiation biologists at which all of the available relevant data is reviewed.
An important consideration is that a large fraction of the population will be subject to the new X-ray scanners and be at potential risk, as discussed below. This raises a number of ‘red flags’. Can we have an urgent second independent evaluation?
The Red Flags
The physics of these X-rays is very telling: the X-rays are Compton-Scattering off outer molecule bonding electrons and thus inelastic (likely breaking bonds).
Unlike other scanners, these new devices operate at relatively low beam energies (28keV). The majority of their energy is delivered to the skin and the underlying tissue. Thus, while the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high.
The X-ray dose from these devices has often been compared in the media to the cosmic ray exposure inherent to airplane travel or that of a chest X-ray. However, this comparison is very misleading: both the air travel cosmic ray exposure and chest Xrays have much higher X-ray energies and the health consequences are appropriately understood in terms of the whole body volume dose. In contrast, these new airport scanners are largely depositing their energy into the skin and immediately adjacent tissue, and since this is such a small fraction of body weight/vol, possibly by one to two orders of magnitude, the real dose to the skin is now high.
In addition, it appears that real independent safety data do not exist. A search, ultimately finding top FDA radiation physics staff, suggests that the relevant radiation quantity, the Flux [photons per unit area and time (because this is a scanning device)] has not been characterized. Instead an indirect test (Air Kerma) was made that emphasized the whole body exposure value, and thus it appears that the danger is low when compared to cosmic rays during airplane travel and a chest X-ray dose. In summary, if the key data (flux-integrated photons per unit values) were available, it would be straightforward to accurately model the dose being deposited in the skin and adjacent tissues using available computer codes, which would resolve the potential concerns over radiation damage.
Our colleagues at UCSF, dermatologists and cancer experts, raise specific important concerns:
• A) The large population of older travelers, >65 years of age, is particularly at risk from the mutagenic effects of the X-rays based on the known biology of melanocyte aging.
• B) A fraction of the female population is especially sensitive to muta genesis provoking radiation leading to breast cancer. Notably, because these women, who have defects in DNA repair mechanisms, are particularly prone to cancer, X-ray mammograms are not performed on them. The dose to breast tissue beneath the skin represents a similar risk.
• C) Blood (white blood cells) perfusing the skin is also at risk.
• D) The population of immuno compromised individuals--HIV and cancer patients (see above) is likely to be at risk for cancer induction by the high skin dose.
• E) The risk of radiation emission to children and adolescents does not appear to have been fully evaluated. • F) The policy towards pregnant women needs to be defined once the theoretical risks to the fetus are determined.
• G) Because of the proximity of the testicles to skin, this tissue is at risk for sperm mutagenesis.
• H) Have the effects of the radiation on the cornea and thymus been determined?
Moreover, there are a number of ‘red flags’ related to the hardware itself. Because this device can scan a human in a few seconds, the X-ray beam is very intense. Any glitch in power at any point in the hardware (or more importantly in software) that stops the device could cause an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin. Who will oversee problems with overall dose after repair or software problems? The TSA is already complaining about resolution limitations; who will keep the manufacturers and/or TSA from just raising the dose, an easy way to improve signal-to-noise and get higher resolution? Lastly, given the recent incident (on December 25th), how do we know whether the manufacturer or TSA, seeking higher resolution, will scan the groin area more slowly leading to a much higher total dose? After review of the available data we have already obtained, we suggest that additional critical information be obtained, with the goal to minimize the potential health risks of total body scanning. One can study the relevant X-ray dose effects with modern molecular tools.
Once a small team of appropriate experts is assembled, an experimental plan can be designed and implemented with the objective of obtaining information relevant to our concerns expressed above, with attention paid to completing the information gathering and formulating recommendations in a timely fashion. We would like to put our current concerns into perspective. As longstanding UCSF scientists and physicians, we have witnessed critical errors in decisions that have seriously affected the health of thousands of people in the United States. These unfortunate errors were made because of the failure to recognize potential adverse outcomes of decisions made at the federal level.
Crises create a sense of urgency that frequently leads to hasty decisions where unintended consequences are not recognized. Examples include the failure of the CDC to recognize the risk of blood transfusions in the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, approval of drugs and devices by the FDA without sufficient review, and improper standards set by the EPA, to name a few. Similarly, there has not been sufficient review of the intermediate and long-term effects of radiation exposure associated with airport scanners. There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations. We are unanimous in believing that the potential health consequences need to be rigorously studied before these scanners are adopted. Modifications that reduce radiation exposure need to be explored as soon as possible.
In summary we urge you to empower an impartial panel of experts to re-evaluate the potential health issues we have raised before there are irrevocable long-term consequences to the health of our country.
These negative effects may on balance far outweigh the potential benefit of increased detection of terrorists.
However, the Boiled Frogs Nation f.k.a. Americans, do not give a flying fuck if their kids are being molsted:
I was reading the Skin Encyclopedia, about the human skin texture because, yes, you've guessed right, the Angry Granny had had some health issues and now when I'm back I asked, what the fuck has happened with the revolution???
AMERICANS?? Where's the guillotine for all the criminals that pillaged your country while the Angry Granny was away?
''You already have zero privacy. Get over it,'' Sun Microsystems' Chairman Scott G. McNealy famously noted. So far everyone who had not been living under the rock knows that the government is spying on its citizens. You know, for your own security they are listening on your phone conversations, collect your messages, analyze your e-mails etc.. I hope you feel safe. What is lesser known is the fact that spying is a booming, huge business. $48 billions of your money is being spent on spying.
Intelligence Senate (now, that is contradictio in adjecto) Committee spells out the costs to taxpayers, every one of you, my fellow Americans. It estimates that the average annual cost for a government intelligence officer is $126,500, compared to the average $250,000 (including overhead) paid by the government for an intelligence contractor. The U.S. Government spends an immense part - 70% - of its intelligence budget on private contracts and only 30% within the agency, better known as the Defense Intelligence Agency. Even the CIA has about 60% private contractors employed in the business of making money out of your money.
You could be upset, angry as the Granny is, enraged over those facts; another proof how the corporate giants and its servant, the government, are taking your money to make profit is maddening. Or you can join grassroots’ resistance and try to change things. Or, and isn’t America all about making money, why wouldn't you simply buy some shares of the biggest contractors like BEA Systems, Boeing, L-3 Communications and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and make a killing. These companies already provide technology and personnel to U.S. agencies involved in foreign intelligence and are actively lobbying intelligence officials to buy products specifically designed for domestic surveillance.
For the years to come, you will be watched and spied on. Video surveillance cameras everywhere coupled with ubiquitous cell phone recording devices, DNA testing for the government vast databases, biometric identification techniques, RFID chips that would record your every move, the electronic banking system that is recording your every transaction, Google that analyses your gmail and stores your browsing history make this dystopian amalgam of the world in which you sand naked. All your life will be scrutinized and used for data collection, and you will have no privacy at all. Perhaps Privacy Lost by David H. Holzman can teach you a thing or two, Gene Hackman and Will Smith’s Enemy of the State could entertain you, but do not overlook this great opportunity and profit on the value you have lost forever – your privacy!!
Buy, buy, buy… buy BEA, buy BA, buy LLL, buy, buy, buy now when your government have already sold you and your privacy out. Funny, don't you think, they sold you out closing the deal with your own money. One must admire the genius of the government! By the corporations, for the corporations...
Do you remember “The Addams Family”? Addams Gomez once cried in despair, “Has the world gone mad?”
After hearing Mike Huckabee – Mitt Romney verbal brawl on Jesus and Devil issue I felt like I am living in a melting pot of insanity. CNN "Bible" debate, Jesus all over the place, Romney's "faith speech", Huckabee's "Christian Leader" much talked about TV ad in Iowa. Pundits regurgitating all this all the time? What is going on? Arguably, the position of the President of the United States still carries the title of the most powerful position in the world and those men, Republicans presidential hopefuls, are endlessly discussing Jesus and Devil and their potential brotherhood?
Do those guys have any serious issues to discuss or should we simple go and elect Benny Hinn for the President?
I badly need an antidote for insanity. Perhaps a big swig of some refreshing Holly Water would do?
I came across this question on the recent republicans debate on another hall of illusion, CNN - Do you believe every word of the Bible? - and this is what another Governor from Hope, Arkansas, surging in the polls, Mike Huckabee had to say:
As a Man from Hope has said, the Bible is allegorical word of God and no one, not even the pastor Huckabee, is supposed to fully understand it. Good, I always believed the faith is a private issue and that it should stay there, at your home, in your church, in your heart. While I watched those eight middle aged Christian men (with a Mormon believer in the Bible among them), I watch very wealthy white men, a real representatives of the most diversified country in the world and am wondering what is wrong with this country? Do those politicians and pundits have anything else to say but to endlessly talk about the Bible, a book none understands? And how could you "understand" it, when it is so full of factual contradictions?
Two Gospels are saying Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, while Luke asserted that John was already in prison. Mark and John give little importance to the birth of Jesus, while Matthew and Luke give differing accounts. There are three separate and different versions of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20, Exodus 34, and Deuteronomy 5). As for the question of God’s true nature, there are many substantive contradictions. Is God a loving or vengeful God? In some sections of the Bible, vicious acts of vengeance, including the genocidal extermination of opposing tribes and nations, appear to be blessed by God. God turns on the Egyptians and transforms the Nile into blood so the Egyptians will suffer from thirst – and then sends swarms of locusts and flies to torture them, along with hail, fire and thunder from the heavens to destroy all plants and trees. To liberate the children of Israel, God orders the firstborn of every Egyptian household killed so all will know “that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel” (Exodus 11:7). The killing does not cease until “There was not a house where one was not dead” (Exodus 12:30). Amid the carnage God orders Moses to loot all the clothing, jewelry, gold and silver from the Egyptian homes (Exodus 12:35-36).
And what if Umberto Eco is right and all this Bible authoring was a practical joke? This is what he wrote in his sensational and thrilling book, "Foucault's Pendulum":
"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are a bunch of practical jokers who meet somewhere and decide to have a contest. They invent a character, agree on a few basic facts, and then each one’s free to take it and run with it. At the end, they’ll see who’s done the best job. The four stories are picked up by some friends who act as critics: Matthew is fairly realistic, but insists on that Messiah business too much; Mark isn’t bad, just a little sloppy; Luke is elegant, no denying that; and John takes the philosophy a little too far. Actually, though, the books have an appeal, they circulate, and when the four realize what’s happening, it’s too late. Paul has already met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Pliny begins his investigation ordered by the worried emperor, and a legion of apocryphal writers pretend also to know plenty…
It all goes to Peter’s head; he takes himself seriously. John threatens to tell the truth, the poor man is seeing things: Help, there are locusts all over my bed, make those trumpets stop, where’s all this blood coming from? The others say he’s drunk, or maybe it’s arteriosclerosis… Who knows, maybe it really happened that way?”
Blaise Pascal has warned us that "Men never do evils so completely and cheerfully as when they do it for religious conviction," so perhaps would be a good idea to tone down this endless bible talk. We do not want to sound like a bunch of crazy religious fanatics, don't we?
Your share of a national debt (over $9 trillion so far), according to the Associated Press is some $30,000.00; that's about $30K in debt for everyone living legally in this country. Being citizen bears the high honor of bearing the debt your government is taking upon your children's children's future. It would be stories all over the place; how Japan and China owe the U.S. or how the dollar's decline reduced the U.S. to a cheap touristic destination for European working class and so on. But, what you are not going to read very often is the story of the real financial bomb ticking underneath this country and this world's financial realities.
The Bank for International Settlements carries, in its virtual vaults, some really interesting data. The U.S. economy is an $11 trillion dollars economy. The U.S. stock market is valued at roughly $11 trillion dollars, give a take a few, due to the volatility and Jim Cramer. The U.S. bond market is valued at about $20 trillion dollars. The rest of the world's stock markets is an additional $13 trillion dollars and the world bond markets adds a modest sum of $13 trillion dollars.
Of course all that money does not exist at all. Imagine if everyone tries, at the same moment, to withdraw her or his money? Requesting a hard, green cash, now, this very moment! Ha, that would be the day. Do you really believe the banks have even the fraction of that money at their disposal? Long since gone are the days of the gold standard. The Federal Reserve Bank requires the banks to carry not more than 10% of their (that is: yours) deposits in cash. The rest is lent out or invested elsewhere, mostly in numerous derivatives of the endlessly creative financial markets.
Therein leis the really funny part. Those "derivatives" are too often too obscure monetary instruments (like the package your mortgage company has sold over to some other money changer who sold it again and again and again while you keep paying for your death pledge, commonly known as mortgage) that are being traded in between banks, governments, mutual funds, hedge funds and so on. The TOTAL "value" of those derivatives in the world financial markets is obscene $516 trillion dollars!
All those numbers do not mean too much, written like this. They are simply too surreal to comprehend. So let us put them in some perspective: the world's GDP, all that all the people in the world produce during one full year is roughly $65 trillion dollars. To make things even clearer, each living, breathing human being in the world from Anchorage to Punta Arenas produces the value of about $10,000.00 a year. The "value" of all those derivatives financial markets are trading is, on the other hand, $78,114.00 per capita. The whole world's population, every single of us would have to work for full seven years, without spending a dime, just to cover the "value" of all these derivatives.
This is the bomb that is ticking beneath all this noise. Another LTCM (Long Term Capital Management whose $1.4 trillion dollars in derivatives almost broke Wall Street), one of thousands unregulated hedge fund could easily start a chain reaction of selling that would evaporate all the money, savings, funds, stocks that keep us feel prosperous. And you still worry about the U.S. national debt and your tiny little share of $120,000.00 for the family of four? And remember, $5 trillion that the U.S. government owes in form of T-bonds are maturing within a year. So to pay them off, the government would have to issue about $6 trillion, give or take a dime. If there will be someone to purchase them. If not, we will always have Iran to bomb.
Seriously though, I'm absolutely disgusted by this. I'd like to hear the Republicans arguments against the bill. I believe if they had let the tax cuts expire for the wealthy, it would have covered this cost...