Sunday, March 31, 2013
SWAT Raids Home Over Hydroponic Equipment Purchase, Finds Tomatoes and Squash
Did you know that buying hydroponic growing equipment is now being used
as probable cause for the government to raid your house?
Neither did Bob and Addie Harte, a Kansas couple who were raided by SWAT without a warrant last April because the authorities took notice of their purchase of indoor gardening items.
The illegal raid turned up "just six plants -- three tomato plants, one melon plant and two butternut squash plants -- growing in the basement", and now the couple is suing the sheriff's department.
The Associated Press reports:
"With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors," the lawsuit says.
"If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn't led a perfect life supposed to be free in this country?" Adlynn Harte told the Associated Press.
The lawsuit says the Harte children (7 and 13) were traumatized when deputies wearing bullet-proof vests armed with assault rifles pounded on their door.
"It was just like on the cops TV shows," Robert Harte told The Associated Press. "It was like 'Zero Dark Thirty' ready to storm the compound."
"You can't go into people's homes and conduct searches without probable cause," said Harte's attorney Cheryl Pilate.....
Neither did Bob and Addie Harte, a Kansas couple who were raided by SWAT without a warrant last April because the authorities took notice of their purchase of indoor gardening items.
The illegal raid turned up "just six plants -- three tomato plants, one melon plant and two butternut squash plants -- growing in the basement", and now the couple is suing the sheriff's department.
The Associated Press reports:
Two former CIA employees whose Kansashome was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables.
Adlynn and Robert Harte sued this week to get more information about why sheriff's deputies searched their home in the upscale Kansas City suburb of Leawood last April 20 as part of Operation Constant Gardener.It seem peculiar that the couple are former CIA agents. Perhaps government watches their former employees' purchases more closely?
"With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors," the lawsuit says.
"If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn't led a perfect life supposed to be free in this country?" Adlynn Harte told the Associated Press.
The lawsuit says the Harte children (7 and 13) were traumatized when deputies wearing bullet-proof vests armed with assault rifles pounded on their door.
"It was just like on the cops TV shows," Robert Harte told The Associated Press. "It was like 'Zero Dark Thirty' ready to storm the compound."
"You can't go into people's homes and conduct searches without probable cause," said Harte's attorney Cheryl Pilate.....
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Quote De Jour
"The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government." -- Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Princeton professor Cornel West says President Obama is a "war criminal."
West, the prominent black academic and activist who has consistently
been a harsh Obama critic, took issue with the White House's covert
drone program, saying that "the chickens are coming home to roost."
"We've been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people," West said on his "Smiley & West" radio show with Tavis Smiley.
"It's been over 200 children so far," West said. "These are war crimes."
West, who has previously said that "brother Barack was just completely mesmerized by the acceptance of the establishment," compared Obama to former Presidents George W. Bush and Richard Nixon.
"Let us not be deceived: Nixon, Bush, Obama, they're war criminals," West said. "They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but they're suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us."
"We've been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people," West said on his "Smiley & West" radio show with Tavis Smiley.
"It's been over 200 children so far," West said. "These are war crimes."
West, who has previously said that "brother Barack was just completely mesmerized by the acceptance of the establishment," compared Obama to former Presidents George W. Bush and Richard Nixon.
"Let us not be deceived: Nixon, Bush, Obama, they're war criminals," West said. "They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but they're suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us."
Friday, March 29, 2013
Big Pharma Criminality no Longer a Conspiracy Theory: Bribery, Fraud, Price Fixing now a matter of public record!
Those of us who have long been describing the pharmaceutical industry as a "criminal racket" over the last few years have been wholly vindicated by recent news. Drug and vaccine manufacturer Merck was caught red-handed by two of its own scientists faking vaccine efficacy data by spiking blood samples with animal antibodies. GlaxoSmithKline has just been fined a whopping $3 billion for
bribing doctors, lying to the FDA, hiding clinical trial data and
fraudulent marketing. Pfizer, meanwhile has been sued by the nation's
pharmacy retailers for what is alleged as an "overarching
anticompetitive scheme" to keep generic cholesterol drugs off the market
and thereby boost its own profits.
The picture that's emerging is one of a criminal drug industry that has turned to mafia tactics in the absence of any real science that
would prove their products to be safe or effective. The emergence of
this extraordinary evidence of bribery, scientific fraud, lying to
regulators and monopolistic practices that harm consumers is also making
all those doctors and "skeptics" who defended Big Pharma and vaccines eat their words.
To defend Big Pharma today is to defend a cabal of criminal corporations that have proven they will do anything -- absolutely anything --
to keep their profits rolling in. It makes no difference who they have
to bribe, what studies they have to falsify, or who has to be threatened
into silence. They will stop at nothing to expand their profit base,
even if it means harming (or killing) countless innocents.
Let's take a look at recent revelations:
GlaxoSmithKline pleads guilty to bribery, fraud and other crimes
It what is now the largest criminal fraud
settlement ever to come out of the pharmaceutical industry,
GlaxoSmithKline has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $1 billion in
criminal fines and $2 billion in civil fines following a nine-year
federal investigation into its activities.
According to U.S. federal investigators, GlaxoSmithKline (http://www.naturalnews.com/036416_GlaxoSmithKline_fraud_criminal_char...):
• Routinely bribed doctors with luxury vacations and paid speaking gigs
• Fabricated drug safety data and lied to the FDA
• Defrauded Medicare and Medicaid out of billions
• Deceived regulators about the effectiveness of its drugs
• Relied on its deceptive practices to earn billions of dollars selling potentially dangerous drugs to unsuspecting consumers and medical patients
• Fabricated drug safety data and lied to the FDA
• Defrauded Medicare and Medicaid out of billions
• Deceived regulators about the effectiveness of its drugs
• Relied on its deceptive practices to earn billions of dollars selling potentially dangerous drugs to unsuspecting consumers and medical patients
And this is just the part they got caught
doing. GSK doesn't even deny any of this. The company simply paid the
$3 billion fine, apologized to its customers, and continued conducting
business as usual.
By the way, in addition to bribing
physicians, GSK has plenty of money to spread around bribing celebrities
and others who pimps its products. The company reportedly paid $275,000
to the celebrity doctor known as "Dr. Drew," who promoted Glaxo's
mind-altering antidepressant drug Wellbutrin (http://naturalsociety.com/top-radio-doctor-paid-by-glaxosmithkline-to...).
As the Wall Street Journal reports:
In June 1999, popular radio
personality Dr. Drew Pinsky used the airwaves to extol the virtues of
GlaxoSmithKline PLC's antidepressant Wellbutrin, telling listeners he
prescribes it and other medications to depressed patients because it
"may enhance or at least not suppress sexual arousal" as much as other
antidepressants do. But one thing listeners didn't know was that, two
months before the program aired, Dr. Pinsky -- who gained fame as "Dr.
Drew" during years co-hosting a popular radio sex-advice show "Loveline"
-- received the second of two payments from Glaxo totaling $275,000 for
"services for Wellbutrin."
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230393340457750503200685...)
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230393340457750503200685...)
Merck falsified vaccine data, spiked blood samples and more, say former employees
According to former Merck virologists Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, the company: (http://www.naturalnews.com/036328_Merck_mumps_vaccine_False_Claims_Ac...)
Obama’s ‘change’ Is Here: 1% get 81% income gains then tax-shelter $21-$32 trillion
Pulitzer Prize-winning tax journalist David Kay Johnston reports IRS tax data
since Mr. Obama’s 2009 inauguration shows “change” for 90% of
Americans: they lost income. The 1% increased income; taking 81% of
gains (the top 1% of the 1% took 39% of this total).
This follows a pattern that between 1980 and 2005, the 1% also took over 80% of all income gains.
Since 1966, inflation-adjusted annual income for the bottom 90% of Americans increased just $59, while the 1% increased income average by $625,000, and the 1% of the 1% increased average incomes by $18,700,000 per year.
This occurs in the context of McKinsey Chief Economist James Henry documenting the 1% hide $21 to $32 trillion in tax havens, the US top seven banks hide over $10 trillion, many top US corporations claim income losses, while the bottom 90%’s tax burden increases - in part to pay top corporations’ tax refunds.
It also occurs in context of accelerating technological capacity that should allow all Earth’s inhabitants to live higher quality lives.
Mr. Johnston reports the excellent work of economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty.
Mr. Obama’s Democratic leadership’s escalation of Mr. Bush’s Republican leadership shows us that US politics is one criminal body with puppets at the end of Left and Right arms.
One obvious solution is to arrest US political leadership for crimes in unlawful wars and criminal economic fraud.
If you’re ready for solutions rather than death to millions, harm to billions, and looting of trillions: now’s the time to take all the lawful action previous generations have given you under the US Constitution.
This follows a pattern that between 1980 and 2005, the 1% also took over 80% of all income gains.
Since 1966, inflation-adjusted annual income for the bottom 90% of Americans increased just $59, while the 1% increased income average by $625,000, and the 1% of the 1% increased average incomes by $18,700,000 per year.
This occurs in the context of McKinsey Chief Economist James Henry documenting the 1% hide $21 to $32 trillion in tax havens, the US top seven banks hide over $10 trillion, many top US corporations claim income losses, while the bottom 90%’s tax burden increases - in part to pay top corporations’ tax refunds.
It also occurs in context of accelerating technological capacity that should allow all Earth’s inhabitants to live higher quality lives.
Mr. Johnston reports the excellent work of economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty.
Mr. Obama’s Democratic leadership’s escalation of Mr. Bush’s Republican leadership shows us that US politics is one criminal body with puppets at the end of Left and Right arms.
One obvious solution is to arrest US political leadership for crimes in unlawful wars and criminal economic fraud.
If you’re ready for solutions rather than death to millions, harm to billions, and looting of trillions: now’s the time to take all the lawful action previous generations have given you under the US Constitution.
Hippocratic Obama Signs Monsanto Protection Act Into Law After Promising GMO Labeling in 2007
Passing up the chance to veto the bill in favor of stopping Monsanto’s increasing monopoly on the food supply, Obama pushed the bill through into a law in a move that reminds us of his failed 2007 promise to ‘immediately’ label GMOs upon his election.
Contained in the rider (Farmer Assurance Provision, Sec. 735) of HR 933, Monsanto is now even protected (at least under this law) from the United States government.
As I pointed out in a previous article, the Monsanto Protection Act’s success actually proves how corporations have more power than even the United States federal government. Monsanto’s lobbyists managed to slip the rider into the major bill, which — despite the rider — has virtually nothing to do with the topic.
This is a typical and routinely practiced move by lobbyists to insert an incognito line of legislation into a bill generally viewed as favorable overall. One that has proven to be effective for Monsanto.
Contained in the rider (Farmer Assurance Provision, Sec. 735) of HR 933, Monsanto is now even protected (at least under this law) from the United States government.
As I pointed out in a previous article, the Monsanto Protection Act’s success actually proves how corporations have more power than even the United States federal government. Monsanto’s lobbyists managed to slip the rider into the major bill, which — despite the rider — has virtually nothing to do with the topic.
This is a typical and routinely practiced move by lobbyists to insert an incognito line of legislation into a bill generally viewed as favorable overall. One that has proven to be effective for Monsanto.
2007 Promise to Label GMOs
The result is now major outcry against Obama for signing the bill into law and protecting the biotech juggernaut Monsanto. Many fail to remember, however, that Obama first decided to allow Monsanto to continue pulverizing the food supply and the health of the nation back in 2008 when he went back on his promise to ‘immediately’ label GMOs. It was in 2007, during a campaign speech, that Obama first stated his support of non-GMO and GMO labeling activists, in which he promised to swiftly label GMOs.
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