The Sustainable Home

Store or Starve A beginner’s guide to food storage

2011-08-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

For anyone who knows me, you know how I feel about food. Heck, I was just accused last week of only talking about food on Facebook! Food is life. You need money to purchase or grow food but ultimately, it’s food (and water) that will get you through any life altering situation. Can’t pay your mortgage? While you are waiting for the sheriffs to come knocking on your door to kick you out (which can take as much as 2 years or more) at least you’ll be able to eat. Don’t have electricity? If you have a bbq grill of any kind, you can cook. Store what you eat, eat what you store. Don’t go by what “the experts” say. You don’t need fancy, prepackaged (and expensive) ready made 1 year food storage! If you have that now (or can afford the initial outlay of money and don’t mind eating it eventually) then go for it. But start now! When you go shopping, buy two or three of an item instead of one. Do this each time you go grocery shopping, in no time you will have a few months of food storage with even one bead of sweat on your brow.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shirtz/shirtz20.1.html?ref=nf

New Kitchen Gadgets

2011-06-16T08:30:00.001-07:00

I rarely shop at Orchard Supply Hardware but since they recently closed the closest Ace Hardware (and there are no other hardwares in my area of town) I decided to go across town. Boy, am I happy I did! Not only do they have organic potting soil but a few herbs I have not seen at any other local store (I bought rue, Stevia, and Clary Sage plants). But what I am excited about is kitchen gadgets!

This is similar to the nut chopper I have been using.

It was my granmother's but after its last use, I had to pick teeth out of the walnuts. So, I'm walking through Orchard Supply and look at what I find:

http://progressiveintl.com/index.php/details/nut_chopper

Then I started actually paying attention to what was on the shelves. I was impressed with the manual kitchen aids they were selling. This is going to be my next purchase, since I haven't had one of these since I lived with my grandma:

http://progressiveintl.com/index.php/details/egg_beater

Here's the company's website. http://progressiveintl.com/ Check out what they make and where you can purchase, though I just noticed that Orchard Supply Hardware isn't listed (but Sears is). I'm excited, though my husband may not be when he sees the list I'm making up!

Brenda

Beginning Gold Panning - Sorta

2011-05-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

Last year, I decided it was time for me to get into gold panning. The last time I had done it was when my grandfather took me when I was about 8 years old. That was too many moons ago, so I thought I had remembered a lot more than I had!

I ordered my supplies from Digg It Prospecting Supply, LLC and William McNall was so helpful! He walked me through what I might need and how to use it. As helpful as he was, it took me (and a STRONG magnifying glass) for me to FINALLY figure out what real gold looked like!

But first, I placed my order. I ordered 2 12-inch Keene Super pans, a snuffer bottle, 2 1/2-ounce glass vials, and a 1/2-inch JOBE Stainless Steel Classifier. I had plenty of buckets, shovels, picks (yes, I even had a small hand pick, though I forgot to take this with me on my first foray to "the wilds") so I thought I was set. I never knew this was only the beginning!

Well, my husband, son, dog and I headed for the hills! We found a secluded spot next to a creek, I grabbed all my tools (well, the ones I remembered to bring) and slid ... I mean walked down to the creek. I found the spot that I thought was calling to me and I started digging. I put the dirt in the classifier that I had put on top of my bucket. Well, if I had found huge nuggets of gold, this would have been a fantastic idea but that's not what happened. It was messy and I couldn't be sure everything not going through didn't have gold stuck to it, so I removed the classifier and just filled up the bucket. Once my bucket was full, that's when the fun began.

I sat down and slowly tossed the rocks and debris back into the water. When I finished with that, I was left with small pebbles and sand. Can you guess this wasn't the bucket I would find a huge nugget? By this time, I had whittled my haul down to about half the bucket. I was tired, the dog was driving me crazy (turns out our "hunting dog" doesn't like water nor firearms so he was whining WAY too much) so I packed it up and brought it home with me.

This is when the fun truly began. In my back yard, my setup was grand! I had a large Tupperware tub filled with water on our patio table. I put one or two garden trowels worth of pebbles into the pan and started truly "gold panning". That's when I realized I really didn't know what the heck I was doing! That's when I found this video:

Gold Panning made easy. 40 + years experience

Thanks to this video, I started actually doing it right. Then I saw it. I just knew it was gold. I searched the web, trying to find a definitive way to tell if what I found was gold or not. Between all the different links I found, this one helped the most:

Gold vs. Iron Pyrite

Basically, iron pyrite (fool's gold) actually "reflects" the sun or light source. Once you move it into the shade, it just looks like a rock or dirt. The other thing is you can "break" iron pyrite when you press on it. And the last thing? When you look at it really closely, iron pyrite is really jagged around the edges. So, did I find gold? Eventually. Out of the entire 5-gallon bucket, I got this much gold flake (what is gold flake? That's what you find in sand. No nuggets for me this time!). Was it worth it? YES! It was frustrating and exciting and just so much fun (of course, I think my husband would only agree with my assessment if I HAD found a huge 5 pound chunk-o-gold):

Super-Simple, Super-Spicy Mongolian Beef

2011-05-26T12:05:00.001-07:00

The next recipe in the rotation is Super-Simple, Super-Spicy Mongolian Beef. I can't wait to try this recipe, since we just LOVE it so much that's usually what we order at our favorite restaurant!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/super-simple-super-spicy-mongolian-beef/Detail.aspx

Panko Asparagus Fries

2011-05-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

Leave out the breadcrumbs and this dish is perfect!

Panko Asparagus Fries
http://blog.cascadianfarm.com/

Go California!

2011-05-26T12:01:00.001-07:00

Red tape in California
Beware of the yogurt
The authorities save Californians from a phantom menace

http://www.economist.com/node/18712862?story_id=18712862

Multi-Flour Bread

2011-05-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

I'm experimenting with lower carbohydrate foods to replace the foods I love. I was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes earlier this year and though my blood sugars are now normal (and I'm off all meds), I'm still working on my way of eating. I first went hard core Atkins. Between that and the medicines I was on, my blood sugars went too low. So, away went the medicines and my blood sugars have been steadily within normal ranges for 2 months now. I love how I feel not eating many of the foods I was relying on before but I miss many of them. Like bread. I LOVE bread! Especially home made bread! So, I'm experimenting with different flours and here's what I came up with. The result is a bread that tastes like bread (not cardboard)!

The nutritional breakdown of a slice of whole wheat bread is:

Calories: 128
Carbohydrates: 24 g
Dietary Fiber: 3g
Protein: 4g

The nutritional breakdown of a slice of my Multi-Flour Bread is:

Calories: 177
Carbohydrates: 18.7g
Dietary Fiber: 5.7g
Protein: 7.1g

Try it and let me know what you think!

http://caloriecount.about.com/multi-flour-bread-recipe-r660615

Multi-Flour Bread Recipe

Makes 16 servings

This is a lower carb, higher protein bread that actually tastes like bread!

Ingredients

1	cup flax meal
1	cup Coconut Flour
1	cup almond meal
1 1/2	cups all purpose flour
1	scoop protein powder
2 1/2	tablespoons sugar
2	teaspoons salt
2	tablespoons butter
1	tablespoon yeast
1	cup warm water

Directions

In a large bowl, mix 1/4 cup warm water with the yeast. Let sit until dissolved.
Add the rest of the water (3/4 cup warm water), sugar, salt, and melted butter to the yeast mixture. Stir.
Now add the flax meal, coconut flour, almond meal, protein powder, and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour to the wet mixture. Mix thoroughly and slowly add more all-purpose flour as needed.
Place the dough on a floured counter and knead until smooth. Form into a loaf shape and place in a loaf bread pan. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for an hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake for 40 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing.
Makes one loaf.

Fw: SAF, CalGuns Sue Over California 'Assault Weapons' Law Arrest

2011-05-23T15:45:00.001-07:00

SAF, CALGUNS SUE OVER CALIFORNIA 'ASSAULT WEAPONS' LAW ARREST

BELLEVUE, WA - The Second Amendment Foundation and Calguns Foundation have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in California, seeking to have the state's definition of so-called "assault weapons" declared unconstitutionally vague.

Joining SAF and Calguns in the lawsuit is Brendan John Richards, an Iraq combat veteran who served as a U.S. Marine, and whose arrest and six-day incarceration in the Sonoma County jail - and subsequent dismissal of all charges - was the catalyst for this legal action. Named as defendants are California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the California Department of Justice, the City of Rohnert Park and police officer Dean Becker.

Richards was jailed in May 2010 after Officer Becker, investigating a disturbance at a motel where Richards was staying, learned that Richards had two pistols and a rifle, all unloaded, in the trunk of his car. Becker, arrested Richards for unlawful possession of an assault weapon. However, in September of last year, the charges were dismissed by the Sonoma County District Attorney's office, based on a report from the state Department of Justice that showed none of the guns met the state's definition of an assault weapon.

"California's law allows possession of a variety of firearms that do not meet the state's assault weapons definition, which we believe is unconstitutionally vague," noted SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. "Mr. Richards was jailed for almost a week, when he had broken no law because a police officer had a conflicting view and the District Attorney's office believed him."

"California attempts to make a distinction among firearms where no natural one exists," noted Calguns Executive Director Gene Hoffman. "The generic definition of so-called assault weapons' was simply an attempt to prohibit possession of guns that look scary."

Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Don Kilmer of San Jose and Jason A. Davis of Mission Viejo. Kilmer said the case is indicative of the way things have become in California.

"Now that the right to keep arms has correctly been recognized as fundamental and applicable to California," Kilmer said, "gun owners can't be faced with the practice of arrest them first and let the courts sort it out' for exercising constitutional rights. That is just how things are done in our country."

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

< Please e-mail, distribute, and circulate to friends and family > Copyright © 2011 Second Amendment Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
Second Amendment Foundation James Madison Building 12500 N.E. Tenth Place Bellevue, WA 98005	Voice: 425-454-7012 Toll Free: 800-426-4302 FAX: 425-451-3959 email: InformationRequest@saf.org
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Cauliflower "Rice"

2011-01-31T12:26:00.001-08:00

I read about this but today decided to try it.

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbsidedishes/r/caulirice.htm

See, one of my favorite ways to eat cooked rice is to saute in butter, add salt and pepper, then put on a bowl. Fry two eggs, place on top of rice, and scarf.

Well, I decided to try this cauliflower rice in place of white rice. Well, it was o.k.

If you like cauliflower, this is great stuff! It makes cooking cauliflower much faster, and the sauteed cauliflower was just yummy!

Mystery Crop Damage Answered?

2011-01-24T14:16:00.001-08:00

Remember this story?

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-mystery-crop-damage,0,187535.story

Well, I apologize for not keeping up with this but here's the answer they came up with:

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/1544008/fedex_plane_possibly_behind_mystery_crop_damage?wpid=7914

Navajo Fry Bread Sticks

2010-12-29T05:40:00.001-08:00

From the Phoenix Sun newspaper when I was living there in 1991:

Navajo Fry Bread Sticks

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Milk or water

Mix all ingredients, adding enough milk or water to moisten. Form into a dough, then pinch off pieces and roll into lengths. Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees. These are light and soft, good with stew. Recipe also works for Navajo tortillas or fry bread. Fry bread may be topped with honey or confectioners' sugar. Or layer with pintos, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and green chilies for a Navajo taco.

Navajo Corn and Cheese Pudding

2010-12-29T05:35:00.001-08:00

From the Phoenix Sun newspaper when I was living there in 1991:

Navajo Corn and Cheese Pudding

2 cups corn kernels, scraped from the cob

3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal

1/3 cup melted lard or shortening

2 eggs, beaten well

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 roasted green chilies, peeled, seeded and chopped

3/4 cup diced Cheddar cheese

In a large bowl, mix corn and milk. Add cornmeal and lard; stir. Add eggs and baking powder and stir. Add eggs and baking powder and stir. Add sugar and salt. Mix in chilies and cheese. Pour into ungreased baking pan and bake in 400-degree oven for 45 minutes. Serve hot.

Mutton or Lamb Stew

2010-12-29T05:31:00.001-08:00

From the Phoenix Sun newspaper when I was living there in 1991:

Mutton or Lamb Stew

2 pounds mutton or lamb neck bones (or any cut)

6 cups water

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces

1 onion, cut into small pieces

1 stalk celery, without leaves, cut into small pieces

3 roasted green chilies, peeled, seeded and chopped

Optional: carrots, peas, squash, tomatoes, corn

Salt to taste

Put ingredients in a heavy pot and bring to a boil. Simmer 1 1/2 hours or until done. Salt to taste.

Navajo-Irish Stew

2010-12-29T05:27:00.001-08:00

From the Phoenix Sun newspaper when I was living there in 1991:

Navajo-Irish Stew

2 pounds stew beef in 1-inch cubes

Vegetable Oil

1 quart water

1 package dry onion-soup mix

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

Dash of garlic powder

3 zucchini, cut into large chunks

1 onion, cut into chunks

2 fresh unpeeled tomatoes, cut into chunks

4 pattypan squash, cut into chunks

3 potatoes, cut into chunks

1 cup string beans

4 or 5 ears of fresh corn, cut into sections

Brown beef in vegetable oil. Add a small amount of flour to the pan, then water. Add soup mix, dried herbs, garlic powder and vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer 3 to 4 hours.

Makes 8 servings.

Dead Sourdough :(

2010-12-28T13:49:00.000-08:00

So, my last go at sourdough I blamed on the cold temps. I opened up my starter and there were strange things growing in there, so I think it was actually my sourdough starter (REALLY glad I didn't eat that batch of bread).

So, now, I have to start from scratch.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-sourdough.html

Ma's Tortilla Soup

2010-12-28T10:10:00.001-08:00

Last (but not least) for today: My mom's tortilla soup. This is so easy, inexpensive, and could be healthy (but wouldn't be the same *grin*). I have tried using store bought tortilla chips (both regular and baked) but they turn to mush too quickly.

Ma's Tortilla Soup

6 (or more) Corn Tortillas, cut into 8 triangles each

Oil

1 can Campbell's condensed Vegetable Beef soup (or your favorite vegetable beef soup ... especially good with homemade vegetable beef or chicken soup)

2 cans water

1 cube chicken or beef bouillion (or 1 teaspoon soup base)

Grated cheese (we use a mix of Cheddar and Monterey Jack)

Flour tortillas (enough for 2 per person)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a sauce pan or pot, pour the soup and water. Heat on medium. Mix in bouillion (or soup base). Continue to heat while you make the tortilla chips.

Heat about 1-inch of oil in a frying pan on medium. When the oil is hot enough (it looks like it's swirling and when you put a piece of tortilla into the oil, it immediately begins to cook), fry the tortilla triangles. Do not over crowd the pan or the chips will not cook evenly (easier way? Use a deep fat fryer). Place 2 or 3 paper towels in a deep bowl, and place your cooked chips in the bowl to drain (salt now, if you wish, before they get cold). Heat the flour tortillas.

Place the desired amount of tortilla chips in each bowl. Pour soup over chips. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Serve flour tortillas on the side (for dipping).

That's it! This recipe is so adaptable for any pallette. Vegans can use just vegetable soup and vegan cheese. You can put salsa and sour cream on top of the cheese. You can pour less broth into each bowl so it's more like nachos. This is especially good with chopped green onions sprinkled on top, also!

Baking Powder Biscuits

2010-12-28T09:47:00.001-08:00

These are by far the best biscuits I have ever made! I only use butter and
work really fast to keep the butter from melting. Don't roll these too thin
(or you will have hockey pucks) and to get the best, flakiest biscuits, us a
cutter (I use cleaned cans (cheaper than buying a biscuit cutter).

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/baking-powder-biscuits-51722.aspx

Baking Powder Biscuits

makes 16 biscuits or 8 servings, 2 biscuits each

what you need

1-3/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp. CALUMET Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup margarine
3/4 cup milk

PREHEAT oven to 450°F. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Cut
in margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk; stir with fork
until soft dough forms.

PLACE on lightly floured surface; knead 20 times or until smooth. Pat or
roll lightly until dough is 1/2-inch thick. Cut with floured 2-inch cookie
cutter to make 16 biscuits, rerolling dough scraps as necessary. Place on
ungreased baking sheet.

BAKE 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Great Substitute
Substitute shortening or butter for the margarine.

Larger Biscuits
If using a 3-inch cookie cutter, you will be able to cut out 8 biscuits.
Bake as directed. Makes 8 servings, 1 biscuit each.

Crustier Biscuits
For a crustier biscuit, roll dough 1/4-inch-thickness; cut with 2-1/4-inch
cutter. Continue as directed, increasing baking time to 12 minutes. Makes
about 8 servings, 3 biscuits each.

Anasazi Stew

2010-12-28T09:34:00.001-08:00

Here's a recipe called Anasazi Stew you might like (got this from the
Phoenix Sun newspaper when I lived down there):

1 pound pork shoulder, cut into cubes
1 large onion, cut into chunks
1 cup string beans, cut in half
3 zucchini, cut into large chunks
4 pattypan squash, cut into large chunks (these are the pale green flying
saucer shaped squash)
1 can (14 or 16 ounces) tomatoes
1 green chili, cut up
1 cup fresh or canned kernel corn
1 quart water

Place ingredients in an electric slow cooker and simmer on low all day.
Serve with Navajo Fry Bread or tortillas.

Hubby's Chicken Tacos and Enchiladas

2010-12-28T09:29:00.001-08:00

I wrote up this recipe for my sister. She said it was WAY too much work!
LOL! What we do is make up the meat, make however many tacos we want, then
throw the rest of the meat in the freezer. Makes taco-making much easier!

Hubby's Chicken Tacos and Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
1 package taco seasoning
1 large onion, diced
Oil
20 (about) corn tortillas
Grated cheese (we use the finely grated cheese blend from Costco)
Parmesan cheese
Shredded Lettuce, tomatoes, whatever you want to top the tacos with

Equipment:
Stock Pot
Large Colander
Large Bowl (use your popcorn bowl :) )
Tongs
Plate with paper towels to drain the tortillas
Pans to bake the tortillas in (probably the equivalent of 2 - 3 13X9 baking
pans)

Throw a chicken (with the innards removed) into a pot, cover with water, and
boil until it's done (you will know, it will look bloated and the legs will
pull away from the body). Pull it out of the water and place it in a
colander to drain and cool (if you want to make your own chicken broth or
soup, set the chicken water aside ... I'll tell you how to do that after
explaining tacos).

Once cool, remove all the meat from the bone and shred (two faster ways are
to 1. Use canned chicken or 2. Just boil chicken breasts). Once removed, mix
taco seasoning into the chicken meat. How much? I really don't know. I add
some, then taste. If you are using taco seasoning packets, probably no more
than one packet (but taste first ... remember there's a lot of salt in
there). Mix in onions. Set the meat aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Now for the time consuming part: Put
about 1-inch of oil in a frying pan. Heat on medium (it's the right
temperature when you put a piece of tortilla in the pan and it does not
sink). Slide a tortilla into the oil. Count to 3, flip the tortilla, count
to 3, remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain. Repeat with rest
of tortillas. You only want to cook the tortilla just enough so it is soft
(not hard at all).

Time to make the tacos. Place a tortilla in your baking dish, add seasoned
chicken, then cheese. Move on to the next taco. Continue until you have used
all the chicken. You may have some extra tortillas. Just sprinkle some salt
on those and eat them! :)

Bake until the top of the tacos are brown and crispy. Remove from oven, put
the lettuce in the taco, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and you are done!
Serve with Spanish rice (Patrick makes the best Spanish rice but I still
can't make it right. Your best bet is to look online for a recipe. I'll try
to get him to write down how he makes it).

So, this is how we make enough to feed me, Patrick, Michael, and Ma. Patrick
just pointed out (duh) that you could just make however many tacos you want
then freeze the chicken meat for another day.

If you want to do enchiladas, do everything except the instructions on
assembling the tacos. Pour a large can of enchilada sauce in a bowl. Dip a
tortilla in the enchilada sauce, place in baking dish, put chicken and a
little cheese in the center of the tortilla, roll and place the seam down.
Repeat with rest of chicken. Pour remainder of sauce over enchiladas,
sprinkle grated cheese over the top (however much you want), and bake until
all the cheese is melted and a little crispy on the edges. That's it! You
can freeze one pan of enchiladas before cooking. They keep in our freezer
for about 6 months. Just cover the pan first with plastic wrap and foil.

Ma's Pepper Steak

2010-12-28T09:23:00.001-08:00

I've been posting recipes left and right, forgetting to add them to my blog
(as you can tell). I'm trying to catch up!

Pepper Steak

1 pound lean beef, shredded (round steak)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon pepper
6 medium green peppers, shredded
4 green onions, sliced
6 tablespoons cooking oil

Mix beef with 2 tablespoons soy sauce, cornstarch and pepper. Seed bell
peppers and cut into julienne strips. Slice green onions. Fry both in 3
tablespoons oil. Remove, add remaining oil and fry beef until redness
disappears. Add peppers and remaining soy sauce. Serve with steamed rice.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Now, it's easier to cut up the meat when it is still partially frozen. I
have added mushrooms and hot peppers. Also, there's less "indigestion-y" if
you use red and/or yellow peppers with the green bell peppers.

Ma's Banana Nut Bread

2010-12-28T09:17:00.001-08:00

Ma's Banana Nut Bread

My son requested this today. It's the recipe my mom has been using forever.
It's from a set of Women's Day cookbooks from the late 60's? Anyway,
thought you might enjoy (I've tried other recipes but still go back to this
one).

Banana Nut Bread

Dry:
2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. nuts

Wet:
1/2 c. oil
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed (very ripe) bananas
3 T. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 1 loaf pan. In a large
bowl, mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix the wet
ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix thoroughly.
Pour into loaf pan. Bake for about 60 minutes (until a toothpick inserted
comes out clean). Let cool for about 5 minutes then remove from pan. Try
to let cool, though this never happens in my house.

I usually double the recipe because I actually have people give me bananas
just to make them some of this bread.

Army SOS

2010-12-28T08:58:00.001-08:00

Since this pretty much goes along with the gravy thread, this is my favorite
SOS recipe I have found. I have tried a lot but this one is a hit! Even
the picky teenagers scarf this down!

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/army-sos-creamed-ground-beef/Detail.aspx

Army SOS Creamed Ground Beef
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Ready In: 30 Minutes
Submitted By: Mary48Cook
Servings: 6

"In the Army, this ground beef dish flavored with Worcestershire sauce is
traditionally served on toast, but it also goes well over egg noodles. Add
sauteed onions, mushrooms, or bell peppers to vary the taste."

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cube beef bouillon
3/4 teaspoon salt1 pinch ground black pepper
2 1/4 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
1.Brown beef in a large skillet over medium high heat. Stir in flour,
bouillon, salt and pepper. Saute all together for about 5 minutes or until
flour is absorbed. Gradually stir in milk and Worcestershire sauce. Bring
all to a simmer, stirring constantly. Cook until thickened, about 5 to 10
minutes. Serve hot!

Easy Country Gravy Recipe

2010-12-28T08:54:00.001-08:00

And this is my favorite Country Gravy recipe! This is what I make when I
want Biscuits and Gravy. Of course, I prefer hot bulk sausage!

http://www.cookingcache.com/dips/easycountrygravy.shtml?rdid=rc1

Easy Country Gravy Recipe

1-lb of sausage (hot or mild, ground)
3/4-cup of flour
2-tablespoons of butter
4 1/2 cups milk
1-teaspoon of sage
salt and pepper to taste.

Fry your sausage in a large skillet until brown... add flour to sausage and
in skillet and mix together... brown flour and add milk.. on medium high,
stir mixture often to keep from burning.. add sage, salt, and pepper.. as
gravy comes to a boil, it will thicken... if it is too thick, add 1/4 cup
more of milk... reduce heat after bringing to a boil and cook for 5
minutes.... this is excellent served over chicken fried steak, biscuits, or
potatoes... very economical...

Easy Chicken Gravy

2010-12-28T08:43:00.001-08:00

I love this recipe! It's very basic and easy to adjust to whatever you feel
like adding. Now, what I do is use 2 cups hot water mixed with 2 teaspoons
chicken soup base (not the dry bouillion ... that was nasty. The paste you
buy in jars). Turns out better than the instant chicken gravy packets and
is much cheaper, especially if you are like us and want more than just a cup
of gravy.

https://www.foodgeeks.com/recipes/19219

Easy Chicken Gravy
by jinxycat
Prep time: 0:05 Overall time: 0:05

SERVINGS
1 cups

INGREDIENTS

3 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
Melt the butter, then add the flour and blend thoroughly. Slowly add the
broth, salt and pepper and blend until mixture thickens. Serve.

Mexican Gravy

2010-12-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

We had an inexpensive Christmas dinner this year. I made this recipe, then added about 2 cups of mashed beans to thicken. Put in a bowl, sprinkle with cheese, use as a dip, and you almost have a complete meal! We also had beans and home made rotisserie chicken.

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/01/essence-of-tex-mex.html

Chili Gravy (from Robb Walsh)
Ingredients:
1/4 cup lard (or vegetable oil)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp powdered garlic
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano (Mexican oregano is preferred if it's available)
2 T chile powder (either homemade or a dark brand such as Gebhardt's or Whole Foods)
2 cups chicken broth (or water)

Method:

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 3 to 4 minutes, or until it makes a light brown roux.

Add all the dry ingredients and continue to cook for 1 minute, constantly stirring and blending ingredients.
Add chicken broth or water, mixing and stirring until the sauce thickens.

Turn heat to low and let sauce simmer for 15 minutes. Add water to adjust the thickness. Makes 2 cups.

Survivalist, Prepper or Housewife?

2010-12-16T07:17:00.001-08:00

http://homesteadgardenandpantry.com/agrarian-life/self-reliance/survivalist-prepper-or-housewife/

Oat Bread, Meatloaf, and New Mexico Chile Verde

2010-12-07T07:07:00.000-08:00

I have been so busy with playing Call of Duty Black Ops that I keep forgetting to post some of my latest concoctions! :)

While I love specialty breads (I still haven't found a good-enough-for-me recipe for jalapeno cheese bread) I have been wanting to find a good every day bread and I think I found it! Why do I like this recipe so much? Well, this is the first one I found without brown sugar, honey, or molasses. Also, it's not too dense but heavy enough to not break apart when spreading natural peanut butter on it. This makes fantastic sandwiches, toast, french toast, etc.

Oat Bread

(I would post the recipe web page but I can't find the link to it!)

5 3/4 - 6 1/4 c. flour

2 1/2 c. oats

1/4 c. sugar

2 pkg. dry active yeast

2 1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 c. water

1 1/4 c. milk (I used buttermilk)

1/4 c. butter

Combine 3 cups flour, oats, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl and mix well.

In a small saucepan, heat milk, water, and butter until very warm (just until butter is melted). Add to flour mixture and blend on low speed of mixer until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the medium speed and beat for 3 minutes (I did this by hand and it was not fun).

By hand, stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto floured surface and knead in the rest of the flour for about 5 to 8 minutes.

Shape into ball, cover with bowl (or in an oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap) and let rise until doubled (about an hour).

Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.

Divide dough in half and shape into loaves. Place in greased bread pans. Cover and let rise until almost doubled (recipe said 15 minutes but I let it go for 30).

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until dark golden brown. Remove from pans and let cool before slicing (which I can never do!).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, meatloaf. Hubby has hated meatloaf all his life but I was getting pretty desperate trying to find inexpensive recipes. I figured he could suffer this once (actually, with my cooking he suffers more than that!). I was reading through my cookbooks and found in one (Loyalty Cook Book - Native Daughters of the Golden West, published in 1953) a tip for leftover stuffing: use it to replace breadcrumbs (or crackers) in meatloaf! I made a basic meatloaf (yes, I used an actual recipe for this because it's been so long that I knew it would either end up too dry or too wet if I went by memory) with the leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving and it was a hit! Hubby actually had seconds AND we ate the rest for sandwiches! It was moist and actually tasted better cold (unless it's because I prefer meatloaf sandwiches anyway).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last (but not least) was dinner last night. I found a recipe in another cookbook (The Border Cookbook) that was similar to this one but I did it the lazy way. I just added a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes and a 28 ounce can of diced Ortega chiles. I also let it cook for 6 hours. Served with rice and heated flour tortillas, this was a fantastic meal!

http://www.simply-best-recipes.com/recipes-beef-pork-dishes.html

Chile Verde (Green Chile and Pork Stew)

Ingredients:

2 pounds pork shoulder, pork butt, or boneless pork ribs - cut into 1-inch cubes
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4-6 jalapeño peppers or 4 Anaheim or New Mexico chiles fresh, (green)
1-2 (8-oz) cans whole tomatoes, crushed (use 2nd can if stew is too spicy!)
1-2 cups water or chicken broth
Salt
Spices: oregano, cumin (optional)
1 bunch cilantro leaves, chopped - for garnish

Toast chiles in a cast-iron skillet or comal (Mexican griddle); until blackened. Wrap in damp paper towel and place in plastic bag for about 20 minutes to steam. Peel off blackened skin and remove stems and seeds. Chop all chiles. If you prefer your Chile milder, you can use cans of chopped chiles.

Crush tomatoes

If using pork shoulder, remove fat from shoulder and chop into small pieces. Render fat in large pot and then remove fat pieces. If you don't use the pork fat, use 2 tablespoons oil or lard. Heat over medium-high heat and brown pork pieces well. Don't crowd pot; brown in batches, if needed.

Add the onions and garlic and stir well, cooking until onions are soft. Add the chopped chiles, spices (if using) and crushed tomatoes. Stir well and cook for about 2 minutes until well-blended. Add water or broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 1-½ to 2 hours until pork is very tender. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as necessary. Serve with rice and beans, and warm soft tortillas.

Turkey Ravioli and Knoedel

2010-11-29T12:44:00.000-08:00

Grind:

4 cups turkey

1 cup ham

1 medium onion (1 c. diced)

Add:

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

To taste:

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Black pepper

Salt

Sage

Thyme

Savory

Mix thoroughly and adjust seasonings as needed.

Mix in:

1 to 2 eggs (to bind, depending on the moisture content of your meat)

I'll serve this with butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese instead of a heavier sauce.

Half of this recipe would have been enough for a full pasta recipe. I cheated when it came to forming the ravioli. I have a Raviolissima attachment for my Atlas pasta roller, which was a joy to use once I read the directions online! Here's a basic tutorial for making homemade pasta (this is the recipe I used):

http://www.foodess.com/2009/02/homemade-fresh-pasta/

So, I'm making this for dinner, with the turkey/ham as the filling instead of plums:

The knoedel I had in Germany was served with a brown gravy. Just delicious and SO filling!

Bring Back Road Trips!

2010-11-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

Remember the days of yearly family road trips? Aside from the whining, screaming, and fighting kids, not too many people would trade them for anything in the world. With proper planning, they can be much more enjoyable today than they were even 10 years ago. Many of the most precious and memorable events happened on... the way to the destination. Does anyone remember those days or has it been too long since spending time with the family was the point of vacations, not just arriving at the destination? With the recent dust-up regarding the TSA, I think it's time to re-think how we travel, where we travel and why we travel.

While this video is 20 years before my time, take a look. I'm not sure when the point of vacations became "spend as much money as you can" but that can be easily changed. We need to take our families back. Take the time to actually spend (and enjoy) our times together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B31zHTmcEBk

Cleaning a Fiberglass Tub

2010-11-17T12:10:00.001-08:00

We have one of those fiberglass tub/shower inserts. It was here when we moved in. I hate fiberglass. I can't use what I usually do to clean it. It has been driving me crazy, trying to truly get the tub clean. You know, those non-slip grooves on the bottom? I have tried everything I could think of: Scrubbing Bubbles (which doesn't seem to clean as well as it used to), baking soda, non-abrasive scrubs, brushes, green scrubbers, filling the tub with water, pouring a gallon of bleach in there, and letting it soak all day, 409, etc. It's exhausting when I realize how much time thinking about that tub has taken up.

So, I figured I'd give it one more try. I went looking online (again) and found it.

OVEN CLEANER!

Well, oven cleaner and A LOT of elbow grease (my hands are shaking so much I have to keep fixing all the errors my shaking fingers are making).

This would have gone better if we didn't have the "no-odor" oven cleaner. It just does not clean as well. So what if I have to wear a respirator! As long as it's clean, I'm happy!

So, you spray the tub with the oven cleaner and let it soak for 15 to 20 minutes. If it dries, it's makes scrubbing more difficult. Use a green scrubber on the smooth areas (using a circular motion). Now, use a stiff, narrow-bristled brush for the non-skid grooves. If the bristles are too wide, they won't get into those tiny dimples (guess how I found this out? I scrubbed for 20 minutes, trying to figure out why it wasn't working. I switched brushes, and that did the trick!). Rinse the tub/surround, dry, and repeat if necessary.

So, how can this help you to become more sustainable? GET A PORCELAIN TUB AND TILE SURROUND FOR YOUR BATHROOM! If this was my house, it would have already been done!

On A Mission For The Perfect Homemade Jalapeno Cheese Bread

2010-11-17T07:50:00.001-08:00

I'm on a mission (not from G-d but it's still important). The perfect homemade Jalapeno Cheese Bread. We used to buy it from Costco but they aren't making it right now. Actually, we bought our last loaf a month ago. When I asked one of the bakers when they will be making it again, his exact quote was, "Oh, we haven't made that for over 12 years!" O.k. So, now I want to figure out how to make some that is at least as good.

So, I scoured the internet and found this recipe:

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-crusty-jalapeno-cheese-bread-fantastico-354609

Well, it did not turn out anywhere close to good. The results? Well, I almost went exactly by the recipe (I didn't have enough cheddar so added some mozzarella). There wasn't enough salt and I HATED the dough! When she said it was soft, she wasn't kidding. It was SOFT! I had put half a cup of corn meal on the towel but STILL had to pry the dough off the cloth, ...collapsing the dough. This was my first time working with a "No-Knead" recipe and I did not like it one bit. I like having more control over my dough. So, hubby will be bringing home some more cheese tonight (though he doesn't know it yet) and I'll make a basic sourdough bread with jalapeno and cheese. I'll post the recipe, instructions, and results in a few days. You can't rush sourdough. :(

So, my sourdough starter is freshening and I'll be using this basic recipe for the dough:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/recipe-berkeley.html

But spread some jalapenos and shredded cheese when I'm shaping into a loaf before the final rise. I'll give exact measurements and method when I finish some time tomorrow (I may even remember to take pictures).

In the mean time (since the first bread was such a bust and I have leftover mashed potatoes), I'm making this today:

http://breadbaking.about.com/od/yeastbreads/r/easterpotato.htm

Fish-Free Worcestershire Sauce

2010-11-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

Here's my recipe for Fish-Free Worcestershire Sauce. I found the tamarind paste at an Indian (Asia) grocery store locally. I had eaten some Mexican tamarind candy before, looked at many Mexican grocers and no one knew what I was talking about. I walk into the Indian grocer, ask for tamarind paste, he says, "Sure! Right over here." I could have hugged him! The amount of ingredients can be played with but the most important are the tamarind and vinegar. Tamarind is what gives Worcestershire sauce it's unique flavor and color.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To make about 2 cups:

1 large Onion, chopped
2 cloves of Garlic, crushed
1 1/4-in thick slice Ginger
3 T. Yellow Mustard Seeds
1 t. Black Peppercorns
2 t. Red Pepper flakes
1 1-in. Cinnamon stick
1 t. Cloves, whole
1/2 t. Cardamom Pods
2 c. Vinegar
1/2 c. Molasses
1/2 c. Dark Soy Sauce
1/4 c. Tamarind Pulp
2 T. Salt
1/2 t. Curry Powder
10 Kalamata Olives, pitted and crushed
1/2 c. Water

Place the onion, the garlic, the mustard seeds, the red pepper flakes, the peppercorns, the ginger, the cinnamon, the cloves and the cardamom on a large piece of cheesecloth and tie in a little bag.

In a large saucepan, combine the spice bag with the vinegar, the molasses, the soy sauce and the tamarind. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 45 minutes.

Mix together the salt, the curry powder, the kalamata olives with the water. Add to the liquid in the saucepan. Remove from heat. Pour the contents of the saucepan (including the spice bag) into a quart jar. Cover with plastic wrap (to prevent the vinegar from degrading the lid), lid and ring. Place in the refrigerator for two months, shaking occasionally. Place a small holed strainer over a bowl and strain the liquid. Squeeze the spice bag over the strainer and discard. Bottle the sauce. Keep in the refrigerator and shake well before use.

Sloppy Joe Night

2010-10-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I got a craving for sloppy joes. I had not had one since I was little, so I scoured the internet to find a simple recipe. I looked in my cookbooks and their recipes sounded awful! So, I found this:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sloppy-joes-ii/Detail.aspx

It was o.k. So, I doubled the garlic, added 1 1/2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes, a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce (since I found some fake ... I'm trying my hand at making my own that tastes more like the original without HFCS and anchovies, since I'm allergic to all seafood), and a tablespoon of barbecue sauce. Those little additions made a WORLD of difference! It was fantastic (and no heartburn for this old lady). One of the suggestions on the page is what I'll do for quite a few dishes: She freezes the sloppy joe meat in cupcake tins, pops them out, and throws them in a freezer bag. These ARE the perfect size for buns! Just defrost, throw on a bun and there's your meal!

Re: Survival Secrets from the Great Depression

2010-09-01T09:12:00.001-07:00

Here's a few links. Mostly stories of surviving through the great
depression.

http://aging.ohio.gov/news/greatdepressionstoryproject/

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-54463_18670_18793-53511--,00.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpfY8kh5lUw

http://www.dce.k12.wi.us/srhigh/socialstudies/histday/Great%20Depression/great_depression.htm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97468008

http://newdeal.feri.org/sevier/interviews/index.htm

----- Original Message -----
From: "poondog1999"
Subject: [preparedsurvivalistsunite2] Re: Survival Secrets from the Great
Depression

What a disappointing read.

I sure would like to hear from someone who actually does have some info
about what really happens in a depression.

LaRouche supporter assaulted by Alaska State Fair Security

2010-08-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

What Can You Do to Stop the Alarming Expansion of Government?

2010-08-20T11:17:00.001-07:00

What Can You Do to Stop the Alarming Expansion of Government?

By Yaron Brook
Recorded April 27, 2010

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ls_alarming_expansion

Buckboard Bacon

2010-08-08T07:27:00.001-07:00

This seems so simple I HAVE to try it!

http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/BuckboardBacon.htm

Drying Garlic Today!

2010-07-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

http://cecalaveras.ucdavis.edu/garlic.htm

My project today:

DRYING GARLIC
Dry only fresh, firm garlic cloves with no bruises. To prepare, separate and peel the cloves. Cut in half lengthwise. No additional predrying treatment is necessary. Dry at 140 degrees for 2 hours, then reduce heat to 130 degrees until completely dry or crisp. If desired, garlic salt may be made from dried garlic. Powder dried garlic by processing in a blender or food processor until fine. Add 4 parts salt to 1 part garlic powder and blend 1 to 2 seconds. If blended longer, the salt will become too fine and cake together in clumps.

Blueberry Salsa

2010-07-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

I LOVE blueberries so I was thrilled when this showed up on my Facebook feed!

http://www.homegrown.org/profiles/blog/show?id=2263119%3ABlogPost%3A41699

Home Canning Milk

2010-06-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Facebook, I found a great site! Here is her article on how to can milk at home. Now is the time to learn techniques that have been safely used for decades before the USDA eliminates this knowledge altogether.

http://razorfamilyfarms.com/cooking/canning-and-preserving-milk-at-home/

2010-06-15T08:22:00.001-07:00

I know many of you have already thought about these issues, but here is a good article about a suggested survival list.

http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin594.htm

Dinners lately

2010-04-19T12:10:00.001-07:00

I am tired of the same old food. So, I’ve been relying on the internet more and more.

Tonight’s dinner is this:

Grandma's Polish Style Roast Chicken

http://www.cooking.com/Recipes-and-More/recipes/Grandmas-Polish-Style-Roast-Chicken-recipe-9265.aspx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was April 15^th. This was really good!

COUNT'S CHUCK WAGON POT ROAST

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1827,150183-242207,00.html

Special army unit ready to be deployed on American soil just before Nov. elections

2010-04-13T20:06:00.001-07:00

Special army unit ready to be deployed on American soil just before Nov. elections

Posted using ShareThis

THE HUTAREE MILITIA RAID - By Chuck Baldwin

2010-04-06T00:58:00.001-07:00

THE HUTAREE MILITIA RAID

By Chuck Baldwin
April 6, 2010
NewsWithViews.com

http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin580.htm

Mexican Officials Demand U.S. Gun Ban - Auburn Journal

2010-03-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

Mexican Officials Demand U.S. Gun Ban - Auburn Journal

There is a reason this is called "The United States of America" and not Mexico. Demand all you want, this is OUR country!

Opposing Views: In Wake of Hutaree Militia Arrests, Illinois Group Calls for Assault Weapons Ban

2010-03-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

Opposing Views: In Wake of Hutaree Militia Arrests, Illinois Group Calls for Assault Weapons Ban

Good reason for the raid, huh?

U.S. shrugs off sighting of Mexican helicopter

2010-03-13T18:32:00.001-08:00

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6911318.html

U.S. shrugs off sighting of Mexican helicopter

By LYNN BREZOSKY and GARY MARTIN
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

March 12, 2010, 10:45PM

BROWNSVILLE — U.S. officials Friday downplayed the sighting of a Mexican military helicopter hovering as long as 20 minutes over a residential area north of the Texas border this week, saying the incursion didn't cause alarm even though it hadn't been cleared in advance.

U.S. agencies could offer no reports of a follow-up investigation and no indication whether a Mexican explanation had been asked for or given. Gov. Rick Perry's office released a statement late Friday, however, saying the state was working with Customs and Border Protection to investigate.

U.S. officials familiar with the incident, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not a joint training exercise.

“We made the proper notifications and the helicopter did cross back into Mexico and that was the extent of it, really,” Laredo-based Customs and Border Protection spokesman Rick Pauza said Friday.

Customs officers spotted the aircraft at about 5 p.m. Tuesday about a mile into U.S. airspace over Falcon Heights. The incursion was “brief,” lasting possibly “15 to 20 minutes,” Pauza said.

A spokesman for the Mexican ministry of defense did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the incident.

lbrezosky@express-news.net

Buttermilk

2010-03-10T12:15:00.001-08:00

For years, I have been told that the perfect replacement for buttermilk is milk with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar added to it. That’s all I had been using in recipes that require buttermilk. I never knew there was a difference because I did not have anything to compare it to. The first time I tasted buttermilk was when I was 4 years old (the flavor left that large of an impression). I decided from that day on I would never have buttermilk in my house.

So, 37 years later I’m surfing the internet looking for the “perfect” pancake recipe. I found this one:

http://www.perfectpancake.net/buttermilkpancakes/index.html

Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Makes nine 6-inch pancakes The key to fluffy pancakes is not to overmix the batter; it should not be beaten smooth. If serving these pancakes with bacon, reserve half a teaspoon of bacon drippings to grease the griddle instead of butter.


2		cups all-purpose flour

2		teaspoons baking powder

1		teaspoon baking soda

1/2		teaspoon salt

3		tablespoons sugar

2		large eggs , lightly beaten

3		cups buttermilk

4		tablespoons unsalted butter , melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for griddle

		1. Heat griddle to 375°. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons butter; whisk to combine. Batter should have small to medium lumps.

		2. Heat oven to 175°. Test griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If water bounces and spatters off griddle, it is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush remaining 1/2 teaspoon of butter or reserved bacon fat onto griddle. Wipe off excess.

		3. Using a 4-ounce ladle, about 1/2 cup, pour pancake batter, in pools 2 inches away from one other. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.

		4. Repeat with remaining batter, keeping finished pancakes on a heatproof plate in oven. Serve warm.

How could I go wrong with a recipe from a website called “Perfect Pancake”? So, I made the recipe with my tried and (what I thought was) true buttermilk replacement. The batter was so thin I ended up adding at least one more cup of flour and the resulting pancakes were to ‘flour-y’. I thought I was just doomed to not have good pancakes (since I refuse to buy pancake mix).

Then, my husband broke down and bought some buttermilk. His mother always cooked with buttermilk but I can be one stubborn woman. I hate buying one item (or ingredient) that will only be used for one recipe.

So, we made the recipe as written and wouldn’t you know these were/are the best pancakes I have ever made! They also make the best waffles! So, I have been on a buttermilk kick!

I had never understood what buttermilk was. I know traditionally it was the milk left over from the process of making butter but also knew that is not what we buy in the store. That’s when I found this web page:

Making Buttermilk:

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/BUTTERMILK.HTM

Thanks to this web page, I have made one and a half gallons (it would have been even more but we needed to have waffles last night before the latest batch was finished … had to use 3 cups of the store bought buttermilk for the recipe) from a half gallon container.

So now I am hunting around for recipes that call for buttermilk. I found one that I just had to try:

From “Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book – Revised and Enlarged” circa 1958:

Old-Time Cinnamon Jumbles

Made with buttermilk … delicately soft and cake-like. “So easy … that making them is a thrill for the girls in the Home Economics classes each year,” according to Miss Sarah M. Knight of Buffalo, New York. And even her little sixth-graders report making them with great success in their own homes!

Mix thoroughly …

½ cup soft shortening (part butter) (Brenda: I used only butter)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

Stir in …

¾ cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift together and stir in …

2 cups sifted flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Chill dough. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls about 2” apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with mixture of sugar and cinnamon (1/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon). Bake until set but not brown.

Temperature: 400 degrees F (moderate hot oven).

Time: Bake 8 to 10 minutes.

Amount: About 4 dozen 2” cookies.

“Delicately soft and cake-like” is the perfect description for these cookies. They are VERY soft and have the consistency of a flattened cupcake. They are also very mildly flavored. I’m not sure what I expected prior to making this recipe but know I did not get what I wanted. I did not like the cinnamon on top but I’m not sure what I could have replaced it with so I would really like these cookies. I will not make this recipe again but thought I would share … I’m sure some will like this recipe.

I will not give up my search for buttermilk recipes! I’ll share more as I find them!

THE ENEMY BELLIGERENT INTERROGATION, DETENTION, AND PROSECUTION ACT OF 2010

2010-03-09T01:48:00.001-08:00

THE ENEMY BELLIGERENT INTERROGATION, DETENTION, AND PROSECUTION ACT OF 2010

http://www.infowars.com/dissenters-to-be-detained-as-enemy-belligerents/

Before anyone passes this off as another "Alex Jones" thing, go here to read the actual bill:

http://assets.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/politics/ARM10090.pdf

And John McCain's comments statement when he introduced this on the Senate floor on March 4, 2010:

http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.FloorStatements&ContentRecord_id=2af60f3a-05dc-cdf6-7dc9-6501a995c17c

10 SEC. 5. DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL OF UNPRIVILEGED
11 ENEMY BELLIGERENTS.
12 An individual, including a citizen of the United
13 States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent
14 under section 3(c)(2) in a manner which satisfies Article
15 5 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of
16 Prisoners of War may be detained without criminal
17 charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities
18 against the United States or its coalition partners in which
19 the individual has engaged, or which the individual has
20 purposely and materially supported, consistent with the
21 law of war and any authorization for the use of military
22 force provided by Congress pertaining to such hostilities.

Dried Beef

2010-03-04T23:37:00.001-08:00

I got on a tangent tonight, looking for how to make dried beef (you know, like the Armour Sliced Dried Beef). I found this web page:

Processing Meat in the Home

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ0972.html

Brenda

“I had to shoot people! Do you understand what that means?”

2010-03-03T23:39:00.000-08:00

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-had-to-shoot-people-do-you-understand.html

Hot Dog and Hamburger Buns

2010-02-22T23:14:00.001-08:00

I just made these tonight. They are quite good! They aren’t too “yeasty” tasting but not as sweet as store-bought. I used honey instead of the sugar (read somewhere the commercial buns have corn syrup in them so thought honey would taste more like the real thing) but next time I will double the amount of honey.

As soon as hubby gets home, the Casper’s go into the pot!

http://44dinner.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/burger-bun-bonanza/

Brenda

Residents Fumed Over Weekend Alcohol, Firearm Ban

2010-02-08T14:32:00.001-08:00

http://www.wxii12.com/news/22487153/detail.html

Residents Fumed Over Weekend Alcohol, Firearm Ban

King State Of Emergency Lifted Monday

POSTED: 5:18 pm EST February 6, 2010

UPDATED: 4:13 pm EST February 8, 2010

KING, N.C. -- Residents in King were fumed over the weekend after a state of emergency declaration restricted the sale of alcohol and the carrying of firearms in vehicles.

King Police Chief Paula May said she’s received hundreds of threats related to the restrictions, which banned driving from 12 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m.

The state of emergency for King was declared by members of the City Council after Stokes County authorities also declared a state of emergency.

Under North Carolina law, May said, when a state of emergency is put into place that includes a ban on driving, the sale of alcohol and carrying of firearms in vehicles is also banned.

“I think there’s been some misinterpretation that I personally have declared martial law and taken away people’s right to bear arms and that’s erroneous,” May told WXII reporter Jermont Terry. “By law, statue 14-288.7 automatically went into effect. And that law which goes into effect when there’s a state of emergency prohibits the transportation, purchase sale and possession of firearms other than on one's own premises.”

The news of the ban created a firestorm of criticism.

“This is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever heard. So far fetched that I am speechless!” one post on WXII12.com read.

“This has to be the most ridiculous event of the century!!!!! This is the ultimate denial of liberties for the most asinine reason...bad weather!!!” another poster wrote.

May said officers did pull people over who were in violation of the curfew driving ban, but no tickets were issued.

“We did find some people on the streets,” May said. “We didn’t take any enforcement actions. We spoke to the people driving and helped them to get to where they needed to be.”

May wouldn’t give details on the types of threats other than to say they had been phoned, faxed and e-mailed.

“We have to take them all serious and we’ll investigate to the best of our ability and determine the source of those threats,” she said.

The state of emergency was lifted Monday morning.

USDA Kill Animal ID

2010-02-06T16:07:00.001-08:00

http://www.billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_5f636
b06-12e7-11df-803e-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story

The U.S. Agriculture Secretary is dropping plans to track animals from birth
to butcher shop, a move welcomed by ranchers leery of big government.

After months of backlash from Western ranchers and others, Secretary Tom
Vilsack said Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will kill its
yearslong push for a national animal identification system. By noon, the
USDA had pulled most references to the failed program from its Web site.

"It certainly means we have a USDA that is genuinely listening to the
concerns of independent producers and is striking off in a new direction to
achieve disease trace-back and prevention of communicable diseases," said
Bill Bullard, CEO of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United
Stockgrowers of America.

Vilsack said he will turn to state and tribal veterinarians for a uniform
way to track animals shipped across the country. Tracking animals moving
intrastate will be left up to each state government. The USDA spent several
years and more than $142 million developing the canceled program, which
would have required everyone from large cattle ranchers to backyard chicken
owners to tag livestock and report the whereabouts of those animals to the
government.

The identification program was moving forward despite protests until early
2009, when President Barack Obama appointed Vilsack agriculture secretary.
The new secretary met with farm and ranch leaders opposed to the move and
then launched a countrywide listening tour to hear from individual farmers
and ranchers who packed meetings.

Complaints about the USDA identification program were myriad. Some said
regulations delivered so much cattle information to meatpackers that
ranchers would have difficulty negotiating fair cattle prices. Others
objected to the plan's mandatory government inspection requirements.

Proponents, such as the American Veterinary Medical Association, contended
that extensive identification would protect consumers and minimize livestock
loss. Bullard and others said the group recognized the technology existed
for a national identification program and ran with it.

In the West, ranchers balked at documenting every movement of range animals
from pasture to pasture. Newborns were to be tagged and reported to the
government within a day. Animals killed by predators or illness were to be
reported within 24 hours. And ranchers didn't have a choice but to
participate.

"The good thing now is, we as ranchers have a choice," said Tom Hougen,
Montana Stockgrowers Association president. "We don't have the government
coming in telling us how to do something."

Montana Stockgrowers have supported a voluntary animal identification system
and they're also proponents of hot-iron brands, Hougen said. There will have
to be some method of disease traceability for satisfying foreign buyers of
American meat, Hougen said.

Whatever system emerges will have to be strong enough to satisfy markets
such as Japan and South Korea, whose preferences will shape U.S. animal
identification standards.

Ranchers like Gilles Stockton of the Western Organization of Resource
Councils think that hot-iron brands could suffice if brand records were
paired with animal vaccination records. Not every state has hot-iron brand
books. Currently 18 states and Canadian provinces do.

"Basically we've already got it all in place. It takes a brand inspection to
move cattle out of state, and if it's a breeding animal, it has to have a
brucellosis tag, which has a number that traces back to the veterinarian who
put it in there," Stockton said. "For shipping animals out of state, I don't
think there will be much required of Montana different than we already have.
And if it's for export purposes, we already have a voluntary system."

The brand records might have to be brought up to speed and updated with
vaccination information, but the system has worked well in Montana since
1884, said Stockton, who was among producers who met with Vilsack en masse
last spring.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said hot-iron brands, paired with the right
information, could be a good place to start.

"If you know hot-iron brands, they go all the way through the hide, you can
read it whether the animal is dead or alive," said Tester, who wasn't sure
national animal identification was dead after reading Obama's proposed
budget issued Monday.

The president's proposed budget increased funding for the National Animal
Identification System. Last August, Tester and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo,
co-sponsored an amendment to gut more than half the funding for NAIS.

NAIS was billed as a food safety measure, but Tester said the system failed
that test by imposing regulations on farms and ranches instead of packing
plants.

"This is good news. This didn't do what it was intended to do anyway, years
ago when it was set up," Tester said. State and tribal governments will now
work with farmers and ranchers on an agreed policy for tracking livestock
interstate. Veterinarians from those governments will meet with Vilsack next
month. Still, Tester said, the process will to be closely watched.

MD: Assault Weapons Ban Introduced in the Maryland State Senate

2010-02-05T10:45:00.001-08:00

http://www.ammoland.com/2010/02/04/assault-weapons-ban-introduced-in-the-maryland-state-senate/

Assault Weapons Ban Introduced in the Maryland State Senate

Maryland Shall Issue.org

Maryland --(AmmoLand.com)- Well folks, just when you thought that there might be some hope that the anti-gun faithful members of the Maryland State Senate had learned their lesson about proposing nonsense bills like bans on so-called assault weapons, they prove otherwise.

Senator Mike Lennett (D), District 19, Montgomery County, has introduced SB516, the Maryland Assault Weapons Ban of 2010. His co-sponsors are a veritable Who’s Who of the anti-gun wing of the Senate.

Now’s the time to head this thing off before the hearing is even scheduled and let the members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee know that Maryland citizens will not tolerate such an egregious infringement on their rights in the name of political grandstanding.

SB516 Facts:

Expands the definition of the assault pistol ban to encompass all firearms designated as assault weapons.
Anything determined to be a copycat of the named firearms would be included. Given the Maryland State Police’s very liberal interpretation of what constitutes a copycat, we see this list encompassing any firearm that meets the required criteria of looking scary.
Includes semi-automatic pistols with detachable magazines that also have threaded barrels.
Includes semi-automatic shotguns with folding or telescoping stocks that also have a pistol grip or thumbhole stock
Bans forward pistol grips.
You must REGISTER your firearms before December 10, 2010 so that you have the luxury of being able to keep the firearms you already own.
Naturally, this bill does not apply to governmental agencies, but they do give you the option of rendering your firearm permanently inoperable.

Here’s what we need you to do:

Contact your Senator and let them know that you oppose SB516.
Contact the members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee and let them know that you oppose SB516
Spread the word to your fellow gun owners. Reinforce to them that this is not really just about “assault weapons”. It is about launching the first strike in a continual erosion of the ability to own any firearms in Maryland. We must stick together.
All of the information you need in order to make mail contacts can be found in the Activist’s Tools below.
Use the phone list below to make phone calls to the member of the Judical Proceedings Committee. Tell them that you oppose SB516.
Remember to stick to the facts when making your contacts. Avoid over emotional rhetoric that only fuels their stereotypes of our community.

Additional Resources: Assault Weapons Ban Why should you care?

Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Phone Numbers.

Senator Brian Frosh – 1-800-492-7122 ext 3124
Senator Lisa Gladden – 1-800-492-7122 ext 3697
Senator James Brochin – 1-800-492-7122 ext 3648
Senator C. Anthony Muse – 1-800-492-7122 ext 3092
Senator Jennie Forehand – 1-800-492-7122 ext 3134
Senator Jamin Raskin – 1-800-492-7122 ext 3634
Senator Larry Haines – 1-800-492-7122 ext 3683
Senator Brian Simonaire 1-800-492-7122 ext 3658
Senator Nancy Jacobs 1-800-492-7122 ext 3158
Senator Norman Stone 1-800-492-7122 ext 3587
Senator Alex Mooney 1-800-492-7122 ext 3575

Maryland Shall Issue.org
P.O. Box 314
Libertytown, MD
21762-0314
ph. 240-446-6782

About:
Maryland Shall Issue is an all volunteer, non-partisan effort dedicated to the preservation and advancement of all gunowners’ rights in Maryland, with a primary goal of CCW reform to allow all law-abiding citizens the right to carry a concealed weapon; and to the education of the community to the awareness that ’shall issue’ laws have, in all cases, resulted in decreased rates of violent crime.”

Distributed to you by - AmmoLand.com – The Shooting Sports News source.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs

2010-02-01T12:08:00.001-08:00

I am finally, after 4 months, starting to really feel better. I want to thank everyone for their thoughts, energy, and prayers. It is very difficult to not over-do it but today I have a craving. I made these a few weeks ago before I relapsed and they were phenomenal. Perfect for those who are not looking to cut fat from their diet! J

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs

6 chicken thighs

1 lb. package of regular cut bacon (whatever kind you like)

To taste:

Savory

Salt

Pepper

Equipment: Cookie sheets (with a lip) and racks to allow the thighs to sit above the grease.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Rinse the chicken thighs. Sprinkle with as much as you want: Savory, Salt, and Pepper. Wrap each thigh with two pieces of bacon, ensuring the entire thigh is covered. Place the racks on the cookie sheets then place the bacon wrapped chicken thighs on the racks. Bake for about an hour, until the bacon is crispy and the juices of the chicken thighs runs clear.

That’s it! I will serve these tonight with homemade rice-a-roni and steamed veggies. I figure it will make everyone feel better if there is at least one healthy item on the menu! LOL!

Real Toll House Cookies

2009-12-15T15:45:00.001-08:00

While taking a much needed sabbatical, I have been cooking and baking ... a lot! Because I am how I am, I have been trying recipes from my latest cookbook. I received this cookbook from my Mother-In-Law and I love it! It's Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book from around 1958.

So, I wanted cookies. I found this Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and absolutely love it! These cookies are not as sweet, salty, and grainy as Nestlé's Toll House cookie recipe (which can be viewed here: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/specialty/nth-detail-occc.aspx). Since I used Ghirardelli 60% Cocoa Chips (which are larger) I doubled everything in the recipe except chocolate chips.

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Glamorous, crunchy, rich with chocolate bits and nuts.

Also known as "Toll House" Cookies ... from Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield's charming New England Toll House on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts. These cookies were first introduced to American homemakers in 1939 through our series of radio talks on "Famous Foods from Famous Eating Places."

Mix thoroughly:

2/3 cup soft shortening (part butter)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift together and stir in:

*1 1/2 cups sifted Gold Medal Flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

* For a softer, more rounded cookie, use 1 3/4 cups sifted flour.

Stir in:

1/2 cup cut-up nuts

6-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate pieces (about 1 1/4 cups)

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls about 2" apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until delicately browned ... cookies should still be soft. Cool slightly before removing from baking sheet.

Temperature: 375 degrees F

Time: Bake 8 to 10 minutes

Amount: 4 to 5 dozen 2" cookies.

Gardisil Bombshell ... "will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates"

2009-10-28T15:32:00.001-07:00

The first paragraph which I bolded says it all!

http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/10/25/top_stories/doc4ae4b76d07e16766677720.txt

Gardasil Researcher Drops A Bombshell

Harper: Controversal Drug Will Do Little To Reduce Cervical Cancer Rates

By Susan Brinkmann, For The Bulletin

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they're being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15.

Dr. Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri, made these remarks during an address at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2-4. Although her talk was intended to promote the vaccine, participants said they came away convinced the vaccine should not be received.

"I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn't help but question why we need the vaccine at all," said Joan Robinson, Assistant Editor at the Population Research Institute.

Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine.

She went on to surprise the audience by stating that the incidence of cervical cancer in the U.S. is already so low that "even if we get the vaccine and continue PAP screening, we will not lower the rate of cervical cancer in the US."

There will be no decrease in cervical cancer until at least 70 percent of the population is vaccinated, and even then, the decrease will be minimal.

Apparently, conventional treatment and preventative measures are already cutting the cervical cancer rate by four percent a year. At this rate, in 60 years, there will be a 91.4 percent decline just with current treatment. Even if 70 percent of women get the shot and required boosters over the same time period, which is highly unlikely, Harper says Gardasil still could not claim to do as much as traditional care is already doing.

Dr. Harper, who also serves as a consultant to the World Health Organization, further undercut the case for mass vaccination by saying that "four out of five women with cervical cancer are in developing countries."

Ms. Robinson said she could not help but wonder, "If this is the case, then why vaccinate at all? But from the murmurs of the doctors in the audience, it was apparent that the same thought was occurring to them."

However, at this point, Dr. Harper dropped an even bigger bombshell on the audience when she announced that, "There have been no efficacy trials in girls under 15 years."

Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil, studied only a small group of girls under 16 who had been vaccinated, but did not follow them long enough to conclude sufficient presence of effective HPV antibodies.

This is not the first time Dr. Harper revealed the fact that Merck never tested Gardasil for safety in young girls. During a 2007 interview with KPC News.com, she said giving the vaccine to girls as young as 11 years-old "is a great big public health experiment."

At the time, which was at the height of Merck's controversial drive to have the vaccine mandated in schools, Dr. Harper remained steadfastly opposed to the idea and said she had been trying for months to convince major television and print media about her concerns, "but no one will print it."

"It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11 to 12 year old girls," she said at the time. "There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue."

When asked why she was speaking out, she said: "I want to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night."

Since the drug's introduction in 2006, the public has been learning many of these facts the hard way. To date, 15,037 girls have officially reported adverse side effects from Gardasil to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). These adverse reactions include Guilliane Barre, lupus, seizures, paralysis, blood clots, brain inflammation and many others. The CDC acknowledges that there have been 44 reported deaths.

Dr. Harper also participated in the research on Glaxo-Smith-Kline's version of the drug, Cervarix, currently in use in the UK but not yet approved here. Since the government began administering the vaccine to school-aged girls last year, more than 2,000 patients reported some kind of adverse reaction including nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, convulsions, seizures and hyperventilation. Several reported multiple reactions, with 4,602 suspected side-effects recorded in total. The most tragic case involved a 14 year-old girl who dropped dead in the corridor of her school an hour after receiving the vaccination.

The outspoken researcher also weighed in last month on a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that raised questions about the safety of the vaccine, saying bluntly: "The rate of serious adverse events is greater than the incidence rate of cervical cancer."

Ms. Robinson said she respects Dr. Harper's candor. "I think she's a scientist, a researcher, and she's genuine enough a scientist to be open about the risks. I respect that in her."

However, she failed to make the case for Gardasil. "For me, it was hard to resist the conclusion that Gardasil does almost nothing for the health of American women."

Twitter anarchist raided under 'riot' laws

2009-10-25T15:16:00.001-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/24/anarchist.twitter.raid/

Twitter anarchist raided under 'riot' laws

By Ryan Singel

(WIRED) -- An anarchist social worker raided by the feds wants his computers, manuscripts and pick axes back. He argues that authorities violated the U.S. Constitution and the rights of his mentally ill clients while searching for evidence that he broke an anti-rioting law on Twitter.

In a guns-drawn raid on October 1, FBI agents and police seized boxes of dubious "evidence" from the Queens, New York, home of Elliott Madison. A U.S. District Judge in Brooklyn has set a Monday deadline to rule on the legality of the search, and in the meantime has ordered the government to refrain from examining the material taken in the 6 a.m. search.

Madison, who counsels more than 100 severely mentally ill patients in New York, seems to have first drawn attention from the authorities at September's G-20 gathering of world leaders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There he was arrested on September 24 at a motel room for allegedly listening to a police scanner and relaying information on Twitter to help protesters avoid heavily-armed cops -- an activity the State Department lauded when it happened in Iran.

A week later, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, armed with a search warrant and backed by a federal grand jury investigation, raided Madison's house, which he shares with his wife of 13 years and several roommates. The squad seized his computers, camera memory cards, books, air-filtration masks, bumper stickers and political posters -- all purportedly evidence that the 41-year old social worker had broken a federal anti-rioting law that carries up to five years in prison.

But a closer look at the court documents leaves the unmistakable impression that Elliott Madison is yet another casualty of the government's nasty, post-9/11 habit of considering political dissidents as threats to national security.

Madison, his wife and his lawyer Martin Stolar say the search violates the Constitution's protections against general searches and prosecution for political speech. The police also seized mobile phones, citizen emergency kits, manuscripts, posters and even the couple's marriage license.

In a motion to throw out the search, Stolar called the search unconstitutional:

In this day and age, federally authorized agents entered the private home of a writer and urban planner and seized their books and writings. The warrant's vagueness and lack of specificity encouraged the agents to use their own discretion and their own views of the political universe to seize, or not to seize, items which they thought were evidence of a violation of the federal anti-riot statute. The law and the Constitution do not allow this. If there really is a grand jury investigation with possible future prosecution under [a federal anti-rioting law], the use of this statute as applied to demonstrations, demonstrators, and their supporters has profound 1st Amendment implications.

If Madison were an Iranian using Twitter to coordinate government protests, he'd likely be considered a hero in the West. Instead, the self-identified anarchist -- who volunteered in Louisiana after Katrina -- is now facing up to five years in prison for each count a grand jury cares to indict him on.

Oddly, Madison was in jail during the most dramatic of the G-20 confrontations.

The day after his arrest by Philadelphia State police on September 24, hundreds of police officers chased protesters around the city, using sonic weapons, pepper spray, batons, projectile weapons and tear gas, and arrested a reporter and bystanders. Some self-styled anarchists broke windows of chain stores and pushed a dumpster towards a phalanx of cops in riot gear.

The connection between the federal and state investigation remains unclear, though the feds say they will turn evidence over to the state, if any is found.

The affidavits justifying the raid remains under seal, but court documents reveal a grand jury is investigating whether Madison, and possibly his wife, violated 18 U.S.C. �2101, the federal anti-rioting law.

That obscure law was famously used to prosecute the Chicago 7 after the 1968 Democratic Convention's police riot. Five of the so-called Yippies were initially found guilty of of inciting a riot, though the convictions were eventually thrown out.

Madison and his wife both volunteered as paralegals for the People's Law Collective, their lawyer Martin Stolar said, and he'd worked with them before defending protesters.

In fact, he suggests that work might have sparked this entire incident.

"If you do your job effectively, then you draw the government's attentions," Stolar said.

Madison also belongs to the "Curious George Brigade," which published a book called Anarchy in the Age of Dinosaurs. The group was at work on a follow-up, until 50 copies of the first book and the electronic manuscript of the second were confiscated in the raid. On Monday, Madison described the book in an affidavit to the court as a book of "political theory and practice."

The published book seems sympathetic to the tactic of confronting police and destroying property of companies considered harmful, usually -- though not always -- multinational companies. Writing such a book is not a crime, though, and many of the other books cited by the police as evidence justifying the search after the fact can be bought on Amazon.com.

Madison, who has no prior convictions, works as a counselor at a mental health facility. He says some of the records seized by the government include confidential information that should be covered by a shield law protecting mental health records. The U.S. Attorney's office disputes that contention, saying the shield doesn't apply since Madison isn't a registered social worker.

Moreover, the government says, Madison's house was chock full of incriminating materials, including gas masks, pickaxes and air-filtration masks.

But Madison says that he'd become a believer in civil defense after the 2003 blackouts in New York and that the seized pickaxes are specialty, anti-sparking devices to be used in emergencies to shut off water mains. In fact, Madison and his wife told the court they'd made a YouTube video about what to put in a rescue pack. A review of the video by Threat Level confirms the pickaxe in the video matches the one seized by police.

The government countered that his reading material is also very suspicious. "As an initial matter, the government notes that a publication entitled 'Manifesto of Rioting' was seized from the Weisses' bedroom," the U.S. Attorney's office told the court last week.

Some of the other evidence the feds seized that shows he promotes riots? Steampunk magazine, for one. Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs. Anarchist political-theory books. A needlepoint depiction of Lenin that belonged to Madison's wife's grandmother. (Not surprisingly, the police don't seem to grasp the irony of an anarchist owning a Lenin bust in any form, given the hatred between the two ideologies since the Spanish Civil War, when the Communists turned on the anarchists and murdered their ostensible allies.)

His books on poison looks pretty incriminating, too. But his lawyer wonders why the police seized The Poisons and Antidotes Sourcebook and left the book Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons, both of which he says Elliot Madison uses for his fiction writing.

The feds also found caltrops -- four-pronged metal defensive weapons that always land with a pointy side up, used to give flat tires or hobble horses. Neither Madison nor his attorney has mentioned them in their filings. They are not illegal to own.

When the feds also found nine packages of fireworks at the rear of a closet, a JTTF agent took him downtown to book him for the infraction -- a ticketable offense. The bomb squad took care of the fireworks, which one supposes must have been impervious to dousing by a regular police officer.

Federal agents also seized camera memory disks, Madison's journals, computers and hard drives. These contained his fiction manuscripts, his wife's urban planning work and other writings. The police also confiscated a housemate's laptop that belonged to the Labor Department.

How did all of this get taken? Doesn't a search warrant have to specify what exactly is to be seized?

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, the warrant was legitimate. Signed by Judge Honorable Viktor V. Pohorelsky on September 26, it authorized the government to seize:

Computers, hard-drives, floppy discs and other media used to store computer-accessible information, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, electronic storage devices and related peripherals, black masks and clothing, maps, correspondence and other documents, financial records, notes, ledgers, receipts, papers, photographs, telephone and address books, identification documents, indicia of residency and other documents and records that constitute evidence of the commission of rioting crimes or that are designed or intended as a means of violating the federal rioting laws, including any of the above items that are maintained within other closed or locked containers, including safes and other containers that may be further secured by key locks (or combination locks) of various kinds.

The list of what was taken stretches pages.

The Madisons' lawyers are trying to overturn the search on the grounds that the warrant wasn't specific enough to pass constitutional muster. They also argue the feds have no business collecting the names of people Elliot communicated with, and that records from the People's Law Collective, as well as his work notes, are protected under confidentiality rules.

But the U.S. Attorney's Office defended the search in court, arguing that the broad search was just like those used in drug warrants, which were increasingly broadened over the last quarter century's ill-fated War on Drugs.

The affidavits that supported the search warrant are under court seal, because the grand jury investigation is "complex and multi-state," according to the prosecution.

The federal anti-rioting statute is serious business, and is seemingly easy to violate. For instance, it is a felony to "organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a riot; or [...] to aid or abet any person in inciting or participating in [...] a riot." By that token, simply telling a person fleeing cops with batons which way to run makes you a felon.

One wonders how the Southern Christian Leadership Council and Martin Luther King, Jr. would have fared under that law, when he was in a Birmingham jail, writing letters urging people to support the direct-action program of sit-ins and marches. Those protesters were later attacked by police using dogs and fire hoses on the orders of Birmingham Sheriff Bull Connor.

A spokesman for the New York U.S. Attorney's office, Bob Nardoza, declined to comment on the matter, citing rules forbidding officials to speak about grand jury investigations.

U.S. quietly begins to study gun safety

2009-10-19T14:20:00.001-07:00

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/19/nih-funds-study-of-teen-firearms/?feat=home_top5_commented

U.S. quietly begins to study gun safety

Jim McElhatton

More than a decade after Congress cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), another federal health agency has been spending millions of dollars to study such topics as whether teenagers who carry firearms run a different risk of getting shot compared with suffering other sorts of injuries.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) also has been financing research to investigate whether having many liquor stores in a neighborhood puts people at greater risk of getting shot.

Such studies are coming under sharp scrutiny by Republican lawmakers who question whether the money could be better spent on biomedical research at a time of increasing competition for NIH funding. They're also leery of NIH research relating to firearms in general, recalling how 13 years ago the House voted to cut CDC funding when critics complained that the agency was trying to win public support for gun control.

"It's almost as if someone's been looking for a way to get this study done ever since the Centers for Disease Control was banned from doing it 10 years ago," Rep. Joe L. Barton, Texas Republican, said of one of the NIH studies. "But it doesn't make any more sense now than it did then."

The NIH, which administers more than $30 billion in taxpayer funds for medical research, defended the grants.

"Gun related violence is a public health problem - it diverts considerable health care resources away from other problems and, therefore, is of interest to NIH," Don Ralbovsky, NIH spokesman, wrote in an e-mail responding to questions about the grants.

"These particular grants do not address gun control; rather they deal with the surrounding web of circumstances involved in many violent crimes, especially how alcohol policy may reduce the public health burden from gun-related injury and death," he said.

Mr. Barton and Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the ranking member on the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, respectively, first questioned the NIH about the gun-related grants in a letter Friday to NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins.

The letter sought information about grants for current projects and for others starting as far back as 2002, totaling nearly $5 million. The lawmakers called the study of criminal behavior "a laudable endeavor which consistently benefits the American people, often in ways that people do not see."

"And yet we have trouble understanding the administration's desire to spend, for example, $642,561 in taxpayer funds to learn how inner-city teenagers whose friends, acquaintances and peers carry firearms and drink alcohol on street corners could show up in emergency rooms with gunshot wounds.

"The day-follows-night quality of this question and its potential answer simply do not seem to justify the expense that would be borne by people who work and pay their taxes," the lawmakers wrote.

Special interests on both sides of the gun-control issue differ on the question of whether the NIH ought to be conducting firearms-related research.

"This kind of research does concern us, and we're going to be watching it closely," said Erich Pratt, a spokesman for the Gun Owners Association of America. "You'd think that after the CDC had their money revoked, we wouldn't be dealing with this."

But Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Republican lawmakers were "blaming the messenger" by criticizing the research.

"Burying the evidence is what the gun lobby is best at," he said. "Whether the members of Congress like it or not, gun violence is a public health problem in America today."

NIH records show that one study being questioned by lawmakers aimed to "investigate whether adolescents who consume alcohol and/or carry firearms, and/or whose daily activities occur in surroundings rich in alcohol and/or firearms, face a differential risk of being shot with a firearm or injured in a non-gun assault."

A separate study on child safety looked at the decision-making process by couples on whether to own firearms, in part trying to identify whether women are less supportive of firearms compared with their partners.

The questions about whether the NIH should fund such research are being raised more than a decade after the House voted against restoring $2.6 million to the CDC's budget, money that the agency was spending on gun studies. The move, backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), was made after Republicans and some Democrats complained that the CDC was pushing for gun control.

The money was eventually restored to the CDC budget but with a spending restriction that has remained in place ever since, mandating that funds cannot be used "in whole or in part to advocate or promote gun control."

Mr. Barton and Mr. Walden, both of whom have received political contributions from the NRA over the years, requested more information on the NIH firearms research funding a month after they separately raised questions about several other NIH grants.

Their earlier letter to the NIH cited questions about grants that "do not seem to be of the highest scientific rigor," including one on whether participating on dragon-boat paddling teams helped cancer survivors more than taking part in an organized walking program.

Manna Storehouse Sues Government

2009-10-18T15:25:00.001-07:00

"SWAT raid on food storehouse heading to trial

Family sues over confiscation of supplies, computers"

http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=112110

CA: Ammunition Bill Signed into Law

2009-10-12T11:17:00.001-07:00

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=68596&catid=2

Ammunition Bill Signed into Law

Posted By: Trevor Tamsen, Multimedia Producer

SACRAMENTO, CA - Before the midnight deadline, Gov. Schwarzenegger acted on 685 bills that were on his desk. He signed 456 and vetoed 229.

One of the bills that he signed was Assembly Bill 962. It requires handgun ammunition to be kept behind the counter where customers cannot access it without assistance. It also requires gun shop owners to thumbprint people who buy handgun ammunition, as well as record their identification and provide that information to police.

Schwarzenegger released a statement explaining why he signed the bill.

"To the Members of the California State Assembly: I am signing Assembly Bill 962.

This measure would require vendors of handgun ammunition to keep a log of information on handgun ammunition sales, store ammunition in a safe and secure manner, and require the face to-
face transfer of ammunition sales.

Although I have previously vetoed legislation similar to this measure, local governments have demonstrated that requiring ammunition vendors to keep records on ammunition sales improves public safety. These records have allowed law enforcement to arrest and prosecute persons who have no business possessing firearms and ammunition: gang members, violent parolees, second and third strikers, and even people previously serving time in state prison for murder.

Utilized properly, this type of information is invaluable for keeping communities safe and preventing dangerous felons from committing crimes with firearms.

Moreover, this type of record keeping is no more intrusive for law abiding citizens than similar laws governing pawnshops or the sale of cold medicine. Unfortunately, even the most successful
local program is flawed; without a statewide law, felons can easily skirt the record keeping requirements of one city by visiting another. Assembly Bill 962 will fix this problem by
mandating that all ammunition vendors in the state keep records on ammunition sales.

As Governor, I have sought the appropriate balance between public safety and the right to keep and bear arms. I have signed important public safety measures to regulate the sale and transfer of .50 caliber rifles, instituted the California Firearms License Check program, and promoted the use of microstamping technology in handguns. I have also vetoed many pieces of legislation that sought to place unreasonable restrictions and burdens on firearms dealers and ammunition vendors.

Assembly Bill 962 reasonably regulates access to ammunition and improves public safety without placing undue burdens on consumers. For these reasons, I am pleased to sign this bill."

IN: Wabash Valley woman didn’t realize second cold medicine purchase violated drug laws

2009-10-10T07:31:00.001-07:00

This is what I mentioned the last time I was on the air:

http://www.tribstar.com/local/local_story_246225916.html

Wabash Valley woman didn't realize second cold medicine purchase violated drug laws
By Lisa Trigg
The Tribune-Star

CLINTON — When Sally Harpold bought cold medicine for her family back in March, she never dreamed that four months later she would end up in handcuffs.

Now, Harpold is trying to clear her name of criminal charges, and she is speaking out in hopes that a law will change so others won't endure the same embarrassment she still is facing.

"This is a very traumatic experience," Harpold said.

Harpold is a grandmother of triplets who bought one box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband at a Rockville pharmacy. Less than seven days later, she bought a box of Mucinex-D cold medicine for her adult daughter at a Clinton pharmacy, thereby purchasing 3.6 grams total of pseudoephedrine in a week's time.

Those two purchases put her in violation of Indiana law 35-48-4-14.7, which restricts the sale of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, or PSE, products to no more than 3.0 grams within any seven-day period.

When the police came knocking at the door of Harpold's Parke County residence on July 30, she was arrested on a Vermillion County warrant for a class-C misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to 60 days in jail and up to a $500 fine. But through a deferral program offered by Vermillion County Prosecutor Nina Alexander, the charge could be wiped from Harpold's record by mid-September.

Harpold's story is one that concerns some law-abiding citizens who fear that innocent people will get mistakenly caught in the net of meth abuse roundups.

But the flip side of the story comes from the law enforcement arena, which is battling a resurgence in methamphetamine production in the Wabash Valley.

As the 12th-smallest county in the state, Vermillion County ranked as the state's fifth-largest producer of methamphetamine just a few years ago.

"I don't want to go there again," Alexander told the Tribune-Star, recalling how the manufacture and abuse of methamphetamine ravaged the tiny county and its families.

While the law was written with the intent of stopping people from purchasing large quantities of drugs to make methamphetamine, the law does not say the purchase must be made with the intent to make meth.

"The law does not make this distinction," Alexander said.

If the law said "with intent to manufacture methamphetamine," no one could be arrested until it was proven that the drug actually was used to make meth, the prosecutor said.

And that certainly wasn't the intent of the law, either. It was written to limit access to the key ingredient in meth — pseudoephedrine — and thereby to stop the clandestine "mom and pop" meth labs that were cooking drugs throughout the area.

Just as with any law, the public has the responsibility to know what is legal and what is not, and ignorance of the law is no excuse, the prosecutor said.

"I'm simply enforcing the law as it was written," Alexander said.

Pharmacies post "Meth Watch" signs, alerting customers that their purchases of drugs containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are being monitored. Pharmacies also are required to submit a list of purchase records to police, who then examine the lists for violations of the law.

It is up to customers to pay attention to their purchase amounts, and to check medication labels, Alexander said.

"If you take these products, you ought to know what's in them," she said.

While many people know that Sudafed, Actifed and Claritin-D contain pseudoephedrine, there are many more over-the-counter medications that also contain the key meth ingredient.

Ron Vencel, a pharmacist with JR Pharmacies in Terre Haute, said consumers should check all drug labels, and notes that any drug that has a "D" after it, for "decongestant," has a likelihood of containing pseudoephedrine, or PSE.

Vencel has worked with area police to help curb the sale of over-the-counter pseudoephedrine to people buying it as a meth ingredient, and he offered insight into some of the purchasers.

As authorities and retailers have limited the sale of PSE, some meth-makers have resorted to asking their relatives and friends, who are unaware of the intended use of the product, to go buy the cold medicine. That has put some innocent people unwittingly into the cycle of meth production. And a buyer may call five or six different people to go buy the cold medicine, thereby circumventing the law.

Harpold, who is employed at the Rockville Correctional Facility for women, feels her reputation has been damaged by the arrest, and that she has been wrongly labeled as someone who makes meth.

Her police mug shot ran on the front page of her local newspaper, she wrote, in a letter to the Tribune-Star, "with an article entitled, '17 Arrested in Drug Sweep.'"

"That is something I have never been involved in," she said of meth.

When she told her co-workers about the arrest, she said, they could not believe it. They have been supportive of her, she said, and other friends in the community have tried to help stop the misinformation that has spread because of the arrest.

The morning she was arrested, Harpold and her husband were awakened by police officers banging on the front door of their home at Midway along U.S. 36. She was allowed to get dressed, and was then taken in handcuffs to the Clinton Police Department, where she was questioned about her cold medicine purchases. She was later booked into jail, and her husband had to pay $300 bail to get her released.

Harpold said she did go talk to the prosecutor about the situation, and Alexander offered her the deferral program, in which Harpold is required to pay the court costs, abide by all laws and not be arrested for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, the class-C misdemeanor will be erased from her record.

Alexander said she is working with Harpold about the charge, but the prosecutor asserts that Harpold did break the law with her purchases and is being held accountable.

"I do want people to know that we will check the pharmacy records and we will prosecute people who violate this law," Alexander said.

Vermillion County Sheriff Bob Spence said he also is willing to help Harpold overcome the negative situation.

"If there's any way we can help her, we will," Spence said.

He explained that the process leading to Harpold's arrest involved an officer checking area pharmacy purchase records, and coming up with about 40 purchases that violated the law.

That information was then taken to the prosecutor, whose staff drew up the probable cause affidavits to be filed in court. A judge then found probable cause and issued arrest warrants, and the sheriff's department is required by statute to see that the warrants are served.

Harpold was not arrested by Vermillion County officers, Spence stressed, since her residence is in Parke County. But she was returned to Clinton where she was questioned and processed.

Spence agreed with pharmacist Vencel's scenario that the people making the meth often send other people to buy the medicine. And Vigo County Sheriff Jon Marvel, who recently renewed efforts to track pseudoephedrine sales in the Wabash Valley, understands Harpold's arrest is embarrassing for her.

"Sometimes mistakes happen," Marvel said. "It's unfortunate. But for the good of everyone, the law was put into effect.

"I feel for her, but if she could go to one of the area hospitals and see a baby born to a meth-addicted mother …"

For now, Harpold is hoping to raise public awareness so others will avoid the stress she is going through. She has written to state lawmakers and to U.S. Sens. Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh and Congressman Brad Ellsworth about changing the law.

So far, only Lugar has responded to her letter, she said, but she will continue to pursue the issue.

"I just don't want this to happen to other people."

Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.

The Sky is Not Falling - Cochrane Collaborator on H1N1 andvaccination

2009-10-09T19:19:00.001-07:00

----- Original Message -----

The Cochrane Collaboration is an organization that runs meta-analyses
of pooled data on clinical trials. They are the most prestigious group
in the world for this kind of data analysis.They have done several on
influenza vaccines, all of which show flu vaccines are of no benefit
on influenza endpoints like mortality, serious illness, days lost at
work, etc. This fellow, Dr Tom Jefferson, is one of their influenza
experts. He states (after observing the full flu season in Australia)
that H1N1 is milder than normal seasonal influenza and presents very
little risk of severe complications and advises against vaccination,
which he says is not supported by science.

See full interview:
http://medicalconsumers.org/2009/09/24/why-the-h1n1-virus-is-not-a-major-threat/

Some points

--Mortality in Australia, the flu season ending there now, is 131
deaths out of 20,000,000 population. They have pretty good
surveillance down there.

--[This is about the same percentage of the population as Brazil,
whose season is also ending]

--As it became evident that H1N1 was not a major public health threat,
the WHO changed its definition of "pandemic"

OLD: "An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus appears
against which the human population has no immunity, resulting in
epidemics worldwide with ENORMOUS NUMBERS OF DEATHS AND ILLNESS
[emphasis in the original document]." May 2009.

NEW: Who dropped the "enormous numbers of deaths and illness" part of
the definition. NOW

--the safety test of the a new H1N1 vaccine was run on just 240 people
without a control group. Results were measured by antibody level
rather than real outcomes. About 1/3 of the group developed headache
and sore throat from the vaccination.

--Vaccines may include mercury Thimerosal and aluminum, another neurotoxin.

--
Paul Bergner
North American Institute of Medical Herbalism http://naimh.com
Medical Herbalism Journal http://medherb.com

Montana Attorney General to investigate California company

2009-10-01T22:59:00.001-07:00

BILLINGS (AP) — Montana's attorney general has launched an investigation into a California company's plan to take over Hardin's $27 million jail, following revelations that the company's lead figure is a convicted felon with a history of fraud.

Michael Hilton, who formed Santa Ana, Calif.-based American Police Force in March, came to Hardin last month promising to fill the city's never-used jail and build an adjacent military and law enforcement training center.

Hilton has a decades-long track record of fraudulent activities and spent several years in a California prison on grand theft charges. A native of Montenegro, he uses at least 17 aliases.

Attorney General Steve Bullock is asking Hardin officials for all documents related to their dealings with Hilton and American Police Force.

Read more in Friday's Tribune.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091001/NEWS01/91001016/1002/rss

Iran replaces Dollar with Euro in FX

2009-09-30T00:58:00.001-07:00

http://presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=106669&sectionid=351020102

Iran replaces Dollar with Euro in FX

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:58:03 GMT

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in the country's foreign exchange accounts.

The September 12 edict was issued following a decision by the trustees of the country's foreign reserves, Mehr News Agency reported.

Earlier, the Islamic Republic of Iran had announced that the euro would replace the greenback in the country's oil transactions. Iran has called on other OPEC members to ditch the sinking dollar in favor of the more credible euro.

Following the switch, the interest rate for the facilities provided from the Foreign Exchange Reserves will be reduced from12 to 5 percent.

Since being introduced by the European Union, the euro has gained popularity internationally and there are now more euros in circulation than the dollar.

The move will also help decouple Iran from the US banking system.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

Fwd: APF story from Missoula paper

2009-09-28T16:17:00.001-07:00

A friend's research:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Been doing some research.

A follow up story about APF in Hardin.

http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_e510a634-ab21-11de-a728-001cc4c002e0.html

I'm trying to research this company a bit.

The web site is registered anonymously. No love there.

Something else interesting. Look at the contact page. The DC office is located at 1701 Pennsylvania Ave NW. That building is owned by management company named Preferred Offices. Interestingly enough their address is ALSO Suite 300 at that building.

http://www.preferredoffices.com/loca...1701_penn.html

Now, look at the floor plan for the building:

http://www.preferredoffices.com/PDFs...-3rd_floor.pdf

Suite 300 is not an office. It appears to be a conference room.

Interestingly enough, the California office looks...suspect. The office in CA appears to be the the former Sariol Legal Center, LLP. Seems like a fairly low rent area for a company that shells out 17 million for a facility in MT.

APF spokesman, attorney Maziar Mafi is Iranian born and has ran for the 47th district US House seat back in 1999.

I find it also interesting that though they claim to not be a merc group, they advertise

"We have rapid response units (RRU) awaiting our orders worldwide."

and

"We are capable of assembling a up to one special forces battallion within 72 hours."

Sounds interesting, huh? and...familiar.

Then you look at their special forces training tab...here

http://www.americanpolicegroup.com/special.html

notice that they have the U.S. Training Center as the site of their training activities. Does that sound familiar?

http://www.ustraining.com/new/index.asp

now does it?

If not, this URL is a redirect from a more...problematic...source. Blackwater USA. look at the bottom of that page...Xe corporation...the new "friendly" company name for Blackwater.

Attorney: OKC bombing tapes appear edited

2009-09-27T20:11:00.001-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_oklahoma_bombing_video

Attorney: OKC bombing tapes appear edited

By TIM TALLEY, Associated Press Writer Tim Talley, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 52 mins ago

OKLAHOMA CITY Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.

"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.

Trentadue gave copies of the tapes to The Oklahoman newspaper, which posted them online and provided copies to The Associated Press.

The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said.

"Four cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain't no such thing as a coincidence," Trentadue said.

He said government officials claim the security cameras did not record the minutes before the bombing because "they had run out of tape" or "the tape was being replaced."

"The interesting thing is they spring back on after 9:02," he said. "The absence of footage from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI doesn't want anybody to see."

A spokesman for the FBI in Oklahoma City, Gary Johnson, declined to comment and referred inquiries about the tapes to FBI officials in Washington, who were not immediately available for comment Sunday.

The soundless recordings show people rushing from nearby buildings after the bomb went off. Some show people fleeing through corridors cluttered with debris. None show the actual explosion that ripped through the federal building.

FBI agents did not report finding any security tapes from the federal building itself.

The FBI in the past refused to release the security camera recordings, leading Trentadue and others to contend the government was hiding evidence that others were involved in the attack.

"It's taken a lawsuit and years to get the tapes," Trentadue said.

He received the latest batch of tapes over the summer in response to an April request for video from security cameras in 11 different locations. Nothing on the tapes was unexpected.

"The more important thing they show is what they don't show," Trentadue said. "These cameras would have shown the various roads and approaches to the Murrah Building."

Trentadue began looking into the bombing after his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, died at the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center in August 1995. Kenneth Trentadue was a convicted bank robber who was held at the federal prison after being picked up as a parole violator at his home in San Diego in June 1995.

He was never a bombing suspect, but Jesse Trentadue alleges guards mistook his brother for one and beat him to death during an interrogation. The official cause of Kenneth Trentadue's death is listed as suicide, but his body had 41 wounds and bruises that Jesse Trentadue believes could have come only from a beating.

A judge in 2001 awarded Kenneth Trentadue's family $1.1 million for extreme emotional distress in the government's handling of his death.

Jesse Trentadue said he has received about 30 security tapes, including some images that were used as evidence at bomber Timothy McVeigh's trial. McVeigh was convicted on federal murder and conspiracy charges and executed in 2001. Coconspirator Terry Nichols is serving life in prison on federal and state bombing convictions.

Trentadue said he is seeking more tapes along with a variety of bombing-related documents from the FBI and the CIA. An FOIA request by Trentadue for 26 CIA documents was rejected in June. A letter from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which reviewed the documents, said their release "could cause grave damage to our national security."

Trentadue said he gave the latest set of tapes to The Oklahoman because of their historical value. The newspaper has agreed to provide copies to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

Obama to Usher In New World Order at G-20

2009-09-25T19:34:00.001-07:00

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/25/obama-announce-expansion-global-cooperation/

Obama to Usher In New World Order at G-20

President will announce Friday morning a significant expansion of the consortium of countries that tackles global economic and climate change issues.

By Kelly Chernenkoff

FOXNews.com

In a surprising late-night twist on the eve of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, FOX News has learned President Obama will announce Friday morning a significant expansion of the consortium of countries that tackles global economic and climate change issues.

Obama will tell reporters that the G-20, comprised of 19 industrial and emerging-market countries plus the European Union, will supplant the smaller Group of Eight nations, G-8, as the go-to group for solving the world's economic ills.

"This decision brings to the table the countries needed to build a stronger, more balanced global economy, reform the financial system, and lift the lives of the poorest," the White House said in a statement.

The G8 will retain its national security focus, but be replaced by the broader G-20 on the issues of climate change, financial regulatory reform and global imbalances.

President Obama pressed for the change at the last G-8 Summit in Italy, expressing his displeasure at the unwieldy array of G-8 meeting variations.

Obama said, "There is no doubt that we have to update and refresh and renew the international institutions that were set up in a different time and place. What I've noticed is everybody wants the smallest possible group, the smallest possible organization, that includes them. So, if they're the 21st largest nation in the world, they want the G-21, and think it's highly unfair if they have been cut out."

Though the news itself was an unexpected turn, the reasoning behind it was written in the tea leaves Thursday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sang the praises of broadened global cooperation; making special note of the strides China, a non-G-8 country, has made in financial reforms.

The more inclusive approach will allow countries such as Brazil, China, and India, who have griped about not being part of the G-8, to now have a bigger stake in strengthening global cooperation and economic stability. President Obama also supported their inclusion, noting fewer meetings would be more effective.

The G-20 started ten years ago as a group of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from industrialized and developing economies, but has involved Heads of State Summits, such as the one taking place Friday.

The G-8's members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission attends as well.

Cliff High on Militia Radio

2009-09-25T16:22:00.001-07:00

Cliff High (http://www.halfpasthuman.com) was a guest on Militia Radio last night, discussing his latest Web Bot report. To listen to the show, go here:

http://www.militiaradio.com/?p=767

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

Trapped by curfew, Hondurans seek food

2009-09-23T19:58:00.001-07:00

And, some people question why we need to store food.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trapped by curfew, Hondurans seek food

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya remains in Brazilian Embassy

The Associated Press

updated 2:37 p.m. PT, Wed., Sept . 23, 2009

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Hungry Hondurans scrambled through looted stores and lined up for food on Wednesday during a break in a long curfew called to halt violence that erupted with the return of the country's deposed leftist president.

Troops and police ringed the Brazilian Embassy where ousted President Manuel Zelaya took shelter on Monday after returning home in a daring challenge to the interim government that threw him out of the country at gunpoint in June and that vows to arrest him if he leaves the shelter of the diplomatic mission.

Most other Hondurans were trapped as well, cooped up in their homes since Monday evening by a government order to stay off the streets an order ignored by some looters and pro-Zelaya protesters.

Schools, businesses, airports and border crossings closed, though the coup-installed government lifted the nationwide curfew for six hours Wednesday so that businesses could open briefly and people could buy what they needed.

Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva used the podium at the U.N. General Assembly to demand Zelaya be reinstated as Honduras' president the U.S. State Department called for restraint by both sides.

'It's scary to go out'
From Washington, Spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S., which still has contact with Honduran officials, had helped get authorities to restore water and power service they had cut at the Brazilian embassy where Zelaya is holed up and had helped evacuate some Brazilian embassy staff.

But on a street in Tegucigalpa, Lila Armendia peered out through her wooden gate at a scene of burning trash bins placed by protesters.

"It's scary to go out," she said.

Being stuck inside her home is no good either. "It's like being in jail," said the 38-year-old seamstress who has been unable to work.

People determined to stock up for the uncertain days ahead trudged past bandana-masked youths sitting on boulders they had used to block roads.

About two dozen people at a supermarket littered with overturned shelves hunted through shards of glass and smashed potato chip packages for undamaged food.

Police said they arrested 113 people after scores of business were looted as protesters skirmished with officers throughout Tuesday night.

Zelaya told the Argentine cable channel Todo Noticias that 10 of his supporters had been killed, though he gave no details. Authorities said there were no deaths at all, though they said one person suffered a gunshot wound.

Dr. Mario Sanchez at the Escuela Hospital in Tegucigalpa said three people were treated for gunshot wounds there, however.

'This is a nightmare'
At an upscale shopping mall in the capital, women wearing track suits and pearl earrings formed a bumper-to-bumper line of orange shopping carts that snaked around the parking lot of a Price Smart they expected to soon open.

"This is a nightmare," said Lijia Acietuno, a 26-year-old business manager. "Look what this man has done to our country," she said, referring to Zelaya.

The crisis appeared to be taking a toll on Zelaya, too. He stared into space Wednesday as a shrinking core of supporters at the isolated Brazilian embassy raised their fists and vowed to fight for his reinstatement.

The boisterous leader known for his trademark white cowboy hat had been traveling the hemisphere, meeting with heads of state to build a wall of diplomatic condemnation against the government that hustled him out of the country at gunpoint June 28.

He now finds himself confined to the cramped embassy compound surrounded by troops waiting to arrest him.

The interim government's foreign minister Carlos Lopez, said that soldiers would not try to enter the embassy to arrest Zelaya.

But he also said yet again that Honduras' interim government would not bow to intense international demands for him to serve out his final months as president.

Before he was ousted, the country's Supreme Court has endorsed charges of treason and abuse of authority against Zelaya for repeatedly ignoring court orders to drop plans for a referendum on whether the constitution should be rewritten.

The interim government accuses Zelaya of trying to create disturbances ahead of the Nov. 29 presidential elections that coup-backers hope will restore an international image of democracy to the nation and ease foreign pressure.

No plans to leave the embassy
Zelaya says he has no plans to leave the embassy and has repeatedly asked to speak with interim President Roberto Micheletti, who says he is open to talks with the participation of the Organization of American States.

Zelaya said Micheletti's refusal to accept international demands for his reinstatement mean he "does not have the will to resolve what is happening in Honduras."

"If he has any conscience, then he should yield and search first for peace and not for his own personal benefit," Zelaya said on the Costa Rican radio program Nuestra Voz.

Kelly said the interim government has invited a delegation from the Organization of American States to help solve the standoff a moved welcomed by the United States.

Brazil's Silva, meanwhile, urged the world to insist on reinstating Zelaya.

"Unless there is political will, we will see more coups like the one that toppled the constitutional president of Honduras," Silva told the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

The Brazilian government asked the U.N. Security Council to discuss the security of Zelaya and its embassy in Honduras.

Zelaya's opponents accuse him of wanting to end the constitutional ban on re-election a charge Zelaya has repeatedly denied.

U.S.-backed talks moderated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias broke down after Micheletti's government refused to accept a plan that would allow Zelaya to return to the presidency with limited powers and prohibit him from attempting to revise the constitution.

Many Hondurans feel caught in the middle of a fight between two leaders neither of whom they support.

"We are like prisoners. This is unbearable," said Edie Eguigure, 47, waiting in a long line to buy food for his family. "It's time for Micheletti and Zelaya sit down to negotiate to end this problem that is affecting more than anything the poorest of the poor."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32989288/ns/world_news-americas/

AP source: Census worker hanged with 'fed' on body

2009-09-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbzG_BlkG2Hfc818EPRRn1bBlP6gD9ATASJ00

AP source: Census worker hanged with 'fed' on body

By DEVLIN BARRETT and JEFFREY McMURRAY (AP) 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. An autopsy report is pending.

Investigators have said little about the case. FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to confirm or discuss any details about the crime scene.

"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved and that's part of the investigation and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer.

Attacking a federal worker during or because of his federal job is a federal crime.

Sparkman's mother, Henrie Sparkman of Inverness, Fla., told The Associated Press her son was an Eagle scout who moved to the area to be a local director for the Boy Scouts of America. She said he later became a substitute teacher in Laurel County and supplemented that income as a Census worker.

She said investigators have given her few details about her son's death they told her the body was decomposed and haven't yet released his body for burial. "I was told it would be better for him to be cremated," she said.

Henrie Sparkman said her son's death is a mystery to her.

"I have my own ideas, but I can't say them out loud. Not at this point," she said. "Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just waiting on the FBI to come to some conclusion."

Lucindia Scurry-Johnson, assistant director of the Census Bureau's southern office in Charlotte, N.C., said law enforcement officers have told the agency the matter is "an apparent homicide" but nothing else.

Census employees were told Sparkman's truck was found nearby, and a computer he was using for work was found inside it, she said. He worked part-time for the Census, usually conducting interviews once or twice a month.

Sparkman has worked for the Census since 2003, spanning five counties in the surrounding area. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County, officials said.

Door-to-door operations have been suspended in Clay County pending a resolution of the investigation, Scurry-Johnson said.

The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010 head count, but it has thousands of field workers doing smaller surveys on various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies. Next year, the Census Bureau will dispatch up to 1.2 million temporary employees to locate hard-to-find residents.

The Census Bureau is overseen by the Commerce Department.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman's son, other family and friends."

Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."

Appalachia scholar Roy Silver, a New York City native now living in Harlan County, Ky., said he doesn't sense an outpouring of anti-government sentiment in the region as has been exhibited in town hall meetings in other parts of the country.

"I don't think distrust of government is any more or less here than anywhere else in the country," said Silver, a sociology professor at Southeast Community College.

The most deadly attack on federal workers came in 1995 when the federal building in Oklahoma City was devastated by a truck bomb, killing 168 and injuring more than 680. Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for the bombing, carried literature by modern, ultra-right-wing anti-government authors.

A private group called PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, tracks violence against employees who enforce environmental regulations, but the group's executive director, Jeff Ruch, said it's hard to know about all of the cases because some agencies don't share data on instances of violence against employees.

From 1996 to 2006, according to the group's most recent data, violent incidents against federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service workers soared from 55 to 290.

Ruch said that after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, "we kept getting reports from employees that attacks and intimidation against federal employees had not diminished, and that's why we've been tracking them."

"Even as illustrated in town hall meetings today, there is a distinct hostility in a large segment of the population toward people who work for their government," Ruch said.

McMurray reported from Lexington, Ky. Associated Press writers Roger Alford in Frankfort, Ky., and Hope Yen in Washington contributed to this report.

Boston launches flu shot tracking

2009-09-23T14:59:00.001-07:00

Boston launches flu shot tracking
City to pinpoint areas of low rates of vaccination
By Stephen Smith
Globe Staff / November 21, 2008

Using technology originally developed for mass disasters, Boston disease trackers are embarking on a novel experiment - one of the first in the country - aimed at eventually creating a citywide registry of everyone who has had a flu vaccination.

The resulting vaccination map would allow swift intervention in neighborhoods left vulnerable to the fast-moving respiratory illness.

The trial starts this afternoon, when several hundred people are expected to queue up for immunizations at the headquarters of the Boston Public Health Commission. Each of them will get a bracelet printed with a unique identifier code. Information about the vaccine's recipients, and the shot, will be entered into handheld devices similar to those used by delivery truck drivers.

Infectious disease specialists in Boston and elsewhere predicted that the registry approach could prove even more useful if something more sinister strikes: a bioterrorism attack or the long-feared arrival of a global flu epidemic. In such crises, the registry could be used to track who received a special vaccine or antidote to a deadly germ.

"Anything you can do to better pinpoint who's vaccinated and who's not, that's absolutely vital," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota. "I wish more cities were doing this kind of thing."

Boston is believed to be the first city to embrace this particular approach to tracking vaccinations against the seasonal flu, estimated to kill 36,000 people each year in the United States, principally the elderly.

But when Boston bought the monitoring system from a Milwaukee company in 2006, emergency authorities had a far different use in mind: tracking people injured in big fires, plane crashes, or other disasters.

"When there's a large catastrophic event, people end up in a variety of healthcare facilities," said Dr. Anita Barry, Boston's director of communicable disease control. "Of course, their family members and loved ones are trying to find out where they are and how they're doing."

To see how well the system would work, emergency crews tested it at the Boston Marathon and the Fourth of July extravaganza on the Esplanade. The trial proved successful.

"If we can make it work in the Boston Marathon medical tent, then you have to think about making it so that it can work in other environments as well - whether it's a community clinic or a doctor's office or a flu shot clinic," said Rich Serino, chief of Boston Emergency Medical Services. Thus, the idea to use the registry as a flu vaccine tracker was born.

Every autumn in medical offices across the country, flu vaccine floods in. The perishable medical product must be delivered to millions in a matter of months.Continued...

Keeping track of that cache of vaccine - and which patients are getting it - is a daunting proposition.

In some medical offices, the information is entered into electronic medical records. At Boston's health department, nurses fill out paper forms.

But there's never been any way to systematically monitor whether, for example, Dorchester has lower vaccination rates than the North End.

"When you're working in one clinic, you don't have a good sense of that," said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, top disease doctor at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. "But if you're tracking multiple clinics in real time, you can see where the uptake is better and where it's less, and then focus on outreach."

Today's experiment, which does not require any additional direct spending, is a first step toward that.

When people arrive for their shots, they will get an ID bracelet with a barcode. Next, basic information - name, age, gender, address - will be entered into the patient tracking database. There will be electronic records, too, of who gave the vaccine and whether it was injected into the right arm or the left, and time-stamped for that day.

The resulting trove of data could be used to figure out why some patients had to wait longer than others to be vaccinated. "When all is said and done," said Jun Davantes, director of product management at EMSystems, the company that makes the technology, "Boston will be able to identify where there are certain bottlenecks in the process and hopefully improve it the next time around."

Ultimately, city health authorities said, they envision creating a network across the city that would allow public and private providers of flu shots to add data to a registry.

But acknowledging patients' privacy concerns, officials promised that if a citywide system were implemented, only a limited amount of information would be gathered - all sitting behind an encrypted firewall.

"I have had people say, 'Oh, that's so big brother,' " said Laura Williams, EMS deputy chief of staff. "But in truth, the unique identifier is unique to the incident. It's not like you will go to the hospital, and they'll say, 'You're the one who got the flu vaccine at 10 o'clock yesterday at the Boston Public Health Commission.' "

Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.

It happened in America: Katrina?s secret jail : Life : The Buffalo News

2009-09-23T02:30:00.001-07:00

It happened in America: Katrina?s secret jail : Life : The Buffalo News

Shared via AddThis

Washington, DC ACORN Video: Child Prostitution Investigation

2009-09-11T13:37:00.001-07:00

Washington, DC ACORN Video: Child Prostitution Investigation

Shared via AddThis

Maryland State Police Define .22 Rimfire Rifles as "Assault Weapons"

2009-09-08T03:53:00.001-07:00

http://www.ammoland.com/2009/09/07/maryland-state-police-define-22-rimfire-rifles-as-assault-weapons/

Maryland State Police Define .22 Rimfire Rifles as "Assault Weapons"

Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore

Maryland --(AmmoLand.com)- In its infinite wisdom, the licensing division of the Maryland State Police has determined that certain .22 caliber rimfire rifles are "assault weapons" based solely upon there cosmetic resemblance to some firearms that are defined by Maryland law as "assault weapons."

In a letter to attorney Frank D. Boston, III, Captain Laura Lu Herman (Commander of the MSP licensing division) wrote in part:

"The Annotated Code of Maryland, Public Safety Article 5-101, defines a regulated firearm as "a firearm that is any of the following specific assault weapons or their copies, regardless of which company produced and manufactured that assault weapon" The precise meaning of the words "copy" or "replica" are not included in the statute suggesting that a copy or replica may be interpreted as cosmetically copied or replicated or perhaps require more similar functional qualities."

I will take into consideration the points you have identified in your letter and will forward a request for a formal opinion from the State of Maryland Attorney General on the precise meaning of "copy" and replica" as used in Public Safety Article 5-101.

Until the opinion of the Attorney General is published relating to this matter, the Maryland State Police Licensing Division believes it is in the best interest of the public in general to continue to process the purchases of the .22 caliber Rimfire Rifles in accordance to the statutory requirements for purchases of regulated firearms."

The real problem is: The Maryland State Police have apparently not issued a formal written bulletin to the firearms dealers informing them of this new requirement. It is entirely possible for a dealer and/or buyer to be arrested, charged, and prosecuted for violating an unwritten policy established in secret by Maryland State Police Licensing Division.

About:
Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore, Inc. (AGC), located in Marriottsville, Maryland. The Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore, Inc. was formed on July 1, 1944 when a number of World War II veterans in the Baltimore, Maryland area began looking for a place for recreational and competitive shooting. They organized with several other Baltimore area shooting clubs to form the "AGC"

Harry Reid’s ‘Moment of Truth’

2009-09-03T11:13:00.001-07:00

September 2, 2009

Exclusive: Harry Reid's 'Moment of Truth' in Las Vegas Reflects the Un-American, Elitist Attitude Prevailing in Washington

Pam Meister

Last week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) addressed a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Before his address, he conducted the usual meet-n-greet/photo op with the chamber's board members. One of the last in line to receive the oh-so-high honor of shaking the ~~Crown Prince's~~ Senate Majority Leader's hand was Bob Brown, the Las Vegas Review-Journal's advertising director.

As Brown shook Reid's (withered?) hand, Reid said to him, "I hope you go out of business."

What a nice thing to hear from your elected representative. For all he knew, Brown could have been a Democrat and Reid supporter. But coming from the man who patriotically declared two years ago that the war in Iraq was lost, are we really surprised? My guess is that the newspaper hasn't been too kind to Reid, and Reid's skin is just a little bit thinner than a politician's should be. Perhaps he holds them responsible for his terrible poll numbers in his home state. Yeah, right.

Of course, once word of his dreadful idea of witty repartee got out, a Reid spokesman inferred that the senator was joking: "Clearly he wasn't serious." Good thing he has his overpaid day job; he'd be clobbered on the comedy club circuit.

Guess Reid thought the tourism slogan "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" would kick in. Sorry senator; that only applies to tourists out to have a good time – not elected representatives who are supposed to have the interests of all of his constituents at heart – or at least pretend to their faces.

Sherman Frederick, publisher of the Review-Journal, said in an editorial that the paper has outlasted many things, including "any number of two-bit politicians who couldn't stand scrutiny, much less criticism." He also considers Reid's statement to be a threat:

But to fully capture the magnitude of Reid's remark (and to stop him from doing the same thing to others) it must be called what it was – a full-on threat perpetrated by a bully who has forgotten that he was elected to office to protect Nevadans, not sound like he's shaking them down.

No citizen should expect this kind of behavior from a U.S. senator. It is certainly not becoming of a man who is the majority leader in the U.S. Senate. And it absolutely is not what anyone would expect from a man who now asks Nevadans to send him back to the Senate for a fifth term.

If he thinks he can push the state's largest newspaper around by exacting some kind of economic punishment in retaliation for not seeing eye to eye with him on matters of politics, I can only imagine how he pressures businesses and individuals who don't have the wherewithal of the Review-Journal.

While I'm not sure I would agree that the comment was an overt threat, I do consider it to be in terrible taste – not to mention sadly indicative of the prevailing elitist attitude in Washington today. Gary Horne, writing for American Thinker, nails the attitude down pat in this scenario:

The buses are lined up at the terminal, brand new government vehicles with attractive logos on the side. Free rides are offered to exotic locations. Intelligent-looking PhDs sit in the drivers' seats. Well-made signs advertise the benefits of each (slightly fuzzy) destination. Members of Congress sit in the stands admiring their work, separated by barriers from the rest.

Yet, something is wrong. While a few have anxiously boarded, most of the people are resisting. The crowd is becoming agitated and angry. The chief community organizer coordinator consults his advisors, "Why are these people resisting? Don't they understand I, I mean we, know what is best for them?" The advisors are puzzled, "We are the elite and know more than they. There cannot possibly be any objection to our superior wisdom, they must have been sent by someone. They must be fakes." The chief coordinator agrees, "They aren't smart enough to think for themselves, there must be some radio talk show host behind it. Never mind, force them on or lie to them. We won, tell them to keep quiet!"

Few senators and congressmen, knowing of the ugly mood at home brought on by the health care "reform" debate, looked forward to meeting with constituents over the August break. One of them, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), even had a town hall attendee removed because he didn't have a "ticket" permitting him to ask a question, and then mocked him as he was led out by police. This is the same Carol Shea-Porter who stalked then-Republican congressman Jeb Bradley at his town hall meetings and even protested at New Hampshire's State House alongside people dressed like Nazis and accused the federal government of trying "to brand us like sheep." What a difference four years in Washington makes.

And who can forget House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge, along with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, that these town hall and tea party protests are un-American? Guess those Botox injections have tampered with Pelosi's memory – just three years ago she was telling anti-war protesters that she was a "fan of disruptors" and that their "advocacy [was] very American and very important." How's that shoe on the other foot feeling, Nancy? A little tight? Is it hurting your corns?

America did not evolve over centuries of tribal and then feudal rule, only to move on to nanny socialist government like nations in Europe. America was born of an idea – that all men are created equal; that we all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that limited government best serves a free and independent people who can make their own decisions about how to live their own lives; and that government representatives serve at the pleasure of the people who elect them. Despite what we saw this past weekend during the Ted Kennedy media memorial extravaganza and slobberfest, average Americans are not dazzled by, nor do they accept, the idea of royalty here in America. We may love to read about the goings-on of the royal family in Britain, but we don't want one here. Nor do we want those who purport to be public servants lording it over us in the manner we've seen of late. Actually, this attitude has been around for a long time – but people are just now starting to get that burning, itching feeling akin to getting athlete's foot from standing in a dirty, moldy shower. It's time to get out the bleach and really clean house.

Washington "insiders" (politicians, their staffers and the media) can pooh-pooh the tea party and town hall attendees all they want, assigning them derogatory terms like "tea baggers" and the like, but this "know-it-all" attitude is wearing thin. While I've been critical in the past of what I believe is an unfortunate tendency for many fellow Americans to have a blasé attitude about political and world events, I'm proud to see that so many are waking up to the serious realities that face this nation today. I'm planning on going down to Washington to the 9/12 Tea Party and March on D.C. next week. It won't be my first rally, but it will be my mother's first. While she's always been well-informed, she told me she is tired of sitting on the sidelines and is ready to participate. I hope to see many of you there too.

So while nincompoops like Reid make "jokes" to constituents about wanting their companies to "go out of business" and our president's attitude about bipartisan cooperation in Washington boils down to "I won," the American people are not just paying attention, but are making their voices heard – both on the street and, in just over a year, in the voting booth.

Washington insiders beware. Your time may well be up.

Pam Meister is the editor of FamilySecurityMatters.org.

Bulk Herb Resource

2009-08-30T01:45:00.001-07:00

I found this website and found their prices are reasonable, especially if you are buying for food/medicinal storage. :)

https://www.frontiercoop.com/

Frontier Co-Op - Bulk organic herbs, spices, teas, and essential oils.

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

Fox News Poll: Which do you think is a greater risk?

2009-08-29T18:42:00.001-07:00

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/08/26/think-greater-risk/?test=latestnews

Which do you think is a greater risk: taking the fast-tracked H1N1 vaccine or not being vaccinated?

Taking the Vaccine
Not Taking the Vaccine
Undecided

Vote

Looks like they are playing word games Which is the great risk to your health taking the vaccine of course. 51% agree let's get this to everyone and change it to 60% saying taking the vaccine is VERY RISKY TO YOU HEALTH

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

Fw: And, shampoo!

2009-08-25T20:58:00.001-07:00

http://wildforager.survivalistssite.com/shampoo.html

I have added instructions on how to make liquid castile soap from bars (which many of these recipes call for) to my soap page.

http://wildforager.survivalistssite.com/cleaning.html

I also found a great site with recipes for carpet cleaners:

http://organic.lovetoknow.com/Organic_Rug_Shampoo_Recipes

My soap making web page

2009-08-24T21:55:00.001-07:00

If you have never made soap or are just looking for some other ideas, here's my soap making web page:

http://wildforager.survivalistssite.com/cleaning.html

What Makes an Effective Leader?

2009-08-21T19:08:00.001-07:00

What Makes an Effective Leader? Good leaders are not born, they are made through self-study, education, training and experience. This was Buckshot's topic (August 19, 2009) on the Militia Round Table (http://www.militiaradio.com).

To listen to the entire show, go here: http://www.militiaradio.com/?p=349

Small, 10 minute segment from the August 19 show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAbUcMHQ5B0

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

Fw: http://thesustainablehome.blogspot.com/ - ACTION REQUIRED

2009-08-20T21:27:00.001-07:00

Sweet! Bas-tards! Relevant news stories are SPAM I guess.

Sustainable Home

----- Original Message -----
From: "Blogger" <no-reply@google.com>
To: <sustainablehome@survivalistssite.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 21:13
Subject: http://thesustainablehome.blogspot.com/ - ACTION REQUIRED

>
> Hello,
>
> Your blog at: http://thesustainablehome.blogspot.com/ has been
> identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a
> review by filling out the form at
> http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=3755133177732832101
>
> Your blog will be deleted in 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and your
> readers will see a warning page during this time. After we receive your
> request, we'll review your blog and unlock it within two business days.
> Once we have reviewed and determined your blog is not spam, the blog will
> be unlocked and the message in your Blogger dashboard will no longer be
> displayed. If this blog doesn't belong to you, you don't have to do
> anything, and any other blogs you may have won't be affected.
>
> We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection
> is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged
> incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of
> system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering
> resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more
> information, please see Blogger Help:
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> will be deleted in 20 days. Click this link to request the review:
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NJ City Considers Martial Law

2009-08-20T21:12:00.001-07:00

NJ City Considers Martial Law - Exclusive Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24t-j96Pnxo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/18/us/AP-US-Paterson-Curfew.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

August 18, 2009

NJ City Considers Adult Curfew After Crime Spate

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:18 p.m. ET

PATERSON, N.J. (AP) -- Curfews might not be just for kids anymore in one northern New Jersey city.

Seeking to curb violence after a spate of deadly summer shootings, Paterson officials are considering an unusual ordinance that would prevent people of all ages from gathering outside in public late at night.

The measure could be the nation's first citywide, non-emergency curfew to include adults, several experts said.

''We're trying to think outside the box,'' said Mayor Jose Torres. ''This was triggered predominantly by fear among city residents over the shootings that have been occurring this summer.''

A 29-year-old Paterson man was gunned down in his car last week in the latest chapter of a tit-for-tat battle between rival groups, according to police who decline to describe them as gangs. The battle has generated community fear, even though overall shootings and violence remain low by historical standards.

Paterson, New Jersey's third-largest city at 147,000 people, has had six homicides and 30 shootings this year, according to city data. That compares with 13 homicides and 37 shootings for the same period of 2008.

The curfew would last for two months and bar people from loitering outside from midnight to 7 a.m. Violators would face up to a $2,000 fine and 90 days in jail. It would not apply to people in transit.

The measure was initially scheduled for consideration by the City Council on Monday, then Tuesday, and is now slated for Sept. 1. If the measure is approved, a second vote and a public hearing would still be needed before it goes into effect.

Legal challenges are a possibility, and Torres attributed the voting delays to the need to word the ordinance just right.

The American Civil Liberties Union has already successfully defeated several juvenile curfews in New Jersey courts, said Ed Barocas, legal director of the state ACLU. Adult curfews are usually associated with the imposition of martial law, which typically is restricted to emergencies, wartime or military occupation, according to the ACLU.

''An adult curfew is unprecedented in our state,'' Barocas said.

''It's just completely unheard of,'' said Jon Shane, a professor of policing administration at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. ''Not to mention being generally unconstitutional.''

As unpalatable as the measure is among legal scholars, some Paterson residents are willing to consider anything that diminishes the violence.

Mohamed El Filali, a 44-year-old Paterson resident, said he fears the proposal will only drive illegal activity indoors.

''If it curtails crime I don't have an issue with it,'' said El Filali, outreach director for the Islamic Center of Passaic County. ''It's a bold and ambitious gesture.''

DaShaun ''Jiwe'' Morris, who describes himself as an inactive member of the Bloods street gang, said the ordinance is problematic because it clearly targets illegal gang activity and depends on the ability of police to distinguish between gang members and neighborhood residents sporting the same hairstyles and fashions.

''They're going to get a lot of the wrong people,'' said the 28-year-old Morris, who lives in nearby Newark. ''It's an invitation to racial profiling.''

New Orleans, New York City and Jersey City are among cities that have previously imposed curfews in designated areas, such as parks, but those bans were not citywide.

------

AP news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

Fw: A small victory

2009-08-18T13:12:00.001-07:00

White House disables e-tip box

Following a furor over how the data would be used, the White House has shut down an electronic tip box — flag@whitehouse.gov — that was set up to receive information on "fishy" claims about President Barack Obama's health plan.

E-mails to that address now bounce back with the message: "The e-mail address you just sent a message to is no longer in service. We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck."

My Wild Edible Plants appearance on Militia Radio.com

2009-08-18T03:03:00.001-07:00

O.k. Monday, August 17, 2009 was my first official show on Militia Radio.com. I spoke about Wild Edible Plants.

http://www.militiaradio.com/?p=319

This is the .pdf that was to accompany the program:

http://wildforager.survivalistssite.com/WildEdiblePlants.pdf

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

US Government prepares for “Unwillingness” to take the WHO flu vaccine

2009-08-18T01:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=305%3Aus-government-prepares-for-unwillingness-to-take-the-who-flu-vaccine&catid=41%3Atop-headlines&lang=en

According to a post on Lew Rockwell, the US health authorities are so concerned about an unwillingness to follow government orders during a "swine flu" pandemic that they are devoting a special session to the topic during the International Swine Flu Conference. Handling mass fatalities is also on the programme.

August 10, 2009
Government Prepares for "unwillingness to follow government orders"
Posted by Karen De Coster on August 10, 2009 08:47 AM

The International Swine Flu Conference is being held in Washington D.C. next week, just two weeks after the conference on weight control that I wrote about last week. Here's a summary of it:

Top leaders and key decision-makers of major companies representing a broad range of industries will meet with distinguished scientists, public health officials, law enforcers, first responders, and other experts to discuss pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery at the 1st International Swine Flu Summit.

Read the agenda for the breakout sessions, especially the session on "psychological issues" (Session #2) and the topic heading: "Unwillingness to follow government orders." Also note session #6, which includes "Control and diffuse social unrest & public disorder" and "Isolate prisons and other facilities.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/32605.html

Mexican Army takes over customs on US border

2009-08-18T01:51:00.001-07:00

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jYAvvuNiFX541JmKEjHei6YATbgQ

Mexican Army takes over customs on US border

(AFP) 21 hours ago

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico Mexico's Army took control of customs Sunday on the busy US border, as federal authorities pulled agents off the job in a massive anti-corruption shakeup, officials told AFP.

An Interior Ministry official said the dismissals were being carried out at all Mexican border facilities, and that the customs agents were being replaced.

Customs agents were sacked after some were found to be linked to contraband operations, according to sources at the ministry.

Agents in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with the southern US state of Texas, were called in Saturday to be told they were fired, and to hand in their badges and weapons. A total of 1,100 agents were sacked, Mexican media said.

Army troops took over customs border posts temporarily on Sunday.

Mexico and the United States share a border that stretches across some 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) and are partners with Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Mexico is in the midst of a raging war on organized crime, and has expressed serious concern about US weapons crossing into the country.

During a visit to Mexico last week, US President Barack Obama praised President Felipe Calderon for his controversial military crackdown on the country's drug gangs, which involves more than 36,000 troops.

The United States has pledged around 1.6 billion dollars to tackle drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America under the Merida Initiative, which also includes funds for training and equipment to boost security on the Mexican side of the border.

The Obama administration has acknowledged the US role in the violence, pledging to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico and curb demand for drugs in the United States, one of the world's top cocaine consumers.

Guy with Gun Outside Obama Townhall

2009-08-16T22:04:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTmS0OHnTLw

At :35, keep an eye on his ear. See something that isn't used by your average person? How many other protesters are wearing ear pieces?

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

ME: National Guard drill at high school to prepare for possible H1N1 riot

2009-08-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.sunjournal.com/node/105339/

National Guard drill at high school to prepare for possible H1N1 riot

By Leslie H. Dixon, Staff Writer

Published: Aug 13, 2009 1:46 am

PARIS Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School will be the site of a National Guard riot control drill Thursday morning to prepare in the event of a panic over distribution of serum to treat the swine flu.

The school on Route 26 at the Paris-Norway town line has been designated by state officials as a distribution site for the H1N1 flu vaccine. The drill is to prepare for a worst-case scenario should the serum have to be transported from Augusta and people rush to get it (nice spin, don't you think?).

On Thursday morning, four or five National Guard Humvees will travel from Augusta to Paris with vials of fake serum. The National Guardsmen will take on the roles of panicked citizens and military police and practice what they would do, such as using tear gas, in the case of a riot.

"This is just a component of moving the stuff from point A to B," said Oxford County Emergency Management Agency Director Scott Parker. The plan will be put into place only if needed, he said.

Plans were developed in April to have vials of serum sent from the federal government to Augusta, Parker said. From Augusta, the supplies will be transported to designated distribution centers.

During the April conference, concerns were raised about a possible out-of-control rush on the serum, Parker said. Because of that concern, Gov. John Baldacci and Gen. John Libby, adjutant general of the Maine National Guard, agreed that a plan should be devised to quell such a disturbance.

Local police chiefs have also been involved in the planning, Parker said. In a real event, local police would be in charge of security once the serum arrives in Paris. "We own it. We're in charge of providing security," he said.

As of Aug. 5, the Maine Center for Disease Control said there had been 323 confirmed cases of H1N1 in Maine, of which 176 are Maine residents and the rest out-of-staters diagnosed in Maine. A total of 19 people required hospitalization. Sixty percent of the victims were under the age of 25.

On Tuesday, health authorities reported Maine's first death from the H1N1 virus. Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, said a York County man in his 50s was hospitalized for three weeks and died last week of underlying conditions complicated by H1N1 (so, no, he did not die from the H1N1 virus).

The drill will take place behind the school and will not affect the day-to-day activities within the school. Access to the school building will be available through the main entrance, Parker said.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Food Storage

2009-08-14T16:21:00.001-07:00

I re-discovered a blog I have been following for a while. Wendy Dewitt had a great food storage plan but it's even better because she has video taped a seminar based on her plan. If you have not begun your food storage, are just beginning, or are feeling stuck in a rut, check out these links.

Here is her plan:

http://everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/book-2.html

And here are the You Tube links to her seminar:

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGaTlwYs-s

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUaFMEyLXOM

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4woLOnURFiw

Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Drrd2wt8k

Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE5WVOqLp2k

Part 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33bovjbt8nk

Part 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vigcycRhWs

Part 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0XWoeWRDdI

Part 9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoYHLW8HR7Y

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

Refusing vaccination labels you a "criminal", so says WHO

2009-08-12T15:08:00.001-07:00

Refusing vaccination labels you a "criminal", so says WHO

The World Health Organization determined in 2005 it has the authority to dissolve sovereign governments and take control should there be a "pandemic". This applies to any country signed onto WHO.which of course we are. The WHO just raised this non-existent pandemic to level 4.

From the WHO 2005 declaration: (excerpted) " Under special pandemic plans enacted around the world including the USA, in 2005, national governments are to be dissolved in the event of a pandemic emergency and replaced by special crisis committees, which take charge of the health and security infrastructure of a country, and which are answerable to the WHO and EU in Europe and to the WHO and UN in North America.

If the Model Emergency Health Powers Act is implemented on the instructions of WHI, it will be a criminal offence for Americans to refuse the vaccine. Police are allowed to use deadly force against "criminal" suspects. Here are ten key points associated with MSEHPA:

Under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, upon the declaration of a "public health emergency," governors and public health officials would be empowered to:

Force individuals suspected of harboring an "infectious disease" to undergo medical examinations.

Track and share an individual's personal health information, including genetic information.

Force persons to be vaccinated, treated, or quarantined for infectious diseases.

Mandate that all health care providers report all cases of persons who harbor any illness or health condition that may be caused by an epidemic or an infectious agent and might pose a "substantial risk" to a "significant number of people or cause a long-term disability." (Note: Neither "substantial risk" nor "significant number" are defined in the draft.)

Force pharmacists to report any unusual or any increased prescription rates that may be caused by epidemic diseases.

Preempt existing state laws, rules and regulations, including those relating to privacy, medical licensure, and this is key property rights.

Control public and private property during a public health emergency, including pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, nursing homes, other health care facilities, and communications devices.

Mobilize all or any part of the "organized militia into service to the state to help enforce the state's orders." Ration firearms, explosives, food, fuel and alcoholic beverages, among other commodities.

Impose fines and penalties to enforce their orders.

So there you have it. You are now officially to be declared a criminal if you refuse the vaccine and deadly force can be used against you if you resist. And to think, not only did our federal government agree to this abomination, it was also successful in getting the same laws passed in most states. I will be revisiting this list of powers in a subsequent article as it relates to the coming "healthcare reform", and other odious pieces of legislation being devised.

This gives me pause to consider this: Could the so-called healthcare reform that the government claims must be done right away, right now, quickly, immediately.no time to waste be tied somehow to this WHO declaration? Hmmmm. I smell a really big rat!

Those pesky FEMA drillspart of a plan?

I am wary of this FEMA drill that is taking place not only for the obvious reasons.but its close proximity to the planned forced vaccinations scheduled to be mandated early this fall. Our own government has expressed its intent to forcibly vaccinate school children as a starter. By all means..target the most vulnerable first. (Take that any way you like.)

On MSM last evening it was reported that young people between the ages of 19 and 24 are for some reason most susceptible to this lab created virus. I find this curious as this segment of the population is generally the healthiest. Since the "swine" flu has been so thoroughly exposed as lab created they are now just simply calling it the N1 whatever flu. Apparently this first test run of what was supposed to be a global pandemic couldn't get off the ground: it didn't spread as was hoped. Of course the same thing happened with SARS and the Bird Flu..Those didn't work so now we get the "Swine Flu", or the N1 Whatever Flu". Strange how all these flu's showed up after they dug up bodies from mass graves to see if they really did die from the flu epidemic in 1918. The new and improved version of this virus is now what we are calling N1 Whatever Flu.

Here's what I believe is about to happen:

A created strain of flu is going to be set loose in selected areas to begin with. As I believe thousands are going to fall ill simultaneously it will be the fear factor needed to bring thousands more in for what they believe is a vaccine that will save them. Those that want to self-quarantine, or who simply refuse the vaccines, will either be incarcerated in FEMA camps or otherwise disposed. The vaccines which have not been tested for safety or effectiveness can and will cause harm to many of those receiving the shots, but will be off limits to lawsuits for harm caused. This will force thousands more in for the vaccinations, out of fear, which are loaded with toxins and pathogens seeking to save themselves from forced incarceration or worse. At some point in this, we will find out that the foreign troops who supposedly only participated in a mock drill, are not only still here on our soil, but their numbers have multiplied.

Martial law will be declared using the unilateral authority granted the president under the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, which allows the president to declare an emergency "even if he is the only person to perceive one". Foreign troops lack the natural inhibition our own military has about firing on US citizensthat's why they are here. I do not believe this is a mock drill. I think it is actually the planned strategic placement of foreign troops within the US for an anticipated and planned event.

The vented three story rail cars which are claimed to be nothing more than haulers for large SUV type vehicles would come in really handy here. Foreign troops and military equipment could be moved further into the country and put in place without anyone ever knowing they were there until they were needed. Besides, I don't know of any car haulers that need that much targeted ventilation: humans on the other just might.

I feel that there will be several catastrophic events from about mid-August to the end of October and maybe into November somewhat. At the end of this period, after the American public has been frightened to death, everything will begin coalescing and will culminate at the end of the year.

In the interim: will we see the deaths of thousands upon thousands of American's and other peoples around the world, if not millions?

I was curious as to why the WHO would move this flu into a pandemic (phase 4) category when there was no evidence that it was pandemic.

(Two weeks ago, WHO advised nations to stop testing for H1N1 and instead to report trends of flu like symptoms.) H1N1 has been very mild, according to the WHO:

"This pandemic has been characterized, to date, by the mildness of symptoms in the overwhelming majority of patients, who usually recover, even without medical treatment, within a week of the onset of symptoms."

Then came the predictions from our government that the "flu" would probably become much worse this fall. This indicates to me that a new and more virulent strain has been developed and is set to be turned loose. I base this on the evidence that the flu was lab created and would not have occurred naturally combining four unrelated dna strainsthe statements by the CDC that they had a vaccine within three weeks of the "outbreak"..knowing that seed stock for vaccines takes at least 12 weeks to develop and several more weeks to mass produceand the orders during the last year of the Bush Crime Administration for Tamiflu which supposedly is the cure or prevention for a flu which didn't exist at the time, at least not publicly.

Whatever has been in the works for several years, if not for decades is about to come to fruition. Grab your butts! This is going to be one bumpy ride!

Officials see rise in militia groups across US

2009-08-11T21:57:00.000-07:00

This article singles out Ed (and Mark) Koernke. Thank you, Java.

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_re_us/us_militia_movement

Here is the SPLC report:
http://www.splcenter.org/images/dynamic/main/The_Second_Wave.pdf

Officials see rise in militia groups across US

By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writer – 42 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.

The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he's seen in more than a decade.

"All it's lacking is a spark," McEntire said in the report.

It's reminiscent of what was seen in the 1990s — right-wing militias, people ideologically against paying taxes and so-called "sovereign citizens" are popping up in large numbers, according to the report to be released Wednesday. The SPLC is a nonprofit civil rights group that, among other activities, investigates hate groups.

Last October, someone from the Ohio Militia posted a recruiting video on YouTube, billed as a "wake-up call" for America. It's been viewed more than 60,000 times.

"Things are bad, things are real bad, and it's going to be a lot worse," said the man on the video, who did not give his name. "Our country is in peril."

The man is holding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, and he encourages viewers to buy one.

While anti-government sentiment has been on the rise over the last two years, there aren't as many threats and violent acts at this point as there were in the 1990s, according to the report. That movement bore the likes of Timothy McVeigh, who in 1995 blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people.

But McEntire fears it's only a matter of time.

These militias are concentrated in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest and the Deep South, according to Mark Potok, an SPLC staff director who co-wrote the report. Recruiting videos and other outreach on the Internet are on the rise, he said, and researchers from his center found at least 50 new groups in the last few months.

The militia movement of the 1990s gained traction with growing concerns about gun control, environmental laws and anything perceived as liberal government meddling.

The spark for that movement came in 1992 with an FBI standoff with white separatist Randall Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Weaver's wife and son were killed by an FBI sniper. And in 1993, a 52-day standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, resulted in nearly 80 deaths. These events rallied more people who became convinced that the government would murder its own citizens to promote its liberal agenda.

Now officials are seeing a new generation of activists, according to the report. The law center spotlights Edward Koernke, a Michigan man who hosts an Internet radio show about militias. His father, Mark, was a major figure in the 1990s militia movement and served six years in prison for charges including assaulting police.

Last year, officials warned about an increase in activity from militias in a five-year threat projection by the Homeland Security Department.

"White supremacists and militias are more violent and thus more likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks on the scale of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing," the threat projection said.

A series of domestic terrorism incidents over the past year have not been directly tied to organized militias, but the rhetoric behind some of the crimes are similar with that of the militia movement. For instance, the man charged with the April killings of three Pittsburgh police officers posted some of his views online. Richard Andrew Poplawski wrote that U.S. troops could be used against American citizens, and he thinks a gun ban could be coming.

The FBI's assistant director for counterterrorism, Michael Heimbach, said that law enforcement officials need to identify people who go beyond hateful rhetoric and decide to commit violent acts and crimes. Heimbach said one of the bigger challenges is identifying the lone-wolf offenders.

One alleged example of a lone-wolf offender is the 88-year-old man charged in the June shooting death of a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

FM 21-76

2009-08-10T21:33:00.001-07:00

In researching (or is it A.D.D. ?), I stumbled on this Army manual. I'm not sure if I have ever seen it before so I thought I would pass it on. Bruce, what do you think of the info starting on page 78?

http://www.ar15.com/content/manuals/FM21-76_SurvivalManual.pdf

Sustainable Home
http://www.wildforager.org
http://www.militiaradio.com

Fw: Military to Deploy on U.S. Soil to "Assist" with Pandemic Outbreak

2009-08-08T15:19:00.001-07:00

Military to Deploy on U.S. Soil to "Assist" with Pandemic Outbreak

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2009, 9:45 AM

NaturalNews. com printable article
Originally published July 30 2009

Military to Deploy on U.S. Soil to "Assist" with Pandemic Outbreak
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Until now, what I'm about to tell you would have been easily dismissed as a conspiracy theory. It's the kind of story that you might expect from some extreme fringe blogger... the kind of story that never appears in the mainstream media. Only today, it did. And it's not a conspiracy theory, either.

CNN is reporting this evening that the U.S. military is gearing up to get involved in the H1N1 swine flu outbreak widely expected to strike the U.S. this fall. As CNN reports, "The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials." (http://edition. cnn.com/2009/ US/07/2.. .)

When it comes to the U.S. military, the word "assist," of course, could mean almost anything. Typically, the U.S. military offers assistance at the end of a rifle. This "assistance" could mean assisting with quarantines, assisting with rounding up infected people or assisting with arresting and imprisoning people who resist vaccine shots.

Just to make it even more interesting, this operation will include "personnel from all branches of the military" and it will involve cooperation with FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA is the group of geniuses who handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They're the ones who confiscated firearms from law-abiding citizens defending their own homes, then thrust people into toxic temporary housing that caused neurological symptoms and breathing problems.

Internationally, FEMA is known as the Federal Emergency Laughing Stock Administration. But now, with H1N1 swine flu, FEMA will be backed by the power of highly-trained, heavily-armed military personnel.

Imagine one possible future in America...
There's a knock on your door. A peek through the window reveals two young soldiers in urban camo fatigues gripping M16 rifles slung across their chests. In front of them, an official-looking doctor person sports an N95 mask and carries a clipboard thick with ruffled papers.

Knock knock. "Is anyone home?"

One of the soldiers catches a glimpse of you peering through a sliver of curtain covering the living room window. "I've got movement." He tightens his grip on his rifle and elbows the soldier next to him. "Someone's home. Knock again."

Knock KNOCK. "We're here from the pandemic response team," insists the doc. "We're here to help. Open up or we'll be forced to come in."

Reluctantly, you inch towards the door and grip the doorknob with damp, sweaty hands. Your pulse pounds hard as you crack open the door.

But the doctor isn't in front of your door anymore. It's one of the soldiers -- the larger one -- and he wedges his foot between your door and its frame, prying it open and forcing his intimidating self into your doorway. "We're with FEMA. Please step away from the door."

"Our records show you haven't received the swine flu vaccine yet," squeaks the doctor from behind the bulk of the domineering soldier now squarely positioned in front of you. "We're here to administer your vaccine."

"I don't want a vaccine," you protest. "They're not safe."

The soldier chuckles, blurts out, "They're as safe as the U.S. government says they are."

The doctor peers out from behind his military companion and makes eye contact. "Sir, as you well know, vaccines have been required for all U.S. residents since President Obama's emergency pandemic declaration last month. Please extend your arm and we'll be on our way."

He produces a syringe and stabs it into a half-filled vaccine cylinder. As he pulls the plunger and liquid races into the syringe, you realize you have mere moments to make a decision. Will you willingly accept the vaccine and avoid being beaten, arrested or shot by the two armed enforcers at your door, or will you resist and pay the consequences?

"Please extend your arm now," the doctor says. The military grunt clenches his jaw, eyeing your hesitation with obvious scorn. He fingers the safety on his rifle and clears his throat...

... what will your choice be?

We're only here to help
That scenario might seem like fiction now, but it could unfold in America in the next few months. What seems outlandish today could become a police state reality before Christmas.

But this is no joke. These people are serious. Even the words tell too much: The order to approve all this is about to be signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and it's called an "execution order."

So what, exactly, would military personnel be doing in your neighborhood in the event of a swine flu outbreak? The CNN story says they could assist with the "...testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients." There's nothing in the story about rounding people up, maintaining quarantine road blocks or cremating the infected bodies of the dead. These realities of a pandemic outbreak are better left unsaid if you're the U.S. military (or the mainstream media).

That's why the full story of what the U.S. military is planning for will never be told to the masses. It's too disturbing. But make no mistake: The military is planning for a worst-case scenario (that's what the military does), and a worst-case pandemic outbreak scenario would involve gunpoint-enforced isolation, military-enforced quarantine zones and most likely the forced vaccination of nearly everyone. Those who resist the vaccinations would be arrested (or detained) and injected at gunpoint, then set free back into the population.

Hollywood has already imagined some of what might happen in such a scenario. Rent the movie The Siege (Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington) to catch an imaginative glimpse of how the U.S. military might handle things in an "emergency situation." It's not a documentary, of course, but much of what it presents seems strangely on track with what's shaping up if a pandemic outbreak occurs.

The very fact that the military is now leaking this story to CNN says something all by itself: The U.S. military is preparing to be stationed on U.S. soil, and whatever freedoms you mistakenly think are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution will be long gone by the time the soldiers arrive at your door.

.

__,_._,___

from WND: National Guard asked to explain 'internment' jobs

2009-08-08T14:59:00.001-07:00

Even WND is picking this up.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106304

National Guard asked to explain 'internment' jobs
Campaign recruiting for workers at 'civilian resettlement facility'

Posted: August 07, 2009
11:45 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

An ad campaign featured on a U.S. Army website seeking those who would be interested in being an "Internment/Resettlement" specialist is raising alarms across the country, generating concerns that there is some truth in those theories about domestic detention camps, a roundup of dissidents and a crackdown on "threatening" conservatives.

The ads, at the GoArmy.com website as well as others including Monster.com, cite the need for:

"Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. I/R Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to U.S. military prisoners within a confinement or correctional facility; conduct inspections; prepare written reports; and coordinate activities of prisoners/internees and staff personnel.

The campaign follows by only weeks a report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warning about "right-wing extremists" who could pose a danger to the country including those who support third-party political candidates, oppose abortion and would prefer to have the U.S. immigration laws already on the books enforced.

The "extremism" report coincided with a report out of California that the Department of Defense was describing protesters as "low-level terrorists."

The new ad says successful candidates will "provide external security to detention/internment facilities" and "provide counseling and guidance to individual prisoners within a rehabilitative program."

Officials at the state and federal National Guard levels told WND they were unaware of the program, although one officer speculated it could be intended for soldiers trained in the U.S. and dispatched overseas to "detention facilities." From the national level, WND was told, officials were unaware of any such "internment facilities" at which there could be jobs to be available.

At a NationalGuard.com website, a front page video describes the position thoroughly.

But one of the critics was a YouTube contributor who identifies himself as jafount and titled his video, "Want a job putting people into camps?"

Alarmed by the ads, he said it, the idea "just absolutely blew my mind."

Citing a promise that successful applicants would be trained in "search and restrain procedures," he said, "That's code for violating the 14th Amendment."

Likewise, he said, "use of firearms" is "code for depriving somebody of their life.'

"This is the real deal, I think," he said, citing, among others, the NationalGuard.com link.

"I saw something that didn't sit right with me. I posted it so other people can investigate," he said.

A commenter on the YouTube site pooh-poohed the whole suggestion.

"You have put out a relatively benign fact, twisted it into something sinister, and then did a tinfoil-hat connection to give a false impression," the forum participant wrote.

The ads list as "advanced responsibilities" issues such as supervision and administration, responsibility for the "prisoner/internee" population, "custody/control for the operation of an Enemy Prisoner of War/Civilian Internee (EPW/CI) camp," and work on "custody/control for the operation of detention facility or the operation of a displaced civilian (CD) resettlement facility."

An editorial at CanadaFreePress.com raised some overall concerns:

Let's look at some of the evidence we have of the U.S. government's intentions to establish the infrastructure that could be used to house large numbers of political dissidents, so-called terrorists and other individuals the U.S. government wants locked up.

HR 645 the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act is a proposed bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would authorize FEMA to build no less than six National Emergency Centers throughout the U.S. on closed or open military facilities. These facilities are to be designed to house large numbers of people. Why would emergency centers need to be built on closed or open military facilities unless there was a need to keep people from coming in and out of them?

KBR was granted a government contract a few years ago to build facilities to house illegal immigrants. Now with illegal immigration becoming less of a problem with the U.S. economy in the toilet, these facilities can now be used for other purposes.

"This is just another step in the U.S. government's long term plan to build the infrastructure that could be used to contain wide spread popular revolt. Combine this with the swine flu fear mongering and the potential for a mass swine flu vaccination operation and it is easy to see what might happen. Refuse to take their poisonous vaccine and you might risk being locked up as being a hazard to public safety. With the economy in the toilet and more and more people not trusting either political party or the corporate media, the 'powers that be' realize that they need to continue building their martial law apparatus. These Army National Guard job listings are just another piece to that puzzle proving what we already know is being built," the editorial claimed.

At the Examiner, a commentator wrote, "Correctional/internment facilities? I have to admit that the U.S. government is good at one thing: creating fluffy names for evil acts. During WW2, of course, the U.S. didn't have concentration camps, we had 'relocation centers' for hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese citizens."

The jobs also were listed at Jobsearch.money.cnn.com, employmentguide.com and freedomsphoenix.com.

WND reported when the DoD eventually withdrew a training manual question that linked protesters across the United States to terrorism.

That followed by only weeks a Department of Homeland Security report that described as "right-wing extremists" those who oppose abortion and support secure national borders.

Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, has told WND that as part of his organization's research for its lawsuit over the DHS "extremism" report, it has discovered additional information that it is withholding now but will include in a pending amended complaint.

Thompson said one of the things that sparked the organization's curiosity was a reference by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano in the original report to not only government resources but also non-governmental resources.

Thompson said the information he has "creates even more concern that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is unconstitutionally targeting Americans merely because of their conservative beliefs."

The earlier DHS report was "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." WND has posted the report online for readers to see.

The report linked returning veterans with the possibility of terrorism, and when it was released it created such a furor for Napolitano she has given several explanations for it, including that she would have reworded the report and that it was issued by a rogue employee.

She later apologized to veterans for having linked them to terror.

But Thompson noted that the report also targeted as "potential terrorists" Americans who:

Oppose abortion
Oppose same-sex marriage
Oppose restrictions on firearms
Oppose lax immigration laws
Oppose the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs
Oppose continuation of free trade agreements
Are suspect of foreign regimes
Fear Communist regimes
Oppose a "one world" government
Bemoan the decline of U.S. stature in the world
Are upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India, and more

Thompson told WND no apology has been offered to the members of any of those classes of citizens.

Thompson said the original "extremism" report was "the tip of the iceberg. Conservative Americans should be very outraged."

The Thomas More Law Center filed its lawsuit against Napolitano and the DHS on behalf of nationally syndicated conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage, Gregg Cunningham of the pro-life organization Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Inc. and Iraqi War Marine veteran Kevin Murray.

It alleges the federal agency violated the First and Fifth Amendment constitutional rights of the three plaintiffs by targeting them for disfavored treatment and chilling their free speech, expressive association, and equal protection rights. The lawsuit further claims that DHS encouraged law enforcement officers throughout the nation to target and report citizens to federal officials as suspicious rightwing extremists and potential terrorists because of their political beliefs.

The Sustainable Home

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Special army unit ready to be deployed on American soil just before Nov. elections

THE HUTAREE MILITIA RAID - By Chuck Baldwin

Mexican Officials Demand U.S. Gun Ban - Auburn Journal

Opposing Views: In Wake of Hutaree Militia Arrests, Illinois Group Calls for Assault Weapons Ban

U.S. shrugs off sighting of Mexican helicopter

U.S. shrugs off sighting of Mexican helicopter

By LYNN BREZOSKY and GARY MARTIN SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

March 12, 2010, 10:45PM

Buttermilk

THE ENEMY BELLIGERENT INTERROGATION, DETENTION, AND PROSECUTION ACT OF 2010

THE ENEMY BELLIGERENT INTERROGATION, DETENTION, AND PROSECUTION ACT OF 2010

Before anyone passes this off as another "Alex Jones" thing, go here to read the actual bill:http://assets.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/politics/ARM10090.pdfAnd John McCain's comments statement when he introduced this on the Senate floor on March 4, 2010:

Dried Beef

Processing Meat in the Home

“I had to shoot people! Do you understand what that means?”

Hot Dog and Hamburger Buns

Residents Fumed Over Weekend Alcohol, Firearm Ban

Residents Fumed Over Weekend Alcohol, Firearm Ban

King State Of Emergency Lifted Monday

USDA Kill Animal ID

MD: Assault Weapons Ban Introduced in the Maryland State Senate

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs

Real Toll House Cookies

Gardisil Bombshell ... "will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates"

Gardasil Researcher Drops A Bombshell

Harper: Controversal Drug Will Do Little To Reduce Cervical Cancer Rates

By Susan Brinkmann, For The Bulletin

Twitter anarchist raided under 'riot' laws

Twitter anarchist raided under 'riot' laws

U.S. quietly begins to study gun safety

U.S. quietly begins to study gun safety

Manna Storehouse Sues Government

CA: Ammunition Bill Signed into Law

IN: Wabash Valley woman didn’t realize second cold medicine purchase violated drug laws

The Sky is Not Falling - Cochrane Collaborator on H1N1 andvaccination

By LYNN BREZOSKY and GARY MARTIN
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Before anyone passes this off as another "Alex Jones" thing, go here to read the actual bill:

http://assets.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/politics/ARM10090.pdf

And John McCain's comments statement when he introduced this on the Senate floor on March 4, 2010: