Did Obama Mouthpiece Threaten to Torture and Murder Bob Woodward’s Family for Exposing BO’s Budget Deal Lies? – by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

http://thehill.com/video/administration/285423-woodward-claims-white-house-threatened-him

President Barack Obama’s attack dog Gene Sperling threatened iconic journalist Bob Woodward, saying that Woodward would “regret” reporting the truth: That slashing would-be life-saving benefits for children, African Americans, and other poor and vulnerable people was President Obama’s idea, although Obama’s lies purport otherwise. Here’s Right-wing Propaganda from ABC, casting doubt on Woodward. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/02/journalist-bob-woodward-clashes-with-white-house-over-sequester-report/

The Media Research Center analyzed some of the Propaganda. http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/nbc-allows-16-seconds-white-house-battle-bob-woodward-avoids-using-word-threat

And listen to this recording of Mark Levin’s analysis of the case. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/02/28/mark_levin_on_wh_threat_to_woodward_obama_is_not_a_nice_guy.html

In other lies, President Obama claims that he is allowed to order Murders if he feels like it, or if Neo-Nazis in the CIA want it: The official Obama line is that the CIA is infallible like the Pope.

President Obama has attacked the press worse than any President since the 1700s. His thugs destroyed the world famous Occupy Wall Street Library. I suspect it was Obama people that burned Africa’s irreplaceable relics at the ancient Timbuktu Library. The Obama Administration gave an award to the world’s most prolific book burners, calling their methods the finest in recycling. http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2011/11/16/bookburning-usa-obamas-traitor-troops-trash-ows-library-as-his-epa-awards-book-burners-for-outstanding-recycling/

Lanny Davis, formerly with the Clinton White House, also said the the Obama White House threatened him and his paper, the Washington Times, over his reporting. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/28/white-house-denies-staffer-threatened-watergate-journalist-woodward/

A New York Times reporter revealed that President Obama and Mitt Romney (Obama’s 2012 Presidential Election Fraud co-conspirator) shook them down, and demanded and received Bribes from the Times, the Washington Post, and Bloomberg News. The Bribe is that the Times, the Post, Bloomberg, and many other media outlets Bribe Obama (and his partner Romney) by letting them censor news stories. It seems that Woodward (legendary for bringing down Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal) (played by Robert Redford) violated the Bribery agreement his paper had with President Obama by not giving the President final say over what the newspaper publishes about him. http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2012/07/21/ny-times-bribes-obama-and-romney-after-campaigns-demand-it/

When you violate an agreement with the world’s most prolific, remorseless, and bloodthirsty Mass Murdering hitman, you’re treading on thin ice. Obama claims “We don’t Torture,” but he belies that by refusing to investigate or prosecute Torture. President Obama and his Murderous henchman John Brennan have Murdered lots of defenseless children with Coward Drones already this year. It was brave what you did. Our prayers are with you, Bob.

Emancipation — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

(This is written by Western Massachusetts activist Terry Franklin.)

Prohibition is ending. One can feel it in the air. The elections in Colorado and Washington show that “the cork is starting to move.” In the metaphor from the ending of our earlier Prohibition of alcohol, the champagne bottle’s cork is slowly but steadily getting ready to pop. Soon we will be looking back at our current policies with the same level of disbelief, as we do with the witch hunts of the Middle Ages.

This breath of fresh air, so long in coming, gives hope that our society can rise above the desire for scapegoats, the need for politicians who pander to our most hateful instincts, and our urge to use force and violence against those we disagree with — for that is what we authorize when we make something a matter of criminal law. Richard Nixon’s “War on Drugs,” which began as a thinly-veiled assault on political adversaries, has now resulted in over 30,000,000 arrests for marijuana, over 40,000,000 arrests if you include all “controlled substances.” At any given time, as many black men are — largely for marijuana — under the control of the Criminal Justice Industry — prison, parole, and probation — as were slaves at the time of the Civil War.

Our federal government is in the same position vis-a-vis the states as it was with the Fugitive Slave Act. Colorado, Washington, and the 18 medical marijuana states are in direct confrontation with the Feds over fundamental principles of Liberty.

How repressive will the Feds be in this? What is Mr. Obama planning to do? His record last year was terrible, an acquiescence in policies designed to create enormous human misery. But he is faced with a unique opportunity to change his ways. It’s a new day, and the leadership role on this issue is sitting there, open for his use.

The most hopeful thing he could do, would be to expend some political capital, and work with Congress to bring a complete end to Prohibition. Short of that however, there is one thing he can do today with a stroke of his pen. Mr. Obama can issue pardons to those in federal prison, and to those previously convicted whose lives have been so negatively impacted by their criminal record.

It is true that his clemency powers cover only the federal system, while many of this War’s victims suffer at the state level. Here too though, his leadership can be effective, setting an example for governors, encouraging them to follow the right path. On January 1st, 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. January 1st, this year, marked the sesquicentennial. What finer tribute, and show of decency could there be, than to act now?

Free the drug prisoners, Mr. President.

Child Murderer-in-Chief Announces Hateful Cuts, Issues Veiled Warning Threat to First Graders — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

Today it’s not just me: Glenn Greenwald and George Monbiot both called President Obama a Child Murderer. Obama has killed 9 times as many children with Drones as the Sandy Hook shooter did, and has shown NO remorse. In fact, he laughs and jokes about killing children with Coward Drones.

With his ha-ha funny Coward Drones, President Obama has Murdered at least 178 children. We must as a country find some way to turn him over the the International Criminal Court in the Hague for prosecution. If we don’t, we are helping him Murder more children.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/19/newtown-drones-children-deaths

Today President Obama announced Hateful slashes to benefits slated for the very poorest and most vulnerable people in our country: This is so that the richer half of the country won’t have to pay the automatic tax increase that he himself signed into law, but now calls “The Fiscal Cliff.” Make no mistake about it: These cuts do constitute a monumental Hate Crime, and they are sure to kill lots of children. President Obama seems to be letting his apparent Hatred of children get in the way of his governing.  http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2012/12/14/obamas-forces-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-killing-baby-with-poison-gas-the-presidents-hateful-policies-against-children/

In Hateful anti-child Propaganda [reminiscent of 1984's newspeak], President Obama calls the richer half of the country “the Middle Class.” He calls the emergency life support system that’s keeping poor children alive “entitlements,” with its negative connotation, calculated to make the listener feel that those lazy poor kids are not entitled to anything. Let ‘em wither!

When people are in such dire straits that they need Government assistance just to stay alive, those who are turning off the feeding tubes know they’re killing some of their victims. President Obama knows that further squeezing the poorest of the poor at this critical juncture will kill children. So, I guess he’ll get another big laugh.

If he has studied history and economics, he knows that cutting aid to the very poor is likely to cripple our faltering economy, and to ramp up our current Recession into a devastating decades-long Depression.

Let me mention the obvious: Money and influence from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other corporate interests control our politicians to a large extent. I think of it as Bribery.

Obama had his spokesperson Jake “the Snake” Carney say that the President supports Oil billionaire Dianne Feinstein’s fake Assault Weapons ban, with 900 exceptions in it. Of course, if Obama and Feinstein were actually serious about limiting gun violence, they would be trying to prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder for supplying weapons to Drug Cartels in Mexico that were then used to Murder cops in this country. Instead they’re Covering Up Operation Fast and Furious.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Holder#Operation_Fast_and_Furious

And in a most troubling development, the President (and other politicians hoping to sweep this shooting under the rug) are pointing at mental health and autism, as if to say: “We don’t have insufficient Gun Control laws in this country, we have insufficient Autism Control laws!” This veiled threat means that he won’t speak out forcefully for banning handguns and Assault Weapons.

It means that school children in this country may soon be as traumatized as President Obama’s victims in Pakistan and Yemen and Somalia, wondering if they’ll be next, if their classroom will win this month’s “Lottery.” I say Obama should not let Congress break for holidays until our children are safe and Assault Weapons and handguns are banned.

Watch this whole fascinating report. Jake the Snake delivers Obama’s veiled threat beginning at about the 6-minute mark of the video.  http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2012/12/2012121972717242949.html

Handguns and Assault Weapons are made for Murdering people. They have no legitimate purpose. It is possible that a person buying a gun will use it to protect himself, but it is 100 times more likely that he will Murder with it. The gun seller knows that, and he knows that the buyer is 300 times more likely to kill himself with the gun than to protect himself with it, no matter what he says is the purpose of his purchase.

So, the Obama Administration is not trying to limit gun violence against children. Here’s how you can tell. Australia had a school massacre problem. They ended it by confiscating the offending guns. That’s all it took. Immediately the massacres stopped completely. There hasn’t been another one since then; and that’s 16 years. Australia had lots of gun nuts too, just like we do. But they handled it. With a little less Hatred of children, we could get this done right away.  http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/18/new_town_to_newtown_how_96

Obama’s Forces Launch Chemical Weapon Attack Killing Baby with Poison Gas: The President’s Hateful Policies Against Children — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

President Obama and others keep telling us that there’s an emergency in Syria because the Dictator might have or might get a Chemical Weapon – Poison Gas. But President Obama is already using that Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) against helpless unarmed children in Bahrain.

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton sent Bahrain’s bloody Fascist Khalifa regime yet more Poisonous Gas after this child was killed, lots more, apparently approving of what you just saw. The Gas killings continue in Bahrain. They’re killing Slaves and they’re killing Shi’a with Poison Gas; and they’re killing Slave children and Shi’a children too. Why does Obama support the Khalifas’ Genocidal behavior in Bahrain? Because he parks the US 5th Fleet in Bahrain’s harbor.  http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/syria-bahrain-a-tale-of-two-uprisings-one-fabricated-the-other-forgotten/

The US Navy’s 5th Fleet, docked in Bahrain, is famed the world over for its cowardice. In the first place, they work for Obama, and a bully is always a coward. For eleven years, they’ve been carrying out the most cowardly operation in history: The United States, the world’s strongest and most Militarily advanced country, has waged more than a decade of War against Afghanistan, the weakest and most backward country on Earth. Still, Afghanistan kicked the shit out of us, and we will leave there in shame.

And the men and women of the US 5th Fleet are in Bahrain, apparently trembling in their boots, while mass Atrocities go on a few feet away: Gassings; Torture; Doctors, Nurses, Professors, and Journalists rounded up and disappeared; Genocides against multiple ethnic groups. And the US cowards just sit there, instead of helping out the defenseless.

Mass Murders in US schools, beginning with Columbine, take place only when our nation is at War. Twenty-seven days before Columbine, President Clinton began his merciless bombing of Yugoslavia. Propaganda told us that we must wage War there, or else War would start without us, or something like that: They told us we needed War. I bought it, didn’t you? We fell for it.

All the kids heard that. All the kids then knew that the President of the United States, the father figure of our nation, supported killing people indiscriminately, to make his point. The President is our top role model, so kids started taking up guns and acting it out. They will obviously continue to do so with increasing frequency and intensity until one of three things happens: Either until some other role model does something different, or until we stop Warring, or until we stop supplying killers with assault weapons. Obama has made it abundantly clear many times that he wants to make sure that the violently insane still can get machine guns. And it looks like he doesn’t want to stop having War either.

And President Obama has taken this madness far to the Right of any Democrat or Republican in modern history. Certainly no world leader since Hitler has acted as Hatefully toward children as Obama has.

Indeed, no world leader including Hitler has so publicly claimed that he is allowed to Murder children, and that he is allowed to then pardon himself for their Murders. (Self-pardoning is illegitimate in every case everywhere in the world.) (Even if a lying politician says it isn’t.) Here are some of the babies that Obama’s cowardly forces in Bahrain have Murdered using Poison Gas:  http://www.crookedbough.com/?p=14659 and http://bahraincoordinatingcommittee.org/tag/infant-deaths-from-tear-gas/ and http://bonjourplanetearth.blogspot.com/2012/03/another-bahraini-infant-killed-by-tear.html

Let’s look at some of the recent Psychological Warfare that our Government has run against its own people:

(1) There was the Gulf War under Bush 1 back in 1991, when the US refused to negotiate; (2) the Yugoslavia War; (3) then it got noticeably worse with Bush 2, 9/11, and the Iraq War, “If you’re not with us you’re with the Terrorists,” “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and that old standard stand-by “Weapons of Mass Destruction;” then Obama claimed that he was going to prevent Genocide in Libya – it was a lie – he instead hired Al Qaeda Mercenaries who Murdered the President of the country then carried out Genocide against the Black Africans of Libya and against the Sufis of Libya, then the Al Qaeda group he brought in killed our Ambassador; then Obama said Iran has Weapons of Mass Destruction; now he says Syria has them. (The Obama-Al Qaeda Genocides against Blacks and Sufis in Libya killed some children, and left others without parents.)   http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2012/07/08/us-backed-al-qaida-manned-oil-dictatorship-genociding-torturing-black-libyans-obama-ny-times-say-rigged-election-was-cool/ and   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19380083

But the worst Psychological Warfare ever deployed against the people of this country was when Barack Obama claimed that he is allowed to order Murders and that’s Legal and OK. That move spread violent insanity throughout the country. It is the President’s responsibility to act like a sane adult. Instead, after our Ambassador was killed in Libya, Obama spewed his deadly Propaganda on the Daily Show – and this may have influenced yesterday’s shootings – saying “I wasn’t confused about the fact that we’re gonna hunt down whoever did it and bring him to justice.” Even Bloomberg’s Mark Miller said that Obama sending Drones back in to Libya in reaction to the Ambassador’s Assassination would be cruel and crazy. Still, Obama did it.

That’s how violently insane and irresponsible our President is: With people like yesterday’s shooter Adam Lanza listening, Obama insisted that, instead of doing something sane, he, our country’s top father figure and main role model, thought hunting down humans was the example he wanted to give people the world over. He, Obama, the man who is allowed to commit Murder any time he wants to, against anybody, anywhere in the world – that he, our President, wants to hunt somebody down, and wants to teach our citizens that hunting people down and killing people is OK, and that it is acceptable behavior.

Adam Lanza killed a lot of kids yesterday, but not nearly as many as Barack Obama did. Now let’s look at some of Obama’s Hateful policies against children.

Late in 2009, Obama’s first year in office, he claimed that he was allowed to order Assassinations, and ordered one against a Somali who had allegedly been involved with an Embassy bombing more than a decade earlier, when he was a child. Obama ordered an Assassination team to Murder him and they did. Since then, they have killed several other Somalis accused of the exact same crime. A few months later, Somali children were trying to stop foreign occupying powers from looting their continent’s mineral wealth. These children were doing what was right for their people, but our Propaganda called them “Pirates.”

Then President Obama started calling them “Pirates.” The shipping companies didn’t know what to do. Obama ordered the children shot dead. The Propaganda called them “Pirates,” the President called them “Pirates,” and if they’re Pirates, it’s OK to Murder them, right? Then came the starvation times: Muslim occupiers were in Somalia’s capital. The US wouldn’t allow food into Mogadishu until the Muslim army left, so thousands of children starved to death. And of course, of all countries in the world, only Obama’s United States and his puppet Somalia agree that it is alright to treat children like that.  http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/children-s-rights/convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child

Haiti got hit by an earthquake, and only Cuba came to help, then Obama rushed in an occupation force. He promised a billion dollars. (He was lying: The US actually sent no money: Zero!) Our Military blocked Cuba from helping. People had to wait weeks for relief. Obama brought in Nepalese soldiers from the Indus valley, where Cholera has been prevalent since ancient times.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20024400

Cholera had never been in Haiti before, but now, thanks to Obama, it has killed thousands in Haiti, including lots of kids. Obama (and the Clintons) may someday be charged with Genocide for their actions and inactions in Somalia, Haiti, and Bahrain. They, like Bush and Cheney, may someday be wary of traveling to certain countries or certain states, for fear of arrest.

Obama claims that he is allowed to order Assassinations, and that he is allowed to kill people with Coward Drones, operated by disgraceful cowardly Murderers in the United States, who pose a grave risk to our National Security by their very presence. After killing a Journalist with a Coward Drone in Yemen, the next week, Obama sent another Coward Drone to Murder the man’s 16-year-old son. Guantánamo held too many children, and all of them there were Tortured. Obama said he would close it, but he was lying.  http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/25/world/asia/pakistan-us-drone-strikes/index.html

Obama’s sanctions on Iran and Syria are almost surely killing children now, and his War is killing lots of children in Syria, and the one in Iran will too, if he gets away with it. More than two million children throughout the Middle East are now refugees who are fleeing Obama’s wanton destruction, his Wars of choice. In Syria, Obama’s Al Qaeda Mercenaries are carrying out Genocides against the world’s oldest Christian community, and against Shiites, especially Alawites.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20691206 and http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Dec-11/198100-bombings-in-syria-alawite-village-leave-125-victims-ngo.ashx#axzz2F5xoTmkX and http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2012/08/19/obamas-al-qaeda-lite-mercenary-terrorists-conducting-genocide-against-worlds-oldest-christian-community/

Obama started Civil Wars in both Mexico and Pakistan, those Wars kill children, parents, and others. Here’s a story of a child suffering from Obama’s Drug War in Mexico.  http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/11/28/mexican_cartels_violently_beat_and_kill_female_mayor  According to Medea Benjamin, when Obama Murders with Coward Drones in Pakistan, if his victim has the first growth of hair on his young face, then Obama officially considers him a Terrorist. (Before Obama’s time, the US considered people innocent until proven guilty.)   http://www.linktv.org/programs/medea-benjamin-drone-warfare

And the President had his own Trayvon Martin at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte this year: Police chased a youth then shot him dead there the night before it started. Obama didn’t speak up, and of course the cop got away with it.  http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2012/09/04/survivors-of-south-africas-34-slave-massacre-leaving-jail-ordered-back-to-work-by-their-owner-more-slaves-shot-democrats-party-on/

But President Obama’s work that kills the most children is his blocking of progress in climate negotiations, which he did again at this year’s climate conference that just ended in Qatar, near Bahrain. Oil, Fracking, Coal, Natural Gas, they’re all causing massive Global Warming, which will kill lots of kids. But it could be stopped right away, by growing Hemp which has the highest biomass of any plant, and is the world’s richest source of Ethanol and Biodiesel: Both clean fuels that cause no Global Warming. President Obama today indicated that he may not continue to arrest users where Marijuana is Legal, but he has said similar things before, which all turned out to be lies. If we started growing Hemp on a massive scale today, within a few months our country would be energy independent, and emitting no net Greenhouse Gases.   http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2010/11/11/breakthrough-swedish-hemp-energy-study-corroborates-hemp-emperor-herer/

So, the Fossil Fuels (Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas) compete with Marijuana. They add billions of tons of CO2 to the air, but Marijuana-based fuels can’t add any, because they hold no fossilized Carbon, only that which the living plant recently absorbed from the atmosphere. And it wouldn’t even take changing a law to get Medical Marijuana Legal: President Obama can do it with the stroke of his pen, an Executive Order. If President Obama doesn’t immediately order Medical Marijuana Legal, lots of people will lose the ability to walk because of Multiple Sclerosis, and some will die from it this year, just like last year and the year before.

And what do you tell your child who lies dying in the hospital from Skin Cancer, because s/he can’t get Rick Simpson Oil (RSO)? (Videos show that RSO destroys Skin Cancer cells and heals the skin, but President Obama is blocking it from even being tested in the United States, because it is made from Marijuana.) Well, here’s what you tell your kid then: “Our President won’t let you have the medicine you need to live: We don’t know if it’s because he’s superstitious about a plant, or if it’s because somebody gave him a lot of money to keep it away from you, or if he just Hates kids.”  http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-shooting-response-2012-12

NORAD Ignorant of High-Speed Drones in Denver/New Obama Policy: Killing Marijuana Possession Suspects from the Air – by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

~
http://youtu.be/1AEQgEFqE40

A Very Disappointing “Peace” & “Justice” “Coalition” “Attempt” — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

I just came from a meeting. At the Friends Meeting House. A political meeting. Of radicals, so to speak. The local Left, showing up in Northampton, Mass. Peace and justice issues. Thirty-five or so activists. Real dedicated people.

You know, it’s impressive and inspiring to see and hear dedicated activists who’ve worked hard through many decades, and even through the Obama years, unflinching. (Let’s see, just a minute, let me do the math…) Okay: I’m 57; and I was one of the youngest people in the room. Someone quoted the completely non-commercial songwriter Charlie King (who wrote the legendary Vaguely Reminiscent of the Sixties), and nobody even asked “Charlie who?” But, something was missing. Why were so few young people there?

There was an Election Tuesday. President Obama was reelected. Here in Massachusetts, voters replaced pliable incumbent Republican Scott Brown with hawkish Democrat Elizabeth Warren. Massachusetts also saw one of the nation’s biggest landslides Tuesday:

In a binding Referendum, Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly Legalized Medical Marijuana, voting 63%-37% in favor of the new law, which takes effect in early 2013. In a previous Election, the state voted by a similar margin to instruct all of its elected representatives to work to Legalize Marijuana. Massachusetts US Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren said (in her Debate against Brown) that on this issue she will defy the will of the people who elected her, and will refuse to strive for Marijuana Legalization.

Because of that, I couldn’t vote for her, I mean, if she’s going to snub our democratic process and not protect our Rights, well, as George Wither wrote 400 years ago in Shall I Wasting in Despair, “…But if she be not so for me, What care I how fair she be?”

Back to the meeting: There were several cool people there, and some important Progressive organizations were represented. Jill Stein’s 2010 Gubernatorial running mate Rick Purcell was one of the speakers. Former Political Prisoner Paki Wieland was there, fresh from her courageous trip to Pakistan to witness Obama’s Coward Drone Murder regime for herself. (At least it wasn’t like in Bahrain, where Obama’s thugs detained her immediately before one of Bahrain’s infamous ‘Torture-the-protesters’ crackdowns in March.)

The Murderous Obama-backed Fascist Khalifa regime was then running, and now continues to run Genocide programs (Pogroms) against Bahrain’s Shi’a Muslim majority, and against its South Asian Slaves (which far outnumber the citizens). The Obama Government’s Genocidal Murders in Bahrain are often carried out with Poison Gas paid for by US taxpayers. Hurry, hurry, don’t look, walk fast, nothing to see here.

It’s the deplorable, anti-Semitic Genocide in Bahrain that gets more noticed in the limited news coverage; but most reporters don’t use the words Genocide or Pogrom – though the more honest ones do. (Google it if you care to.) Yes, it’s the horrific anti-Semitic Genocide that gets the more notice, because the Semitic Arabs are citizens and they’re protesting; however, I think the anti-Slave Genocide is just as bad. But, maybe that’s just me.

In fact, I don’t even think they should have Slaves. I think it was Archie Bunker who said of Slavery “I was never for that!” Me too neither, but you know, I’d like to take it a step further even than Archie was willing to go: I just don’t think that the US should arm Genocidal Slave states at all. Maybe that’s just me. And that’s even if they give the President lots of money, I still say No Pogroms. No Poison Gas to killers. Just Say No!

So, back to the meeting. We were all pretty happy about the ‘Budget-For-All’ non-binding Referendum that passed overwhelmingly – 87% in Northampton, and 86% in neighboring Amherst. Such bills passed in many towns in Western Mass, and in Vermont. It’s basically Green Presidential candidate Jill Stein’s Green New Deal (but without Dr. Stein’s understanding of Hemp’s place in our economy and environment): The Referendum advises that money now going to the Military and giant capitalists should instead be spent locally, hiring the jobless, manufacturing the things we need, addressing the environment; and, taking the money out of politics – thus getting rid of Citizens United.

We’re against Nuclear weapons, against war in Iran and Afghanistan. Hopefully against the war in Syria, too, but no one said that. (I hope that people aren’t now considering Syria ‘the good war,’ like Afghanistan before it.)

We’re against Drones, very much. We’re seeing that Obama is already putting Medicare and Social Security on the Fiscal Cliff for his Grand Bargain with his Republican cronies (even though, in the Vice Presidential Debate, Joe Biden revealed that Obama is lying about one reported part of that Grand Bargain, and that Military cuts are not really on the table as Obama has repeatedly claimed): In the Debate, Paul Ryan challenged Biden on the issue, asserting that cutting the Military arbitrarily is completely irresponsible. Biden hushed him up immediately saying “We’re not gonna do that” [cut Military spending].

A speaker at our meeting pointed out that Obama has already offered to cut twice as much from the social safety net as is cut from the Military. On how we might attain Jill Stein’s goal of Medicare For All, and the Budget-For-All, Richard Purcell quoted Jill Stein: “It doesn’t take an army [to organize for political change], if you start a street at a time.”

Many people at the meeting said that they wanted to form a broader coalition. Amid all the praise for the success on non-binding Referendums, there were calls of “Let’s do some binding Referendums!” (Or is it Referenda?)

The highlight of the event, as far as I’m concerned, was when 93-year-old peace and anti-Nuclear activist Frances Crowe called for a national General Strike. Nobody said nothin’! So she explained a scenario wherein lots people would simultaneously not work or drive on a Sunday afternoon. The audience looked very confused. Then she came to her point. She lamented that in Italy people just stayed out on strike nationwide for five raging days, but here, we couldn’t even get a few people to strike for just part of a Sunday afternoon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Crowe

Frances, and several others there, noted that Obama had quoted Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words on getting Progressive change accomplished: “‘Now, make me do it.’” We intend to make him. Please help.

Frances, Paki, and Rick were brilliant, and the other speakers were good too. Even the guy from Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). He said that social issues showed a Progressive victory in this Election. He mentioned Gay Rights. He did not mention Marijuana. He bragged that his organization had not endorsed Obama in 2008 or in 2012. He glowed over the electoral victories Tammy Baldwin and Elizabeth Warren, and the ever-popular Alan Grayson. He said he did not like Warren’s pin-headed jingoistic Militarism, but that they had worked something out. Then he went on to name some prominent members of Congress’s Progressive Caucus.

(Elizabeth Warren is a rabid war monger on Iran, inferring [when she endorsed throwing "all Military options" on the table] that the United States should consider such a Genocidal move as Nuclear Bombing Iran’s Nuclear facilities, even though that would set much of the country on fire, and would kill many US servicemen in Bahrain and Afghanistan – the latter because it is downwind from Iran, via the jet stream upper air current. I hope that Warren and Obama don’t Dirty-Bomb our own troops. Jet stream phenomena, by the way, also show that Warren and Obama are lying in their claim that Iran would shoot Nukes at Israel if it ever had them: Iran is downwind from Israel: They’d be Dirty-Bombing themselves!)

And there were other names dropped at the meeting too. I had to take exception eventually, when I finally got my chance to say a few words. Someone mentioned our state’s senior Senator John Kerry, who was directly involved in the most viewed public Torture video in history [up to that time]. Yes, John “Taser Torture” Kerry is our US Senator, as disturbing as that is. I was once Tortured until my back was broken. I don’t like Torturers. If you don’t remember the incident, let me refresh your memory:

John “T.T.” Kerry was speaking at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He was taking questions. A student asked Kerry embarrassing questions, including one about his lodge-brotherhood with his Presidential Election opponent George W. Bush: Kerry and the Bushes belong to Yale University’s ghoulish homoerotic Skull & Bones secret society (believed by many people in Florida to be a devil-worshipping cult). Apparent Democratic Party shills started to shout the young man down. Cops started brutalizing him and arresting him. A cowardly policeman stepped forward and aimed a Torture device at the student.

“Don’t Tase me, bro!” the Torture victim pleaded. Incredibly, even though the incident was before large group of witnesses, and on widely circulated video, the Torturer was not arrested. Incredibly, though he was once said to have courage, Senator Kerry did not speak up for the Torture victim. Incredibly, the University blackmailed the student, threatening him with the loss of his college education – everything but the loans – the University in violation the law forced the Torture victim to apologize to his Torturer, and to the cowardly crooked politician too. UF has done a lot of good in history, but it should lose its certification over its criminal Conspiratorial participation in Torture. University officials should be turned over to the Hague in Holland, for War Crimes prosecution. (But I didn’t tell the Quakers all that.)

None of those Torturers has been arrested. So much for Bushbama’s lie “We don’t Torture.” Incredibly, the cowardly Senator Kerry has not yet apologized for his role in the Torture of Andrew Meyer, and for Meyer’s ordeal as a Political Prisoner. What an incredible disgrace to our Commonwealth and country, what a disgrace to the human race is John Taser Torture Kerry! Why are there not loud protests everywhere he goes?!

Yeah, so I mentioned Kerry’s part in the Torture at the meeting, to dead silence. The PDA guy had already mentioned Kerry voting for war twice. Said that they had found some common ground, though. And don’t get me started on Kerry’s fake climate protection bill. http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2010/05/14/massachusetts-is-embarrassed-humiliated-by-senator-kerrys-disgraceful-climate-fraud-bill/

And I pointed out that most of those “Progressive” Democrats now in the Caucus in Congress that he’d just named had recently Covered Up for our criminal Attorney General Eric Holder’s Operation Fast and Furious, which smuggled assault weapons to the notorious Zetas Cartel in Mexico. Some of the assault weapons Holder’s F&F smuggled to Mexico got smuggled back to the US, and used to Murder Law Enforcement.

And Holder and Obama have Conspired in Hate Crimes against Skin Cancer patients, thousands of whom will die this year. But active ingredients in Marijuana kill Cancer cells, and with a stroke of his pen, Obama could give Skin Cancer patients access to Rick Simpson Oil, simply by removing MJ from Schedule 1, which he can do at any time as an Executive Order. If you’ve never seen the photographic evidence that it works, I recommend seeing it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBSc6TOb-Y and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy66MUZP538&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnFJYxCx7zk&feature=related

So there was no reaction to Frances Crowe’s call for a General Strike, no reaction to Kerry Torture, no reaction to so-called “Progressive” Democrats sold us out on Eric Holder, lying that the Congressional investigation was a “Witch Hunt.” A Congressional Committee subpoenaed Holder but he [and Obama] refused to honor the subpoena, just like the Bush Administration. That’s crooked, and it’s Fascism. In the last couple of months, Ron Paul, Rocky Anderson, and Cornel West have all publicly called President Barack Obama “Fascist.”

And there was no reaction to the information about our President and Attorney General – the nation’s two highest ranking Law Enforcement officials – and their Fascist refusal to answer a subpoena, and their Hate Crimes against medical patients. Hate Crime against Skin Cancer patients. That seems pretty bad to me. (One would think that someone would rationalize some conscience-easing by saying ‘Hey, that’s not Hate Crime,’ or something.)(I’d like to see Human Rights extended even to the people who will die if they don’t get Rick Simpson Oil for their Skin Cancer, even though they’d technically be using a Marijuana product – albeit one that doesn’t get people high.) Seems pretty bad to me, but maybe that’s just me: Obama-Holder Hate Crimes against Skin Cancer patients.

Still no reaction. But my main message was about the landslide. These people and groups at the meeting were (I thought) trying to build a broader coalition. Some had suggested that they go for binding Referendums in the future. (Or is it Referenda?) So, here, in the Marijuana movement, we just put together a coalition that includes 63% of the voters in the state. We are less than a dozen small-s socialists and Rainbow hippies who did the leg work for years, proving with hundreds of Public Policy Questions put before Massachusetts voters town-by-town that we could carry just about exactly 63% of the vote.

Looking for a broader coalition? Broader than 63% may not be possible anywhere. We carried every ethnic group by a landslide. We carried Gays and Straits. We carried Freaks and Straits. We carried Democrats and Republicans and Independents and Blacks and Whites and Hispanics and college students, lots of college students. Our percentage was even higher among young voters. Looking for an economically revolutionary binding Resolution? We just passed one by a Super Majority. The group took no interest.

Man, was that frustrating! One person came up to me afterward and noted that my sound advice on coalition building unfortunately fell on deaf ears. Frances Crowe may have been the only person there who actually had deaf ears, but the others were faking it pretty good.

It is unfortunate: The Republicans are going after the Marijuana demographic, and they might get it. Republicans have now taken over what much of what the the public perceives and the pro-Marijuana Party, the Libertarians, it seems: In 2008, Right-wing Republican Bob Barr supposedly turned over a new leaf and campaigned for the Libertarian nomination. He got it, but here in Massachusetts, the state Libertarian Party refused to recognize Republican Barr. The Mass Lib Party ran George Phillies instead.

But this year, Gary Johnson, the former Republican Governor of New Mexico, got the full Libertarian Presidential nomination, even here. The Republicans have taken over the Libertarian Party, and Libertarian nominee Johnson got three times as many votes as Green Party candidate Jill Stein. So, lots of Marijuana smokers don’t vote, perceiving that the Democrats and the Republicans are all against their Civil Rights, and that Progressive organizations are indifferent to our Rights. And caring about Rights but not our Rights makes the organizations seem much less sincere, and even a little hypocritical.

To counter that argument, one of the speakers said to me privately that probably everyone in the room had voted for the bill. But that’s not the same thing as working for it. That’s not the same as joining the coalition. Not quite the same as really caring fully. Someone there mentioned the Occupy movement, which of course had some old people, but mainly young. And we here in the room were mainly old. And Marijuana voters are mainly young. In Massachusetts, without Marijuana voters, what can this movement’s chant be? I’ve got one: “We Are The Thirty-Seven Per Cent!”

And as if that weren’t frustrating enough, as I walked away from the Friends Meeting House on this warm and sunny, touristy afternoon in downtown Northampton, I ran into a friend, an award-winning investigative documentary filmmaker. Everybody here at FireDogLake.com is familiar with dirt on Bush that this man has uncovered, and the memes he generated therefrom. A brilliant writer. Tremendous activist. I told him about my frustration, trying to Left-orient people who’d thought they were already Left enough, but (to my mind) may have overlooked some important facts.

I told him my disdain for Obama ordering Murders and then pardoning himself for it, noting that self-pardons are illegitimate everywhere. He said that people take it too easy on Obama, and that he is one of them. He even used the term Liberal, referring to the President. I had to correct him. He feebly tried to argue back, but facts are facts. If the President or the King or the Dictator orders someone killed, then, by definition we’re living in a Fascist country.

And the President ordering Murders and then self-pardoning is not Liberal. And I had to correct him again. No Liberals condone Presidents ordering Murder. Fascism is not Liberalism.

That exchange was troubling, too. Even a little stressful. We smiled and cordially parted company. Luckily, 4:20 pm was approaching, time for meds. I ducked away to an undisclosed location and began to toke up. Right away something happened to restore my faith in humanity. A couple of young voters came walking along with a guitar. When they saw me, one of them said “We won!” I didn’t know if they smelled the pot, or recognized my face, or what. As they walked up to me, one of them asked “Aren’t you Norm?” (It’s a small town.)

We introduced ourselves and toked up together and talked about the Election. “There’s gonna be 35 Dispensaries.” “At least 14, one in each county” I told them, having read the text of the new law. As we walked away from the scene of the crime, we continued to discuss the election. “Can’t wait till March!” “Obama sucks, though.” “Yeah, Obama sucks.”

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

You see, the point is: We’ve already got 63% of the voters on our side: That means, in two years, if we hang together and put up a Full Legalization binding Referendum, then in 2014 we Marijuana voters can pick both our new Governor, and a new US Senator to replace our current Taser Torture Senator.

Welcome to Jill Stein’s Victory Party — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

Thank you, and Congratulations to Jill Stein! She ran a brilliant campaign, brought hope to hundreds of thousands of people, and lit a lamp, a direction for the future. Come to the Jill Stein Victory Party. We haven’t won yet, but we in the Stein campaign have the comfort of knowing we’re doing the right thing.

She got nearly 400,000 votes, raised and spent about $350,000: Just under a dollar a vote. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson spent about a million dollars, and got just over a million votes. They were fourth and third, respectively, in the Presidential popular vote Tuesday.

So, our work is cut out for us. There is just one Left Party in the US noticeable to the bigger Parties. The Green Revolution is needed. The Green Revolution is happening. We must not relent. If each of us who voted for Jill Stein brings in just fifteen more people, and then does that ten more times…

We don’t have time to celebrate. We have an awesome and somber task. The house is on fire, but the kids are playing Monopoly. We’ve asked Obama, the bully of the block, to put out the fire. He won’t do it because he’s playing the game.

When the President does something unjust, every time he does it, we’ve got to call him on it. Yell and point. Call a War Crime a War Crime. Atrocity is Atrocity. Murder is Murder. Self-pardoning for Murder is preposterous, and illegitimate in every case.

Every time there’s an unsolved killing, we must point out the obvious suspect: President Obama. Every time he commits a crime, we must call for prosecution. Call for a Special Prosecutor every day that there’s a reason to do so.

Maybe Obama’s going to turn honest and good this term. If so, he still needs to be prosecuted for the War Crimes and Cover-Ups. But just in case he doesn’t turn honest and good, make up your lists to distribute around the internet:

Obama’s hateful policies against Children, Women, Gays, African-Americans, Africans, Sikhs, Muslims, Minority Religions in general, Workers, Students, African Slaves, Bahraini Slaves, Home Owners, Consumers, Breathers of Air, Drinkers of Water, Eaters of Food, and his hateful policies against Mother Earth. Circulate petitions demanding that he immediately halt the Pogroms in Bahrain and the West Bank.

Every time he does something detrimental to children, point out his hateful policies against children. If he hurts or kills another child, point out other children that he has hurt and killed. Post the pictures of them dead. That is truth.

ObamaDems Unveil Insane & Stupid Climate-Science-Denial Mass Suicide Plan that Fracks All the Children to Death & Spawns Giant Hurricanes – by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

What is the most important issue in this 2012 US Presidential Election? Does either of these guys even have a philosophy?

“There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide,” Albert Camus taught us in his absurdist essay The Myth of Sisyphus. Should I, or should we commit suicide? That is the most important question before us this Presidential Election, just as it is the most important political question we face every day of our lives; because, if the answer is “Yes, we should commit suicide,” then all the other issues pale in comparison. And if we go ahead and commit suicide, the rest of the questions will no longer matter. In a way.

In order to get energy for our nation, President Obama and his pretend opponent Mitt Romney are advocating burning Coal and Oil. They’re both advocating Onshore Drilling and Offshore Drilling and Fracking and Coal Mining Shale Mining and Nuclear Energy. During the most recent Debate President Obama (nominally the more Left of the two because he’s a Democrat) again attacked Romney from the Right, saying that Romney had once, as Governor of Massachusetts, said that a Coal Plant “‘kills people.’” The President’s meaning was already clear, but he went on to emphatically state that he would never stand in the way of Coal, because he believes in “Clean Coal”: There is actually no such thing as Clean Coal, yet the President keeps lying about this non-existent product.

Yes, Romney said Coal kills. And Obama’s EPA defined CO2 as a “Dangerous Pollutant.” This is what they both want to do to the children of America and the children of the world. Here’s proof that they both know that what they’re proposing is Murderous: http://www.politicususa.com/romnesia-spreads-paul-ryan-forgets-romneys-coal-kills-record.html and http://blog.heritage.org/2009/12/07/epa-formally-declares-co2-a-dangerous-pollutant/

I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re not both laughing it up together at the electorate’s cluelessness: “We’ll trick the people in North Dakota into Frack-poisoning their own water!” “We’ll trick and intimidate the Coal Miners into killing their own children!” “We’ll trick the country into getting rid of its trees!”

So, the Obromneys have decided that mass suicide is alright. Let’s just ignore science and burn even more Fossil Fuels. Let’s burn Nuclear fires too, and tell them that it helps the climate. Yes, it’s true, killing off the children is how a society commits mass suicide. But I just don’t believe that it’s right, so I can’t go along with the President on this one.

Lund University in Sweden proved my friend Jack Herer’s hypothesis that growing Hemp for clean fuel on 6% of US arable land would produce more than enough energy to power our entire country, with no net emissions of CO2 or other Greenhouse Gases. Science tells us there is a way to get our energy without committing suicide. But President Obama says we should commit suicide by superstitiously burning more of these Fossil Fuels that are destroying the delicate climate balance that has kept humans as the dominant animal species on the planet, for the last hundred centuries.

Before that, our planet was going through an Ice Age, and there were giant cats and giant elephant-like creatures and giant bears and giant wolves. The climate was perfect for them. Then, that Ice Age ended in a period of intense Global Warming. Right then, most of the animals larger than us died off. The climate became perfect for humans. In this new Global Warming period, if it’s allowed to proceed, humans and other animals for whom this climate is now perfect will die off. http://my.firedoglake.com/normanb/2010/11/11/breakthrough-swedish-hemp-energy-study-corroborates-hemp-emperor-herer/ and  http://mamamojournal.blogspot.com/2010/11/hemp-energy-farming-breakthrough-study.html and http://www.electricemperor.com/eecdrom/ and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V24-51C4RRC-4&_user=10&_coverDate=10%2F31%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1537022627&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2c65f9591666c0e3039de2fae1c04549&searchtype=a

Welcome to Jonestown, USA! Obama and Romney both say “Drink the Kool Aid!” What other choice do we have? Science tells us that with Hemp we can avoid killing all the world’s children with dangerous and deadly Carbon Dioxide. But our President advises us to go ahead and kill them anyway.

If other candidates do recognize the truth, they may be afraid to state it. Green Party Presidential nominee Jill Stein is the only Presidential candidate stressing the fact that we can stop Global Warming, quickly, and it would energize and enrich our nation. And it would avoid mass suicide – it would avoid killing the children. Won’t somebody think of the children?! Listen to Jill Stein’s speeches: She says over and over again: “We can stop [Global Warming].” We can.

November 5, 2012, the day before the rigged Election, the day before millions of Americans will drink the Kool Aid, Jill Stein will Debate Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson, the former Governor of New Mexico. You’ve already heard the non-Debates. Don’t drink the Kool Aid. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/10/26/gary-johnson-and-jill-stein-will-debate-one-on-one/ and http://www.examiner.com/article/update-reminder-third-party-debates-moved-to-monday-nov-5

Hurricane Sandy Turns Away From US as Greedy Disaster Capitalists and Dishonest Politicians Try to Save Their Investments — by NormanB (“Deviations form the Norm”)

New title at 822 AM EDT Monday, October 29, 2012: UPDATE: Hurricane Sandy Turns Back Toward US as Greedy Disaster Capitalists and Dishonest Politicians Try to Save Their Investments

*DANGER* UPDATE: Hurricane Sandy has strengthened overnight and turned back toward the United States as expected. It is headed directly at New York City. *DANGER*

The story below and updates were in real time, while the hurricane was headed away and weakening. The real time UPDATE reports continue. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Hurricanes usually turn right, as this one is doing now. Global-Warming Hurricane Sandy is turning away from the United States, and to this experienced hurricane watcher, it looks like “she” could miss us. But some companies have invested in this “disaster,” and want you to spend money on it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/hedging-a-hurricane-making-mother-nature-pay-22UNIxtOQRmpvAfMQSZCSw.html

Be afraid. Be very afraid. President Obama warned of the danger too. That’s when I breathed a major sigh of relief, because, as far as I know, President Obama has never told the truth about Climate Science in his life. Please notice weather-anomaly that he doesn’t mention the fact that a Global-Warming hurricane at this time of the Climate-Change year is related to this country’s superstitious practice of burning Oil and Coal for the profit of those who pay for our political campaigns. It’s called “The Bribery Paradigm.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/28/obama-hurricane-sandy_n_2035216.html

I’ve been keeping close track of the storm’s progress. After the raw data, I note some possibly significant changes. I’ve been watching hurricanes for a long time. I was born in Virginia, and lived in Florida most of my life. Both are likely targets for hurricanes and flooding. Here’s some backlogged live-blogging so you can see what’s been happening.

21 GMT 10/25/12  24.5N 75.6W

8:00 PM EDT Thu Oct 25
Location: 24.8°N 75.8°W
Moving: NNW at 17 mph: Storm motion: 315 degrees
Min pressure: 965 mb
Max sustained: 100 mph

Highest sustained winds have dropped from 110 early last night to 100 at 8pm to 80 now: Just barely a hurricane by that reckoning. It is traveling toward the US at 13 mph on a “315-degree” trajectory: 315 degrees is exactly Northwest; 360 is exactly North; 337.5 is exactly North-by-Northwest: These are numbers that indicate it will hit Cape Hatteras, the North Carolina coast, assuming it will turn right as hurricanes usually do.

If it continues in a Northwesterly direction it will make landfall before [South of] Cape Hatteras. A direct his on Hatteras could mean flooding in the Tidewater area of Southeastern Virginia, including most of the state’s largest cities, including Portsmouth where I was born and still have lots of relatives.

For a direct hit on New Jersey or New England, that digital compass direction will need to advance Eastward, toward 360 degrees then beyond zero:

If it very soon curves sharp right and goes beyond zero, then, here it comes! But there’s still some chance that it will head out to sea.

5:00 AM EDT Fri Oct 26
Location: 26.3°N 76.9°W
Moving: NW at 13 mph
Min pressure: 968 mb
Max sustained: 80 mph

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA (as in Noah’s Flood?) updates its info every 3 hours: At 8, 11, 2, and 5: -am and -pm.

For those wishing to keep checking for themselves, here is its link:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

8:00 AM EDT Fri Oct 26
Location: 26.4°N 76.9°W
Moving: NW at 10 mph: Storm Motion: 325 degrees
Min pressure: 970 mb
Max sustained: 80 mph

The 8 am report shows that its position has barely changed in 3 hours, which is usually a sign of the hurricane building energy. Storm motion has further slowed to 10mph, and its direction has altered, yes, to the right, toward the North, and a little less West. Still 80 mph. The air pressure measured in the hurricane has raised/weakened, but just by 2 millibars, which is no doubt within the margin of error.

Trajectory at 7 am was 325 degrees: That’s exactly North-by-Northwest.

The 11 am report looks very bad for those of us here in the Northeast.

11:00 AM EDT Fri Oct 26
Location: 26.7°N 76.9°W
Moving: N at 6 mph
Min pressure: 970 mb
Max sustained: 80 mph

Pressure and wind speed remained about the same, but movement slowed and turned more Easterly, now aimed at the direct North:

If it continues to turn right, it’s headed here. (Probably.)

11:00 PM EDT Fri Oct 26
Location: 27.7°N 77.1°W
Moving: N at 7 mph: Storm motion: 350 degrees
Min pressure: 969 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

Hurricane Sandy’s direction is 350 degrees: A little to West of due North (which is 360 degrees – or zero degrees): If it continues in a straight line, it hits the Southern North Carolina coast. Since I posted 12 hours ago, it has traveled one degree North: 70 miles. Since 12 hours ago, it has veered to the West by two tenths of a degree: That’s a little better for our chances here in the Northeast of avoiding landfall in New Jersey or Long Island.

Wind speed has dropped by 5mph since 12 hrs ago: If it drops one more degree, it will cease to be a hurricane. The measured air pressure has dropped since then, but only by an insignificant one millibar.

2:00 AM EDT Sat Oct 27
Location: 28.1°N 76.9°W
Moving: NNE at 7 mph: Storm motion: 015 degrees
Min pressure: 969 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

Direction is now 015: The storm has turned sharp right: 25 degrees to the right since 3 hours ago. This could be following the expert-predicted pattern, and would not be good for us here in the Northeast. However, I have to hope that such a sharp right turn means that it is turning right as most hurricanes do, and that it will head on out to sea.

It is now headed directly at Cape Hatteras: The storm motion direction reading of 015 is slightly to the East of due North, but way to the West of exact North-by-Northeast, which is 045 degrees.

5:00 AM EDT Sun Oct 28
Location: 31.9°N 73.3°W
Moving: NE at 13 mph: Storm motion: 040 degrees
Min pressure: 960 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

At this point, the storm is aimed at Nova Scotia, and at no part of the United States.

8:00 AM EDT Sun Oct 28
Location: 32.1°N 73.1°W
Moving: NE at 10 mph
Min pressure: 951 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

11:00 AM EDT Sun Oct 28
Location: 32.5°N 72.6°W
Moving: NE at 14 mph
Min pressure: 951 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

2:00 PM EDT Sun Oct 28
Location: 32.8°N 71.9°W
Moving: NE at 14 mph: Storm motion: 050 degrees
Min pressure: 951 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

5:00 PM EDT Sun Oct 28
Location: 33.4°N 71.3°W
Moving: NE at 15 mph: Storm motion: 050 degrees
Min pressure: 952 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

As I reported 38 hours ago, the storm if moving out to sea, and is aimed at no part of the United States, and now it’s not aimed at North America at all, just out to sea. The fear is that it will react with the cold front sweeping Southward through our country to cause a super storm. And saying such things sells a lot of soap. And even more Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas.

The Storm motion is the compass direction. 000 or 360 is North. 180 is South. 90 is East. 270 is West. The digital indication tells more precisely what direction the storm is headed. It is headed out to sea and currently turning right, to the East, away from the United States. It is still possible that this hurricane will turn back to the left/West. If the storm does start to turn back toward this country, I will let you know in real time in the Comments section below.

But notice that since 11 pm two days ago, wind speed has remained a steady 75 mph (the minimum wind speed to maintain a “hurricane” classification): If it dropped by one mile per hour, it would no longer be a hurricane. If the weather service were to have already admitted that it’s no longer a hurricane, or that it’s no longer likely to hit the US, well all that money spending on preparedness will stop. Cristy and Obama will have to stop posturing trying to look Presidential.

The storm is now turning right as they usually do, and this last digital direction reading shows it going even further right. Right is away from us. If it comes back left, it could hurt us. I will let you know if it turns back left: That’s the only way it can hurt us.

Lower barometric pressure makes for bigger storms: Cyclones, such as hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes, are low-pressure storms, and they spin counter-clockwise if North of the Equator. Higher air pressure lessens the intensity of such storms. The pressure was going up early Friday morning, then it held steady from 8 am Friday to 2 am Saturday. Then it started dropping, a little. By 8 am Sunday, it had dropped to it’s lowest point. At last report, it had gone up by a statistically insignificant one millibar. I’ll patch in the 8 pm report here as soon as it comes in.

UPDATE:

8:00 PM EDT Sun Oct 28
Location: 34.0°N 70.9°W
Moving: NE at 15 mph: Storm motion: 050 degrees
Min pressure: 950 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

The air pressure has dropped by two millibars: That’s almost holding steady. The wind speed is still minimum for a hurricane. Tropical Storm Sandy is still headed out to sea. That 050-degree Storm direction is just to the East of due Northeast, which is 045 degrees. To threaten us in the US, it would have to turn left: It would have to rejust that compass direction back to the West of North: If Sandy now went straight Northward, it would be a direct strike on Boston. But it’s not doing that, it’s headed out to sea: It’s now not aimed at any part of the US or Canada. I’ll let you know in real time in the Comments section if it comes back our way. For now, it looks like we’re safe. Woo-hooo!

It’s quite possible that Tropical Storm Sandy is going away and can’t hurt us. Meanwhile, there’s a rigged Presidential Election right now in the United States. Get back to work on politics, my fellow journalists.

11:00 PM EDT Sun Oct 28
Location: 34.5°N 70.5°W
Moving: NE at 14 mph: Storm motion: 045 degrees
Min pressure: 950 mb
Max sustained: 75 mph

For a full 48 hours now the wind speed has not wavered from 75 mph – the minimum hurricane-speed wind. The pressure has remained 950 millibars since the last report, the lowest it’s been since leaving the Bahamas. Barometric pressure has not dropped significantly since 8 am this morning. The Storm motion is now due Northeast: 045 degrees: That means it has veered leftward by 5 degrees since three hours ago. It will have to shift another 90 degrees leftward to follow the path projected by the learn’d astronomer meteorologists.

If the storm proceeds in its current direction, it will not strike the mainland of North America, but it will hit Newfoundland. If it were to go straight North, the eye would cut across Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and then make land at the Maine-New Hampshire border. If, on the other hand, it makes the predicted 90 degree leftward turn, and if this 5 degree variance in the last three hours is the beginning of a turn that will continue for a full 90 degrees, then I’m in for a world of pain, because it will be heading right for the Eastern end of Long Island and Long Island Sound: That could cause flooding, even here on a little brook flowing into a tiny river that’s a tributary of the mighty Connecticut. A flood on this brook washed away a bridge and killed people a hundred years ago.

Don’t mistake this for sound medical advice. As cmaukonen pointed out in the Comments section below, I’m a blogger with an agenda, not a meteorologist. I am just reporting the facts as the National Weather Service gives them, and making a few points here and there. I don’t have training to calculate on anything other than those physical facts. So, I am only reporting those raw physical data. So, don’t accept this as good news – it’s not. There is opportunity to be hopeful. If at 8 am tomorrow the storm is still headed to the Northeast, that is further reason to be hopeful. If however the 11 am update tomorrow morning shows that the storm has missed its turn, and is still traveling Northeasterly, the learn’d ones may have wisely erred on the side of caution, and it might not come here.

Don’t start partying yet. Unless partying is your lifestyle. I don’t recommend hurricane parties, but no-hurricane parties are OK with me. For now, I’m hunkered down and harboring cautious evacuees, but if the storm makes that 90-degree turn, we may all have to evacuate to someplace not on the water.

*DANGER* UPDATE:

5:00 AM EDT Mon Oct 29
Location: 35.9°N 70.5°W
Moving: N at 15 mph
Min pressure: 946 mb
Max sustained: 85 mph

8:00 AM EDT Mon Oct 29
Location: 36.8°N 71.1°W
Moving: NNW at 20 mph: Storm motion: 330 degrees
Min pressure: 946 mb
Max sustained: 85 mph

Overnight, Hurricane Sandy turned left, more Westerly: Back toward the East coast of the United States, much like meteorologists had forecast. The storm has turned left by a reported 75 degrees: Thats 75 degrees of the forecast 90 degree turn already accomplished, by the predicted time, 8 am. Winds remained at 85 mph all night: Now Sandy is solidly a hurricane, by definition (Category 1).

Pressure dropped by 4 millibars in the 3 hours leading up to the 5 am update from NOAA, but did not drop further between 5 and 8. The storm is headed directly at Staten Island: If this keeps up, things could be terrible in New York City, Long Island, the Jersey Shore, Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, Vermont, and the next country up. I’m in Western Massachusetts. I’m watching closely. You should too.

*DANGER* UPDATE:

11:00 AM EDT Mon Oct 29
Location: 37.5°N 71.5°W
Moving: NNW at 18 mph: Storm motion: 330 degrees
Min pressure: 943 mb
Max sustained: 90 mph

Winds have increased to 90 mph. Barometric pressure has dropped another 3 millibars in the past 3 hours. It is still headed directly at Staten Island, now at 18 mph – 3 hours ago it was coming at 20 mph. It’s still a Category 1 hurricane. At this point, the only thing that could save our country from a direct hit is … well … nothing. Batten down the hatches!

*DANGER* UPDATE:

11:00 AM EDT Mon Oct 29
Location: 37.5°N 71.5°W
Moving: NNW at 18 mph: Storm motion: 330 degrees
Min pressure: 943 mb
Max sustained: 90 mph

Winds have increased to 90 mph. Barometric pressure has dropped another 3 millibars in the past 3 hours. It is still headed directly at Staten Island, now at 18 mph – 3 hours ago it was coming at 20 mph. It’s still a Category 1 hurricane.At this point, the only thing that could save our country from a direct hit is … well … nothing. Batten down the hatches! The eye of the storm is about 250 miles due South of central Long Island.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

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My aunt lived in Beach Haven on Long Beach Island on the Jersey shore, the third house from the Atlantic Ocean. One day a big storm came by surprise, not a hurricane, a Nor’easter. I guess it was out of season, and the two houses between her and the Ocean were unoccupied at the time. The storm washed those two houses away as my aunt watched from her house.

For years, in fact, for decades those two lots sat vacant with their mostly-flattened fences lying in the beach sand as a reminder to any prospective buyer that houses built here are destined to wash away. Eventually, of course, greed got the better of some builder/speculator, who built and sold houses there to unsuspecting pigeons whose houses will wash away someday (probably much sooner than other houses). Elliott read that little blurb in a comment, and right away reminded me that this storm was so big that it had a name: The Long Island Express, in 1938.

(Yes, my aunt weathered a storm as an adult, way back in 1938. And my uncle, her husband, fought in World War I. That’s right. I’m old. But I wasn’t born [not for 18 years yet] when that 1938 storm blew in.)

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Troubled by what I said about President Obama never telling the truth about Climate Science? I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do: I’m a poor man, but I’ll put money on it: A guarantee: $100 to the first person who can prove to me that President Obama has ever told the truth about Climate Science. Here’s all you have to do to collect: Make a copy of the speech where he tells the truth: Include the date and location, and the chemical formula of the Greenhouse Gas about which he told the truth. (CO2, CH4, NO2, O3, H2O, SF6, NF3, Freon, or Ether.)

Include why you believe what he said is true, and please, include a copy of the entire speech: This step is crucial: You see, the President could just list a bunch of troubling facts. But if he doesn’t initiate policies that deal with those troubling facts, and if he was just listing them to trick people into voting for him, that’s what I consider a lie, not the truth. If anywhere in the speech, the President mentions Clean Coal or Clean Nukes or the need to Drill and Mine and Frack and Nuke more (as he always does), then the speech is a lie. This hundred dollars is burning a Global Warming hole in my pocket! Somebody please prove me wrong.

Survivors of South Africa’s 34-Slave Massacre Leaving Jail, Ordered Back to Work by Their Owner; More Slaves Shot; Democrats Party On — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

South African Government forces brutally Murdered 34 enslaved Platinum miners owned by Lonmin on August 16. Lonmin spokesman Simon Scott immediately told Bloomberg, the BBC, and others that the strike was “illegal,” and that the Slaves had to return to work. After a few days, Slaves who had survived the Lonmin Massacre were arrested and charged with the Murders of their comrades, under the theory that they were committing a crime by striking, and that crime had caused the Murders by police.

During the Lonmin Massacre police also wounded 78 other Slaves. In addition, police killed eight Slaves in the days leading up to the Massacre, and claimed that two policemen were also killed. Of course, the lying police also claimed that they Murdered the Slaves in self-defense, which the video of the event disproved. 140 Slave miners were said to be scheduled for “conditional release,” meaning they must go back to work and drop their pay demands. http://news.sky.com/story/980169/conditional-release-for-south-africa-miners

South African President Zuma immediately stood up to support the Lonmin Massacre as an unfortunate but sometimes necessary way to control the conduct of Slaves. That was two weeks ago. Now, at least four of Zuma’s own Slaves have been shot overnight. This is the Gold Fields corporation, which, like Lonmin, claims that Slaves striking against their owners is illegal. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-03/4-shot-at-mine-owned-by-safrica-presidents-nephew

Later reports cleaned it up, saying that the police had only Tortured the Slaves with Teargas – a Weapon of Mass Destruction that is illegal for use in wars – and that they had shot the Slaves with rubber bullets. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/04/us-safrica-mines-idUSBRE8820FM20120904?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71s

In the late 1970s, the underground documentary Last Grave at Dimbasa was smuggled out of South Africa: It exposed the Slavery there. Americans then and now were/are in denial about South Africa’s Racist Apartheid system. To this day, Americans use a propagandistic mispronunciation of the word to Cover Up its true meaning. Americans pronounce it “Aparth Hyde,” but it is actually pronounced “Apart Hate,” and that’s exactly what it is. It is Slavery. If strikes are illegal and survivors of Massacres can be ordered back to work, then Slavery persists there. Today Lonmin is ordering 40,000 striking Slaves back to work. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gr5fCu25ZKUG54v0HdW72zQQ6ufw?docId=CNG.47f141a25c2dcbb7e7255dad16622a61.501

And today the Democratic Party begins its Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Billed as the “Teargas and Taser-Torture Convention,” at least one Black man was already Tortured there, a child is dead, and police are apparently lying about an arrested protester having a gun – police in the US often claim people that they Torture were armed, as if that would excuse the Torture.

The Torture victim, Chris Stevens, was hospitalized and charged with Resisting Arrest: The “Resisting Arrest” charge marks it as a case of Torture: When police Torture, Murder, or mistreat US citizens, the officers often claim that their victims were either Resisting Arrest (as they did when they Tortured me in 1981) or that they were armed, as they did with Anna Wright, who was arrested for protesting in Charlotte. Lying police first claimed that she had a knife. Later, they changed it to a gun. http://www.wcnc.com/news/dnc-charlotte-2012/Police–168306526.html Both Stevens and the Murdered Slaves are Black.

Police near Charlotte are on edge: They Murdered a 16-year-old child last night after chasing him. Of course, they claimed that he had Murdered himself. http://www.crimeincharlotte.com/2012/09/update-suspect-identified-as-local.html

Remember, police killed the suspect at the scene of the recent Sikh Massacre, then lied that said suspect had committed suicide – police at first admitted to killing the suspect, then later changed their story to he killed himself. President Obama’s “Justice” Department always lets police get away with these Murders, which obviously emboldened them to Murder this child near Charlotte, who is President Obama’s and the Democrats’ first dead victim of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Let’s hope he’s also the last person killed by police around the Convention this year.

Now is the chance for the Democratic Party to come out against Slavery, and against the shooting of Slaves. Now is the chance for the Democrats to come out against the deadly Racist police actions in North Carolina. Now is the chance for Democrats to come out against Torture. But the leader of the Democrats, President Obama claims “We don’t Torture.” New videos to YouTube every day prove that he’s lying. But, who are you going to believe, your eyes or your President?

My friend Presidential candidate Vermin Supreme, the Political Theatre Performance Artist who finished third in the 2012 New Hampshire Democratic Primary, diffused a tense situation at the Republican Convention in Tampa a few days ago. Tampa has a very mellow police force. Even a man with long hair and a beard like me can walk around Tampa without getting into trouble. Not so easy in North Carolina. Ever ride a Greyhound through there? The police presence and searches there are combative and terrifying. So, if you’re there or going there, be careful. http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/02/politics/rnc-protest-vermin-supreme/index.html