Woman of Feathers - Truth or Fabrication

25 October 2011

The Fate of Joran van der Sloot

Images

((AP / CBS))

Published: 10/23 8:45 am

Updated: 10/23 9:02 am

Birmingham, Ala (WIAT) Peru's prisons are clogged with foreigners...many doing time on drug possession. Not surprisingly, Peruvian officials would like to ship those people back to their home countries.
Peruvian Justice Minister Francisco Eguiguren says about 2 000 foreign prisoners who have been detained for minor offenses, could have their sentences commuted or be extradited to their home countries to serve their sentence.

But they're making clear the proposal wouldn't include people charged with murder, terrorism or other serious crimes. In other words, people like Joran van der Sloot.

The Dutch national is waiting trial on murder/robbery charges and there has been consistent speculation he's trying to do a deal to serve any sentence back in The Netherlands.

The body of 21 year old student Stephany Flores was found in van der Sloot's Lima hotel room. Van der Sloot had fled to neighboring Chile where he was arrested and returned to Lima. The subsequent investigation and interrogation prompted a variety of procedural appeals...all of which have been denied by local courts. He claims he killed Flores in a fit of rage after she found material relating to Natalee Holloway on his laptop. Police say it was robbery and murder...that the Holloway material was accessed a day before Flores died.

In a macabre twist, Flores corpse was discovered five years to the day that Natalee Holloway disappeared. The Mountain Brook teen was on a graduation trip to Aruba in 2005. She left an Oranjestad bar with van der Sloot and two of his friends. She was never seen again.

Van der Sloot was questioned by Aruban authorities but never charged. He is still considered the prime suspect in the case. Van der Sloot has told a variety of stories of what happened that night...including a hidden camera confession. He's subsequently denied all of those accounts.

In addition to the murder charges in Peru, he's also been indicted by a federal grand jury here in Birmingham. The FBI says van der Sloot promised the Holloway family information about Natalee's fate, took their money, and never provided the information. He's charged with wire fraud and extortion.

http://www.cbs42.com/content/localnews/story/Van-der-Sloot-not-eligible-for-get-out-of-jail/ROYXod835UyvlfHAv7VMbw.cspx

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There are many of us still in contact who have been there since the beginning ... and we still agree ... He did it and continues to get away with it!

I say ... eventually his day will come ... whether it be on this side ... or the next. He may gloat on this side until his dying day ... but after that ... it's out of our hands ... and into the hands of "The Creator!"

Of course ... that's Just My Opinion.

What's yours?

14 October 2011

Opinion 'Occupy Wall Street' -- It's Not What They're for, But What They're Against

Ok y'all ... I found this on a Fox News Opinion Page ... obviously, they didn't read it first, because this is the first honest and open article I've ever seen connected with Fox News. Either that, or they actually learned a lesson when Geraldo Rivera wasn't able to broadcast because he was drowned out by people chanting "Fox News Lies!" ... it was great!

Opinion
'Occupy Wall Street' -- It's Not What They're for, But What They're Against

By Sally Kohn
Published October 14, 2011
| FoxNews.com Read more:Before Fox News takes it off

Critics of the growing Occupy Wall Street movement complain that the protesters don’t have a policy agenda and, therefore, don’t stand for anything. They're wrong. The key isn’t what protesters are for but rather what they’re against -- the gaping inequality that has poisoned our economy, our politics and our nation.

In America today, 400 people have more wealth than the bottom 150 million combined. That’s not because 150 million Americans are pathetically lazy or even unlucky. In fact, Americans have been working harder than ever -- productivity has risen in the last several decades. Big business profits and CEO bonuses have also gone up. Worker salaries, however, have declined.

Most of the Occupy Wall Street protesters aren’t opposed to free market capitalism. In fact, what they want is an end to the crony capitalist system now in place, that makes it easier for the rich and powerful to get even more rich and powerful while making it increasingly hard for the rest of us to get by. The protesters are not anti-American radicals. They are the defenders of the American Dream, the decision from the birth of our nation that success should be determined by hard work not royal bloodlines.

Sure, bank executives may work a lot harder than you and me or a mother of three doing checkout at a grocery store. Maybe the bankers work ten times harder. Maybe even a hundred times harder. But they’re compensated a thousand times more.

The question is not how Occupy Wall Street protesters can find that gross discrepancy immoral. The question is why every one of us isn’t protesting with them.

According to polls, most Americans support the 99% movement, even if they’re not taking to the streets. In fact, support for the Occupy Wall Street protests is not only higher than for either political party in Washington but greater than support for the Tea Party. And unlike the Tea Party which was fueled by national conservative donors and institutions, the Occupy Wall Street Movement is spreading organically from Idaho to Indiana. Institutions on the left, including unions, have been relatively late to the game.

Ironically, the original Boston Tea Party activists would likely support Occupy Wall Street more as well. Note that the original Tea Party didn’t protest taxes, merely the idea of taxation without representation -- and they were actually protesting the crown-backed monopoly of the East India Company, the main big business of the day.

Americans today also support taxes. In fact, two-thirds of voters -- including a majority of Republicans -- support increasing taxes on the rich, something the Occupy Wall Street protests implicitly support. That’s not just anarchist lefty kids. Soccer moms and construction workers and, yes, even some bankers want to see our economy work for the 99%, not just the 1%, and are flocking to Occupy protests in droves.

I’ve even met a number of Libertarians and Tea Party conservatives at these protests. So the critics are right, the Occupy Wall Street movement isn’t the Tea Party. Occupy Wall Street is much, much broader.

Maybe it’s hard to see your best interests reflected in a sometimes rag-tag, inarticulate, imperfect group of protesters. But make no mistake about it: While horrendous inequality is not an American tradition, protest is.And if you’re part of the 99% of underpaid or unemployed Americans crushed in the current economy, the Occupy Wall Street protests are your best chance at fixing the broken economy that is breaking your back.

Sally Kohn is the founder and Chief Education Officer of the Movement Vision Lab, a grassroots think tank. Follow her on Twitter@sallykohn.

28 September 2011

Thank You Teabaggers - Video

08 September 2011

The 1st "Super Committee" Meeting

For those who want to read the accompanying article with this video ... Deficit "Super Committee" Holds First Meeting

One of the reasons I love watching C-SPAN is because you get everything uncut and commercial-free. It doesn't matter what party you might be affiliated (or not) with ... you get ALL of it. No sound-bites, no bias views (except when each "party" gives their own Press Conference ... and they all get equal time) and many behind-the-scene clips, committee meetings and history lessons ... all of which can be seen at various times or found online.

My question for you is ... What would you do or want to say to these "Members" if you could?

31 August 2011

Tar SandsOil & Other Alternatives - What's Safe?

adec333 stated in response to an article in CBC News - Politics about the protest in Washington DC concerning State Department on Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline from Canada to Houston & Port Arthur, Texas:
"Personally, I think that the construction of this pipeline is a bad idea. While it is true that people need jobs, particularly in a tough economy when so many people are out of work and need to be able to support their families, and it is true that we cannot be dependent upon oil from the middle east, I do not think that the construction of such a pipeline solves either problem. There are other, far better solutions.

There are plenty of jobs to be had in green energy, for instance. If you are talking about wind energy, for example, you need people to manufacture the wind turbines, install them, connect them to the power grid, and maintain both the turbines and the grid itself. If you are talking about solar energy, you need people to manufacture the solar panels, install them, connect them to the grid, and maintain both the panels and the grid itself. I could go on, but I am pretty sure that most people get the idea.

This idea that we must continue to exploit the planet upon which we depend (and sometimes people as well) to get the fuel on which we depend, and the jobs that we need is a false one. The solution from my perspective, plain and simple, is a transition to green energy (and I do mean actual green energy, not the same-old technologies, billed as "green") and a more sustainable lifestyle now, particularly in the US which has a pretty sizable ecological footprint. From where I stand, we must not only think about our immediate needs, but what we want our future to be like. If we do not make this switch now, while we still have the power to be able to do something about climate change, later on (when we will actually will want to do something about it), will likely be too late."

What he says is true. Here is an article on Huffington Post with photos showing the wide spread destruction the Tar Sands Production!!!

If you would like to hear local stories in the path of the proposed pipeline, read what they say on Stop Tar Sands and follow the links they have there so you too can "Follow the Tour" and become more informed as to what is really happening as opposed to the filtered hype.

What are the Alternatives, you ask? There are many that do NOT destroy either our environment or our health. There is Wind, Solar and Alternative Fuels.

WIND

Wind is something that, in some areas, are more prevalent than others. According to Wikipedia's article on Wind Power in Texas ...

"Wind resource areas in the Texas Panhandle, along the Gulf Coast south of Galveston, and in the mountain passes and ridge tops of the Trans-Pecos offer Texas some of the greatest wind power potential in the United States. Currently there are over 2,000 wind turbines in West Texas alone. Most of the new wind capacity added in the last two years has been in the Abilene-Sweetwater area. The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center is the largest wind power facility in the nation with a total capacity of 735 MW. It is spread across approximately 47,000 acres (190 km²) in Taylor and Nolan County near Abilene."⁽State Energy Conservation Office.)

This is a very good thing ... however ... the last few years, Texas Governor, Rick Perry, ok'd the purchase of these Windmills from China, instead of using the money to build the factories to manufacture them right here in Texas, thereby, creating more jobs for Americans! (This is the man who wants to be our President?)

Other states like Kansas - Illinois - are creating jobs, as are other states like Colorado - Texas - Oklahoma - Iowa - California - Michigan - Idaho - Louisiana - Montana --- there are many more states with these Green Energy Jobs ... all you have to do is look for them.

Another thing to think about: We cannot run out of wind. If we did, we wouldn't be able to breathe, seeds would not fly, birds could not soar, clouds could not move, etc ... it is a renewable energy.

SOLAR

According to information found on Wikipedia on Solar Energy:

Solar power

Main article: Solar power

The PS10 concentrates sunlight from a field of heliostats on a central tower.

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). CSP systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. PV converts light into electric current using the photoelectric effect.
Commercial CSP plants were first developed in the 1980s, and the 354 MW SEGS CSP installation is the largest solar power plant in the world and is located in the Mojave Desert of California. Other large CSP plants include the Solnova Solar Power Station (150 MW) and the Andasol solar power station (100 MW), both in Spain. The 97 MW Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant in Canada, is the world’s largest photovoltaic plant.

Concentrated solar power

See also: Concentrated solar power

Parabolic solar troughs are the most widely deployed CSP technology.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated heat is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. A wide range of concentrating technologies exists; the most developed are the parabolic trough, the concentrating linear fresnel reflector, the Stirling dish and the solar power tower. Various techniques are used to track the Sun and focus light. In all of these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage.^[67]

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I remember in the 80's, there was an insurgence of new companies popping up everywhere selling Solar Panels for homes. At that time, however, it was a very costly adventure. Between that and the pressures from the Big Oil Companies, the venture faded into the background the same way Electric Cars did ... until now.

There are many places like Earth 4 Green Energy and DIY sites like Homemade Energy That shows you how much cheaper it is to take yourself "Off the Grid" or sell back your excess to the Electric Companies. BTW ... I'm not advertising for these people, just giving you examples ... you can go from here to do your own research.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS

Wikipedia on Alternative Fuels gives the most commonly known alternative fuels ...

Alternative fuels, known as non-conventional or advanced fuel, are any materials or substances that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels. Conventional fuels include: fossil fuels (petroleum (oil), coal, propane, and natural gas), as well as nuclear materials such as uranium.
Some well known alternative fuels include biodiesel, bioalcohol (methanol, ethanol, butanol), chemically stored electricity (batteries and fuel cells), hydrogen, non-fossil methane, non-fossil natural gas, vegetable oil, and other biomass sources."

These are the most common alternatives that that you hear about daily, so I'm not going to go into them here. I would like to give you something that the Govt and Big Oil don't want you to know about ... Industrial Hemp

Ok ... I hear you say "Isn't that Marijuana?" The answer is ... no. Cannabis (Marijuana) contains Tetrahydrocannabinol or commonly known as THC, the chemical compound naturally found in the cannabis plant that is known for it's "high" but also known for many medical properties ... but that will be in another post in the near future.

Wikipedia on Hemp:
"Hemp (from Old English hænep) is the name of the soft, durable fiber that is cultivated from plants of the Cannabis genus.
"Hemp" is also a name for the Cannabis plant. Some use it to mean only the low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) strains of the plant, of fiber or and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel^[1] with modest commercial success.^[2]^[3] Since 2007, commercial success of hemp food products has grown considerably.^[4]^[5]
Hemp is one of the faster growing biomasses known,^[6] producing up to 25 tonnes of dry matter per hectare per year.^[7] A normal average yield in large scale modern agriculture is about 2.5–3.5 t/ac (air dry stem yields of dry, retted stalks per acre at 12% moisture). Approximately, one tonne of bast fiber and 2–3 tonnes of core material can be decorticated from 3–4 tonnes of good quality, dry retted straw.^[8]^[9]
For a crop, hemp is very environmentally friendly as it requires few pesticides, when not grown industrially^[10] and no herbicides.^[11] Results indicate that high yield of hemp may require high total nutrient levels (field plus fertilizer nutrients) similar to a high yielding wheat crop.^[12]
Hemp is one of the earliest domesticated plants known.^[13]
Cannabis sativa L. subsp. sativa var. sativa is the variety grown for industrial use, while C. sativa subsp. indica generally has poor fiber quality and is primarily used for production of recreational and medicinal drugs. The major difference between the two types of plants is the appearance and the amount of Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) secreted in a resinous mixture by epidermal hairs called glandular trichomes, although they can also be distinguished genetically.^[14] Oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis approved for industrial hemp production produce only minute amounts of this psychoactive drug, not enough for any physical or psychological effects. Typically, hemp contains below 0.3% THC, while cultivars of Cannabis grown for marijuana can contain anywhere from 2% to over 20%.^[15]
The world leading producer of hemp is China with smaller production in Europe, Chile and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.^[16] While more hemp is exported to the United States than to any other country, the United States Government does not consistently distinguish between marijuana and the non-psychoactive Cannabis used for industrial and commercial purposes.^[15]"

Here are some more links for you to check out and decide for yourself ...