For more than 200 years, buried deep within Thomas Jefferson's correspondence and papers, there lay a mysterious cipher -- a coded message that appears to have remained unsolved. Until now.
The cryptic message was sent to President Jefferson in December 1801 by his friend and frequent correspondent, Robert Patterson, a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. President Jefferson and Mr. Patterson were both officials at the American Philosophical Society -- a group that promoted scholarly research in the sciences and humanities -- and were enthusiasts of ciphers and other codes, regularly exchanging letters about them.
In this message, Mr. Patterson set out to show the president and primary author of the Declaration of Independence what he deemed to be a nearly flawless cipher. "The art of secret writing," or writing in cipher, has "engaged the attention both of the states-man & philosopher for many ages," Mr. Patterson wrote. But, he added, most ciphers fall "far short of perfection."
To Mr. Patterson's view, a perfect code had four properties: It should be adaptable to all languages; it should be simple to learn and memorize; it should be easy to write and to read; and most important of all, "it should be absolutely inscrutable to all unacquainted with the particular key or secret for decyphering."
Mr. Patterson then included in the letter an example of a message in his cipher, one that would be so difficult to decode that it would "defy the united ingenuity of the whole human race," he wrote.
There is no evidence that Jefferson, or anyone else for that matter, ever solved the code. But Jefferson did believe the cipher was so inscrutable that he considered having the State Department use it, and passed it on to the ambassador to France, Robert Livingston.
The cipher finally met its match in Lawren Smithline, a 36-year-old mathematician. Dr. Smithline has a Ph.D. in mathematics and now works professionally with cryptology, or code-breaking, at the Center for Communications Research in Princeton, N.J., a division of the Institute for Defense Analyses.
A couple of years ago, Dr. Smithline's neighbor, who was working on a Jefferson project at Princeton University, told Dr. Smithline of Mr. Patterson's mysterious cipher.
Dr. Smithline, intrigued, decided to take a look. "A problem like this cipher can keep me up at night," he says. After unlocking its hidden message in 2007, Dr. Smithline articulated his puzzle-solving techniques in a recent paper in the magazine American Scientist and also in a profile in Harvard Magazine, his alma mater's alumni journal.
The code, Mr. Patterson made clear in his letter, was not a simple substitution cipher. That's when you replace one letter of the alphabet with another. The problem with substitution ciphers is that they can be cracked by using what's termed frequency analysis, or studying the number of times that a particular letter occurs in a message. For instance, the letter "e" is the most common letter in English, so if a code is sufficiently long, whatever letter appears most often is likely a substitute for "e."
Because frequency analysis was already well known in the 19th century, cryptographers of the time turned to other techniques. One was called the nomenclator: a catalog of numbers, each standing for a word, syllable, phrase or letter. Mr. Jefferson's correspondence shows that he used several code books of nomenclators. An issue with these tools, according to Mr. Patterson's criteria, is that a nomenclator is too tough to memorize.
Jefferson even wrote about his own ingenious code, a model of which is at his home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va. Called the wheel cipher, the device consisted of cylindrical pieces, threaded onto an iron spindle, with letters inscribed on the edge of each wheel in a random order. Users could scramble and unscramble words simply by turning the wheels.
But Mr. Patterson had a few more tricks up his sleeve. He wrote the message text vertically, in columns from left to right, using no capital letters or spaces. The writing formed a grid, in this case of about 40 lines of some 60 letters each.
Then, Mr. Patterson broke the grid into sections of up to nine lines, numbering each line in the section from one to nine. In the next step, Mr. Patterson transcribed each numbered line to form a new grid, scrambling the order of the numbered lines within each section. Every section, however, repeated the same jumbled order of lines.
The trick to solving the puzzle, as Mr. Patterson explained in his letter, meant knowing the following: the number of lines in each section, the order in which those lines were transcribed and the number of random letters added to each line.
The key to the code consisted of a series of two-digit pairs. The first digit indicated the line number within a section, while the second was the number of letters added to the beginning of that row. For instance, if the key was 58, 71, 33, that meant that Mr. Patterson moved row five to the first line of a section and added eight random letters; then moved row seven to the second line and added one letter, and then moved row three to the third line and added three random letters. Mr. Patterson estimated that the potential combinations to solve the puzzle was "upwards of ninety millions of millions."
After explaining this in his letter, Mr. Patterson wrote, "I presume the utter impossibility of decyphering will be readily acknowledged."
Undaunted, Dr. Smithline decided to tackle the cipher by analyzing the probability of digraphs, or pairs of letters. Certain pairs of letters, such as "dx," don't exist in English, while some letters almost always appear next to a certain other letter, such as "u" after "q".
To get a sense of language patterns of the era, Dr. Smithline studied the 80,000 letter-characters contained in Jefferson's State of the Union addresses, and counted the frequency of occurrences of "aa," "ab," "ac," through "zz."
Dr. Smithline then made a series of educated guesses, such as the number of rows per section, which two rows belong next to each other, and the number of random letters inserted into a line.
To help vet his guesses, he turned to a tool not available during the 19th century: a computer algorithm. He used what's called "dynamic programming," which solves large problems by breaking puzzles down into smaller pieces and linking together the solutions.
The overall calculations necessary to solve the puzzle were fewer than 100,000, which Dr. Smithline says would be "tedious in the 19th century, but doable."
After about a week of working on the puzzle, the numerical key to Mr. Patterson's cipher emerged -- 13, 34, 57, 65, 22, 78, 49. Using that digital key, he was able to unfurl the cipher's text:
"In Congress, July Fourth, one thousand seven hundred and seventy six. A declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. When in the course of human events..."
That, of course, is the beginning -- with a few liberties taken -- to the Declaration of Independence, written at least in part by Jefferson himself. "Patterson played this little joke on Thomas Jefferson," says Dr. Smithline. "And nobody knew until now."
ON HIMSELF
“They misunderestimated me.”
Bentonville, Arkansas, 6 November, 2000
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee - I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me - you can’t get fooled again.”
Nashville, Tennessee, 17 September, 2002
“There’s no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead.”
Washington DC, 11 May, 2001
“I want to thank my friend, Senator Bill Frist, for joining us today. He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.”
Nashville, Tennessee, 27 May, 2004
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
“For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times.”
Tokyo, 18 February, 2002
“The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorise himself.”
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 29 January, 2003
“The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice.”
Washington DC, 27 October, 2003
“Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat.”
Washington DC, 17 September, 2004
“You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”
CBS News, Washington DC, 6 September, 2006
EDUCATION
“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
Florence, South Carolina, 11 January, 2000
“Reading is the basics for all learning.”
Reston, Virginia, 28 March, 2000
“As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public schools, and I have met those standards.”
CNN, 30 August, 2000
“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”
Townsend, Tennessee, 21 February, 2001
ECONOMICS
“I understand small business growth. I was one.”
New York Daily News, 19 February, 2000
“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.”
Reuters, 5 May, 2000
“I do remain confident in Linda. She’ll make a fine Labour Secretary. From what I’ve read in the press accounts, she’s perfectly qualified.”
Austin, Texas, 8 January, 2001
“First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren’t necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn’t mean you’re willing to kill.”
Washington DC, 19 May, 2003
HEALTHCARE
“I don’t think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs.”
Orlando, Florida, 12 September, 2000
“Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN’s aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.”
Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 6 September, 2004
TECHNOLOGY
“Will the highways on the internet become more few?”
Concord, New Hampshire, 29 January, 2000
“It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber.”
Washington DC, 10 April, 2002
“Information is moving. You know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it’s also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets.”
Washington DC, 2 May, 2007
OUT OF LEFT FIELD
“I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.”
Saginaw, Michigan, 29 September, 2000
“Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.”
LaCrosse, Wisconsin, 18 October, 2000
“Those who enter the country illegally violate the law.”
Tucson, Arizona, 28 November, 2005
“That’s George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three - three or four books about him last year. Isn’t that interesting?”
Speaking to reporter Kai Diekmann, Washington DC, 5 May, 2006
ON GOVERNING
“I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together.”
Bartlett, Tennessee, 18 August, 2000
“I’m the decider, and I decide what is best.”
Washington DC, 18 April, 2006
“And truth of the matter is, a lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody. To show you how important this one is, I read it, and [Tony Blair] read it.”
On the publication of the Baker-Hamilton Report, Washington DC, 7 December, 2006
“All I can tell you is when the governor calls, I answer his phone.”
San Diego, California, 25 October, 2007
“I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.”
Washington DC, 12 May, 2008
50. "I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." —at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002
49. "We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." —Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001
48. "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.'' —Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001
47. "We both use Colgate toothpaste." —after a reporter asked what he had in common with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Camp David, Md., Feb. 23, 2001
46. "Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a — you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004 (Watch video)
45. "I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003
44. "I'm the commander — see, I don't need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." —as quoted in Bob Woodward's Bush at War
43. "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." —Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001
42."The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself." —Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003
41. "I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. It's pretty darn strong. I mean, the people see a better future." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2004
40. "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." —discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, as quoted by Robertson
39. "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." —presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 (Watch video)
38. "Haven't we already given money to rich people? Why are we going to do it again?" —to economic advisers discussing a second round of tax cuts, as quoted by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil, Washington, D.C., Nov. 26, 2002
37. "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." —Trenton, N.J., Sept. 23, 2002
36. "After standing on the stage, after the debates, I made it very plain, we will not have an all-volunteer army. And yet, this week — we will have an all-volunteer army!" —Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 16, 2004 (Watch video)
35. "Do you have blacks, too?" —to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001
34. "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." —as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002
33. "I got to know Ken Lay when he was head of the — what they call the Governor's Business Council in Texas. He was a supporter of Ann Richards in my run in 1994. And she had named him the head of the Governor's Business Council. And I decided to leave him in place, just for the sake of continuity. And that's when I first got to know Ken and worked with Ken." —attempting to distance himself from his biggest political patron, Enron Chairman Ken Lay, whom he nicknamed "Kenny Boy," Washington, D.C., Jan. 10, 2002
32. "It is white." —after being asked by a child in Britain what the White House was like, July 19, 2001
31. "I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." —at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001
30."For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it." —Philadelphia, Penn., May 14, 2001
29. "I don't know why you're talking about Sweden. They're the neutral one. They don't have an army." —during a Dec. 2002 Oval Office meeting with Rep. Tom Lantos, as reported by the New York Times
28. "You forgot Poland." —to Sen. John Kerry during the first presidential debate, after Kerry failed to mention Poland's contributions to the Iraq war coalition, Miami, Fla., Sept. 30, 2004
27. "I'm the master of low expectations." —aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003
26. "I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things." —aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003
25. "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right." —Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001
24. "We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates." —Washington, D.C. Oct. 4, 2001
23. "People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002
22."I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet….I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." —President George W. Bush, after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004
21. "The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway." —explaining why high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy, Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004
20."My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire." —radio address, Feb. 24, 2001
19. "You know, when I was one time campaigning in Chicago, a reporter said, 'Would you ever have a deficit?' I said, 'I can't imagine it, but there would be one if we had a war, or a national emergency, or a recession.' Never did I dream we'd get the trifecta." —Houston, Texas, June 14, 2002 (There is no evidence Bush ever made any such statement, despite recounting the trifecta line repeatedly in 2002. A search by the Washington Post revealed that the three caveats were brought up before the 2000 campaign — by Al Gore.)
18."See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." —Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003
17. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." —State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false
16."In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough. It's hard work. It's incredibly hard." —repeating the phrases "hard work," "working hard," "hard choices," and other "hard"-based verbiage 22 times in his first debate with Sen. John Kerry
15. "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001
14. "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." —Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002
13. "But all in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me." —summing up his first year in office, three months after the 9/11 attacks, Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2001
12."I try to go for longer runs, but it's tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. It's sad that I can't run longer. It's one of the saddest things about the presidency." —interview with "Runners World," Aug. 2002
11. "Can we win? I don't think you can win it." —after being asked whether the war on terror was winnable, "Today" show interview, Aug. 30, 2004
10."I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." —Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002
9. "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." —to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004
8. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." —speaking underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003
7. “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories … And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." —Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003
6. "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!" —President George W. Bush, joking about his administration's failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents' Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004
5. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." —Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000
4. "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 (Watch video)
3. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." —Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 (Watch video)
2. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video)
1. "My answer is bring them on." —on Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003
Pro-genocide graffiti left overnight by Jewish settlers on the door to the Abu Heikel home in Hebron. (It's in English because huge numbers of the settlers are from the US).
The initials JDL stand for the Jewish Defense League, a Brooklyn-based terrorist group responsible for dozens of bombings and innumerable racial attacks in the United States. In the mid-1980s the FBI described the JDL as "the second most active terrorist group in the United States," saying that it was involved in 37 domestic terrorist attacks carried out from 1977 to 1984. (Orange County Register, Nov. 19, 1985). The JDL was founded by Brooklyn Rabbi Meir Kahane, who additionally formed the terrorist groups Kach and Kahane Chai. These groups - which are all formally characterized as terrorist organizations by the US State Department, the Israeli Government, and the European Union - are very active throughout the West Bank, which has been controlled for the last 40 years, Iraq-style, by Israel's army. They are associated with a number of local splinter terrorist organizations, such as the "Committee for Road Safety", a racist hit-and-run club which has been murdering Palestinian pedestrians in the region for decades. In Occupied Palestine, members of these organizations were responsible for the 1994 Hebron Massacre , attempts to blow up the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and a 2002 attempt to blow up a Palestinian elementary school full of girls in East Jerusalem.
Didn't know about that? Ask yourself why.
ORIGINAL PHOTO: CPT-Hebron, Tel Rumedia, July 2006. source
IMAGE ALTERATION: /anomalous
....
Tel Rumeida is a small Palestinian neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron widely-acknowledged as housing the most violent and extremist faction of the Israeli settler movement. Palestinian families who live directly next to these settlers are often virtual prisoners in their homes, subject to the settlers’ violent attacks and destruction of property.
In this BBtv vlog episode, Xeni speaks with Tibetan human rights worker Lhakpa Kyizom about reported abuses against so-called “wired monks” in Tibet, by PRC military and police. Using cellphones, these monks photographed dead and injured participants in nonviolent, pro-Tibetan sovereignty protests that took place in March. The monks then disseminated these images to supporters outside Tibet, using connected computers and mobile devices.
President Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch tonight at the Washington Nationals season opener and the inaugural game at Washington's National Ballpark.
He didn't get the fan response he was hoping for, as he was largely booed by the 41,000 strong crowd
Is America finally ready for a black president? That's a
question many people are asking these days, as Senator
Barack Obama takes the first steps toward a potential run
for the White House in 2008. Obama, 45, born in Hawaii to a
Kenyan father and white American mother, is a popular figure
and rising star in the Democratic Party, but faces several
hurdles as he seeks to become the first president in U.S.
history to understand what Jesse Jackson is saying.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle will be his name, which some
Americans are already confusing with another well-known
name, as a CNN reporter discovered while interviewing people
on the streets of New York.
Reporter: "What do you think of Barack Obama?"
Middle-aged man: "I think we should be trying harder to
capture him. What are we doing in Iraq when Obama is still
out there, still a threat to America?"
Reporter: "No, I mean Barack Obama from Chicago. What do you
think of him?"
Middle-aged man: "You mean he's in Chicago now? How did he
get into the country? Don't tell me he came through Mexico!
We really need to tighten our borders."
When it was revealed that Obama's middle name is Hussein,
many more people were confused, as the CNN reporter found
out on the streets of Atlanta.
Reporter: "What do you think of Barack Hussein Obama?"
Thirty-something man: "He got what was coming to him, that's
all I can say. He committed crimes against humanity and got
what he deserved. I don't feel sorry for him at all."
Reporter: "No, I mean Barack Hussein Obama from Chicago."
Thirty-something man: "You mean he was from Chicago? How the
heck did he get to be president of Iraq? Come to think of
it, I did notice a slight Chicago accent. Too bad he didn't
live for a few more weeks. He could have watched the Bears
in the Super Bowl."
Barack Obama may seem like a fairly easy name to remember,
but even some of his supporters are having trouble with it,
as the CNN reporter discovered on the streets of Chicago.
Reporter: "May I ask whom you plan to vote for in 2008?"
Twenty-year-old man: "I really like that guy, what's his
name, Obrack Barama."
Reporter: "What about you, Sir? Who gets your vote in 2008?"
Nineteen-year-old man: "Your Mama."
Reporter: "Pardon me?"
Nineteen-year-old man: "Broke Your Mama. That's who I'm
voting for. Broke Your Mama."
Obama may overcome the confusion and concerns over his name,
but it'll be harder to overcome racism. I'd like to think
that the majority of Americans -- and certainly the vast
majority of the younger generation -- don't have a racist
bone in their bodies or are at least taking medication for
it. But it often takes just a small number of votes to sway
an election. The 2004 presidential election was so close,
John Kerry would have beaten George Bush if he had merely
convinced everyone named 'John' to vote for him. The 2000
election was even closer. Al Gore would have beaten Bush if
he had merely convinced Larry King's ex-wives to vote for
him.
If Obama gets the Democratic Party's nomination, busloads of
white supremacists may show up at the polls.
Reporter: "May I ask whom you're voting for?"
Supremacist: "What kind of (bleep) question is that? The
white guy, of course."
Reporter: "So you agree with him about Iraq?"
Supremacist: "Of course I do. Our country doesn't need Iraq
Boboma -- or whatever his name is."
SEVERAL hundred protesters threw stones and flares at riot police protecting the US embassy in Belgrade today after Kosovo's declaration of independence, witnesses said.
One policeman was injured during scuffles as riot police fought to keep the protesters, mainly hardline football fans, away from the embassy building, the witnesses said. One embassy window was smashed.
The protesters marched through the middle of the capital towards the US embassy chanting "Kosovo is Serbia" and anti-American slogans. They waved Serbian flags and vowed to protest "until Kosovo is returned to Serbia".
After the scuffles, protesters dispersed in nearby streets, while the police remained around the embassy compound.
Obama's paternal grandmother Sarah Anyango Obama lives in Kogelo in western Kenya. She along with other relatives and friends have been crowded around their television sets watching the results of nominating contests across 24 states.
Born in Hawaii to a white American mother and Kenyan father, Obama is revered by many Kenyans.
Hillary Clinton is using a controversial Golden Earring song in her campaign called "When The Lady Smiles." It is a great song, but I was wondering whether Hillary really know that in the video for that song a nun is raped, and the attacker's brain gets eaten by a dog.
A Boston City Councilor pokes fun at the former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, on his hasty retreat from his former state and his many flip-flops.
Ron Paul is a Presidential candidate FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, NOT SPECIAL INTERESTS! No amnesty for illegals, lower taxes for everyone, no Iraq war, foreign policy the way our founding fathers wanted, and a 20 YEAR CONGRESSIONAL TRACK RECORD to PROVE that he actually votes the way he believes! A doctor, a former service member in the military, and married for over 50 years.
Heated debates in Russia's State Duma could be about to get even hotter. Among the brand new deputies to win seats are four female ex athletes who have a history of letting it all hang out - for the cameras. All eyes are now on the Duma, to see whether these beautiful ladies bring a new kind of passion to political discussions.
The ultimate clip regarding WMD lies - the clip we have all been waiting for. All the lies of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell compiled together, brilliantly done, with some great "extra" material.
Excerpt from the Downing Street Memo (about the Cabinet meeting on 23rd July 2002):
"(...)C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.(...)
It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.
The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult. The situation might of course change."
Senator Hillary Clinton's (Democrat, New York) address to the US Senate while voting YES to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq:
"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members...
It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well, effects American security.
This is a very difficult vote, this is probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make. Any vote that might lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction."
Senator Hillary Clinton (Democrat, New York)
Addressing the US Senate
October 10, 2002
The Italian drummer just plays his beats on top of the 8-bit Mario songs, but we love it. Vadrucci is clearly very talented. If there's anything we've learned from games like Rock Band, it's that drumming isn't as easy as it looks.
Using the 1992 presidential election as his springboard, documentary filmmaker Brian Springer captures the behind-the-scenes maneuverings ... all » of politicians and newscasters in the early 1990s. Pat Robertson banters about "homos," Al Gore learns how to avoid abortion questions, George Bush talks to Larry King about halcyon -- all presuming they're off camera. Composed of 100% unauthorized satellite footage, Spin is a surreal expose of media-constructed reality.
Three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black with three green five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centered in the white band; the phrase ALLAHU AKBAR (God is Great) in green Arabic script - Allahu to the right of the middle star and Akbar to the left of the middle star - was added in January 1991 during the Persian Gulf crisis; similar to the flag of Syria, which has two stars but no script, Yemen, which has a plain white band, and that of Egypt which has a gold Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band; design is based upon the Arab Liberation colors.
The Iraqi flag will no longer boast Saddam Hussein's handwritten praise to God nor its distinctive three stars, parliament decided yesterday. The house passed a new flag law by 110 votes to 50 which will change the appearance of the standard but keep its horizontal red, white and black stripes. Instead of the executed dictator's handwritten "Allahu Akhbar" (God is Greater), the phrase will be printed in green on the central white stripe in the Kufi form of Arabic script, parliament ruled. The three green stars, which symbolized unity, freedom and socialism-the slogan of Saddam's Baath party-will also be dropped. Under an earlier proposal, the stars were to be kept but the symbolism changed to represent peace, tolerance and justice. Before being given new meaning by the Baath party, the stars had represented Arab unity between Iraq, Syria and Egypt. Ethnic Kurds in particular had wanted the flag changed as it symbolized the Saddam-era regime which launched campaigns of persecution in which thousands were killed with poison gas.
We are not trying to create a new flag, but we are moving quickly to create a temporary flag that can be flown at the parliamentary conference in Arbil. Since the Kurds reject the current Iraqi flag we needed to find a new one," said Mofeed Al-Jazarie, head of the parliament's culture committee. Kurdistan banned the use of the Iraqi flag on public buildings in 2006, causing a bitter row with the Shi'ite Islamist-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, who said the flag should be raised "over any square inch of Iraq". Kurds associate the flag with Saddam's genocidal Anfal campaign against them in the late 1980s in which tens of thousands of people were bombed, shot and gassed. Kurdistan president Masoud Barzani wrote to the Iraqi parliament last year calling for the flag to be changed. He said then that any new flag would fly alongside Kurdistan's. "It is unacceptable that this flag, which reflects the acts of the former regime in spreading hatred and death inside Iraq and between people of the reg ion, is still adopted," he wrote. The new flag will fly at the March 10 meeting of the Arab parliament in Arbil, capital of Kurdistan, believed to be the first major pan-Arab gathering in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. The parliament comprises representatives of Arab League members.
Just before the Michigan Primary this week, Matt Romney decided to take a some pressure off his dad with a little comic relief. Those that know him recognize that he loves a good practical joke.
His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at being the leader of the crowd that toppled the statue in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now, he is filled with nothing but regret.
The moment became symbolic across the world as it signalled the fall of the dictator. Wearing a black vest, Mr al-Jubouri, an Iraqi weightlifting champion, pounded through the concrete in an attempt to smash the statue and all it meant to him. Now, on the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, he says: "I really regret bringing down the statue. The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day."
The weightlifter had also been a mechanic and had felt the full weight of Saddam's regime when he was sent to Abu Ghraib prison by the Iraqi leader's son, Uday, after complaining that he had not been paid for fixing his motorcycle.
He explained: "There were lots of people from my tribe who were also put in prison or hanged. It became my dream ever since I saw them building that statue to one day topple it."
Yet he now says he would prefer to be living under Saddam than under US occupation. He said: "The devil you know [is] better than the devil you don't. We no longer know friend from foe. The situation is becoming more dangerous. It's not getting better at all. People are poor and the prices are going higher and higher."
Saddam, he says, "was like Stalin. But the occupation is proving to be worse"
Today we honor Dr. King's birthday. We all know him because of his historic impact on civil rights, but many don't realize that later in life he fought just as passionately for the rights of workers and against the entrenched institutions of injustice.
why one Army Soldier is leaving the army. Find out why he chose not to join the National Guard to help defend U.S. borders like those of Kosovo. Find out why he has decided to fight for liberty and sovereignty at home. Liberties are not given; they are taken!
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Rupert Murdoch of News Corp / Fox News Admits Manipulating the News for Agenda - Admits he supported the Bush Agenda in Iraq - He is part of the Bilderburg group - This is why Fox News has an agenda against Ron Paul in the 2008 Presidential Election
Martial Law: 9/11 Rise of the Police State was filmed primarily during the Republican Party's 2004 national convention in New York City. ... all » The Republican Party's choice to hold the event there drew both strong praise and strong criticism. Alex Jones' clear intent was that the people who were truly guilty of planning and carrying out the events of September 11, 2001 were coming back to the scene of the crime. In the film, Jones shows what he believes are signs of a growing police state: constant surveillance, a defined military presence, a militarized civilian police force, mass roundups and arrests of protesters, detention in a makeshift facility laden with asbestos which one interviewee called a "concentration camp", and threats of arrest for constitutionally legal activities. Many different views are presented, including one semi-humorous confrontation with a group of American communists.
Scott Ritter, a former UNSCOM weapons inspector, was the single individual who, before the war, stuck his neck out stated that Iraq did NOT possess WMD. He was all over national TV with this message but was dismissed as heretic.
Ahmadinejad never stated he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. An intentional mistranslation by the warmongering corporate media.
David M. Walker (born 1951) is the current Comptroller General of the United States, and as such heads the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and is in effect the USA's chief accountability officer.
A U.S. election watchdog claims to have spotted discrepancies between machine and manually counted ballots in the New Hampshire primary election. New Hampshire officials have agreed to do a manual recount.
“Ron Paul won an informal straw poll of Virginia Republicans Saturday at the state party’s annual weekend retreat,” the Associated Press is obliged to admit. “The Texas congressman got 182 of the 479 ballots cast, or 38 percent. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson finished second with 112 votes, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee third with 51.”
As Ron Paul keeps winning straw polls and gaining momentum, the corporate media is pulling out the stops.
For instance, the UPI compares the Paul campiagn to “notable third-party campaigns in U.S. history,” even though Paul is a Republican. “I think you could build a case that Ron Paul is part of a tradition of those unhappy with the iron grip of the status quo, from Ross Perot to Ralph Nader right back to Teddy Roosevelt and the Bull Moose Party,” Bruce Buchanan, a professor of government at the University of Texas, Austin, told the Los Angeles Times. “What they all have in common is a freedom from the normal tendencies toward caution and equivocation.”
In other words, at least according to Buchanan, Paul does not fit in the Republican party. Of course, going independent almost certainly ensures a candidate ends up a historical footnote and this is what the Republicans want, as Paul continues to upset the apple cart.
In a recent interview with Ron Paul, Soledad stated that many articles about him called him a flake. This video proves that not one single article existed calling him a flake. It was simply a CNN invented smear. Old Media cannot be trusted. We need to keep these liars honest !
Senator Barack Obama, Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Hillary Clinton and Ruth Harkin stand during the national anthem.
Barack Hussein Obama’s photo (that’s his real name)……the article said he REFUSED TO NOT ONLY PUT HIS HAND ON HIS HEART DURING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, BUT REFUSED TO SAY THE PLEDGE
It was three years ago that this blunt messages was mowed down on their property. But it is still showing up on Google Earth and 8 months back the property owners came to know its still available for viewers
With the United States and Pakistan united in a war against terrorism, the suggestion Friday that the United States once threatened to bomb the Pakistanis "back to the Stone Age" landed like a diplomatic bombshell.
Acting swiftly to defuse concern over any such threat, the White House dismissed it as a misunderstanding, the former deputy secretary of state who allegedly issued the threat denied ever using such incendiary words, and President Bush attempted to smooth it over with a joke.
Yet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who made the alleged U.S. threat public in a television interview airing this weekend, refused to confirm or deny the claim during a news conference with Bush on Friday. Musharraf cited his vow of silence to an American book publisher that plans to release his memoirs Monday.
"I am launching my book on the 25th and I am honor-bound to Simon & Schuster not to comment on the book before that day," Musharraf said to laughter in the East Room of the White House.
"In other words," Bush interjected, `Buy the book,' is what he's saying." And afterward, as the two stood shaking hands for photographers, Bush repeated his advice: "Buy the book." The controversy stems from an alleged threat that may or may not be discussed in Musharraf's memoir, "In the Line of Fire."
"60 Minutes," the CBS weekly newsmagazine, will air an interview with Musharraf on Sunday - as part of the publisher's book promotion. In that interview, according to CBS, Musharraf recounts what his intelligence director told him of a conversation with Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, `Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,'" Musharraf told CBS.
Armitage has acknowledged delivering a strong message to Pakistan - but not that strong.
The latest milestone for a country at war came Friday without commemoration. It came without the precision of knowing who was the 2,974th to die in conflict. The terrorist attacks killed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
An Associated Press count of the U.S. death toll in Iraq rose to 2,696. Combined with 278 U.S. deaths in and around Afghanistan, the 9/11 toll was reached, then topped, the same day. The Pentagon reported Friday the latest death from Iraq, an as-yet unidentified soldier killed a day earlier after his vehicle was hit by a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad.
Not for the first time, war that was started to answer death has resulted in at least as much death for the country that was first attacked, quite apart from the higher numbers of enemy and civilians killed.
Historians note that this grim accounting is not how the success or failure of warfare is measured, and that the reasons for conflict are broader than what served as the spark.
The body count from World War II was far higher for Allied troops than for the crushed Axis. Americans lost more men in each of a succession of Pacific battles than the 2,390 people who died at Pearl Harbor in the attack that made the U.S. declare war on Japan. The U.S. lost 405,399 in the theaters of World War II.
Despite a death toll that pales next to that of the great wars, one casualty milestone after another has been observed and reflected upon this time, especially in Iraq.
There was the benchmark of seeing more U.S. troops die in the occupation than in the swift and successful invasion. And the benchmarks of 1,000 dead, 2,000, 2,500.
July ' ' 02 ' ' 2009 @ 03:24 AM
