XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Woman, 61, Gives Birth to Grandson -

Woman, 61, Gives Birth to Grandson -



Almost 39 weeks ago, Kristine Casey set out on an unusual journey to help her daughter and answer a spiritual calling.
Her goal was achieved late Wednesday when she gave birth to her own grandson at age 61.
Casey, possibly the oldest woman to give birth in Illinois, served as a surrogate for her daughter, Sara Connell, who had been trying for years to have a baby. Connell and her husband, Bill, are the biological parents of the child Casey carried, which grew from an embryo created from the Chicago couple's egg and sperm.
Crying and praying, Connell and her mother held hands as Finnean Lee Connell was delivered by cesarean section at 9:47 p.m.
When the baby let out a cry, "I lost it," said Sara Connell, the first family member to hold him. "It's such a miracle."

Mexican Troops Conduct Vehicle Search On U.S. Soil - It was all caught on camera -

Mexican Troops Conduct Vehicle Search On U.S. Soil - It was all caught on camera -




CHANNEL 5 NEWS is exposing what appears to be a Mexican military incursion into the United States. It was all caught on camera. We froze surveillance video taken at the Anzalduas International Bridge.
What you see is the international boundary that separates the United States from Mexico and what authorities on this side of the border seem to think is a truck packed with armed men crossing into the United States. The video clearly shows a large military-transport vehicle drive north on the Anzalduas bridge over the international boundary.
We counted at least a dozen armed men in the back of the truck. The vehicle travels down the bridge toward the U.S. Customs checkpoint. Its driver makes a U-turn just before reaching the lines of cars there. It then starts back south toward Mexico. The men pull over and search a vehicle for a few minutes then resume their trek south. The presumed soldiers then cross back over the boundary toward Mexico.
They are in U.S. territory for about 10 minutes. We're taking a closer look at the vehicle they stopped on the bridge and what U.S. authorities have to say about this apparent incursion.

Wisconsin National Guard Preps For Worker Unrest After Governor Unveils Emergency Budget -

Wisconsin National Guard Preps For Worker Unrest After Governor Unveils Emergency Budget -

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, unveiled an emergency budget proposalFriday to deal with the state's growing budget woes. Wisconsin has a $137 million deficit this year, and faces a projected $2.9 billion budget shortfall for 2012 and 2013.

Under Walker's plan, public employees would lose all of their collective bargain rights, except a limited negotiation of wages. State workers would also have to contribute more to their pension and health care benefit plans.
Unions erupted in outrage as they learned about Walker's proposal. The Governor told Milwaukee Public Radio that he has briefed the Wisconsin National Guard to prepare them for any worker unrest today.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/national-guard-is-prepared-for-state-worker-unrest-in-wisconsin-after-gov-unveils-emergency-budget-plan-2011-2#ixzz1E369qlJT

‘Wild ride’ Camaro ad the most-watched commercial in history - 119,628,000 viewers in the U.S. saw Sunday’s commercial -

‘Wild ride’ Camaro ad the most-watched commercial in history - 119,628,000 viewers in the U.S. saw Sunday’s commercial -




The Chevrolet Camaro ad featuring “Miss Evelyn” that ran during the Super Bowl was the most-watched commercial of all-time, according to Nielsen Co.
According to the rating agency, 119,628,000 viewers in the U.S. saw Sunday’s commercial, which features a woman racing through a desert and city streets in Chevy’s performance car.
The spot parodies standard car commercials, and ends with the woman, Miss Evelyn, stepping out of her vehicle after a wild chase and being revealed as an elementary school teacher.
The ad shattered the previous record of 116.2 million viewers for a Doritos commercial aired during the 2010 Super Bowl.
On YouTube, the Chevrolet ad has racked up more than a million views.
A Volkswagen commercial featuring a child dressed as Darth Vader from Star Wars was named “best-liked” by viewers, Nielson said.

Colombian military seizes 100-foot drug sub capable of holding 8 tons of cocaine - seized a dozen narcosubs last year -

Colombian military seizes 100-foot drug sub capable of holding 8 tons of cocaine - seized a dozen narcosubs last year -

Soldiers stand on a narcosub foundin Timbiqui, southwestern Colombia. <b>WATCH VIDEO BELOW</b>


The Colombian military has nabbed a sophisticated, 100-foot long submarine capable of transporting eight tons of cocaine to the coast of Mexico, authorities said Monday.
The fiberglass sub, which was seized in a jungle in Timbiqui, near the Colombia's southwestern Pacific coast, could carry a crew of four to six people, had two diesel engines and navigational equipment allowing it to remain fully submerged up to 30 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, navy officials said.
It also had a 16 ½ foot periscope and an air-conditioner to keep the crew cool during the trip. Authorities estimated it cost about $2 million to build.
The vessel was a step up technologically from previous narcosubs found in Colombia, which could not operate completely underwater.
Last July, authorities in neighboring Ecuador seized a fully submersible drug submarine.
Gen. Jaime Herazo said he believed the sub belonged to "narco-traffickers coupled with narco-terrorists, who received a heavy blow [due to its capture]."
Col. Manuel Hurtado, chief of staff of Colombia's Pacific Command, told The Associated Press that intelligence reports and tips from informants led soldiers to the sub.
It was empty when troops found it, and no arrests were made.
Hurtado said the sub had "the capacity to sail totally underwater and the ability to travel to the coast of Mexico without surfacing," adding that the trip would take eight to nine days.
The Colombian military has seized 32 semi-submersible narcosubs, including a dozen last year, Hurtado said.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/02/15/2011-02-15_colombian_military_seizes_fullysubmersible_100foot_drug_sub_capable_of_holding_8.html#ixzz1E34UmKCD



Ron Paul: I Can Beat “Warmongering” Obama - on MSNBC Ron Paul dropped perhaps the biggest hint preparing for presidency -

Ron Paul: I Can Beat “Warmongering” Obama - on MSNBC Ron Paul dropped perhaps the biggest hint preparing for presidency -



Congressman underscores how neo-liberal interventionist foreign policy of bombing goat herders in broken-backed third world countries has nothing to do with “defense” and is not conservative


During an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Congressman Ron Paul dropped perhaps the biggest hint yet that he is preparing to announce his campaign for the presidency, affirming he has the ability to unite Republicans, independents and progressive to defeat the “warmongering” Barack Obama.



Asked if he could beat Obama, Paul responded, “The reality is it would be very, very difficult, but if you look at the polls, and there aren’t that many, my appeal is to a lot of independents and a lot of progressive Democrats who are sick and tired of Obama for opting out of cutting back on some of this militarism,” adding that his numbers would be even bigger when stacked up against Obama than they would be in a Republican primary.
“He’s a war monger,” Rep. Paul added. “He’s expanding the war. My numbers would be much bigger running against Obama than they will be running against some conservative in the Republican primary.”
Indeed, an April 2010 Rasmussen poll showed that Paul was almost level with Obama if the two were to go head to head for the presidency. Following a 15 point bounce in the aftermath of the Tucson shootings, Obama has pulled away from all potential Republican candidates, but given the momentum Paul could build with his energetic grass roots base, beating Obama would be a distinct possibility.
Despite the fact that a Rasmussen poll released last week showed that Paul was ahead of Sarah Palin in terms of having the ability to beat Obama, a Fox News poll released yesterday, which showed all of the establishment Republican candidates trailing Obama by some margin, did not even include Paul in the survey.
Exemplifying again how the establishment consistently tries to derail Paul’s momentum by ignoring his very existence, obscure names like John Thune and Jon Huntsman were included in the Fox poll and yet Paul was omitted entirely.
During the MSNBC segment, the Congressman pointed out that the debate over military spending was a matter of semantics, arguing that the issue had little to do with “defense” and more to do with propping up the US military-industrial complex and occupying foreign countries.
“I think the problem we have is with the semantics,” said Paul. “They have conditioned us all to use the word defense spending. Who wants to cut defense? I don’t want to cut defense. I want a stronger defense.”
“I want to cut the militarism, the interventionism, the stuff that hurts us, that makes us more vulnerable,” he added. “If we separate defense from militarism, maybe more people would be willing to accept it. Who wants to be on record who says I just voted against the defense budget.”
“I think it’s a perception and a semantics problem that we have to try to reeducate the people to understand what we’re talking about.”
Paul’s ostracization by the self-proclaimed “conservative” Young Americans for Freedom organization, a group that vehemently supported the Democrat-led war in Vietnam, for his refusal to support the interventionist and neo-liberal expansion of the US military-industrial complex, should be worn as a badge of honor.
“It is a sad day in American history when a one-time conservative-libertarian stalwart has fallen more out of touch with America’s needs for national security than the current feeble and appeasing administration,” YAF’s Senior National Director Jordan Marks said in a statement.
By lumping Ron Paul in with the “feeble and appeasing” Obama administration, Marks attempts to make a distinction between Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush, by portraying Obama as weak on “defense,” when in reality, the Obama war chest has been bigger than anything ever passed under Bush year upon year. Obama’s 2011 war chest swelled to more than 700 billion dollars – that’s more than Bush ever got.
Indeed, as soon as Obama took office his first action was to send 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan and to expand the Bush-era bombings in Pakistan, as well as opening up a new front in Yemen. There are more US troops deployed globally under Obama than there ever were under Bush.
Bush and Obama have both followed identical interventionist foreign policies that mainly revolve around carpet bombing goat herders in broken-backed third world countries, something that Paul rightly points out has nothing to do with the “defense” of the United States.
The fact that Obama has a bigger military budget than Bush ever did gives a pretty clear indication that occupying and invading foreign countries has nothing to do with true conservatism – it comes from the foundational beliefs of those whom the Young Americans for Freedom organization would undoubtedly champion – neo-cons who are nothing more than Trotskyites – they believe wholeheartedly in the welfare-warfare state.
Ron Paul should be honored to be kicked out of this pitiful little group – because it only crystallizes his character as a real conservative, while the Young Americans for Freedom are nothing more than a mouthpiece for neo-cons who have more in common with historical Marxists than they do the founding fathers of America.
Ron Paul is a true icon of genuine conservatism – every policy he embraces would have a ringing endorsement from the founding fathers – who staunchly advocated a non-interventionist foreign policy.
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Argentina Seized Undeclared Weapons and Drugs on U.S. Military Aircraft Last Week

Argentina Seized Undeclared Weapons and Drugs on U.S. Military Aircraft Last Week -


Argentina and the United States are engaged in a diplomatic spat after Buenos Aires authorities seized what they say are undeclared weapons and drugs on a US military aircraft last week.
The Argentine government on Monday said it planned to lodge a formal protest with Washington, while the US State Department said it was “puzzled and disturbed” by the seizure of what it claimed was routine equipment for training the Argentine federal police.
Officials in Argentina said the US Air Force C-17 transport plane was searched and its cargo seized by customs officials on Thursday at Ezeiza International Airport after arriving with experts and material for a hostage rescue training exercise.
In a statement late Sunday, President Cristina Kirchner’s government said it would lodge a protest with Washington and ask it to cooperate in a probe into the air force’s attempt “to violate Argentine laws by bringing in hidden material in an official shipment.”