XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Sept. 11 Bracelets Come From China... - TSA bought 70,000 commemorative bracelets -- all made in China -

Sept. 11 Bracelets Come From China... - TSA bought 70,000 commemorative bracelets -- all made in China - 
U.S. Spends $80B on Non-American Goods including Bracelets



For last year’s 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, U.S. Transportation Security Administration officials wanted their workers to remember the thousands who died. So the agency bought 70,000 commemorative bracelets -- made in China.
The wristbands were among as much as $84 billion in U.S. contracts (USBOTOTA) awarded for foreign goods and services in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, mostly through exemptions from legislation designed to restrict such deals. Foreign purchases by federal agencies also included rocket launchers and machine guns from Bulgaria, as well as generic cholesterol medication for U.S. veterans that came from plants in India.
A Buy American Act from 1933 and similar measures since then have become so riddled with loopholes that some U.S. lawmakers are saying enough. Three senators proposed legislation last month to expand domestic preference rules and require agencies seeking made-in-America waivers to publish their plans on the Internet and allow time for public comment.
“A major objective of our bill is to demand accountability and ensure waivers are not being overused to allow for the purchase of foreign products when there is a quality, American- made alternative available,” U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat sponsoring the legislation, said in an e- mailed statement.
In the past five years, federal agencies awarded contracts valued at more than $500 billion for foreign goods and services, peaking at $111 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Government.


Read more -
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-10/sept-11-bracelets-come-from-china.html

Dead People Receive Ballots in NH Primary - “Live free or die,” worker said “This is New Hampshire. No ID needed.” -

Dead People Receive Ballots in NH Primary - “Live free or die,” worker said “This is New Hampshire. No ID needed.” - 





Video footage provided exclusively to The Daily Caller shows election workers in New Hampshire giving out ballots in the names of dead voters at multiple voting precincts during the state’s primary election on Tuesday.

The bombshell video is the work of conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe and his organization, Project Veritas.

Voters in the Granite State are not required to present identification to vote. O’Keefe’s investigators were able to obtain ballots under the names of dead voters at polling locations Tuesday by simply asking for them, he said.

“Live free or die,” an election worker told one of the investigators in the video. “This is New Hampshire. No ID needed.”



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/11/video-nh-poll-workers-shown-handing-out-ballots-in-dead-peoples-names/#ixzz1jB0pXtFr

Canada Premier gave Will and Kate a 692-diamond set of polar bear cufflinks and brooch on Canada trip -

Canada Premier gave Will and Kate a 692-diamond set of polar bear cufflinks and brooch on Canada trip - 
Picture
William's Polar bear cuff links


 Picture
Kate's Diamond set Polar bear brooch



Kate and William didn’t come to Toronto during last summer’s royal visit, but Toronto went to them, in a shape of a 692-diamond set of polar bear cufflinks and brooch.


Celebrity jeweler Harry Winston crafted the bling from diamonds from the Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories, owned 40 per cent by the Harry Winston Diamond Corporation of Toronto.


Okay, it’s a stretch.


The pave diamond set, described as “a polar bear silhouette beneath a semicircle representing the Northern Lights,” was presented to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge by N.W.T. Premier Floyd Roland.


Clarence House, the official website for the Prince of Wales, his sons and Kate, has released the list of all the gifts the royal couple collected in their cross-Canada tour with one or two word descriptions.


This has incensed the British tabloids, who smell a cover-up in just describing the widely reported diamond encrusted extravagance as a “brooch” and “cufflinks.”


Kate and Wills also collected 35 unspecified books, caribou antler snow goggles and a wardrobe of five T-shirts, two pairs of sweaters, three hockey jerseys, a dress, a few pairs of shoes and nine hats — including, of course, the Calgary Stampede white ten-gallon jobs that looks so photogenic.


Hat fancier Kate also went home with two fascinators — one in peacock feathers and one in tartan.


The Minister of Health, Leona Aglukkaq, chipped in two mosquito traps and the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, gave the newlyweds a woolen blanket, a framed photograph, souvenir editions of Canadian magazines, two jackets, a flag and a bottle of whiskey.


Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1113887--will-and-kate-reveal-wedding-gift-list?bn=1

Iranian nuclear scientist killed in car bomb blast - Two on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs to the car -

Iranian nuclear scientist killed in car bomb blast - Two on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs to the car - 
11012iranbombing.jpg



Two assailants on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and another person Wednesday, state TV reported. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran's atomic program.
The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to amplify authorities' claims of clandestine operations by Western powers and their allies to halt Iran's nuclear advances.


The bomb killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, state TV reported. Natanz is Iran's main enrichment site, but officials claimed earlier this week that they are expanding some operations to an underground site south of Tehran with more advanced equipment.
The U.S. and its allies are pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a key element of the nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as nuclear fuel but at higher levels, it can be used as material for a nuclear warhead.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/11/report-bomb-kills-iran-university-professor/?test=latestnews