Archaeologists are puzzled as to the exact purpose of an ancient oak road unearthed on a Bord na Móna bog in Co Tipperary. Operations manager and site director with Archaeological Development Services (ADS) Jane Whitaker believes the track, which runs parallel to a modern road, may have formed part of an ancient road network. The road, discovered by ADS during a walking survey, is constructed from oak planks laid across oak beams and gravel. Mortise holes have been bored into the planks to facilitate wooden pegs. All of the materials were brought to the site from other locations.

New technique may help restorers identify decades-old pigments. A team of McGill chemists have discovered that a technique known as photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy could be used to identify the composition of pigments used in art work that is decades or even centuries old. Pigments give artist's materials colour, and they emit sounds when light is shone on them.

Attorney says county must comply with law before burial. The bodies of poor and indigent people for whom Des Moines County would be required to pick up the bill for burial or cremation will soon be offered up to medical schools to use for educational purposes before being laid to rest at public expense. During a recent review of state law while helping update the county's general assistance manual, Senior Assistant County Attorney Amy Beavers turned up an old law, previously unenforced by the county, requiring bodies being buried with taxpayers' dollars must be offered for use by medical science. Once the college or medical school has finished with the body, it will be properly buried or cremated. The only exceptions are for veterans, and if the decedent had a written declaration of what should happen with the body. The funerals of poor and needy veterans are handled through the county's Veteran Affairs Office, not through general assistance.

Reflections on Jack Kennedy - by Stephen Lendman

Though much about his background and public service warrants criticism, he also deserves praise rarely given properly, this article offering some and the writer's personal reflections on his commencement address to my June 14, 1956 graduating class, a message not heard now by US leaders - erudite, incisive and timely. More on it below.

Some Background

Had an assassin not taken his life, his health surely would have, some around him saying "from a medical standpoint, (he) was a mess." Indeed so, having been hospitalized more than three dozen times in his life and given last rites on three occasions.

At age 2 years, 9 months, he nearly died of scarlet fever. He contracted measles, whooping cough and chicken pox the same year, and as a child, was susceptible to upper respiratory infections and bronchitis. In 1935, he suffered jaundice, had a history of sports-related injuries because of his weak physique, and his mother remembered him as "a very, very sick little boy." In the 1930s, he began taking steroids for colitis, later developing complications, including a duodenal ulcer, back pain, digestive trouble, and underactive adrenal glands known as Addison's disease.

He had a host of other problems as well, including a bout of malaria as a naval officer in the Pacific. At age 43, the 1960 presidential campaign exhausted him because he overdid it for a man of his health and stamina. In 1947, his Addisonism was diagnosed, at the time told he had one year to live, and was given his last rites shortly afterward. Yet as senator and president, his health problems were hidden, an observer calling it "one of the most cleverly laid smoke screens ever put down around a politician('s)" physical well-being.

His Assassination

Much about it has been written and speculated, some of the best from James Douglas in his 2008 book titled, "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters," debunking mainstream myths and much more. From a wealth of information he uncovered, he showed how threatening Kennedy was to the military-industrial complex and had to go, "the CIA's fingerprints....all over the crime and the events leading up to it."

The notion of a lone gunman is ludicrous, the evidence clearly implicating a national security state coup against one of its own deemed unreliable. Though to some degree a cold warrior, he changed, was chastened by the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and refused another. He also fired CIA Director Allen Dulles, his assistant General Charles Cabell, and once said he wanted "to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds," reason enough to kill him.

Worst of all was his growing opposition to imperial wars, specifically in Southeast Asia. Though he initially sent troops and advisors, he changed, in 1961 opposing advice to send more to Laos, telling Averell Harriman, his Geneva Conference representative: "Did you understand? I want a negotiated settlement in Laos. I don't want to put troops in."

The same year, he opposed using nuclear weapons in Berlin and Southeast Asia and once called Pentagon generals "crazy" for suggesting them, perhaps with Curtis LeMay (1906 - 1990) in mind, a zealot who wanted to nuke the Soviets while we had the edge, even at the cost of a few US cities.

Kennedy also wouldn't attack or invade Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis, saying throughout it he "never had the slightest intention of doing so."

He swung to peace, away from war, telling an American University audience in 1963 that nuclear weapons should be abolished, the Cold War ended, followed by a "general and complete disarmament," and America no longer using its might to force Pax Americana on the world. Shortly afterward he signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty with the Soviets, and in October 1963 (about a month before his assassination), he signed National Security Action Memorandum 263, calling for removing 1,000 US troops from Vietnam by year's end and the remainder by December 1965.

Douglas wrote how, as president, he underwent a spiritual transformation from cold warrior to peacemaker, knowing it put him at odds with the Pentagon, CIA, most members of Congress, and nearly all of his advisors. As a result, he understood his vulnerability, perhaps by coup or assassination, a condition he nonetheless accepted and paid for with his life.

Besides turning toward peace and more, he also signed Executive Order (EO) 11110 on June 4, 1963 to:

-- amend EO 10289 (dated September 17, 1951) designating and empowering the Treasury to perform certain "functions of the President without the approval, ratification, or other action of the President;" and

-- perhaps bypass the Fed and empower the president to issue currency; it constitutionally empowered the federal government to create and "issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury."

Though not verified, some believe he then ordered the Treasury Secretary to issue nearly $4.3 billion worth of United States notes, perhaps to replace Federal Reserve Notes. Whether or not he wanted to end the Federal Reserve System (and return money creation power to Congress as the Constitution mandates) is speculation, but perhaps fearing it, besides the above cited reasons and more, led to his assassination five months later.

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson said: "Silver has become too valuable to be used as money." In late 1963, after he became president, US notes were withdrawn from circulation, and noted Fed critic and author of "The Creature from Jekyll Island," G. Edward Griffin, wrote on page 569 of his book:

"There was a third point, however, which everyone seemed to overlook. The Executive Order 11110 did not instruct the Treasury to issue Silver Certificates. It merely authorized it to do so if the occasion should arise. The occasion never arose. The last issuance of Silver Certificates was in 1957....six years before the Kennedy (EO). In 1987, (it) was rescinded by (EO) 12608 signed by Ronald Reagan."

Without mentioning EO 11110, he did it by amending EO 10289, rescinding the Treasury's right to issue silver-backed notes.

Had Kennedy lived and served a second term, imagine the possibilities. Ending the Vietnam war alone would have been a powerful legacy.

Kennedy's June 14, 1956 Commencement Speech

Given outdoors on a blistering hot/humid day, he began expressing "pleasure to join with my fellow alumni in this pilgrimage to the second home of (my) youth," noting the difference between academia's purpose to advance knowledge and his own "where the emphasis is somewhat different," saying:

"Our political parties, our politicians are interested, of necessity, in winning popular support - a majority; and only indirectly truth is the object of our controversy," often sacrificed for political advantage.

The "political profession needs to have its temperature lowered in the cooling waters of the scholastic pool. We need both the technical judgment and the disinterested viewpoint of the scholar, to prevent us from becoming imprisoned by our own slogans. Therefore, it's regrettable that the gap between the intellectual and the politician seems to be growing."

No wonder, he added, that politicians are so scorned, quoting James Russell Lowell's mid-19th century satiric attack on Caleb Cushing, a celebrated Attorney General and congressional member, calling him "true to one party, that is himself." It's as true today than then.

Kennedy's entire talk was full of scholarly references and quotes, including Lord Melbourne to a youthful historian Thomas Macauley about the differences between scholars and politicians. Another from philosopher Sidney Hook, saying "Many intellectuals would rather die than agree with the majority, even on the rare occasions when the majority is right."

Yet he reminded the audience that today's politicians and intellectual climate have a common ancestry, America's early leaders, also distinguished for their writing and intellect, including Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, and John Adams among others.

"Books were their tools, not their enemies. Locke, Milton, Sydney, Montesquieu, Coke, and Bollingbroke were among those widely read in political circles and frequently quoted in political pamphlets. Our political leaders traded in the free commerce of ideas with lasting results both here and abroad."

A contemporary of Jefferson called him "A gentleman of 32, who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play the violin." He was also a statesman and third US president.

"Daniel Webster could throw thunderbolts at Hayne on the Senate floor and then stroll a few steps down the corridor and dominate the Supreme Court as the foremost lawyer of his time. John Quincy Adams, after being summarily dismissed from the Senate for a notable display of independence, could become Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard and then become a great Secretary of State" as well as president.

"The link between the American scholar and American politician" lasted over a century. In the 1856 campaign, Republicans had "three brilliant orators - William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Those were the carefree days when the eggheads were all Republicans." One of their own became president on March 4, 1861, denied a second term by his April 1865 assassination, challenging the establishment and existing order also his undoing.

Kennedy quoted John Milton, Bismark, Goethe and others, his erudition on display for those attending, a man with an intellect who used it. He reminded the audience that politicians and intellectuals "operate within a common framework - a framework we call liberty. The lock on the door of the legislature, the Parliament, or the assembly hall - by order of the King, the Commissar, or the Fuehrer - has historically been followed or preceded by a lock on the door of the university, the library, or the print shop."

Where freedom is endangered, he said, politicians and intellectuals "should be natural allies, working more closely together for the common cause against the common enemy." They both must decide whether to be "an anvil or a hammer....whether (they are) to give to the world in which (they were) reared and educated the broadest possible benefits of (their) learning" for society's benefit, or do it solely for their own. "As one who is familiar with the political world, I can testify" to the challenge we face.

He opted against handing over political and public life to experts "who ignore public opinion. Nor would I adopt from the Belgian constitution of 1893 the provision giving 3 votes instead of 1 to college graduates; or give Harvard a seat in the Congress as William and Mary was once represented in the Virginia House of Burgesses."

But he urged politicians and intellectuals to work together, warning that we don't "need scholars or politicians like Lord John Russell, of whom Queen Victoria remarked, he would be a better man if he knew a third subject - but he was interested in nothing but the constitution of 1688 and himself. What we need are men who can ride easily over broad fields of knowledge and recognize the mutual dependence of our two worlds."

He ended quoting what an English mother once wrote the Provost of Harrow, saying "Don't teach my boy poetry; he is going to stand for Parliament."

"Well, perhaps she was right - but if more politicians knew poetry and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live on this commencement day of 1956."

Aged 39, he scarcely had more than seven years left before America's dark forces killed him, a lesson his successors never forgot. Neither should we knowing the rogues that followed and their agendas, worst of all post-9/11, putting the nation on a fast track toward despotism unless cooler heads can stop them.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Sisseton, S.D. - An 18-year-old high school student stockpiled bomb-making materials in his bedroom and wrote about wanting to blow up his school, target individuals he hated, rape women and "become the world's most infamous sociopath," authorities said. Joseph Thomas Hansen, of Claire City, was arrested Aug. 23 after someone tipped off a police school resource officer that Hansen had talked about an attack, authorities said. "Thanks to an alert citizen and a school resource officer, they were able to prevent a very serious and potentially dangerous situation," state Attorney General Marty Jackley said by phone Wednesday. Hansen pleaded not guilty Tuesday to selling, transporting or possessing an explosive device and possessing substances with the intent to make a destructive device, and is due back in court Sept. 14. If convicted of all charges, he could face up to 25 years in prison, Jackley said. Hansen remained jailed Wednesday in lieu of $500,000 bond and was unavailable to comment. A man who answered the phone at the family's home who identified himself as Hansen's father, Roland Hansen, referred questions to his son's attorney, Scott Bratland. Bratland did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment.

WikiLeaks likes to leak other people's secrets to the public. Now the gang at Gawker is going to see how the leakers react to be being the target of leaks. "Secret-sharing website Wikileaks.org's tagline is 'We open governments.' But the organization itself is about as open as North Korea," Adrian Chen wrote on ValleyWag today. "That's why we've launched Wikileakileaks.org: your source for Wikileaks-related secrets, documents and rumors!" The launch of Wikileakileaks is hardly absent of malice. Chen suggests as much in his posting when he writes: "Julian Assange, Wikileaks' enigmatic ex-hacker founder, is notoriously sensitive to media coverage of his organization, sometimes cutting off reporters completely after a single unfavorable article. (This happened to us.)"

Sarah Palin on Thursday tore into "impotent, limp and gutless reporters" who quote anonymous sources criticizing her. Though she did not name a story in particular, Palin seemed to be referencing a new Vanity Fair story on her that relies heavily on anonymous stories and contains several unflattering anecdotes about her temper. "I hear there is some pretty ugly stuff right now," Palin said of her recent coverage in an interview on Sean Hannity's radio show.

South Africa's cabinet has announced that a moratorium on deportations of Zimbabwean nationals in the country will be reversed, prompting an angry response from rights groups. In a post-cabinet announcement on Thursday, South African government spokesperson Themba Maseko said that deportations to Zimbabwe will commence after the 31st December this year, also adding that a special dispensation put in place for Zimbabweans will cease to operate. Under this dispensation Zimbabweans could enter South Africa and work for a total of three months before renewing the temporary permits. The moratorium on deportations was introduced in April last year, a few months after the formation of the unity government in Zimbabwe. The special dispensation was also announced in an effort to control the number of Zimbabweans crossing illegally into South Africa, fleeing the humanitarian crisis and economic meltdown back home. It was hoped that a backlog of migrants seeking asylum status in South Africa would ease if Zimbabweans in the country were given special documents. It is estimated that there are up to four million Zimbabweans living in South Africa, but because of fears of deportations most did not apply for official documentation from Home Affairs. It was widely believed that the moratorium on deportations was a temporary measure while the government worked at providing the special dispensation permits. But according to refugee rights group PASSOP, those permits were never issued, and most Zimbabweans in South Africa remain undocumented. PASSOP's Braam Hanekom told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that Zimbabweans are still unsuccessfully trying to apply for refugee status. He explained that while there are certain permits that migrants can apply for from the government, most Zimbabweans don't have the money for these applications.

Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder may have a higher risk of dementia than those without the stress disorder, a U.S. study suggests. Life-threatening events such as war are thought to cause PTSD. Symptoms include avoiding people or things that remind someone of a trauma, nightmares, difficulty with sleep, and mood problems. "We found veterans with PTSD had twice the chance for later being diagnosed with dementia than veterans without PTSD," said Mark Kunik, a psychiatrist at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Texas and senior author of the study, which appears in the September issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. "Although we cannot at this time determine the cause for this increased risk, it is essential to determine whether the risk of dementia can be reduced by effectively treating PTSD." The findings could have implications for veterans now returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, the researchers said. In the study, researchers looked at the healthcare database information for 10,481 veterans at least 65 years of age who had been seen at the Texas VA Medical Center at least twice between 1997 and 1999. The researchers noted whether a vet was wounded during combat, regardless of whether they subsequently received a PTSD diagnosis, in order to have a confirmed group with injuries and combat experience.

President Barack Obama's nationally televised speech from the White House Oval Office Tuesday night was an exercise in cowardice and deceit. It was deceitful to the people of the United States and the entire world in its characterization of the criminal war against Iraq. And it was cowardly in its groveling before the American military. The address could inspire only disgust and contempt among those who viewed it. Obama, who owed his presidency in large measure to the mass antiwar sentiment of the American people, used the speech to glorify the war that he had mistakenly been seen to oppose.

Another false ending to the Iraq war is being declared. Nearly seven years after George Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Obama has just given a major address to mark the withdrawal of all but 50,000 combat troops from Iraq. But while thousands of US troops are marching out, thousands of additional private military contractors (PMCs) are marching in. The number of armed security contractors in Iraq will more than double in the coming months. While the mainstream media is debating whether Iraq can be declared a victory or not, there is virtually no discussion regarding this surge in contractors. Meanwhile, serious questions about the accountability of private military contractors remain.

Vladimir Putin has announced Russia will not lift a ban on grain exports before next year's harvest, extending the embargo for another year, sparking fears over a global food shortage. The Russian prime minister said that it was "necessary to note that we will only be able to consider lifting the grain export ban after next year's harvest ... and we have clarity on the balances". His announcement came after deadly protests in Mozambique and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation calling an emergency meeting to discuss the shortages. The export ban is aimed at keeping the Russian domestic market well supplied with grain after Russia, which the world's third largest wheat exporter last year when it sold 21.4 million tonnes of grain, after the country suffered a record drought which destroyed a quarter of its harvest.

Insiders say the PM wants Konrad von Finckenstein out well before his term as chair ends. And vice-chair Michel Arpin is being ushered out the door Last year, as revealed by The Canadian Press, Prime Minister Stephen Harper lunched in New York with Roger Ailes, president of Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch, who owns it. Kory Teneycke, Mr. Harper's former spokesman, was also present at the unannounced event. Mr. Teneycke later became the point man for Quebecor's Pierre Karl Péladeau in his effort to create a right-wing television network modelled along the lines of Fox News. The new network is a high priority for Mr. Harper, for whom controlling the message has always been - witness his government vetting program - of paramount importance. In this regard, he scored a fantastic coup when Mr. Teneycke became head, courtesy of Mr. Péladeau, of Sun Media's political coverage. It's not every day that a prime minister sees his one-time spokesperson taking control of a giant media chain's coverage of his government. What, one wonders, will our journalism schools be telling their students about that? As remarkable as it was, it received scant attention because the focus was on the TV bid. That bid hit a roadblock last month when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission declared that the top-category type of broadcasting licence being sought by Quebecor would not be available - if at all - until Oct. 1, 2011, at the earliest.

Start: 24/09/2010 10:00 End: 24/09/2010 12:30 Timezone: Australia/Sydney Start: 24/09/2010 10:00 End: 24/09/2010 12:30 Timezone: Australia/Sydney

4th Protest:

Friday, 24 September 2010
10am-12.30pm
Parliament House, Sydney (Macquarie Street)

Another opportunity to band together and motivate ourselves to continue fighting for our kids. I know we're just sick and tired of the current regime of our our children being taken by DoCS v's the Children's Court judgements. I know none of us is getting a fair go in these courts and it's wearing all of us down, including me.

Hopefully we can keep supporting each other through the painful lives we have to face every day.

Bonnie
x

• New Stolen Generation by DoCS

..a big controversy has emerged in the conservative media over an Obama State Department report to the United Nations that has a few lines about the controversy over Arizona's immigration law The "eco-terrorist" shot to death in Maryland hated humanity, especially unborn children. But this mentality should not be considered out of the mainstream. He was just more of an activist about it. After all, the "womb war" that Alveda King talked about at Glenn Beck's rally has already cost the lives of more than 50 million children through abortion. The mission, said the terrorist in his manifesto, was to stop "all programs" on the Discovery Health cable channel which are "encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions." He demanded, "Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels..."

The UN has postponed the release of a draft report that accuses the Rwandan army of possible genocide in DR Congo. It follows angry protests from Rwanda about details in the leaked draft, with Rwanda threatening to pull its troops out of UN peacekeeping missions. The UN high commissioner for human rights says when the report is finally published on 1 October, it will have comments from concerned countries. Rwanda has described the claims in the report as "insane". The document, which was due to be published this week, accuses Rwanda's Tutsi-led army of killing Hutus in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s - acts it says may amount to genocide.

BP is warning Congress that if lawmakers pass legislation that bars the company from getting new offshore drilling permits, it may not have the money to pay for all the damages caused by its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company says a ban would also imperil the ambitious Gulf Coast restoration efforts that officials want the company to voluntarily support. BP executives insist that they have not backed away from their commitment to the White House to set aside $20 billion in an escrow fund over the next four years to pay damage claims and government penalties stemming from the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. The explosion killed 11 workers and spewed millions of barrels of oil into the gulf.

KENYA'S DEFENSE Kenya's ambassador to the United States is defending his government's refusal to arrest the president of Sudan on war-crime charges when he visited Kenya for a celebration of the new constitution. Ambassador Elkanah Odembo argued that Sudan would have exploded into another civil war had Kenya apprehended Sudanese President Omar Bashir at the Aug. 27 ceremony in Nairobi. He did not explain why Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki invited Lt. Gen. Bashir in the first place, nor why Mr. Kibaki kept the visit a secret from Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and other government ministers. "Sudan would erupt in a civil war ... I'm willing to put money on it," Mr. Odembo told the National Democratic Institute in Washington earlier this week.

With the Clyde B. Wells Bridge visible to the east, the air carried a heavy stench as 10-year-old Chandler Gibson emptied nets containing the scooped remains of a fish kill in Choctawhatchee Bay last Saturday. "I love to fish out here and he does too," Chandler said, motioning to his 70-year-old Bay Grove Road neighbor. He and his sister initially discovered the fish kill, because of all the birds. "Plenty of dead fish, dead shrimp and I seen a few crabs and they were hiding in the rocks," Chandler said. "I hate it."

Sky watcher Robert Thorson shot this video at 4:30 a.m. over Fresno, California, on August 31, 2010, according to Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) California State Section Director, and founder of the Sanger Paranormal Society. The sighting has not yet been investigated by MUFON.