Democracy At Stake? Who said we were a Democracy?

Could this be ...

Source for the following: New American

Democrats Seek Amendments to Restrict Free Speech

by Alex Newman

Democrat lawmakers and a coalition of radical activist groups are pushing for constitutional amendments to reverse the Supreme Court’s landmark “Citizens United” ruling, a decision that recognized that groups of people have a right to free speech even if they are acting together under the banner of a corporation, union, or non-profit organization.

One of the amendments, introduced in the U.S. Senate this month by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and other Democrats, would give Congress the authority to further regulate and limit spending in federal elections. State governments would also be allowed to intrude in state-level political campaigning.

"As we head into another election year, we are about to see unprecedented amounts of money spent on efforts to influence the outcome of our elections,” Udall said in a statement. “With the Supreme Court striking down the sensible regulations Congress has passed, the only way to address the root cause of this problem is to give Congress clear authority to regulate the campaign finance system."

While the amendment does not specify the regulations, it would allow Congress to pass laws limiting contributions to candidates. Independent political spending for or against any campaign — such as through advertisements highlighting a candidate’s voting record — could also be restricted or prohibited if the amendment were to pass.

The Citizens United ruling involved a non-profit corporation attempting to expose then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by advertising and purchasing TV time. Citing the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold “campaign-finance reform” statute, the Federal Election Commission barred the group from presenting its information to the public. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that the prohibition violated the First Amendment.

“The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission promises to unleash the electoral fury of America's small businesses and citizens groups," noted The New American magazine's Thomas Eddlem after the 5 to 4 ruling last year. "This unqualified positive development is one of the best reasons for constitutionalists to cheer a court decision in decades. So it's no surprise that the official Left is squealing like a stuck pig over the decision."

In addition to overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, the proposed amendment introduced in the Senate would also undo the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision. In that ruling, the high court asserted that election spending is a form of free speech.

Not everyone agrees that it is, however. So far, a petition supporting Udall’s amendment has gathered more than 100,000 signatures. Nine other radical Senators are in the coalition backing it, including Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and self-described socialist Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Also supporting the measure are members of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and leftist groups promoting big government such as People For the American Way.

“In Citizens United, the Supreme Court put our democracy [sic] up for sale, and as a result, a constitutional amendment is the only way to completely stop the flood of special interest spending in our election system,” said PFAW Vice President Marge Baker in a statement. “The American people — not deep pocketed corporations — should be the loudest voice when we choose our leaders.”

A separate effort being advanced by other groups to amend the Constitution, known as “The People's Rights Amendment,” would take a different approach to the issue. Introduced in the House by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) on November 15, the proposal would explicitly exclude corporate entities — groups of individuals acting for a common goal — from constitutional protections such as free speech.

“Corporations are not people,” McGovern said in a statement. “They do not breathe. They do not have children. They do not die in war. They are artificial entities which we the people create and, as such, we govern them, not the other way around.”

McGovern said the high court’s ruling upholding freedom of speech was “extreme.” He also claimed the decision “eroded” the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech”) and the Constitution, though he did not explain how or why. “Now is the time for a 28th Amendment that lifts up the promise of American self-government: of, for, and by the people,” McGovern concluded.

The group that authored the amendment, “Free Speech For People,” applauded McGovern for introducing it. “For the first time, the United States Congress now has the opportunity to debate a constitutional amendment bill that raises the fundamental question of whether people or corporations shall govern in America,” claimed campaign director John Bonifaz, who co-founded the group on the same day as the Citizens United decision.

“The nation is ready for this debate,” Bonifaz claimed in a press release. “Americans understand that our democracy [sic] is at stake and that we must fight to preserve it. We see Congressman McGovern’s proposed amendment as another important strike on behalf of the 99 percent.”

A third proposed constitutional amendment to limit free speech and overturn Citizens United is inspired directly by the Occupy movement. Known as the “Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy” (OCCUPIED) Amendment, it was introduced in the House by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) on November 17.

“Americans of all stripes agree that for far too long, corporations have occupied Washington and drowned out the voices of the people,” Deutch claimed in a statement. “I introduced the OCCUPIED Amendment because the days of corporate control of our democracy [sic] must end. It is time to return the nation's capital and our democracy to the people."

Despite similar goals, however, a group called “Motion to Amend,” which has been lobbying hard for an amendment restricting free speech, is expressing reservations about the proposals introduced so far. “Passing an amendment will be a tough job, so the language must be commensurate with the effort needed to win,” it said in a statement released this week. “The amendment must be strong and clear enough to end corporate rule — there's no room here for half solutions or ambiguity.”

For one of the constitutional amendments to be adopted, it would have to be approved by a two-thirds majority in each house of Congress. Then it would need to be ratified by three fourths of the states. According to analysts, that will be extraordinarily difficult to accomplish — as the Founding Fathers intended — especially with so much opposition.

Last year, after the Citizens United ruling, Democrats in Congress tried to limit the effectiveness of the court’s decision by passing the so-called “DISCLOSE” (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections) Act. The legislation, which critics noted would violate the First Amendment, eventually died in the Senate after failing to muster Republican support.

The opposition to restrictions on freedom of speech is still solid. And critics of the push for amending the Constitution say limiting the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment is not the solution to corporate abuse of governmental power. Instead, they argue, Congress should simply obey the Constitution as it is written — that would limit government power and make corporate lobbying for special benefits a waste of time and effort.
Related articles:

McCain-Feingold and Free Speech

Catch That Action...but is it legal?

Jetman Flies In Formation With Other Jets

See more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13356307

Clapper, Obama, and the Muslim Brotherhood...out to destroy America (and they're doing a pretty good job at it)

Has the White House gotten away with slight of hand ?  Apparently so!

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MOTTO

 “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader.

The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way.

Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu akbar!”

The MUSLIM Brotherhood’s goal is to turn the world into an Islamist empire. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a revolutionary fundamentalist movement to restore the caliphate and strict shariah (Islamist) law in Muslim lands and, ultimately, the world. Today, it has chapters in 80 countries. “It is in the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.” ~ Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna

...and don't forget RULE # 8 (Written in 1982)

8. Encourage Muslims to penetrate the White House, specifically with Islamists who can articulate a marvelous and peaceful picture of Islam. Acquire government positions and get membership in local school boards. Train Muslims as medical doctors to dominate the medical field, research and pharmaceutical companies (Ever notice how numerous Muslim doctors in America are, when their countries need them more desperately than America?) Take over the computer industry. Establish Middle Eastern restaurants throughout the U.S. to connect planners of Islamization in a discreet way.

New Hamshire Ballot Access...any liar with $1,000.00 can get their name on the ballot

________________

Socialism

I never learned Russian but I understand this...

Russian news anchor shows Obama the middle finger - November 21, 2011 Vidéo mirrorthis2010 sélectionnée dans Actualité

...too bad our main stream media can't follow her lead.

Jobs: Far fewer than the Obama administration predicted (But who got all the money?)

Newsmax

Budget Office: Obama's Stimulus Failed on Jobs
November 23, 2011 ~ By: Paul Scicchitano

In a blow to the Obama administration, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has concluded that the president’s economic stimulus plan created fewer jobs than expected and “crowds out” private investment.

A new report the CBO released on Tuesday finds that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act may have boosted the economy in the short run by sustaining some 700,000 jobs at its peak in 2010 but “will reduce output slightly in the long run — by between 0 and 0.2 percent after 2016.”

The report estimates that the total number of jobs the plan produced was far fewer than the 3.5 million the Obama administration predicted during the peak of spending.

The CBO estimates that the stimulus is responsible for sustaining between 600,000 to 1.8 million jobs during this quarter, which lowered the nation’s unemployment rate by as much as 1 percent.

In July, the conservative Weekly Standard estimated that Obama’s stimulus package had cost taxpayers $278,000 for every job it created.

There was no immediate comment from the White House on the CBO report, but officials haveinsisted in the past that the economy would have fallen into a depression without the jobs act..

In September, White House press secretary Jay Carney called it “uncontestable” that the infrastructure projects the act created “were very well managed, came in on budget or under budget and led to the creation of many, many jobs” that would not have been created otherwise.

CBO, a nonpartisan agency, has re-evaluated the stimulus every three months with varying estimates of the total price tag — from $787 billion, up to $862 billion and now $825 billion.

The agency also has changed its model for the spending's impact on the economy, and the new calculations show that the act did less than originally projected.

CBO’s latest report reveals that the top-end decline of two-tenths of a percent is deeper than the agency predicted before the stimulus passed in February 2009, according to a report in The Washington Times.

At the peak of spending from July through September 2010, the American economy sustained between 700,000 and 3.6 million jobs, which lowered the unemployed rate between four-tenths of a percent to 2 percent, The Times reports.

An opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution acknowledges that the stimulus failed to keep unemployment below 8 percent, as the Obama administration had projected, but blamed the discrepancy on a greater decline in the gross domestic prodcut than previously estimated.

“In short, in early 2009 we thought the economy had fallen off a ladder,” the article says. “In reality, it had fallen off a six-story building.”

Quote Of The Day

We have traded our freedom for the false comfort and the bondage of Big Brother. Perhaps because of our stupidity and our faithlessness we deserve the horrible future we are racing toward. ~ from: Watching the decline of the late, great United States of America

Religion and the New World Order

The UN's One World Religion

Religion and the New World Order                            (emphasis mine ~ N. E. H.)

Subversive World Council of Churches - One of the early major attempts to co-opt religion in the service of world government came in 1942. Time magazine devoted considerable space in its March 16, 1942 issue to a report on a gathering at Ohio Wesleyan University of hundreds of delegates representing the more than 30 denominations called together by the notoriously pro-Communist Federal Council of Churches (FCC).

The FCC (which later changed its name to the National Council of Churches, NCC) was the American branch of the Communist-controlled World Council of Churches, which still exists and has never ceased its subversive activities.

Chairing the 1942 FCC

Wesleyan confab was Insider John Foster Dulles, a founder of the CFR and, together with his brother Allen Dulles (CFR), a member of the Woodrow Wilson-Colonel House team that tried to foist the League of Nations on the United States. John Dulles would later go on to promote the new world order as Secretary of State under President Eisenhower. However, at the 1942 FCC conference he was lining up church support for the United Nations that would be coming three years later.

As Time reported, the Dulles-led conference produced a political program of "extreme internationalism." Some of the "high spots" of that program were, said Time:

·    Ultimately, "a world government of delegated powers."

·    Strong immediate limitations on national sovereignty.

·    International control of all armies and navies.

·    "A universal system of money...."

·    Progressive elimination of all tariff and quota restrictions on world trade.²⁴

According to Time, the conference,

"held that 'a new order of economic life is both imminent and imperative' — a new order that is sure to come either 'through voluntary cooperation ... or through explosive political revolution.'"

"'Collectivism is coming whether we like it or not,' the delegates were told by no less a churchman than England's Dr. William Paton, co-secretary of the World Council of Churches." ²⁵

The problem is that Dr. Paton and his comrades did want collectivism, and they were doing everything in their power to fasten it upon the peoples of the world, through both patient gradualism and "explosive political revolution." The Time story finished on this note:

The ultimate goal: "a duly constituted world government ... an international court ... international administrative bodies with necessary powers, and adequate international police forces and provision for enforcing its worldwide economic authority."²⁶

The Dulles-FCC propaganda parley no doubt greatly assisted the Insiders' globalist plans, both in building religious support for U.S. entry into the forthcoming United Nations, and in neutralizing opposition to the same organization. In the decades since that confab at Ohio Wesleyan University, UN religious summitry has played an increasingly important part in the one-world transformation scheme.

The World "Peace" Summit

The granddaddy of these convocations, the United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, was held in New York City in late August 2000 (not to be confused with the gathering of Heads of State at the UN's Millennium Summit, which followed in September). The Peace Summit offered terrifying glimpses of the outrageous and demonic "global spirituality" the Insiders have planned for us.

The outrages began even before the Peace Summit began, when the UN organizers announced that the Dalai Lama would not be invited because his attendance would offend Communist China!²⁷

So, while more than a thousand religious leaders and gurus representing every conceivable "faith tradition" gathered in New York under banners of "tolerance," "peace," and "brotherhood," one of the world's best-known religious figures, the revered leader of millions of Buddhists, and a man who exemplifies those virtues the UN summit extolled, was barred from attendance — because the totalitarian, genocidal butchers who have been brutally occupying his tiny kingdom of Tibet for half a century would get upset!

The hypocrisy and outrage multiplied as the Summit got underway. Not only was the Dalai Lama excluded, but Red China was given a platform to denounce him and the many other victims of their brutal religious persecution. Representing the Butchers of Beijing at this UN spiritual confabulation was "Bishop" Michael Fu Tieshan of the PRC's "Patriotic Catholic Church."²⁸

Bishop Fu is not a genuine Roman Catholic bishop recognized by the Vatican; he is an agent of the Communist government who provides protective cover for his masters while they cruelly oppress real Catholic bishops, priests, and lay faithful. Real Chinese Catholics like the late Ignatius Cardinal Kung Pin-Mei, who spent more than 30 years in Red China's prisons. Cardinal Kung was arrested in 1955, along with more than 200 other Catholic priests and Church leaders.

They were abused, tortured, and publicly humiliated at show trials. Cardinal Kung was kept in solitary confinement during much of his heroic three decades of imprisonment. He died in exile, in the United States, at the age of 98, on March 12, 2000 — just a few months before the UN "Peace" Summit. He was the Catholic Church's oldest cardinal.²⁹ Other aged servants of God remain in prison. In February 2000, for example, shortly before Cardinal Rung's death, 80-year old Archbishop John Yang was arrested during a midnight raid at his home by the Communist authorities.³⁰

The persecution continued after the Summit as well. On September 14, 2000, barely a week after the PRC butchers were welcomed to the Summit, Bishop Thomas Zeng Jingmu was arrested in his town of Hangpu, in the Southeastern province of Jiangxi. The frail, 80-year-old bishop was taken by force to the local prison of Linchuan. Bishop Zeng, who has been arrested many times for his faith, has suffered more than 30 years in prison since the 1950s. Also arrested at the same time as Bishop Zeng were Auxiliary Bishop Deng Hui and Father Liao Haiqing.³¹

Many other Christians in China share this same fate. A few days before the start of the Summit, three American evangelists were arrested in China in the tyrannical regime's crackdown on Evangelical Protestant "house churches." The Americans were among 130 Christians netted in the Communist sweep of worship services in private homes.³²

This was but the latest in an ongoing pattern of persecution that includes the execution by firing squad of Reverend Liu Jiaguo.³³ And the persecution of Christians has been increasing and intensifying — not mellowing — in recent years, with each new concession from the U.S. and the West. At the same time, the Beijing regime has also been engaged in an ongoing brutal suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual exercise and meditation sect, as well as a continuing persecution of Chinese Muslims.³⁴

In his address to the UN's "spiritual" Peace Summit, Bishop Fu Tieshan, the puppet-stooge of these Red Chinese persecutors, said:

Let us pray for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, respect the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter, and from now on, guard against and put an end to anything that taint and desecrate religious purity... Today in China, facts and other practice genuinely reflect the harmony between different religions. And under the protection of the Constitution and other laws, we enjoy comprehensive and full religious freedom.³⁵

In an obvious attack on the Dalai Lama and the many brave religious believers suffering under the Communist regime, "Bishop" Fu said:

"At present, there are still many violent and evil activities going on 'in the name of religion.' Some people have made use of religious differences to fuel ethnic feuds and provoke so-called conflicts of civilizations; sometrample upon the sovereignty of other countries under the pretext of 'protecting religious human rights.'"³⁶

Did any of the esteemed spiritual leaders attending the Peace Summit walk out in protest over this brazen display of hypocrisy? Did they announce their "solidarity" with their brothers who are suffering for their religious convictions? Did they demand that Red China stop its vicious persecution of all religions? Did they even timidly ask our Beijing "partners" to lighten up with the truncheons and thumbscrews?

Hah! Not even close! Instead, they politely applauded (some enthusiastically cheered) this puppet of the Communist persecutors.

Most Americans, if they saw or heard any coverage of the Summit in the major CFR-dominated media, were not apprised of the cruel charade that was played out there. Few are aware that Bishop Fu Tieshan is a fraud or that religionists of all types are routinely persecuted in Red China.

CNN certainly wasn't going to expose this sham; CNN founder and current vice-chairman of CNN parent company Time Warner, Ted Turner, not only was a major financial sponsor of the Summit, but also honorary chairman of the event.

Turner, who is infamous for his profanity, womanizing, and scathing verbal attacks on Christianity, Christian leaders, the Ten Commandments, and Biblical morality, couldn't resist using the Summit podium to criticize the "very intolerant" Christianity of his boyhood and to propose a more global, all-embracing spirituality for the "one human race."³⁷

Excerpted from:  The United Nations Exposed (Chapter 12) by William F. Jasper

Something went awry on the way over to YouTube... Is this 'THE' Chris Mathews?

With help like this we can almost guarantee Obama is finished...good job Chris! (I can't believe I said that!) ~ Norman E. Hooben 

The Associated Press Leaped To A Conclusion That Just Was Not There

This is not the first time the AP was caught on the wrong side of a story...maybe they ought to get out of the news business and hang out a new shingle called, "The House That Fiction Built" ~ Norman E. Hooben

AP, they found your missing caribou
by Don Surber @ Daily Mail

The story two Octobers ago by Charles J. Hanley of the Associated Press was a sad one. Caribou were dwindling due to mankind’s global warming! A survey found that a quarter-million caribou had disappeared. Wrote Charles J. Handley: “Global warming has boosted temperatures in the Arctic twice as much as elsewhere, and Canadian researchers say the natural balance is suffering.”

Well, now some 25 months later, those missing caribou have been found. In Saskatchewan. From the Canadian Press:

A vast herd of northern caribou that scientists feared had vanished from the face of the Earth has been found, safe and sound — pretty much where aboriginal elders said it would be all along.

“The Beverly herd has not disappeared,” said John Nagy, lead author of a recently published study that has biologists across the North relieved.

Those scientists were shaken by a 2009 survey on the traditional calving grounds of the Beverly herd, which ranges over a huge swath of tundra from northern Saskatchewan to the Arctic coast. A herd that once numbered 276,000 animals seemed to have completely disappeared, the most dramatic and chilling example of a general decline in barren-ground caribou.

But Nagy’s research — and consultation with the communities that live with the animals — concludes differently.

His work springs from recent studies that question the long-held theory that caribou always return to the same calving ground. It holds that different herds use different grounds, and that’s what sets them apart.

“In the past, herds have been defined based on their calving grounds,” said Nagy. “However, it’s been shown that not all herds maintain fidelity to their calving grounds.”

Herds are now defined by which animals hang out together, not by where they give birth.

“It’s actually behavior that structures these herds, not calving grounds.”

It turns out that the Beverly herd has simply shifted its calving grounds north from the central barrens near Baker Lake, Nunavut, to the coastal regions around Queen Maud Gulf. Nagy’s analysis of radio-tracking data showed caribou in the region once thought to belong to the Ahiak herd are, in fact, Beverly animals.

So, it was a false alarm. The herd did not die out. It switched locations. I’m glad. As one scientist said: “Many of the community people reported that elders think this is nothing new. Caribou move.”

Once again, we learn that the Man-made Global Warming alarmists were wrong.

They stated something as fact.  It was a fallacy.  They leaped to a conclusion that just was not there.

Don’t expect a follow up from the Associated Press. the world suffering from the evils of greedy capitalists is a better story than scientists don’t know what they are talking about.

Caribou/climate expert Liv Solveig Vors told the Associated Press two years ago: “Climate change is changing the way they’re [caribou are] interacting with their food, directly and indirectly.” Charles J. Hadley also wrote, “Vors said caribou are unlikely to adjust.”

Apparently they do and they did.

Pre-War News ...aah, that would be, nuclear war!

The Russians may very well be preparing for war (something the United States should consider instead of disarming as the Obama clan is doing).  Whenever they make public statements such as, "...facing a heightened risk of being drawn into conflicts..." it most likely was their own doings...they are drawing themselves into conflicts and just waiting for the right excuse to blow somebody off the map.   And this will be condemned by the United Nations with empty words as they secretly celebrate another success in their quest for world domination...while the Obama Administration cheers from the peanut gallery.  ~ Norman E. Hooben


Yahoo News

Russian military chief warns of nuclear war risks
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia is facing a heightened risk of being drawn into conflicts at its borders that have the potential of turning nuclear, the nation's top military officer said Thursday.

Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, cautioned over NATO's expansion eastward and warned that the risks of Russia being pulled into local conflicts have "risen sharply." ...

...
The nation's military doctrine says it may use nuclear weapons to counter a nuclear attack on Russia or an ally, or a large-scale conventional attack that threatens Russia's existence. ...
Read full story here: Yahoo News

The Coming Food Shortage..."Be honest, now: Can anybody in your house skin a rabbit?"

There's probably not a person out there that has not noticed the increase in the cost of food over the last few years.  But not everyone knows that in times of economic uncertainty price increases always precede shortages...and in some cases, products will completely disappear off the super market shelves.  "What are you going to do about it?"  "How are you going to eat?"  "What are you going to eat?"  "What risks will you take in order to feed your family?"

Be sure to watch the extraordinary video below.

Question: "Do you think there could be another Depression?"

"I don't know. I hope to God not. But, I know the generation now wouldn't know what to do with it. They wouldn't know how to do, they wouldn't know how to go out and milk cows or kill pigs. You know, we even did our own butchering. Butchered our cattle and our beef, and I mean, our pork. Just like chickens – we dressed chickens. I remember one time we dressed 25 chickens at my house." ~ Mildred Opitz on the Possibility of Another Depression

"They're closing down markets to put up pet salons."  Huffington Post August 23, 2011

"Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Brooklyn community organizer and food justice advocate Mark Griffith discuss the crisis of “food deserts” – local communities where it’s hard to get fresh, healthy food – and what’s being done to improve the way New Yorkers eat." ~ WNYC 93.9 FM

"Be honest, now: Can anybody in your house skin a rabbit?" ~ LA Times December 2008
More suggestions come from: Wild Food Summit

Rose Barlow was an herbalist for over 20 years, practicing in the Wise Woman tradition and director of Coulee Region Herbal Institute in Southwestern Wisconsin. Rose passed on in June 2009. Her wealth of knowledge lives on in her website www.rosesprodigalgarden.org.

Alma Christensen “Lady of the Woods” is a self-taught botanist who used her knowledge of harvesting wild foods to help her family survive the Great Depression.

Steve Dahlberg has fond memories of foraging as a kid, which he now passed on to his triplet teenage boys and two daughters. He is the Director of Extension Services and the Science Chair at the White Earth Tribal and Community College (WETCC). He incorporates wild edible plants and tracking into his classes. He is also an artisan knife maker.

Rebecca Dallinger lives in Ogema, MN and is a wild food enthusiast and herbalist. She is committed to learning and teaching families about wild foods and plants, often found in our yards, that lead to health.

John Kallas has a PhD in Nutrition and a Masters in Education from Oregon. He’s a trained botanist, nature photographer, writer, researcher and teacher. John has led expeditions on wild foods for over 25 years and runs Wild Food Adventures (http://www.wildfoodadventures.com) — an institute foraging and studying edible wild plants. He publishes the Wild Food Adventure quarterly newsletter and the Wild Food Primer. His recent book is Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt to Plate.

Mike Krebill recently retired from 35 years of teaching seventh grade science in Iowa and Michigan, much to the chagrin of parents who were hoping their son or daughter would have him for a teacher. He was famous for getting kids outdoors, and for teaching science research skills by experimenting with wild foods. Honors include Michigan Science Teacher of the Year, Michigan Environmental Educator of the Year, Keokuk (Iowa) Teacher of the Year, and being inducted into the National Wild Foods Association Hall of Fame. Mike is fairly knowlegeable about mushrooms, and is vice president of the Prairie States Mushroom Club.

Kelly Larson has been getting wild for nearly twenty years. Embracing both a spiritual and physical connection to the natural world, she strives to ‘know’ her food sources and take a personal responsibility for the journey to her plate. Fishing, hunting, gardening, mushroom harvesting and chicken wrangling are a few of the self-taught skills of this woman of the woods. Kelly is a Minnesota Master Naturalist and leads occasional mushroom forays and bird walks. She lives in rural Bagley, MN with her husband, four cats, seven peacocks, and flocks of heritage poultry at Northern Flights Farm.

Matt Mattson is a biologist and archaeologist who incorporates the ages and ways of archaeological finds to better understand the ways in which people lived.

Francois Medion is currently a student at the University of Wisconsin -Superior and is a wonderful chef and makes a delectable dutch oven bread that is highly praised at WFS.

Tom Peterson has been teaching mushrooming for 17 years. Starting out at age 8, Tom learned foraging mushrooms and wild foods from Cliff Crow in the White Earth Area. Tom has his own mushroom cultivation business and sells at the St Paul Farmers Market in the Twin Cities.

Laura Reeves is a botanist from Gardenton, Manitoba. She runs Laura’s “You can eat that?!” Wild Edible Adventures“, which offer a hands-on introduction to incorporating wild edibles into everyday meals. She is also a co-instructor of Wilderness Skills courses in southwestern Manitoba. Over the years, Laura has weaned herself off of grocery store produce and now relies solely on the fruits and vegetables that she has gathered or grown, herself. This year WFS 2011, she will focus her talents on showing people how to “break through the wall of green” when identifying wild edibles. It is a unique instructional style that is varies from traditional individual plant identification.

Sunny Savage is a woods woman at heart and loves eating wild things with her son Saelyn. She has a masters in nutrition and is a creator of Wildfoodplants.com, She has since moved on from White Earth Tribal and Community College to Hawaii, where the plants are very different but still very good. To see clips of Sunny’s television series ‘Hot on the Trail with Sunny Savage’ wildfoodplants.com.

Sam Thayer is a nationally known wild food instructor and researcher. He is the author and publisher of The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants and Nature’s Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants. He is the creator of the Standish Price Wild Food Interpretive Trail in northern Wisconsin. With a guide booklet and 118 stops, it is perhaps the only trail devoted to edible wild plants in the U.S. Sam is a member of the National Wild Foods Hall of Fame. He was editor of “The Forager,” a wild food periodical with subscribers across the US and Canada. Sam and his family live in Wisconsin near National Forest Land.

foragersharvest.com.
Dana Trickey has spent over 10 years learning to forage for wild foods and medicines from the woods from many elders and teachers.

Michael Wassegijig Price is a Wikwemoikong First Nations of Manitoulin Island band member. He works to keep Ojibwe plant names and culture alive and enjoys sitting by the campfire with his son Che’.

Stephanie Williams: Stephanie is a White Earth band member whose first job is grandmother. She is also the teacher of popular classes on medicinal plants, wild foods and making cremes and salves from natural ingredients.

And if you're really hungry and the local fish market is out of your favorite shellfish you can always do this:

Hollywood Producer Speaks Out: "OMG this really had become Hitler Germany."

Nobody likes to hear the words, "I told you so."  Sometimes people must admit they were wrong but you will never hear a confession from a die-hard liberal.  In the lead up to the 2008 presidential elections many of us (Internet bloggers) described the  clueless Democrats as voters who more than likely voted the party line simply because they always did...their mothers did, their fathers did, their in-laws, brothers, sisters, cousins did, ad infinitum.  Never could any of them foresee the Marxist character emerging from the depths of the Democratic Party...but we could, couldn't we!  We told you in so many ways it should make your head spin; but no, you could not break the family tradition...even if it meant losing not only your so-called rights but your very country will no longer be under that red, white , and blue banner of freedom (admittedly the latter has not yet occurred but the blue rag of the United Nations will soon be included in Main Street parades of the future).
So now we have a Hollywood Producer speaking out against massive corruption within the Democratic Party and all we can say now is, "We told you so!"  Almost (maybe 99%) all of which Bettina Sofia Viviano describes in her interview was well known by we who put out the unheeded warnings. 
On a personal note I witnessed voter corruption as a poll watcher in the 2006 elections such that a judge had to be called in to settle a matter and even the judge was complacent and I let her know my dissatisfaction over the phone by telling her, "...to get down here and do your job!" and then hung up the phone on the judge.  You would think that the judge would show up at the precinct...she didn't! ...and the voter fraud was allowed to go unchallenged.  As it turned out the county where that took place is about 85% Democrat.
Meanwhile back with the Bettina Viviano interview.  When she makes this statement, "She might be a far left Democrat like Obama, but the big differences are that she is competent and doesn’t hate this country as he does." regarding Hilary Clinton, Viviano doesn't have a clue.  Hilary hates this country and the only thing she is competent in is, deception...just like her husband Bill.  Don't let me say, "I told you so." in 2013 for then it will be too late; those blue berets are just around the corner! ~ Norman E. Hooben

Source for the following: Canada Free Press

Bettina Sofia Viviano, We Will Not Be Silenced

ALERT: Hollywood Producer Speaks Out Against Massive Obama and DNC Corruption
 -by Sher Zieve

What would have seemed unlikely—if not impossible as the fear of doing so was too great—three years ago, is beginning to happen today. Some successful in Hollywood are actually speaking out against Dictator-in-Chief Obama and the now totally corrupt Marxist-Democrat Party.
As with the commencement of all pro-liberty movements, only the most courageous amongst us first step into the fray. The others follow after they believe it is safer to do so. The brave one, this time, is producer and now screenwriter Bettina Sofia Viviano. Through a series of events I met Bettina, and that led to the following interview. I believe many if not most will find it eye-opening and extremely revealing.

The Interview

Sher: Bettina, first of all thank you so much for your time. You are one of the seemingly fewer and fewer Conservative producers in Hollywood who has been very successful including your latest film Jack & Jill starring Adam Sandler and opening 11 November.
When we talked last week, you told me that you had no interest in politics until the 2008 general elections. Please tell my readers the story of what changed both your attitude and perspective towards the current US political theater.
Bettina: Back in 2008, I had never even voted in my life. I wasn’t registered to vote, and I probably didn’t even know how many Congressman the US has. I knew that, being in the film business, I was SUPPOSED to be a far left Democrat or face being blackballed and abused by my colleagues. So, I just didn’t bother with it. Why bother if you really have no choice anyway?
Then a writer/director client of mine, a Democrat, called me and asked me if I wanted to produce a documentary about voter fraud in the Democratic Primary with her. She had received a phone call from a very well known Congressional Investigator in Washington, who told her that the Hillary campaign had launched serious allegations against the Obama campaign for caucus fraud. We saw a letter from Hillary’s lawyer in DC, Lynn Utrecht, and sure enough there was something there.
When the director, Gigi Gaston, first told me about this…I couldn’t have been less interested. Really? Caucus fraud? Who cares. I wasn’t political and I didn’t have a dog in the Hillary/Obama race anyway. However, it was one of those split second decisions that changes the entire course of one’s life. For some reason, I agreed to do it and my life has never been the same. What we saw…the ugly, vicious, nasty voter fraud committed by the Obama camp, the DNC and ACORN, has scarred me for life. The entire time we were going across the country interviewing people who had experienced and witnessed the fraud, I could only feel that America was a third world, banana republic like Cuba. In fact, Brad Sherman, a California Congressman, told one of my partners on the film that “there was so much fraud in the Democratic Primary that we look like a banana republic.” He of course refused to say it on camera, but they all knew what happened. All of them. And the fact that no one stood up against this fraud, and in many instances criminal acts, appalled me. What they did to Mrs. Clinton was beyond disgraceful, and in the end we proved that by all accounts she really did win the nomination. Imagine what a different country this would be right now had she won. She might be a far left Democrat like Obama, but the big differences are that she is competent and doesn’t hate this country as he does.
Sher: After you had begun filming the documentary “We Will Not Be Silenced,” you discovered that Barack Hussein Obama’s fraud permeated virtually everything he did politically…from using his group ACORN to commit extreme election fraud to his usage of the New Black Panthers wielding weapons to intimidate voters. The fraud begins with Obama’s stealing votes and support from Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democrat nomination. Would you give us the details of how this patently ugly and deviant picture unfolded?
Bettina: We started investigating the caucus fraud that was reported in 14 caucus states. There were 2000 complaints in Texas ALONE. Along with those claims, there were as I said a lot of criminal complaints as well at the police stations. What we found in every state was that the stories were always the same. People reporting vandalism, threats, death threats, fraud, falsified documents, lock outs, intimidation, you name it…all directed at the Hillary voters. And the worst part was that the ACORN/Obama campaign/DNC thugs weren’t really hiding it from anyone.
I think that Democrats always justify their fraud with moral relativity. They think that what they are doing is for “everyone’s own good” so the end justifies the means. We saw such blatant disregard for human beings, personal property, the laws of our country, and civil society in general that I was truly horrified. So many people we interviewed were scared to come forward, whether due to threats of losing their lives, their jobs, or being thrown out of the Democratic Party. I just kept thinking…who the hell do these people think they are? They are blatantly and openly committing the most heinous acts of voter fraud, threats, intimidation, and they don’t care. If I brought this fraud up to my Democrat friends, the only thing they said to me was “well BUSH did it too.” But, oddly, this wasn’t Republican on Democrat voter fraud. This was the Democrats eating their own.
Sher: On a lighter note, recently Dictator Obama’s team established his latest snitch website “Attackwatch.com.” Apparently, if anyone tells the truth about Obama they are to be reported to members of the still-growing Obama Police State. I understand that it was taken offline for awhile but, like all of the undead, it’s back! Many conservatives and others reported themselves but, I found your story particularly hilarious. Please tell the readers what you did to report yourself.
Bettina: I have basically had it with the Obama Regime and their snooping on people, trying to silence dissent, attempting to quash the First Amendment. They, again, would love to silence everyone so we can live in some hopey dopey world where no one’s opinions are welcome unless they kiss Obama’s rear end. When Obama put that “Something’s Fishy” nonsense on the White House website, I felt like I was living in Venezuala or Cuba. Everyone was supposed to “report their friends and neighbors who say negative things about Obamacare.” WHAT? “Report” them? OMG this really had become Hitler Germany. So, rather than wait for one of my friends or neighbors to report how much I hated Obama and his disgusting, vile, ridiculous “destroy America” piece of garbage legislation, DEATHCARE, I decided to just report MYSELF.
I called the White House message line, got a live operator, told her I hate Obama and Obamacare, and that I had my bag packed for the FEMA Camp if she wanted to send someone to come get me. Surprisingly, she laughed and giggled and hung up. I really was waiting for the Secret Service visit but it never came. Which kind of angers me because I have Facebook friends who have made very benign comments about Obama and have received the visits from the guys in the black SUVs. I guess you haven’t arrived until you have been the recipient of Obama’s attempt to shut everyone up.
Sher: Working in Hollywood, you have a unique perspective. What are you hearing about Obama’s continuation of his destructive tenure that you can share with us?
Bettina: I try not to discuss politics that much with my friends in Hollywood. They are all great people, but sometimes I wonder if they even know why they are liberals. I mean, it has come down to the fact that you just CAN’T support Obama and his criminal regime, no matter what party you are in. It’s too bad, because the Democrats signed their own death warrant by taking down Hillary for Obama. We warned them, and now I see a ton of buyer’s remorse. I will say this…In public you will never get anyone in Hollywood to discuss Obama’s disastrous “Presidency.” They know it would be career suicide to tell the truth. But, when I have private conversations with my friends, they admit he is a failure and was a mistake. Three years ago I warned everyone that Obama was the biggest threat to our safety, security and prosperity and I am sadly right.
Sher: Thanks so much, Bettina. Is there anything else you’d like to share with the readers?
Bettina: This has been an incredibly eye-opening three years for me. I think we can all agree that the direction of our country has been hideous and that this is possibly the last chance we have to repair the damage. I would just like to say to your readers…Get involved. This is critical to the survival of our country. The best thing people can do is get active; become poll watchers in their precincts, because the ACORN people are out there already, getting ready to steal another election. Obama’s numbers are so bad, that we know there is no logical way for him to win in 2012. The fraud will be huge, just like it was in 2008. Please, people, don’t stay home. Support the GOP candidate…donate your time and money…and volunteer at your polling location. This is the most important fight of our lifetime. The one thing I can say about my fellow Americans who have decided to join the fight to save our country…Democrats really underestimate the power of the American Spirit.

We Will Not Be Silenced:
We Will Not Be Silenced - Part 1:
Attackwatch.com:

Wall Street Occupier...an army of one !

Paris: The world needs to see what is happening to this city...Is America next?

“There is no Islamic authority that respects freedom or democracy."

~ Gamal al-Banna ~

 (brother of the Muslim Brotherhood founder)

________________

The following from CBN.com

PARIS - Friday in Paris. A hidden camera shows streets blocked by huge crowds of Muslim worshippers and enforced by a private security force.

This is all illegal in France: the public worship, the blocked streets, and the private security. But the police have been ordered not to intervene.

It shows that even though some in the French government want to get tough with Muslims and ban the burqa, other parts of the French government continue to give Islam a privileged status.

An ordinary French citizen who has been watching the Islamization of Paris decided that the world needed to see what was happening to his city. He used a hidden camera to start posting videos on YouTube. His life has been threatened and so he uses the alias of Maxime Lepante.
 

Lepante's View

His camera shows that Muslims "are blocking the streets with barriers. They are praying on the ground. And the inhabitants of this district cannot leave their homes, nor go into their homes during those prayers."

"The Muslims taking over those streets do not have any authorization. They do not go to the police headquarters, so it's completely illegal," he says.

The Muslims in the street have been granted unofficial rights that no Christian group is likely to get under France's Laicite', or secularism law.

"It says people have the right to share any belief they want, any religion," Lepante explained. "But they have to practice at home or in the mosque, synagogues, churches and so on."

Some say Muslims must pray in the street because they need a larger mosque. But Lepante has observed cars coming from other parts of Paris, and he believes it is a weekly display of growing Muslim power.

"They are coming there to show that they can take over some French streets to show that they can conquer a part of the French territory," he said.

France's Islamic Future?

If France faces an Islamic future, a Russian author has already written about it. The novel is called "The Mosque of Notre Dame, 2048," a bestseller in Russia, not in France.

French publisher Jean Robin said the French media ignored the book because it was politically incorrect.

"Islam is seen as the religion of the poor people, so you can't say to the poor people, 'You're wrong,' otherwise, you're a fascist," Robin explained.

The book lays out a dark future when France has become a Muslim nation, and the famous cathedral has been turned into a mosque.

Whether that plot is farfetched depends on whom you ask. Muslims are said to be no more than 10 percent of the French population, although no one knows for sure because French law prohibits population counts by religion.

But the Muslim birthrate is significantly higher than for the native French. Some Muslim men practice polygamy, with each extra wife having children and collecting a welfare check.

"The problem of Islam is more than a problem of numbers," said French philosopher Radu Stoenescu, an Islamic expert who debates Muslim leaders on French TV. "The problem is one of principles. It's an open question. Is Islam an ideology or just a creed?"

"It doesn't matter how many there are," he aded. "The problem is the people who follow Islam; they're somehow in a political party, which has a political agenda, which means basically implementing Sharia and building an Islamic state."

In Denial or Fed Up

From the 1980s until recently, criticizing or opposing Islam was considered a social taboo, and so the government and media effectively helped Islam spread throughout France.

"We were expecting Islam to adapt to France and it is France adapting to Islam," Robin said.

About the burqa controversy, one French Muslim man told a reporter that Europeans should respect Muslim dress. One Parisian woman wearing a headscarf said "the veil is in the Koran" and "we only submit to God and nobody else."

But even if many government elites are in France are in denial over Islam, the people in the streets increasingly are not. Some have become fed up with what they see as the growing Islamization of France.

They've started staging pork and wine "aperitifs," or cocktail parties in the street. They're patriotic demonstrations meant to strike back against Islam. Another national demonstration is planned for Saturday, Sept. 4.

A Warning to the West

The French parliament debated the burqa law in this year. Jean-Francois Cope, president of the Union for a Popular Movement political party, has a warning for the West and for America.

"We cannot accept the development of such practice because it's not compatible with the life in a modern society, you see," he said. "And this question is not only a French question. You will all have to face this challenge. "

_______________________

The following from Hurd On The Web Dale Hurd CBN News Senior Reporter

Does Islam Wreck Economies?

Why are so many Muslim countries so backward economically? Six hundred million Muslims, one out of two, live in grinding poverty, 230 million in Islamic countries suffer from hunger.

Take away the oil wealth of some Middle East nations, and the situation gets exponentially worse. We’re talking about probably hundreds of millions more who would be living in squalor.
I have written in previous blogs the theory that Islam has wrecked culture and learning in the Middle East. Now, Mike Schuman, the outstanding economics correspondent at Time Magazine, has written an excellent piece about the roots of Muslim economic misery in The Curious Capitalist blog.
One conclusion is that the stricture of Islamic law strangles economic growth and business innovation.
I was reminded of what Gamal al-Banna, the brother of the Muslim Brotherhood founder, told Norwegian journalist Walid al-Kubaisi:
“The Muslim mind is rusty. It has done nothing for the last 1,000 years. One thousand years ago the innovation ended. What does that mean? It means that you act without thinking. Muslims have become like monkeys, only imitating others. This has lasted 1,000 years.”
The crux of the Muslim deficiency, from economics to culture to the scarcity of Nobel Prize winners, is modern Islam’s hostility toward human liberty. Al-Banna, known as a reformer within Islam, says, “There is no Islamic authority that respects freedom or democracy."
Some experts say Islam needs its own reformation, as Christianity experienced. But to bring Islam from the medieval period where it now squats and into the modern era would finish it as a major force in world affairs. Modernity and freedom are the enemy of modern Islam, eating away at its moral authority.
The great Islamic expert Bernard Lewis at Princeton told me that this is precisely why the Ayatollah Khomeini used the term the great tempter to describe America. Islam draws its considerable spiritual power through the use of fear and oppression, and from the control of women and young people.
Islam loses when it comes up against a vigorous and attractive Western culture. Birth rates fall. Views moderate. Islam can only dominate where Western culture is weak, and where there is a religious or cultural vacuum.