Bangor Makes It Illegal to Smoke in Cars

BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- The Bangor City Council approved a measure Monday that prohibits people from smoking in vehicles when children are present.

When the law goes into effect next week, Bangor will become the first municipality in Maine to have such a law. Similar statewide measures have been adopted in Arkansas and Louisiana and are under consideration in several other states.

People who smoke with children present in the confined space of a car or truck might as well be deliberately trying to kill those children, said City Councilor Patricia Blanchette, who is a smoker.

"Let's step up to the plate and lead; our children are worth the fight," she said.

The ordinance, which was approved by a 6-3 vote, applies to any motor vehicles on any public roads within the city. Violators face fines of up to $50.

An amendment that was added Monday to the original proposal makes the violation a primary offense, rather than a secondary offense. That means police can pull over vehicles if they see somebody smoking with anybody under 18 in the vehicle; if it were a secondary offense, police would have to stop the vehicle for some other reason, such as speeding.

Several residents, doctors and representatives from the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce and the Fusion Bangor development group spoke in favor of the ordinance.

Pediatrician Robert Holmberg said the evidence is "incontrovertible" that exposure to cigarette smoke causes medical disorders in children, including asthma, bronchitis, ear infections and heart disease.

"Children are the most in need of the protection by public policy, because they can't protect themselves," he said.

But the ordinance also had its critics.

Councilor Susan Hawes, who voted against the law, said the police department should devote its energy to more important issues. There's already too much government intervention in people's lives, she said.

Aaron Prill of Bangor told the council that the ordinance was a "feel- good option" that was not intended to protect children but rather to "moralize" against smokers. Most smokers have enough common sense not to smoke around children, he said.

Fighting Continues in Somalia; Gov't Soldier Killed

washington post

Nairobi, Jan. 10 -- Fighting continued Wednesday in the Somali capital Mogadishu and in the southern part of the country, two days after a U.S. warplane attacked alleged al-Qaeda (the keyword here is alleged) terrorists there.

In Mogadishu, at least one government soldier was killed and several others were wounded after gunmen ambushed military posts manned by Ethiopian troops and forces loyal to the interim Somali government, a local news service reported. In the south, two heavily armed local militias clashed in Bergani. Residents also reported continued airstrikes in the region where the Ethiopian air force has been attacking Islamic militias, and where the American airstrike occurred overnight Sunday.

A Somali official told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the U.S. military had told him the attack killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who is considered the mastermind of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa.

But military officials in Washington declined to provide information about any casualties from the strike. And Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali official who said he received the news in a U.S. military briefing, said Wednesday that he had not received any further updates.

Mohammed, and two other suspects linked to the embassy bombings that killed 225 people, are believed to be among the remnants of the Islamic Courts movement whose leaders fled south from Mogadishu in the face of Ethiopian attacks late last month, taking refuge in into an area of thick forests, swamps and rural villages along the Indian Ocean coastline.

The United States has accused Islamic Courts leaders of sheltering the three embassy bombing suspects, but the degree to which the suspects wielded influence within the Courts has remained sketchy.

The U.S. attack was greeted with rage in Mogadishu, where many Somalis see the transitional government as a pawn of the Ethiopians and the United States, and where many fighters loyal to the Islamic Courts are thought to have gone underground.

The Islamic Courts movement was widely popular for the security it brought to the capital, even if ordinary Somalis, who tend to adhere to a moderate version of Islam, were uncomfortable with the harsh social restrictions that the Courts imposed --the Courts frowned upon singing, for instance.

"I am angry," Ahmed Weli Mohamed, 37, a biology teacher, said on Tuesday. "I am very, very angry . . . Even if there are terrorists, there are maybe two or three people, but hundreds of people are killed. Is this logical? It's inhumanity. We feel we are not considered human beings. Americans don't respect us as humans."

Several European diplomats have expressed concern that the U.S. airstrikes will only destabilize Somalia further, and in a statement on Wednesday, African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare joined in the criticism, saying he is "concerned" and urging "all actors to refrain from any action likely to complicate the current situation."

U.S. military officials say they have not conducted additional strikes since the attack that occurred late Sunday (early Monday, Somali time). Air activity since then, they say, likely comes from the Ethiopian military.

But Hassan, chief of staff to Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, said he believed the United States was still involved, and some local residents interviewed Wednesday said they thought the planes flying over the area were American.

In Mogadishu, reports circulated that as many as 50 people, many of them civilians, were killed in the attack by a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship. U.S. officials said they are fairly certain that at least one targeted individual was hit; they said they had no information about civilian deaths in the strike along the Kenyan border.

Several officials suggested that stories reaching Mogadishu of many deaths and continuing U.S. attacks had confused the airstrike with ongoing operations in the area by Ethiopia's military, including helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. But it was impossible to confirm independently any of the widely differing accounts in Mogadishu or in Washington.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman confirmed Tuesday that a single airstrike occurred on Sunday, targeting "what we believe to be principal al-Qaeda leadership." Officials said that no further information would be released until U.S. personnel could assess directly the results of the strike and identify any dead.

Direct U.S. access to the area, where fleeing Islamic fundamentalist forces are being pursued on the ground and from the air by the Ethiopians, is viewed as problematic but necessary.

A principal target of the airstrike was Abu Talha al-Sudani, a Sudanese who U.S. officials have said is a longtime associate of Osama bin Laden and a key figure in an East African al-Qaeda cell based in Somalia. He is considered the financier behind the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Other targets included Mohammed and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, two other al-Qaeda operatives said to be responsible for the embassy bombings; Somali fundamentalist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the former head of a militant group accused of links to al-Qaeda in the 1990s; and several other Somali Islamic leaders described as terrorists.

"I don't think anybody has packed up and gone home," another official said of U.S. operations in the area.

The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was moved into the Indian Ocean near the Somali coast to provide assistance, if needed, to the AC-130 on Sunday, and to use its aircraft to pinpoint the location of targets on land or sea. Four other U.S. naval vessels from the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet are in the area.

News of the airstrike made shop owner and retired Somali soldier Hussein Farah Guley, 56, recall the early 1990s, when U.S. troops were part of a U.N. force that monitored a cease-fire in the country. Among the many foreigners killed by warring Somali clans during that period were 18 U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers, who were attacked in Mogadishu after a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in 1993.

"The Somalis, they will get angry," Guley said, "and if they see anyone from the outside, they will kill them."

Gedi's transitional government, which U.S. officials said gave permission for the airstrike, is perceived by many Somalis as having interrupted a months-long period of unusual calm. The government is also seen as being too closely aligned with its leadership's clan and with outsiders, particularly Ethiopia and the United States.

Somalis have already begun to express anger toward Ethiopian troops. Tuesday night, a former police building in the capital, now occupied by the Ethiopians, was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a speeding car. One Ethiopian and one Somali soldier were killed, and three civilians were injured.

The United States is leading an effort to deploy an African peacekeeping force to replace the Ethiopians, and it is pressing Gedi's government to open talks with Islamic leaders who are seen as moderates. No progress was reported on either front yesterday. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said a possible U.N. force is also being "actively discussed."

Democrats Beef Police State With 9/11 Commission Bill

Political "opposition" also helping Bush gain traction for Iran military strike.

prisonplanet



House Democrats have passed a piece of legislation that was crafted on the back of recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission in their 2004 final report. The bill is a tonic for big government, increased federalization of America, and mandates expansion of no fly lists, terror watch lists and further government surveillance of American citizens.

While the HR 1 bill contains some welcome provisions, including a redress of grievance process for passengers unfairly delayed or refused boarding for flights and a re-commitment to the Geneva conventions, it's largely a nightmare for opponents of big government in that it vastly increases funding and scope for Homeland Security, FEMA and further federalizes law enforcement.

The legislation takes its cue directly from the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission report, which has been widely debunked by researchers and whistleblowers as a self-appointed whitewash that was harnessed to bury important questions about the impossibility of the official story behind 9/11. Hyping the threat of terror beyond its reasonable capacity, ignoring the reality that peanut allergies and lightning strikes kill more Americans than terrorists, Commission leaders Kean and Hamilton encouraged a broad range of measures that only accelerate the authoritarian surge towards a police state in America. They include;

- Homeland Security identity checkpoints on American roads and highways;

- Mandated biometric iris and finger scanning systems for all Americans at airports;

- Creation of a biometric national ID card for all American citizens;

- Expansion of "no-fly" and "watch lists" to prevent more Americans from traveling (even though such lists have been ridiculed time and time again for flagging completely innocent people including Senators and children);

- Increased special screening of all passengers at airports (greasing the skids for invasive body scanners that capture a naked image of the passenger to be implemented as standard);

- Federal takeover of publicly owned communication systems such as radio;

- Increased government surveillance of Americans' financial records and activities;

- Domesticating the CIA to watch American citizens;

- Government-wide sharing of information and centralization of databases containing information about American citizens.

All of these recommendations were embraced by the 9/11 Commission and many of them are contained within the bill introduced by the Democrats that has already passed the House.

Meanwhile, on the geopolitical front Israel has resolved to use its powerful lobbying network to arm twist recalcitrant Democrats and media moguls into supporting military action against Iran. Retired Gen. Oded Tira recently admonished, "As an American air strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help (Bush) pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and U.S. newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure."

He continues, "Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran." Thus, Israel and its U.S. lobbying arm "must turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they publicly support immediate action by Bush against Iran."

Former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has also called upon Israel to "immediately launch an intense, international public relations front" aimed at the U.S. to sell the necessity of war.

Noted author and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan warns us that "A propaganda campaign, using Israeli agents and their neocon auxiliaries and sympathizers, who stampeded us into war in Iraq, is being prepared to stampede us into war on Iran."

However, it doesn't appear that leading Democrats will take much convincing before pledging their loyal support for the next chapter of imperial suicide.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer recently assured readers of the Jerusalem Post in Israel that the Democrats were fully prepared to back the use of force against Iran and this sentiment is shared by a cadre of leading luminaries including Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Bilderberg endorsed 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards and even darling of the left Barack Obama.

While Americans are placated by promises that Democrats will "symbolically" oppose President Bush's insane troop surge for Iraq, while they actively fund the entire venture through the power of the Congressional purse, the roadmap to Iran is being dutifully upheld by those who came to power vowing change yet are showing all the signs of reverting to type and lining up to salute the continued frog march towards world war three, while ensuring the further downfall of America into a police state at home.

Public Opposes Troop Surge by 61% to 36% Margin

POLL

On the eve of a major speech by President Bush, in which he is expected to announce an escalation of reportedly 20,000 to 30,000 troops to be sent to Iraq, a new poll finds that a majority of the US are against the so-called “surge.”

According to the USA Today/Gallup poll, the American public opposes Bush’s expected plan by 61 percent to 36 percent, with the president’s support primarily within his GOP base.



“A number of polls have shown that when given a choice between a set of alternative ways of handling the troop situation in Iraq, only about 10% of Americans opt for the alternative of increasing troops,” Frank Newport writes for Gallup News Service. “The rest opt for withdrawal of troops either immediately, within a 12-month timeframe, or by taking as much time as needed.”

Full Steam Ahead For "The Invasion" & The American Union

Government funded drug running cartels, secret illegal social security programs and Pesos for Pizzas. What happened to the United States of America?

infowars.com

Recent disturbing incidents on the US/Mexico border, coupled with mainstream news reports concerning government aiding of illegal immigration serves to once again remind US citizens that the sovereign borders are systematically being broken down and the country is being quietly amalgamated into a Pan American Union.

Last week it was reported that a U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun by a team of armed Mexicans Wednesday night along Arizona's border with Mexico, somewhere along the 120 mile section of the border between Nogales and Lukeville, an area known for being a drug corridor.

The guard were forced to flee as troops are not allowed to apprehend illegal entrants and do not carry armed weapons.

"We don't know if this was a matter of somebody coming up accidentally on the individuals, coming up intentionally on the individuals, or some sort of a diversion?" said Rob Daniels, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. "We just don't know and that's why everything's got to be looked into."

Imagine if muslims or Arabs were caught shooting at national guard and overrunning them, we would never hear the end of it. This incident however, is the latest in a long line of stories that barely reach the footnotes of the local nightly news.

In late 2005 there were dozens of American citizens kidnapped over the Texas border and taken down to Mexico and held. This was kept very quiet. There was a huge stand off, some were killed. 800+ US citizens were killed on the Texas border in 2005, hundreds more were killed in 2006.

There are over a million illegal aliens, conservatively, in Houston alone. There have been multiple car bombings there, and in Dallas, which have quietly been attributed to illegals and forgotten about.

We have previously covered multiple instances of armed Mexican troops straying over the borders and even firing at and killing federal officers .

Last month CNS news reported that Texas sheriffs and lawmakers are routinely threatened, fired upon and overrun by US TRAINED gun-toting members of the Mexican military, crossing regularly into U.S. territory, where they are partnering with drug cartels and criminal gangs to protect sophisticated smuggling operations.

We have also exposed how illegal immigration is being used by drug commando organizations such as Los Zetas (pictured) to gain unrestricted passage into the US.

Former DEA agents have come forth declaring that such groups, admittedly trained by the US Government are being used as front groups for CIA and government controlled narcotics operations. To shut down illegal immigration and strengthen the borders would go some way to prevent such lucrative activities, therefore it's a government no-no.

The open plan to merge the US with Mexico and Canada and create a Pan American Union has long been a Globalist brainchild but its very real and prescient implementation on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations has finally also been reported on by mainstream news outlets.

The Union is the globalist cabal's meal ticket towards raping an entire continent of its resources and sovereign capabilities. Strengthening the borders is not on the Agenda here, the American Union is all about DISSOLVING the borders.

The framework on which the American Union is being pegged is the NAFTA Super Highway, a four football-fields-wide leviathan that stretches from southern Mexico through the US up to Montreal Canada. Toll roads are to be placed upon existing roads in Security Prosperity Partnership agreements that bypasses Congress, agreements between the bureaucracies of the US and Mexican governments, to raise capital to build the Super highway that will go South of Texas and into Mexico.

Coupled with Bush's blanket amnesty program , which the Democrats in congress are set to approve this week as their first order of business, the Pan American Union is the final jigsaw piece for the total dismantling of America as we know it.

We have also seen in the past how "immigration control efforts" such as Real ID , boosting troops on the borders and building fences are simply smoke and mirrors behind which lie methods of control, outrageous elitist profiteering and the destruction of freedom.

The truth is that immigration is too profitable for the elite, both in the US and in Mexico, to put a stop to it. In late December 2005, Mexican President Vicente Fox hired a GOP lobbying firm to sweeten political sentiment in the US towards Mexicans and the immigration issue.

The Mexican government is now even giving illegals hand-held satellite navigation devices in order to facilitate their safe journey across the desert.

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In light of all this it is also disturbing to read that the US government has been SECRETLY paving the way for the funneling of billions of Social Security funds to illegal Mexican immigrants. As a result of lawsuits, the U.S. government last week released the actual U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement , an understanding signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004.

This is not the first time the Bush administration has moved to aid the benefits of Mexicans illegally working working in the US. In 2005, the New York Times reported that the Bush administration had initiated a program to start paying hospitals and doctors for providing emergency care to illegal immigrants. Members of Congress from border states had sought the money, totaling $1 Billion. They said treatment of illegal immigrants imposed a huge financial burden on many hospitals, which are required to provide emergency care to patients who need it, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay. The administration had previously abandoned a proposal that would have required many hospitals to ask patients if they were U.S. citizens or legal immigrants.

Add to this previous mainstream reports of banks and lenders opening their doors to illegal immigrants, facilitated by government agencies, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. As reported in the Wall Street Journal , the FDIC is encouraging banks to lend and invest in undeserved markets regardless of customers' immigration status.

The US armed forces has also seen an influx of foreign troops, an average of 20% of ground troops in Iraq are now non citizens, this is set to rise to 50% over the next year with foreign recruitment stations facilitating the supply.

Think about this, non-US citizens wearing the uniform of American soldiers, stationed at home and abroad.

Today the Dallas Morning News reported that patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos. What kind of twilight zone have we entered here? Yeah forget the dollar, it's basically dead now anyway - lets just use the Peso as the national currency.

Social Security, roads, military, intelligence gathering, regulations, federal agencies - all within the US, Canada and Mexico are being merged into one system at the cost of national sovereignty and the common law.

We are talking about an advanced empire state with a class based multicultural chowder bowl for a population, something has to give somewhere. The Soviet Union and The former Yugoslavia are telling examples of what happens when many cultures are played off against one another and asked to coexist within one country. Most recently this cultural phenomenon has been evident in France which seems to be on the same track of self-destruction with its massive non-assimilating 2nd generation Muslim population.

This cultural rift is already overwhelmingly evident in the US. We have previously covered the Nightmare Racism and Open Call for Revolution from groups such as the Atzlan reconquista movement, MEChA and La Raza who call their American based radio stations "the Invasion". Such groups have no desire to respect US culture and wish for nothing more than the US to be broken up . Of course these groups are minority movements, yet their reach evidently becomes increasingly appealing to proud Mexicans when the President tells them they can come to the US and do awful jobs because they are less worthy than Americans.

Social, political and economic forces are pulling America apart and driving her toward a bloody conflict that may fracture the nation into several different countries. Bush's rhetoric of allowing a legal force of underling workers that will do the dirty work for America sounds like a direct avocation of a creation of a massive underclass of illegal, Third World, uneducated and poor slaves.

This only serves to benefit one section of society, the elite.