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Simulation of Ultrasound Backscattering by Red Cell Aggregates:Effect of Shear Rate and Anisotropy Biophysical Journal, Volume 82, Issue 4, 1 April 2002, Pages 1696-1710 Isabelle Fontaine, David Savéry and Guy Cloutier Abstract Tissue characterization using ultrasound (US) scattering allows extraction of relevant cellular biophysical information noninvasively. Characterization of the level of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation is one of the proposed application. In the current paper, it is hypothesized that the microstructure of the RBCs is a main determinant of the US backscattered power. A simulation model was developed to study the effect of various RBC configurations on the backscattered power. It is an iterative dynamical model that considers the effect of the adhesive and repulsive forces between RBCs, and the effect of the flow. The method is shown to be efficient to model polydispersity in size, shape, and orientation of the aggregates due to the flow, and to relate these variations to the US backscattering properties. Three levels of aggregability at shear rates varying between 0.05 and 10s−1 were modeled at 40% hematocrit. The simulated backscattered power increased with a decrease in the shear rate or an increase in the RBC aggregability. Angular dependence of the backscattered power was observed. It is the first attempt to model the US power backscattered by RBC aggregates polydisperse in size and shape due to the shearing of the flow. Abstract | Full Text | PDF (456 kb) |
Kinetics of Linear Rouleaux Formation Studied by Visual Monitoring of Red Cell Dynamic Organization Biophysical Journal, Volume 78, Issue 5, 1 May 2000, Pages 2470-2474 G. Barshtein, D. Wajnblum and S. Yedgar Abstract Red blood cells (RBCs) in the presence of plasma proteins or other macromolecules may form aggregates, normally in rouleaux formations, which are dispersed with increasing blood flow. Experimental observations have suggested that the spontaneous aggregation process involves the formation of linear rouleaux (FLR) followed by formation of branched rouleaux networks. Theoretical models for the spontaneous rouleaux formation were formulated, taking into consideration that FLR may involve both "polymerization," i.e., interaction between two single RBCs (e+e) and the addition of a single RBC to the end of an existing rouleau (e+r), as well as "condensation" between two rouleaux by end-to-end addition (r+r). The present study was undertaken to experimentally examine the theoretical models and their assumptions, by visual monitoring of the spontaneous FLR (from singly dispersed RBC) in plasma, in a narrow gap flow chamber. The results validate the theoretical model, showing that FLR involves both polymerization and condensation, and that the kinetic constants for the above three types of intercellular interactions are the same, i.e., kee=ker=krr=k, and for all tested hematocrits (0.625–6%) k<0.13±0.03s−1. Abstract | Full Text | PDF (88 kb) |
Particulate Nature of Blood Determines Macroscopic Rheology: A 2-D Lattice Boltzmann Analysis Biophysical Journal, Volume 88, Issue 3, 1 March 2005, Pages 1635-1645 Chenghai Sun and Lance L. Munn Abstract Historically, predicting macroscopic blood flow characteristics such as viscosity has been an empirical process due to the difficulty in rigorously including the particulate nature of blood in a mathematical representation of blood rheology. Using a two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann approach, we have simulated the flow of red blood cells in a blood vessel to estimate flow resistance at various hematocrits and vessel diameters. By including white blood cells (WBCs) in the flow, we also calculate the increase in resistance due to white cell rolling and adhesion. The model considers the blood as a suspension of particles in plasma, accounting for cell-cell and cell-wall interactions to predict macroscopic blood rheology. The model is able to reproduce the Fahraeus-Lindqvist effect, i.e., the increase in relative apparent viscosity as tube size increases, and the Fahraeus effect, i.e., tube hematocrit is lower than discharge hematocrit. In addition, the model allows direct assessment of the effect of WBCs on blood flow in the microvasculature, reproducing the dramatic increases in flow resistance as WBCs enter short capillary segments. This powerful and flexible model can be used to predict blood flow properties in any vessel geometry and with any blood composition. Abstract | Full Text | PDF (2164 kb) |
Copyright © 1963 The Biophysical Society All rights reserved.
Biophysical Journal, Volume 3, Issue 3, 199-213, 1 May 1963
E.W. Merrill, E.R. Gilliland, G. Cokelet, H. Shin, A. Britten and R.E. Wells
Static normal human blood possesses a distinctive yield stress. When the yield stress is exceeded, the same blood has a stress-shear rate function under creeping flow conditions closely following Casson's model, which implies reversible aggregation of red cells in rouleaux and flow dominated by movement of rouleaux. The yield stress is essentially independent of temperature and its cube root varies linearly with hematocrit value. The dynamic rheological properties in the creeping flow range are such that the relative viscosity of blood to water is almost independent of temperature. Questions raised by these data are discussed, including red cell aggregation promoted by elements in the plasma.


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Diet guru: Give extra marks to slim students
'Obesity is a real public health problem that is not taken seriously enough by politicians'
Popular diet expert Pierre Dukan, whose books have sold millions around the world, has written an open letter to the future president of France with advice on how to curb the country's obesity problem.
One of Dukan's proposals is that pupils preparing for the Baccalaureat exam should be able to gain extra marks by sticking within a specified body mass index range.
The Baccalaureat is the end of school exam taken by most 18-year-olds in France.
© Copyright 1997-2013. All Rights Reserved. WND.com.
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subset: commoncrawl


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| UpdatedHospital administrative staff will stop work in far north Qld over a pay dispute with the State Govt.
Topics: health-administration, work, activism-and-lobbying, states-and-territories, cairns-4870, atherton-4883, innisfail-4860, mareeba-4880, port-douglas-4871
The Cairns Regional Council has added chlorine to water reservoirs at Rocky Point, Daintree Village and Dagmar as part of efforts to eliminate E. coli bacteria.
Topics: water-pollution, local-government, cairns-4870, port-douglas-4871
| UpdatedA north Queensland tourism operator says a restructure of tourism zones will have a disastrous impact on Townsville.
Topics: tourism, townsville-4810, cairns-4870, daintree-4873, port-douglas-4871
The councillor for the former Douglas Shire has renewed calls to keep the area's water system chemical-free.
Topics: water, local-government, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
The Cairns Regional Council says residents in Port Douglas and Mowbray, in far north Queensland, can now safely drink tap water after tests showed a drop in bacterial contamination.
Topics: water-pollution, water, local-government, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
Supermarkets in Port Douglas in far north Queensland have almost sold out of bottled water after residents were warned bacteria had been found in local water supplies.
Topics: water-pollution, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870, mossman-4873
Council water authorities say chlorine treatment on a contaminated reservoir in the Port Douglas and Mossman region of far north Queensland has failed to kill the bacteria E. coli.
Topics: water-pollution, local-government, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870, mossman-4873
The bacteria E Coli has been found in seven out of 13 reservoirs in the Queensland's far north.
Topics: dams-and-reservoirs, environment, rivers, water, health, diseases-and-disorders, qld, daintree-4873, mowbray-4871, port-douglas-4871, rocky-point-4874
A man has been killed after a collision involving a motorcycle and a car west of Port Douglas this morning.
Topics: road, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
The Liberal-National Party (LNP) has reiterated its offer to reverse council amalgamations to residents of the former Douglas shire in far north Queensland.
Topics: local-government, liberal-national-party-queensland, states-and-territories, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
A north Queensland marine researcher says sharks are on the verge of being wiped out on the Great Barrier Reef.
Topics: animals, oceans-and-reefs, fishing-aquaculture, research, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870, townsville-4810
Mulgrave MP Warren Pitt has slammed suggestions by councillor Julia Leu that the former douglas shire should de-merger with Cairns Regional Council.
Topics: local-government, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
| UpdatedBusiness visitors are driving tourism in Port Douglas in far north Qld.
Topics: tourism, business-economics-and-finance, industry, lifestyle-and-leisure, travel-and-tourism, rural, rural-tourism, port-douglas-4871, australia, qld, cairns-4870, daintree-4873
| UpdatedBusiness tourism is proving to be a boon for the Port Douglas area in far north Queensland, with the Port Douglas and Daintree Tourism Authority estimating the sector is worth about $30 million each year.
Topics: tourism, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
A Townsville researcher says coral reef tourism in north Queensland is under threat from rising oil prices, economic volatility and climate change.
Topics: tourism, climate-change, oceans-and-reefs, townsville-4810, cairns-4870, port-douglas-4871
A Cooktown publican believes alcohol restrictions introduced a month ago have changed but not stopped the drinking habits of alcoholics.
Topics: alcohol, hospitality, alcohol-education, cooktown-4895, cairns-4870, mossman-4873, port-douglas-4871
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has linked the survival of the Great Barrier Reef to the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme.
Topics: oceans-and-reefs, environment, climate-change, government-and-politics, federal-government, port-douglas-4871, australia, qld, cairns-4870
| UpdatedA Qld pensioner is the first to be convicted for sending child porn in an SMS message.
Topics: sexual-offences, child-abuse, mobile-phones, courts-and-trials, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
| UpdatedA new fishing method being developed in northern Tasmania is promising to reduce wasteful bycatch and increase the efficiency of prawn fishing in north Queensland.
Topics: fishing-aquaculture, rural, science-and-technology, animal-science, fish, thursday-island-4875, australia, qld, cooktown-4895, port-douglas-4871, tas
| UpdatedTwo far north Queenslanders are among more than 400 Australians who have been recognised in this year's Queen's Birthday honours list.
Topics: awards-and-prizes, cairns-4870, port-douglas-4871, thursday-island-4875
Tougher water restrictions will soon be enforced in the Mossman and Port Douglas region.
Topics: water, local-government, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870, mossman-4873
The Cairns Regional Council's water and waste committee is expected to consider tighter water restrictions for Mossman and Port Douglas residents.
Topics: local-government, water, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
Port Douglas police are continuing the hunt for vandals who slashed the tyres of a patrol car, stranding officers at Pretty Beach on Saturday night.
Topics: vandalism, police, port-douglas-4871, cairns-4870
| UpdatedA distraught Victorian father has arrived in Cairns, in far north Queensland, as federal police coordinate a search in the region for his former partner and son.
Topics: missing-person, cairns-4870, cooktown-4895, port-douglas-4871, bendigo-3550, castlemaine-3450
Five far north Queensland men have been charged with grievous bodily harm after two separate weekend incidents.
Topics: assault, cairns-4870, port-douglas-4871


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Pete Seeger and the NSA February 4, 2014
Posted by rogerhollander in Art, Literature and Culture, Barack Obama, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Criminal Justice, Democracy, History, Police.Tags: anti-communism, cindy cohn, Civil Rights, first amendment, fourth amendment, free association, free speech, history, huac, McCarthyism, nsa, pete seeger, roger hollaner, surveillance state, un-american activities
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Roger's note: Of course, the recent revelations about NSA outdoing George Orwell is no laughing matter. But if you need a moment of lightness today, click in the first paragraph on Pete's testimony before HUAC. It reads like a Monty Python skit. With the persecutions of Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden among others, and the hounding to death of Aaron Swartz, the U.S. government is just getting started in putting its mega data collection to use. When the political protests heat up to the next level, I believe we are going to see the same kind of witch hunts that we saw under the era of Joseph McCarthy, only much worse. Those who lived through that period of history can tell you what it is like to be persecuted by the government for your First Amendment protected beliefs. Perhaps what is most frightening is the militarization of local police departments, and we saw what state violence against legitimate political protest will look like during the brutal repression of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Whether you are brought up before a Kafkaesque like official United States government kangaroo court or bashed over the head with police baton or run down by a Homeland Security issues armored vehicle, the chilling result is the same: fascism in our day.
That it occurs under the auspices of the affable and articulate constitutional lawyer who is the first Black American president or the feisty and charming soon to be first woman American president, will not do much to soften the blow.
I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.
Pete Seeger, 1955, testimony pursuant to subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Pete Seeger (Image: EFF)
The world lost a clear, strong voice for peace, justice, and community with the death of singer and activist Pete Seegerlast week. While Seeger was known as an outspoken musician not shy about airing his political opinions, it's also important to remember he was once persecuted for those opinions, despite breaking no law. And the telling of this story should give pause to those who claim to be unconcerned about the government's metadata seizure and search programs that reveal our associations to the government today.
In 1955, Seeger was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he defiantly refused to answer questions about others who he associated with and who shared his political beliefs and associations, believing Congress was violating his First Amendment rights. He was especially concerned about revealing his associations:
I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business. . . . But I decline to say who has ever listened to them, who has written them, or other people who have sung them.
But if the same thing were to happen today, a Congressional subpoena and a public hearing wouldn't be necessary for the government to learn all of our associations and other "private affairs." Since the NSA has been collecting and keeping them, they could just get that same information from their own storehouses of our records.
According to the Constitution, the government is supposed to meet a high standard before collecting this private information about our associations, especially the political ones that the Congressmen were demanding of Seeger. For instance, under the First Amendment, it must"serve compelling state interests, unrelated to the suppression of ideas, that cannot be achieved through means significantly less restrictive of associational freedoms."
It doesn't matter whether the government wants associations to look for possibly "illegal" activities of civil rights activists, Communist sympathizers, anarchists, trade unionists, war resisters, gun rights activists, environmental activists, drug legalization advocates, or wants to go after legitimate criminals and potential terrorists, if the government can't justify the collection of this "metadata" on this "strict scrutiny" standard, they're not allowed to collect any of it. Yet right now, they collect all of it.
We're still learning of all the ways the government is able to track our associations without anything like the due process and standards required by the First and Fourth Amendments, but it is the centerpiece of the NSA's mass telephone records collection program under Patriot Act section 215, which EFF is fighting with our First Unitarian Church v. NSA case that focuses on the right of association. Our lead client, the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, had its own role in resisting the House Un-American Activities Committee. It's also part and parcel of the mass collection of content and metadata of people all around the world under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. And it's a real concern even if the companies hold the data, as we've seen with the FBI's self-certified National Security Lettersand the Hemisphere program, where AT&T employees are embedded in government investigations so that they can more readily search through our phone records for the FBI, the DEA and others.
Each of these programs effectively allows the government to do to you what Pete Seeger refused to let them do to him—track your associations, beliefs and other private affairs without proper legal protections. And they can do this at scale that was unimaginable in 1955, thanks to the digital nature of our communications, the digital tools that allow them to search automatically rather than by hand and the fact that so much more about these private affairs is in the hands of third parties like our phone and internet companies.
While Seeger escaped jail, he was convicted of contempt for his failure to answer these questions. Thankfully Joseph McCarthy and the Un-American Activities Committees were later widely condemned, and Americans understandably look back sadly and with embarrassment on time when the Committee forced Americans to reveal their own associations, along with the associations and beliefs of others. With the passing of moral and artistic heroes like Seeger, we should redouble our efforts to make sure that our "private affairs" remain safe and the government's ability to access them remains subject to careful controls.
Join us on February 11 for the day we fight back against mass surveillance.
Cindy Cohn is legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), as well as its general counsel, coordinating over 40 national class action lawsuits against the telecommunications carriers and the government seeking to stop warrantless NSA surveillance
American State of the Union: A Festival of Lies February 1, 2014
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Criminal Justice, Economic Crisis, Trade Agreements, War.Tags: bruce a. dixon, crack cocaine defendants, Criminal Justice, doj, drug war, economic inequality, eric holder, executive powers, glen ford, h. rap brown, hunger strikes, imam jamil al-amin, leonard peltier, mass incarceration, minimum wage, Obama, obama sotu, pelican bay, police brutality, police militarization, political prisoners, prison state, prisons, roger hollander, sotu, state of the union, supermax prison, tpp, trade agreements, unemployment
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Roger's note: here are two articles from the same source, the black agenda report web site, analyses you are not likely to find in the mainstream media.
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Before the nation and the world, President Obama pledges to take "action" against "economic inequality," while simultaneously holding secret negotiations on a Trans Pacific Partnership trade scheme that will quicken the pace of the global Race to the Bottom, deepening economic inequalities. "Lies of omission are even more despicable than the overt variety, because they hide."
"When you say 'jobs,' he says tax cuts – just like the Republicans, only Obama first cites the pain of the unemployed, so that you know he cares."
"Believe it," said the current Prevaricator-in-Chief, in the conclusion to his annual litany lies. President Obama's specialty, honed to theatrical near-perfection over five disastrous years, is in crafting the sympathetic lie, designed to suspend disbelief among those targeted for oblivion, through displays of empathy for the victims. In contrast to the aggressive insults and bluster employed by Republican political actors, whose goal is to incite racist passions against the Other, the sympathetic Democratic liar disarms those who are about to be sacrificed by pretending to feel their pain.
Barack Obama, who has presided over the sharpest increases in economic inequality in U.S. history, adopts the persona of public advocate, reciting wrongs inflicted by unseen and unknown forces that have "deepened" the gap between the rich and the rest of us and "stalled" upward mobility. Having spent half a decade stuffing tens of trillions of dollars into the accounts of an ever shrinking gaggle of financial capitalists, Obama declares this to be "a year of action" in the opposite direction. "Believe it." And if you do believe it, then crown him the Most Effective Liar of the young century.
Lies of omission are even more despicable than the overt variety, because they hide. The potentially most devastating Obama contribution to economic inequality is being crafted in secret by hundreds of corporate lobbyists and lawyers and their revolving-door counterparts in government. The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, described as "NAFTA on steroids," would accelerate the global Race to the Bottom that has made a wasteland of American manufacturing, plunging the working class into levels of poverty and insecurity without parallel in most people's lifetimes, and totally eviscerating the meager gains of three generations of African Americans. Yet, the closest Obama came to even an oblique allusion to his great crime-in-the-making, was to announce that "new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia-Pacific will help [small businesses] create even more jobs. We need to work together on tools like bipartisan trade promotion authority to protect our workers, protect our environment and open new markets to new goods stamped 'Made in the USA.'" Like NAFTA twenty years ago – only far bigger and more diabolically destructive – TPP will have the opposite effect, destroying millions more jobs and further deepening worker insecurity. The Trans Pacific Partnership expands the legal basis for global economic inequalities – which is why the negotiations are secret, and why the treaty's name could not be spoken in the State of the Union address. It is a lie of omission of global proportions. Give Obama his crown.
"The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, described as 'NAFTA on steroids,' would accelerate the global Race to the Bottom."
The president who promised in his 2008 campaign to support a hike in the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, and then did nothing at all to make it happen, says this is the "year of action" when he'll move heaven and earth to get a $10.10 minimum. He will start, Obama told the Congress and the nation, by issuing "an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally-funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour because if you cook our troops' meals or wash their dishes, you should not have to live in poverty." Obama neglected to mention that only new hires – a small fraction, beginning with zero, of the two million federal contract workers – will get the wage boost; a huge and conscious lie of omission. The fact that the president does not even propose a gradual, mandated increase for the rest of the two million shows he has no intention of using his full powers to ameliorate taxpayer-financed poverty. We can also expect Obama to issue waivers to every firm that claims a hardship, as is always his practice.
What is Obama's jobs program? It is the same as laid out at last year's State of the Union, and elaborated on last summer: lower business taxes and higher business subsidies. When you say "jobs," he says tax cuts – just like the Republicans, only Obama first cites the pain of the unemployed, so that you know he cares. "Both Democrats and Republicans have argued that our tax code is riddled with wasteful, complicated loopholes that punish businesses investing here, and reward companies that keep profits abroad. Let's flip that equation. Let's work together to close those loopholes, end those incentives to ship jobs overseas, and lower tax rates for businesses that create jobs right here at home." Actually, Obama wants to lower tax rates for all corporations to 28 percent, from 35 percent, as part of his ongoing quest for a Grand Bargain with Republicans. For Obama, the way to bring jobs back to the U.S. is to make American taxes and wages more "competitive" in the "global marketplace" – the Race to the Bottom.
In the final analysis, the sympathetic corporate Democrat and the arrogant corporate Republican offer only small variations on the same menu: ever increasing austerity. Obama bragged about reducing the deficit, never acknowledging that this has been accomplished on the backs of the poor, contributing mightily to economic inequality and social insecurity.
Obama offers nothing of substance, because he is not authorized by his corporate masters to do so. He takes his general orders from the same people as do the Republicans. That's why Obama only speaks of minimum wage hikes while Republicans are in power, rather than when his own party controlled both houses of Congress. Grand Bargains are preferred, because they are the result of consensus between the two corporate parties. In effect, the Grand Bargain is the distilled political will of Wall Street, which feeds the donkey and the elephant. Wall Street – the 1 percent – believes the world is theirs for the taking, and they want all of it. Given this overarching truth, Obama has no choice but to stage a festival of lies.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at email@example.com
Barack Obama, the State of the Union and the Prison State
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
For a generation now, predatory policing, the war on drugs and the prison state have been government's most frequent intersection with young black Americans. The gossip before this year's State of the Union was that the president would now do by executive order all those good things Republicans have blocked him on the last 3 years. Does that include reining in or rolling back the prison state? Should we hold our collective breath?
"…Obama campaigned in 2007 and 2008 saying he would pass legislation raising the minimum wage…"
In the days before this year's State of the Union address, we heard a lot about how Barack Obama was finally about to unleash the mighty executive powers of his office to accomplish some of the many great things he's always wanted to accomplish, those mostly unspecified things which evil and immoral Republicans have prevented him from doing. From long experience dating back at least to the Clinton era, the White House and Democratic party know this is an attractive picture to many, one that conveniently excuses Democrats in office from even trying to accomplish the real demands of the millions who vote them into office.
Barack Obama campaigned in 2007 and 2008 saying he would pass legislation raising the minimum wage and making it easier to organize unions so people could stand up for their own rights in the workplace. The president apparently lied. Once in office with a thumping majority in both houses of Congress the president promptly froze the wages of federal workers, and made no move to protect union organizing or to raise the minimum wage. Four and five years later, with the House of Representatives safely under Republican control, the president has begun to make noises about how "America deserves a raise" and has finally declared that federal contract workers will soon have to be paid a minimum of $10.10 per hour.
Although Barack Obama's career, and those of the entire black political class are founded on the notion that they and the Democratic party somehow "represent" the aspirations and political power of African Americans, the policy concerns of black America were nowhere to be found in last night's state of the union. The speech contained no mention of the persistent gap between black and white unemployment, or the widening gaps between black and white wealth, and reaffirmed his commitment to "Race To The Top" an initiative to privatize public education in poorer communities across the country.
" Obama could halt the construction and opening of the new federal supermax prison…"
And of course, no cluster of issues impact black America more savagely and disproportionately than police practices, the drug war and the prison state. African Americans are one eighth the US population, but more than 40% of its prisons and jails. Together with Latinos, who are another eighth and make up nearly 30% of US prisoners, people of color are a quarter of the US population and more than 70% of the locked down. No cluster of issues would benefit more from a few presidential initiatives and well placed strokes of the pen than police practices, the drug war and the prison state.
Here are just a handful of things President Obama and his party could and would do, things that Republicans are powerless to prevent, which would make a large and lasting impact upon the communities they purportedly represent.
With the stroke of a presidential pen, Barack Obama could halt the construction and opening of the new federal supermax prison at ADX Thomson in Illinois, also called "Gitmo North." Citizen activists in the president's home state last year managed to close down the state's brutal supermax prison at Tammsbecause they know that supermax prisons do not rehabilitate, they are instruments of torture pure and simple. Ordinary citizens know that torture should not be a career, or a business governments engage in. Even Obama's own Bureau of Prisons is on record as wanting to examine whether the regimes in supermax prisons across the country constitute torture. It's time to look for that presidential pen.
The president could take public notice of the alarming militarization of police forces across the country and the wave of police shootings of civilians. Far more persons die in the US of police gunfire than of terrorist incidents and school shootings. The feds play an enormous role in the funding, training and arming of thousands of local police departments across the country, through its grants to the state-level training and certification agencies, and its authorization of the sale of military equipment to police departments. The result is that every county and town in the US now has a SWAT team, employing shoot-first-question-later tactics, and although African Americans are far from the only victims of unchecked police violence, a black person is killed by police, security officers or vigilantes once every 28 hours. Again, this is a case for a presidential statement, a few orders to underlings and that mighty executive pen.
The president could order his Justice Department to reconsider its objections to the retroactive reduction of unfair and disproportionate sentences to crack cocaine defendants. When the president signed the so-called Fair Sentencing Act reducing the crack to powder cocaine penalty ratio from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1 thousands of defendants should have been eligible for immediate release. But Obama's and Eric Holder's Justice Departments have gone to court repeatedly to keep them behind bars. Our civil rights establishment from the Mark Morials and Al Sharptons down, seem more invested in the prestige of the president than doing justice to prisoners, and so have politely refused to call Obama and Holder on this glaring disconnect between their public pronouncements and their actual policies. The mighty presidential pen in the hands of Barack Obama could have made a big difference here any time in the last several years, and still can, if only he will.
The president could use his mighty executive powers to release some long-time political prisoners. There's Iman Jamil Al-Amin, the former H. Rap Brown who distinguished himself laying the foundations for what passes for black political empowerment, risking his life registering voters and conducting Freedom Schools in rural Alabama with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the mid and early 1960s. After repeated attempts by Georgia officials in the 1990s to frame Al-Amin for shootings, one of these stuck long enough to get a shaky conviction in 1999. As pressure for a retrial from local community activists built up and even in the face of protests from establishment figures like former Atlanta mayor, congressman and ambassador Andy Young, Georgia officials transferred Al-Amin into federal custody in the dead of night, and the feds spirited him away to the hellhole at ADX Florence in Colorado where he has been for more than a decade. With a stroke of that might executive pen, President Obama could send Al-Amin back to Georgiawhere his family and attorneys could visit him, and pressure would mount on Georgia authorities to give him a new trial, in which he might well prove his innocence.
The president could pardon or grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, a Native American leader who has served a decade longer in prison than Nelson Mandela did for an offense that nobody at his trial even alleged he actually committed. Peltier is recognized around the world as a political prisoner. His continued imprisonment shows that many wounds from the 60s and 70s were never healed, and his release would demonstrate that this president acknowledges the need for this healing. After almost 40 years, Leonard Peltier surely deserves to come home.
President Obama could acknowledge the wave of hunger strikes and protests in prisons across the country, and name a commission to investigate how we can reverse the expansion of prisons, guarantee the re-absorption of former prisoners into society, and reverse the culture and law which discriminate against and punish former prisoners and their families for the rest of their lives. Right now a number of prisoners at Menard Penitentiary in the president's home state of Illinois are waging a hunger strike, with demands that differ little from those raised by prisoners in California's Pelican Bay last year, and those in Virginia, Georgia, Ohio and elsewhere.
We must not imagine that rolling back the carceral state is something no government on earth has ever done. Right now in Venezuela, that nation is confronting a crisis of crime, the practical limits of prison expansion, and of what kind of society they want to build. They're taking a different path than so-called "progressives" here, who seem upset only about prisoners who are factually "innocent" and only about prisons if they're privatized. Venezuela is frankly committed to shrinking its prison population and exploring models of restorative rather than punitive justice. There really are other ways to go, if we have the will and the vision our Democrats and Republicans lack.
Obama's Attorney General has learned how to let the words "mass incarceration" roll off his lips fluently, after his recent discovery that such a thing actually exists. The president opined that Trayvon Martin could have been his own son, minus the status, the privilege, the neighborhood and a few other things. But that mighty presidential pen that can call commissions, impose directives, re-set priorities and make all manner of changes by executive order, changes that no evil and immoral Republicans can block or reverse, at least until they re-take the oval office, is still in that desk drawer, or wherever Barack Obama keeps it. He hasn't found it the last five years in office. Maybe he will discover it in these last three.
Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and serves on the state committee of the Georgia Green Party. He lives and works in Marietta GA and can be contacted via this site's contact page, or at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com.e pointed out repeatedly the last five years, there are boatloads of things a president anxious to serve the will of the people could do with the stroke of a pen
Contrary to Obama's Promises, the US Military Still Permits Torture January 27, 2014
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Civil Liberties, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Torture.Tags: army field manual, bagram, detainees, Guantanamo, human rights, jeffrey kaye, obama administration, roger hollander, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, torture
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Roger's note: we live in two different worlds, the world of illusionary rhetoric (from presidents and other political prostitutes, the mass media, etc.) and the world of reality. Most of us who are middle class and/or live in a first world industrial nation live in the former fantasy world. The vast majority of the rest of the world (third world non elites, victims of American military activities including drone missiles and corporate tyranny, etc.) live in reality. Obama says torture is no more and the vast majority of Americans believe this lie; the thousands who continue to suffer under the continued regime of torture know better, they know the reality. We live with the illusion that the United States is a civilized nation living according to Christian principles. The reality is that that kindly articulate former community organizer, with his elegant wife and pleasant well-dressed children, oversees a nation whose barbarity more and more knows no limits.
The Obama administration has replaced the use of brutal torture techniques with those that emphasize psychological torture
The United States Army Field Manual (AFM) on interrogation (pdf) has been sold to the American public and the world as a replacement for the brutal torture tactics used by the CIA and the Department of Defense during the Bush/Cheney administration.
(Photo: Futureatlas.com/ cc via Flickr)
On 22 January 2009, President Obama released an executive orderstating that any individual held by any US government agency "shall not be subjected to any interrogation technique or approach, or any treatment related to interrogation, that is not authorized by and listed in Army Field Manual 2 22.3."
But a close reading of Department of Defense documents and investigations by numerous human rights agencies have shown that the current Army Field Manual itself uses techniques that are abusive and can even amount to torture.
Disturbingly, the latest version of the AFM mimicked the Bush administration in separating out "war on terror" prisoners as not subject to the same protections and rights as regular prisoners of war. Military authorities then added an appendix to the AFM that included techniques that could only be used on such "detainees", ie, prisoners without POW status.
Labeled Appendix M, and propounding an additional, special "technique" called "Separation",human rights and legal group have recognized that Appendix M includes numerous abusive techniques, including use of solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and sensory deprivation.
According to Appendix M, sleep can be limited to four hours per day for up to 30 days, and even more with approval. The same is true for use of isolation. Theoretically, sleep deprivation and solitary confinement could be extended indefinitely.
According to a 2003 US Southern Command instruction (pdf) to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, sleep deprivation was defined "as keeping a detainee awake for more than 16 hours". Only three years later, when a new version of the AFM was introduced, detainees were expected to stay awake for 20 hours. Meanwhile, language in the previous AFM forbidding both sleep deprivation and use of stress positions was quietly removed from the current manual.
The use of isolation as a torture technique has a long history. According to a classic psychiatric paper (pdf) on the psychological effects of isolation (aka solitary confinement), such treatment on prisoners can "cause severe psychiatric harm", producing "an agitated confusional state which, in more severe cases, had the characteristics of a florid delirium, characterized by severe confusional, paranoid, and hallucinatory features, and also by intense agitation and random, impulsive, often self-directed violence."
The application of the Appendix M techniques – which are considered risky enough to require the presence of a physician – are supposed to be combined with other "approaches" culled from the main text of the field manual, including techniques such as "Fear Up" and "Emotional Ego Down". In fact, at the end of Appendix M, a combined use of its techniques with other approaches, specifically "Futility", "Incentive", and "Fear Up", is suggested.
While "Fear Up" and "Incentive" approaches act somewhat like what they sound – using fear and promises to gain the "cooperation" of a prisoner under interrogation – "Futility" has a vague goal of imparting to a prisoner, according to the AFM, the notion that "resistance to questioning is futile".
According to the manual:
This engenders a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness on the part of the source.
A review of documents released under FOIA (the Freedom of Information Act) shows that use of the "Futility" approach in the AFM was the rationale behind the use of loud music, strobe lights, and sexualized assaults and embarrassment on prisoners. The "Futility" technique pre-dates the introduction of the current Army Field Manual, which is numbered 2-22.3 and introduced in September 2006. In fact, the earlier AFM, labeled 35-52 (pdf), was the basis of numerous accusations of documented abuse.
In the executive summary of the 2005 Department of Defense's Schimdt-Furlow investigation into alleged abuse of Guantanamo prisoners, the use of loud music and strobe lights on prisoners was labeled "music futility", and considered an "allowed technique". Defense Department investigators looked at accusation of misuse of such techniques, but never banned them.
Military investigators wrote,
Placement of a detainee in the interrogation booth and subjecting him to loud music and strobe lights should be limited and conducted within clearly prescribed limits.
Those limits were not specified.
Additionally, the Schmidt-Furlow investigators looked at instances where female interrogators had fondled prisoners, or pretended to splash menstrual blood upon them. According to military authorities, these were a form of "gender coercion", and identified as a "futility technique".
President Obama's January 2009 executive order would seem to have halted the use of what the Defense Department called "gender coercion", but not "music futility". But we don't know because of pervasive secrecy exactly what military or other interrogators do or don't do when they employ the "Futility" technique.
Numerous human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Institute on Medicine as a Profession and Open Society Foundations have called for the elimination of Appendix M and/or the rewriting of the entire Army Field Manual itself.
What has been lacking is a widespread public discourse that recognizes that swapping waterboarding and the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" torture with the Army Field Manual as an instrument of humane interrogation only replaced the use of brutal torture techniques with those that emphasize psychological torture.
Jeffrey Kaye is a psychologist in private practice in San Francisco. He has worked professionally with torture victims and asylum applicants. Active in the anti-torture movement since 2006, he has his own blog, Invictus, and writes regularly for Firedoglake's The Dissenter. He has published previously at Truthout, Alternet, and The Public Record.
The Special Ops Surge: America's Secret War in 134 Countries January 17, 2014
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Imperialism, War, War on Terror.Tags: blowback, delta force, drones, green berets, navy seals, nick turse, rangers, roger hollander, socom, special operations, special ops, war, war on terror
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by Nick Turse
They operate in the green glow of night vision in Southwest Asia and stalk through the jungles of South America. They snatch men from their homes in the Maghreb and shoot it out with heavily armed militants in the Horn of Africa. They feel the salty spray while skimming over the tops of waves from the turquoise Caribbean to the deep blue Pacific. They conduct missions in the oppressive heat of Middle Eastern deserts and the deep freeze of Scandinavia. All over the planet, the Obama administration is waging a secret war whose full extent has never been fully revealed — until now.
Since September 11, 2001, U.S. Special Operations forces have grown in every conceivable way, from their numbers to their budget. Most telling, however, has been the exponential rise in special ops deployments globally. This presence — now, in nearly 70% of the world's nations — provides new evidence of the size and scope of a secret war being waged from Latin America to the backlands of Afghanistan, from training missions with African allies to information operations launched in cyberspace.
In the waning days of the Bush presidency, Special Operations forces were reportedly deployed in about 60 countries around the world. By 2010, that number had swelled to 75, according to Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post. In 2011, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told TomDispatch that the total would reach 120. Today, that figure has risen higher still.
In 2013, elite U.S. forces were deployed in 134 countries around the globe, according to Major Matthew Robert Bockholt of SOCOM Public Affairs. This 123% increase during the Obama years demonstrates how, in addition to conventional wars and a CIA drone campaign, public diplomacy and extensive electronic spying, the U.S. has engaged in still another significant and growing form of overseas power projection. Conducted largely in the shadows by America's most elite troops, the vast majority of these missions take place far from prying eyes, media scrutiny, or any type of outside oversight, increasing the chances of unforeseen blowback and catastrophic consequences.
Growth Industry
Formally established in 1987, Special Operations Command has grown steadily in the post-9/11 era. SOCOM is reportedly on track to reach 72,000 personnel in 2014, up from 33,000 in 2001. Funding for the command has also jumped exponentially as its baseline budget, $2.3 billion in 2001, hit $6.9 billion in 2013 ($10.4 billion, if you add in supplemental funding). Personnel deployments abroad have skyrocketed, too, from 4,900 "man-years" in 2001 to 11,500 in 2013.
A recent investigation by TomDispatch, using open source government documents and news releases as well as press reports, found evidence that U.S. Special Operations forces were deployed in or involved with the militaries of 106 nations around the world in 2012-2013. For more than a month during the preparation of that article, however, SOCOM failed to provide accurate statistics on the total number of countries to which special operators — Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALs and Delta Force commandos, specialized helicopter crews, boat teams, and civil affairs personnel — were deployed. "We don't just keep it on hand," SOCOM's Bockholt explained in a telephone interview once the article had been filed. "We have to go searching through stuff. It takes a long time to do that." Hours later, just prior to publication, he provided an answer to a question I first asked in November of last year. "SOF [Special Operations forces] were deployed to 134 countries" during fiscal year 2013, Bockholt explained in an email.
Globalized Special Ops
Last year, Special Operations Command chief Admiral William McRaven explained his vision for special ops globalization. In a statement to the House Armed Services Committee, he said:
"USSOCOM is enhancing its global network of SOF to support our interagency and international partners in order to gain expanded situational awareness of emerging threats and opportunities. The network enables small, persistent presence in critical locations, and facilitates engagement where necessary or appropriate…"
While that "presence" may be small, the reach and influence of those Special Operations forces are another matter. The 12% jump in national deployments — from 120 to 134 — during McRaven's tenure reflects his desire to put boots on the ground just about everywhere on Earth. SOCOM will not name the nations involved, citing host nation sensitivities and the safety of American personnel, but the deployments we do know about shed at least some light on the full range of missions being carried out by America's secret military.
Last April and May, for instance, Special Ops personnel took part in training exercises in Djibouti, Malawi, and the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. In June, U.S. Navy SEALs joined Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, and other allied Mideast forces for irregular warfare simulations in Aqaba, Jordan. The next month, Green Berets traveled to Trinidad and Tobago to carry out small unit tactical exercises with local forces. In August, Green Berets conducted explosives training with Honduran sailors. In September, according to media reports, U.S. Special Operations forces joined elite troops from the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Cambodia — as well as their counterparts from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China, India, and Russia for a US-Indonesian joint-funded counterterrorism exercise held at a training center in Sentul, West Java.
In October, elite U.S. troops carried out commando raids in Libya and Somalia, kidnapping a terror suspect in the former nation while SEALs killed at least one militant in the latter before beingdriven off under fire. In November, Special Ops troops conducted humanitarian operations in the Philippines to aid survivors of Typhoon Haiyan. The next month, members of the 352nd Special Operations Group conducted a training exercise involving approximately 130 airmen and six aircraft at an airbase in England and Navy SEALs were wounded while undertaking an evacuation mission in South Sudan. Green Berets then rang in the new year with a January 1st combat mission alongside elite Afghan troops in Bahlozi village in Kandahar province.
Deployments in 134 countries, however, turn out not to be expansive enough for SOCOM. In November 2013, the command announced that it was seeking to identify industry partners who could, under SOCOM's Trans Regional Web Initiative, potentially "develop new websites tailored to foreign audiences." These would join an existing global network of 10 propaganda websites, run by various combatant commands and made to look like legitimate news outlets, including CentralAsiaOnline.com, Sabahi which targets the Horn of Africa; an effort aimed at the Middle East known as Al-Shorfa.com; and another targeting Latin America called Infosurhoy.com.
SOCOM's push into cyberspace is mirrored by a concerted effort of the command to embed itself ever more deeply inside the Beltway. "I have folks in every agency here in Washington, D.C. — from the CIA, to the FBI, to the National Security Agency, to the National Geospatial Agency, to the Defense Intelligence Agency," SOCOM chief Admiral McRaven said during a panel discussion at Washington's Wilson Center last year. Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Library in November, he put the number of departments and agencies where SOCOM is now entrenched at 38.
134 Chances for Blowback
Although elected in 2008 by many who saw him as an antiwar candidate, President Obama has proved to be a decidedly hawkish commander-in-chief whose policies have already produced notable instances of what in CIA trade-speak has long been called blowback. While the Obama administration oversaw a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq (negotiated by his predecessor), as well as adrawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan (after a major military surge in that country), the president has presided over a ramping up of the U.S. military presence in Africa, a reinvigoration of efforts inLatin America, and tough talk about a rebalancing or "pivot to Asia" (even if it has amounted to little as of yet).
The White House has also overseen an exponential expansion of America's drone war. While President Bush launched 51 such strikes, President Obama has presided over 330, according to research by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Last year, alone, the U.S. also engaged in combat operations in Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. Recent revelations from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden have demonstrated the tremendous breadth and global reach of U.S. electronic surveillance during the Obama years. And deep in the shadows, Special Operations forces are now annually deployed to more than double the number of nations as at the end of Bush's tenure.
In recent years, however, the unintended consequences of U.S. military operations have helped to sow outrage and discontent, setting whole regions aflame. More than 10 years after America's "mission accomplished" moment, seven years after its much vaunted surge, the Iraq that America helped make is in flames. A country with no al-Qaeda presence before the U.S. invasion and a government opposed to America's enemies in Tehran now has a central government aligned with Iran and two cities flying al-Qaeda flags.
A more recent U.S. military intervention to aid the ouster of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi helped send neighboring Mali, a U.S.-supported bulwark against regional terrorism, into a downward spiral, saw a coup there carried out by a U.S.-trained officer, ultimately led to a bloody terror attack on an Algerian gas plant, and helped to unleash nothing short of a terror diaspora in the region.
And today South Sudan — a nation the U.S. shepherded into being, has supported economicallyand militarily (despite its reliance on child soldiers), and has used as a hush-hush base for Special Operations forces — is being torn apart by violence and sliding toward civil war.
The Obama presidency has seen the U.S. military's elite tactical forces increasingly used in an attempt to achieve strategic goals. But with Special Operations missions kept under tight wraps, Americans have little understanding of where their troops are deployed, what exactly they are doing, or what the consequences might be down the road. As retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University, has noted, the utilization of Special Operations forces during the Obama years has decreased military accountability, strengthened the "imperial presidency," and set the stage for a war without end. "In short," he wrote at TomDispatch, "handing war to the special operators severs an already too tenuous link between war and politics; it becomes war for its own sake."
Secret ops by secret forces have a nasty tendency to produce unintended, unforeseen, and completely disastrous consequences. New Yorkers will remember well the end result ofclandestine U.S. support for Islamic militants against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the 1980s: 9/11. Strangely enough, those at the other primary attack site that day, the Pentagon, seem not to have learned the obvious lessons from this lethal blowback. Even today in Afghanistan and Pakistan, more than 12 years after the U.S. invaded the former and almost 10 years after it began conducting covert attacks in the latter, the U.S. is still dealing with that Cold War-era fallout: with, for instance, CIA drones conducting missile strikes against an organization (the Haqqani network) that, in the 1980s, the Agency supplied with missiles.
Without a clear picture of where the military's covert forces are operating and what they are doing, Americans may not even recognize the consequences of and blowback from our expanding secret wars as they wash over the world. But if history is any guide, they will be felt — from Southwest Asia to the Mahgreb, the Middle East to Central Africa, and, perhaps eventually, in the United States as well.
In his blueprint for the future, SOCOM 2020, Admiral McRaven has touted the globalization of U.S. special ops as a means to "project power, promote stability, and prevent conflict." Last year, SOCOM may have done just the opposite in 134 places.
Nick Turse is the associate editor ofTomDispatch.com. His latest book is Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. He is the author/editor of several other books, including The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyber Warfare,Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050 (with Tom Engelhardt), The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives and The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan. Turse is currently a fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute. His website is Nick Turse.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NickTurse, on Tumblr, orFacebook.
"Really Good At Killing People" Sez Obama Article Cites Grandma Killed, Too. Still Love the Dude? December 15, 2013
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, War.Tags: cindy casella, civilian casualties, collateral damage, drone missiles, drones, hellfire missile, kill list, momina bibi, obama killer, pakistan, pakistani victims, president obama, presidential assassination, roger hollander, war
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Roger's note: There is no hard evidence that Obama said that he is good at killing people, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong (watch the video below). Of course, it doesn't matter what he says, it is what he does, which is to use his unfettered powers to authorize the murder of innocent civilians, including American citizens, with neither transparency or due judicial process. This is known quaintly as collateral damage. The Fog of War? Just Wars? War is Hell?
Try instead War is a Racquet. Here is the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket). Better yet, read the book.
Cindy Casella
http://www.dailykos.com, December 13, 2013
Yesterday, I was flamed for writing a diary that juxtaposed Obama's alleged statement to aides that he's "really good at killing people" with the story of a Pakistani family who came to Washington to testify about how drones killed their mother/grandmother. Among the pies tossed my way was the accusation I was deliberately flame baiting by pairing these two concepts side by side in the title of my diary: Son Told Truant Congress Drones Killed His Mom; Obama: "I'm good at killing people".
When I wrote my diary, my intention wasn't fishing for flames as one commenter kept accusing me. Obama's comment popped into my head when I read this article, Please tell me, Mr President, why a US drone assassinated my mother, written by Rafiq ur Rehman, the son of the 67 year old midwife, Momina Bibi, who was targeted by the bright lights of a drone and blown up while picking okra with her 9 grandchildren, who witnessed the "dum dum" sound of the drone hovering overhead and then smelled the "weird" scent of their grandmother being blown up by a hellfire missile as their world before them darkened. I thought this dreadful statement is the only explanation that Obama has even remotely given the grief stricken family so far about the death of their mother and grandmother, albeit indirectly.
I recommend reading this Huffington Post article: Obama Told Aides He's 'Really Good At Killing People,' New Book 'Double Down' Claims by Mollie Reilly and urge you to watch the video, in which the reporter says the following:
"The quote, the relish that he seems to take in the taking of human life is sort of unseemly, I'd say, and not the best thing for a politician to say.""Pretty nasty stuff."
Will the detractors who changed the subject away from a Pakistani family traveling 7000 miles to testify before Congress, most of whom didn't bother to show up and listen to the innocent drone victims, who according to the REAL LIARS don't even exist, libel the Huffington Post reporter's integrity, too, for finding Obama's statement "unseemly," "pretty nasty stuff," and noting "the relish that he seems to take in the taking of human life"?
Just using the phrase "being good at killing" in and of itself, whether or not it was said quietly, is creepy to most people with any shred of humanity or even a modicum of social acumen. But when it is said by the world leader who gave his OK for drone strikes that killed and maimed hundreds of innocent victims, including this grandmother, whose families' suffering he ignores and does not compensate, it is beyond unseemly to anyone with even half a conscience.
The MSM reported that instead of a grandmother being droned in a field alongside her 9 grandchildren, 3-5 militants were droned in their car/house.
Now, that's what I call a lie.
Ms. Reilly also included in her article the story about the Pakistani family losing their grandmother as an example of one of the many civilians Obama has killed with drones. So, I was not alone in pairing Obama's statement about "being good at killing people" with the sweet grandmother droned to death.
The claim that Obama is remorseful about the grandmother's death rings hollow since he has never apologized for it or given any compensation to her family for her loss or the medical expenses to remove hellfire missile shrapnel from her 11 year old grandson's, Zubair's, leg or treating her 9 year old granddaughter's, Nabila's, hand wounds, who awoke in a hospital after running and running away from the explosion. Not only that, but the very next day after the family voiced their sad testimony in our Nation's Capitol, Obama was scheduled to meet, not with them, but with the very company that manufactured the hellfire missile that killed their grandmother and two companies that manufacture drones. He never met the grieving school teacher or his two injured children while they were in Washington. This snub alone says it all.
If these angry Kossacks believe Obama feels rueful about "being good at killing" and maiming innocent people by the softness of his voice, why do they accept the fact that he isn't apologizing to the innocent victims, helping them, or even acknowledging that they exist? Why are they accepting his continuance of a drone program considered a war crime by many legal minds?
As I commented yesterday:
I was trying to show the horrible reality of who Obama was really good at killing…many of whom are innocent people.
A commenter wisely made this point about Obama's explanation on drones:
He doesn't need words or legal construct….He can either reduce or stop their use, he can explain to these families WHY they were targeted, as was the case with al-Awlaki's 16 year old, American citizen son, whose family members still have not heard why the strike that killed him was ordered. He can set up a system where targets can somehow contest the evidence against them…
But I don't accept the current system, where secret evidence is gathered secretly, where the approval for strikes is done in secrecy, and where the government refuses to even allow an assassination target to see the evidence against him or contest any of it, because again, secrecy. These are not the policies of an enlightened, transparent, and peaceful country.
And the truth is, none of us have any idea as to how Obama actually feels about these strikes….
How anyone could attack someone for pointing out the obvious about a statement that is truly horrible coming from a world leader, instead of demanding the world leader STOP KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE is WHY he is getting away with secretly killing grandmothers without a trial, without any apology, without any compensation, and without any acknowledgment.To quote Bill Clinton about his indiscretion that pales in comparison to droning a grandmother, Obama can answer Momina Bibi's grieving son, "I did it, because I could."
Yes, he can.
Obama and Holder Let Gangsters Pay Fine, Continue Business As Usual November 21, 2013
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Criminal Justice, Economic Crisis.Tags: bank of america, banksters, derivitives, Economic Crisis, eric holder, glen ford, godman sachs, housing bubble, J.P. Morgan, jamie dimon, jp morgan fine, jp morgan settlement, Morgan Stanley, obama administration, roger hollander, too big to fail, Wall Street, Wells Fargo
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Roger's note: Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford is one of the most incisive journalists on the Internet. Unlike the legions of mind/ethics challenged Obamabots, who for reasons of race or party loyalty are willfully blind to the Obama Administrations Wall Street/Military-Industrial Complex agenda, Black Agenda Report does not hesitate to speak the truth about the first Afro-American Emperor's mythical new clothes.
Going on five years into the Obama regime, it is clear that Wall Street is immune from prosecution, no matter the savagery of the economic crime. Attorney General Eric Holder "has ruthlessly maneuvered every case against the oligarchs into his own jurisdictional arena, in order to protect the banksters from aggressive prosecution." JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon is a far bigger bandit than Lucky Luciano.
Obama and Holder Let Gangsters Pay Fine, Continue Business As Usual
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
"The Obama administration has assessed a total of $28 billion in penalties against the Dimon mob, with no discernible effect."
Imagine if Charles "Lucky" Luciano and his "Commission" representing the five reigning New York Mafia families plus the Chicago mob had been immune from law enforcement meddling in their activities, from the establishment of the "Syndicate" in 1931 to the present day. By now, Luciano's gangster heirs would be the unchallenged rulers of economic and political life in the United States and, by imperial extension, the entire capitalist world.
JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon is the man Lucky Luciano dreamed of becoming. A friend and golfing partner of President Obama, Dimon sits at the top of the ruling financial pyramid whose "commissioners" include the heads of Bank of America, CitiGroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Their syndicate owns the cops, prosecutors, judges and major political parties and is, therefore, immune from criminal prosecution: the true "Untouchables," too big to jail. So big, it will require a revolution to dislodge them from hegemonic power.
The latest Obama administration "settlement" of JP Morgan's ongoing criminal enterprise amounts to a $13 billion fine, a mere speed bump in the unbroken spree of lawlessness that "helped create a financial storm that devastated millions of Americans," in the words of Associate Attorney General Tony West. Although it is "the largest penalty in history," Dimon and his fellow banksters are also the richest criminals in history – the most powerful cartel of all time – who can easily afford the levy. The bursting of their housing securities bubble may have wrecked much of the global economy in 2008, but Dimon and his boys made out like pure bandits in the aftermath, consolidating their positions at the center of a dying system. JP Morgan emerged as the biggest U.S. bank in terms of assets, a gleaming tower standing amid the ruins it created. Such is the logic of late stage finance capitalism: catastrophe becomes "creative destruction," which begets greater economic monopoly, resulting in unchallengeable political supremacy, which makes Dimon too big to jail, whether he's actually a friend of Obama, or not.
"Dimon and his fellow banksters can easily afford the levy."
There is no reason whatsoever to believe that the $13 billion fine will have any measurable impact on JP Morgan's business plan. So far, the Obama administration has assessed a total of $28 billion in penalties against the Dimon mob, with no discernible effect. This time around, however, Obama's prosecutors have imposed the equivalent of mandatory community service on the corporate malefactor, as an alternative to actual justice. Part of the $4 billion set aside to help struggling homeowners will go towards knocking down abandoned or foreclosed homes in the urban neighborhoods laid waste by JP Morgan and its cohorts in the racially-targeted subprime mortgage frenzy. That's like compelling the Mafia to do upkeep on the cemeteries where its victims are buried, in lieu of prison terms or execution.
Yet, Justice Department mouthpiece Tony West claims the eyesore clearance penalty will "rectify" some of the harm done to "areas hardest hit by the financial crisis." But, of course, it doesn't even come close. Whole communities have been wounded beyond repair. Black wealth took its deepest dive in history, with reverberations that will impact future generations. Many thousands of people have died from the social trauma inflicted by Jamie Dimon and his syndicate – and that's just in the United States. Globally, millions have perished due to the actions for which the settlement is supposed to atone.
Back in the Spring, the Huffington Post noted that Attorney General Eric Holder was attempting to retract his famous admission that banks like JP Morgan are too big to jail. Holder's original statement, in March, was:
"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."
Two months later, in May, Holder amended his remarks, to say:
"Let me make something real clear right away. I made a statement I guess in a Senate hearing that I think has been misconstrued. I said it was difficult at times to bring cases against large financial institutions because [of] the potential consequences that they would have on the financial system. But let me make it very clear that there is no bank, there's no institution, there's no individual who cannot be investigated and prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice…. Let me be very, very, very clear. Banks are not too big to jail. If we find a bank or a financial institution that has done something wrong, if we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, those cases will be brought."
Clearly, Holder was lying, second time around. If there were ever a serial financial gangster, it's Dimon. There are no better candidates for racketeering prosecution on the face of the Earth than the Big Six banks and their executives: the pinnacle of the ruling class.
"Globally, millions have perished due to the actions for which the settlement is supposed to atone."
However, it is wrong to deride Holder and Obama as merely timid in the face of Wall Street's awesomely destructive power. Rather, they are instruments of finance capital's hegemony. Holder has ruthlessly maneuvered every case against the oligarchs into his own jurisdictional arena, in order to protect the banksters from aggressive prosecution by wayward state officials. Holder's "settlements" are designed to insulate the banks from the rule of law, since, at this stage of systemic decay, the Lords of Capital can no longer function within existing legal constraints. The public sphere must be privatized; the urban centers, like Detroit, must be disenfranchised; the financial cartel must be allowed to absorb an ever greater proportion of the real economy into its derivatives casino; wealth must flow from the bottom to the top, without pause; and a planetary corporate code must be established through "free trade" treaties that supersede the sovereign laws of nations. All of the Obama administration's marching orders flow from these imperatives.
Obama and Holder are guardians of the emerging new order, which does not yet have a legal code – and may well prefer to forgo such niceties, entirely. In the meantime, corporate Democrats and Republicans will give lip service to the law while the Mafia of Money runs the show.
And, you can take that to the bank.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Obama Worse than Bush? October 17, 2013
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Criminal Justice, Democracy, War on Terror.Tags: big lie, bin Laden, bin laden kill, civil liberties, constitution, fema camps, habeas corpus, minority report, obama lie, president obama, prolonged detention, roger hollander, scott baker, seymour hersch, sherwood ross, tom cruise
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Roger's note: Obama worse than Bush? On the face of it it seems a ludicrous idea. But digging a little deeper … Here are two articles that give much food for thought. I especially encourage you to play the video at the very end of the second article and watch Rachel Maddow take apart Obama's academy award winning performance for convolution.
http://www.opednews,com, 10/17/2013 at 09:10:31
Hersh Says bin Laden Kill Story "One Big Lie"
By Sherwood Ross (about the author)
If Seymour Hersh says the tale of the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US Navy SEALS is "one big lie" and "not one word of it is true," President Obama will be hard pressed to keep his job when Hersh's new book comes out. Over a lifetime, investigative reporter Hersh has become famous for his accuracy, honesty, reliability and integrity and if he says the bin Laden tale is a fake, you can take it to the bank.
Federal Emergency Management Agency relief trucks stage in New York, as seen as Army Gen. Frank Grass, the chief of the National Guard Bureau; Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Denise Jelinski-Hall and other National Guard senior leaders visit areas impacted by by jim.greenhill
There is no shortage of videos and more videos from conspiratists and mainstream sources alike.
Some purposes seem benign, even helpful, like using the camps to house natural disaster victims, instead of warehousing them in horrific conditions like what ensued after Hurricane Katrina, when up to 20,000 people were jammed into the Louisiana Superdome.
But the use of such camps can be expanded greatly, especially in the new Amerika, where everyone is a suspect, and Constitutional rights are a sometime option.
Rachel Maddow has compiled and dissected some recent speeches by Obama in which he explains the future use of FEMA camps directly, and his twisted but very real legal theory allowing, at least to him, indefinite pre-emptive detention for crimes that have not been committed yet, and Obama's overreach, far beyond anything Bush and Cheney ever attempted, and completely outside even the constitution's Article 1, Section 9, which allows for suspension of Habeas Corpus during times of "Rebellion (e.g. as in the Civil War) or Invasion." She compares Obama's evolving policy to that of the Tom Cruise science fiction movie: Minority Report, in which Cruise works as a cop in the department of pre-crime, arresting people for things they haven't done yet.
In Oval Office Meeting, Malala Yousafzai Tells Obama to End Drone Strikes in Pakistan October 13, 2013
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Imperialism, Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan, Peace, War, War on Terror, Women.Tags: Afghanistan War, civilian casualties, drone, drone missiles, jacob chamberlain, kmalala, malala yousafzai, nobel peace, Obama, pakistan, peace, roger hollander, Sakharov Prize, terrorism
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President Obama in conversation with Malala in the Oval Office
"Well Malala, it goes like this. I am the Ruling Elite and you are not. Your life is yet just another mere commodity to be used as fodder to heat the machine that devours the planet and the rest of your class. Posing with you here today is like posing with the Turkey I pardon every year when the American people celebrate the genocide carried out on the original peoples that inhabited this country. These people are now just an embarrassment and a nuisance. Which brings me back to you and your people. You see Malala your life is worthless to me and my investors. These photo-ops are just to keep the illusion going that we care. And you are now a willing participant in that fairytale. If you threaten me or my class or their ability to make a profit… I have a list… Where is that list?…Malia, darling could hand your father that piece of paper… thank you. See Malala, I have the right to Kill anyone in the ENTIRE world. ANYONE. yes, even U.S. citizens… see here, I killed a young man no more than a couple years older than you. And that was because of who his father was! hahaha! Imagine! Now Imagine, if you, Malala truly stood up and spoke out against me and my friends. So just to let you know, I will drone anyone anywhere I feel like because that's just apart of my job as Ruler of the free world. Now smile for the camera.
Say Freedom!"
Malala Yousafzai, the sixteen-year-old Pakistani girl who survived a gunshot to the head by members of the Taliban for speaking out on women's right to education, told President Barack Obama in an Oval Office meeting on Friday that he should stop drone strikes in countries such as Pakistan.
In a statement released after the meeting, Yousafzai said that she told Obama that she is concerned about the effect of U.S. drone strikes in her country—a portion of the conversation that was omitted from White House statements so far.
"I [expressed] my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism," Yousafzai said in a statement released by the Associated Press. "Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact."
Yousafzai—the youngest ever nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize—was invited to the White House "for her inspiring and passionate work on behalf of girls education in Pakistan," according to a White House statement.
Yousafzai also recently called on the U.S. and U.K. governments to end military attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan in an interview with BBC.
"The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue," she told BBC. "That's not an issue for me, that's the job of the government… and that's also the job of America."
Yousafzai was awarded a prestigious international human rights award—the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought—on Thursday, but did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, as was announced on Friday.
Obama Quietly Okays Military Aid to Countries That Use Child Soldiers October 3, 2013
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Children, Human Rights, War.Tags: child soldiers, egypt coup, human rights, military aid, president obama, roger hollander, sarah lazare
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Overrides law banning such aid; critics charge 'Obama becoming an expert at waiving human rights laws'
Amid the hoopla of the government shutdown, the White House quietly passed a bill Monday that overrides a law banning military aid to countries that use child soldiers.
The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 prohibits the U.S. government from providing military assistance to countries that directly use, or support the use of, child soldiers. Built into the law is an option allowing the U.S. president to override the ban if he/she deems it necessary.
On Monday, President Obama issued complete waivers to Yemen, Chad, and South Sudan, opening up those countries to U.S. military aid despite their known use of child soldiers, declaring in a written memorandum it is "in the national interest of the United States" to override the ban.
Obama also granted partial waivers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia to allow "International Military Education and Training" and "nonlethal" defense for both countries and "provision of assistance under the Peacekeeping Operations authority for logistical support and troop stipends" in Somalia. According to Think Progress writer Hayes Brown, these waivers open the door for military aid for ongoing "peacekeeping" operations in both these countries.
"Obama is becoming an expert at waiving human rights laws," writes Ken Hanly in Digital Journal. "He waived part of a law last month that banned the US from supplying lethal aid to terrorist groups so he could send aid to Syrian rebels. In the case of Egypt, Obama has refused to call the coup by the armed forces a coup and by doing so does not run afoul of a law that would ban aid to a country where there had been a military coup."
"Human rights are to be promoted but only insofar as they do not conflict with US national interest as understood by the president," he added.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has come under criticism for filling its own military ranks with hundreds of thousands of teenagers, including 17-year-olds who can enlist with parental consent.
Larry Summers: Goldman Sacked September 17, 2013
Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Economic Crisis.Tags: bail out, cfma, deregulation, derivitives, Economic Crisis, Federal Reserve, foreclosures, Goldman Sachs, Greg Palast, jon corzine, Larry Summers, lending club, robert rubin, roger hollander, stiglitz, sub-prime mortgage, the fed, Wall Street
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Non-playable races
3,374pages on
this wiki
this wiki
Category page
These are the races that exist in the game but are not available to play as.
This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
Pages in category "Non-playable races"
The following 6 pages are in this category, out of 6 total.


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Name: | Lego Group Grant Program |
Deadline: | Varies |
Sponsoring Organization: | Lego Group- Lego Children's Fund |
Grant Website: | Grant Information |
Description: | The Lego Group is accepting applications for its Lego Children's Fund grant program. The purpose of the program is to support projects that improve learning, sport, and athletic opportunities for underserved youth. Award amounts are $500-$5,000. Eligible applicants are 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organizations. Contact the Lego Group grant program directly for complete program information and application guidelines. |


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To begin I would like to express, from the very marrow of my bones, my sincerest condolences to those affected by the shootings in Aurora, Colorado. I also apologise in advance if this article seems insensitive in how short a period it has been since the shooting.
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Bootcamp III
Type: | Workshop |
Date: | Friday, October 26, 2012 |
Time: | 9:00 AM -4:00 PM |
Location: | Henry Cohen (3rd Floor) 72 Fifth Avenue |
Hosted by: | Career Development & Placement |
If the workshop is full, please send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com to be placed on the waitlist.
There must be a minimum of six (6) confirmed attendees or the workshop is subject to cancellation. If you fail to attend up to three (3) workshops/appointments in a given semester, you may be restricted from career services for the remainder of that semester.
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Heavenly Errorsby Neil F. Comins
0231116454 / 9780231116459 / 0-231-11645-4
Publisher Columbia University Press Language English Edition Softcover › Find signed collectible books: 'Heavenly Errors' |
Does the weather get warmer in summer because the Earth moves closer to the sun? That many people believe this is a perfect example of common sense leading to scientific misconception, the kind of misconception Neil Comins strives to set straight in Heavenly Errors. Comins is particularly eager to stamp out errors about astronomy, his field, and in his book he explores--and corrects--1,500 "commonly held" astronomical beliefs. Along the way, he investigates the nature of misconceptions, how and why we acquire them, and how to guard against them. He identifies external culprits, such as science fiction films, the Internet, and advertising, and examines how the psychological traits that help humans survive are poor tools for understanding "the real nature of the universe." A writer and teacher, Comins can clearly explain astronomical concepts to non-scientists. This book, however, seems geared to freshman astronomy students, and not to the general science reader. --J.B. Peck [via]


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Please enter your travel dates.
Superior Room
- FREE Parking
Parking is included in your stay.
Deluxe Room
- FREE Parking
Parking is included in your stay.
Executive Room - Non refundable (2 Breakfast included)
- FREE Breakfast
Breakfast for 2 is included in your stay.
- FREE Parking
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Deluxe Suite, 1 King Bed - Non refundable (2 Breakfast included)
- FREE Breakfast
Breakfast for 2 is included in your stay.
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4.5-star luxury hotel with an outdoor pool in Dongguan (Houjie)
This luxury hotel is located in Dongguan (Houjie), close to Dongguan Houjie Hospital, Haiyueyan Park, and Guangdong Modern International Exhibition Center. Area attractions also include Yuehui Garden.
Hotel Features
At Sheraton Dongguan Hotel, recreational amenities include an outdoor pool and a health club. The hotel also features a bar/lounge and complimentary wireless Internet access.
Room Amenities
In addition to complimentary wireless Internet access and complimentary high-speed (wired) Internet access, guestrooms feature refrigerators along with microwaves and air conditioning.
Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!Hotel Amenities
- General
In addition to an outdoor pool, Sheraton Dongguan Hotel provides a health club, a spa tub, and a steam room. A bar/lounge is on site where guests can unwind with a drink. Business amenities at this 4.5-star property consist of a business center, secretarial services, and limo/town car service.
High-speed wired and wireless Internet access is complimentary. Event facilities include conference/meeting rooms, small meeting rooms, and banquet facilities. This luxury hotel also offers spa services, tour/ticket assistance, and an arcade/game room. For a surcharge, a roundtrip airport shuttle (available on request) is offered to guests. Onsite parking is complimentary.
Sheraton Dongguan Hotel has designated areas for smoking.
- Luggage storage
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Year Built 2003
- Airport transportation (surcharge)
- Garden
- Room service
- Designated smoking areas
- Full board rates available
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Express check-in
- Wedding services
- Express check-out
- 24-hour front desk
- Air-conditioned public areas
- Arcade/game room
- Total number of rooms - 500
- ATM/banking
- Audiovisual equipment
- Babysitting or childcare
- Number of floors - 30
- Banquet facilities
- Bar/lounge
- Business center
- Business services
- Complimentary newspapers in lobby
- Concierge services
- Multiple large conference rooms
- Currency exchange
- Doorman/doorwoman
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Elevator/lift
- Event catering
- Gift shops or newsstand
- Grocery store
- Hair salon
- Health club
- Laundry facilities
- Limo or Town Car service available
- Multiple small meeting rooms
- Multilingual staff
- Free parking
- Porter/bellhop
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Secretarial services
- Security guard
- Shopping on site
- Spa services on site
- Spa tub
- Steam room
- Swimming pool - outdoor
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- Tour assistance
- Translation services
- Video library
- Free Wi-Fi
- Free guest parking during stay
- Internet
Available in all rooms: Free Wi-Fi, Free wired high-speed Internet
Available in some public areas: Free Wi-Fi, Free wired high-speed Internet
- Parking
Free parking, Free guest parking during stay
- Room Amenities
- Connecting / adjoining rooms available
- DVD player
- Hypo-allergenic bedding available
- Premium bedding
- Separate sitting area
- Complimentary newspaper
- Air conditioning
- Climate control
- Voice mail
- Multi-line phone
- Free local calls
- Direct-dial phone
- Refrigerator
- Minibar
- Coffee/tea maker
- Complimentary bottled water
- Microwave
- Wake-up calls
- Daily housekeeping
- Turndown service
- Bathroom phone
- Bathrobes
- Complimentary toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Extra towels/bedding in room
- Makeup/shaving mirror
- In-room massage available
- Slippers
- Separate bathtub and shower
- Welcome amenities
- In-room safe
- Clock radio
- Desk
- Trouser press
- Iron/ironing board (on request)
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Cribs/infant beds available
- Free Wi-Fi
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Dining
Buffet breakfasts are available for a surcharge.
Room service is available.
- Recreation
An outdoor pool and a spa tub are on site. Other recreational amenities include a health club and a steam room.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Pilates classes/instruction nearby
- Swimming on site
- Aerobics nearby
- Bicycle rentals nearby
Policies & Fees
- Check-in
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
- Check-out
Check-out time is 11 AM
- Payment types
Accepted at this hotel: American Express, Diners Club, JCB International, MasterCard, Visa
- Pets
Pets not allowed
- General
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- Fees
- The following fees and deposits are charged by the property at time of service, check-in, or check-out.
- Breakfast fee: CNY 147 per person (approximately)
The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change.
- Additional Details
This property offers transfers from the airport (surcharges may apply). Guests must contact the property with arrival details 48 hours prior to arrival, using the contact information on the booking confirmation. The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.
- Details
Free Shuttle
Book a stay in any rate category now-March 20, 2014 for travel March 16-20, 2014 and receive free shuttle transport to the GD Modern International Exhibition Center.
Shuttle departs every 15-30 minutes. Subject to availability. Other restrictions may apply.
Free Shuttle
Book a stay in any rate category now-March 22, 2014 for travel March 18-22, 2014 and receive free shuttle transport to the Pazhou International Exhibition Center.
Shuttle departs hotel at 8 AM and departs the exhibition center at 6 PM. Subject to availability. Other restrictions may apply.