Welcome A Patriots Manifest is making the following material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of humanity's problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. Thank you for visiting and, if you have any suggestions, you may E-Mail me by clicking the Contact us link at the lower center. All comments to that E-Mail address will be posted. Thank you......Michael Roller

Congressional hearing reveals US intelligence agencies shielded Flight 253 bomber A January 27 hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security established that US intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking the US visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The Nigerian student, whom US officials suspected of being affiliated with the Yemeni terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, attempted to set off a bomb on Northwest Flight 253 into Detroit on Christmas Day. Revocation of Abdulmutallab’s visa would have prevented him from boarding the airplane.

Breakdown Of The Gold Market A great disconnect exists in the gold market between the exchange futures contract price (the paper price) and the gold bullion paid price for transactions (the physical price). The differential in price is growing wider, enough to place tremendous pressure on the gold market itself. Look not to the gold premium paid for purchases, but to high volume purchases in the tens of million$. In mid-December, almost every demand for gold contract delivery was matched by a cash delivery, complete with 25% bonus premium offered. The officials even produced a new ledger item called 'Cash For Delivery' that was necessary to balance their badgered books. It prompted little attention. Some call it a basic bribe. Others call it a technical default.

Planned layoffs rise for first time since July: Challenger Planned layoff announcements at major U.S. corporations increased 59% in January, reaching 71,482 from a nine-year low of 45,094 seen in December, according to the latest job-cut tally by Challenger Gray & Christmas.

VIDEO: Ron Paul Warns of Social Unrest and Martial Law Video

IPCC Boss Unhinged As Greenpeace Demands Resignation With the pressure on IPCC boss Rajendra Pachauri increasing as the head of Greenpeace calls for his resignation, one of the most notorious green con artists is showing signs of cracking up, comparing his critics to an imaginary group of people who like to rub asbestos on their faces.

Clare Short: Goldsmith ‘Misled’ Cabinet Over Iraq Former international development secretary Clare Short accuses Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, of misleading the Cabinet over the legality of the Iraq war. Katie Razzall reports.

Israeli Commander: 'We Rewrote the Rules of War for Gaza' A high-ranking officer has acknowledged for the first time that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives in order to minimise military casualties during last year's Gaza war, The Independent can reveal.

Howard Zinn: Myths of the Good Wars Historian, Author, Playwright: Howard Zinn Sponsored by Cape Codders for Peace and Justice Filmed by Paul Hubbard at the Wellfleet Public Library on 9-13-09.

America, Inc. Is Here. Get With The Program! With the Supreme Court Ruling, Citizens United v. FEC, the government of the United States has, in effect, become a subsidiary of Corporate America.

The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Democracy On that day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government may not ban corporations from political spending on elections—a decision that profoundly affects government policy, both domestic and international.

The Vultures Circle Haiti at Every Opportunity,Natural or Man-made Haitians’ incredible plight has always been difficult to fully appreciate. Then the earthquake struck: hundreds of thousands dead, hundreds of thousands more hurt, a million homeless, and two million in need of food. It defies imagination.

Obama Grows the Drug War It was not long ago when President Barack Obama’s new drug czar, former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske, swept into Washington, D.C. and declared the “drug war” a public policy relic.

U.S. Army Imprisons Iraq War Veteran over Song Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall was incarcerated by the US Army on December 11, 2009, in Liberty County Jail, Georgia, for recording a song that expresses his anger over the Army’s stop-loss policy.

Neocon Says Obama Should Save Presidency By Attacking Iran A Neoconservative commentator and scholar has stated that Obama can save his presidency and turn around his plummeting approval ratings by bombing Iran.

"Why We Should Get Out Of Afghanistan" STOP THE WAR COALITION Meeting 27 January 2010 - Speakers: Tony Benn, George Galloway MP, Kate Hudson (CND), Lindsey German (Stop the War), 7pm, Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, London WC1H 9DB

Strengthening US 'Defense' In Gulf A Step To War An article in the New York Times by David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt states: "The Obama administration is accelerating the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf." It continues that this move "appears to be part of a coordinated administration strategy to increase pressure on Iran." Since there is about a zero chance that Iran would dare to launch a first strike on the US or its Arab allies, the US would only need to strengthen its missile defenses in order to deal with an Iranian counterattack after the US had first bombed Iran. This is a very dangerous development. It will likely cause Iran, in expectation of a possible attack, to increase its defenses. The US will then claim that Iran is threatening its neighbors and increase its military force even more. The mutual increases in military forces will mean a spiraling arms race.

Campaign For Liberty!!	The Bankruptcy of the United States is Now CertainIt's one of those numbers that's so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while... Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that's not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion. Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That's an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we're the world's biggest economy. Where will the money come from?
The Next Leg Of The Housing Crisis In Five Simple ChartsEverything that the government has done so far, with a few minor detours, has been almost exclusively focused on maintaining home prices high, by tweaking either the supply or the demand side of the housing equation. As the bulk of consumer net wealth is concentrated in the housing sector, and a wealthy and confident consumer, much more so than the banking system, is critical to the recovery of America's economy, the Administration will do everything in its power to achieve its goal of artificially manipulating the housing market, thereby not causing an incremental loss of wealth to those still stuck with overpriced houses, while the real intersection of actual supply and demand curves would indicate a materially lower equilibrium price. This is ironic, as proper price discovery is critical for a true recovery, since Americans realize all too well that buying a house at prevailing levels in advance of the second down-leg in housing is senseless, the continued pursuit of such flawed policies by the Fed and President Obama merely pulls the market ever further away from its equilibrium, thereby making the anticipated second dip so much more likely and not that far off in the distant future. Below are 5 simple charts the highlight just how precarious the housing situation in the U.S. is, and how likely the second, and probably much more fierce, leg down in the markets is going to be.	'Christian' Crusaders and Failures of Intelligence in the US Military Thirty years ago, Glyn Bindon, the founder of Trijicon, a Michigan Defense contractor, instituted the practice of stamping references to New Testament Bible verses on combat rifle sights manufactured for the U.S. military.
Nearly Half of Americans Admit to Anti-Muslim Bias Close to half of Americans admit to harboring prejudice against Muslims and negative feelings about Islam, a new study from the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies shows.	Time for George Mitchell to Resign Jan. 22, 2010 --  If Mideast special envoy George Mitchell wants to end his career with his reputation intact, it is time for him to resign. He had a distinguished tenure in the U.S. Senate -- including a stint as majority leader -- and his post-Senate career has been equally accomplished. He was an effective mediator of the conflict in Northern Ireland, helped shepherd the Disney Corporation through a turbulent period, and led an effective investigation of the steroids scandal afflicting major league baseball. Nobody can expect to be universally admired in the United States, but Mitchell may have come as close as any politician in recent memory.