Thursday, October 25, 2007

population

Suffolk County, New York
Info Further information Want more? Browse data sets for Suffolk County
People QuickFacts Suffolk County New York
Population definition and source info Population, 2006 estimate 1,469,715 19,306,183
Population, percent change, April 1, 2000 to July 1 definition and source info Population, percent change, April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006 3.5% 1.7%
Population definition and source info Population, 2000 1,419,369 18,976,457
Persons under 5 years old, percent definition and source info Persons under 5 years old, percent, 2005 6.6% 6.5%
Persons under 18 years old, percent definition and source info Persons under 18 years old, percent, 2005 25.1% 23.6%
Persons 65 years old and over, percent definition and source info Persons 65 years old and over, percent, 2005 12.3% 13.1%
Female persons, percent definition and source info Female persons, percent, 2005 50.7% 51.6%

White persons, percent definition and source info White persons, percent, 2005 (a) 87.4% 73.8%
Black persons, percent definition and source info Black persons, percent, 2005 (a) 7.8% 17.4%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent definition and source info American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2005 (a) 0.3% 0.5%
Asian persons, percent definition and source info Asian persons, percent, 2005 (a) 3.2% 6.7%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent definition and source info Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent, 2005 (a) 0.1% 0.1%
Persons reporting two or more races, percent definition and source info Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2005 1.1% 1.5%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent definition and source info Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2005 (b) 12.6% 16.1%
White persons not Hispanic, percent definition and source info White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2005 75.9% 60.9%

Living in same house in 1995 and 2000 definition and source info Living in same house in 1995 and 2000, pct 5 yrs old & over 64.7% 61.8%
Foreign born persons, percent definition and source info Foreign born persons, percent, 2000 11.2% 20.4%
Language other than English spoken at home, pct age 5+ definition and source info Language other than English spoken at home, pct age 5+, 2000 17.1% 28.0%
High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+ definition and source info High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+, 2000 86.2% 79.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+ definition and source info Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2000 27.5% 27.4%
Persons with a disability, age 5+ definition and source info Persons with a disability, age 5+, 2000 214,085 3,606,147
Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16+ definition and source info Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16+, 2000 31.8 31.7

Housing units definition and source info Housing units, 2005 538,826 7,853,020
Homeownership rate definition and source info Homeownership rate, 2000 79.8% 53.0%
Housing units in multi-unit structures, percent definition and source info Housing units in multi-unit structures, percent, 2000 13.2% 50.6%
Median value of owner-occupied housing units definition and source info Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2000 $185,200 $148,700

Households definition and source info Households, 2000 469,299 7,056,860
Persons per household definition and source info Persons per household, 2000 2.96 2.61
Median household income definition and source info Median household income, 2004 $65,214 $45,343
Per capita money income definition and source info Per capita money income, 1999 $26,577 $23,389
Persons below poverty, percent definition and source info Persons below poverty, percent, 2004 7.0% 14.5%
Business QuickFacts Suffolk County New York
Private nonfarm establishments definition and source info Private nonfarm establishments, 2005 47,611 514,2651
Private nonfarm employment definition and source info Private nonfarm employment, 2005 555,718 7,417,4631
Private nonfarm employment definition and source info Private nonfarm employment, percent change 2000-2005 6.3% 0.9%1
Nonemployer establishments definition and source info Nonemployer establishments, 2004 113,908 1,410,301

Total number of firms definition and source info Total number of firms, 2002 144,806 1,707,168
Black-owned firms, percent definition and source info Black-owned firms, percent, 2002 3.1% 7.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native owned firms, percent definition and source info American Indian and Alaska Native owned firms, percent, 2002 0.5% 0.7%
Asian-owned firms, percent definition and source info Asian-owned firms, percent, 2002 3.8% 8.5%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander owned firms, percent definition and source info Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander owned firms, percent, 2002 S 0.2%
Hispanic-owned firms, percent definition and source info Hispanic-owned firms, percent, 2002 4.9% 9.6%
Women-owned firms, percent definition and source info Women-owned firms, percent, 2002 25.1% 29.6%

Manufacturers shipments definition and source info Manufacturers shipments, 2002 ($1000) 15,350,063 147,317,463
Wholesale trade sales definition and source info Wholesale trade sales, 2002 ($1000) 31,089,261 343,663,041
Retail sales definition and source info Retail sales, 2002 ($1000) 18,469,555 178,067,530
Retail sales per capita definition and source info Retail sales per capita, 2002 $12,689 $9,298
Accommodation and foodservices sales definition and source info Accommodation and foodservices sales, 2002 ($1000) 1,733,779 27,835,952
Building permits definition and source info Building permits, 2006 2,573 54,382
Federal spending definition and source info Federal spending, 2004 ($1000) 8,648,813 143,902,5761
Geography QuickFacts Suffolk County New York
Land area definition and source info Land area, 2000 (square miles) 912.20 47,213.79
Persons per square mile definition and source info Persons per square mile, 2000 1,556.3 401.9
Persons per square mile definition and source info FIPS Code 103 36
Persons per square mile definition and source info Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Area New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA Metro Area

1: Includes data not distributed by county.

Download these tables - delimited | Download these tables - Excel | Download the full data set

(a) Includes persons reporting only one race.
(b) Hispanics may be of any race, so also are included in applicable race categories.

Overview

* Population of Maine in 2000: 1,274,923 in 2004 1,317,253

* Land Area: 30,862 square miles
* Length of coastline: 3,500 miles
* Forest: 17 million acres
* Persons per square mile: 41.3
* Home ownership rate (2000): 71.6%
* Largest city by population: Portland
* State Capital: Augusta
Washington County, Maine
Info Further information Want more? Browse data sets for Washington County
People QuickFacts Washington County Maine
Population definition and source info Population, 2006 estimate 33,288 1,321,574
Population, percent change, April 1, 2000 to July 1 definition and source info Population, percent change, April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006 -1.9% 3.7%
Population definition and source info Population, 2000 33,941 1,274,923
Persons under 5 years old, percent definition and source info Persons under 5 years old, percent, 2005 5.2% 5.1%
Persons under 18 years old, percent definition and source info Persons under 18 years old, percent, 2005 20.5% 21.0%
Persons 65 years old and over, percent definition and source info Persons 65 years old and over, percent, 2005 17.8% 14.6%
Female persons, percent definition and source info Female persons, percent, 2005 51.1% 51.1%

White persons, percent definition and source info White persons, percent, 2005 (a) 93.8% 96.9%
Black persons, percent definition and source info Black persons, percent, 2005 (a) 0.4% 0.8%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent definition and source info American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2005 (a) 4.6% 0.6%
Asian persons, percent definition and source info Asian persons, percent, 2005 (a) 0.4% 0.8%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent definition and source info Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent, 2005 (a) 0.0% 0.0%
Persons reporting two or more races, percent definition and source info Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2005 0.8% 0.9%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent definition and source info Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2005 (b) 1.1% 1.0%
White persons not Hispanic, percent definition and source info White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2005 92.8% 96.0%

Living in same house in 1995 and 2000 definition and source info Living in same house in 1995 and 2000, pct 5 yrs old & over 66.7% 59.6%
Foreign born persons, percent definition and source info Foreign born persons, percent, 2000 4.1% 2.9%
Language other than English spoken at home, pct age 5+ definition and source info Language other than English spoken at home, pct age 5+, 2000 5.4% 7.8%
High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+ definition and source info High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+, 2000 79.9% 85.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+ definition and source info Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2000 14.7% 22.9%
Persons with a disability, age 5+ definition and source info Persons with a disability, age 5+, 2000 8,543 237,910
Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16+ definition and source info Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16+, 2000 19.2 22.7

Housing units definition and source info Housing units, 2005 22,589 683,799
Homeownership rate definition and source info Homeownership rate, 2000 77.7% 71.6%
Housing units in multi-unit structures, percent definition and source info Housing units in multi-unit structures, percent, 2000 8.8% 20.3%
Median value of owner-occupied housing units definition and source info Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2000 $68,700 $98,700

Households definition and source info Households, 2000 14,118 518,200
Persons per household definition and source info Persons per household, 2000 2.34 2.39
Median household income definition and source info Median household income, 2004 $29,087 $41,287
Per capita money income definition and source info Per capita money income, 1999 $14,119 $19,533
Persons below poverty, percent definition and source info Persons below poverty, percent, 2004 17.4% 11.5%
Business QuickFacts Washington County Maine
Private nonfarm establishments definition and source info Private nonfarm establishments, 2005 926 41,9331
Private nonfarm employment definition and source info Private nonfarm employment, 2005 7,571 497,3871
Private nonfarm employment definition and source info Private nonfarm employment, percent change 2000-2005 -5.7% 1.1%1
Nonemployer establishments definition and source info Nonemployer establishments, 2004 3,962 111,079

Total number of firms definition and source info Total number of firms, 2002 4,645 135,410
Black-owned firms, percent definition and source info Black-owned firms, percent, 2002 F 0.2%
American Indian and Alaska Native owned firms, percent definition and source info American Indian and Alaska Native owned firms, percent, 2002 F 0.5%
Asian-owned firms, percent definition and source info Asian-owned firms, percent, 2002 F 0.6%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander owned firms, percent definition and source info Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander owned firms, percent, 2002 F S
Hispanic-owned firms, percent definition and source info Hispanic-owned firms, percent, 2002 F 0.5%
Women-owned firms, percent definition and source info Women-owned firms, percent, 2002 11.3% 24.0%

Manufacturers shipments definition and source info Manufacturers shipments, 2002 ($1000) 406,671 13,851,915
Wholesale trade sales definition and source info Wholesale trade sales, 2002 ($1000) 57,127 10,371,084
Retail sales definition and source info Retail sales, 2002 ($1000) 265,342 16,053,515
Retail sales per capita definition and source info Retail sales per capita, 2002 $7,942 $12,370
Accommodation and foodservices sales definition and source info Accommodation and foodservices sales, 2002 ($1000) 22,748 2,045,841
Building permits definition and source info Building permits, 2006 160 7,2931
Federal spending definition and source info Federal spending, 2004 ($1000) 308,449 10,864,5511
Geography QuickFacts Washington County Maine
Land area definition and source info Land area, 2000 (square miles) 2,568.48 30,861.55
Persons per square mile definition and source info Persons per square mile, 2000 13.2 41.3
Persons per square mile definition and source info FIPS Code 029 23
Persons per square mile definition and source info Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Area None

Why It's Great To Be American........

October 25, 2007
Ecological Warfare
Iraq's Environmental Crisis

By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
and JOSHUA FRANK

The ecological effects of war, like its horrific toll on human life, are exponential. When the Bush Administration and their Congressional allies sent our troops in to Iraq to topple Saddam's regime, they not only ordered these men and women to commit crimes against humanity, they also commanded them to perpetrate crimes against nature.

The first Gulf War had a horrific effect on the environment, as CNN reported in 1999, "Iraq was responsible for intentionally releasing some 11 million barrels of oil into the Arabian Gulf from January to May 1991, oiling more than 800 miles of Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian coastline. The amount of oil released was categorized as 20 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska and twice as large as the previous world record oil spill. The cost of cleanup has been estimated at more than $700 million."

During the build up to George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, Saddam loyalists promised to light oil fields afire, hoping to expose what they claimed were the U.S.'s underlying motives for attacking their country: oil. The U.S. architects of the Iraq war surely knew this was a potential reality once they entered Baghdad in March of 2003. Hostilities in Kuwait resulted in the discharge of an estimated 7 million barrels of oil, culminating in the world's largest oil spill in January of 1991. The United Nations later calculated that of Kuwait's 1,330 active oil wells, half had been set ablaze. The pungent fumes and smoke from those dark billowing flames spread for hundreds of miles and had horrible effects on human and environmental health. Saddam Hussein was rightly denounced as a ferocious villain for ordering his retreating troops to destroy Kuwaiti oil fields.

However, the United States military was also responsible for much of the environmental devastation of the first Gulf War. In the early 1990s the U.S. drowned at least 80 crude oil ships to the bottom of the Persian Gulf, partly to uphold the U.N.'s economic sanctions against Iraq. Vast crude oil slicks formed, killing an unknown quantity of aquatic life and sea birds while wrecking havoc on local fishing and tourist communities.

Months of bombing during the first Gulf War by U.S. and British planes and cruise missiles also left behind an even more deadly and insidious legacy: tons of shell casings, bullets and bomb fragments laced with depleted uranium. In all, the U.S. hit Iraqi targets with more than 970 radioactive bombs and missiles.

More than 15 years later, the health consequences from this radioactive bombing campaign are beginning to come into focus. And they are dire. Iraqi physicians call it "the white death"-leukemia. Since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent. The situation was compounded by Iraq's forced isolation and the sadistic sanctions regime, once described by former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan as "a humanitarian crisis", that made detection and treatment of the cancers all the more difficult.

Most of the leukemia and cancer victims aren't soldiers. They are civilians. Depleted uranium is a rather benign sounding name for uranium-238, the trace elements left behind when the fissionable material is extracted from uranium-235 for use in nuclear reactors and weapons. For decades, this waste was a radioactive nuisance, piling up at plutonium processing plants across the country. By the late 1980s there was nearly a billion tons of the material.

Then weapons designers at the Pentagon came up with a use for the tailings. They could be molded into bullets and bombs. The material was free and there was plenty at hand. Also uranium is a heavy metal, denser than lead. This makes it perfect for use in armor-penetrating weapons, designed to destroy tanks, armored-personnel carriers and bunkers.

When the tank-busting bombs explode, the depleted uranium oxidizes into microscopic fragments that float through the air like carcinogenic dust, carried on the desert winds for decades. The lethal bits when inhaled stick to the fibers of the lungs, and eventually begin to wreck havoc on the body in the form of tumors, hemorrhages, ravaged immune systems and leukemias.

It didn't take long for medical teams in the region to detect cancer clusters near the bomb sites. The leukemia rate in Sarajevo, pummeled by American bombs in 1996, tripled in five years following the bombings. But it's not just the Serbs who are ill and dying. NATO and U.N. peacekeepers in the region are also coming down with cancer.

The Pentagon has shuffled through a variety of rationales and excuses. First, the Defense Department shrugged off concerns about Depleted Uranium as wild conspiracy theories by peace activists, environmentalists and Iraqi propagandists. When the U.S.'s NATO allies demanded that the U.S. disclose the chemical and metallic properties of its munitions, the Pentagon refused. Depleted uranium has a half-life of more than 4 billion years, approximately the age of the Earth. Thousand of acres of land in the Balkans, Kuwait and southern Iraq have been contaminated forever.

Speaking of DU and other war-related disasters, former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said the environmental consequences of the Iraq war could in fact be more ominous than the issue of war and peace itself. Despite this stark admission, the U.S. made no public attempts to assess the environmental risks that the war would inflict.

Blix was right. On the second day of President Bush's invasion of Iraq it was reported by the New York Times and the BBC that Iraqi forces had set fire to several of the country's large oil wells. Five days later in the Rumaila oilfields, six dozen wellheads were set ablaze. The dense black smoke rose high in the southern sky of Iraq, fanning a clear signal that the U.S. invasion had again ignited an environmental tragedy. Shortly after the initial invasion the United Nations Environment Program's (UNEP) satellite data showed that a significant amount of toxic smoke had been emitted from burning oils wells. This smoldering oil was laced with poisonous chemicals such as mercury, sulfur and furans, which can causes serious damage to human as well as ecosystem health.

According to Friends of the Earth, the fallout from burning oil debris, like that of the first Gulf War, has created a toxic sea surface that has affected the health of birds and marine life. One area that has been greatly impacted is the Sea of Oman, which connects the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf byway of the Strait of Hormuz. This waterway is one of the most productive marine habitats in the world. In fact the Global Environment Fund contends that this region "plays a significant role in sustaining the life cycle of marine turtle populations in the whole North-Western Indo Pacific region." Of the world's seven marine turtles, five are found in the Sea of Oman and four of those five are listed as "endangered" with the other listed as "threatened".

The future indeed looks bleak for the ecosystems and biodiversity of Iraq, but the consequences of the U.S. military invasion will not only be confined to the war stricken country. The Gulf shores, according to BirdLife's Mike Evans, is "one of the top five sites in the world for wader birds, and a key refueling area for hundreds of thousands of migrating water birds." The U.N. Environment Program claims that 33 wetland areas in Iraq are of vital importance to the survival of various bird species. These wetlands, the U.N. claims, are also particularly vulnerable to pollution from munitions fallout as well as oil wells that have been sabotaged.

Mike Evans also maintains that the current Iraq war could destroy what's left of the Mesopotamian marshes on the lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Following the war of 1991 Saddam removed dissenters of his regime who had built homes in the marshes by digging large canals along the two rivers so that they would have access to their waters. Thousands of people were displaced. Their communities ruined.

The construction of dams upstream on the once roaring Tigris and Euphrates has dried up more than 90 percent of the marshes and has led to extinction of several animals. Water buffalo, foxes, waterfowl and boar have disappeared. "What remains of the fragile marshes, and the 20,000 people who still live off them, will lie right in the path of forces heading towards Baghdad from the south," wrote Fred Pearce in the New Scientist prior to Bush's invasion in 2003. The true effect this war has had on these wetlands and its inhabitants is still not known.

The destruction of Iraqi's infrastructure has had substantial public health implications as well. Bombed out industrial plants and factories have polluted ground water. The damage to sewage-treatment plants, with reports that raw sewage formed massive pools of muck in the streets of Baghdad immediately after Bush's 'Shock and Awe' campaign, is also likely poisoning rivers as well as human life. Cases of typhoid among Iraqi citizens have risen tenfold since 1991, largely due to polluted drinking water.

That number has almost certainly increased more in the past few years following the ousting of Saddam. In fact during the 1990s, while Iraq was under sanctions, U.N. officials in Baghdad agreed that the root cause of child mortality and other health problems was no longer simply lack of food and medicine but the lack of clean water (freely available in all parts of the country prior to the first Gulf War) and of electrical power, which had predictable consequences for hospitals and water-pumping systems. Of the 21.9 percent of contracts vetoed as of mid-1999 by the U.N.'s U.S.-dominated sanctions committee, a high proportion were integral to the efforts to repair the failing water and sewage systems.

The real cumulative impact of U.S. military action in Iraq, past and present, won't be known for years, perhaps decades, to come. Stopping this war now will not only save lives, it will also help to rescue what's left of Iraq's fragile environment.

Jeffrey St. Clair is the author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature and Grand Theft Pentagon. His newest book is End Times: the Death of the Fourth Estate, co-written with Alexander Cockburn. This essay will appear in Born Under a Bad Sky, to be published in December. He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net.

Joshua Frank is the co-editor of DissidentVoice.org, and author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, and along with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of the forthcoming Red State Rebels, to be published by AK Press in March 2008. He can be reached through his website, BrickBurner.org.

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funny stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwPTv5zeIrw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUiNiB2yVCQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99LjhqX0Txw&NR=1

World War III...What Is Happening NOW?

Thursday, October 25, 2007
Bush desperately seeking World War III

At a recent press briefing Bush was asked about Vladimir Putin's plans to hold on to power when his term runs out. Bush smirked and quipped: "I've been planning that myself." We should take Bush at his word. We should take that remark just as seriously as his recent veiled threat of World War III. We should take it as seriously as we should have taken his remark about how much easier it would all be "...if this was a dictatorship!"

So I told people [European leaders] that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested" in ensuring Iran not gain the capacity to develop such weapons.

--George W. Bush, Sociopath-in-Chief

How seriously should we take Bush's offhand remarks? His quips and unguarded remarks are the only truths to come out of his mouth. That applies to sinister references to summary executions in his 2003 State of the Union address: "Let's just say they are no longer a threat to the United States of America." It applies as well to his wistful longing for "dictatorship". Certainly, Bush is articulate only when he speaks of death, torture, vengence, warfare, execution, or punishment. He never stumbles, he never struggles to find the right word to describe pain, death or suffering!!

More recently, the temporal proximity of his "warnings" of WWIII and his "quip" about staying in power after his term, may be clues to what is in fact talked about inside the Oval Office.

Despite the president's occasional contempt for the law, THREAT LEVEL doesn't believe that he's going to declare a state of emergency and cancel the 2008 election. But in July, we filed some FOIA requests anyway. We asked five Justice Department offices for documents produced or revised after August 2001 "addressing the feasibility, advisability or lawfulness of deferring, rescheduling or canceling a US national election."

Bush Quips He Might Stay in Power (Threat Level Plays Along

Simply, the mechanisms by which Bush achieves his permanent dictatorship are already in place. Another terrorist attack will do the trick. [See How a Second Terrorist Attack Will Benefit George W. Bush] Measured against our standard, the Bush administration is a catastrophe. Measured against Bush's hidden agenda, he is very near to achieving what Richard Nixon could not --an absolute dictatorship in the United States. That means, of course, that Bush will have reduced Congress to a debating club, the Supreme Court to a mere advisory panel. Sadly, it is SCOTUS who helped write themselves out of a real job. Fools!

The most ominous new development is the Bush administration's push to name the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization.

"The U.S. has designated any number of states over the years as state sponsors of terrorism," says Leverett. "But here for the first time the U.S. is saying that part of a government is itself a terrorist organization."

This is what Leverett and Mann fear will happen: The diplomatic effort in the United Nations will fail when it becomes clear that Russia's and China's geopolitical ambitions will not accommodate the inconvenience of energy sanctions against Iran.

--The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran

What Bush has done already may be summarized briefly:

* He lied the nation into two wars. Neither have been won, neither had anything to do with the perpetrators of 911!
* Against our own US criminal codes and numerous international treaties, Bush has arrogated unto himself the power to abduct, imprison and torture anyone that he decides is an "enemy". He has assumed for himself a title: "Decider".
* He has built up a private army, a Praetorian Guard, to enforce his edicts: Blackwater USA.

Is Bush capable of starting WWIII, nuking Iran, staying put after his term ends? In a word --yes! Bush "gets off" on death. Immediately prior to his announcement that the US military was in action in Iraq, Bush --unaware that cameras were on and broadcasting --"pumped his fist" and declared: "I feel GOOD!"

Bush savors the little hints he drops, disguising them as "quips" or un-funny jokes. Tucker Carlson reported that Bush puckered his lips to mock Carla Fay Tucker's final plea for her life. "Please, Mr. Bush, don't kill me", he whined. As Governor of Texas, Bush chalked up 152 "kills" of many who were never competently defended, who were convicted upon phony or unreliable evidence, whose cases were tainted by dubious psychiatric evidence.

One need not be a licensed therapist to call him a sociopathic nut job, a threat to humankind and Western Civilization. He is clearly without empathy --that human quality upon which ethics and morality are based. Dr. Gustav Gilbert was the American psychologist who interviewed Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. Based on his research there, Gilbert concluded that evil was best described as an utter lack of empathy. Bush is, therefore, at the very least, a psychopathic monster, for the theologically inclined --a Satan incarnate.

"Sociopathy can be recognized early in an individual. Before the age of around 15 - 16 years, a child showing sociopathic traits is titled with conduct disorder. Signs of this early stage of sociopathy might include immunity to parental punishment and pain. Other signs may be the torturing of animals, fire setting, vandalism, consistent lying, theft, or aggression towards others. Nothing usually works in trying to change the behavior of this type of child. Therefore, the parent(s) usually give up, making the situation worse. But it must be noted that many children with conduct disorder do not progress on to sociopaths. After the age of 15 - 16, those who continue to show sociopathic signs are then labeled as having sociopathy or antisocial personality disorder

Carter & Golant, 1998; Sabbatini, 1998; See also: Horton, The Sociopath

Old friends who knew Bush as a boy describe a diabolical monster who reveled in inflicting pain and suffering. They verify a well-circulated story that the Junior Bush used to shove firecrackers up horned frogs to watch them explode when he tossed them into the air. The New York Times reported that at Yale during his Skull and Bones days, Bush indulged the sadistic practice of "branding" fraternity pledges with "brands" made of metal coat hangers. The blind folded pledges still have the scars to prove it. Li'l George promised never do it again but never figured out why others thought it such a "big deal". Tragically for the world, li'l George now has nukes with which to bully the world.

Dick Cheney, Halliburton's plant inside the Bush administration, can be counted on to look after the interests of big, no-bid contractors, primarily his own Halliburton. It says a lot about him that he actually likes being called "Darth". Recently the Guardian reported that "Darth" may be winning the behind the scenes maneauvering in Bush's evil empire.

The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.

The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo.”

--Guardian Unlimited

A false-flag operation is most certainly on the table. Every US president has made such plans, notably Nixon's "Operation Garden Plot" and Reagan's "REX 84 Alpha". "Executive Directive 51" is absurdly vague about when and how Bush may declare his dictatorship, describing only a "catastrophic emergency."

Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the US population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.

--"Executive Directive 51"

In other words, Bush will simply declare an emergency following any "second terrorist" attack, terrorism being whatever Bush decides it is.

The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively. They are also reluctant for Israel to carry out any strikes because the US would get the blame in the region anyway.

"The red line is not in Iran. The red line is in Israel. If Israel is adamant it will attack, the US will have to take decisive action," Mr Cronin said. "The choices are: tell Israel no, let Israel do the job, or do the job yourself."

Almost half of the US's 277 warships are stationed close to Iran, including two aircraft carrier groups. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise left Virginia last week for the Gulf. A Pentagon spokesman said it was to replace the USS Nimitz and there would be no overlap that would mean three carriers in Gulf at the same time.

--Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran, Guardian Unlimited

Bush will declare martial law, postpone the 2008 elections indefinitely, and assume a title: Imperial Decider Guy, or some other bullshit title of his psychotic imagining

Scenario for 2008: Sometime in middle to late summer, perhaps early fall, a "terrorist attack," or a natural disaster occurs, allowing Bush to suspend the elections in the name of "national security," and take the control of the government via the "National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51" and "Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20," released by the WH May 9th of this year. He could remain in control as long as he wanted. Now, wouldn't THAT be an interesting nightmare?

--Naomi Wolf, Huffington Post

Given the quagmire in Iraq, Bush will be "forced" to nuke Iran, having secretly hoped for the opportunity. Iran will blockade the straits of Hormuz and attack US fleets in the Gulf and Mediterranean. World War III will have begun.

Bush will call his dictatorship a "Constitutional Continuity" enabled for the sake of the father...uh..."the homeland".

Aided and abetted by right-wing Republicans and spineless Democrats in Congress he has rendered the Constitution utterly useless as an instrument for protecting the people from his authoritarian excesses. He has offered his profane opinion of the Constitution thus, "... it's just a God-damned piece of paper''

--Doug Thompson in Capitol Hill Blue, Dec 5, 2005.

Quietly, and without solemn ceremony, the law of the land, the very rule of law, i.e, the US Constitution will be set aside, as, in fact, it already has been. A few "bitter enders" may object only to find themselves interred in FEMA camps, KBR contructed "detention centers" built to accommodate anyone opposing the Imperial Decider Guy.

When Bush ordered the war of aggression against Iraq, Saddam was in the process of converting petro-dollars to Euros. Among US motivations for Middle East wars of aggression, the war against Iraq has not had the effect of shoring up the dollar. Bush fails again. Bush seems content, however, to balance the US trade deficit upon the backs of the middle class and the poor, already bearing the brunt of his tax cuts for tiny rich elites.

The terms sociopath or psychopath often bring to mind images of sadistically violent individuals such as Ted Bundy or the fictional character of Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in the book and movie The Silence of the Lambs. But I believe the defining characteristic traits of sociopaths actually cover a much broader spectrum of individuals than most of us would ever imagine. The sociopath is that truly self-absorbed individual with no conscience or feeling for others [emphasis mine, LH] and for whom social rules have no meaning. I believe that most all of us know or have come in contact with sociopathic individuals without even knowing it.

-- Horton, The Sociopath

Indeed, we have. He occupies the Oval Office, a lofty perch from which he bullies the world and threatens, perhaps forever, the precious few chances we have for peace, plenty and prosperity.

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