Cheney speaks over an hour in Wyo first time after major change of heart.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney [named as the architect of the 9/11 attacks by a former LAPD narcotics officer] walked without assistance and spoke for an hour and 15 minutes without seeming to tire in his first engagement since getting a new heart three weeks ago.Cheney even threw in some political plugs amid much reminiscing before the Wyoming Republican Party state convention in Cheyenne on Saturday.

He said presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is going to do a “whale of a job.” He said it’s never been more important to defeat a sitting president and the Republican Party should unite behind Romney.

The crowd of more than 300 gave Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, a long standing ovation.

Cheney’s heart transplant in Virginia on March 24 initially canceled his trip to the convention but he got last-minute medical clearance to go.

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Snail Massage

The snail massage, available in Siberian Russia, is believed to help eliminate wrinkles and make skin appear more youthful.

http://pulse.me/s/88EEr

**Snail Massage**

Lawyer for victims of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan again denied entry to US

Supporters of Shahzah Akbar say the US is trying to silence his first-hand knowledge of civilian deaths along the Afghan border

A lawyer representing civilian victims of drone strikes in Pakistan has accused the US government of blocking his appearance at a conference in Washington this month by failing to grant him a visa.

Shahzad Akbar, who founded the Islamabad-based human rights organisation Foundation for Fundamental Rights, says he has failed to secure a visa since he began suing the CIA over the killing of Pakistani civilians by US drones. The case is expected to be heard this month in Islamabad.

Sponsors of the drone summit Killing and Spying by Remote Control, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, Reprieve and the peace group Code Pink, have criticised the failure to grant a visa to Akbar, who they say provides a much-needed voice for the victims of drone strikes in tribal Pakistan.

Speaking from Pakistan by telephone, Akbar said: “Denying a visa to people like me is denying Americans their right to know what the US government and its intelligence community are doing to children, women and other civilians in this part of the world. The CIA, which operated the drones in Pakistan, does not want anyone challenging their killing spree. But the American people should have a right to know.”

He was due to be a key speaker at the Washington conference on 28-29 April. It aims to “inform the American public about the widespread and rapidly expanding deployment of both lethal and surveillance drones, including drone use in the United States” and promised participants the opportunity to listen to the personal stories of Pakistani drone-strike victims, according to its website.

It is the second time that Akbar, who has been granted US visas in the past, has tried and failed to enter the US to speak at an event addressing human rights concerns over the use of drones.

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Iceland Solves Banking Crisis by Indicting CEOs, Forcing Mortgage Relief

…Richard points to recent events in Iceland as another successful application of Sweden’s model. There, the country’s banks forgave loans equivalent to 13% of gross domestic product, according to a Bloomberg article Richard cites. The equivalent in the United States would be about $1.95 trillion of mortgage debt writedowns. Icelandic banks agreed to forgive all mortgage debt over 110% of a home’s value.

Not only that, Bloomberg relates a development that would meet, I believe, with the approval of Tea Party members and Occupy protesters alike: Bankers were held personally liable for crashing the country’s economy. The CEO’s of the country’s three largest banks are among 200 who are facing criminal charges, and a special prosecutor expects up to 90 more indictments. The contrast with the United States could not be more obvious.

While Iceland is a tiny country with a population of only 317,000 and a $13 billion GDP, Trust Your Instincts is not the only blog paying attention to it. As Paul Krugman wrote yesterday, “I think I may have been one of the first commentators with a wide audience to point out how relatively well Iceland was doing….

“The moral of the story is that a different approach to dealing with the banks is necessary, both to restore the U.S. economy but to prosecute financiers who broke the law. As it stands, bankers have gotten off scot-free while the country’s economic growth has been largely anemic. While the job market has shown a few flickers of life recently, the country needs millions of jobs just to get back where it was before the crash, which actually wasn’t all that good a situation for the middle class to begin with.

via Middle Class Political Economist: Iceland Solves Banking Crisis by Indicting CEOs, Forcing Mortgage Relief.

New Arizona abortion bill says that life begins two weeks before conception?

Arizona lawmakers gave final passage to three anti-abortion bills Tuesday afternoon, including one that declares pregnancies in the state begin two weeks before conception.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill to prohibit abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy; a bill to protect doctors from being sued if they withhold health information about a pregnancy that could cause a woman to seek an abortion; and a bill to mandate that how school [curricula] address the topic of unwanted pregnancies.

The 18th week bill includes a new definition for when pregnancy begins. All of the bills passed the Senate and now head to Gov. Jan Brewer (R) for her signature or veto. Passage of the late-term abortion bill would give Arizona the earliest definition of late-term abortion in the country; most states use 20 weeks as a definition.

A sentence in the bill defines gestational age as “calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman,” which would move the beginning of a pregnancy up two weeks prior to conception.

Elizabeth Nash, states issues manager for Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization in Washington, said the definition corresponds with how doctors typically determine gestational age. She said since the exact date of conception cannot be pinpointed, doctors use the day of the woman’s last menstrual period to gauge the duration of a pregnancy. The method does not provide an exact date.

“It will have some impact, from what we understand there are abortions provided at that point in Arizona,” Nash said. “It will reduce access.”

via New Arizona abortion bill says that life begins two weeks before conception??? COME onnnn! | O Hell Nawl – We should have been whooped more as kids.

In Arizona, women are now legally pregnant two weeks before conception, according to a new law, the Orwellianly-named, “Women’s Health and Safety Act,” signed yesterday by Republican Governor Jan Brewer. The scientifically, medically, ethically, and intellectually dishonest legislation is designed to reduce the amount of time a woman is allowed to have a legal abortion, and is one of the most draconian bills to become law in America.

The bill was sponsored by extremist Arizona State Rep. Kimberly Yee, (image, right) who last month penned an op-ed titled, “No drug test, no welfare.” Yee wrote:

States have an obligation to hold those on public assistance accountable for their actions. Receiving a public benefit is a privilege, not a right. The debate on drug testing welfare recipients is simply about the responsible use of tax dollars.

It’s unclear where in the U.S. constitution it states that the states “have an obligation to hold those on public assistance accountable for their actions.” …

via ncrm