"This court has determined that it is clearly within the authority of the Commonwealth to recognize same-sex marriages among its residents, and to afford those individuals in same-sex marriages any benefits, rights, and privileges to which they are entitled by virtue of their marital status," Tauro wrote. "The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state."

Tauro drew on history in his ruling, writing that the states have set their own marriage laws since before the American Revolution and that marriage laws were considered "such an essential element of state power" that the subject was even broached at the time of the framing of the Constitution. Tauro noted that laws barring interracial marriage were once at least as contentious as the current battle over gay marriage.

"But even as the debate concerning interracial marriage waxed and waned throughout history, the federal government consistently yielded to marital status determinations established by the states," Tauro wrote. "That says something. And this court is convinced that the federal government's long history of acquiescence in this arena indicates that, indeed, the federal government traditionally regarded marital status determinations as the exclusive province of state government."

Opponents of same-sex marriage condemned the ruling. Kris Mineau, president of Massachusetts Family Institute called it "another blatant example of a judge playing legislator. Same-sex marriage activists have tried time and time again to win public approval of their agenda, and they have failed each time," Mineau said in a statement. "This is why their strategy is to force same-sex 'marriage' through judicial fiat, as they did here in Massachusetts and other states."

He said he was "confident that an appeals court, and ultimately the Supreme Court, will uphold the government's right to define marriage, strengthening and protecting children and families."

When Mrs Vernon ordered the police from her house, officer Thomas Duran allegedly decided she was being 'aggressive' and gave the order: 'Taser her.' Her alarmed grandson, is then said to have replied: 'Don't taze my granny!' According to a lawsuit filed in US District Court, Tinsley's 'obstructive' behaviour prompted the police to threaten him with their tasers.

He was then assaulted, removed from the room, thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and detained in a police car. At this point, the heroes in blue turned their attention to Lona. According to officer Duran's official report, Mrs Vernon had taken an 'aggressive posture' in her hospital bed.

In order to ensure 'officer safety', one of his men 'stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation'. Another of the officers then shot her with a taser, but the connection wasn't solid. A second fired his taser, 'striking her to the left of the midline of her upper chest, and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain', and unconsciousness.

Lona was then handcuffed with sufficient ruthlessness to tear the soft flesh of her forearms, causing her to bleed. After her wounds were treated at a local hospital, Lona was confined for six days in the psychiatric ward at the insistence of the El Reno Police Department.

So what kind of ghastly chemical plant did the Brouses live next door to in Minnesota? In fact, the facility that was slowly poisoning this hapless family (and thousands like them across America) was a dairy farm. Not, however, a dairy farm as you might imagine, with cows chewing the cud or roaming freely in the fields. This one was called a CAFO - a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation - a 'mega-farm' where cows by the thousand live on concrete and rarely get to see the sun, where they never actually graze, where their lives are shortened from round-the-clock milking.

This is a farm where huge quantities of hormones and antibiotics - administered because their miserable, cramped existences make the cattle prone to disease - are hosed away in the gallons of waste which they produce and stored in vast lagoons by the tens of millions of gallons, ready to be sprayed on to local farmland as fertiliser. And, terrifyingly, this could soon be the future of farming in Britain.

The problem is not with the animal waste per se, but with the concentration of it all in one place, because such large herds are being cramped together. 'One cow makes as much waste as 23 humans,' says Lynn. A farm of 8,100 cows, therefore, (such as the one proposed for Lincolnshire) would produce the same waste as a city of 186,300 people.

'The difference with people is that their waste is treated, ' adds Lynn. ' With CAFOs, the waste is just stored and then spread over surrounding fields. It really is incredible when you think about it. I have a constant hacking cough and both my in-laws have been diagnosed with neurological damage caused by the hydrogen sulphide. You'd have to be crazy to let one of these things anywhere near the English countryside.'

He said the military had to become more agile and adaptable; more mobile; better integrated; and better merged with "other levels of national power and influence, at home and abroad". Some experts and officers believe such a move threatens Britain's independence and could leave the country unable to defend itself if forced to fight alone. His remarks came as Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, confirmed that British troops would be redeployed from the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.

Nick Harvey, who is the MP for North Devon, made his remarks in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, and warned: "Let me be quite clear: change is coming." He said the Forces would "have less emphasis on weight and more accuracy of firepower. They will need to be less focused on scale when contributing to multinational operations, with the emphasis moving to quality. And we should have less duplication of capabilities held in large numbers by our NATO allies."

He did not give details about greater co-operation with allies, but ministers are known to be exploring ways to work together more closely with France, the only other major European military power. There is even speculation in Paris that the UK might offer to share one of the two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers the MoD is planning to buy.

Speaking to the RUSI conference on the Royal Navy, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope called for closer integration of the UK's sea, air and land forces as well as better partnership with allied navies, in particular those of the US and France. "Defence is a team game and we need to think in those terms when we consider maritime capabilities, how we develop them, and indeed how we use them in the future," he said.

The FED continues to wield power in Congress. Even some co-sponsors of HR1207 voted against it. It seems as if the enemies of freedom and liberty are in a lemming like mode to continue the weakening and hollowing out of what remains of our Constitution.

Their purses are lined and re-election does not really matter any longer. They have done their part to further the betrayal of the Founder's ideals. The promise of comfort and esteem in their transformed nation is enough to salve any thoughts of shame and disgrace.

Sadly, there are few heroes in either political party with the courage to stand up to this along with Congressman Paul. Party agendas dictate just how far even those "on our side" will go in the interest of Original Intent.

The true reality is, our enemies look upon us as weak. Brave men and women have died and sacrificed needlessly for wars we didn't have the stomach to win. That should be a treasonous act. We cut one-sided deals with dictators in countries with nuclear ambitions, who purposely ignore their promises, then take our "goodies" and continue their nuclear programs in the dark of night and in secret. Our stupidity gives them the time to harden their nuclear operations underground, where our bombs can't reach them.

We negotiate in weakness with our enemies, who then stab us in the back at every opportunity. Instead of holding them accountable for not honoring their contracts or treaties, we enter into more worthless contracts and treaties and provide more goodies. It's a shakedown at best and the American taxpayer gets to pay for the egregious mistakes made at the hands of their corrupt and negligent government.

Generals in our military are sick of playing pussy foot with our enemies when they know they have the power to conquer any country on Earth... a power that is denied them by the inept, inexperienced, spineless and pink-panty-wearing leaders of America. General McChrystal finally had it and laid bare the festering anger and frustration that permeates a military rendered almost impotent by a community organizer and the inmates that have taken control of the asylum known as the US Congress.

(President) Obama is a Lilly-livered, weak-kneed village idiot that should have never become president, if the media had exposed the sordid details of his entire socialist/Marxist life, early on in the campaign, or answered, once and for all, laid to rest whether Obama is a natural born citizen of America, as required by the Constitution.

There is one area in which the prevailing power in Washington DC shows great courage. For this deed they have put on their iron jockey shorts and grabbed their swords, spears and body armor. They are not at all reticent about passing law after law to subjugate the American people and take away their liberties. They show no cowardice in giving up American sovereignty by ratifying unconstitutional treaties. They lack no courage when it comes to spending America into bankruptcy, or nationalizing businesses, or destroying the engine that made America the most powerful and generous nation on Earth... Capitalism. Their arrogance and elitism is open and notorious.

The company says that an infrared light is passed through the finger to detect a unique pattern of micro-veins beneath the surface - which is then matched with a pre-registered profile to verify an individual's identity. "This is a substantially more reliable technique than using fingerprints," Peter Jones, Hitachi's head of security and solutions in Europe, told CNN.

"Our tests indicate there is a one in a million false acceptance rate - that's as good as iris scanning, which is generally regarded as the most secure method." Unlike fingerprints, which leave a trace and can be potentially reproduced, finger veins are impossible to replicate, according to Jones, because they are beneath the surface of the skin.

"And before you ask, no - it doesn't work with fingers that have been chopped off," he added. While the technology represents a step forward in reducing cases of identity fraud, Jones said that this is just one of many factors that have encouraged the Polish bank to adopt it.

USGS said that today's earthquake was not an aftershock to the 7.2 Easter Sunday quake. Instead, today's quake occurred on the Coyote Creek strand of the larger strike-slip style San Jacinto fault , the most active system - and possibly most dangerous - in Southern California. The 130 mile system snakes through parts of Imperial, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and is considered potentially very dangerous because much of the fault is located near heavily populated areas.

The Coyote Creek stand is capable of producing a 6.9 quake, said Tom Rockwell, a San Diego State University seismologist who studies the San Jacinto system. There was a 6.8 quake on the fault on April 21, 1918. Today's quake "felt like a bomb had exploded," said Bud Perez, a maintenance worker at the Borrego Water District in Borrego Springs.

The surveillance by the National Security Agency, the government's chief eavesdropping agency, would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack, though it wouldn't persistently monitor the whole system, these people said.

Defense contractor Raytheon Corp recently won a classified contract for the initial phase of the surveillance effort valued at up to $100 million, said a person familiar with the project. An NSA spokeswoman said the agency had no information to provide on the program. A Raytheon spokesman declined to comment.

Some industry and government officials familiar with the program see Perfect Citizen as an intrusion by the NSA into domestic affairs, while others say it is an important program to combat an emerging security threat that only the NSA is equipped to provide. "The overall purpose of the [program] is our Government... feel[s] that they need to ensure the Public Sector is doing all they can to secure Infrastructure critical to our National Security," said one internal Raytheon email, the text of which was seen by The Wall Street Journal. "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother." Raytheon declined to comment on this email.

The legal complaint identifies several infractions, both against the German Constitution and the EU Treaties, arguing that financial aid would not be "democratically legitimate" and would be "a clear breach of the concept of stability as enshrined in the Constitution and the Treaties". They conclude, "The Constitutional Court will not deny success to this claim, if it follows the law."

Speaking at a press conference today, Professor Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider said: "a Treaty is a Treaty". Professor Wilhelm Hankel added: "have we got a new European Union now, a new Monetary Union, a Transfer Union? That would endanger us with inflation", with Professor Joachim Starbatty saying: "the Constitutional Court should hold the law dear, and not what is politically opportune."

More than a month into the disaster, a host of anecdotal evidence is emerging from reporters, photographers, and TV crews in which BP and Coast Guard officials explicitly target members of the media, restricting and denying them access to oil-covered beaches, staging areas for clean-up efforts, and even flyovers.

Last week, a CBS TV crew was threatened with arrest when attempting to film an oil-covered beach. On Monday, Mother Jones published this firsthand account of one reporter's repeated attempts to gain access to clean-up operations on oil-soaked beaches, and the telling response of local law enforcement. The latest instance of denied press access comes from Belle Chasse, Louisiana-based Southern Seaplane Inc, which was scheduled to take a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer for a flyover on Tuesday afternoon, and says it was denied permission once BP officials learned that a member of the press would be on board.

"We are not at liberty to fly media, journalists, photographers, or scientists," the company said in a letter it sent on Tuesday to Senator David Vitter (Republican for Louisiana). "We strongly feel that the reason for this massive [temporary flight restriction] is that BP wants to control their exposure to the press."

The ability to document a disaster, particularly through images, is key to focusing the nation's attention on it, and the resulting clean-up efforts. Within days of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, pictures of dead otters, fish, and birds, as well as oil-covered shorelines, ignited nationwide outrage and led to a backlash against Exxon.

With his wits about him (and some basic knowledge of the Bill of Rights), Lance at first refused to show his photographs to local law enforcement. They threatened to detain him (probably under the Patriot Act) if he didn't, so he gave in and let them see the photos. Later, when private BP security personnel asked for Lance's personal information, he refused to give it to them. So - get this - the police turned over his private information to the BP security goon!

This is scary stuff, folks. Now we have a police state in America. No one can deny it. You can't argue the point anymore. It is documented fact, and it's happening right now in the Gulf Coast.

If you pick up a professional camera and start snapping photos of a BP refinery, or a BP cleanup vessel, or a beach with an oil boom on it, you risk being followed, detained, questioned and intimidated. And if you don't surrender your own rights and consent to an illegal search of your photos or film footage, you will be hauled into a federal holding facility and held by the Department of Homeland Security until they feel like letting you go.

Your rights as a free citizen have now been obliterated. America is now a fascist corporatocracy that answers to the financial interests of the corporations - at the expense of the freedoms of the People. What's really scary about this is that BP is a British corporation that is now controlling American law enforcement officials. "These are true police state tactics, and it's now clear that it is part of a pattern. It's been documented for months now that BP and government officials have been acting in unison to block media coverage of the area."

Read full article http://www.naturalnews.com/029153_British_Petroleum_Police_State.html

The Americans launched their first atomic nuclear tests above the Earth's atmosphere in 1958. Atom bombs had little effect on the magnetosphere, but the hydrogen bomb of July 9, 1962, did. Code-named "Starfish Prime" by the military, it literally created an artificial extension of the Van Allen belts that could be seen across the Pacific Ocean, from Hawaii to New Zealand.

In Honolulu, the explosions were front page news. "N-Blast Tonight May Be Dazzling: Good View Likely," said the Honolulu Advertiser. Hotels held what they called "Rainbow Bomb Parties" on rooftops and verandas. When the bomb burst, people told of blackouts and strange electrical malfunctions, like garage doors opening and closing on their own. But the big show was in the sky.

Full story and photo's - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128170775

In a series of phone conversations and email exchanges last week, he said that no other forecaster was likely to accept his reasoning, which is based on his version of the Elliott Wave theory - a technical approach to market analysis that he embraces with evangelical fervor.

Originating in the writings of Ralph Nelson Elliott, an obscure accountant who found repetitive patterns, or "fractals," in the stock market of the 1930s and '40s, the theory suggests that an epic downswing is under way, Mr Prechter said. But he argued that even skeptical investors should take his advice seriously.

"I'm saying: 'Winter is coming. Buy a coat,'" he said. "Other people are advising people to stay naked. If I'm wrong, you're not hurt. If they're wrong, you're dead. It's pretty benign advice to opt for safety for a while." His advice: individual investors should move completely out of the market and hold cash and cash equivalents, like Treasury bills, for years to come.

For a rough parallel, he said, go all the way back to England and the collapse of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, a crash that deterred people "from buying stocks for 100 years," he said. This time, he said, "If I'm right, it will be such a shock that people will be telling their grandkids many years from now, 'Don't touch stocks.'"

A grand cycle is ending, he says, and the time for reckoning is near.

In a reflective speech to an assembly whose members states have increased from 77 to 192 since her last visit, the Queen praised the UN for its work in reducing conflict, offering humanitarian assistance and tackling the effects of poverty. The "waging of peace" was "perhaps the hardest leadership of all", she said. However, she warned that "so much remains to be done", quoting Dag Hammarskjold, a former UN secretary-general, who "once said that 'constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon'."

She added: "Good nurses get better with practice; sadly the supply of patients never ceases." The Queen also warned that "new challenges" such as terrorism and global warming had emerged that had "tested this organisation as much as its member states". On climate change, "careful account must be taken of the risks facing smaller, more vulnerable nations, many of them from the Commonwealth", she said. She said she hoped that, in another 53 years, "our sincerity, our willingness to take a lead, and our determination to do the right thing, will stand the test of time".

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh spent only five hours in New York, sweltering under heat health warnings as temperatures soared to a record 103 degrees. After addressing the General Assembly, the Queen briefly met Commonwealth leaders before she was driven to the site of the World Trade Centre.

There, she laid a wreath to victims of the September 11 terror attacks and, accompanied by Michael Bloomberg, the city's mayor, met rescue workers and relatives of those who died.