What Adam Curry is reading

Press Gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest Aboard Air Force One en route New York, NY
  Link to Article
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:02
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  August 22, 2012
  Aboard Air Force One
  En Route New York, New York
  3:15 P.M. EDT
  MR. EARNEST: I do have a couple quick announcements before we get started that I wanted to make you aware of.
  In recent days, an increased number of cases of West Nile virus have been reported primarily in Texas and in communities across the southern United States. The President has been briefed on the increase in the number of West Nile virus cases. White House staff are in regular contact with the experts at the CDC, and the President will continue to receive updates as necessary.
  The CDC is working closely with state and local officials and have sent experts to Texas to help local officials in their response, including providing technical assistance on prevention activities and disease surveillance.
  The CDC will continue to provide information to Americans about how to protect themselves, and I would refer you to the CDC for more details about our response efforts. You can also find some useful information about West Nile virus by visiting CDC.gov/WestNile.
  The second thing is the President, this morning, received an update from FEMA on their efforts to prepare for tropical storm Isaac, which appears headed for the Eastern Caribbean Sea. FEMA has been in close coordination with local officials and emergency managers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning. FEMA has already deployed IMATs -- which are Incident Management Assistance Teams -- to the U.S. Virgin Islands and to Puerto Rico, and they've already sent liaisons to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico emergency operation centers.
  It's still far too early to tell whether the storm could pose immediate threat to the United States coastline, so FEMA encourages coastal residents to monitor weather conditions closely and follow the direction of local officials. Folks can also visit ready.gov for more information. But I did want to point out that out of an abundance of caution, FEMA, through its Region Four offices, is in touch with states throughout the southeastern United States.
  Q Will Vice President Biden go to Tampa or --
  MR. EARNEST: Jen may have an update for you.
  MS. PSAKI: Well, actually, it's not specifically to that. As of now, yes. But next week, President Obama, the First Lady and Vice President Biden will all be out on the trail, laying out the choice the American people are facing in November, cutting through some of the political chatter. So I'm just going to run through some of the details of their schedules just so you have it all in one place.
  President Obama is making a two-day college tour in Iowa, Colorado, and Virginia next week to talk to America's youth about the choice in this election between moving America forward and going back. On Tuesday, August 28th, he will attend campaign events in Ames, Iowa, and Fort Collins, Colorado. And on Wednesday, August 29th, the President will attend campaign events in Charlottesville, Virginia. We'll have additional details, as per usual, in the coming days.
  Next week, on Monday, August 27th, and Tuesday, August 28th -- and you already know this, but the Vice President will travel to the Tampa area and other cities for campaign events. He's going to the belly of the beast and talking to Floridians, including seniors and Latinos, about the choice in the election between moving forward and going back.
  And finally, the First Lady is also set to appear in her official capacity on the Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday, August 29th, as part of a back-to-school media tour that will include two other as yet announced programs she'll also tape in New York on Wednesday. The interviews will air in mid-September.
  Q -- be more of a category 4 or a category 3 storm?
  Q Oh, come on, you can answer.
  MS. PSAKI: I think Biden is like a sunny day to the middle-class families across this country who are looking for someone who is going to fight for them in the White House.
  Q Josh, two foreign policy questions. Today the foreign minister of Israel called on the international community to oust Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying that he's been an obstacle to peace. He wants new elections in the Palestinian Authority. I wondered if the President agrees.
  And also, I wanted to ask you about the visit in September by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who is coming for three days in September. Will the President meet with him?
  MR. EARNEST: On your first question, Jim, I have not actually seen those comments, so I would refer you back to my colleagues in Washington who I'm sure are monitoring this more closely.
  In terms of any foreign leader visits or meetings that the President may have, I know that he'll have at least a couple of bilateral meetings when he's at the United Nations General Assembly, but I don't have any meetings to read out with President Morsi.
  Q Also on foreign policy, do you have a reaction to Secretary Ban's decision to go to the summit in Tehran?
  MR. EARNEST: It is our view that the Iranian regime is hoping to capitalize on the international conference there, to try to distract attention from just how isolated they are from the broader international community, stemming directly from their failure to live up to their international obligations when it comes to their nuclear program.
  There are some world leaders who have chosen to attend that conference anyway. And we hope they will use that as an opportunity to raise the concerns that have been expressed all across the international community about the Iranian regime's behavior, and encourage them to -- use this as an opportunity to encourage the Iranian regime to live up to their international obligations.
  Q A separate question on the economy. The CBO today released a report about the fiscal cliff, that it will be even worse for the economy next year than previously expected if that -- if a solution is not found. Any reaction from the President to that?
  MR. EARNEST: Two separate reactions, I think. The first one is, it illustrates how damaging it is for House Republicans to stand in the way of a policy that enjoys broad bipartisan support in Washington, D.C., which is ensuring that taxes will not be raised on 98 percent of Americans, 97 percent of American small businesses next year.
  As you know, this is something that passed the United States Senate, and the only thing standing in the way are House Republicans who are holding those tax cuts for middle-class families hostage in an effort to protect tax benefits enjoyed by millionaires and billionaires. The CBO report illustrates the damaging impact that that effort could have on the economy next year.
  The second thing is the CBO report also illustrates the need for Congress to take action on a long-term deficit reduction package. The President put forward a specific balanced package that would reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years. This is an important effort because of the broader economic consequences for failing to act. Specifically because the Budget Control Act that was passed with the strong support of a large number of Republicans in both the House and the Senate, there are -- the Budget Control Act contemplates some pretty serious cuts to things like Medicare, to education, some investments in infrastructure, and also national defense -- something that our national defense leadership has said could have an impact on our national security.
  So the broader economic impact that's illustrated by the CBO report illustrates just how important it is for Congress to finally act on a deficit reduction package -- a deficit reduction package that's balanced, that makes some difficult cuts to government spending, but also asks those at the top of the income scale to pay their fair share.
  Q -- that the Fed has signaled that it's willing to do some more stimulus activity in the economy?
  MR. EARNEST: I've seen the reports on this topic, but as you know, we don't comment on Fed actions or contemplated Fed actions. So at this point I don't have a reaction to share with you.
  Q The CBO report, though, seems to suggest that any deficit reduction that takes place here in this economic condition could have damaging effects to the economy. So is it the President's position that you can still do deficit reduction and still raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans here in a downturn without having a worse effect?
  MR. EARNEST: Well, the President does believe that it is in our nation's economic interest to finally deal with our budget challenges that have been put off for too long. The important part of that, though, is it's not just a matter of dealing with that problem, dealing with that challenge, it's how we deal with that challenge.
  And if we deal with that challenge in a balanced way, where we ask those at the top of the income scale to pay their fair share, and protect the current tax cuts that are enjoyed by 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of American small businesses, and also continue to make very important investments in infrastructure, in clean energy, in research and development, in education -- that we can have a positive impact on our economy by taking those kinds of measures, by adopting that balanced approach. That's what the President thinks is so critical.
  There is a fundamental difference of opinion, though -- that there are Republicans who -- too many -- who are currently in Congress and even the President's opponent in this election, who have said that we can deal with our budget challenges by slashing important investments in, as I mentioned, in clean energy and infrastructure. That would have a devastating toll on our economy, both in the short term, but also over the long term.
  So the President believes that we can deal with all of these challenges and do it in a way that strengthens our economy. And the President hopes that the Congress will act. It's something the President has been calling on Congress to do for quite some time now.
  Q The last time the President played basketball off campus was May 11th with Tobey Maguire and George Clooney, height being 5'8 and 5'11. Today, he'll be going up against Mourning, Patrick Ewing, 7-footer. Has the President been practicing?
  MR. EARNEST: I don't know if he's been practicing. I know that he's played at least a couple of times since then in Washington. I know that two or three weeks ago, he -- a Saturday morning when he went and played a little bit.
  Q Is that when he injured himself? (Laughter.)
  MR. EARNEST: I don't have any updated reports on the President's -- on the health of the President's knee.
  Q Four years ago he made a name for himself by making a three-pointer while traveling and visiting US troops. Why won't we see him today?
  MS. PSAKI: Well, this is a fundraising evening we're about to embark on. Typically, we have press access, of course, whenever the President makes remarks. You'll have access to his remarks this evening. And we don't -- when he plays basketball all the time, and there are special occasions, like when he visited the troops, where we do make that time available. But this evening it's just one part of the fundraising event.
  Q So it's not that you're not letting the cameras go in there because the President is injured?
  MS. PSAKI: That's correct. As Josh mentioned, we don't have any update on that. I think this is a time for him to let loose and play with some supporters who are participating in the evening, and some NBA players, and many of them will be at the dinner earlier in the day -- earlier in the evening and you'll see them all there.
  Q Will he change? I mean, how serious is this? Is he going to be in his loafers out there shooting, or is he going to change?
  MS. PSAKI: I don't have a specific wardrobe update, but I do believe he will be changing his clothing for the portion of the evening.
  Q Does the President think it's appropriate for Todd Akin to remain a candidate for the U.S. Senate?
  MS. PSAKI: We leave that -- the President leaves that, we all leave that up to the people of Missouri to make that decision. I will say, since you asked, the President addressed this on Monday and spoke about the fact that elected officials, many of them men, shouldn't be making decisions about a woman's -- women's health care. That should be a decision between women and their doctors. He's always felt that way.
  There is a real choice here. It doesn't take a profile in courage for people to step away from the comments that Todd Akin made. The vast majority -- 99 percent or more of people in this country, elected officials have all stepped away. We shouldn't lose focus on the fact that there is a serious difference between the Romney/Ryan plan on women's health and the Obama plan on women's health.
  Not only is it part of the platform for the Republican platform committee that they voted on yesterday -- I think it was yesterday -- that there can't be any exceptions for rape, but Paul Ryan worked with Todd Akin on legislation in Congress that would redefine what rape is. So we shouldn't lost sight of that.
  Last night -- I don't know if you all saw this, but he did an interview -- Paul Ryan did -- with a Pittsburgh station where he refused to answer questions about whether he believed there should be exceptions. He also says that he never supported limitations on birth control, which we know is not true. So this is something they're clearly struggling with, and there's a clear difference between what the candidates represent.
  Q Does the President think it's helpful to his campaign if Todd Akin remains the candidate?
  MS. PSAKI: -- on women's health, on his support for women having choices about their own health care, and Mitt Romney's positions on those same issues are the same today as they were two weeks ago. And we'll continue to talk about it that way.
  Q But given the amount of attention that Akin has gotten, is it good for the President that he remains the candidate?
  MS. PSAKI: You are all talking about this, and it provides an opportunity to continue to lay out the choice between the President's position and Mitt Romney's position. So in that regard, we're going to do that on our own. We're up in the air in several states, as you know, talking about women's health. We think it's a key part of the choice in this election, something the President will continue to talk about in the months ahead. But having this debate and having the conversation about it is one we certainly welcome.
  Q The President talked today about the big checks, the $10 million checks, and how those color the election. You're going to be collecting some $20,000 checks tonight. Can you just talk a little of what the funding disparity means for the campaign?
  MS. PSAKI: You know that there are many people in this -- there are not many -- there are a handful of people in this country who are going to try to buy this election. We've seen millions of dollars spent, given to the super PACs on the Republican side. And we know that our campaign -- we continue to be funded and supported by low-dollar donors and low-dollar checks. Remember, the last time we reported the average donation was still around $50; 98 percent of our donations were $250, or less than $250.
  This campaign is still funded by grassroots supporters, people who are giving $3, $5, $10. We are incredibly grateful to those people, because that's the reason we can continue to open offices in many states across the country. And we also know fundraising is a part of political campaigning. And we're not going to compete in this election with one arm tied behind our back, which is part of the reason we also need to do fundraisers like the ones we're having this evening, and why we've also encouraged people to give to the Democratic super PAC, even though we believe Citizens United is a bad precedent, a bad decision that was made months ago.
  Thank you.
  END
  3:32 P.M. EDT
Linda de Mol fan van Josje
  Link to Article
  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:02
  do 23 aug 2012, 15:41
  Van onze redactieAMSTERDAM - Josje Huisman is goedgekeurd door Johnny's tante Linda de Mol.
  ''Ik heb haar nog niet ontmoet, maar het lijkt me een heel leuk meisje'', zei Linda tegen RTL Boulevard.
  Linda kent de muziek van Josje in ieder geval wel heel goed. ''We zingen wel de hele dag K3-liedjes. We hadden toevallig op vakantie de oude K3-cd van mijn dochter gevonden. Dus we hebben hem er maar weer eens ingestopt.''
  Begin deze maand werd bekend dat Johnny en Josje een stelletje zijn. De twee ontmoetten elkaar in Antwerpen, waar zij momenteel allebei wonen.
  Proefabonnement, 10 weken '‚¬ 30,-!(C) 1996-2012 Telegraaf Media Nederland | Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlPrivacy | Cookies | Disclaimer
Another guy who should STFU about bin Laden raid
  Link to Article
  Source: BLACKFIVE
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:00
  Chairman JCS wrong about former SEALS speaking out |Main
  Another guy who should STFU about bin Laden raidPosted By Uncle Jimbo ' [August 23, 2012]One of the SEALs from the bin Laden raid has apparently written a book about the operation.
  The book, titled ''No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden,'' was written by a former SEAL team leader who the publisher said was ''one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the terrorist leader's hideout.''He uses a pseudonym, but I know his name and it will likely come out shortly. The bottom line is that doing this makes you a douche of epic proportions. There was whining about how former operators were pointing out that leaks about classified ops were hurting our security. They were called unprofessional, which was unfair. They were not giving out info, they were saying that the giving out of info was a dangerous thing This jackass is going to basically spill the details of the raid so he can cash in.
  Dear Loser,
  Enjoy the money, you are now dead to all the rest of us.
  Cordially,
  Everyone else from the Special Ops community
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Michelle Obama encourages voters to head to the polls'... on the wrong day
  Link to Article
  Source: TheBlaze.com - Blog
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:59
  Whoopsie:
  So that one new voter that you register in your precinct '-- think about it '-- that one neighbor that you get to the polls on November the 2 '-- I want you to understand, that could be the one that makes the difference. That one conversation, that one new volunteer you recruit, that could be the one that puts this over the top.
  This year's presidential election is on November 6.
  (Image: Robert Duyos/Sun-Sentinel)
  The First Lady's error came during a campaign event in Florida yesterday where talk about ''choice'' received the crowd's biggest praise according to the LA Times:
  ''Make sure that you tell people that your president believes that women should be able to make our own choices about our healthcare,'' Obama said, getting drowned out by the eruption of cheers. '...
  The speech outlines President Obama's record on women's health issues and highlights parts of the healthcare plan targeted at women. The first lady noted Obama's nomination of two ''brilliant'' women to the Supreme Court, before telling the crowd to spread the word about his support for abortion rights.
  ''You gotta tell 'em,'' she said.
PRINCE HARRY AND 9 11
  Link to Article
  Source: aangirfan
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:13
  "A young girl ... was ringing our doorbell and insisting that she had an 'appointment' in our room. "I reported this incident and was told that 'it's Vegas' and that there is nothing that could be done." ''Don't stay here!''
  Friday August 17 2012- Prince Harry arrives at the Wynn HotelLas Vegas means the Dunes Hotel, blown up using controlled implosion.Van Romero, Vice President for Research at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, says the collapse of the TWIN TOWERSon 11/9/01 resembled those of controlled implosions used in planned demolitions.
  He says the detonations could have been caused by a small amount of explosive put in more than two points in each of the towers (http://eionews.addr.com/)Who blew up the DUNES Hotel in Las Vegas?
  It was a Maryland firm called Controlled Demolition Group.Who has the contract to clear up the mess after the attack on the World Trade Centre? It's Controlled Demolition Group.Atta and Ziad, and other 'hijackers', visited Las Vegas at least six times.
  There they enjoyed the charms of lap dancer Samantha (Time.com and The Chronicle). ATTA?According to US investigators, five of the 9 11 hijackers, including Mohammed Atta, visited Las Vegas at least six times between May and August 2001. (Atta, alcohol, strip clubs and drugs - 911myths)
  The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in Las Vegas, they ''engaged in some decidedly un-Islamic sampling of prohibited pleasures in America's reputed capital of moral corrosion,'' including visiting strip-clubs.
  Atta and friends enjoyed the charms of lap dancer Samantha (Time.com and The Chronicle).
"Swiss Bank Account! Untold Millions In The Cayman Islands! Refusal To Release Your Tax Returns!"
  Link to Article
  Source: Uploads by wwwMOXNEWScom
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:13
BreakingNews: Freight train crashes into a fuel tanker truck in Wills Point, Texas, sparking an explosion - @wfaachannel8 http://t.co/iT1tgtV1
  Link to Article
  Source: Twitter / BreakingNews
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:10
  Wills Point, Texas 32.707325-96.000180View larger map
  WILLS POINT, Texas '-- A freight train crashed into a fuel tanker truck early Thursday morning, sparking an explosion.
  The Van Zandt County Sheriff's office said the crash happened around 1:30 a.m. at the Lybrand Street crossing along Highway 80.
  A Love's fuel tanker got stuck on the tracks moments before it was hit by the Union Pacific train.
  The crash sparked an explosion that rattled nearby homes in the small town of 4,000, witnesses said.
  A two-block area around the fiery wreck was evacuated as a precaution. Roads into the town 46 miles east of Dallas were also being closed, authorities said.
  The truck's driver and the train's conductor were not seriously injured.
  The Wills Point Fire Department was getting help from Canton, Grand Saline, Fruitville, Terrell, Elmo, Edgewood and Van Zandt County.
  Love's is an Oklahoma City-based company with more than 280 retail sites in 39 states.
  According to the Wills Point Chamber of Commerce website, the railroad has been an integral part of the town since it was founded in 1873.
  Stay with News 8 and WFAA.com for the latest on this developing story.
  PrintEmail| Tweet MORE MORE! X Digg Delicious Tumblr LinkedIn StumbleUpon Newsvine Reddit Pinterest
Pussy Riot Support in Switzerland, the NYT and IHT
  Link to Article
  Source: NYTimes eXaminer
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:06
  August 23, 2012 · 0 Comments
  Source: NYTX
  By Daniel Warner:
  The Pussy Riot phenomenon has come to Switzerland, the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune (IHT). Madonna's concert in Zurich on August 18 and the subsequent manifestations of support for the Russian rockers in the land of Heidi showed considerable emotional connections with the three women recently jailed in Moscow. The young singers have become a cause c(C)l¨bre, much like the blind Chinese dissident who was finally allowed to leave China and arrived to a hero's welcome in the United States. An op-ed piece by Victor Erofeyev in the August 22 NYT and the August 23 IHT '' the global edition of the New York Times '' further supports the punk rock band and maintains that Russian ''rulers have every reason to fear the protest movement.''
  Why is there so much support for this female group besides astonishment at the severity of the punishment? There are several elements within their situation that touch the most basic assumptions of democratic societies. Freedom of speech is a sacrosanct part of Western political ideology. The right to criticize those in power is considered a cornerstone of democratic society and a fundamental human right. A dissident or opposition figure who is harassed or imprisoned because of political expression finds enormous resonance in the West. Freedom of religion is also a fundamental element. People are supposed to be able to worship or not worship as they see fit. That Pussy Riot disturbed a religious service in a Cathedral flaunts the sacredness of the Church and questions the distinct role of religion in Russian society. Finally, to both these freedoms should be added the freedom of women to be treated equally with men. The words of their songs, their dress and attitude are part of a feminist provocation.
  The Russian Federation is not the Soviet Union. There were recently presidential elections; the Communist Party is not in power. But, the Russian Federation is not the United States or Switzerland, with hundreds of years of democratic culture. Elections do not make democracies. They are necessary but not sufficient. The provocations of Pussy Riot are part of movement pushing the boundaries of Russian culture. Pussy Riot is on the cutting edge of testing what is acceptable and not acceptable in Russia today, politically, religiously and sexually.
  Those who support the group and manifested in Zurich and elsewhere are really saying that they want Russian Federation citizens to enjoy the same freedoms we do. The empathetic outburst of support reflects a deep desire in the West for the Russian Federation to be like us. But, as Paul Craig Roberts questions in his blog on August 20, is part of the support for the provocation merely an effort by the West to show its superiority? Are we so certain that the freedoms demanded in Russia by Pussy Riot and their followers are firmly embedded in the reality of Western societies today? Are the three freedoms mentioned above beyond questioning in the West?
  The performance in the Cathedral and the harsh sentence reveal important insights into the evolution of Russian society post 1989. Whereas Erofeyev condemns the two-year prison term as a ''verdict against Russia,'' we should not criticize out of smugness but realize that ''our freedoms'' entail constant vigilance as well. Minimally, the Pussy Riot phenomenon should not be used, as Erofeyev does, to cover up our own lacunae. If Erofeyev states that ''Russia refuses to be a modern civilized, society,'' we in the West should be as attentive to our own situation as we are to those in the Russian Federation.
  The editorial expresses anxiety about the future of Russia. In Erofeyev's words, he fears that ''a vast state will appear in which liberalism, democracy and personal freedoms are officially cursed and suppressed.'' We should all be vigilant against that reality, wherever it may appear.
  Daniel Warner is a political scientist living in Geneva, Switzerland, and the author of ''An Ethic of Responsibility in International Relations''.
  By admin
Ask Jacky'... What's The Latest On Raffles van Exel?
  Link to Article
  Source: Jacky Jasper's Diary of a Hollywood Street King
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:05
  by Jacky Jasper
  What is Raffles van Exel up to Jacky? Last time you reported about him, he was spotted in West Hollywood on a late night cruise.
  Is Raffles still in the country?
  I'm told Raffles van Exel was spotted on August 19 at the 2012 ''Do Something Awards'' held in Santa Monica California. Sources tell me he's still in Los Angeles, threatening to (but not actually) sue people who write about him. Don't believe me.. Ask Roger Friedman.
  I'll bring you more information about Raffles van Exel as it comes in'...
  I Hope I answered your question.
  Yours truly,Jacky J.
What the press coverage of Prince Harry tells us
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:04
  23 August 2012Last updated at 06:54 ET The UK press has declined to print pictures of Prince Harry naked in a Las Vegas hotel room, after St James's Palace contacted the Press Complaints Commission. What does this say about British media in the midst of the Leveson Inquiry?
  British papers may not have printed the pictures of Prince Harry, but they have reported the furore in full detail - and told readers where they can find the photos, which first surfaced on the TMZ entertainment website in the US.
  A picture editor at The Sun even recreated one of the photographs - posing naked with a fashion intern to get around the unofficial ban.
  This story and photograph were later removed from the newspaper's website, but thanks to Twitter and Google, vestiges of it remain in cyberspace, including the UK pages of the US-based Huffington Post website.
  In the UK, only the blogger Guido Fawkes - who is legally based in Ireland, where at least one newspaper has printed the snapshots - directly challenged the authorities by reproducing the photos.
  He says, "the truth is, the old media have been scared into submission by the Leveson Inquiry."
  Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
  Neil Wallis: "[In the] post-Leveson era newspaper editors are simply scared of their own shadow"
  That view is widely shared in the media, as former tabloid editors Neil Wallis and Kelvin MacKenzie made clear on Newsnight (see the video on the right), though Clarence House said it had simply reminded newspapers of Clause 3 of their own code relating to reasonable expectations of privacy.
  In the past, some papers would have happily countered this with claims that the story was in the public interest, pointing out the risk posed to the prince's security. But for the moment, newspapers are playing safe, waiting for Leveson.
  That has not stopped them discussing the full implications of Prince Harry's behaviour - including the likely response from his father, other members of the royal family, his Army superiors, the police and the security forces, not to mention its impact on the prince's own reputation in the eyes of the public.
  The fact that the papers haven't actually printed the photos has not stifled public discourse on the issues.
  But it's a salutory reminder of the difficulty for Lord Justice Leveson in devising a tighter form of press regulation for the UK in a world where social media and the internet respect no boundaries - and where every day newspapers themselves run different stories and pictures online from those they print in their pages.
  This week, the campaigning group Hacked Off, backed by Hugh Grant among others, has advertised for a head of government and parliamentary relations, a head of media relations, a head of outreach and a website/social media manager.
  Whatever the Leveson Report says when it is published this autumn, it is certain to spark a new round of arguments about what sort of a press - and regulation - the UK wants.
Texas Judge Warns Obama Re-Election Could Lead to Civil War
  Link to Article
  Source: Infowars &Acirc;&raquo; Featured Stories
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:01
  You TubeAugust 22, 2012
  ''He's going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N., and what is going to happen when that happens?'' Head asked. ''I'm thinking the worst. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And we're not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations, we're talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy.''
  ''Now what's going to happen if we do that, if the public decides to do that? He's going to send in U.N. troops. I don't want 'em in Lubbock County. OK. So I'm going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say, 'You're not coming in here,''' the judge said. ''And the sheriff, I've already asked him, I said, 'You gonna back me?' He said, 'Yeah, I'll back you.' Well, I don't want a bunch of rookies back there. I want trained, equipped, seasoned veteran officers to back me.''
  Tags: Domestic News
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rolls royce
  Link to Article
  Source: ZapLog - externe links
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:00
  Engelse auto's (deel 1)Engelse auto'sEngelse auto's heb ik altijd als ik in Engeland ben al prachtige auto's gevonden. Engelse mensen weten Engelse auto's altijd stijl en klasse te geven. Engelse auto's als Rolls Royce en Jaguar, hebben altijd al een mooie status gehad, deze merken geven aan dat Engelse auto's stijl, klassiek maar wel nog heel mooi zijn. Ik ga het hebben over Engelse auto's en als afsluiter laat ik nog een fotoreportage van Engelse auto's zien die ik in het buitenland gemaakt heb. Deze fotoreportage bevat foto's van het prachtige Engelse automerk: Rolls Royce. Geniet van de Engelse auto.
  Engelse auto's: oude Rolls RoyceHieronder staat een fotoreportage van een oude Engelse auto: Rolls Royce. Deze Engelse auto heeft al een lang leven gehad, maar ik heb van deze Engelse auto wel nog een aantal 'Engelse' foto's gemaakt.
  Fotoreportage Engelse auto: Rolls Royce
  Engelse auto: de Rolls Royce
  Engelse auto: de Rolls Royce
  Engelse auto: de Rolls Royce
  Meer Engelse Auto's?!Ik heb nog meer fotoreportages van Engelse auto's gemaakt, zal ik die op Plazilla zetten of niet? Wat willen jullie?
  Engelse automerkenEngelse auto's zijn altijd al (voor mij) zeer stijlvol en chique geweest. Mijn favoriete Engelse Automerk is Rolls Royce, en gelukkig zag ik deze zomer veel Engelse auto's en Engelse automerken rondrijden. Ik heb bijna alle Engelse automerken (zoals Rolls Royce) gefotografeerd. Engelse automerken bevatten meestal een goede motor. Engelse auto's zijn van een goede kwaliteit en Engelse automerken (auto's) worden van goed materiaal gemaakt. Engelse oldtimers (oude Engelse auto's) kosten wel wat: Als een Engelse auto eenmaal duur is blijft deze duur. Engelse automerken als Rolls Royce die in het verleden dure auto's produceren kosten nu nog steeds veel geld. Engelse auto liefhebbers moeten dus maar flink sparen om een mooie Engelse auto van een mooi Engels automerk te kunnen kopen. AfsluitingBedankt voor het lezen! Hieronder staan nog een aantal overige artikel die ik aanraad.
  Overige artikelenAlles over het Suikerfeest: http://plazilla.com/suikerfeest-2012Tips voor dingen die je kunt doen als het regent: http://plazilla.com/wat-te-doen-als-het-regent
  Als je nog niet weet voor welke politieke partij jij je stem wilt uitbrengen:http://plazilla.com/stemwijzer-invullen-2012
Dianne Feinstein's Bad Oysters
  Link to Article
  Source: ZapLog - externe links
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:58
  Dianne Feinstein and other influential backers of a Point Reyes oyster farm have at times justified their support for it by contending that it's an environmentally friendly business. Feinstein and others have made this assertion in their attempt to convince the federal government to extend the oyster farm's lease at Point Reyes National Seashore, a move that would block the creation of the first marine wilderness on the West Coast. However, evidence is emerging that raises doubts about Drakes Bay Oyster Farm '-- specifically, whether the company has engaged in unsafe health practices that have sickened numerous Bay Area residents.
  As the Express reported law week, California public health officials blamed Drakes Bay oysters for a recent outbreak of the bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which sickened at least three people. The bacteria causes violent bouts of vomiting, watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, and chills. The bad oysters prompted state officials to warn consumers not to eat oysters from Drakes Bay, and resulted in the company enacting a recall of its shucked and in-shell raw oysters.
  Now, public records have emerged that link Drakes Bay oysters to widespread illness following last year's San Francisco Oysterfest at Fort Mason. Numerous festival attendees became violently ill after the event, suffering for days from vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, and chills. Records obtained by Marin County environmentalists who closely monitor Drakes Bay Oyster Company show that California public health officials blamed the outbreak at the Oysterfest on the bacterium campylobacter.
  Public health officials and Oysterfest attendees immediately suspected Drakes Bay was responsible for the outbreak, because the company supplied most of the oysters at the event, and because it staffed it. On Yelp, numerous commenters, who said they had become very sick after the event, directed their outrage at Drakes Bay.
  "Just like everyone else I received a horrible earth shattering bacteria from Drakes," wrote Jarred B. of Oakland. "They should be sued! I missed two days of work and have been to the bathroom over 60 times in a week ... needless to say I'm very upset. Whoever runs that place needs to take a food handlers class or be fired. I can only wonder how many other people are sick that haven't posted on Yelp. Probably thousands. Shame on you Drakes!"
  Although state health officials were unable to specifically blame Drakes Bay Oyster Company for last year's outbreak, public records show that the official investigation into what happened was stymied when the oyster company destroyed raw oysters that were left over from the festival. As a result, health officials were not able to test them. "DBOC destroyed all of the evidence," said Gordon Bennett, a respected West Marin environmentalist who obtained the health records through Public Records Act requests.
  Records also indicate that Drakes Bay officials further hampered the state's investigation when they provided faulty information about where they had harvested the oysters. Drakes Bay officials told the health department that the oysters they sold at Oysterfest had been harvested from a section of their Drakes Estero farm in Point Reyes, known as Area 20. But other records that the company officials gave to the health department indicated that the oysters sold at Oysterfest came from Areas 5 and 15. In the end, public health officials were only able to label Drakes Bay oysters as being "highly suspect."
  Officials from Drakes Bay Oyster Company, which is the largest supplier of oysters in California and is owned by politically connected rancher Kevin Lunny, were not available for comment for this story. A recording on the company's voicemail stated that the oyster farm was closed, and did not provide a date for when it would reopen.
  Health Department records, meanwhile, also indicate that Drakes Bay took unnecessary risks with the public's health. Drakes Bay, for example, did not have employee hand-washing facilities at Oysterfest last year as required by law. The San Francisco Department of Public Health even told Drakes Bay staffers to "discontinue food service" until they had set up a hand-washing station.
  Records also show that two days before the May 14 Oysterfest, Sonoma County Department of Health Services lab tests found that Drakes Bay oysters were contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria, which can cause serious illness. Under state law, a fecal coliform count of 43 or higher prompts a warning that the grower should refrain from harvesting, and a count higher than 107 results in "immediate closure." According to the Sonoma County test results from May 12, 2011, Drakes Bay oysters scored a 70 on one fecal coliform test and a 180 on another.
  According to records, the score of 70 came from oysters that Drakes Bay officials said they had harvested from Area 17, which then was supposed to trigger a "recommended" closure of that area, along with nearby areas 15 and 20 '-- areas that Drakes Bay officials stated in other records that they had used for Oysterfest. Records indicate that the closure was to remain in effect until further testing showed that fecal coliform counts had returned to safe levels.
  However, records indicate that Drakes Bay officials apparently decided to gamble: They went ahead and served oysters at Oysterfest that they had harvested from areas that were recommended for closure before the new tests were done. Luckily, the after-the-fact tests showed that the oysters from those areas had safe levels of fecal coliform, according to records that Bennett obtained.
  But even those after-the-fact test results raise questions. The records show that the tests were conducted in Sonoma County, just 59 minutes after Drakes Bay officials said they had been harvested in Point Reyes. Bennett noted that, according to Google, it takes 1 hour and 27 minutes to make the trip from the oyster farm to the lab, which raises further doubts about Drakes Bay's record-keeping.
No One is Asking why We Know a Marine Was Detained for FB Posts?
  Link to Article
  Source: DaDenMan news feed
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:52
  No Agenda News Network Hey Citizen!Current No Agenda epsiode: 436: "Mud on the Truck"Next broadcast will be Sunday August 19th at 9am pstSupport The Work. Why? Because Sally Smells Home!
  "Ask not what the Internet can do for you..."'...
Is it normal to drink and end up naked?
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:50
  23 August 2012Last updated at 08:40 ET By Keith MooreBBC NewsPhotos of Prince Harry naked during a reported game of strip billiards - published on a US gossip website - have been defended as being merely "letting off steam". So how normal is it for young people to take their clothes off when they have been drinking?
  There's been a big debate over whether British newspapers should be allowed to show the images of the prince naked in a Las Vegas hotel room, reportedly with a group of women.
  Prince Harry is about to enter the next stage of his military career, and some observers have suggested that partying in this way on leave is entirely reasonable.
  Many believe he should be entitled to his privacy and say his behaviour is normal for somebody of his age - 28 in a month's time. The prince was in a private place - albeit in front of strangers - and not breaking any law.
  The prince was just behaving like a typical young British man, says Kate Fox, who is a social anthropologist at the Social Issues Research Centre.
  Continue reading the main storyMost people return home at the end of the night fully clothed, they're not missing a cardigan or a shoe and certainly not any trousers or pants''
  End QuotePiers HernuMen's magazine journalist"He was behaving perfectly normally. It wasn't in public and he didn't know he was being filmed," she says.
  "It does seem to be common, particularly among people who do difficult and dangerous work, like soldiers and medical students, who normally have to be in such control of their behaviour."
  Anybody who has been out in a British city around 02:00 on a Friday or Saturday will be aware that there are some people who respond to alcohol consumption by "mooning" or otherwise removing clothing - something which can potentially lead to arrest.
  Fox espouses a theory that it's the British and American attitude to alcohol that is to blame for disinhibited behaviour, rather than the chemical reactions of alcohol in the body.
  "We Brits believe that alcohol has magical powers, that it causes us to shed our inhibitions and become aggressive, promiscuous, disorderly and even violent," she says. "Studies show that when people think they are drinking alcohol, they behave according to their cultural beliefs about the behavioural effects of alcohol.
  "It provides the perfect excuse, because people can blame their behaviour on the drink. They can say, 'It was the drink talking' or 'I was not myself'."
  It's that loss of inhibitions that Dr Glenn Wilson, who is a professor of psychology at Gresham College in London, says is the main function of social drinking.
  The nudity, he says, "all feels a bit naughty, a deliberate breach of taboo. Some people will have a drink or a cigarette because it seems like a slightly naughty thing to do. I would put this in that category.
  "The idea is that you're more vulnerable, it's all upfront and barriers are down. There's some sense that you're more open and connected with people."
  And like nervous theatre actors are told to imagine the audience naked, Wilson says nudity also helps break down barriers and disarm people.
  Far from being a moral collapse, Wilson says that the prince's behaviour is pretty much keeping in character.
  "It implies they are more extroverted and a relaxed kind of person - the opposite to uptight. It does display an extrovert trait in Harry but I think we all knew that about him anyway."
  But while Fox thinks argues that getting naked in front of other people after drinking is not an uncommon thing among young British men, freelance men's magazine journalist Piers Hernu disagrees.
  "It's quite unusual," he says. "Most people return home at the end of the night fully clothed, they're not missing a cardigan or a shoe and certainly not any trousers or pants.
  "Even if they can't remember anything, they normally have their clothes. The human instinct is to remain clothed
  "When we're drunk, bad ideas seem quite good - there's definitely a loss of quality control."
Texas County Proposes Tax Hike to Fund Possible Civil War
  Link to Article
  Source: Jacky Jasper's Diary of a Hollywood Street King
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:48
  by Jacky Jasper Racist Agenda Revealed'...The freedom-loving people of Lubbock County, Texas, could be crushed under the heel of the United Nations if they don't approve a 1.7-cent per $100 rise in the tax rate, warns a local official.
  Judge Tom Head told a local radio station that the extra funds are needed to prepare for many contingencies, including a potential civil war if President Obama is re-elected, reports the Houston Chronicle. ''He's going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the US'' to the United Nations, he warned, ''What is going to happen when that happens?'' Head asked.
  ''I'm thinking the worst,'' he said. ''Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And we're not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations; we're talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy.'' If such unrest occurs, Obama is ''going to send in UN troops,'' the judge said. ''I don't want 'em in Lubbock County. OK. So I'm going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say 'you're not coming in here.'''
  The judge says that while fighting off the UN, he wants ''trained, equipped, seasoned veteran officers to back me'' instead of rookies'--hence, the need for a tax hike.
  via Newser
Op video van vermoorde journaliste schiet het beeld plots op zwart
  Link to Article
  Source: VK: Home
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:38
  Door: Sacha Kester ''23/08/12, 14:14
  Still van de video van de echtgenoot van de Japanse journaliste
  De echtgenoot en collega van Mika Yamamoto, de Japanse journaliste die deze week in Syri is neergeschoten, vertelt in een video over het vuurgevecht waarin zij samen verzeild raakten. 'Ik kon haar niet redden. Ik kon het niet.'
  Kazutaka Sato en zijn vrouw waren samen in de Syrische stad Aleppo, waar hevig wordt gevochten tussen het leger en de rebellen. Ze zijn allebei zeer ervaren journalisten die vaker in conflictgebieden hebben gewerkt, en waren in dienst van het onafhankelijke persbureau Japan Press.
  Aan het begin van de video zit Sato op de grond van zijn hotelkamer in Turkije met het kogelvrije vest dat zijn vrouw droeg toen ze werd geraakt. Daarna vertelt hij in de camera: 'Ze was een vrouw en ik dacht, waarschijnlijk herkennen ze haar als een vrouw. Maar ze schoten.'
  Sato stond zelf vlakbij toen de groep Syrische soldaten vanaf ongeveer 30 meter afstand het vuur opende. 'Ik kon hun gezichten zien. En ze begonnen direct te schieten.'
  Hij legt uit dat hij en zijn vrouw het als hun verantwoordelijkheid voelden om het verhaal te laten zien van de mensen die moeten overleven in een conflictgebied. 'We willen de wereld laten zien wat er gebeurt in Syri.'
  'Ik ben erg verdrietig. Ik heb geen woorden voor de Syrische regering of het Syrische leger.
  De tekst gaat verder onder de video
  Het persbureau waar het echtpaar voor werkte, heeft het ruwe materiaal vrijgegeven dat Yamamoto in Syri heeft gefilmd.
  Je ziet hoe ze met het Vrije Syrische Leger naar de frontlinie rijdt. De rebellen lopen door een lege straat, maar, vertelt Yamamoto, in de huizen wonen nog steeds gezinnen. Daarna zijn er beelden van vrouwen en kinderen, en een man met een baby in een maxi cosi. Aan het van de video hoor je dat er wordt geschoten en schiet het beeld op zwart.
  De tekst gaat verder onder de video
  Op een derde video die is vrijgegeven, staat Sato huilend boven het lichaam van zijn dode vrouw. Deze video is niet ondertiteld, maar volgens de Japan Daily Press zegt hij: 'Waarom? Je droeg een kogelvrij vest', en daarna, als hij naar haar wonden kijkt, 'Dat moet pijn doen. Heb je geleden?'
  Waarschuwing! Deze video is erg expliciet!
Outcry after military veteran detained for anti-government Facebook posts
  Link to Article
  Source: United States Justice Foundation &Acirc;&raquo; Government Intrusion
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:35
  A former Marine involuntarily detained for psychiatric evaluation for posting strident anti-government messages on Facebook has received an outpouring of support from people who say authorities are trampling on his First Amendment rights.
  Brandon J. Raub, 26, has been in custody since FBI, Secret Service agents and police in Virginia's Chesterfield County questioned him Thursday evening about what they said were ominous posts talking about a coming revolution. In one message earlier this month according to authorities, Raub wrote: ''Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads.''
  Police '-- acting under a state law that allows emergency, temporary psychiatric commitments upon the recommendation of a mental health professional '-- took Raub to the John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. He was not charged with any crime.
  A Virginia-based civil liberties group, The Rutherford Institute, dispatched one of its attorneys to the hospital to represent Raub at a hearing Monday. A judge ordered Raub detained for another month, Rutherford executive director John Whitehead said.
  ''For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon,'' Whitehead said.
  Read More at Fox News. Associated Press.
Obama administration: Trust us on detention
  Link to Article
  Source: United States Justice Foundation &Acirc;&raquo; Government Intrusion
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:32
  The Obama administration is pulling out all the stops in its defense of a provision in a federal law that critics say allows the unrestricted detention of Americans should Washington decide the citizens are in ''support'' of any terror group or activity.
  This from a government that previously has called those who support third-party presidential candidates, the Second Amendment or pro-life positions possible domestic terrorists.
  Just this week, the Obama administration appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals a district judge's decision to grant a temporary injunction against the enforcement of the detention provision, which is found in the most recent National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by Obama just last winter.
  The notice states the Obama administration is appealing the preliminary injunction as well as an order from the judge that the injunction bars the enforcement of the provision against anyone. Further, the Obama administration is upset that the judge denied its motion for reconsideration.
  At the same time, Obama administration officials have filed a memorandum with the U.S. District Court where Judge Katherine B. Forrest issued the injunction because of the possible injury to citizens, including the loss of their rights.
  Her ruling came after Justice Department officials refused to affirm that the journalists and others who brought the lawsuit would not be subject to detention for their work.
  Wait, said Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and assistants Benjamin H. Torrance and Christopher B. Harwood.
  Their response in the newest filing was that the plaintiffs are protected. But the affirmation was conditional.
  ''As a matter of law, individuals who engage in the independent journalistic activists or independent public advocacy described in plaintiffs' affidavits and testimony, without more, are not subject to law of war detention as affirmed by section 1021(a)-(c), solely on the basis of such conduct.''
  They went further, but also made it conditional.
  ''Put simply, plaintiffs' descriptions in this litigation of their activities, if accurate, do not implicate the military detention authority affirmed in section 1021.''
  A brief filed by the case's plaintiffs also pointed out the number of references to ''independent'' in the government's statement.
  ''As the italicized qualifiers, and similar qualifiers elsewhere in the May 25 filing show, this standard is no safe harbor. It does not provide the assurance the court sought. It is a vague gloss on a vague statute; its vagueness and reach merely reinforce the plaintiffs' standing,'' said the document from David H. Remes of Appeal for Justice and his co-workers on the project.
  Obama stated it first when he wrote in the accompanying signing statement when he put his signature to the legislative plan stipulating ''my administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.''
  But government officials said the mere ''speculation'' that a future president may ''reverse the current policy and apply section 1021 against U.S. citizens is insufficient to show an injury in fact,'' meaning the plaintiffs shouldn't be allowed to continue their case.
  The case was brought before Forrest's court because the law includes a vague provision that appears to allow for the suspension of civil rights and the detention of citizens linked to terrorism.
  Virginia already has passed a law that states it will not cooperate with such detentions, and several local jurisdictions have done the same. Arizona, Rhode Island, Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Washington also have considered similar legislation.
  The case was brought on behalf of Christopher Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Jennifer Bolen, Noam Chomsky, Alex O'Brien, Kai Warg All, Brigitta Jonsottir and the group U.S. Day of Rage. Many of the plaintiffs are authors or reporters who stated that the threat of indefinite detention by the U.S. military already had altered their activities.
  Constitutional expert Herb Titus filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the sponsor of the Virginia law, Delegate Bob Marshall and others.
  Titus, an attorney with William J. Olson, P.C., told WND the judge's decision to grant a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of paragraph 1021 ''affirms the constitutional position taken by Delegate Marshall is correct.''
  The impact is that ''the statute does not have sufficient constitutional guidelines to govern the discretion of the president in making a decision whether to hold someone in indefinite military detention,'' Titus said.
  The judge noted that the law doesn't have a requirement that there be any knowledge that an act is prohibited before a detention. The judge also said the law is vague, and she appeared to be disturbed that the administration lawyers refused to answer her questions.
  Titus said the opinion underscores ''the arrogance of the current regime, in that they will not answer questions that they ought to answer to a judge because they don't think they have to.''
  The judge explained that the plaintiffs alleged paragraph 1021 is ''constitutionally infirm, violating both their free speech and associational rights guaranteed by the 1st Amendment as well due process rights guaranteed by the 5th Amendment.''
  She noted the government ''did not call any witnesses, submit any documentary evidence or file any declarations.''
  ''It must be said that it would have been a rather simple matter for the government to have stated that as to these plaintiffs and the conduct as to which they would testify, that [paragraph] 1021 did not and would not apply, if indeed it did or would not,'' she wrote.
  Instead, the administration only responded with, ''I'm not authorized to make specific representations regarding specific people.''
  ''The court's attempt to avoid having to deal with the constitutional aspects of the challenge was by providing the government with prompt notice in the form of declarations and depositions of the '... conduct in which plaintiffs are involved and which they claim places them in fear of military detention,'' she wrote.
  ''To put it bluntly, to eliminate these plaintiffs' standing simply by representing that their conduct does not fall within the scope of 1021 would have been simple. The government chose not to do so '' thereby ensuring standing and requiring this court to reach the merits of the instant motion.
  ''Plaintiffs have stated a more than plausible claim that the statute inappropriately encroaches on their rights under the 1st Amendment,'' she wrote.
  Forrest found that the plaintiffs had a reasonable fear of detention based on the language of the statute. She ordered the provision not to be enforced until further proceedings in her court or ''remedial'' action by Congress that would restore those protections. She later clarified, pointedly, to the government that the injunction was for enforcement of the provision at all, not just against the named plaintiffs.
  The brief was filed on behalf of Marshall and other individuals and organizations, including the United States Justice Foundation, Downsize DC Foundation, Institute on the Constitution, Gun Owners of America, Western Center for Journalism, the Tenth Amendment Center and Pastor Chuck Baldwin.
  ''The government was given a number of opportunities at the hearing and in its briefs to state unambiguously that the type of expressive and associational activities engaged in by plaintiffs '' or others '' are not within [paragraph] 1021. It did not. This court therefore must credit the chilling impact on 1st Amendment rights as reasonable '' and real,'' Forrest said.
  Marshall's HB1160 passed the Virginia House of Delegates by a vote of 87-7 and the Virginia Senate 36-1. Since the vote was on changes recommended by Gov. Bob McDonnell, it was scheduled to take effect without further vote.
  Marshall then wrote leaders in state legislatures around the country suggesting similar votes in their states.
  Marshall's letter noted Virginia was the first state in the nation to refuse cooperation ''with federal authorities who, acting under the authority of section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA), could arrest and detain American citizens suspected of aiding terrorists without probable cause, without the right to know the charges against them, and without the procedural rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.''
  He told lawmakers, ''While we would hope that the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives would be vigilant to protect the constitutional rights of American citizens, even when addressing the problem of international terrorism, those efforts in Congress failed at the end of last year, and President Obama signed NDAA into law on December 31, 2011.''
  Endorsing Marshall's plan was the Japanese American Citizens League, which cited the detention of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II on no authorization other than the president's signature.
  The Obama administration is arguing that the law indicates that those whose detention could be accomplished without legal due process would be those who ''substantially supported'' terror groups such as al-Qaida or ''associated forces.'' But the plaintiffs note that the law does not define those terms.
  Instead, they point to the law's provision that such individuals may be detained ''without trial until the end of the hostilities.''
  Obama attorneys said the new law simply ''affirms'' what already was precedent under the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was adopted in the dust of the 9/11 terror attacks.
  But plaintiffs wrote, ''Nowhere does the AUMF convey to the executive the power to detain any person '' citizen or otherwise '' who 'substantially supported' al-Qaida or the Taliban or their associate forces, as section 1021 of the NDAA now provides.''
  ''No case has ever recognized the government's contention that the AUMF authorized the detention of noncombatants '... Neither case law nor the actual text of the AUMF supports the government's contention that such detention power already existed.''
  During arguments over the injunction, the federal government refused to submit witnesses, testimony or evidence and said its plan would remain the same should a trial be held on the issue.
  Obama attorneys wrote that the plaintiffs ''cannot point to a single example of the military's detaining anyone for engaging in conduct even remotely similar to the type of expressive activities they allege could lead to detention.''
  But the plaintiffs say there is a clear problem.
  ''The government's new standard establishes that section 1021 is directed at or embraces speech and expressive conduct. That the government now reserves for itself the right to determine whether speech is independent journalistic activity or 'independent' public advocacy demonstrates the fundamentally expressive nature of the activities subject to the NDAA,'' they wrote.
  The Obama administration previously has release several reports that identify as possible domestic terrorists those who oppose abortion, advocate for the Second Amendment, think Washington has become too powerful or are returning veterans.
FBI's Facial Recognition is Coming to a State Near You
  Link to Article
  Source: United States Justice Foundation &Acirc;&raquo; Government Intrusion
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:30
  Recently-released documents show that the FBI has been working since late 2011 with four states''Michigan, Hawaii, Maryland, and possibly Oregon''to ramp up the Next Generation Identification (NGI) Facial Recognition Program. When the program is fully deployed in 2014, the FBI expects its facial recognition database will contain at least 12 million ''searchable frontal photos.'' (p. 6)
  The documents, which the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) obtained from a recent meeting of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Advisory Policy Board,1 shed new light on the FBI's plans for NGI''the Bureau's massive biometrics database that combines fingerprints, iris scans, palm prints, facial recognition and extensive biographical data collected from over 100 million Americans.
  The Advisory Board documents show that FBI's database of facial images will provide search results automatically (the system won't need to rely on a human to check the results before forwarding them to the state or local agency) and that the FBI is developing ''Universal Face Workstation software'' to allow states that don't have their own ''Face/Photo search capabilities'' to search through the FBI's images.
  After we read through the Advisory Board documents, we quickly sent Open Records requests to several of the states involved in the pilot program. The documents we received from Maryland and Hawaii further flesh out the story. For example, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Hawaii and the FBI shows that the government is building NGI to ''permit photo submissions independent of arrests.'' This is a problem because, the FBI has stated it wants to use its facial recognition system to ''identify[] subjects in public datasets'' and ''conduct[] automated surveillance at lookout locations'' (p.5). This suggests the FBI wants to be able to search and identify people in photos of crowds and in pictures posted on social media sites''even if the people in those photos haven't been arrested for or even suspected of a crime. The FBI may also want to incorporate those crowd or social media photos into its face recognition database.
  And an MOU between Maryland and the FBI will allow Maryland to submit photos in bulk to the database''something that Maryland described in an email as a ''photo data dump.'' This kind of an agreement could be used in the future to incorporate the same kind of facial identifying information already collected by 32 of 50 state DMVs solely to prevent fraud and identity theft.
  Read More at informationliberation.com. By Jennifer Lynch.
Obama campaign to start accepting text message donations '' Reuters
  Link to Article
  Source: News 1 Stop
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:28
  By Alina Selyukh
  WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:38pm IST
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a U.S. election dominated by multimillion-dollar donations, Democratic President Barack Obama's campaign is about to give small donors a new weapon by starting to accept text message donations for the first time in history.
  Marking the beginning of what could be a revolution in U.S. campaign finance, the Obama campaign said on Thursday it is wrapping up agreements with Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp, U.S. Cellular and T-Mobile USA -- a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG -- to open the floodgate for donations by text this week.
  In the coming days, voters are likely to start seeing a message on video screens at Obama rallies, at the end of ads or on fliers, encouraging them "to contribute $10 to Obama for America, text GIVE to 62262."
  The campaign of Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's rival in the November 6 election, has supported the notion of text donations in the past. It is expected to follow suit for its own short code of 466488, although has not made any announcements yet.
  The Obama campaign said agreements with other phone companies -- including AT&T Inc, the second-largest after Verizon -- were anticipated "in the near future."
  Thanks to their small size and spontaneity, text donations could empower smaller donors in a campaign marked by six-figure donations to outside groups to fund what is likely to be the most expensive U.S. election in history.
  Text donations, as they are currently approved, can be made anonymously but have to be capped at $10 per text, $50 per month and $200 in total for one candidate or campaign. Donations are prohibited from foreigners, people under 18 or corporations, which could also mean corporate phone accounts.
  The United States has more than 330 million wireless service subscribers. Almost nine in 10 U.S. adults have at least one cell phone line and about three-quarters of those use text messaging, according to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
  THE FEE QUESTION
  The process of political giving over text would be similar to giving to charity: A donor would send a short message to a text code, confirm intention and eligibility and later pay for the donation as part of the monthly cellphone bill.
  But in this case, carriers and aggregators processing the payment would take a significant cut from each transaction as they do with other non-charitable transactions, such as purchases of ring tones.
  Typically, these fees can take 30 percent to 50 percent of the money sent over text, industry experts told the Federal Election Commission earlier this year.
  The FEC has since ruled that carriers could offer discounts to political campaigns if they are negotiated by an aggregator firm, sort of middlemen between the two, in its regular course of business and applies to all its political customers equally.
  It remains unclear what percentage exactly the Obama campaign will be paying in fees.
  "Every avenue of fundraising that we have costs us money," said an Obama campaign official. "We pay the most competitive rates available in the marketplace to ensure our supporters have the greatest impact with their contribution."
  ANTICIPATED PIONEER
  Text donations had originally been expected to launch in early June, when federal regulators first approved the program. But the wireless carriers, whose support is key to facilitate the process, had caused a delay as they sought legal protections over fraud and profitability.
  The FEC ruled on August 15 that political campaigns are "solely responsible" for ensuring donations are not fraudulent or excessive, and that carriers could refuse text-donation services to campaigns not deemed commercially viable.
  On the day of the vote, fundraisers and campaign finance experts quickly pointed to the Obama campaign -- which had reached out to almost all of the FEC commissioners to urge their approval of text donations -- as the likely pioneer of the plan.
  "President Obama's reputation is that he's reaching out to the grassroots... He's more of a natural person to be an early adapter," veteran Republican digital fundraiser Peter Pasi said at the time, in anticipation of the launch of the program.
  A Pew Research study late last year also found that of all U.S. adults using cell phones to text, African-American and Latino phone users are the most active texters, and these groups are generally seen as Democratic voting blocs friendly to Obama.
  The Obama campaign, whose small-donor prowess helped it set fundraising records and win the 2008 election, has been raising a notably larger portion of cash from small checks than Romney.
  "As we push through the last 100 days of this election," the Obama campaign said on Thursday, "we remain focused on making this campaign as accessible as possible to the small-dollar donors that are the heart and soul of our organization."
  (Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
FBI & DHS Warn Anarchist Could Use Improvised Explosive Devices During RNC Convention
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:28
New Book About Bin Laden Raid Written By Member Of Seal Team SIX To Be Released On September 11th
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:27
Congressional Budget Office Warns A Recession May Be Coming Soon
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:22
BBC News - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spews lava and rocks
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:20
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Project To Cool The Earth
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 06:29
Cybercrime bill makes it through '' but what does that mean for you?
  Link to Article
  Source: The Conversation
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 05:49
  Australia's place in the online world is changing, with significant consequences. lintmachineYesterday afternoon the Australian Senate passed the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 following amendments suggested by the Labor Party.
  It's been more than a year since the bill was first introduced to the lower house and in that time it's faced opposition both inside and outside parliament.
  The purpose of the bill is to align Australia with the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, to which 34 other countries '' including the US, Germany and most European nations '' are already signatories.
  Special effectsThe bill effects changes in the Telecommunications Act 1997 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 and will force carriers and internet service providers (ISPs) to preserve stored communications, when requested by certain domestic authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police), or when requested by those authorities acting on behalf of nominated foreign countries.
  This means a warrant will be needed before the police or security agencies can force carriers or ISPs to monitor, capture and store website use, data transmissions, voice and multimedia calls, and all other forms of communication over the digital network.
  But, as mentioned, the introduction of this bill has attracted significant criticism.
  Writing for Crikey in August 2011, Bernard Keane highlighted a number of concerns about the bill, including the fact there are no restrictions on the use of information requested by foreign countries. A foreign country could call upon Australia to assist in an investigation that may lead to the death penalty.
  Criticism also came from non-profit online rights organisation Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA). In its submission last year to the Federal Government's Joint Select Committee on Cyber-safety Inquiry (which made recommendations that led to amendments to the bill) the EFA wrote:
  EFA is very concerned with amendments to the computer crime offences in the Criminal Code, and believe these parts of the current legislation are both deeply problematic, and unnecessary for adherence to the Convention.
  EFA is concerned that some aspects of this legislation can potentially enable arbitrary interference with privacy and correspondence. We believe it should treated with great caution.
  But worse, we believe the Criminal Code changes would apply serious criminal penalties, up to ten years' imprisonment, on a very broad range of actions, well beyond what is required for the Convention, and for this reason the legislation should be rejected in its current form.
  Toeing the lineSo why did the government, with opposition support, proceed with the bill in the face of criticism by industry and civil liberties advocates such as EFA?
  It could be argued that the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 is a much-needed update of existing legislation and that it brings Australia in line with Europe. And there's no doubt that the digital network is being used ever increasingly for crime, espionage and terrorism.
  Indeed, following the passing of the Bill, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon stated:
  This is good news for fighting crime, and will help make it easier for police to track down cybercriminals around the world.
  This will help combat criminal offences relating to forgery, fraud, child pornography and infringement of copyright and intellectual property.
  Where we're atThe introduction of the new bill comes at an interesting time. On August 10 Nicola Roxon decided to defer plans to increase web surveillance '' a plan which would have affected all Australians by introducing a two-year data-retention plan for ISPs.
  In essence, if that plan ever comes to fruition, everything you do online '' every keystroke, website visited, video watched '' would be monitored and stored for two years.
  Unanswered questionsSo the bill's been passed. But the underlying issues remain, and do nothing to address the following critical questions:
  What is the government doing to build a more secure network?What is it doing to develop best-practice guides for individuals and companies operating on the network?Should Australia really be implementing laws that allow foreign governments to access its information?Will Australian carriers and ISPs now be required to hand over to the US everything that exists on the network, including private personal information for people such as Julian Assange of Wikileaks?What about emails and phone calls that Julian Assange makes to his parents and family in Australia from the Ecuadorian embassy in London?The Australian government needs to step back and look at how to address some of the concerns being voiced within Australia.
  The Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 will assist law enforcement agencies but failure to address the underlying problems that exist with technology used in the network will mean law enforcement will simply be treading water.
  The bill will now return to the lower house for approval and will likely become law before the end of 2012.
  Further reading1 Comment TagsInternet, Cybersecurity, Cyber security
  Related articles16 August 2012 We're watching you: why the government should focus on cybersecurity, not surveillance10 August 2012 Anonymous' Operation Australia '' can the federal police stop them? 9 August 2012 So what's wrong with watching the Olympic Games over the internet?23 July 2012 You're watching that? Here? The politics of porn in public20 July 2012 Chinese internet censorship? Seeking the 'truth' on Weibo
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-boston-market-salt-20120822,0,5636195.story
  Link to Article
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:31
  Diners at Boston Market will have to taste their food before pouring on the salt after the restaurant chain decided to take shakers off tables and put them out of reach at the condiment station.
  Some may call it nanny dining, but it's the latest in a series of moves by the restaurant industry to cut back on sodium levels to promote healthier eating.
  Last fall, Olive Garden and Red Lobster parent Darden Restaurants promised to cut sodium in all its restaurants. As of last summer, Carl's Jr. had reduced the sodium in its hamburger buns 20%. El Torito and Taco Bell have also reduced sodium use.
  Still, according to research group Technomic last year, salt's presence on menus has boomed 144% in five years.
  Americans adults shouldn't consume more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, according to current dietary guidelines. A single McDonald's Big Mac has 1,000 milligrams. An original recipe KFC chicken breast has 1,080 milligrams.
  At Boston Market's 476 locations, salt shakers will be removed from tables immediately, the company said. The chain also plans to cut the amount of sodium in its menu items by at least 15% by the end of 2014.
  And for signature items such as mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and rotisserie chicken -- of which Boston Market sells 48 million servings a year -- a 20% cut in sodium will be implemented over the next six months.
  ALSO:
  Cutting back on salt and hoping you won't notice
  Michelle Obama endorses Olive Garden, Red Lobster changes
  Sodium use up 144% in restaurants -- mostly through gourmet salt
  Follow Tiffany Hsu on Twitter and Google+
Lubbock Co. Judge warns of potential danger if Obama is re-elected|myFOXlubbock.com | FOX 34 News Lubbock, Texas
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:29
  Lubbock County Judge Tom Head and Commissioner Mark Heinrich went into great detail Monday night on FOX 34 News @ Nine about why it is necessary to raise the tax rate by 1.7 cents the next fiscal year. An across-the-board pay increase is needed for the attorneys on the DA's staff to keep them from being poached by higher-paying counties, and the sheriff needs to expand his staff by seven deputies to reduce call response times, minimize officer fatigue and reduce the turnaround time for investigations.
  Judge Head said he and the county must be prepared for many contingencies, one that he particularly fears, is if President Obama is reelected.
  ''He's going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the UN, and what is going to happen when that happens?,'' Head asked. ''I'm thinking the worst. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And we're not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations, we're talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy.
  "Now what's going to happen if we do that, if the public decides to do that? He's going to send in U.N. troops. I don't want 'em in Lubbock County. OK. So I'm going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say 'you're not coming in here'.
  "And the sheriff, I've already asked him, I said 'you gonna back me' he said, 'yeah, I'll back you'. Well, I don't want a bunch of rookies back there. I want trained, equipped, seasoned veteran officers to back me."
  Whether you agree with the judge, or think his theories are unrealistic, the reality is a tax hike that will provide an additional $832,433 coupled with $2 million in cuts to make the numbers work.
  You can sound off at two public hearings, Wednesday at 10 a.m. and Monday at 10a.m. Both hearings are at commissioner's court.
Germany and France in Greek talks
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:05
  22 August 2012Last updated at 20:48 ET The leaders of Germany and France are set to hold talks in Berlin on whether to give Greece more time to make the cuts required by its debt bailout.
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will also meet Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras later this week.
  Meeting Mr Samaras yesterday, eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker kept the door open for a change to the bailout terms.
  Heavily-indebted Greece is in its fifth year of recession and austerity.
  Greece is currently trying to finalise a package of 11.5bn euros (£9.1bn: $14.4bn) of spending cuts over the next two years.
  It is also being asked to put in place economic and structural reforms, including changes to the labour market and a renewed privatisation drive.
  The measures are needed to qualify for the next 33.5bn-euro instalment of its second 130bn-euro bailout.
  The "troika" of donor bodies monitoring the bailout - the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission - are due in Athens next month to report on whether Greece has made enough progress.
  Greece needs the funds to make repayments on its debt burden. A default could result in the country leaving the euro.
  'Tremendous efforts'Mr Samaras is seeking an extension of up to two years for the painful steps, in order to provide Greece with the growth needed to improve its public finances.
  In an interview published on Wednesday, he told Germany's biggest daily, Bild, that his country needed "a little breathing space" in order to kick-start growth and reduce its deficit.
  Continue reading the main story 22 August: Greek PM Antonis Samaras meets Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker 23 August: Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande meet 24 August: Chancellor Merkel and PM Samaras meet 25 August: President Hollande and PM Samaras meet Early September: Troika staff go back to Greece 14-15 September: Gathering of European finance ministers in Cyprus Troika's review of progress to be published by the end of September 8-9 October: Finance ministers attend two days of meetings in Luxembourg After meeting Mr Samaras on Wednesday, Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker said a decision on an extension would depend on the troika's report.
  "We have to discuss the length of the period and other dimensions," Mr Juncker told a news conference, while sitting alongside Mr Samaras.
  He said Greece was facing its "last chance" to make the necessary changes, but praised the "tremendous efforts" it has made so far to cut its deficit. He also stressed he was "totally opposed" to Greece leaving the euro.
  Mr Samaras called the discussions "fruitful".
  At least publicly, many EU leaders remain resolutely opposed to any moves to change the terms of Greece's bailout.
  But Mr Juncker's remarks suggest there is room for manoeuvre and that an extension has not been ruled out, says the BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin.
  Mrs Merkel has said that she and Mr Samaras will not make any decisions on the issue in their talks on Friday. Mr Samaras goes on to meet Mr Hollande on Saturday.
  On Wednesday, Mr Hollande also discussed Greece with British Prime Minister David Cameron in a telephone call.
  "Both welcomed the recent actions of the ECB and agreed that this did not negate the need for Greece to stabilise their own economy and prevent any further detrimental effects to the wider eurozone," Mr Cameron's office said in a statement, without specifying which ECB actions they were referring to.
  The talks come amid reports that due to the worsening state of the economy, which affects tax receipts and welfare spending levels, Greece may now need to find savings of up to 13.5bn euros - 2bn more than thought.
Osama bin Laden killing book by Seal Team Six member raises eyebrows
  Link to Article
  Source: The Guardian World News
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:04
  A member of the US navy Seal team that killed Osama bin Laden has written a book on the operation, triggering fresh questions about the possible public release of classified information involving the assassination in Pakistan.
  US military officials have said they do not believe the book has been read or cleared by the defence department, which reviews publications by military members to make sure no classified material is revealed.
  No Easy Day cover. Photograph: AP/DuttonThe book, entitled No Easy Day and scheduled to be released on 11 September, comes amid a heated debate over whether active or retired military personnel should engage in politics.
  "I haven't read the book and am unaware that anyone in the department has reviewed it," said Pentagon press secretary George Little. White House and CIA officials said the book had not been reviewed by their agencies.
  The author is said to have been a member of Seal Team Six and one of the first people through the door when the Abbottabad raid took place. He claims to have been present at Bin Laden's death.
  Separately a group of retired special operations and CIA officers have launched a campaign accusing President Barack Obama of revealing classified details of the mission and turning the killing of Bin Laden into a campaign centrepiece. The group complains that Obama has taken too much credit for the operation.
  Their public complaints drew a rebuke from General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as well as other special operations forces, who called the partisan criticism unprofessional. Dempsey said such public political involvement by members of the armed services eroded public confidence and trust in the military.
  The author of the upcoming Bin Laden book has left the military and is using the pseudonym Mark Owen. In a press release from publisher Dutton, Owen describes the book as an effort to "set the record straight about one of the most important missions in US military history".
  He said the book is about "the guys" and the sacrifices that the special operations forces make to do the job and is written in the hope that it will inspire young men to become Seals.
  Often special operations forces must sign nondisclosure agreements and revealing unauthorised information can constitute a crime. Christine Ball, a spokeswoman for the Penguin imprint Dutton, said the work was vetted by a former special operations attorney provided by the author. "He vetted it for tactical, technical and procedural information as well as information that could be considered classified by compilation and found it to be without risk to national security," Ball said.
  Defence department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel James Gregory said that if the book revealed classified information about the raid the Pentagon would "defer to the department of justice".
  According to Pentagon regulations retired personnel, former employees and non-active duty members of the reserves "shall use the DoD security review process to ensure that information they submit for public release does not compromise national security".
  The CIA might weigh in because it ran the secret Bin Laden mission. Earlier this year a federal judge ruled a CIA whistleblower writing under the pseudonym Ishmael Jones had to forfeit future money he earned from The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture, a scathing book he wrote about the spy agency. He had failed to get approval from his former employer before publication, the judge ruled.
  In 2010 the defence department claimed a former army intelligence officer's war memoir threatened national security. The Pentagon paid $47,000 to destroy 9,500 copies of the book, called Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan and the Path to Victory.
  The book was written by Anthony Shaffer, whose lawyer said the army reserve cleared the manuscript beforehand but the Defense Department later rescinded this.
Vet Detained After Radical Facebook Posts
  Link to Article
  Source: Veterans Today
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 03:47
  RICHMOND, Va. (AP) '-- A former Marine involuntarily detained for psychiatric evaluation for posting strident anti-government messages on Facebook has received an outpouring of support from people who say authorities are trampling on his First Amendment rights.
  Brandon J. Raub, 26, has been in custody since FBI and Secret Service agents and Chesterfield County police questioned him Thursday evening about what they considered ominous posts talking of a coming revolution. In one message earlier this month, Raub wrote: ''Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads.''
  Police '-- acting under a state law that allows emergency, temporary psychiatric commitments upon the recommendation of a mental health professional '-- took Raub to the John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. He was not charged with any crime.
  The Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville-based civil liberties group, sent one of its attorneys to the hospital to represent Raub at a hearing Monday. A judge ordered Raub detained for another month, Rutherford executive director John Whitehead said.
  ''For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon,'' Whitehead said. ''This should be a wake-up call to Americans that the police state is here.''
  Raub's mother, Cathleen Thomas, said she was not surprised by her son's plight.
  ''We're seeing our government overstepping its bounds again and again on the Constitution,'' she said in a telephone interview. ''The bottom line is his freedom of speech has been violated. It was his patriotic right and duty to make those grievances known.''
  Thomas said her son, who served tours as a combat engineer in Iraq and Afghanistan, is ''concerned about all the wars we've experienced'' and believes the U.S. government was complicit in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One of his Facebook posts, she said, pictured the gaping hole in the Pentagon and asked ''where's the plane?''
  ''I want the country to know who he is '-- that he's not crazy, he's a staunch patriot,'' Thomas said.
  Whitehead said he found nothing alarming on in Raub's social media commentaries.
  ''The posts I read that supposedly were of concern were libertarian-type posts I see all the time, so I don't know what supposedly triggered this,'' he said. ''I see worse stuff.''
  The big concern, Whitehead said, is that government officials are apparently monitoring citizens' private Facebook pages and arresting people with whom they disagree.
  Dee Rybiski, an FBI spokeswoman in Richmond, said there was no Facebook snooping by her agency.
  ''We received quite a few complaints about what were perceived as threatening posts,'' she said. ''Given the circumstances with the things that have gone on in the country with some of these mass shootings, it would be horrible for law enforcement not to pay attention to complaints.''
  Whitehead said some of the posts in question were made on a closed Facebook page that Raub had just created and that had only three members, so he questioned whether anyone from the public would have complained about them.
  ''Support Brandon Raub'' Facebook pages were drawing significant interest and '-- along with other Internet sites '-- had numerous comments from people outraged by the veteran's detention.
  Raub's supporters are characterizing the detention as an arrest, complaining that he was handcuffed and whisked away in a police cruiser without being served a warrant or read his Miranda rights. But county and federal authorities say it was not an arrest because Raub doesn't face criminal charges.
  Col. Thierry Dupuis, the county police chief, said Raub was taken into custody upon the recommendation of mental health crisis intervention workers. He said the action was taken in accordance with the state's emergency custody statute, which allows a magistrate to order the civil detention and psychiatric evaluation of a person deemed to be potentially dangerous. He said Raub was handcuffed because he resisted officers' attempts to take him into custody.
  Whitehead said Raub's only act of resistance was refusing to allow authorities into his home without a warrant. A video of the incident shot by onlookers and posted on You Tube provides no insight because Raub was already in cuffs when the cameras started rolling.
  Related Posts:Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=220349
  The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT or any other VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors or partners. Legal NoticePosted by Veterans Today on Aug 22 2012, With 0 Reads, Filed under Vet News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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Slow Joe ''Intimate With Three Presidents''
  Link to Article
  Source: The Ulsterman Report
  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 03:28
  Vice President Joe Biden '' who declares here he has known eight presidents '' three of them intimately, (Somewhere out there Bill Clinton is yelling out a ''HELL NO IT WASN'T ME!) goes to great lengths to prove Barack Obama has absolutely no interest in hearing Biden's opinion on anything. I'm just gonna come out and say it '' Biden is nuts. Absolutely bonkers. And certainly stupid enough to be used as some form of distraction tool by Team Obama:
Veteran Arrested For Threatening To Kill President Obama
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 03:27
CNN: China Warns US On Military Exercises With Japan
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 03:27
"This Is The Momentum Of The Military Machine Eisenhower Warned Us About 51 Years Ago!"
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  Thu, 23 Aug 2012 03:27