What Adam Curry is reading

VIDEO-Absolute Proof Sandy Hook was Staged - YouTube
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  Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:47
Curry ziet Yolanthe wel zitten
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  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:06
  do 10 jan 2013, 12:24
  van onze redactieAMSTERDAM - VIDEO - Christina Curry is nog geen 24 uur uit de kast, of de dochter van Patricia Paay heeft haar pijlen al op de pikante Yolanthe Sneijder-Cabau gericht.
  "Zo, dikkere Yolanthe? IK ZOU HAAR DOEN", schrijft de 22-jarige Curry gekscherend op Twitter. Daarmee reageert ze op een pikant videofragment van de echtgenote van Wesley Sneijder, waarin Yo een Turkse schone speelt die zich aan een Nederlandse jongen aanbiedt in het bos.
  De biseksuele Curry liet er woensdag op Twitter geen gras over groeien. Met dikke letters bevestigde ze haar lesbische relatie met Ryanne van Dorst, beter bekend als zangeres Elle Bandita.
  De twee zaten samen met elkaar in het klooster tijdens opnamen van het EO-programma Op zoek naar God. Haar manager riep eerder nog in het AD dat er van een relatie geen sprake zou zijn.
  (C) 1996-2013 Telegraaf Media Nederland | Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlPrivacy | Cookies | Disclaimer
Personal Audio, LLC v. Ace Broadcasting Network, LLC patent lawsuit
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  Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:26
  Complaint for Patent InfringementCivil Action No. 2:13-cv-00014; no judge yet assigned.Filed on Jan. 7, 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas;
  Patents in case8,112,504: ''System for disseminating media content representing episodes in a serialized sequence'' by Logan et. al. Prosecuted by Call; Charles G.. Includes 35 claims (4 indep.). Was application 12/380,955. Granted 2/7/2012.
VIDEO-Man restrained after becoming unruly on Iceland to New York flight - CNN.com
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  Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:57
  By Brittany Brady, CNN
  January 7, 2013 -- Updated 1324 GMT (2124 HKT)
  STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  A male passenger was yelling profanities and spitting at fellow passengersA photo shows a man restrained in his seat with duct tape and zip tiesSuch restraints are standard protocol, Iceland Air saysRead a version of this story in Arabic.
  New York (CNN) -- Get too far out of line aboard an international flight and you could be restrained in your seat with zip ties and duct tape.
  That appears to be what happened to a disruptive male passenger aboard a flight from Iceland to New York on Thursday after a photo surfaced on social media showing a man bound to his seat.
  Iceland Air said it could not confirm the validity of the photo, but said there was "an incident with a passenger on the flight from Reykjavik to New York" in which the passenger was restrained.
  The man was "hitting, screaming and spitting at other passengers, while yelling profanities," according to airline spokesman Michael Raucheisen, who said the passenger's "behavior was considered to be unruly and threatening."
  "To ensure the safety of those on board, he was restrained by passengers and crew and was monitored for his own safety for the duration of the flight," he added.
  The man was arrested after the flight arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, the airline said. The Port Authority said the man was not charged and was taken to a local hospital.
  Raucheisen said duct tape and plastic zip ties are considered standard protocol when restraining a passenger.
  "This equipment is on board all our flights in case an incident like this arises," he said.
  A photo posted on Facebook by a fellow passenger showed a man tied to the back of his seat with his legs tied together, and tape on his ankles and over his mouth.
  Air rage: Passengers 'quicker to snap'
  Plane passenger tries to open door during flight
Sandy Hook School Massacre Timeline | Memory Hole
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  Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:51
  Updated January 7, 2013
  The following timeline of the December 14 mass killing of 20 children and 8 adults in Newtown Connecticut attempts to demonstrate how the event was presented to the public by corporate news media. The chronological assemblage of coverage is not comprehensive of all reports published on the incident but rather seeks to verify how the storyline was to a substantial degree constructed by federal and state law enforcement authorities and major media around the theory that 20-year-old Adam Lanza was the sole agent in the massacre.
  This scenario became an established reality through the news media's pronounced repetition of the lone gunman narrative and meme. This proposed scenario significantly obscured the fact that police encountered and apprehended two additional shooting suspects on the school's grounds within minutes of the crime. These suspects remain unaccounted for by authorities but the roles they may have played arguably correlate with the shifting information presented by authorities and major news media on injuries and weapons vis- -vis the mass carnage meted out in the school. While the certain detainment of additional suspects was pointed to by alternative news media, including Natural News, Infowars, Veterans Today and Global Research in the days following the tragedy, the untenable lone gunman narrative has become firmly established in the public psyche via an overwhelming chorus of corporate media reports and interpretations.
  Note: Times of occurrences referenced are Eastern Standard Time and in some instances signify time of publication rather than the specific incident cited. Time of publication does not always correlate with exact time of incident. ''n.t.'' denotes ''no time'' of publication referenced.
  2012
  At the start of the 2012-13 academic year Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Hochsprung announces in a public letter to families the Newtown School District's new security system installed ''in all elementary schools.'' Under the newly-announced security regimen, ''exterior doors will be locked during the day. Every visitor will be required to ring the doorbell at the front entrance and the office staff will use a visual monitoring system to allow entry. Visitors will still be required to report directly to the office and sign in. If our office staff does not recognize you, you will be required to show identification with a picture id. Please understand that with nearly 700 students and over 1,000 parents representing 500 SHS families, most parents will be asked to show identification. Doors will be locked at approximately 9:30 a.m.'' ''Principal Outlined New Security Procedures at Sandy Hook Elementary,'' Hartford Courant, December 14, 2012, 8:25PM EST.
  9:47AMSandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung Tweets photo of emergency drill held at Sandy Hook fire station with Sandy Hook Elementary faculty and students participating. Esther Zuckerman, ''The Sandy Hook Principal's Twitter Feed is Haunting,'' The Atlantic Wire, December 14, 2012.
  n.t.Following Obama's reelection Senator Diane Feinstein is believed to be meeting with relevant federal agencies to lay groundwork for reenacting assault weapons ban. ''Senator Diane Feinstein Moves to Ban All Assault Rifles, High Capacity Magazines, and Pistol Grips,'' Market Daily News, November 7, 2012.
  10:14AMHartford Courant publishes online Google map of Sandy Hook Elementary School. ''Map of Sandy Hook Elementary School,'' Hartford Courant, December 14, 2012.
  10:47AMConnecticut State Police report assisting Newtown police in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. ''The Hartford Courant [<-hyperlink is to a different story] reports there are multiple injures [sic] and unconfirmed reports that one of the shooters is dead while the other is still at large. The school superintendent's office says the district has locked down schools to ensure the safety of students and staff. Crimeside Staff, ''Connecticut School Shooting: Police Investigating Reports of a Shooting at Elementary School,'' CBS News, December 14, 2012.
  10:47AM[Famous photo taken by Newtown Bee editor is distributed via CBS and other national media.]
  Shannon Hicks/The Newtown Bee
  Connecticut School Shooting: Police Investigating Reports of a Shooting at Elementary School,'' CBS News, December 14, 2012, 1047AM EST.
  11:30AMA Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps dispatcher says a Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher was taken to hospital after being shot in the foot. ''There are reports of multiple injuries,'' CBS notes. The Newton Bee reports a student with apparently serious wounds was carried out of the facility by a police officer. The school superintendent's office says all schools in the district remain in lockdown. Crimesider Staff, ''Connecticut School Shooting Update: One Gunman Dead, One Teacher Injured at Elementary School,'' CBS News, December 14, 2012.
  11:34AMPolice say the shooter is dead and two weapons were recovered from him. ''The source says one weapon recovered is a Glock and the other is a Sig Sauer.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  12:29PMHartford Courant mysteriously publishes online Googlemap of neighborhood of Lanza residence, which is 36 Yogananda St. ''Map of 46 Yogananda St. Sandy Hook, CT,'' Hartford Courant, December 14, 2012.
  12:27PMAnonymous witness and parent of student says that while attending a meeting with faculty regarding her child she heard ''at least 100 rounds'' being fired when the shooting began about 9:30 to 9:35AM. ''There was a 'pop pop pop' in the hall outside the room. Three people went out of the room into the hall where the sounds had come from. 'Only one person came back.''' The same witness says ''she then called 911. She said she never saw the shooter but she later was escorted outside the room past two bodies lying in blood.'' ''Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  1:57PMAn anonymous federal law enforcement source informs news media the death toll is closer to 30 than 20, with most of those killed being children. The source, who says he is in contact with authorities on the scene, says the suspected gunman had a connection to the school but would not elaborate. Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  2:09PMCNN is ''told that 18 to 20 of the dead are children.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  2:11PMAn anonymous law enforcement official tells CNN that the suspect's name is Ryan Lanza and he is in his 20s. Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  2:39PMAnonymous federal law enforcement authorities say ''the shooting happened quickly and happened in a concentrated area.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  2:52PMFather of Sandy Hook Elementary School third grade student Stephen Delgiudice describes to CBS News what his daughter heard over the loudspeaker from the principal's office. This prompted the teacher to lock the classroom door. ''We have a pretty good program in Newtown,'' Delgiudice says. ''where basically a code red reverse 911 type of a call, and a, came through. [It said] there's a shooting at the school and naturally I obeyed the speed limit and drove immediately to the school. And ah, y'know it was just mass-mass chaos. I finally got to my daughter'--a friend of mine led me to my daughter. I wanted to see her face and hold her, which I did, and once I did that there was a sense of relief, but, uhm, it was just chaos.'' Crimesider Staff, ''Connecticut School Shooting: Father Says Student Heard Commotion Over Loudspeaker,'' CBS News, December 14, 2012.
  3:16PMPresident Obama addresses nation. ''As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it's an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago '' these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  3:51PMA federal law enforcement official informs CNN that ''shooter arrived and headed directly toward and to his mother's classroom. That and the other information now emerging '' another family member killed, police interviews '' lead them to believe his mother was the primary target. But they note he also came armed with clear intention of mass killing.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  3:45PMThere were a total of 27 people dead at the school, Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police tells assembled reporters. ''Eighteen students were pronounced dead at the scene, and two others died at the hospital.'' In addition, six adults were pronounced dead at the scene. Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  3:54PMCNN now reports ''three guns found at the scene '... the third weapon found on the scene was a .223 Bushmaster. The other weapons, previously reported, are a Glock, and a Sig-Sauer. No word on the models of Glock or Sig-Sauer.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  6:34PMWitnesses attest to seeing bloodied children, hearing as many as 100 shots, and ''loud booms.'' ''It was horrendous,'' parent Brenda Lebinski said, who rushed to the school where her daughter is a third grade student. ''Everyone was in hysterics '' parents, students. There were kids coming out of the school bloodied. I don't know if they were shot, but they were bloodied.'' Lebinski said another parent in the school ''during the shooting told her a 'masked man' entered the principal's office and may have shot the principal. Lebinski, who is friends with the mother who was at the school, said the principal was '''severely injured.''' Lebinski's daughter's teacher ''immediately locked the door to the classroom and put all the kids in the corner of the room.'' Nearby resident Melissa Murphy listened to events unfold on a police scanner. '''I kept hearing them call for the mass casualty kit and scream, ''Send everybody! Send everybody!'' Murphy said. 'It doesn't seem like it can be really happening. I feel like I'm in shock.''' A girl interviewed by an NBC Connecticut affiliate said she heard seven loud ''booms'' while in gym class. ''A police officer came in and told us to run outside and so we did,'' the unidentified girl said on camera. Dan Burns and Chris Kaufman, ''Connecticut Gun Rampage: 28 Dead, Including 20 Children,'' Reuters, December 14, 2012.
  6:34PMNew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls for greater gun control measures. ''We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership '' not from the White House and not from Congress,'' Bloomberg said. ''That must end today.'' Dan Burns and Chris Kaufman, ''Connecticut Gun Rampage: 28 Dead, Including 20 Children,'' Reuters, December 14, 2012.
  6:44PMUS officials representing three different lettered agencies separately identify the suspected shooter as Adam Lanza, in contrast to what investigators said earlier in the day. No explanation is given regarding what prompted confusion among investigators. Lanza's older brother, Ryan, was taken into custody for general questioning in Hoboken, New Jersey but was not labeled a suspect. ''Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  7:13PMFox News presents ''newly released police dispatch audio'' of exchange between 911 dispatcher and Newtown Police and Connecticut State Police encountering two shooting suspects on school grounds. ''I have reports that the teacher saw two shadows running past the building, past the gym which would be rear [inaudible].'' ''Yeah, we got him. He's coming at me, down [inaudible].'' ''911 Call Dispatch Audio Reveals Police Response to Sandy Hook School Shooting,'' Fox News, December 14, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16AfZXH33eQ
  [Night]Police recover long gun from automobile in Sandy Hook parking lot. ''Police Find Long Gun in Trunk of Car in Sandy Hook Parking Lot, Newtown Connecticut,'' NBC News, December 14, 2012.
  n.t.CBS correspondent notes how police have a second shooting suspect in custody who they are interrogating. ''Well, they have an individual in custody, who they're talking to. I am told they're looking into the person as possibly a second shooter. Now that changes the dynamics here a little bit which goes from'--if in fact this turns out to be confirmed'--it goes from a lone gunman scenario where somebody has this argument with society and wants to take revenge with the most defenseless people in society to a team of individuals who've gotten together and conspired to do something like this.'' ''School Shooting: Possible Second Gunman in Custody,'' CBS News Online, December 14, 2012.
  n.t.The Associated Press interviews an unidentified Sandy Hook Elementary student who describes seeing a shooting suspect prone on the ground in the school's parking lot. Unidentified student: ''And then the police like were knocking on the door, and they're like, 'We're evacuating people! We're evacuating people!' So we ran out. There's police about at every door. They're leading us, 'Down this way. Down this way. Quick! Quick! Come on!' Then we ran down to the firehouse. There's a man pinned down to the ground with handcuffs on. And we thought that was the victim [sic]. We really didn't get a good glance at him because there was a car blocking it. Plus we were running really quick.'' ''Raw: Student Describes Scene at School Shooting,'' Associated Press, December 14, 2012.
  7:05AMState Police Lt. J. Paul Advance on ABC's Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos.Vance: This is something that's going to take a significant amount of time. From the onset we've had teams looking into the background of [Adam Lanza], peeling back the layers of the onion, so to speak. We have many, many questions that we need to ask'--that we need to explore.Stephanopoulos: Three guns found on site?Vance: We haven't discussed that as of yet, but, uh, in excess of three guns.Stephanopoulos: More than three guns. And we know also that the guns match those of his mother may have had. Have you been able to put that together yet?''Vance: We're'--we're'--I don't have that information specifically''Stephanopoulos: Do you know if they were obtained legally?Vance: Again, that's something we would also have to explore during the investigation.ABC News, ''Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School,'' Good Morning America, December 15, 2012.
  8:40AMSandy Hook resident Gene Rosen comes forth with story that he encountered six first grade children from Sandy Hook Elementary in his front lawn while feeding his cats. ''I thought they were practicing for a play or Cub Scouts, and I went and approached them and it became clear that they were so distressed,'' Rosen told CBS News. ''And I took them into my house, and they were crying and talking, and I got them into my house, and they were crying and talking [sic], and I got them some stuffed animals.'' ''Neighbor Found Terrified Children on Front Lawn after School Massacre,'' CBS New York, December 15, 2012.
  3:45PMMSNBC: ''Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver provides an update to the media after he and his team examined the victims' bodies at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown following Friday's shootings.'' In this exchange Carver and State Police drastically change the story on what weapons were used in the shooting, contending that the Bushmaster 223 was the sole weapon Lanza wielded. Carver exhibits an amazing degree of deferral to law enforcement and overall lack of knowledge about the postmortem operation he has just presided over. For example, a reporter asks, ''Were [the students] sitting at their desks or were they running away when this happened?'' Carver responds, ''I'll let the guys who'--the scene guys talk'--address that issue. I, uh, obviously I was at the scene. Obviously I'm very experienced in that. But there are people who are, uh, the number one professionals in that. I'll let them'--let that [voice trails off].'' Shortly thereafter another reporter asks, ''How many boys and how many girls [were killed]?'' Carver shakes his head slowly, ''I don't know.'' ''Medical Examiner: Rifle Primary Weapon Used in Shootings,'' MSNBC, December 15, 2012.
  4:32PMList of Sandy Hook Elementary victims is released. ''Police Release Names of Newtown School Shooting Victims,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012,.
  8:55PMFederal authorities confirm there is no record of Adam Lanza using local Newtown shooting range. Michael Isikoff and Hannah Rappleye, ''Mom of Suspected Shooter-First to Die'--Was Avid Gun Enthusiast, Friend Says,'' NBC News, December 15, 2012.
  8:55PMFederal officials claim Lanza took three weapons to Sandy Hook Elementary, a Glock and Sig Sauer, and a Bushmaster .223-caliber semiautomatic assault-style rifle. Authorities remain unclear on whether all guns were used in the attack. Michael Isikoff and Hannah Rappleye, ''Mom of Suspected Shooter-First to Die'--Was Avid Gun Enthusiast, Friend Says,'' NBC News, December 15, 2012.
  9:15PM''An official with knowledge of the investigation'' informs the Associated Press that three weapons were found inside Sandy Hook Elementary on or near Adam Lanza's body'--a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle, a Glock 10mm pistol, and a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol. ''Three other guns have also been recovered, but it was not clear where they were found, the official told AP. They were a Henry repeating rifle, an Enfield rifle and a shotgun.'' Matt Appuzo and Pete Yost, ''Connecticut Shooter Adam Lanza's Guns Were Registered to Mother Nancy Lanza: Official,'' Associated Press/Huffington Post, December 15, 2012.
  11:31PMAdam Lanza's aunt Marsha Lanza describes Nancy Lanza as ''meticulous'' and ''self-reliant,'' pointing out that she kept three guns in the home ''for self-defense.'' ''She would never leave the guns out,'' Marsha Lanza asserts. Josh Kovner and Edmund H. Mahoney, ''Adam Lanza: A 'Quiet, Odd' Loner Living on the Fringes,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012.
  11:31PMLaw enforcement officials state the murder weapon was one of three guns owned by Nancy Lanza: a semiautomatic rifle or two semiautomatic pistols. Josh Kovner and Edmund H. Mahoney, ''Adam Lanza: A 'Quiet, Odd' Loner Living on the Fringes,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012.
  11:31PMInvestigators believe Adam Lanza's behavior was consistent with Asperger's syndrome, a disorder within ''the autism spectrum '... marked by difficulty with social interaction. Many with Asperger's are otherwise high-functioning people. There is no pre-disposition toward violence, experts said.'' Josh Kovner and Edmund H. Mahoney, ''Adam Lanza: A 'Quiet, Odd' Loner Living on the Fringes,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012.
  11:44PMLaw enforcement authorities provide press with detailed information on event which becomes bedrock ''official'' storyline that Adam Lanza murdered 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. After shooting his mother twice in the head while she lie in bed Lanza proceeded to Sandy Hook Elementary where he ''fired a half-dozen thunderous rounds from a semiautomatic rifle to open a hole big enough to step through in one of the school's glass doors.'' He entered the school and shot Principal Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Scherlach who after hearing the ''sounds of gunfire and shattering glass, bolted into a corridor from a conference room across the hall from the classrooms '... The first classroom Lanza reached was teacher Kaitlin Roig's. Alarmed by the gunfire, Roig hid her students in a bathroom and closed her classroom door. Lanza passed by Roig's classroom in lieu of substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau's, shooting all 14 children who investigators believe were huddled and clutching one another in fear, in addition to Rousseau and a special education teacher who happened to be in the room. Lanza next arrived at teacher Victoria Soto's classroom, who is believed to have hidden her 6- and 7-year old students in a closet. When Lanza demanded to know where the children were, Soto tried to divert him to the other end of the school by saying that her students were in the auditorium. As six of Soto's students attempted to flee Lanza shot them, Soto and another teacher in the room. Searching for survivors police found the remaining seven of Soto's students still hiding in the closet. They told the police what had happened. The two teacher's aides who were killed were Mary Anne Murphy and Rachel Davino. It was unclear which aide was in which room when they were killed. The first officer arriving at the school found Lanza's body near the door of Soto's classroom. The intense violence lasted about 10 minutes. Lanza fired at least three, 30-round magazines with deadly accuracy. Two of the people he shot survived. All of the victims were shot multiple times. 'I did seven (autopsies) myself with three to 11 wounds apiece,' Chief State Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver III said Saturday. 'Only two were shot at close range. I believe everybody was hit (by bullets) more than once.''' Edward H. Mahoney and Dave Altimari, ''A Methodical Massacre, Horror and Heroics,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012.
  6:44AM''We too are asking why. We have cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so. Like so many of you, we are saddened, but struggling to make sense of what has transpired.'''--Adam Lanza's father Peter Lanza said in a statement. Jonathan Dienst, ''Conn. Shooting Suspect Adam Lanza's Father: 'We Too Are Asking Why,''' NBC News, December 16, 2012.
  10:30AMOn CBS's Face the Nation Bob Orr remarked that at least two computers at the Lanza residence were ''smashed to smithereens.'' CBS correspondent and former FBI agent John Miller noted ''that subpoenas have been issued for all of the shooter's email accounts and his mother's accounts, including all of the 'sent' mail and 'received' mail over a long period of time. Miller said that Lanza's mother, Nancy, had battled with the school system and eventually took her son out of the schools and home-schooled him.'' Christopher Keating, ''Newtown Update: CBS Says Two Computers 'Smashed to Smithereens' In Lanza Home in Newtown; Subpoenas for All Emails of Mother and Shooter,'' Capitol Watch, Courantblogs, December 16, 2012, n.t. [Such programs are typically taped the preceding Friday afternoon.-JT]
  12:12PMConnecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance states Adam Lanza possessed ''an extraordinary amount of weaponry '... In addition to an assault-style rifle and at least two handguns, he also had a shotgun in reserve in the car he drove to the school.'' Lance claims that when Lanza's body was found he ''still had 'hundreds of rounds' of ammunition in multiple magazines, after having already fired hundreds of rounds inside the school.'' M. Alex Johnson, ''Very Heavily Armed Gunman Shot Mother Multiple Times Before Killing 26 at Connecticut School, Police Say,'' NBC News, December 16, 2012.
  12:12PMDetails emerge on Adam Lanza enrolling at Western Connecticut State University in 2008 at age 16. Lanza successfully completed six courses ''including website production, data modeling, Philosophy 101 and ethical theory '-- and compiled a solid 3.26 grade-point average.'' University officials claim Lanza presented no disciplinary concerns. M. Alex Johnson, ''Very Heavily Armed Gunman Shot Mother Multiple Times Before Killing 26 at Connecticut School, Police Say,'' NBC News, December 16, 2012.
  [Afternoon]President Obama travels to Newtown to address grieving community and repeatedly allude to gun control legislation in an 18 minute speech. ''We're not doing enough. And we will have to change. Since I've been president, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by mass shootings, [the] fourth time we've hugged survivors, the fourth time we've consoled the families of victims '... Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?'' Daniela Altimari, ''We Must Change, President Tells Nation,'' Hartford Courant, December 16, 2012, 11:16PM EST.
  4:52PMAlex Israel was in the same class at Newtown High School with Adam Lanza, who lived a few houses down from her. ''You could definitely tell he was a genius,'' Israel says. ''He was really quiet, he kept to himself.'' Lanza's former bus driver regarded Lanza as '''a nice kid, very polite' like his brother.'' Another former classmate remarked that Lanza ''was just a kid'' '-- not a troublemaker, not antisocial, not suggesting in any way that he could erupt like this.'' Michael Martinez and David Ariosto, ''Adam Lanza's Family: Mom Liked Parlor Games, Guns; Dad, a Tax Exec, Remarried,'' CNN.com, December 16, 2012.
  8:06PMConnecticut State Police Lieutenant J. Paul Vance tells the Huffington Post that Adam Lanza specifically used the Bushmaster .223 rifle to carry out all of the Sandy Hook murders. ''Adam Lanza used a semiautomatic Bushmaster .223 rifle during his rampage through Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday,'' the Huffington Post reports, ''firing dozens of high-velocity rounds as he killed 20 children and six adults '... Lanza, 20, carried 'many high-capacity clips' for the lightweight military-style rifle, Lt. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police, told The Huffington Post in an email. Two handguns and a shotgun were also recovered at the scene. John Rudolf and Janet Ross, ''School Shooter Adam Lanza Used Military-Style Bushmaster Rifle,'' Huffington Post, December 16, 2012.
  8:06PMSenator Dianne Feinstein announces that she intends to introduce legislation reauthorizing a federal assault weapons ban originally passed in the early 1990s during the Clinton administration that was allowed to lapse in 2004. John Rudolf and Janet Ross, ''School Shooter Adam Lanza Used Military-Style Bushmaster Rifle,'' Huffington Post, December 16, 2012.
  Health science and investigative writer Mike Adams observes that much like the Tucson Arizona, Aurora Colorado, and Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings, mass media are scrubbing their coverage and doctoring the storyline to obscure the fact that there were additional suspects and probable shooters at the crime scene. Mike Adams, ''Newtown School Shttp://memorygapdotorg.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1504&action=edithooting Already Being Changed by the Media to Eliminate Eyewitness Reports of a Second Shooter,'' Natural News, December 16, 2012, n.t.
  11:32AMConnecticut State Police announce they have taken over all crimes scenes connected to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for an indefinite time as their investigation proceeds. ''[We have] seized the crime scenes under search warrant [and are] holding on to them indefinitely,'' Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance told reporters at a morning press conference. David Lohr, ''Sandy Hook Crime Scene: Police 'Indefinitely' Seize All Sites Connected to Shooting,'' Huffington Post, December 17, 2012.
  12:51PMDivorce records reveal the parents of Adam Lanza had joint custody of their son and that Lanza's father paid yearly alimony totaling $240,000 in 2010, $265,000 in 2011 and $289,800 in 2012. Nancy and Peter Lanza's divorce cited irreconcilable and was made final in September 2009. The divorce decree designated Adam Lanza's primary residence with his mother in the Yogananda Street address which Peter Lanza quitclaimed to Nancy. Peter was designated as solely responsible for the cost of college for Adam and brother Ryan and for buying Adam a car. Nancy Lanza seldom discussed domestic affairs with friends. She was otherwise regarded as very open and generous. Allaine Griffith, ''After Divorce, Lanzas Had Joint Custody of Adam,'' Hartford Courant, December 17, 2012.
  12:51PMA spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is uncertain whether Nancy Lanza brought her son to the range or whether he ever fired a weapon there. Allaine Griffith, ''After Divorce, Lanzas Had Joint Custody of Adam,'' Hartford Courant, December 17, 2012.
  1:09PMSandy Hook Elementary nurse Sally Cox tells ABC of her encounter with gunman on the morning of December 14 as she crouched underneath her desk. ''I could see him from the knees down, 20 feet away, his boots were facing my desk,'' Cox said in an interview on Good Morning America. ''It was seconds'... and then he turned and walked out and I heard the door close.'' The 60-year-old staff member then heard ''loud popping noises'' outside the infirmary. Cox was joined by a school secretary and together they dialed 911 before hiding in a supply closet. Lauren Effron, ''Sandy Hook School Nurse Hid From Shooter, 'His Boots Were Facing My Desk,''' ABC News, December 17, 2012.
  1:15PMFunerals for massacre victims begin in Newtown, with first being for 6 year old Sandy Hook first-grader Jack Pinto. ''There are many ways to measure what was lost Friday morning at Sandy Hook,'' the Washington Post observes, ''a school shooting that has spurred a national debate about public safety and a speech by the president. But no accounting of the damage was as searing as the one that began Monday, when parents stepped behind lecterns and spoke about the children they would miss.'' Eli Saslow and Steve Vogel, ''Funerals for Newtown Massacre Victims Begin,'' Washington Post, December 17, 2012.
  1:26PMTwo witnesses in Sandy Hook school shooting are unidentified adults. ''There are two adults that were injured in the facility'--in the school'--and suffered gunshot wounds and are recovering,'' Connecticut State Police Lieutenant J. Paul Vance stated. ''Our investigators will in fact speak with them when it's medically appropriate, and certainly they will shed a great deal of light on the facts and circumstances of this tragic investigation that we're undertaking.'' [Vance's emphasis] ''Key Witnesses in Connecticut School Shooting are Survivors,'' Hartford Courant, December 17, 2012.
  6:39PMNew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveils ''Demand a Plan'' campaign, sponsored by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns bipartisan coalition that requests Congress and President Obama move immediately on gun control measures. Bloomberg calls Washington's inability to act a ''stain on our nation's commitment to protect our children.'' Carlo Delaverson, ''NYC Mayor Launches Campaign Against Gun Violence,'' NBC News, December 17, 2012.
  6:00PMInfowars reporter Rob Dew utilizes overlooked excerpts from CBS and Associated Press coverage of the massacre to explain how there were additional shooter suspects apprehended by law enforcement on the morning of December 14 that have been left unaccounted for and since dropped from public view. Rob Dew, ''Sandy Hook 2nd Shooter Coverup,'' Infowars Nightly News, December 18, 2012.
  1:07PMConnecticut Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver II says he will work with a University of Connecticut geneticist to determine what prompted Adam Lanza to act. ''I'm exploring with the department of genetics what might be possible, if anything is possible [sic],'' Carver says. ''Is there any identifiable disease associated with this behavior?'' David Owens, ''Obama Calls for New Proposals for Gun Control in Wake of Newtown Massacre,'' Hartford Courant, December 19, 2012.
  11:16PMHundreds attend wake of Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, US Senator Richard Blumenthal and US Senator-elect Chris Murphy. Matthew Kauffman, ''Communities Say Farewell to Four More Victims of Newtown Shootings,'' Hartford Courant, December 19, 2012.
  1:42PMUS Attorney General Eric Holder makes unannounced visit to Newtown to meet with Sandy Hook first responders following a meeting in Washington with Vice President Joe Biden, presumably to discuss forthcoming gun control legislation. ''Holder to Meet with First Responders in Newtown,'' Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press/Hartford Courant, December 20, 2012.
  n.t.Further analysis by alternative news media points to additional Sandy Hook shooting suspects overlooked by corporate media. Niall Bradley, ''Sandy Hook Massacre: Official Story Spins Out of Control,'' Veterans Today, December 20, 2012; James F. Tracy, ''The Newtown School Tragedy: More Than One Gunman?'' Global Research, December 20, 2012.
  7:20PMWitness to shooting Becky Virgalla interviewed by Connecticut news media. [Video of interview at Hartford Courant website has since been taken down.] ''Witness to the Sandy Hook Massacre,'' Hartford Courant, December 26, 2012.
  Attorney Irv Pinsky asks State of Connecticut Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr. for permission to file $100 million dollar lawsuit on behalf of unnamed 6-year-old Sandy Hook student for negligence and trauma suffered after hearing screaming, cursing, and gunfire over school's intercom system. As a result, the ''child has sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet to be determined,'' the proposed claim asserts. Pinsky's claim also alleges ''that the state Board of Education, Department of Education and Education Commissioner had failed to take appropriate steps to protect children from 'foreseeable harm.''' Mary Ellen Godin, ''Claim Seeks $100 Million for Child Survivor of Connecticut School Shooting,'' Reuters, December 28, 2012.
  Adam Lanza's body reportedly turned over by Connecticut Medical Examiner to father Peter Lanza ''sometime last week.'' ''Father Claims Adam Lanza's Body,'' Hartford Courant, December 31, 2012, 3:38PM.
  3:12PMConnecticut Attorney General says $100 million claim against state on behalf of 6 year old Sandy Hook student is ''misguided,'' and maintains that ''a public policy response by the U.S. Congress and the Connecticut state legislature would be 'more appropriate' than legal action.'' Edith Honan, ''Connecticut Attorney General Says Newtown Legal Claim Misguided,'' Reuters/Hartford Courant, December 31, 2012.
  2013
  11:49AMState Attorney General George Jepsen says lawsuit brought against state lacks a ''valid basis.'' According to a report Jepsen said ''the claims commissioner's office was not the appropriate venue for a discussion about the shooting.'' Amanda Falcone, Request to Sue State for Newtown Shooting Has No Basis, Attorney General Says,'' Hartford Courant, January 1, 2013.
  2:29PMNew Haven attorney Irving Pinsky withdraws claim on behalf of traumatized Sandy Hook student after receiving new evidence. ''If the state were liable in this instance, where would the state's liability ever end?'' State Attorney General George Jepsen said. Brian Dowling and Hilda Munoz, ''Attorney Withdrawing Request to Sue State in Sandy Hook Shootings,'' Hartford Courant, January 1, 2013.
  9:10PMJean Henry, a processing technician for the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is placed on a paid leave pending an investigation of an incident on December 16 where she permitted her husband, an unauthorized employee, to view the body of alleged mass killer Adam Lanza. Jon Lender and Dave Altimari, ''State Worker Placed on Leave After Showing Husband Adam Lanza's Body,'' Hartford Courant, January 2, 2013.
  [Morning]Sandy Hook students return to classes 7 miles south of Newtown at Chalk Hill School in Monroe Connecticut. The school was closed about two years ago and recently cleaned and painted to accommodate students. Amanda Falcone, ''Sandy Hook Students Back in Class,'' Hartford Courant, 5:18PM EST, January 3, 2013.
  6:18PMConnecticut State Attorney's Office and State Police refuse to give timeline for Sandy Hook shooting investigation. ''It cannot be stated too often how invaluable and necessary the work of the United States Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other federal agencies was and is to this investigation,'' State Attorney General Stephen J. Sedensky III said. Christine Dempsey, ''No Timeline for Newtown Shooting Probe,'' Hartford Courant, January 3, 2013.
  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg meets privately in his office with former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was almost fatally shot at a constituent meeting in Tucson in January 2011. The sit-down was not listed on Bloomberg's public schedule and a Bloomberg aide refused to state what was discussed. Holly Bailey, ''Bloomberg Meets with Gabrielle Giffords on Gun Control,'' Yahoo News, January 3, 2013, n.t.
  3:40AMFormer Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords visits Newtown families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook shooting. John Christoffersen, ''Wounded ex-Rep Giffords Meets with Conn. Families,'' Associated Press/Yahoo News, January 5.
  6:27PMPolice say Adam Lanza used a pair of earplugs during his alleged December 14 shooting spree. Investigators surmise Lanza may have developed the habit while frequenting gun ranges ''or to muffle children's screams during his shooting rampage.'' '''It's just weird [that he popped in earplugs] given what he was about to go do,' a source said. 'It's not like he had to worry about long-term protection of his hearing because he had to know he wasn't coming back out of the building.' Police say Lanza was wearing an olive green utility vest packed with 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster .223 rifle. Lanza left a 20 round capacity shotgun in the trunk of the car he drove to the school. Authorities say each gun was ''registered to his mother, Nancy Lanza, and appear to have been bought legally between 2010 and 2012 '... Police also found bullets outside the school in the parking lot, including some in at least three cars belonging to school personnel, including Rousseau's car.'' David Altimarti and Jon Lender, ''Sandy Hook Shooter Adam Lanza Wore Earplugs,'' Hartford Courant, January 6, 2013.
  To be continued.
  Republished at Global Research on January 7, 2013.
Pebble smartwatch set to ship
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Technology
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:06
  9 January 2013Last updated at12:17 ETA hotly-anticipated smartwatch, which was created thanks to $15m (£10m) in crowdsourced funding, is to be made available this month.
  The Pebble has an e-ink display similar to those found on e-readers, and last seven days on one battery charge.
  The 1.26in (3,2cm) screen is able to display a multitude of apps as well as tell the time.
  Pebble is to date the most successful Kickstarter project, but had been hit by development delays.
  Cash pledgesOriginally intended to ship to backers in Autumn 2012, the watch will now go first to those who contributed to its funding, before then being shipped to those who have placed pre-orders. On the Pebble website, the watch costs £110 ($149).
  The first watches will begin shipping on 23 January.
  It will be mass-produced at a rate of 15,000 units each week, project founder Eric Migicovsky told reporters at CES. It would be generally available in about 6-8 weeks, he said.
  Third-party developers will be able to create apps for the watch which can pair up with smartphones running Google's Android software or Apple's iOS.
  At the press event Mr Migicovsky demonstrated how the watch can be used to wirelessly control functions on a smartphone - such as playing music while a device is in a docking station.
  Wearers can also receive text messages and emails through the device, as well as manage incoming calls.
  Pebble weighs 38.2g (1.3oz) and its black and white screen has a resolution of 144 x 168 pixels.
  Pebble's makers have paired with notification service If This Then That (IFTTT), a site which allows users to set up custom actions such as receiving a notification when weather changes, or when a news website is updated.
  Mr Migicovsky said that the watch depletes a smartphone's battery by around 5-10% per day. To charge the Pebble itself, a cable must be attached.
  Thomas Stuermer, from Accenture, said he believed this could be a problem.
  "The problem is that at the moment the more features you put on there the more they consume power," he said.
  "Contactless power chargers are starting to take off - but they still involve putting devices down on pads. Until wireless power becomes a bit more contactless it probably still won't work well on the watch platform."
  Smartwatches have been common place in technology for some time, although to date the market is largely dominated by sports brands such as Nike and Adidas whose products offer fitness statistics, route tracking and pacing data.
  The project to develop Pebble debuted on Kickstarter in April 2012 seeking $100,000 (£62,000) to complete development of the device.
  By the end of its 38 day funding drive it had raised more than $10m and had almost 70,000 backers. More funds were raised via its website as people put down cash to reserve one of the first devices.
CURRENT TV Staffers Lash Out At Green Energy Hypocrite Al Gore
  Link to Article
  Source: The Daily Bail
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:05
  Douchebag hypocrisy is best served hot.
  ---
  Current TV Staffers Speak Out On Clean Energy Hero Al Gore
  NY Post
  Just call him Al Gorezeera.
  Yesterday morning, the still shell shocked staff at Current TV was called to an all hands staff meeting at its San Francisco headquarters, which was teleconferenced to their offices in LA and NYC, to meet their new bosses. Ominously missing was the creator of Current, the self proclaimed inventor of the Internet and savior of clean energy, Al Gore, although his partner, Joel Hyatt, stood proudly with the Al Jazeera honchos.
  ''Of course Al didn't show up,'' said one high placed Current staffer. "He has no credibility."
  ''He's supposed to be the face of clean energy and just sold the channel to very big oil, the emir of Qatar! Current never even took big oil advertising'--and Al Gore, that bullshitter sells to the emir?''
  One person at the meeting, who has already announced that she's leaving, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, tried to ask about severance packages for those who wouldn't be staying.
  ''This isn't the place to discuss this!'' Hyatt barked at her.
  ''After that, everyone kept their questions pretty much to themselves,'' according to the staff member.
  The displeasure with Gore among the staff was thick enough to cut with a scimitar.
  ''We all know now that Al Gore is nothing but a bullshitter,'' said the staffer bluntly. "We do stories on the tax code, and he sells the network before the tax code kicked in?"
  ''Al was always lecturing us about green. He kept his word about green all right'--as in cold, hard cash!''
  Continue reading...
  ---
  More on Current TV's sale to Al Jazeera
  Gore Pockets $100 Million on Current TV Sale...
  Green Gore sells to one of world's biggest oil exporters!
  NYT: Gore tried to complete deal by Dec. 31 'lest it be subject to higher tax rates'
  Time Warner Cable Immediately DROPS Current TV Upon Sale To Al Jazeera
Asia Times Online :: How America made its children crazy
  Link to Article
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:58
  SPENGLERHow America made its children crazyBy SpenglerNow we know that computers don't help children learn and that drugs don't help them concentrate, because the establishment mandarins who sold us the computers and drugs have conceded failure. In the January 29 New York Times, [1] a prominent professor of child development shows that attention-deficit-disorder drugs only harm the three million children who take them. One out of 10 American children have been diagnosed with so-called Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and most of them have been medicated. [2]
  Some months ago, the Times reported that test scores lagged in school districts that invested massively in digital education. [3] It does not seem to have occurred to the mandarins that computers cause attention deficit disorder. The brain is a machine, in the enlightened secular model, and so-called brain science teaches
  us to tweak its functioning with pharmaceuticals, or stimulate its development through digital approximations of intelligence. The grand result of a generation's worth of brain-science application is a generation of schoolchildren who are disproportionately illiterate, innumerate, anxious, angry, and unhappy.
  Professor L Alan Sroufe's debunking of ADD medication in the New York Times contains this admission:
  ''Back in the 1960s I, like most psychologists, believed that children with difficulty concentrating were suffering from a brain problem of genetic or otherwise inborn origin. Just as Type I diabetics need insulin to correct problems with their inborn biochemistry, these children were believed to require attention-deficit drugs to correct theirs. It turns out, however, that there is little to no evidence to support this theory.''
  That is an astonishing statement: in the mainstream view of the academic psychologists, the brain is another pancreas, except that its function is to secrete thoughts as opposed to insulin. That is to say that the psychologists have a pancreas where their brains should have been.One really wants to light a torch and march on Frankenstein's castle, also known as the psychology profession. Until the passage of the 2005 Individuals with Disabilities Act, schools had the power to force children to take ADD drug, namely amphetamines, or bar them from classrooms, even when parents objected to the medication. I don't know how many children were harmed by the sorcerer's apprentices in school psychology offices, but the new research might provide grounds for some exemplary lawsuits. It turns out that the mainstream was dominated by cultists and loonies. The religious day schools, the home-schoolers, alternative schools like the Waldorf movement turn out to have been islands of sanity in a sea of delusion.
  The psychologists of the 1960s also advocated instant gratification in all aspects of life, particularly sex, with the silly presumption that all individual and social problems were to be blamed on suppressing our urge to be gratified. Once children had limitless opportunities for gratification, abetted by ever-more-realistic (and ever-more violent and perverse) computer simulations, the psychology profession observed that attention spans shortened drastically, and presumed that a genetic deficiency was to blame. It sounds like bad science fiction, but it is standard operating procedure in every public school in the United States.
  Learning how to learn is the point of education. We will forget the great majority of specific things we were taught: Euclidean proofs, the polynomial theorem, Roman emperors, French grammar, atomic weights, the poems of Browning, and whatever else was stuffed in our heads as schoolchildren. What we learned, if we learned anything, is to memorize, analyze and explain. If we know geometry, algebra or French today, it is not because we retained our knowledge but because we re-learned the subject. School, in short, taught us to concentrate. The most successful people are not the cleverest in terms of sheer processing power, but those who multiply cleverness with persistence.
  The psychology profession, by contrast, thinks that the brain is a machine, and the best way to engage it is to use another machine, namely a computer. Computers, to be sure, do not kill brains; people kill brains with computers. Computers in the hands of people who believe that gratification is the highest human goal, and the quicker the gratification, the better, have devastated our mental landscape. Our children do not read; they only surf. They do not write; they only text. They do not plan and strategize in games; they react to visual and aural stimuli while inflicting simulated mayhem. They do not follow a plot: they cut among disjoined images in the style of rap videos. And when they fail to concentrate, we give them Adderall and Ritalin.
  It is mouth-foaming, howling-at-the-moon madness, and it is our mainstream culture. The wired classroom hasn't worked, so the educational establishment recommends more of the same quack cure. The New York Times reported last September that computerized education has produced no measurable results, except for some negative ones (test scores fell after massive investment in computers). Yet the education gurus remain undeterred. ''The data is pretty weak. It's very difficult when we're pressed to come up with convincing data, ''Tom Vander Ark, the former executive director for education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told the Times. Reporter Matt Richtel wrote: ''And yet, in virtually the same breath, he said change of a historic magnitude is inevitably coming to classrooms this decade: 'It's one of the three or four biggest things happening in the world today.'''
  The obsession with digital classrooms goes back to president Bill Clinton, who called for more computers in the schools in 1997. After 15 years of failure, the Barack Obama administration's National Education Technology Plan ''calls for applying the advanced technologies used in our daily personal and professional lives to our entire education system to improve student learning.'' [4]
  The American elite, to be sure, does not subject its own offspring to this kind of digital treatment. New York City's most exclusive private schools, the ones with an acceptance rate lower than Ivy League colleges, do things the old fashioned way. Brearley School, sometimes considered the best of the private schools for girls, requires every student to learn an instrument and play in the orchestra (the only other New York school with this requirement is the Rudolf Steiner School). The Dalton School teaches chess to every student. Acoustic instruments, classical music, and ancient games with wooden pieces teach concentration span.
  In Silicon Valley, Times reporter Matt Richtel observed in an October 22 feature, many of the Silicon Valley types who make weapons of mass dementia send their own kids to a school that bans computers until the 9th grade:
  The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. But the school's chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home. Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don't mix. [5]
  That is the local Waldorf school, part of an education movement founded by the German mathematician and mystic Rudolf Steiner. Some of Steiner's ideas were strange, but his educational method - learning by doing - is robust. At the New York Steiner School my children attended, for example, 8th-graders learned the Renaissance by making copies of 16th-century scientific instruments, singing four-part Renaissance vocal works, and staging a play about the 17th-century physicist Johannes Kepler. The 9th-graders studied Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" by staging the complete play, rotating the cast so that every child memorized a couple of hundred lines. Waldorf schools require parents to promise to forbid television to their children in any form through elementary school.At a showcase classroom in Arizona's most wired school district, Matt Richtel reported,
  A seventh-grade English teacher roams among 31 students sitting at their desks or in clumps on the floor. They're studying Shakespeare's As You Like It - but not in any traditional way. In this technology-centric classroom, students are bent over laptops, some blogging or building Facebook pages from the perspective of Shakespeare's characters. One student compiles a song list from the Internet, picking a tune by the rapper Kanye West to express the emotions of Shakespeare's lovelorn Silvius. [6]
  Somehow, I don't think that's what Shakespeare meant by "as you like it." Web access in this case is simply a pretext to help seventh-graders to reduce Shakespeare to their own level, rather than allow Shakespeare to lift children up to his.The Waldorf movement diverges radically from the mainstream. It tends to recruit crunchy-granola rebels against urban civilization who love acoustical instruments and handicrafts, as well as philosophy graduates of major universities with a deep interest in metaphysics. Some of the classical curriculum of the German Gymnasium of a century ago is preserved as if in amber. And the fact that so many of the Masters of the Universe of the digital age send their children to this countercultural throwback is a fair gauge of the degradation of mainstream learning.
  Adderall and Ritalin, by the way, can't be found in any Chinese pharmacy (although expatriates can find small amounts of Ritalin at a couple of locations in Shanghai). It appears that Chinese children, who must memorize several thousand characters in order to complete elementary education, do not suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder. Two-thirds of Chinese children graduate secondary school, which involves a grueling exercise in memorization. As I reported earlier in this space, 50 million Chinese children are studying Western classical music (see China's six-to-one advantage over the US, Asia Times Online, Dec 2, 2008). That's the same number of children aged 5 to 17 in America. Nothing builds attention span better than playing classical music. Granted that much of China's educational system teaches rote memorization, and that the majority of Chinese may not receive top-quality schooling, it is still the case that the absolute number of Chinese kids mastering high-level skills is a multiple of the American number.
  America is the greatest country in the world, a unique and blessed land, while China remains under the rule of an authoritarian regime that alternates between benign and brutal. But we Americans have consigned our children to the purveyors of an alien ideology - the absurd doctrine that the brain is a machine - with consequences so devastating that the liberal establishment itself no longer can defend its core policies of the past half century. Worst of all, we have papered over our spiritual deficit by doping millions of our kids with amphetamines.
  If China replaces us at the pre-eminent world power, it will happen because their children are smarter, more persevering, more ambitious and tougher than ours. And we will have no-one to blame but ourselves for handing our kids over to quacks and snake-oil salesmen.
  Notes: 1. Ritalin Gone Wrong, New York Times, Jan 29, 2012.2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.3. In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores, New York Times, Sep 3, 2011.4. Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology, US Department of Education.5. A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute, New York Times, Oct 22, 2011.6. In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores, New York Times, Sep 3, 2011.
  Spengler is channeled by David P Goldman, president of Macrostrategy LLC. His book How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is Dying, Too) was published by Regnery Press in September 2011. A volume of his essays on culture, religion and economics, It's Not the End of the World - It's Just the End of You, also appeared recently, from Van Praag Press.
  (Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Broyles: What you need to know ahead of Austin's single-use... | www.austin360.com
  Link to Article
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:20
  Are your reusable bags ready?
  For almost a year, you've been hearing about the city's ordinance that will ban single-use plastic bags, but with the rules going into effect in less than two months, it's time to start looking at how the ban will '-- or won't '-- change how you shop.
  First, a reminder: The ordinance isn't an outright ban on plastic bags.
  ''It's not a ban on plastic bags; it's just regulating the types of bags that the stores can provide,'' says Lauren Hammond, a spokeswoman for Austin Resource Recovery, the city's waste management department. ''Businesses still have options as to what they can provide, but they just have to meet the requirements.''
  Yes, you read that right: Austin hasn't passed a ban on all plastic bags, just the single-use ones. In addition to reusable paper bags that have handles and are made with recycled content, stores can offer reusable plastic bags with handles that are at least 4 mil thick. (This is an industry term for a plastic bag's thickness. Traditional grocery bags are usually between .65 and .8 mil, and 4 mil is about as thick as a freezer bag.) ''It is the businesses' decision if they want to charge for those bags,'' Hammond says.
  She emphasized that consumers can still bring in whatever type of bag they'd like to the store, including single-use bags.
  City officials have been working on methods to reduce the number of single-use plastic bags going into landfills in some form or another for at least five years, according to Hammond, including a pilot program to pick up plastic bags through curbside collection and a partnership with grocery stores and the Texas Retailers Association to decrease the number of single-use plastic bags used and increase the number of bags brought back to the store to be recycled.
  ''It's a litter issue, it's a quality of life issue, it's an environmental issue,'' she says, citing the city's goal to have zero waste by 2040. ''Getting people to adopt a reusable lifestyle is an important step in zero waste, and reusable shopping is definitely part of that.''
  The reusable plastic bags allowed in the ordinance are four times as thick as most of the single-use bags and cost at least 10 times as much, according to Mark McClure, vice president of operations at International Plastics, a South Carolina bag manufacturer and distributor. ''Truthfully, this ban does little on litter,'' he says. ''Trash doesn't make itself garbage on the side of the road. People are still going to litter.'' He cites plastic bottles as a bigger culprit for filling landfills and said he'd like to see cities provide an incentive '-- instead of additional fees '-- for curbside recycling, including for single-use bags.
  Retailers
  The ordinance takes effect in about six weeks, and retailers are already getting ready for the transition. Many have not announced what they will charge, if at all, for any reusable paper and plastic bags they carry, but if they choose not to charge for the bags, they'll have to pass along the cost for giving them away somewhere else in the store.
  H-E-B, which has 25 stores, including two Central Markets, that will be affected by the ordinance, will continue to charge for all reusable bags, according to H-E-B spokeswoman Leslie Sweet, but the store plans to offer more than a dozen different kinds of bags with all types of pricing, starting at the 4 mil reusable plastic bags allowed in the ordinance. The paper bags currently offered at H-E-Bs in the area do not meet the ordinance's resuability requirements and will not be offered after March 1.
  ''There are so many customers that this affects,'' Sweet says. ''It's a behavioral change that takes time to adjust to.'' The store plans to host consumer education events and bag giveaways around the time of the transition to help shoppers understand how the ordinance will affect their trips to grocery stores.
  Many retailers are rethinking the bagging area and process, too. Sweet says that H-E-B employees will use a pull-out shelf underneath the check-stand to place the bags on, which will make it easier to move products from the collection area at the end of the conveyor belt into the bags. All H-E-B employees will receive additional training on how to answer customers' questions about the new rules and how best to pack the various kinds of allowable bags, Sweet says.
  A spokesperson for Walmart said that though he didn't have any specific information about whether stores would charge for the allowed plastic or paper bags, they intend to comply with the ordinance and offer ''a convenient and low cost option.''
  Hammond says that the city is working with the approximately 17,500 businesses that are estimated to be affected by this ordinance to help them understand what items are exempt, alternative bag options and whether they need to apply for a hardship variance, which would give them a six-month exemption.
  Another change since the City Council passed the ordinance is that restaurants will be allowed to use single-use plastic bags ''where necessary to prevent moisture damage,'' such as with soups and sauces, but they'll have to use recyclable paper bags for other prepared foods.
  Exempt from the ordinance are dry cleaning bags, newspaper bags and bags used by charities to distribute food items, clothing or household goods. Pharmacies can continue to use paper bags for medical items.
  The city hosted a training session in November, which you can watch in its entirety at http://bit.ly/Uu3EPh, and will host another in early February, Hammond says. Although there are some fines the city can assess to retailers for noncompliance, up to a Class C misdemeanor and $2,000, she says they are focusing their efforts right now on outreach and education to businesses.
  Shoppers
  Anthony Deck, who lives in Southeast Austin, bought a handful of reusable bags a while ago and says he was really good at remembering them at first. ''But then I got lazy,'' he said on a chilly day last week leaving the H-E-B on Riverside Drive. He was carrying a single reusable bag filled with purchases that would have filled three or four single-use plastic bags. He said he hates the idea of all those bags going into a landfill and that ahead of the ordinance going into effect, he's trying to get back into the reusable bag habit.
  Jennifer Crawford, who was at the store with her 4-year-old son, recently moved back to Austin from South Korea, where her husband was stationed for the military and where the majority of retailers haven't issued plastic bags since 2010. Crawford hadn't yet heard of Austin's ordinance, but because she'd already lived in a place where customers had gotten used to not using plastic bags, she wasn't worried about making the transition again.
  Austinite Nina Wiggins has been using reusable bags for many years now, and she's so accustomed to bringing them that she rarely forgets. She likes the sturdy wax-coated bags with a flat bottom because she can wipe them clean, and she keeps them folded up in a drawer so she can grab them all at once on her way out the door.
  The cheap reusable bags can be tempting simply because of the cost, usually about $1, but the weaving rips easily and they just don't hold up for heavy duty shopping, she says. (She also has a large insulated reusable bag for ice cream and other frozen items. For other tips on which bags to buy and how to clean them, see the sidebar on page D1.)
  Some stores, such as Whole Foods Market and Sprouts, currently give customers a discount for bringing in reusable bags, and a Whole Foods spokeswoman says the store plans to continue a 10-cent-per-bag discount. Whole Foods pulled single-use plastic bags from its stores in 2008, and it will continue to carry the reusable paper bags found in stores now.
  Bag businesses
  Even with the paper and plastic exceptions, the coming surge of interest in reusable bags is great news to companies such as Blue Avocado, a local business that has been selling washable reusable bags, many of which are made from recycled plastic bottles, on a national scale since 2009.
  Co-founder Paige Davis says that with bag ordinances similar to Austin's going into effect across the country, and a general consumer shift from disposable products to more reusable products, the company is on track to more than triple revenue this year, allowing more impact and more jobs in Austin. This year, the company plans to add a men's line with local designer Ross Bennett.
  But the opportunities aren't limited to bag designers or manufacturers. Reusable bags, both canvas and durable plastic, have always been a popular marketing tool because they are essentially mobile advertisements.
  Many of the bags that the grocery stores such as Whole Foods Market sell have their own logos on them, but other companies are getting in on the action. Happy Hemp owner Tara Miko Grayless, who sells raw and toasted hemp seeds at local farmers' markets and stores, now sells her bulk orders in a reusable bag with her logo on it. The bag is made with hemp fabric, which has a lighter environmental impact than cotton, a crop that is typically grown with high inputs of pesticide.
  Keeping bags clean
  Are you finally starting to remember to bring your bags? Great, but don't forget to clean them, too.
  In 2010, researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University in California tested 84 reusable bags and found that half of them carried some form of coliform bacteria, including E. coli. In that same study, 97 percent of those interviewed said they never wash or bleach their reusable bags.
  And just think: If you never wash your bags and you store them in the trunk of your car, especially during the hot summer months, you're essentially creating an incubator that will encourage bacteria growth.
  Some bags are easier to clean than others. Cloth or canvas bags can be thrown in the washing machine, but many of the reusable bags sold today are coated with plastic and are meant to be wiped clean or are made with a fabric or material that is not machine washable. Last summer, after realizing that I'd never cleaned any of the 30 or so reusable bags I had collected over the years, I set out to give them a good cleaning. I pulled out the canvas bags to machine wash, which wasn't any more difficult than regular laundry, but because I knew that I'd used the other bags to carry everything from whole chickens to clothes I was taking to the thrift store, I wanted to clean them with more than a rag and spray bottle of cleaning liquid.
  In an effort to keep the bathroom floor from getting sopping wet, I ended up filling a kiddie pool in the backyard with water and more antibacterial soap that I probably needed. It was a hassle, to say the least, so much so that since, I've used only canvas bags to carry groceries. (That is, when I've remembered to bring them. I'm as forgetful as anyone, but as the ordinance start date approaches, I'm getting better about grabbing them from the pantry on the way out.)
  Some of the shoppers I talked to for this story preferred other kinds of reusable bags because of their square bottoms, which are easier to pack, or for aesthetic reasons, but for my money (and family's health), if I can't wash the bag in the washing machine, I probably won't use it to carry food.
  To further avoid accidentally poisoning someone in your family, consider using the same reusable bag for meat and fish on every grocery trip and another specifically for fresh produce. If you clearly label the bags and point them out to the person helping bag your groceries at the store, you can help avoid cross-contamination. Wash the meat and produce bags more frequently than the bags that carry the goods that are already packaged.
  Also, take advantage of the so-called product or noncheckout bags '-- the lightweight bags found in the bakery, bulk, produce and meat sections that add an extra layer of food safety protection. These bags are exempt in Austin's bag ordinance, and in recent years, many retailers have added a roll of these bags near the poultry, whose packaging is notoriously leaky.
  Some bags, including those made with nylon or nonwoven polypropylene, can be washed on cold in the washing machine's gentle cycle but, depending on the material, can break down quickly if run through the machine. (Don't put them in the dryer or they'll really fall apart.) You could spray them with an antibacterial spray, such as Lysol, but I'd rather use sturdier bags that I can actually wash to get clean.
  '-- Addie Broyles
  How has the ban worked in Brownsville?
  It has been exactly two years since Brownsville banned single-use plastic bags, and Arturo Rodriguez, the city's director of public health, says you don't have to look very hard for signs that it's working.
  ''From the very beginning, our aim with the ordinance was to clean up the litter being caused by the plastic bags,'' he says. ''We consistently hear that the city looks much cleaner and there's a renewed spirit about wanting to maintain the city as it is now.''
  Rodriguez knew that as the first city in Texas to enact a single-use bag ban (South Padre and Fort Stockton now have similar ordinances), his city would pave the way, but he says he didn't realize how quickly he'd see an impact and with very few complaints from retailers or citizens along the way.
  Rodriguez says that people have gotten used to having to bring their bags, and if they forget them in the car, sometimes they'll just wheel the purchases in the cart to the car and then place them into the bags there.
  Unlike Austin's ordinance, Brownsville requires retailers to charge a $1 fee per transaction for customers who would like their purchases in a single-use bag.
  The money collected from that fee is earmarked for environmental uses, Rodriguez says, and with it the city has purchased street sweepers and hosted cleanup events to further beautify Brownsville. (Merchants who provide nonreusable bags to customers without assessing the fee can incur a $500 fine for violating the ordinance, but Rodriguez says they haven't had to issue any citations.)
  One of retailers' biggest fears is that instead of navigating the new rules, customers will just go outside the city to do their grocery shopping. Rodriguez says that according to sales tax numbers, that hasn't happened in Brownsville. ''We're not getting complaints,'' he says, from retailers or shoppers. ''If you don't believe it works, come down to Brownsville and see for yourself.''
  '-- Addie Broyles
Obama Death Squads Kill Top Gun Activists As New Massacre Fears Rise
  Link to Article
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:00
  World's Largest English Language News Service with Over 500 Articles Updated Daily
  "The News You Need Today'...For The World You'll Live In Tomorrow."
  What You Aren't Being Told About The World You Live In
  IronMountainApocalypse: The True Story Of 2013
  A ''must have'' book for those seeking to understand the true events surrounding the most troubled years of our modern times. (Continued)
  Picking up the Pieces: Practical Guide for Surviving Economic Crashes, Internal Unrest and Military SuppressionBy: Sorcha Faal ''In the span of less than 3 months gasoline prices will rise 500%. The prices of both food and shelter rise over 300%. (Continued)
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  January 9, 2013
  Obama Death Squads Kill Top Gun Activists As New Massacre Fears Rise
  By:Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
  A new Federal Security Forces (FSB) report updating their 4 January ''urgent action'' memorandum to President Putin circulating in the Kremlin, today, states that the ''death squads'' unleashed upon America by President Obama have claimed their first two victims and warns that ''another massacre'' in the United States is ''much nearer than first believed.''
  As we had previously detailed in our 5 January report ''Obama Death Squads Fan Out Across America As Rebellion Looms,'' Obama, emboldened by recent US Federal Court rulings giving him absolute authority to kill anyone he chooses in secret, and for whatever reason he deems necessary, dispatched at least 800 VIPER Teams (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response Teams) throughout America in a bid to assassinate and neutralize any and all opposition to his planned seizure of his citizens guns.
  According to this chilling FSB report, the first two Obama ''death squad'' victims indentified by Russian intelligence sources were gun rights activists John Noveske [photo 2nd left] and Keith Ratliff [photo 3rd left], both of whom were hailed as supporters of the US Constitutions Second Amendment which grants Americans the right to bear arms.
  Western news sources confirming these assassinations report that Noveske was killed after a mysterious single car accident and that Ratliff was killed by a mysterious single gunshot to his head.
  Noveske, this report continues, was the owner of Noveske Rifleworks, one the premier makers of what are called assault-style weapons and equipment in the US and which have been specifically targeted by the Obama regime for confiscation.
  Ratliff, this report says, was a business partner at FPSRussia (FPS-First Person Shooter), YouTube's ninth most popular channel with more than three million active subscribers and a combined half billion views, and sole owner of FPS Industries, which works in customized weaponry and world leader in military technology.
  The Obama regimes reason(s) for assassinating two such high profile weapons manufacturers and gun rights activists, this report notes, is based upon the United States successful reign of terror against top scientists, which between the dates of 2004-2012 have seen 119 of some of the worlds leading researchers mysteriously murdered over US government fears of their reporting the truths of what they've discovered.
  By assassinating Noveske and Ratliff, FSB intelligence analysts in this report say, the Obama regime is sending a ''chilling message'' to all who oppose their plan to totally disarm the American people that they ''will stop at nothing'' to see their master plan implemented.
  Even worse, this report warns, is ''new evidence'' coming from the United States that the Obama regime is planning another ''mass carnage'' type event to occur within the next few weeks to bolster their spurious claim that Americans need to be disarmed.
  Following in the wake of the 14 December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre, top FSB intelligence social psychologists state in this report, the Obama regime will undoubtedly be able to achieve a critical mass of public opinion advocating for new draconian gun laws that will, in essence, make criminals out of millions of otherwise law abiding American citizens.
  Unfortunately for the Obama regime, this report says, and the reason for another ''tragic event'' needing to happen, is that the ''official story'' about the Sandy Hook Massacre, like nearly all such events before it, is beginning to break down in the light of critical scrutiny and analysis.
  One such analysis that has spread widely among American dissident factions was done by Florida Atlantic University professor James Tracy, who in two reports, The Sandy Hook Massacre: Unanswered Questions and Missing Information and Sandy Hook School Massacre Part II: Continued Ambiguity and Augmented Realities clearly shows this tragic event more resembling an intelligence agency/military psychological operation than a lone gunman massacre it is be purported to be.
  To the American people being allowed to know the truth of these events it appears unlikely as the Obama regime has secured for itself the lapdog services of the powerful American mainstream propaganda media establishment which, to date, continues to spread its venomous lies to an unsuspecting public not really knowing, or even caring, about the abyss they are being led to.
  One such example of this was last month when the CIA-backed social media site FACEBOOK suspended an account because they dared to post a quote by the father of Indian independence Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) that said: ''Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.''
  To if the American people will awaken and realize that the trueobjective of the Obama regime is to disarm all of their Jewish citizens (and as we had reported on in our 23 December report All Jews Living In US Ordered To Be Disarmed) like their corporate-banking counterparts did in Nazi Germany it does not seem likely. But, and as history always show'...those who fail to remember the past are doomed to live it once again.
  January 9, 2012 (C) EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.
  [Ed. Note: Western governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagrees with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth. Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their 'agents' against us has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit and which is addressed in the report ''Who Is Sorcha Faal?''.]
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Keith Ratliff: Popular online guns and explosives expert found shot to death on rural Georgia road | Mail Online
  Link to Article
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:59
  Keith Ratliff was found shot to the head but had cache of weapons near himHe ran YouTube channel with three million subscribers and all videos combined have been viewed more than a HALF BILLION times32-year-old man leaves behind a wife and two-year-old sonBy Daily Mail Reporter
  PUBLISHED: 15:54 EST, 8 January 2013 | UPDATED: 06:19 EST, 9 January 2013
  An operator of a highly popular YouTube channel dedicated to high-powered guns and explosives was found mysteriously shot to death, authorities said.
  Keith Ratliff, who was a business partner at FPSRussia, YouTube's ninth most popular channel with more than three million active subscribers and a combined half billion views, was discovered on a rural road in Carnesville, Georgia.
  Ratliff had a single gunshot wound the head and police are treating his death as a homicide.
  Mystery: Gun enthusiast Keith Ratliffe was found shot dead along a rural road
  Armed: Ratliffe had several weapons on him when he died
  When authorities made the grisly discovery on Thursday, they noticed there were several guns near Ratliff, according to a local radio station report.
  'For him not to pull out that gun and try to defend himself, he had to feel comfortable around somebody. Either that or he was ambushed,' said Ratliff's heartbroken widow, Amanda.
  'You know, it just doesn't really add up,' she told a television station.
  'We all want to know and we all want justice to be done,' Amanda says. 'He had way to much to look forward to in his life.'
  Tragedy: Ratliffe had a wife and a two-year-old son
  Amanda said their two-year-old son is having a terrible time adjusting to life without his father.
  'It was really hard. To know that he's going to go the rest of his life without his dad,' Amanda said, as their child, Jayden, clutched a picture of his dad that was taken on Christmas Eve.
  Besides running the YouTube channel, Ratliff was also the owner of FPS Industries, which works in customized weaponry.
  It is located in Carnesville, which is about a 90 minute drive from Atlanta.
  Ratliff, who lived in Frankfort, Kentucky, with his family, wrote on his LinkedIn profile about his company, 'After a life of loving firearms and computers. I have combined both into one great new business that offers both viral marketing and quality firearms from one place.'
  FPS is short-hand for first person shooter amongst video gamers.
  Guns: Ratliffe ran another business where he customized weaponry
Modigliani (2004) - IMDb
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  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:56
  Modigliani (2004) - IMDb
  His passion was life. His obsession was art.
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Tajikistan Parliament Ratifies WTO Agreement
  Link to Article
  Source: RIA Novosti
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:31
  DUSHANBE, January 9 (RIA Novosti) '' The lower house of Tajikistan's parliament ratified an agreement on the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Wednesday, concluding Dushanbe's drive to join the trade body.
  Tajikistan was admitted to the WTO last December, becoming only the second Central Asian nation, after Kyrgyzstan, to do so. In order for the accession agreement to enter into force however, it had to be ratified by Tajikistan's Assembly of Representatives.
  The country's Economic Development and Trade Minister Sharif Rakhimzod said on Wednesday his country's accession ''will certainly facilitate the appearance of Tajik goods in world markets and improve investment attractiveness.''
  Tajikistan first applied for WTO membership in 2001, promising to enact reforms to open up its economy.
  "Foreign investors will be reassured by the applicability of the WTO's familiar and predictable rules-based system and will know that Tajikistan is now 'open for business,'" WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said in a statement last month while welcoming Tajikistan to the trade body.
  The poorest country in the former Soviet Union, Tajikistan's business climate has been mired by allegations of pervasive official corruption and the influence of a bustling drug trade from neighboring war-torn Afghanistan.
Curry: 'Geen lesbische relatie'
  Link to Article
  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:26
  wo 09 jan 2013, 10:45
  van onze redactieAMSTERDAM - Christina Curry en Elle Bandita zouden slechts hele goede vrienden zijn.
  Dat stelt Bianca Otten, de manager van de dochter van Patricia Paay in het AD.
  "Christina en Ryanne van Dorst (zoals Elle eigenlijk heet) hebben elkaar in het klooster leren kennen en zijn sindsdien hartsvriendinnen met meerdere raakvlakken."
  De twee dames zaten afgelopen zaterdag samen in het publiek bij Sterren Dansen op het Ijs, maar hadden daar meer oog voor elkaar dan voor de schaatskunsten van de BN'ers.
  Hoewel Curry en van Dorst daar hevig zoenend op de gevoelige plaat werden vastgelegd, zou van een lesbische relatie geen sprake zijn. ''Ze zijn allebei lekker gek, jong en rebels en gaan samen stappen, winkelen of logeren gezellig bij elkaar."
  De twee 'hartsvriendinnen' leerden tijdens de opnamen van het EO-programma Op zoek naar God kennen.
  (C) 1996-2013 Telegraaf Media Nederland | Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlPrivacy | Cookies | Disclaimer
On February 15, 2013, an asteroid will come close enough to Earth to knock satellites out of orbit
  Link to Article
  Source: Een andere kijk op nieuws » Nieuws items
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:39
  On February 15, 2013, an asteroid will come close enough to Earth to knock satellites out of orbit | @infomagnlGeplaatst @ 9 januari 2013
  Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) 2012 DA14 has its annual flyby of the earth on February 15, 2013. Its projected orbit, according to NASA, will bring it well within the orbits of geosynchronous satellites currently orbiting our planet. NASA has indicated that there is no danger of this asteroid impacting our planet, however they have not ruled out our gravity changing the asteroids orbital pattern. NEA 2012 DA 14 was discovered on February 23, 2012 by the Observatorio Astronmico de Mallorca (OAM), near the Spanish city of La Sagra. According to NASA's Near Earth Object Program, NEO, the asteroid will pass the earth at a distance of 21,000 miles, putting the asteroid's trajectory in between the earth and the satellites orbiting our planet. Geosynchronous satellites orbiting our planet orbit at a distance of roughly 26,200 miles above the earth. Geostationary orbiting objects orbit at a distance of roughly 22,236 miles above the Earth's equator. These objects are considered to be in High Earth Orbit (HEO). Any object in space considered to be in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is approximately 1250 miles above the equator. The term Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) refers to an orbiting object approximately 12,500 miles above the Earth's equator, in between objects in an LEO and a HEO, geosynchronous orbit.With Near Earth Asteroid 2012 DA 14?s flyby falling somewhere in between geosynchronous satellite orbit, and objects orbiting in a Medium Earth Orbit pattern, the potential for this NEO impacting other objects orbiting our planet appears to be almost guaranteed. Could one of these objects be impacted by the asteroid and then be propelled back into our atmosphere? The chance of this happening is low, and NASA has not indicated if this potential happenstance will occur. Asteroid 2012 DA 14 has an estimated diameter of about 45 meters, and a mass of roughly 130,000 metric tons, making it a medium-sized asteroid. If Asteroid DA 14 were to impact the Earth, it would do so with the energy of 2.4 Megatons. Additionally NASA estimates the closest it can get to the earth will be 17,000 miles above the equator. NASA continually tracks these asteroids, through their Near Earth Object Program (NEO) in association with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
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Kim Feenstra in klooster
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  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:29
  wo 09 jan 2013, 09:28
  van onze redactieAMSTERDAM - Kim Feenstra heeft een week in een klooster gezeten. In de Brabantse Sint Paulusabdij heeft het model de dood van haar ex-vriend Joshua verwerkt. Hij kwam in 2008 om het leven bij een steekpartij.
  Kim trok zich terug uit het dagelijks leven voor het EO-programma Op Zoek Naar God. Al snel kwamen er dingen uit het verleden bovendrijven...
  "Ik ben al tweenhalf jaar getrouwd met Michael Mendoza en heb een druk, maar gelukkig leven", vertelt de brunette in het AD. "Waarschijnlijk heb ik daardoor onbewust een stukje rouw niet helemaal verwerkt. Dat is me wel gelukt tijdens die bijzondere momenten van rust in het klooster."
  Kim laat weten dat ze door dit programma is gegroeid en dat haar relatie daardoor ook een stuk beter is geworden.
  Ook Lieke van Lexmond, Christina Curry, Sanne Vogel en Elle Bandita zijn voor de EO het klooster ingegaan.
  (C) 1996-2013 Telegraaf Media Nederland | Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlPrivacy | Cookies | Disclaimer
'žIk heb geen klacht gehoord''
  Link to Article
  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:29
  wo 09 jan 2013, 06:00
  door Saskia BellemanAMSTERDAM - 'žAbsolute onzin'', noemt advocaat Bram Moszkowicz de aantijgingen van zijn voormalig clinte Estelle Cruijff aan zijn adres.
  Hij is ervan overtuigd dat het initiatief voor de klacht die Estelle indiende bij de Orde van Advocaten ligt bij haar nieuwe advocaat, Nico Meijering: 'žEen verklaard vijand van mij.'' Volgens Moszkowicz heeft hij Estelle al v""r hun breuk 'žeen gemodereerde rekening'' gestuurd.
  'žDie heeft ze per omgaande en via de bank aan mij betaald. Ik heb geen klacht gehoord.'' Moszkowicz wil niet zeggen hoe hoog de rekening was, 'žwant dan heb ik zo een nieuwe klacht aan mijn broek wegens schending van mijn beroepsgeheim''.
  Na lang aandringen wil hij alleen kwijt dat het 'žeen bedrag tussen de vijf- en de achtduizend euro'' betrof. De ontmoetingen buiten zijn advocatenkantoor vonden plaats op haar verzoek, zegt Moszkowicz. 'žZe wilde niet bij een advocaat gezien worden. Toen heb ik het Amstel Hotel voorgesteld.''
  Lees verder in de Telegraaf.
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Estelle - Muze van Moszkowicz!
  Link to Article
  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:29
  wo 09 jan 2013, 06:00
  AMSTERDAM - Het waren kennelijk dure kopjes koffie die Estelle Cruijff dronk met haar advocaat Bram Moszkowicz! Weliswaar pakte de charmante raadsman na zijn ontmoetingen met haar in het Amstel Hotel met een groots gebaar de rekening van het schoteltje, naderhand kreeg Estelle de fikse nota alsnog gepresenteerd. En niet alleen voor de genoten consumpties in het voorname etablissement!
  Een kleine tienduizend euro diende Estelle maar liefst, volgens haar eigen zeggen, te voldoen aan het beroemde kantoor van de advocaat in de 'gouden bocht' aan de Herengracht. Een kantoor dat, ondanks alle grandeur die het hoekpand uitstraalt, kennelijk niet geschikt was voor de gesprekken met Estelle.
  Want keer op keer stelde Bram voor die te laten plaatshebben in het prestigieuze hotel aan de Amstel. Estelle had deze zomer de hulp van Moszkowicz ingeroepen in de zaak van haar vriend Badr Hari. Die is een van de verdachten in de zaak van de zware mishandeling van reisondernemer Koen Everink in de Amsterdam ArenA, op 9 juli. Sindsdien zit hij, met een kleine en veelbesproken onderbreking in november, in voorarrest. Justitie wilde Estelle als getuige horen, maar na alle verwikkelingen rond haar scheiding en de Badr-zaak werd zij daarvoor medisch ongeschikt verklaard.
  Eind september deelde de rechtbank de mening van een door Bram ingeschakelde psychiater dat zij niet kon getuigen. Pas voor een dag in december kreeg zij een nieuwe oproep.
  Lees verder in De Telegraaf.
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Europa tevreden over hulp aan Ha¯ti - De Standaard
  Link to Article
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:26
  BRUSSEL - Drie jaar na de verwoestende aardbeving heeft de Europese Unie ruim een half miljoen Ha¯tianen een nieuw huis kunnen bieden. Dat stelt de Europese Commissie dinsdag in een persbericht. De aardbeving maakte 1,5 miljoen mensen dakloos. 350.000 van hen moeten het intussen nog steeds stellen met een tijdelijk onderkomen.
  De Commissie maakt een positieve balans van drie jaar hulpverlening aan de slachtoffers van de tragedie. Ze beloofde toen 522 miljoen euro en daarvan is intussen 85 procent toegewezen. Het geld bereikte in totaal vijf miljoen Ha¯tianen, wat overeenstemt met de helft van de bevolking van het straatarme eiland.
  Naast huisvesting besteedde de Commissie ook geld aan de bouw van scholen en wegen, economische activiteit en budgettaire steun voor onderwijs en gezondheidszorg. Ondanks de vooruitgang is de wederopbouw wel fors bemoeilijkt door de politieke instabiliteit in het land, zo merkt de Commissie op.
  Bij de aardbeving op 12 januari 2010 kwamen 250.000 mensen om het leven.
Daily Press Briefing - January 8, 2013
  Link to Article
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:22
  12:43 p.m. EST
  MS. NULAND: All right. Happy Tuesday, everyone. I have nothing at the top, so why don't we let this side of the room start the briefing?
  QUESTION: Can we start with Tunisia perhaps, then Libya, Benghazi? I believe the only suspect who's so far being held for the attack in Benghazi was ordered released overnight by the courts in Tunisia because of a lack of evidence. I wondered whether the State Department is in agreement with this, what your viewpoint was on that.
  MS. NULAND: Well, Jo, we've obviously seen the same press reports that you have seen. I think you know that throughout the FBI's investigation of the Benghazi attacks, we've been referring you to the FBI for any details on this case, and we will do that again today.
  QUESTION: But have you had any submissions to Tunisia about whether you think it's right or wrong or ''
  MS. NULAND: Again, I'm going to send you to the FBI because they have the lead on all of these issues.
  QUESTION: But he wasn't released by the FBI.
  QUESTION: He was released by ''
  QUESTION: I mean, he was released by a foreign government, and you're the agency that deals with foreign governments, right? Or have you ceded that to the FBI?
  MS. NULAND: I'm going to send you to the FBI because they, as you know, are pursuing all of the aspects of this case, and they are also working with all of the foreign governments on the case.
  QUESTION: But it said that it's a restricted release. What is that? Or a monitored release.
  MS. NULAND: Again, I'm going to send you to the FBI for more details on the conversations that they may or may not have had.
  QUESTION: I don't understand. What does that mean? Like, he's under house arrest or you know where he is at all times? Does he have, like, a bracelet on his arm? What's ''
  MS. NULAND: I'm going to send you to the Tunisians, then, on that one if it's some aspect of their law.
  QUESTION: The FBI does not handle international diplomacy, and so I think you're well equipped from this podium to answer the question of whether or not U.S. diplomats have been in touch with Tunisian diplomats regarding this matter.
  MS. NULAND: The FBI has the lead on the Benghazi investigation --
  QUESTION: On the criminal investigation.
  MS. NULAND: -- to the degree, and they are working with governments appropriately. I think you know that they've had a team in Libya. They also have contacts with other governments as necessary, so I'm going to send you to them. I know that's frustrating for you all, but they also have a public affairs operation, so I would send you to them. We are not going to be commenting on this case at all from here.
  QUESTION: More generally then, are you in touch with the authorities in Libya about some way forward on this investigation? I mean, not just the criminal side of things, but whether it's going to be deemed to be safe to reopen the U.S. mission in Benghazi again and where they sort of see that going forward?
  MS. NULAND: Well, obviously we are in touch with Libyan officials on all aspects of safety and security of our diplomatic facility, of our own posture there. As you know, for many months, we've been talking to Libya about our willingness to support efforts that they may have on their own '' strengthening their own internal security structures on the police side, on integrating the militias, all those kinds of things. They have not yet availed themselves of some of these offers that we have made. We have not had any discussions or any internal deliberations about reopening Benghazi.
  QUESTION: Have you called in the Tunisian Ambassador to Washington to the State Department?
  MS. NULAND: To my knowledge, no. This is '' as I said, the FBI has the lead on this.
  QUESTION: Would the United States request, in this case from the government concerned, that he not be allowed to travel?
  MS. NULAND: Again, Said ''
  QUESTION: Or any agency?
  MS. NULAND: -- with regard to any aspect of this case, I'm going to send you to the FBI.
  Jill.
  QUESTION: Toria, did I hear correctly? You said there are no deliberations about reopening the mission in Benghazi?
  MS. NULAND: Not at this stage. Not now.
  QUESTION: Okay. So in other words, that's '' but all that will be there will be the Embassy and no facility whatsoever in Benghazi?
  MS. NULAND: We are operating from our Embassy in Tripoli. Officers serving in Tripoli obviously can travel around Libya as appropriate. But we do not have any discussions underway at the moment about reopening a presence in Benghazi, a permanent presence in Benghazi.
  QUESTION: What's the feeling in the State Department about the progress in this case? I mean, obviously Ambassador Stevens was one of your own. It's been four months now and counting since the attack. There's nobody who's been charged in this case. There were promises made from the President '' to the Secretary that people would be held accountable and justice would be served and would be seen to be served by the American people. It must be incredibly frustrating from the point of view of the Department not to have progressed any further.
  MS. NULAND: The President has committed that we will see justice in this case. We have confidence that we will see justice in this case. But he FBI has the lead. They have to do this right. It is their business, and we support them in that business. I'm going to send you to them on the status of the case.
  Please.
  QUESTION: Question. On the public schedule today, I believe it said the U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia was in the building. Is that issue of Ali Harzi, of the 26 year-old jailed person linked to the Benghazi attack, is that in any way coming up in those conversations at State today with the U.S. Ambassador?
  MS. NULAND: Ambassador Walles is home for consultations this week. He's seeing a variety of people here in the building, and he's also seeing folks interagency, as our ambassadors always do when they come home. He will discuss the full range of issues that he is engaged with the Tunisian Government on, but I'm obviously not going to get into the details of American discussions with Americans.
  QUESTION: But would he ''
  QUESTION: Do you expect he'll meet with the FBI?
  MS. NULAND: I don't know the answer to that. I'm sure if they need to see him, they have an opportunity to do that either here or there.
  QUESTION: But would it be on the table or in the portfolio at all for him to discuss this matter? Or is he allowed to touch this part of the FBI investigation?
  MS. NULAND: What do you mean ''allowed?'' I mean, obviously, the point ''
  QUESTION: Well, when '' you're saying it's a matter for the FBI.
  MS. NULAND: My point is that the FBI is on '' is in the lead on the investigation. They will do any public speaking to this investigation, but obviously, our ambassadors in the field who need to be involved are involved, and there's nothing that would preclude that from being the case. We're just not going to speak about this case publicly from here.
  QUESTION: And Toria, just to make sure, then, he's on, in effect, kind of home leave when ambassadors come back to the mother ship here. He's not here specifically for the Benghazi investigation, et cetera; is that correct?
  MS. NULAND: My understanding is he had some holiday leave here in the States, and before going back to Tunis is doing some consultations, as a number of our ambassadors are.
  QUESTION: Change of subject?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah, please.
  QUESTION: I'd like to talk about the U.S.-Afghan relationship in advance of the upcoming meeting with the President of Afghanistan. I guess most broadly, just to start off, what do we expect to be on the table in these meetings, these discussions?
  MS. NULAND: James, I believe that the White House has announced that they're doing a background call later today on President Karzai's visit. They're going to take the lead in setting the stage for the visit. So I'm going to allow them to go ahead and do that. But I think you know the full range of issues that we work with President Karzai on, on the security side, on the political side, on the economic side, regional issues. So, all of those will be obviously on the table, but I'm going to let the White House lead.
  QUESTION: Looking backwards then, Hamid Karzai has been in power for over 10 years. Has he acquitted himself well in those 10 years in terms of Afghanistan's progress toward democracy, its economy, its reliance on the poppy trade? What's his legacy been so far?
  MS. NULAND: Well, first to remind that he is the twice-elected President of Afghanistan. I think we have been clear that we believe that Afghanistan has made considerable progress over the last 10 years, and particularly if you compare it to the country that it was on September 11th, 2001. It is now a democratic country with an elected government with human rights for all. Obviously, like all transitioning democracies, there are a huge number of challenges. There are security challenges, there are political challenges, there are economic challenges.
  As you know, the United States is deeply invested with our international partners in supporting and helping Afghanistan as it continues to try to move forward on all of those fronts, and that's what this visit is going to be about. We have upcoming elections in Afghanistan in 2014, the next stage in their political development. We have an intensive conversation underway about continuing to develop and improve the economic support that we give to the Government of Afghanistan, and we have a security conversation that we have to have, as we've been clear about, about what the enduring U.S. and NATO presence might be after 2014 and how the Afghans are doing meeting their goals of being able to secure themselves after 2014. So all those issues will be on the table.
  QUESTION: Again, just sort of in a historical context, Americans have spent a lot of blood and a lot of treasure with respect to all of the efforts that you just described. What should our engagement in Afghanistan over the past 10 years tell us about the scope and the limits of American influence, or the '' America's ability to influence events overseas in a place like Afghanistan?
  MS. NULAND: I think that's a massive question for a longer conversation, James, which I'm prepared to have, but I don't think it's appropriate for the podium today.
  Said.
  QUESTION: Yes, change topics?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Syria?
  QUESTION: Just one --
  QUESTION: Oh, I'm sorry.
  MS. NULAND: Still --
  QUESTION: Go ahead.
  QUESTION: The Embassy of Afghanistan pointed us towards State today when it came to announcing the President's schedule. Can you give us any details, or is the White House now in charge of the schedule, too?
  QUESTION: Or the FBI?
  QUESTION: No. (Laughter.) That's not my question. Just the schedule.
  MS. NULAND: What I can tell you is about his '' the schedule here at the State Department with regard to the meetings and '' that President Karzai will have at the White House. Obviously, we're going to let our colleagues at the White House speak to the details there. But as we put out in the Secretary's weekly schedule, she expects to see President Karzai here on Thursday in the late afternoon for a meeting followed by a small dinner, and then his White House day is on Friday, is my understanding.
  QUESTION: But he's here in the U.S. today at a hospital. Is there any meeting involving the Secretary or staff on Wednesday?
  MS. NULAND: She doesn't see him until Thursday.
  QUESTION: Until Thursday?
  MS. NULAND: That's her day with him, yeah.
  QUESTION: Can I just ask on '' I think one of the issues that President Karzai is '' has been flagging is that he wants to ask for greater control of U.S. assistance and aid. You just mentioned that as one of the issues that's on the table. I believe there's some kind of move to try and channel the U.S. aid directly towards the Afghan coffers and not go through some kind of third party distribution center.
  What's the State Department's feeling on that given that we have had a number of critical reports from the special administrator '' inspector general for Afghanistan about waste and funds not ending up in the right place?
  MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, historically, our support for '' our economic support for Afghanistan has been channeled in a number of directions. Some of it goes to the Government of Afghanistan for distribution through its various programs that it manages. Some of it goes through NGOs and local governments, et cetera. So it's been a mixed program. We are constantly reviewing the effectiveness of the program with the Afghan Government, with our folks on the ground, with local leaders to refine it.
  One of the things that the Afghan Government has wanted for some time is for more of the U.S. Government assistance to go into federal government-administered programs. We have continued to evaluate what the appropriate percentage is. We've made a pledge that about 50 percent ought to go through the Afghan Government, but this has been tied to our expectation that the Afghan Government will, in turn, meet the commitments that it made at the Tokyo meetings earlier last year with regard to continuing to make progress on corruption, on transparency, on accountability. So that's a conversation that we'll have with President Karzai when he's here, and probably also at the White House.
  QUESTION: How concerned do you remain about the levels of corruption in Afghanistan, or has '' do you feel that there's been a genuine effort made to try and bring it under control?
  MS. NULAND: Well, we talked about this when the Secretary attended the Tokyo conference, that there has been progress made but there's quite a bit more progress to be made. And so that's a conversation that we'll continue to have.
  Please, Said.
  QUESTION: Can we go to Syria?
  QUESTION: Before we go to Syria, can we stay in the region real quick?
  MS. NULAND: Stay on Afghanistan? Yeah, and Pakistan.
  QUESTION: There was a reported drone strike along the Afghan-Pakistani border earlier today which is reported to have killed eight people, including an al-Qaida tactical trainer. Is there anything you can tell us about that?
  MS. NULAND: We don't talk about intelligence issues at all from this podium. Sorry to frustrate you again, James.
  Please.
  QUESTION: I'm not the frustrated character you portray me to be, by the way. I'm quite cheerful in our engagements.
  MS. NULAND: (Laughter.) Excellent, I'm glad of that.
  QUESTION: Can we go to Syria?
  MS. NULAND: Please.
  QUESTION: Have you had a chance to speak to Ambassador Ford after his meeting in Amman? And have they been able to sort of clarify what (inaudible) needs to be discussed in the three B meeting?
  MS. NULAND: We do not yet have a date and venue set for the three Bs meeting. We are continuing to be open to a meeting whenever JSE Brahimi can get it scheduled with the Russians. So I don't have anything to announce on that. My understanding was that Ambassador Ford had quite productive consultations in Jordan with the Government of Jordan, particularly on the refugee issues. As you know, there were some difficulties in the camps over the last 24 hours, trying to work together on those issues. And he did see a number of opposition figures.
  He has asked me, because they are asking him, not to sort of be naming the various interlocutors that he's seeing on the opposition side; just to say that he's seeing a full range of folks.
  QUESTION: But you believe that the meeting is still '' will still happen and the Russians are still on board at least to attend that meeting?
  MS. NULAND: It is our understanding that they are willing to have another meeting. They said so publicly before their holidays. But we haven't yet scheduled it.
  QUESTION: And lastly, do you believe that you are conveying the right message to both the regime of Bashar al-Assad and to the opposition? Because the talk of '' the news reports coming out of the region that are suggesting that perhaps you're moving away from sort of a decisive solution by the opposition into some sort of a negotiated settlement for the regime.
  MS. NULAND: I think we were extremely clear over the weekend how we felt about the proposals that the Assad regime put forward, and we are, as you know, in direct consultations with the opposition about how to support Mr. Brahimi's ideas and the Geneva plan.
  Please.
  QUESTION: Iraq?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Some Iraqi officials are blaming the U.S. for supporting the demonstrations in Iraq against the government. Do you have any reaction?
  MS. NULAND: We've talked about this a couple of times last week. We are not taking a side in any of these internal difficulties inside Iraq. We want to see the Iraqi stakeholders sitting down, talking, meeting, discussing, finding constitutional solutions to the various grievances on all of these issues. Our role has simply been to try to encourage the various stakeholders to talk to each other.
  Please, Said.
  QUESTION: Change topics again?
  QUESTION: Just a follow-up.
  QUESTION: I'm sorry.
  MS. NULAND: On Iraq?
  QUESTION: To Iraq. Turkey's U.S. Ambassador Namik Tan has been giving some interviews and actually has been criticizing U.S. Government policy in regard to Kurdistan Regional '' KRG, basically saying that U.S. has its own '' U.S. energy companies, that those companies do not listen their government, but the U.S. Government is telling us this regarding the energy deals in KRG. What's your response to that?
  MS. NULAND: Our response is the same response in public and in private, both to American companies, in our conversations with the Turkish Government, that our position on petroleum trade from Iraq has been consistent and remains unchanged. We support a constitutional solution to the disputes over the management of Iraq's hydrocarbon resources and we do not support oil exports, whether or not such trade is in barter from any part of Iraq, without the appropriate approval of Iraqi federal officials. This is what we tell our companies at every single turn, and we tell them that signing contracts for oil exploration or production with any region of Iraq without federal approval exposes these companies to potential legal risk.
  QUESTION: Including U.S. companies, I believe?
  MS. NULAND: This is our message to U.S. companies, first and foremost, yes.
  Said.
  QUESTION: Can we go to David Hale?
  MS. NULAND: We can.
  QUESTION: Yes. Could you update us on the status of the meeting between Palestinian Authority President Abbas or the newly declared Palestinian state President Abbas and David Hale?
  MS. NULAND: He '' I'm going to apologize to you, Said, because I don't have what I should have had from him. He, as I mentioned, saw the Israelis last night, and today is his day in Ramallah, and I don't yet have anything back from him.
  QUESTION: So it is Ramallah, not in Amman? I heard that it may have been changed because of weather. Are you aware of that change?
  MS. NULAND: I think you are right that he is seeing President Abbas '' President Abbas is in Amman and therefore he is able to see him there.
  QUESTION: Right. So '' but that is because of weather and not because of any political reason?
  MS. NULAND: No, I think that '' my understanding is that President Abbas was scheduled to be in Amman and that's where he is going to see him.
  QUESTION: Thank you.
  MS. NULAND: Yeah. But I will endeavor to have something for you by tomorrow. I apologize.
  Jill.
  QUESTION: North Korea?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Today is Kim Jung-un's 30th birthday.
  MS. NULAND: I heard that.
  QUESTION: Are you planning on sending him any greeting, or do you have any comments on his propitious --
  MS. NULAND: I'm personally not planning on it, no.
  QUESTION: Is there any update from New York on reaction to '' on any next steps in terms of what they are '' of the response to the missile launch?
  MS. NULAND: I'm going to send you to our mission in New York, but my understanding is that consultations continue among the permanent members of the Security Council on an appropriate resolution in response to the North Korean launch. Ambassador Rice, I think, is going to see the press later today. She may have more to say on where they are.
  QUESTION: To your knowledge, have Governor Richardson and Mr. Schmidt been in touch with U.S. officials since they touched down in Pyongyang?
  MS. NULAND: I do not believe that they have been. If that is incorrect, we'll get back to you.
  Please, still on DPRK?
  QUESTION: Japan?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah. On Japan or on --
  QUESTION: Yeah, Japan.
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Can I ask Japanese Government just announced the Foreign Minister will visit here and have a meeting with Secretary Clinton middle of this month. Can I have more details?
  MS. NULAND: Yes. Secretary Clinton called her new Japanese counterpart this morning, Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida. She congratulated him on their electoral victory, and she invited him to come to Washington on Friday, January 18th and he accepted. And we expect to see him a week from Friday here. They obviously also reviewed the full range of bilateral and regional issues.
  While I am reading out her phone calls, let me also advise that she spoke to Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Kim this morning as well. She congratulated him on the successful elections in the ROK. She noted, as she did with Foreign Minister Kishida, that Assistant Secretary Campbell is going to be traveling. I think he leaves over the weekend, and he'll be in both Tokyo and Seoul earlier in the week and then home in time for the Kishida visit at the end of the week.
  QUESTION: This weekend?
  MS. NULAND: He is going to travel this coming weekend. He'll be in Tokyo and Seoul '' I don't know in what order '' early next week.
  QUESTION: What is he going to discuss with --
  MS. NULAND: Well, it's a chance for him to consult with both of these governments after their election, obviously with the Japanese in advance of the visit here and on the Korean side in advance of the inauguration.
  QUESTION: Will Secretary discuss with Japanese Minister about Senkaku issue here?
  MS. NULAND: That issue did come up in the phone call. The Secretary reiterated our longstanding position on this and again encouraged that these issues be discussed through dialogue and calm on all sides.
  QUESTION: First, did the topic of the reports of the Japanese Government possibly reviewing the so-called Kono Statement come up in the Secretary's call today with the Japanese Foreign Minister?
  MS. NULAND: Not in that kind of specificity, but obviously in the context of the need to manage conversations with neighbors in a '' through dialogue, et cetera, and to have those conversations get off to a good start.
  QUESTION: And did '' so in making that general point, this was one of the issues she was trying to make it in conjunction with, even if it wasn't raised by '' with specificity, as you said?
  MS. NULAND: The Kono Statement you're '' you're talking about with regard to borders and all that kind of thing? Maybe I'm talking about the wrong word.
  QUESTION: This is the so-called comfort women one, I believe.
  MS. NULAND: Oh, I'm sorry. No, that issue did not come up today. No.
  QUESTION: Okay. And do you expect the Secretary --
  MS. NULAND: But we did speak to it here yesterday or the day before. Yeah.
  QUESTION: Yeah, yeah. Do you expect Assistant Secretary Campbell to raise that issue on his trip?
  MS. NULAND: I don't know, but we'll get you some readout if he does.
  QUESTION: Toria, do you have other details about the Secretary's day besides the calls and her meetings at the White House? And what is the second meeting on the schedule today?
  MS. NULAND: So the '' in the addition to the calls she made this morning, she's doing some internal meetings today. She has her regularly scheduled lunch with National Security Advisor Donilon and Secretary of Defense Panetta. She's probably in that lunch as we speak. And then there is another interagency meeting later this evening, one of the regular meetings at her level.
  QUESTION: And is anything (inaudible) for tomorrow, and particularly are we going to be on to actually see the Secretary at any public event tomorrow?
  MS. NULAND: I don't have anything new to announce beyond the Sunday schedule, but obviously we're '' she's booking herself up as the days go. So if we have anything new tomorrow, I'll let you know.
  QUESTION: Has she spoken with Senator Kerry today, or is he in the building?
  MS. NULAND: He is in the building today. He's continuing to see State Department issue managers to read in and prepare for his hearings. I don't know if they've spoken today. Frankly, Catherine, they're speaking so frequently and sometimes informally that we're not even keeping track at the moment.
  QUESTION: Victoria, did you say '' did you mention that President Karzai might come to this building and she might be meet with him here?
  MS. NULAND: She's seeing him on Thursday here.
  QUESTION: Here. Okay.
  MS. NULAND: Yes.
  QUESTION: And any updates (inaudible) on the issue about when the Secretary could testify on Benghazi and when the confirmation hearing for Senator Kerry could be held?
  MS. NULAND: We're still working with the Hill on all of those things, but I think we talked in some detail yesterday about the expected timing. They're not coming back to work '' the committees are not '' until after the inaugural.
  QUESTION: What is the Department's preferred sequence in those hearings? That the confirmation hearing should precede the Benghazi hearing, or vice versa?
  MS. NULAND: I don't think we're going to negotiate that here with you all. We're working on it with the Hill to make sure that it's appropriate for their needs and for ours. But as I said, the goal on our side is that we would have the Secretary able to testify, as she's promised to do while she's still sitting Secretary, but also have the confirmation hearing as quickly as appropriate after they come back in.
  QUESTION: And just for the record, why is it important to the Secretary that her testimony on this matter should unfold while she is sitting Secretary?
  MS. NULAND: Well, I think that's appropriate. That's what the Hill seems to want, and that allows her to complete her obligations as Secretary while she's Secretary. Makes sense.
  QUESTION: Then this would have to be done rather quickly. In theory, you wouldn't want to have a confirmed Secretary, next Secretary waiting around until this happens, right?
  MS. NULAND: I think we are hopeful that we can work this all through very smoothly with the committees.
  Please. Yeah. Go ahead.
  QUESTION: Just one more on that. Could you give us a little bit of detail about who you're talking to on the Hill? There are two very disparate groups up there. Is it '' and then there's also the House and the Senate. Who are you talking to? I mean, is '' the hearing is going to be before John Kerry's committee, or it's going to be before the House, or --
  MS. NULAND: We talked a little bit about this yesterday, on the --
  QUESTION: I know, and I wrote about it after you talked about it yesterday.
  MS. NULAND: Right.
  QUESTION: But that's why I'm asking. Who are you talking to on the Hill?
  MS. NULAND: So with regard to the Secretary's commitment to testify on Benghazi, I think the expectation is that she would be prepared to testify in both the House and the Senate. So we have to work out appropriate timing in both places. With regard to the confirmation hearing for Secretary-designate Kerry, that is always before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
  QUESTION: Mali?
  MS. NULAND: Please. Yeah.
  QUESTION: The Mali Defense Minister today said that Jihadist elements have deployed on several points along the line separating the southern and northern part of the country. Do you have any information on this? And are you worried that the Islamists might try to advance further south in the country?
  MS. NULAND: Well, we've seen this report. We're obviously closely monitoring the movements of extremist groups in northern Mali. There was some clear repositioning between January 5th and 7th of armed extremist forces within some of the areas in northern Mali that they already controlled, sending some of their forces down to the southern end there. And we understand that there were some small skirmishes as well with the Malian army and extremist forces near the villages of Konna and along the front line of control there near Sevare and Douentza.
  So tension has clearly increased and we are watching it very carefully even as we are working now with our international partners, including the European Union, the African Union, the ECOWAS states, to swiftly implement the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 2085.
  QUESTION: Thank you.
  MS. NULAND: Jill.
  QUESTION: Victoria, on this '' on Mali.
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Are you aware of any of the governments that '' who are the governments that are supporting the Jihadists and these elements with arms and supplies and so on?
  MS. NULAND: I don't have anything to share in this context in terms of government support. But clearly, as the Secretary has said before, the concern is support from AQIM and other supporters thereof.
  QUESTION: The reason I ask is because most of these weapons find their way to Mali from Libya. And the proliferation of arms that we have seen, that was distributed so largely by, let's say, Qatar and other countries, Libya, finds its way to other places. And the same thing may happen in Syria. I mean, these kind of things, do you ever look at to see what could happen in the future for the proliferation of arms?
  MS. NULAND: Well, we've made clear all along here that we have concerns about border controls in that whole region and that we have been working with the Government of Libya. We've been working with all of the neighboring states on border controls. We'd like to do even more. But as you know, groups like AQIM will gather this stuff from wherever they can get it.
  Jill, did you have something?
  QUESTION: Yeah, I was just wondering, since a lot of this happened over the holidays, the Russian adoption story, there were some children kind of '' the phrase, ''in the pipeline,'' but they were being adopted. Is there any update on that? Like, what's happening to those children?
  MS. NULAND: Jill's referring to the fact that we have, depending upon how you count, some 50 to 200 families who were in some stage of trying to adopt Russian children when the new law was put into place. We are continuing our conversations with the Russian Government. We would obviously like to see those adoptions be able to move forward. But we have now been informed by the Russian Government that they are going to formally suspend our agreement. But we're going to continue to try to work on these pipeline cases. It's really quite tragic, as you can imagine, for the families and for the children.
  QUESTION: Is it not the case '' I believe I've read that in some cases, the children whose adoptions were pending had actually gotten to know the families that hoped to adopt them. Is that not correct?
  MS. NULAND: It is obviously the case. I've got '' I had my numbers wrong. I'm just looking more carefully here. Our preliminary estimates are that there are approximately 500 to a thousand families at various stages of adoption. So this affects a number of children, and some of them, you've seen some of the stories in the '' that have been reported about past contact and bonding, et cetera.
  QUESTION: And what --
  QUESTION: I'm sorry, go ahead.
  QUESTION: I'm sorry, just a small thing. When were you told about the suspension? Was that immediately after the law was signed into '' the legislation was signed into law, or was it more recently than that?
  MS. NULAND: We received notification from the Russian Government of their intention to suspend the agreement sometime just after the New Year.
  Let me, in the context of this pipeline of children who were in the process of adoption, just take this opportunity to remind Americans out there that we have a special website for American families who are in some stage of adopting Russian children to notify us of those cases so that we have a full picture, and that is www.adoption.state.gov. So you can contact us and register your case on that website.
  Moving on. Please.
  QUESTION: Yes, I have a question on Greece. According to many reports in Europe, the U.S. Government has reservations regarding interest by Russia to buy a Greek company. The name of the company is DEPA. It is the public gas corporation of Greece. Do you have a comment on this or an answer on this?
  MS. NULAND: Well, it's obviously a sovereign decision for Greece, as it would be for any country around the world, what kinds of energy arrangements it wants to make on a commercial basis. In the case of Greece, they've obviously got to abide by their own domestic laws, and they've got to abide by EU regulations. What we do counsel countries everywhere is to have diverse sources of supply for their national energy needs so that they can't be held hostage.
  QUESTION: Can I follow up? What is the U.S. Government position on this energy game in the Mediterranean? As you know, the Israelis are cooperating with Cyprus and Greece; the Russians setting up in the Mediterranean already; the Turk '' Turkey's complaining because of all these American companies are in the Mediterranean cooperating with Cyprus and Israel. What is your position on this game that they are playing there?
  MS. NULAND: Well, obviously we support open and transparent commercial discussions and negotiations. If you're asking me about the Cyprus situation specifically, is that what you're asking?
  QUESTION: Yes.
  MS. NULAND: As we've long said, we support Cyprus's right to explore for energy in its offshore areas. In that context, of course, we strongly support the Cypriot-led negotiating process conducted under the UN's good offices to try to reunify the island in a bizonal/bicommunal federation. And we continue to believe that the island's oil and gas resources, like all of its resources, should be equally shared between the communities in the context of an overall solution.
  QUESTION: Can we go back to Greece for one second?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: I just want to make sure I'm clear on something. Your comment about how you always encourage countries to have a diversity of energy supplies so that they can't be held hostage '' that was meant as a general comment; it wasn't meant to suggest that you're particularly fearful that the Russians would hold the Greeks hostage if they succeeded in buying this?
  MS. NULAND: It's a general comment with regard to our policy anywhere in the world.
  Please, Scott. You've been patient.
  QUESTION: (Inaudible) the report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee critical of what it determined was the lack of State Department involvement on the Caucasus pipelines. Then-Senator Lugar said that he was expecting that State would be more involved, especially in that Nabucco-West pipeline. As you know, there are two competing pipelines there. Do you have a view on that, specifically the criticism that the State Department has not been sufficiently involved in that?
  MS. NULAND: I haven't seen the report, so we'll take a look at that and we'll get you a more formal response. But I think you know that before we went to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Morningstar had as his virtual full-time job working on diversity of energy opportunities, particularly in the Caucasus, and longtime advocate of Nabucco. And then those responsibilities have moved to Ambassador Pascual's bureau now, and he remains extremely active with all of the countries in the region. But let me see if I've got anything more specific in response to the criticisms that you cited, Scott.
  QUESTION: I arrived late, so did you talk about Venezuela at all?
  MS. NULAND: We have not talked about Venezuela yet.
  QUESTION: Do you have a position on whether '' on the possibility of President Chavez not being able to attend his inauguration on Thursday? There are some in the opposition in Venezuela who are saying that would be a constitutional breach if the date were changed or other arrangements were made.
  MS. NULAND: We have over the course of the last week or so talked in general about the succession situation in Venezuela. Let me reiterate our foundational point, which is that this is an issue for Venezuelans to decide, and it '' they need to do it in a manner that includes all the voices in the discussion. So it needs to be a broad-based discussion and it needs to be decided in a manner that is free, fair, transparent, is seen as ensuring a level political playing field in Venezuela.
  QUESTION: And you have concerns that that is not taking place right now with how it is being decided, the constitutional process?
  MS. NULAND: Again, we are watching the discussion among Venezuelans. Our concern is that all voices be heard.
  QUESTION: Is the United States monitoring his status of his health?
  MS. NULAND: Well, without '' I mean, obviously we are, as we would be for anybody suffering what he is suffering, concerned for his health and wishing a speedy recovery. But in terms of any specific, internal information that we have, I don't have anything to share here.
  QUESTION: Is it at least a concern that Thursday could prove a violent day on the streets with calls, I believe, from both the opposition and Chavez supporters for, sort of, demonstrations?
  MS. NULAND: Well, again, I think anybody would caution that this discussion needs to happen peacefully and that there needs to be no resort to violence, no excuse for violence on any side.
  QUESTION: But the Embassy, for instance, isn't putting out any specific warnings perhaps to Americans to avoid going out and about in Caracas on --
  MS. NULAND: We haven't yet, but we are closely monitoring the discussion among Venezuelans and hoping it will remain peaceful.
  In the back, please.
  QUESTION: Yes, may I ask, China?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Still on Latin America? Can we just do one more on Latin America?
  MS. NULAND: Sure.
  QUESTION: Sorry. Regarding a little-reported piece of legislation that President Obama signed on the 28th of December that will require the State Department to put together a report about Iran's activities in Latin America and the activities of Hezbollah, or the purported activities of Hezbollah, the purported activities of Hezbollah in Latin America. Do you have any reaction to this legislation, first? And then can you tell us the process by which such a report would be compiled? Who's going to be working on it? When could it be expected to be done?
  MS. NULAND: I'm going to take that one, Guy, and get back to you, because I, frankly, don't have the information I need here.
  QUESTION: Thank you.
  MS. NULAND: China, please.
  QUESTION: Yesterday you were asked about anti-censorship protests surrounding a Chinese media outlet Southern Weekly. And you called the Chinese Government to take note on that. As Voice of America reported today, the rally of the protestors and people who think '' whose supporters are still going on up to Tuesday. I just wonder do you have any more details to add on. How has the consulate in Guangzhou followed the development?
  MS. NULAND: I don't have anything specific to give you from how our consulate in Guangzhou is covering it. Obviously, we are all watching with interest as the Chinese people make their views known to their own government, and we will all watch how the government takes this into account. It's not surprising that as the country grows more prosperous, more successful, that people's aspirations to have more freedom grow as well. So it'll be interesting to watch.
  QUESTION: Do you think this is a test of the tolerance of the '' how the Chinese new media put out with the grassroots call for reforms?
  MS. NULAND: Well, I think you know that we support freedom of the media, freedom of expression everywhere around the world, including in China. And we believe that censorship of the media is incompatible with China's own aspirations to build a modern, information-based economy and society. As I said, as people become richer, they want to have the ability to speak freely. So it's obviously up to the Chinese Government to make its own assessments about those things, but we obviously stand on the side of free expression and free media everywhere in the world.
  QUESTION: Thank you.
  MS. NULAND: Thank you all.
  (The briefing was concluded at 1:24 p.m.)
  DPB # 5
VIDEO-Congressman Grayson on 67 congress members 'holding America hostage' - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:13
Gabrielle Giffords Launches Political Action Committee To Stop Gun Violence
  Link to Article
  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:07
VIDEO-aangirfan: SANDY HOOK'S AIDAN LICATA; VICTORIA SOTO
  Link to Article
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:03
  Aidan Licata's parents.Aidan Licata, and five other children, reportedly ran out of Victoria Soto's classroom during the Sandy Hook school shootings.According to one report, Aidan's parents eventually found Aidan at the police station."Aidan and the boys ran toward the front door, out of the building and then toward the main road where a woman stopped, picked them up and drove them to the police station," said Aidan's mother.Parents struggle to explain death of teachers, friends in school ...
  In this news article, Aidan's mother says she foundAidan at the fire station."They ran to the firehouse... Aiden, she learned, was in the firehouse..."According to Gene Rosen, the 6 students who escaped from Soto's class ended up at his house.Apparently the children's parents picked up the children from Rosen's house.
  "Rosen called the children's parents, using cellphone numbers obtained from the school bus company, and they came and retrieved their children."
  Gene Rosen, Newtown Resident, Took In 6 Children During Sandy ...
  It is just possible that Victoria Soto left Sandy Hook in August 2012.First Grade Teachers (according to the school's website)Vicki Soto 2/21/2011 to 8/31/2013
  sandy hook - Aangirfan
  At Sandy Hook Truth, we read of the Many contradictory reports of what happened in Victoria Soto's classroom "I get the sense that the general story was written but the actors involved in this didn't remember the exact script so that the stories would be consistent."A friend posted a tribute to Miss Soto on her Tumblr account.
  In her tribute she wrote: "I talked to Vicki Tuesday and she told me that she loved her 16 angels and never wanted to let them go. Today when the shooting started Vicki hid her kids in closets and when the gunman came into her room she told them the class was in gym. She was then murdered. "Not one of her students were harmed. Words can not express how heartbreaking and tragic this is. I will miss you dearly."
  Not one of her students were harmed!
  Another version:
  Her students told police that she tried to distract gunman Adam Lanza, but when half of the class tried to run, Lanza opened fire.
  This article describes Soto hiding the children in a closet.
  "Six children panicked and tried to escape but the teacher put herself in the line of fire so she could save them, but they were all shot multiple times."
  dailymail.And,
  "Finally, they (police) opened that door and there were seven sets of eyes looking at them," the Courant reported, citing a law enforcement officer familiar with the events.
Krauthammer: China Arming Itself To 'Expel the U.S. From Its Coastal Waters in the Western Pacific'
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 05:11
  MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them -- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
  MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 325 South Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
  Copyright (C) 2013, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
"Piers Challenge Alex Jones To A Boxing Match Bring A Semi-Automatic You Got Legally And Pop Him!"
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Wed, 09 Jan 2013 05:10
NBC Medical Editor Okay With Publishing Gun Owner Addresses: 'We're Not Outing Child Molesters'
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:30
  During a panel discussion on Tuesday's NBC Today, chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman voiced her support for a New York newspaper, The Journal News, publishing a list of addresses of local gun owners: "You have these sort of blind assumptions that when your child goes over to play with another kid, he or she is going to be safe. And I think that has been now negated. So I have no problem....we're not outing child molesters, this is a legal transaction, it's a public transaction."
ABC Uses Gabby Giffords to Begin Massive Push to Fight 'Gun Warfare in America'
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:49
  ABC on Tuesday began a multi-show push to promote the gun control crusade of Gabby Giffords and her husband. Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos kicked off the program by trumpeting, " The most famous face affected by gun violence fights back. Gabby Giffords announcing direct action against gun warfare in America.
Rescued by a Bailout, AIG May Sue Its Savior
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:36
  Fresh from paying back a $182 billion bailout, the American International Group has been running a nationwide advertising campaign with the tagline "Thank you America."
  Behind the scenes, the restored insurance company is weighing whether to tell the government agencies that rescued it during the financial crisis: thanks, but you cheated our shareholders.
  The board of A.I.G. will meet on Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government, court records show. The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed. It contends that the onerous nature of the rescue '-- the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company, the deal's high interest rates and the funneling of billions to the insurer's Wall Street clients '-- deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of private property for "public use, without just compensation."
  (Read More: What AIG Plans to Do Next: CEO Benmosche)
  Maurice R. Greenberg, A.I.G.'s former chief executive, who remains a major investor in the company, filed the lawsuit in 2011 on behalf of fellow shareholders. He has since urged A.I.G. to join the case, a move that could nudge the government into settlement talks.
  The choice is not a simple one for the insurer. Its board members, most of whom joined after the bailout, owe a duty to shareholders to consider the lawsuit. If the board does not give careful consideration to the case, Mr. Greenberg could challenge its decision to abstain.
  Should Mr. Greenberg snare a major settlement without A.I.G., the company could face additional lawsuits from other shareholders. Suing the government would not only placate the 87-year-old former chief, but would put A.I.G. in line for a potential payout.
  Yet such a move would almost certainly be widely seen as an audacious display of ingratitude. The action would also threaten to inflame tensions in Washington, where the company has become a byword for excessive risk-taking on Wall Street.
  Some government officials are already upset with the company for even seriously entertaining the lawsuit, people briefed on the matter said. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, noted that without the bailout, A.I.G. shareholders would have fared far worse in bankruptcy.
  "On the one hand, from a corporate governance perspective, it appears they're being extra cautious and careful," said Frank Partnoy, a former banker who is now a professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego School of Law. "On the other hand, it's a slap in the face to the taxpayer and the government."
  For its part, A.I.G. has seized on the significance and complexity of the case, which is filed in both New York and Washington. A federal judge in New York dismissed the case, while the Washington court allowed it to proceed.
  "The A.I.G. board of directors takes its fiduciary duties and business judgment responsibilities seriously," said a spokesman, Jon Diat.
  On Wednesday, the case will command the spotlight for several hours at A.I.G.'s Lower Manhattan headquarters.
  Mr. Greenberg's company, Starr International, will begin with a 45-minute presentation to the board, according to people briefed on the matter. Mr. Greenberg is expected to attend, they added.
  It will be an unusual homecoming of sorts for Mr. Greenberg, who ran A.I.G. for nearly four decades until resigning amid investigations into an accounting scandal in 2005. For some years after his abrupt departure, there was bitterness and litigation between the company and its former chief.
  After the Starr briefing on Wednesday, lawyers for the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York '-- the architects of the bailout and defendants in the cases '-- will make their presentations. Each side will have a few minutes to rebut.
  While the discussions are part of an already scheduled board meeting, securities lawyers say it is rare for an entire board to meet on a single piece of litigation.
  "It makes eminent good sense in this case, but I've never heard of this kind of situation," said Henry Hu, a former regulator who is now a professor at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin.
  It is unclear whether the directors are leaning toward joining the case. The board said in a court filing that it would probably decide by the end of January.
  Until now, the insurance giant has sat on the sidelines. But its delay in making a decision, some officials say, has drawn out the case, forcing the government to pay significant legal costs.
  (Read More: US to Sell Rest of AIG Stock, Ending $182 Billion Rescue)
  The presentations on Wednesday come on top of hundreds of pages of submissions that the government prepared last year, a time-consuming and costly process. The Justice Department, which assigned about a dozen lawyers to the case and hired outside experts, told a judge handling the matter that Starr was seeking 16 million pages in documents from the government.
  "How many?" the startled judge, Thomas C. Wheeler, asked, according to a transcript.
Florida Atlantic University professor: Newtown massacre may not have happened - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:11
  A communication professor known for conspiracy theories has stirred controversary at Florida Atlantic University with claims that last month's Newtown, Conn., school shootings did not happen as reported '-- or may not have happened at all.
  Moreover, James Tracy asserts in radio interviews and on his memoryholeblog.com. that trained "crisis actors" may have been employed by the Obama administration in an effort to shape public opinion in favor of the event's true purpose: gun control.
  "As documents relating to the Sandy Hook shooting continue to be assessed and interpreted by independent researchers, there is a growing awareness that the media coverage of the massacre of 26 children and adults was intended primarily for public consumption to further larger political ends," writes Tracy, a tenured associate professor of media history at FAU and a former union leader.
  In another post, he says, "While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place '-- at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation's news media have described."
  FAU is distancing itself from Tracy's views.
  "James Tracy does not speak for the university. The website on which his post appeared is not affiliated with FAU in any way," said media director Lisa Metcalf.
  Tracy said he knows he has sparked controversy on campus. In one of his courses, called "Culture of Conspiracy," Tracy said some students have expressed skepticism about his views.
  "But I encourage that," said Tracy, 47, a faculty member for 10 years. "I want to get students to look at events in a more critical way."
  In the Internet age, "We see more and more professors getting into trouble for what they're posting on Facebook, or Tweeting," said Gregory Scholtz, director of the department of academic freedom at the Association of University Professors. "And administrations are sensitive to bad publicity; they don't like things that public might find obnoxious or reprehensible. But most reputable administrations stay above the fray and give latitude."
  Robert Shibley, an official with the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said Tracy is well within his rights of free speech, especially when teaching a course on conspiracy theory.
  "The only way that a university would have a right to tone it down, or insist he stop talking about it, is if students come to him and say they find it disturbing," said Shibley. "People are allowed to talk about things that are upsetting '-- for example, abortion."
  On Monday, the website Global Research posted a timeline written by Tracy which purports to show how federal and local police agencies, abetted by "major media," conspired early in the Sandy Hook investigation to constuct a scenario pointing to Lanza as " the sole agent of the massacre" when others may have been involved.
  In one of his blog posts, "The Sandy Hook School Massacre: Unanswered Questions and Missing Information," Tracy cites several sources for his skepticism, including lack of surveillance video or still images from the scene, the halting performance of the medical examiner at a news conference, timeline confusion, and how the accused shooter was able to fire so many shots in just minutes.
  In an interview Monday, Tracy said "while it appears that people lost their lives" at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, he is not ready to buy that a lone gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, entered the school and methodically shot 20 children and six adults before killing himself.
  Lanza is also suspected of killing his mother at their Newtown home before arriving at the school.
  Asked if he has been accused of promoting fringe theories, Tracy said, "I do get that sense, from emails and otherwise."
  Tracy said he believes the deaths at Sandy Hook may have resulted from a training exercise. "Was this to a certain degree constructed?" he said. "Was this a drill?
  "Something most likely took place," he said. "One is left with the impression that a real tragedy took place."
  But, he added, he has not seen bodies, or photos of bodies. "Overall, I'm saying the public needs more information to assess what took place. We don't have that. And when the media and the public don't have that, various sorts of ideas can arise."
  Tracy said also has doubts about the official version of the Kennedy assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 9-11 terror attacks and the Aurora, Colo., theater murders.
Bekende namen naar EK shorttrack
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  Source: VK: Home
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:52
  Bekende namen naar EK shorttrack16:19 Kersvers Nederlands kampioenen shorttrack Niels Kerstholt en Jorien ter Mors doen namens Nederland mee aan de EK, van 18 tot en met 20 januari in het Zweedse Malm¶. Dat heeft de selectiecommissie van de KNSB dinsdag gemeld. Behalve ...
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Rand Dons a Yarmulke Over His Rug
  Link to Article
  Source: EconomicPolicyJournal.com
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:52
  Very presidential.
The Middle Class Has Been Saved '' Or Has It?
  Link to Article
  Source: BlackListedNews.com
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:13
  Long live the middle class now that it has survived the fiscal cliff and been ''saved.''
  President Obama is basking in the glory of having averted the deepening of a crisis that is more structural than political and hardly resolved.
  The markets are cheering, it is said, because markets love stability, unless there is money to be made off of volatility of their own making.
  Forget the working class. The term is pass(C), as is the so-called and usually undefined great mushy middle class moves into its rightful place at the center of everyone's concerns.
  (When asked what class they are in'--or aspire to be in'--workers, and even the poor say Middle Class. Unless survey questions include the choice of working class that they usually don't.)
  Analysts who looked closely at the big deal so hysterically pushed through Congress as the dramatic end-piece of a year of political warfare, say that there will be very little gain for the middle class with income taxes down but payroll taxes up, insuring that it will be more, at best, of a wash than a redistribution of wealth on any level. Many Americans, not just the rich, will be shelling out more, not less.
  Economist Lambert Strether calls it the ''fecal cliff,'' noting, ''cuts and tax increases (especially on the rich) are not commensurate. A ''sacrifice'' where some give up luxuries and others give up necessities is in no way ''shared. A marginal sacrifice for the rich is not commensurate to core sacrifices for the rest'...
  >>Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
US Benghazi raid suspect 'freed'
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:09
  8 January 2013Last updated at07:12 ETThe only suspect to be held over the attack on the US embassy in the Libyan city of Benghazi has been released due to lack of evidence, his lawyer says.
  Ali Harzi, who was being held by authorities in Tunisia, was conditionally released on Monday night, the lawyer said.
  The attack on 11 September killed the US envoy to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other American officials.
  The case has created political shockwaves in the US.
  'Systematic failures'The lawyer, Anwar Oued-Ali, told the Associated Press news agency that his client must remain within the greater Tunis area in case the court recalled him.
  Continue reading the main storyThere were "systematic failures at senior levels" within two bureaus of the state department, but no individual official ignored their dutiesReliance on armed "but poorly skilled" local militiamen and contract guards was "misplaced"US personnel had "performed with courage and readiness to risk their lives to protect their colleagues in a near-impossible situation"There was "no immediate, specific" intelligence about the 11 September attack or threats to the consulateThe Libyan government's response to the attack was "profoundly lacking"Mr Oued-Ali denies there is any evidence linking Mr Harzi to the attack.
  Mr Harzi, a 26-year-old native Tunisian, was arrested in Turkey in October and repatriated. He was questioned by FBI agents last month.
  A US report into the Benghazi killings found "systematic failures at senior levels".
  Mr Stevens died of smoke inhalation when he was trapped alone in the burning building after armed men had stormed the compound.
  Days after the attack, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said the attack seemed to have developed out of protests over an anti-Islamic film.
  But later intelligence reports suggested it was a planned attack by Islamist gunmen.
  Ms Rice was forced to pull out of the race to be the next secretary of state after being subjected to widespread criticism.
  The US report led to the resignation of diplomatic security chief Eric Boswell, while three other unnamed officials were put on administrative leave.
Chinese Communist Party Has An Unshakable Grip On News Media
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:07
Panel Of Experts Recommends Women Get Screened For Cervical Cancer Less Often
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  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:06
How Our Government Is Trying to Scare Us into Submitting to Corporate Dominance | Alternet
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:35
  The FBI's surveillance of Occupy is an explicit warning by the security services to all who consider dissent.
  January 7, 2013 |
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  Shannon McLeish of Florida is a 45-year-old married mother of two young children. She is a homeowner, a taxpayer and a safe driver. She votes in every election. She attends a Unitarian Universalist church on Sundays. She is also, like nearly all who have a relationship with the Occupy movement in the United States, being monitored by the federal government. She knows this because when she read FBI documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through the Freedom of Information Act, she was startled to see a redaction that could only be referring to her. McLeish's story is the story of hundreds of thousands of people'--perhaps more'--whose lives are being invaded by the state. It is the story of a security and surveillance apparatus'--overseen by the executive branch under Barack Obama'--that has empowered the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to silence the voices and obstruct the activity of citizens who question corporate power.
  Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, said in a written statement about the released files: ''This production [of information], which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI's surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protesters organizing with the Occupy movement. These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity. These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.''
  The FBI documents are not only a chilling example of how widespread this surveillance and obstruction has become, they are an explicit warning by the security services to all who consider dissent. Anyone who defies corporate power, even if he or she is nonviolent and acting within constitutional rights, is a suspect. These documents are part of the plan to make us fearful, compliant and disempowered. They mark, I suspect, a government attempt to end peaceful mass protests by responding with repression to the grievances of Americans. When the corporate-financed group FreedomWorks bused in goons to disrupt Democratic candidates' town hall meetings about the federal health care legislation in August 2009, Eric Zuesse of the Business Insider notes, ''there was no FBI surveillance of those corporate-organized disruptions of legitimate democratic processes. There also were no subsequent FreedomWorks applications for Freedom of Information Act releases of FBI files regarding such surveillance being used against them'--because there was no such FBI campaign against them.''
  The combination of intimidation tactics by right-wing fringe groups, which speak in the language of violence and hate, with the state's massive intrusion into the personal affairs of the citizen is corporate fascism. And we are much farther down that road than many of us care to admit.
  ''When activists took up relatively long-term residence in Zuccotti Park in New York City on Sept. 17 [in 2011], their message of outrage was a mirror to my own after we bailed out the banks with our tax dollars, then watched them get off scot-free without even a token attempt to help fix the wreckage they'd created,'' McLeish told me over the phone when I called her home. ''I personally lost considerable income and my retirement with the economic collapse, as well as more than half the value of my home. I could see the people around me struggling, too. I have friends, neighbors and family members that the banks refused to help, who lost their homes or were forced to pay for costly attorneys to defend themselves against fraudulent foreclosure attempts. People couldn't sell their homes, as they were worth so much less than what they'd paid for them. Homes all over the area, including in my neighborhood right near the downtown [of Ormond Beach, Fla.], were abandoned due to the foreclosure crisis'--and left to rot by the banks. Strip malls were emptied as businesses went bankrupt and closed their doors. More and more homeless people were wandering through the neighborhood'--people you could tell had never been homeless, just by virtue of what and how much they carried with them. Families were sleeping behind big-box stores, and my area was featured on national news repeatedly for the number of homeless families."
  "These are some of the things that prompted me to create a Facebook page for Occupy in my area in solidarity with the courageous activists camping in Zuccotti'--the only group to fully give voice to what I saw as the issue: the corruption of pretty much everything from the economy to the environment to our social safety nets to our democratic system of governance due to corporate greed,'' she said. ''The message of OWS [Occupy Wall Street] resonated deeply and moved me to action.''
  The FBI documents obtained by the PCJF show that government security services began to monitor the activities of Occupy activists before the Zuccotti Park encampment was established. They revealed that when McLeish met with about 40 other activists in Daytona Beach, Fla., several undercover law enforcement officers were present.
  ''None of them identified themselves as law enforcement to meeting attendees, though a Homeland Security agent approached me afterward, probably because I facilitated the meeting,'' McLeish said. ''When the agent approached me after the meeting, it was pretty unnerving. I decided the best way to deal with it was head on. I responded with, 'I'm so glad you're here! There's a group making threats against us. I assume that's why you've come.' I think he was surprised. I don't think he acknowledged knowing about the threats from an online gun group. He said he wanted to make sure we weren't infiltrated by troublemakers. He asked if we'd meet with law enforcement to find out what we were allowed to do. I said I'd be happy to do so. He said he would check into the threats. He said he would put me in touch with someone from the Daytona Beach Police Department.''
  ''I can't remember exactly when we met with Daytona Beach Police Department the first time,'' she said. ''It could have been the next day or the day after. There were about six or seven of us, and I think it was three officers: Deputy Chief Ben Walton, who is now retired, and two other high-ranking officers. If I remember correctly, I pretty much began the discussion by stating that we were aware of our right to protest. We would be glad to coordinate as much as possible to make the Police Department's job easier, but not to the point of infringing upon our rights.''
  ''We agreed upon very low police presence'--one to a few officers'--on the basis of the threats made by the online gun group, but not for surveillance on citizens engaged in peaceful protest,'' she said.
  The daylong event she and the other activists held on Oct. 15, 2011, was attended by more than 300 people. The past president of the local NAACP chapter spoke, as did a leader in the teachers union who was also a member of the school board, a couple of members of the postal union, the leader of a homeless coalition who was homeless himself, and a member of the Daytona State College Environmental Club. A female uniformed officer was present. McLeish noticed a man with a professional camera taking photographs of individual protesters in the crowd. She saw him later the same day amid several police officers. One officer confirmed that the photographer was with law enforcement but would not give more information, McLeish said.
  Daytona-area activists during the fall of 2011 continued to organize events, including sidewalk marches to banks. In most cases they notified the police in advance. At one big event, men in plain clothes and standing with folded arms surrounded a seated group as it held a teach-in.
  ''It was extremely intimidating, not to mention the effect on people walking by who might have joined us if it weren't for these heavy-handed tactics,'' McLeish said.
  The local activists set up an Occupy encampment every weekend in December 2011.
  ''There were no incidents of any kind,'' McLeish said of the camp in Daytona. ''No one spoke aggressively to an officer at any time. No one drank or used drugs. We had clearly posted rules to that effect at the camp. There was no violence whatsoever, verbal or physical'--as was the case with any event we organized, and we had quite a lot of them. Further, we clearly expressed that while we would act in accordance with our rights, we would not violate any laws.''
  ''Given the lengths we went to, you can imagine my dismay as I saw Daytona repeatedly mentioned in national news as one of the main areas under surveillance by the FBI, Homeland Security, as well as some unknown 'private partner' agency,'' she said. ''We were being investigated, according to the released FBI documents, as if we were a 'terrorist' group engaged in 'criminal activity.' I checked the released pages to see what could only be references to me'--my name, age, and phone number. Though redacted, they indicate that any search of people connected with domestic terrorist groups is likely to turn up my name.''
  Since the spring of 2012 McLeish has co-hosted a morning radio show called ''Air Occupy'' (also streamed online) with Liz Myers and Jerry Bolkcom. They have interviewed, among others, Alexa O'Brien, the organizer of US Day of Rage, and Carl Mayer, the lead attorney in the case Hedges v. Obama, a challenge to the indefinite detention clause of the National Defense Authorization Act. Immediately after ''Air Occupy'' posted on YouTube the interview about the lawsuit against the NDAA, YouTube permanently banned the radio show on the ground of ''violating community standards'''--a ban that usually is imposed for graphic, violent or gory images or pornography. According to YouTube's guidelines, a poster is allowed three ''strikes'' before an account is terminated. ''Air Occupy'' had received no notice of ''strikes'' or warnings of any kind from YouTube.
  McLeish worries about how being a target of FBI attention will affect her life. ''Can the inclusion of my name and information on a federal law enforcement domestic terrorist watch list impact my ability to make a living and provide for my children?'' she asked. ''Can I be subject to retribution of some kind through the NDAA's new provisions or to federal surveillance due to interviewing other activists or in addition to my involvement in Occupy protests? I can't afford an attorney to protect myself.''
  ''What does such surveillance and militarized response mean for our democratic system of governance as more and more people in our country and abroad struggle to survive and are moved to protest stark economic inequalities, mass unemployment and unfair working conditions, and impoverished living conditions?'' she asked.
  (C) 2012 TruthDig.comChris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, is a senior fellow at the Nation Institute. He writes a regular column for TruthDig every Monday. His latest book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
U.S. spy agency predicts a very transhuman future by 2030
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:04
  The National Intelligence Council has just released its much anticipated forecasting report, a 140-page document that outlines major trends and technological developments we should expect in the next 20 years. Among their many predictions, the NIC foresees the end of U.S. global dominance, the rising power of individuals against states, a growing middle class that will increasingly challenge governments, and ongoing shortages in water, food and energy. But they also envision a future in which humans have been significantly modified by their technologies '-- what will herald the dawn of the transhuman era.
  This work brings to mind the National Science Foundation's groundbreaking 2003 report, Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance '-- a relatively early attempt to understand and predict how advanced biotechnologies would impact on the human experience. The NIC's new report, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds, follows in the same tradition '-- namely one that doesn't ignore the potential for enhancement technologies.
  In the new report, the NIC describes how implants, prosthetics, and powered exoskeletons will become regular fixtures of human life '-- what could result in substantial improvements to innate human capacities. By 2030, the authors predict, prosthetics should reach the point where they're just as good '-- or even better '-- than organic limbs. By this stage, the military will increasingly rely on exoskeletons to help soldiers carry heavy loads. Servicemen will also be adminstered psychostimulants to help them remain active for longer periods.
  Many of these same technologies will also be used by the elderly, both as a way to maintain more youthful levels of strength and energy, and as a part of their life extension strategies.
  Brain implants will also allow for advanced neural interface devices '-- what will bridge the gap between minds and machines. These technologies will allow for brain-controlled prosthetics, some of which may be able to provide "superhuman" abilities like enhanced strength, speed '-- and completely new functionality altogether.
  Other mods will include retinal eye implants to enable night vision and other previously inaccessible light spectrums. Advanced neuropharmaceuticals will allow for vastly improved working memory, attention, and speed of thought.
  "Augmented reality systems can provide enhanced experiences of real-world situations," the report notes, "Combined with advances in robotics, avatars could provide feedback in the form of sensors providing touch and smell as well as aural and visual information to the operator."
  But as the report notes, many of these technologies will only be available to those who are able to afford them. The authors warn that it could result in a two-tiered society comprising enhanced and nonenhanced persons, a dynamic that would likely require government oversight and regulation.
  Smartly, the report also cautions that these technologies will need to be secure. Developers will be increasingly challenged to prevent hackers from interfering with these devices.
  Lastly, other technologies and scientific disciplines will have to keep pace to make much of this work. For example, longer-lasting batteries will improve the practicality of exoskeletons. Progress in the neurosciences will be critical for the development of future brain-machine interfaces. And advances in flexible biocompatible electronics will enable improved integration with cybernetic implants.
  The entire report can be read here.
  Image: Bruce Rolff/shutterstock.
Patty Brard heeft grote plannen
  Link to Article
  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:30
  di 08 jan 2013, 10:40
  van onze redactieAMSTERDAM - Patty Brards deelname aan Sterren Spingen heeft veel goeds gedaan voor haar carri¨re.
  "Ik vind het erg frappant om te zien hoe je leven kan veranderen met een sprong van een duikplank. Het is net als vijf jaar geleden toen een spagaat in Sterren Dansen Op Het IJs me vijf jaar werk opleverde. Het kan raar lopen in het leven, maar I go with te the flow", zegt Patty in Spits.
  Ze is vanavond bij RTL5 te zien in Wie is de reisleider? en presenteert vanaf maart Echte Meisjes Op De Prairie. Maar Patty wil meer. "Ik ben in onderhandeling over nieuwe programma's, maar daar kan ik nu nog niets over zeggen. Wel kan ik zeggen dat ik deze week de hoofdrol ga spelen in een pilot van een jonge filmmaker. Ik wil namelijk heel graag acteren."
  (C) 1996-2013 Telegraaf Media Nederland | Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlPrivacy | Cookies | Disclaimer
America Is Being Systematically Transformed Into A Totalitarian Society - informationliberation
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 10:24
  by Michael SynderIf someone were to ask you for an example of a ½totalitarian society½, how would you respond?½ Most Americans would probably think of horribly repressive regimes such as the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China, East Germany or North Korea, but the truth is that there is one society that has far more rules and regulations than any of those societies ever dreamed of having.½ In the United States today, our lives are governed by literally millions of laws, rules and regulations that govern even the smallest details of our lives, and more laws, rules and regulations are constantly being added.½ On January 1st, thousands of restrictive new laws went into effect all over America, but most Americans have become so accustomed to the matrix of control that has been constructed all around them that it does not even bother them when even more rules and regulations are put into place. ½In fact, a growing number of Americans have become totally convinced that ½freedom½ and ½liberty½ must be tightly restricted for the good of society and that ½the free market½ is inherently dangerous.½ On the national, state and local levels, Americans continue to elect elitist control freaks that are very eager to tell all the rest of us how to run virtually every aspect of our lives. According to Merriam-Webster, the following is one of the ways that the word ½totalitarian½ is defined: ½of or relating to a political regime based on subordination of the individual to the state and strict control of all aspects of the life and productive capacity of the nation especially by coercive measures½.½ And that is exactly what we are witnessing in America today ½ nearly all aspects of our lives and of the economy are very tightly controlled by a bunch of control freaks that just keep tightening that control with each passing year.½ We still like to call ourselves ½the land of the free½, but the truth is that we are being transformed into a totalitarian society unlike anything the world has ever seen before.½ Where will we end up eventually if we keep going down this road?If you still believe that America is ½free½, just consider some of the things that are illegal in America today½
  -Starting on January 1st, it is now illegal to make or import½75 watt incandescent light bulbs anywhere in the United States.
  -In Oregon, it is illegal to collect rainwater that falls on your own property.
  -In New Jersey, it is illegal to have an ½unrestrained½ cat or dog in your vehicle while you are driving.-If you milk your cow and sell some of the milk to your neighbor, you could end up having your home raided by federal agents.
  -In Miami Beach, Florida you must recycle your trash properly or face huge fines.
  -All over the United States, cops are shutting down lemonade stands run by children because they don½t have the proper ½permits½.
  -Down in Tulsa, Oklahoma one unemployed woman had her survival garden brutally ripped out and carted away by government thugs because it did not conform to regulations.
  -Over in Massachusetts, all children in daycare centers are mandated by state law to brush their teeth after lunch.½ In fact, the state even provides the fluoride toothpaste for the children.
  -At one public school down in Texas, a 12-year-old girl named Sarah Bustamantes was arrested for spraying herself with perfume.
  -A 13-year-old student at a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was arrested by police for burping in class.
  -All over the United States cities have passed laws that actually make it illegal to feed the homeless.
  With each passing year, the number of decisions that we are allowed to make for ourselves gets smaller and smaller.
  This includes some really fundamental things such as basic health decisions.
  For example, the CDC will soon be recommending that nearly every single American be vaccinated for the flu every single year.½ The following is from a recent Natural News article½
  An advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that every person be vaccinated for the seasonal flu yearly, except in a few cases where the vaccine is known to be unsafe.
  ½Now no one should say ½Should I or shouldn½t I?½½ said CDC flu specialist Anthony Fiore.
  The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 11-0 with one abstention to recommend yearly flu vaccination for everyone except for children under the age of six months, whose immune systems have not yet developed enough for vaccination to be safe, and people with egg allergies or other health conditions that are known to make flu vaccines hazardous.
  These ½recommendations½ are often made into mandatory requirements by school districts and employers all over the country.½ Will employers all over the nation soon require all of their employees to take these vaccines each year based on these CDC ½recommendations½?½ This is already happening in the healthcare field.½ Hundreds of healthcare professionals all over the nation are being fired for refusing to take certain vaccines.½ It doesn½t matter that there is a tremendous amount of evidence that many of these vaccines are dangerous.½ Many health professionals today are being faced with the choice of either submitting to the ½recommendations½ of the ½experts½ or losing their jobs.We see this kind of ½creeping totalitarianism½ in the business world as well.½ As I have written about previously, small businesses all over the country are being absolutely suffocated by mountains of laws, rules and regulations.
  One of the biggest changes that small businesses will be dealing with in the next couple of years is Obamacare.½ Many small businesses have been cutting back hours in an attempt to get around the new requirements contained in Obamacare.½ The following is one example from a news story that was published½earlier this week½
  Around 100 local Wendy's workers have learned their hours are being cut. A spokesperson says a new health care law is to blame.
  "Thirty-six to 37 hours a week." That½s how many hours T.J. Growbeck works at the 84th and Giles Wendy½s restaurant. The money he earns helps him pay for the basics, but that's not the case for all his co-workers. "There are some people doing it trying to get by."
  The company has announced that all non-management positions will have their hours reduced to 28 a week. Gary Burdette, Vice President of Operations for the local franchise, says the cuts are coming because the new Affordable Health Care Act requires employers to offer health insurance to employees working 32-38 hours a week. Under the current law they are not considered full time and that as a small business owner, he can½t afford to stay in operation and pay for everyone½s health insurance.
  But the IRS has announced that it is going to make it very hard for employers to avoid these new Obamacare regulations.½ According to new IRS rules, all firms that ½have at least 50 full-time employees or an equivalent combination of full-time and part-time employees½ will be required to provide healthcare for their employees and their dependents.½ The following is from a recent New York Times article½Under the rules, employers must offer coverage to employees in 2014 and must offer coverage to dependents as well, starting in 2015.
  The new rules apply to employers that have at least 50 full-time employees or an equivalent combination of full-time and part-time employees. A full-time employee is a person employed on average at least 30 hours a week. And 100 half-time employees are considered equivalent to 50 full-time employees.
  Thus, the government said, an employer will be subject to the new requirement if it has 40 full-time employees working 30 hours a week and 20 half-time employees working 15 hours a week.
  So conceivably an employer could have only part-time employees and still be required to provide healthcare coverage under Obamacare.Of course many small businesses will not be able to afford to do this, so expect to see a significant number of them shut down or to try to survive with skeleton crews in 2014 and 2015.
  As the number of laws, rules and regulations that govern our lives continues to multiply, the control freaks that run things will continue to try to use technology to watch us all and make sure that we are obeying their rules.
  One way that they are doing this is with automated traffic cameras.½ Of course much of the time the performance of these cameras is terribly flawed.½ Just consider the following example which recently appeared in the Baltimore Sun½
  The Baltimore City speed camera ticket alleged that the four-door Mazda wagon was going 38 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone -- and that owner Daniel Doty owed $40 for the infraction.
  But the Mazda wasn½t speeding.
  It wasn½t even moving.
  The two photos printed on the citation as evidence of speeding show the car was idling at a red light with its brake lights illuminated. A three-second video clip also offered as evidence shows the car motionless, as traffic flows by on a cross street.
  But even though technology sometimes fails, the control freaks that run things seem absolutely obsessed with using it to monitor us.½ After all, there are so many of us and watching all of us is a very big job.For example, did you know that listening devices are being installed on public buses all over the United States?½ The following is from a recent Wired article½
  Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.
  The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs and other documents.
  According to the article, some of these systems are incredibly advanced and pair the audio that is being recorded with video that is being taken at the same time½In Eugene, Oregon, the Daily found, transit officials requested microphones that would be capable of "distilling clear conversations from the background noise of other voices, wind, traffic, windshields wipers and engines" and also wanted at least five audio channels spread across each bus that would be "paired with one or more camera images and recorded synchronously with the video for simultaneous playback."
  But that is just one example of how the surveillance of the American people is rapidly growing.½ For many more examples, please see my previous article entitled ½29 Signs That The Elite Are Transforming Society Into A Total Domination Control Grid½.If America continues down the path that it is on right now, the United States will eventually be transformed into a ½Big Brother society½ that is far more restrictive than anything George Orwell ever dreamed of.
  We need a fundamental cultural revolution in this nation.½ We need a revival of the principals of liberty and freedom that were so important during the founding days of this country.½ We need to teach people that even though liberty and freedom may be unpredictable at times, such an environment is greatly preferable to a society where all of our decisions are made for us by a tiny elite.
  Please share this article with as many people as you can.½ Time is running out, and we need to wake up as many as we can while there is still time.
Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 09:40
  The Jimmy Savile scandal caused public revulsion, but experts disagree about what causes paedophilia - and even how much harm it causes
  There is little agreement about paedophilia, even among those considered experts on the subject. Photograph: Trigger Image/Alamy
  In 1976 the National Council for Civil Liberties, the respectable (and responsible) pressure group now known as Liberty, made a submission to parliament's criminal law revision committee. It caused barely a ripple. "Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in with an adult," it read, "result in no identifiable damage '... The real need is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage."
  It is difficult today, after the public firestorm unleashed by revelations about Jimmy Savile and the host of child abuse allegations they have triggered, to imagine any mainstream group making anything like such a claim. But if it is shocking to realise how dramatically attitudes to paedophilia have changed in just three decades, it is even more surprising to discover how little agreement there is even now among those who are considered experts on the subject.
  A liberal professor of psychology who studied in the late 1970s will see things very differently from someone working in child protection, or with convicted sex offenders. There is, astonishingly, not even a full academic consensus on whether consensual paedophilic relations necessarily cause harm.
  So what, then, do we know? A paedophile is someone who has a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children. Savile appears to have been primarily an ephebophile, defined as someone who has a similar preferential attraction to adolescents, though there have been claims one of his victims was aged eight.
  But not all paedophiles are child molesters, and vice versa: by no means every paedophile acts on his impulses, and many people who sexually abuse children are not exclusively or primarily sexually attracted to them. In fact, "true" paedophiles are estimated by some experts to account for only 20% of sexual abusers. Nor are paedophiles necessarily violent: no firm links have so far been established between paedophilia and aggressive or psychotic symptoms. Psychologist Glenn Wilson, co-author of The Child-Lovers: a Study of Paedophiles in Society, argues that "The majority of paedophiles, however socially inappropriate, seem to be gentle and rational."
  Legal definitions of paedophilia, needless to say, have no truck with such niceties, focusing on the offence, not the offender. The Sex Offenders Act 1997 defined paedophilia as a sexual relationship between an adult over 18 and a child below 16.
  There is much more we don't know, including how many paedophiles there are: 1-2% of men is a widely accepted figure, but Sarah Goode, a senior lecturer at the University of Winchester and author of two major 2009 and 2011 sociological studies on paedophilia in society, says the best current estimate '' based on possibly flawed science '' is that "one in five of all adult men are, to some degree, capable of being sexually aroused by children". Even less is known about female paedophiles, thought to be responsible for maybe 5% of abuse against pre-pubescent children in the UK.
  Debate still rages, too, about the clinical definition of paedophilia. Down the years, the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders '' "the psychiatrist's bible" '' has variously classified it as a sexual deviation, a sociopathic condition and a non-psychotic medical disorder. And few agree about what causes it. Is paedophilia innate or acquired? Research at the sexual behaviours clinic of Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health suggests paedophiles' IQs are, on average, 10% lower than those of sex offenders who had abused adults, and that paedophiles are significantly less likely to be right-handed than the rest of the population, suggesting a link to brain development. MRI scans reveal a possible issue with paedophiles' "white matter": the signals connecting different areas of the brain. Paedophiles may be wired differently.
  This is radical stuff. But there is a growing conviction, notably in Canada, that paedophilia should probably be classified as a distinct sexual orientation, like heterosexuality or homosexuality. Two eminent researchers testified to that effect to a Canadian parliamentary commission last year, and the Harvard Mental Health Letter of July 2010 stated baldly that paedophilia "is a sexual orientation" and therefore "unlikely to change".
  Child protection agencies and many who work with sex offenders dislike this. "Broadly speaking, in the world of people who work with sex offenders here, [paedophilia] is learned behaviour," says Donald Findlater, director of research and development at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse, and, before it closed, manager of leading treatment centre the Wolvercote Clinic. "There may be some vulnerabilities that could be genetic, but normally there are some significant events in a person's life, a sexually abusive event, a bullying environment '... I believe it is learned, and can be unlearned."
  Chris Wilson of Circles UK, which helps released offenders, also rejects the idea that paedophilia is a sexual orientation: "The roots of that desire for sex with a child lie in dysfunctional psychological issues to do with power, control, anger, emotional loneliness, isolation."
  If the complexity and divergence of professional opinion may have helped create today's panic around paedophilia, a media obsession with the subject has done more: a sustained hue and cry exemplified by the News of the World's notorious "name and shame" campaign in 2000, which brought mobs on to the streets to demonstrate against the presence of shadowy monsters in their midst. As a result, paranoia about the danger from solitary, predatory deviants far outweighs the infinitely more real menace of abuse within the home or extended circle. "The vast majority of sexual violence is committed by people known to the victim," stresses Kieran Mccartan, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of the West of England. Only very rarely is the danger from the "stranger in the white van", Mccartan says.
  The reclassification of paedophilia as a sexual orientation would, however, play into what Goode calls "the sexual liberation discourse", which has existed since the 1970s. "There are a lot of people," she says, "who say: we outlawed homosexuality, and we were wrong. Perhaps we're wrong about paedophilia."
  Social perceptions do change. Child brides were once the norm; in the late 16th century the age of consent in England was 10. More recently, campaigning organisations of the 70s and 80s such as the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) and Paedophile Action for Liberation were active members of the NCCL when it made its parliamentary submission questioning the lasting damage caused by consensual paedophilic relations.
  Even now there is no academic consensus on that fundamental question '' as Goode found. Some academics do not dispute the view of Tom O'Carroll, a former chairman of PIE and tireless paedophilia advocate with a conviction for distributing indecent photographs of children following a sting operation, that society's outrage at paedophilic relationships is essentially emotional, irrational, and not justified by science. "It is the quality of the relationship that matters," O'Carroll insists. "If there's no bullying, no coercion, no abuse of power, if the child enters into the relationship voluntarily '... the evidence shows there need be no harm."
  This is not, obviously, a widely held view. Mccartan uses O'Carroll's book Paedophilia: the Radical Case in his teaching as "it shows how sex offenders justify themselves". Findlater says the notion that a seven-year-old can make an informed choice for consensual sex with an adult is "just preposterous. It is adults exploiting children." Goode says simply: "Children are not developmentally ready for adult sexuality," adding that it is "intrusive behaviour that violates the child's emerging self-identity" and can be similar in long-term impact to adults experiencing domestic violence or torture.
  But not all experts are sure. A Dutch study published in 1987 found that a sample of boys in paedophilic relationships felt positively about them. And a major if still controversial 1998-2000 meta-study suggests '' as J Michael Bailey of Northwestern University, Chicago, says '' that such relationships, entered into voluntarily, are "nearly uncorrelated with undesirable outcomes".
  Most people find that idea impossible. But writing last year in the peer-reviewed Archives of Sexual Behaviour, Bailey said that while he also found the notion "disturbing", he was forced to recognise that "persuasive evidence for the harmfulness of paedophilic relationships does not yet exist".
  If that assertion does nothing else, it underlines the need for more research on paedophilia '' something on which everyone in the field at least is agreed. There is, too, broad consensus around the idea that the approach to paedophilia must be about management and prevention: on stopping potential offenders making that contact (or downloading that image).
  Initiatives such as Stop It Now!, which Findlater runs, exemplify this: a telephone helpline offering advice to people worried they may be having inappropriate sexual impulses. A similar German programme, Prevention Project Dunkelfeld, has as its slogan: "You are not guilty because of your sexual desire, but you are responsible for your sexual behaviour. There is help."
  For convicted abusers, Circles UK aims to prevent reoffending by forming volunteer "circles of support and accountability" around recently released offenders, reducing isolation and emotional loneliness and providing practical help. In Canada, where it originated, it has cut reoffending by 70%, and is yielding excellent results here too. The goal of all treatment, Findlater says, is "people achieving a daily motivation not to cause harm again. Our goal is self-management in the future."
  For Goode, though, broader, societal change is needed. "Adult sexual attraction to children is part of the continuum of human sexuality; it's not something we can eliminate," she says. "If we can talk about this rationally '' acknowledge that yes, men do get sexually attracted to children, but no, they don't have to act on it '' we can maybe avoid the hysteria. We won't label paedophiles monsters; it won't be taboo to see and name what is happening in front of us."
  We can help keep children safe, Goode argues, "by allowing paedophiles to be ordinary members of society, with moral standards like everyone else", and by "respecting and valuing those paedophiles who choose self-restraint". Only then will men tempted to abuse children "be able to be honest about their feelings, and perhaps find people around them who could support them and challenge their behaviour before children get harmed".
  ' This article was amended on 3 January 2012. The original incorrectly suggested that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was published by the American Psychological Association, and misspelled Dunkelfeld as Dunkenfeld.
  (C) Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Sandy Hook Psychic Student? '-- Logan Dryer's Mom Says He Refused To Go To School - Hollywood Life
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:58
  Sandy Hook Elementary School mother Karen Dryer shares her emotional and uncanny story that saved her 5-year-old son's life from that horrific Dec. 14 shootings. HollyBaby.com has all the EXCLUSIVE details on her extraordinary son.Karen Dryer's worst nightmare started to unravel when her young son Logan Dryer, 5, became so anxiety ridden when he went to kindergarten at Sandy Hook Elementary School that she decided to pull him out of school just two weeks before the deadly massacre.
  Like any parent, Karen could not understand why her usually happy, healthy son Logan all of a sudden started having panic attacks while in school. Little did she know, that like her own late mother, her son had the gift to foresee the future.
  Nancy tells HollyBaby.com exclusively, ''Logan started kindergarten in September 2012. He was perfectly fine in September and October, and then in November he started acting strange. I got an email from his teacher saying he was a little weepy and then I started getting phone calls that Logan was crying and wanted to go home. Eventually it got so bad that I took him to the doctor who ran tests, saying that Logan was perfectly healthy.''
  ''I remember the principal, Dawn Hochsprung, getting on her knees and saying to Logan, 'We love you and this is a wonderful place.' Logan screamed back saying, 'No, no! It's not a safe place. I am scared.' Logan's doctor suggested that we take him out of school for a couple of weeks and home school him. So we had a tutor come in once a day for an hour and we would visit the school once a week so he could see his friends and teachers. But whenever we visited the school, he would start shaking and trembling. He would cry and he wouldn't open his eyes,'' said Karen.
  The principal and the school psychologist Mary Sherlock, 56, who spoke to Logan on the phone daily while he was being home schooled, were both among the first killed in the shootings.
  ''Logan was perfectly normal wherever we were except at school,'' Karen explained. ''We couldn't even say the word 'school' in the house because he would get so upset. I would cry because I couldn't understand what was wrong with my son. I just wanted him to be normal. My teenage daughter went to Sandy Hook and she loved it. So we have a long history there. I would get so frustrated, but I know my son and I had to listen to what he saying. I was not going to give him medication. I just had to be with him and trust that everything happens for a reason.''
  ''We live down the street from the school and had just been there two days before the shooting. I remember getting a text that said there had been an incident and the local schools would be on shut down. Then I went on the Internet and read that there had been a shooting at Sandy Hook. I don't know why but I grabbed my son and ran down to the school. I wanted to help. I felt so fortunate because I was one of the lucky parents holding their child.''
  ''My mother, Milly, who passed away a couple of months ago was very psychic, and I know now without a doubt that my son has the same gift.''
  ''Today (Jan.2) when we went to the open house, Logan was back to normal. He said he loved the new school, 'I love it, it looks like a college.' The teachers were amazed at what they saw because he used to be so scared of school. Now he was running around the school like he owned it. He danced for the teachers. He told me that Grandma was with him at the school and helping him play and that she was also helping me. His doctor is completely dumbfounded. I am blessed that I listened to him.''
  Karen intends on taking Logan for his first day back to school tomorrow Jan. 3. She plans on volunteering at the school for the next couple weeks. We wish them both a beautiful day back at school. And of course all of the other families and teachers.
  Reporting by Sandra Clark
  More Sandy Hook news
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  Adam Lanza Targeted Teacher Lauren Rousseau In Sandy Hook Massacre?Jan07Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza opened fire at specific cars in the school'...Read Article'–º'†'President Obama: Moment He Learns Of Sandy Hook Massacre '-- PicJan04A new picture has been released that shows the awful moment where President'...Read Article'–º'†'Sandy Hook Students' Emotional First Day Back To School'...Jan03It was an emotional day for the Sandy Hook Elementary School parents'...Read Article'–º'†'Sandy Hook Families & Teachers Attend Open House At New SchoolJan02The students, parents, and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary School'...Read Article'–º'†'Terrified Sandy Hook Students Prepare Return to School On Jan. 3Jan02Less than a month after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting'...Read Article'–º'†'
  President Obama Promises Sandy Hook: I'll Change Gun Control LawsDec30President Obama tells 'Meet The Press' that he wants gun'...Read Article'–º'†'Student To Sue State For $100 Million After Sandy Hook School ShootingDec29A Connecticut attorney is blaming the state for the brutal massacre that'...Read Article'–º'†'Adam Lanza's DNA Being Analyzed To Find Shooting MotiveDec27A team of geneticists are reportedly set to examine Adam's DNA in'...Read Article'–º'†'Newtown Community Overwhelmed With Donations After TragedyDec27Newtown, Connecticut has received so many gifts from all over the country'...Read Article'–º'†'Demi Lovato's Emotional Dedication To Newtown Victims '-- WatchDec25Demi is using her special gift '-- her voice '-- to lend support to'...Read Article'–º'†'Barack & Michelle Obama's Christmas Video Pays Tribute To'...Dec25The President and First Lady celebrated the holiday while remembering those'...Read Article'–º'†'Ryan Lanza Mourns Adam Lanza & Mom On FacebookDec23Ryan, originally identified as the shooter in Newtown, Connecticut on Dec'...Read Article'–º'†'Adam Lanza's Body Remains UnclaimedDec22One week after the tragic massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, the'...Read Article'–º'†'Selena Gomez & More Stars Beg For Gun Control In 'Demand A'...Dec21Beyonce, Jennifer Aniston and many other stars join Selena in this stark'...Read Article'–º'†'NRA Responds To Sandy Hook Massacre: Put Armed Guards At SchoolsDec21The national gun control debate has been fiery in the wake of the shooting'...Read Article'–º'†'Michelle Obama's Letter To Newtown: We Are Holding You In Our HeartsDec21On Dec. 20, the first lady wrote a heartfelt letter to the community of'...Read Article'–º'†'Sandy Hook Victim Allison Wyatt, 6, Covered Home In Vibrant DrawingsDec21Allie was remembered for her brilliant sense of humor and love of art'...Read Article'–º'†'Sandy Hook Teacher Who Died Shielding Special Needs Boy, 6'...Dec20Anne Marie Murphy, the Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher who died trying'...Read Article'–º'†'Massacred Caroline Previdi, 6, Emptied Her Piggy Bank For Poor ChildrenDec20On Dec. 19, three more young children were buried after the tragic shooting'...Read Article'–º'†'Terrified Parents Buy $200 Bulletproof BackpacksDec20In the wake of the devastating Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting'...Read Article'–º'†'
aangirfan: SANDY HOOK; DAVE McGOWAN
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:57
  Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder and Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy met on 27 November 2012.Eric Holder And Connecticut Governor Met Two Weeks Before Sandy Hook
  "He was perfectly fine in September and October, and then in November he started acting strange. "I got an email from his teacher saying he was a little weepy and then I started getting phone calls that Logan was crying and wanted to go home. "Eventually it got so bad that I took him to the doctor who ran tests, saying that Logan was perfectly healthy."I remember the principal, Dawn Hochsprung, getting on her knees and saying to Logan, 'We love you and this is a wonderful place.' Logan screamed back saying, 'No, no! It's not a safe place. I am scared.'"
  Sandy Hook Mom Says Clairvoyant Son, 5, Refused To Go To School, Saving His Life
  "As ever, the man with the answers is the mighty Dave McGowan..."Dutroux in Belgium, the 'Finders' in Florida and Washington DC, the McMartin pre-school scandal in New York, military child care centres in the Presidio and West Point, the Country Walk Babysitting Service in Florida, etc, etc, ad nauseam..."McGowan follows the trajectory of the media coverage of each of these busts... "With the utmost diligence, the media would ensure that trails were not followed, facts were not uncovered, and questions were not asked..."According to the media: "There were no links connecting the paedophiles with the local police and government, the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon, or the Whitehouse. Same, same, internationally. There were no links between the US and Belgium or any other countries.""There's two paedophilias. "One's amateur, small-time and the subject of much media screaming. "The other is huge, professional, sanctioned, and untouchable. Sandy HookHad someone discovered a government-linked pedophile ring at Sandy Hook?
Eric Holder And Connecticut Governor Met Two Weeks Before Sandy Hook | USAHM Conspiracy News
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:57
  Posted: Yesterday
  By Mort AmselI found this extremely interesting and thought I'd share for conversation. I searched several terms and names and could not find another post on this '' so if there is another please forgive '' I did make effort to search.
  Eric Holder and Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy met on November 27th to unveil 'Project Longevity'. ''The initiative, known as Project Longevity, will send new federal grant money to Connecticut and involve agents, academics and social workers working for or with the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.''
  This particular phrase really caught my attention: ''The community needs to show a little more outrage on these things and demand that it be a top priority,'' Pinciaro said. ''That will be more useful than another law right now.''
  Link 1
  Link 2
  If anyone was wondering why Eric Holder met with first responders '' Project Longevity might just be the answer to that question. [Link 3]
  Source
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CURL: Obama supporters shocked, angry at new tax increases - Washington Times
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:27
  ANALYSIS/OPINION:
  Sometimes, watching a Democrat learn something is wonderful, like seeing the family dog finally sit and stay at your command.
  With President Obama back in office and his life-saving ''fiscal cliff'' bill jammed through Congress, the new year has brought a surprising turn of events for his sycophantic supporters.
  ''What happened that my Social Security withholding's in my paycheck just went up?'' a poster wrote on the liberal site DemocraticUnderground.com. ''My paycheck just went down by an amount that I don't feel comfortable with. I guarantee this decrease is gonna' hurt me more than the increase in income taxes will hurt those making over 400 grand. What happened?''
  Shocker. Democrats who supported the president's re-election just had NO idea that his steadfast pledge to raise taxes meant that he was really going to raise taxes. They thought he planned to just hit those filthy ''1 percenters,'' you know, the ones who earned fortunes through their inventiveness and hard work. They thought the free ride would continue forever.
  So this week, as taxes went up for millions of Americans '-- which Republicans predicted throughout the campaign would happen '-- it was fun to watch the agoggery of the left.
  ''I know to expect between $93 and $94 less in my paycheck on the 15th,'' wrote the ironically named ''RomneyLies.''
  ''My boyfriend has had a lot of expenses and is feeling squeezed right now, and having his paycheck shrink really didn't help,'' wrote ''DemocratToTheEnd.''
  ''BlueIndyBlue'' added: ''Many of my friends didn't realize it, either. Our payroll department didn't do a good job of explaining the coming changes.''
  So let's explain something to our ill-informed Democratic friends. In 2009, Mr. Obama enacted a ''holiday'' on the payroll tax deduction from employees' paychecks, dropping the rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. But like the holidays, the drop ended, and like New Year's, the revelers woke up the next morning with a massive hangover and a pounding head.
  ''Bake,'' who may have been trolling the site, jumped into the thread posted Friday. ''My paycheck just went down. So did my wife's. This hurts us. But everybody says it's a good thing, so I guess we just suck it up and get used to it. I call it a tax increase on the middle class. I wonder what they call it. Somebody on this thread called it a 'premium.' Nope. It's a tax, and it just went up.''
  Some in the thread argued that the new tax '-- or the end of the ''holiday,'' which makes it a new tax '-- wouldn't really amount to much. One calculated it would cost about $86 a month for most people. ''Honeycombe8,'' though, said that amount is nothing to sneeze at.
  ''$86 a month is a lot. That would pay for '... Groceries for a week, as someone said. More than what I pay for parking every month, after my employer's contribution to that. A new computer after a year. A new quality pair of shoes '... every month. Months of my copay for my hormones. A new thick coat (on sale or at discount place). It would pay for what I spend on my dogs every month '... food, vitamins, treats.''
  The Twittersphere was even funnier.
  ''Really, how am I ever supposed to pay off my student loans if my already small paycheck keeps getting smaller? Help a sister out, Obama,'' wrote ''Meet Virginia.'' ''Nancy Thongkham'' was much more furious. ''F***ing Obama! F*** you! This taking out more taxes s*** better f***ing help me out!! Very upset to see my paycheck less today!''
  Story Continues '†'
  View Entire Story
CNN Interviews Anonymous On Ohio Rape Case
  Link to Article
  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 06:49
'Oakland gunman' unfit for trial
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:21
  7 January 2013Last updated at18:48 ETA man accused of killing seven people at a California Christian college has been deemed mentally unfit for trial.
  Former Oikos University nursing student One Goh is alleged to have carried out the attack in Oakland in April 2012.
  A judge accepted a defence argument that Mr Goh - who has pleaded not guilty - suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
  The Oikos shootings were the deadliest on a US campus since a gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007.
  Judge Carrie Panetta ruled that Mr Goh should be sent to a California mental institution until he is competent to stand trial, with a review every 90 days.
  At an earlier hearing, Mr Goh's lawyer, David Klaus, questioned his ability to stand trial, saying that the 43-year-old had suffered from schizophrenia for several years.
  Mr Klaus and a fellow lawyer, both court-appointed, said they have had trouble talking with Mr Goh because of his mental state.
  Prosecutors said Mr Goh was angry about being denied a tuition fee refund when he arrived at the college with a .45 calibre weapon.
  Mr Goh is charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder for allegedly opening fire after he was unable to find a school administrator.
VIDEO-Crowd laughs as Chicago Teachers Union president talks about killing the rich - EAGnews.org :: Education Research, Reporting, Analysis and Commentary
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:16
  By Kyle OlsonEAGnews.org
  CHICAGO '' The Chicago Teachers Union is not just about looking out for its members' interests. The union wants to fundamentally change America, too.That shift occurred when the radical Karen Lewis was elected as its president two years ago. She's best known for mocking U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's lisp and for taking on '' and defeating '' Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the district's first teachers' strike in a generation.
  CTU leaders have been on a victory lap of sorts since the September strike, with union activists seeing themselves as protectors of union power during a time of membership decline and education reform at the state and local level.
  They've also taken on the role of social activities, fighting for causes like the Occupy movement and gay marriage, which have nothing to do with education.
  Some union leaders have called for violence and other radical tactics to achieve social goals.
  When Lewis appeared at the Illinois Labor History Society's ''Salute to Labor's Historic Heroes from the History Makers of Today,'' she didn't disappoint the crowd. She threw gasoline onto the fire of class warfare, and even mentioned mob killings of wealthy Americans.
  '''... Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them. Please understand that. However, we are in a moment where the wealth disparity in this country is very reminiscent of the robber baron ages. The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just '' off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that.''
  Some in the audience laughed and clapped at her remark.
  ''I don't think we're at that point,'' Lewis laughingly replied, without specifying when ''that point'' might arrive. ''And that's scary to most people. But the key is they think nothing of killing us. They think nothing of putting our people in harm's way. They think nothing of lethal working conditions.''
  She then used schools without air conditioning as an example of ''lethal working conditions.''
  The true labor leaders of the ''robber baron'' age would probably roll over in their graves and remind Ms. Lewis that she and her colleagues have it quite good.
  Big salaries with an average income in the $70,000 range. Generous benefits and pensions. Limited work days and nine-month work years. What are these people complaining about?
  Lewis also used the occasion to mock ''job creators.''
  ''Which side are you going to be on? So are we going to be on the side of justice? Are we going to be on the side of a living wage for every person? Or are we going to be on the side of people whose entire mentality is based on a lie. 'Job creators.' Really? Then why have we lost so many jobs?''
  With such a cynical, un-American attitude coming from their union president, does anyone really expect Chicago teachers to introduce students to the many virtues of the free market system, or the nobility of taking a risk to become an entrepreneur and therefore a ''job creator''?
  As domestic terrorist-turned-professor Bill Ayers acknowledged, leftists have the power in our schools and classrooms, and they're taking full advantage.
  The Chicago Teachers Union is the tip of the spear in terms of ''social justice unionism.'' It's a union led by far-left radical activists who are determined to alter American society through our schools and children. Advocating for the interests of teachers is simply a means toward a larger and nastier goal.
  CommentsTags: #schools, #teachers, @AFTunion, @ChicagoTeachers, @eagnews.org, @kyleolson4, @NEAToday, @rweingarten, AFT, American Federation of Teachers, Arne Duncan, Bill Ayers, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Teachers Union, EAG, EAGnews, Education Action Group, Karen Lewis, National Education Association, NEA, teachers union, videoPosted on: January 7th, 2013 byTrevor
Dutch Patriots, Soundbites
  Link to Article
  Source: DVIDS Unit RSS Feed: Natochannel
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:13
  Choose quality '–¼Embed code '–¼<iframe width="500" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none; overflow: hidden; width: 500px; height: 300px;" allowtransparency="true" src="http://www.dvidshub.net/video/embed/205282"></iframe>
  The Dutch military has begun the deployment of two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey as part of the NATO mission to augment Turkey's air defenses. On Monday the 7th of January a convoy of 160 vehicles left a military base near Eindhoven. The Patriots are set to arrive in the Turkish city of Adana around the 22nd of January. The mission is purely defensive to protect the Turkish population from the threat of ballistic missile attacks from neighboring Syria. Transcript: Lt. Col. Marcel Baus '' Commander of the 1st Netherlands Ballistic Missile Defense Task Force 00:00 We are the only country together with Germany and the United States who have the Pac 3 capability. Patriot advanced capability. That is a missile that can directly hit a ballistic missile in its course. So it's like hitting a bullet with a bullet, it's the hit to kill principle. We'll be defending the people of the city of Adana against a possible tactical ballistic missile threat from Syria. We'll be deploying around Adana, and it's about 120 km from the Syrian border. The fact that that's been chosen has been done on a political level together with Turkish authorities and within NATO. There is a threat, in fact within Syria several Scuds have been launched, so the threat is there and we're there to prevent that it's going to be a threat for Turkey. (01:17) -Well that's not a main concern for me. I'm there to protect the people and territory of and around Adana. That's what NATO has asked me to do and that's what the Dutch politicians have decided to do, and that's what I'll be doing. Lt. Col. Eric Abma '' Base Commander 01:34 One Patriot fire unit includes a radar Sat. and engagement control station, the fire control station, and six launching stations, including all command control equipment, communication equipment, logistical support. So in total we're going with about 260 soldiers to Turkey for over a year. If there is a threat it will be recognized through our satellite information. We will have early warning information, so if there will be a ballistic missile fired the system will see it, the radar will pick it up and we'll automatically intercept those tactical ballistic missiles. We are under command and control of Ramstein from the ballistic missile defense operation cell, we will have the green light if there something is going on and if there is a green light the ballistic missiles will be shot. Q: How much time to react? (02:48) -Well it depends on the range from the ballistic missile, which has been fired, but normally you can imagine about three minutes. We are able to intercept ballistic missiles with a distance of about 3,000 km. They need about three minutes from launch to intercept, so that's how much time we have to intercept ballistic missile. It's a NATO-led operation. It's led by our air command Ramstein, which has its ballistic missile defence operations center operational and we will be directly under their BMDOC and they are commanding our units over in Turkey. (03:29) -This is their daily life, this is what they train for; this is what they have been choosing to do. So the unit is, the last deployment was in 2003, also to Turkey and since then the people have been trained for missions like this. So this is what they do and they are eager to go.
Climate News: Only 'Hobbit-Sized Humans' Capable of Surviving Global Warming | CNS News
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:12
  Hobbit characters Frodo Baggins, Gollum, and Samwise Gamgee from "The Lord of the Rings." (AP Photo)
  (CNSNews.com) '' The joint editor of the Climate News Network is warning that in as little as two centuries global warming will lead to ''mass extinction,'' which may be good news for residents of ''The Shire.''''Hobbit-sized humans, able to exist on less nourishing food, will have the best chance of survival in a warmer world, scientists say,'' said Paul Brown, a journalist and author, in an article entitled, ''Mass extinction forecast with 6C temperature rise,'' published on Jan. 7.
  Brown bases his claim on findings by the ''Bighorn Basin Coring Project,'' a group of scientists from the United States, the UK, Germany, and Netherlands studying a ''period 55 million years ago when the Earth's temperature rose suddenly.''
  He cautions that the planet's temperature is "expected" to rise rapidly by 6°C this century, having disastrous effects that only fictional characters from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy could sustain.
  ''What worries the scientists is that this current warming period will take as little as 200 years, if the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is correct,'' Brown said. ''The result will be mass extinction, and for the survivors, humans, animals and insects, there will be a scramble to eat a diminishing and less nutritious food supply.''
  Hobbit characters from the movie "The Lord of the Rings." (AP Photo)
  ''Dwarfism is again expected to be a successful strategy for the survivors, enabling humans, animals and insects to mature earlier with less food and so reproduce before they starve,'' he said.''In the next 100 years the combination of more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increased temperature could be 'catastrophic' for an overpopulated world, according to one of the scientists involved,'' Brown said.
  ''With food supply drastically reduced, evolutionary forces suggest hobbit-sized humans who needed to eat less would have the greatest chance of survival.''
  However, Brown says, "Animals, including humans, will shrink" in order to survive "a warming world."
Presidential Memorandum -- National Flood Insurance Program
  Link to Article
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:06
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  January 07, 2013
  MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY
  SUBJECT: National Flood Insurance Program
  I have reviewed your request for approval to issue notes to the Secretary of the Treasury in excess of $20.725 billion, but not to exceed $30.425 billion, for the National Flood Insurance Program and am hereby granting approval for you to do so.
  BARACK OBAMA
Daily Press Briefing - January 7, 2013
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:05
  12:35 p.m. EST
  MS. NULAND: Happy Monday, everybody. It is a great day here in the Department. As you saw, Secretary Clinton is back to work. And if you got a chance to look at the pictures we put out, she is in the pink, literally. She's wearing a brilliant pink jacket today.
  Just a little bit of color for you all, we have every Monday the large Department staff meeting where she has her deputies, all of the under secretaries, all of the assistant secretaries, all the special envoys. Riffraff like me get to go. And when she walked in the room, she had a standing ovation from 75 people assembled, and then Deputy Secretary Nides presented her with a gift from all of us in a big box. You probably saw the pictures. And she opened the box, and inside '' first of all he said, ''As you know, Washington is a contact sport.'' And she opened the box, and inside was a football helmet with the State Department seal, lots of good padding, and also a football jersey that said Clinton on the back and on the front it says number 112, which symbolizes the number of countries that she's visited as Secretary of State.
  And she loved it. She thought it was cool. But then, being Hillary Clinton, she wanted to get right to business. So we do what we always do in that meeting, went around the room, and she heard from everybody what they're working on and what's coming forward. She did take the opportunity to reiterate to everybody that with regard to the Accountability Review Board recommendations that she wants to have every single one of those recommendations on its way to implementation by the time her successor is sworn in and takes up his duties, and that she's expecting everybody to work hard in that regard. And then obviously, she was interested in hearing about all of the policies underway, particularly focused, obviously, on President Karzai's visit later in the week.
  So with that, let me go to what's on your minds.
  QUESTION: You said pictures, but to my knowledge, only one picture has been released. Are there others that have been put out that we haven't seen or '' the one that was released showed her sort of from the back with Deputy Secretary Burns next to her and kind of the table going out. So are there other pictures that you have not released and they plan to or --
  MS. NULAND: Just before I came out, I saw three more '' maybe they haven't come through your spam filters there, Arshad '' (laughter) '' that have '' there are three pictures of her receiving this gift, opening the box. There's a picture of the helmet and a picture of the jersey.
  QUESTION: Okay. They're not out?
  MS. NULAND: So if you don't have those, we will get those to Reuters. I don't know how we managed to miss you.
  QUESTION: I think the --
  QUESTION: They're just out.
  MS. NULAND: Are they just out? Okay, all right. Please, Matt, go ahead.
  QUESTION: Yeah. Are we on the '' are we staying on this subject?
  MS. NULAND: Let's --
  QUESTION: Well, I want to stay on the subject of the meeting but not necessarily about her return. Was there anything other than Benghazi that was discussed? There was talk to anything of note that was '' I mean, she has been gone for a month.
  MS. NULAND: Yeah. Well, I'm obviously not going to get into all the details of an internal meeting, but she heard from all of her regional assistant secretaries about what the hot issues that they're working are on in their region. She heard from many of the unders this morning, as she always does in that meeting.
  QUESTION: On her schedule, could we just continue on that?
  MS. NULAND: Mm-hmm.
  QUESTION: So we know some of the rest of the week. How intense would you say this is compared to what she normally does, and are there any other adds that we should be looking out for? We have Karzai, we have some White House meetings.
  MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, we usually update that schedule during the course of the week as more things come on to the schedule. Today, she's doing a lot of internal meetings. She was sitting there in this big staff meeting saying, ''And I want to see you today, and I want to see you today, and I want to see you today.'' So she's doing a lot of that. There may be other meetings outside the building today. We'll let you know as it comes forward. But then, now being sure that she's going to be here, I'm sure the schedule will get more full during the course of the week.
  QUESTION: And any Kerry meetings?
  MS. NULAND: Meetings with Senator Kerry?
  QUESTION: Yeah. In person?
  MS. NULAND: She has been talking to him virtually nonstop. She's had '' apparently had sort of daily phone calls, a number of phone calls. He is not in the building today. But as I said last week, she is 100 percent committed to having the smoothest possible transition, to helping him as much as possible, and she'll be available as much as he needs her.
  QUESTION: And then on Benghazi, of course, we all want to know what that might '' what the schedule might be on that.
  MS. NULAND: Well, let me just say that she will testify. She will testify while she is still sitting Secretary of State. As I mentioned last week, we have a new Senate Foreign Relations Committee; we have the 113th Congress in now. We also need a confirmation hearing for Senator Kerry. So we're working now with the committee on scheduling both the Benghazi hearing, the confirmation hearing, getting the sequence agreed with them. But as you probably know, they are now not coming back until right after the inaugural. So it obviously couldn't be before then. But I don't yet have dates to announce. You might talk to the committee too, but we're continuing to work on that.
  QUESTION: So that would obviously mean that she will be staying in place, at least for a while, after the inauguration.
  MS. NULAND: Well, again, the committee is not in session. The Congress is not in session, Senate's not in session. So obviously a new Secretary can't take up duties until there has been a confirmation hearing, until there has been a vote, et cetera. So our expectation is that we will be able to sequence this so that she will testify as sitting Secretary. We will also have a confirmation hearing. And all of this, obviously, will be preparatory to a transition.
  QUESTION: Just a couple of '' some things. How's she feeling?
  MS. NULAND: She looks fantastic. She seems to be terrific.
  QUESTION: And is her '' is she now back to a regular schedule then? She's not curtailing her days or anything? She's planning to work as hard as she always does?
  MS. NULAND: I would guess, judging by the way she was this morning, yes.
  QUESTION: And then last thing: Is it still the case that she is '' well, do you expect her to travel abroad during the remaining of her tenure as Secretary of State, or can you rule that out now?
  MS. NULAND: We don't have any travel scheduled. As you know, under doctor's advice, she is not supposed to travel for the coming period. And it's going to be pretty busy here, including, as we discussed, with her testimony.
  QUESTION: And just one more. Is she on blood thinners?
  MS. NULAND: Jill, I don't have any more to give you, beyond what we have already put out, which we made --
  QUESTION: (Inaudible) were indicating that --
  MS. NULAND: I mean, her doctors made clear that they had prescribed them. I'm not going to give you a daily update on her dose, if that's what you're looking for.
  QUESTION: No. I just wanted to confirm that she is.
  MS. NULAND: Nothing has changed from that report, except that she's obviously here.
  QUESTION: This is kind of a variation on Arshad's question. Is Secretary Clinton fully recovered?
  MS. NULAND: Judging by the woman we saw this morning and the workload that she's got, she seems to be fully recovered. Yes.
  QUESTION: This entrance into the room today, where she received a standing ovation and so forth, was that, by any chance, videotaped?
  MS. NULAND: No. There was a still photographer who '' the State Department's photographer who put out the photos you saw.
  QUESTION: And I know that you have spoken from the podium in recent days, since she fell ill, about how the Department's belief is that it has been very transparent with regard to updates about Secretary Clinton and her condition at the various junctures. Are there '' were there legal requirements attendant at any point along the way here, in so far as she may have been completely incapacitated and somebody else had to become acting Secretary or anything like that?
  MS. NULAND: No. We didn't have to invoke an acting Secretary stipulation. But obviously you saw that her two deputies, Deputy Secretary Burns and Deputy Secretary Nides, picked up a number of activities for her. Deputy Secretary Burns did the trip she was planning to do that second week of December. They both testified on Benghazi after the ARB hearing. But it obviously '' there was no moment at which her duties were transferred to them.
  QUESTION: So I presume that had she, at any point, been fully incapacitated the proper protocols would have been invoked, correct?
  MS. NULAND: Correct.
  QUESTION: So she was never fully incapacitated?
  MS. NULAND: Again, James, I think we've spoken to her health situation all the way along. There was no moment at which it was deemed that she was incapable of performing duties, except that her deputies were asked to take up meetings and trips that she couldn't do because she was sick in bed.
  QUESTION: And just as a final sort of punctuation mark on this, at any point was the State Department legal counsel or the legal advisors consulted with respect to these considerations?
  MS. NULAND: To my knowledge, no.
  QUESTION: I just wanted to ask if she saw fit to model her gifts. Did she put on the helmet? (Laughter.) Or was the ghost of Michael Dukakis too strong for her to be photographed wearing protective headwear?
  MS. NULAND: She is '' you'll see in the photo '' she's holding it up, both the helmet and then later the jersey.
  QUESTION: Yeah. But she didn't put it on?
  MS. NULAND: Let me just say, as a fellow chick, her hair looked fabulous this morning. I'm not sure I would have challenged my hair with a helmet either.
  QUESTION: Well, if she did, if we can get a photograph of it --
  MS. NULAND: Yeah, I'm sure you would love a photo. Even better if it had the Bills on it, right? Yeah. Exactly.
  Okay. Please.
  QUESTION: And last one. You said she will testify as long as she's a sitting Secretary. When she --
  MS. NULAND: When she testifies she will be the sitting Secretary is my point, that she will testify before he successor takes office was the point.
  QUESTION: Oh. But if she's '' if Senator Kerry takes over, she can be asked to testify after that?
  MS. NULAND: No. That wasn't my implication. My implication was that she's made a commitment to testify. We expect we'll be able to get that done before her successor takes office.
  QUESTION: In open session? Is that part of the commitment?
  MS. NULAND: She is prepared to do it in open session, if that's what the committees would like. Our understanding is that that's what they would like. But obviously we're still talking to them.
  QUESTION: Sorry. Presumably she's talked to Senator Kerry about this. This is all right with him, yeah?
  MS. NULAND: What do you mean?
  QUESTION: Well, that she's going to stay on a little bit longer, and I don't know if he's like really itching to get into '' I mean, theoretically, you could have the '' his confirmation hearing could be on the 21st. He could get '' then there could be a vote. He could be in as early as the 22nd. So I'm just asking, she's talked with him and it's okay with him if she stays on for a couple days?
  MS. NULAND: I think without getting too much into every hour of every day, I think the expectation is that the sequence will work out such that she'll be able to testify; he'll be able to have his hearing. And by the time he's fully off the floor, the testimony will be behind her.
  QUESTION: All right. And then just a last one, and I '' this is probably better asked of his office or the Senate, but do you know if he is planning to chair the hearing at which she '' at least the Foreign Relations Committee hearing? Not his confirmation hearing but her testimony.
  QUESTION: Yeah, that's good work if you can get it.
  MS. NULAND: (Laughter.) Is he going to chair his own hearing, is that what you're asking? (Laughter.)
  QUESTION: No, but is he going to chair the hearing at which she testifies before his committee?
  MS. NULAND: Again, I'm going to send you to the SFRC on this --
  QUESTION: You don't know.
  MS. NULAND: -- but my understanding is that there are new chairs of the committee for the 113th Congress. That's my understanding.
  Please.
  QUESTION: Can we change topics?
  MS. NULAND: Yes.
  QUESTION: Syria?
  MS. NULAND: Yes.
  QUESTION: I know you issued a statement yesterday on Assad's speech, but does that push you towards aiding perhaps the opposition with arms and other materiel?
  MS. NULAND: Our position on the assistance that we're providing has not changed, Said. As you know, we're only providing nonlethal assistance.
  QUESTION: Okay. And also in terms of recognizing the coalition legally, not only politically as you explained before, does that also accelerate the process for you to sort of recognize the Syrian coalition legally, as well as politically?
  MS. NULAND: I don't think there's anything about the speech that changes the progression of work that we're doing with the opposition. I think we have to continue to see how things develop on the ground. We have to continue to see how they develop as a force. But as we have said, we do consider them the legitimate representatives now of the Syrian people.
  QUESTION: Okay. And finally, did he seem more obstinate in his speech than was expected?
  MS. NULAND: I mean, we put out a statement yesterday making clear that we think he's completely out of touch with reality and that everything he offers will do nothing to change the situation on the ground in Syria.
  QUESTION: Vic '' Toria, the UN said that --
  MS. NULAND: You've forgotten my name already, Elise?
  QUESTION: I know, it's been a while.
  MS. NULAND: Or was it a late Super Bowl night?
  QUESTION: (Inaudible) Victor.
  QUESTION: I was going to call you Victoria. (Laughter.)
  QUESTION: There was that movie with Julie Andrews, Victor Victoria. (Laughter.)
  QUESTION: I'm sorry. The UN --
  MS. NULAND: I don't know how my husband would feel about that one.
  QUESTION: The UN said over the last few days, gave an estimate that over 60,000 people have died in Syria. And, I mean, is there a number at which point you say the threshold is just too high to not do more in terms of more robust U.S. action? I mean, I know that the cases between Libya and Syria are different, but you took action in Libya to prevent the murder of tens of thousands of people. And the death toll is much higher in Syria than it ever was in Libya, and I'm just wondering where the threshold is.
  MS. NULAND: Well, we did talk about this quite extensively last week when the UN's report came out and we did find the numbers were considerably higher than some of the estimates that we had seen before. Elise, I think as we've said all the way along, whether we're talking about Yemen or Libya or Egypt or Syria, all of these circumstances are different in terms of evaluation of what makes the most sense in terms of international support. We continue to believe that our combined efforts of squeezing the regime through sanctions, supporting the opposition through nonlethal support, coordinating with others who are providing other kinds of support, and providing the maximum humanitarian support, both inside and outside Syria, is the right course for the United States at this time.
  I don't want to get into a numbers game. It is a horrible, brutal tragedy what is going on in Syria. But it is the Assad regime that bears fundamental responsibility, which speaks to the completely callous attitude that he took in this speech, just completely ignoring the fact that at any moment he could silence his own guns and that would completely change the situation on the ground.
  QUESTION: But if I could just follow, you seem to have this policy where you're hoping that the rebels will overtake the regime, yet '' and you're coordinating with others who are doing so, but you're not doing, in effect, they would claim, enough to help them tip that balance. So you're hoping that they'll get the job done, but not giving them the tools to do so.
  MS. NULAND: Again, the situation on the ground is changing; it is accelerating. We are still seeing the regime on the defensive. We are seeing the opposition continuing to take and hold more territory. They've now grounded his planes in and around Aleppo. The battle for Damascus is engaged. The decision that we've made is to continue to coordinate with countries around the world who are providing support. Some of them have made a different decision that we've made, but for the United States, our view is that the nonlethal assistance that we are providing is appropriate for us in terms of training, in terms of communications, these kinds of things.
  Please.
  QUESTION: Just when you say that it is the view of the Department that Assad is completely out of touch with reality, it invites a further question as to whether or not Secretary Clinton believes that Assad is a rational actor.
  MS. NULAND: I don't think anybody who has '' is guilty of the kinds of crimes against your own people that he's guilty of can be considered rational by any human sense of the word.
  Please.
  QUESTION: I wondered if the State Department believes, following those mob scenes we saw at the end of the speech from Assad, whether the feeling is that these people are also deluded or whether there's a severe amount of coercion going on in that case.
  MS. NULAND: I don't think we're in a position to speak to that, but as we've seen all over the world, renting a mob is not that difficult.
  QUESTION: Is there any movement on the three Bs?
  MS. NULAND: We are continuing '' Mr. Brahimi is continuing to try to work out a date. We're prepared as soon as he can get it together. But I think, as we noted, it was holiday week in Russia from the 1st to the 7th. This is their first day back to work, for those of them who did come back to work. So we're continuing to be ready and to stand by for when he can get a date and a venue.
  QUESTION: Do you believe that the speech, in a way, sort of preempted the meeting of Brahimi, I mean, or the value of the meeting?
  MS. NULAND: I think it underscores the difficulty of the job that Brahimi's taken on. I think the question that he had initially was, could he take Geneva and convince Assad to participate in the establishment of a transitional government? And you can tell by the attitude that he showed in that speech that getting him to actively participate is very difficult. So the question is: Can we make facts on the ground around him that he's going to have to contend with?
  QUESTION: But if you don't regard him as a rational actor, then almost any effort at diplomatic activity involving him or around him is not going to achieve your desired ends.
  MS. NULAND: We've talked a number of times here, James. There are a number of audiences for this. I mean, obviously, if he were to say, ''Okay, I'm ending the violence, I'm prepared to send some representatives to a discussion about a transitional government,'' that would be a terrific step.
  But in the absence of that, in addition to continuing our pressure on him, part of what we have to do is make the Syrian Opposition Coalition and all of the actors on the ground who are working with them on the political side, and on the other side as well, as credible and as prepared as possible for a transition. So within the context of that Geneva agreement, if you go back and read it, it includes all kinds of very good detail about the principles '' human rights standards, democratic principles, balance of power, real institutions that need to undergird a future Syria.
  So continuing to get Syrians who represent a future Syria to talk about it, to build a consensus for that way forward, to begin to operate even in advance of him leaving on the basis of it will make that transition all the smoother when it comes, along with the notion that they should all operate now, even as they struggle for that day, on the basis of these principles, that they should respect the human rights of all Syrians, that they should create an environment in those places that are liberated, where everybody's rights are protected. There should be no reprisals, there should be no human rights abuses by any fighters, et cetera.
  So all of this is good fodder for the Syria we want to see. And getting going on the basis of it even now is helpful, we think.
  QUESTION: Is he evil? Is Assad evil?
  MS. NULAND: You're asking me to put a label on him. I could use any number of adjectives here.
  QUESTION: Do you apply that one?
  MS. NULAND: He certainly should leave power. He is beyond brutal. It is inhumane what he has done to his own people. Is that good enough for you, James?
  QUESTION: I've asked a specific question. Do you regard him as evil?
  MS. NULAND: I don't have a definition for that adjective. I certainly personally would consider what he has done evil, but I don't think the U.S. Government goes around putting t-shirts on people like that. We've certainly said we think he's lost his legitimacy to lead, that he is one of the most brutal actors on the world stage today. We can continue if you want to.
  QUESTION: President Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire in public, so we do sometimes apply these labels. I wonder what prevents you from applying it here.
  MS. NULAND: As I said, I personally consider what he's done evil.
  Please.
  QUESTION: I want to move on if we could.
  MS. NULAND: Go ahead.
  QUESTION: There's also the axis of evil if --
  MS. NULAND: There.
  QUESTION: -- you remember that. And Doctor Evil. (Laughter.)
  MS. NULAND: North Korea. Now that --
  QUESTION: One more on --
  QUESTION: Can we stay on Syria?
  QUESTION: On Syria, just one more. There is an idea out there '' David Ignatius wrote about it '' of making overtures to people who surround Assad.
  MS. NULAND: Right.
  QUESTION: Is this an active consideration that they would have some type of protection, financial protection if they were to turn away from him?
  MS. NULAND: Well, let me simply say that we obviously believe that anybody with blood on their hands needs to be held accountable, that it's up to the Syrians to figure out how that should happen. But as we've said here, there are a number of countries who have made overtures, whether it's to Assad and his family themselves or to people around him, offering sanctuary, offering protection. A number of those close to Assad, as you know, his vice presidents, et cetera, have already availed themselves of these opportunities for exile.
  Back to James's point about what Geneva provides, I think the other point here is the more you see the opposition operating on the basis of the Syria that they want to have beginning to, in liberated areas, govern humanely, et cetera, the hope is also to peel off those supporters of Assad, the Alawi population who's long-suffering, et cetera, to say we'd rather live like that than what you're offering, Assad. So there is a question of trying to create positive facts on the ground.
  Please.
  QUESTION: Any readout on Ambassador Ford's contacts in Amman?
  MS. NULAND: Just '' I haven't had a chance to talk to him. He's been in meetings all day today. But he was in Jordan over the weekend. As I said on Friday, he had two missions there. He was first talking to the Jordanians about Syria and the refugee efforts that they are undertaking, and how we work together on all of those things. And then he was able to meet with a range of Syrian opposition figures who are currently making their home in Jordan. I don't have too much more detail, but I'll try to get some more for you for tomorrow.
  QUESTION: Would you say former Prime Minister Hijab was among them?
  MS. NULAND: I'll ask the question. I know that he's somebody that Robert Ford has seen in the past. I don't know whether he saw him on this trip.
  QUESTION: Are you on North Korea?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: I just know that last week you were not too happy about this trip by Mr. Schmidt and Governor Richardson. Now that they're actually there, I'm wondering if you have any additional or different thoughts.
  MS. NULAND: We continue to think the trip is ill-advised for the reasons that we stated last week.
  QUESTION: And are there any '' I presume '' and apologies, because I wasn't here and I wasn't really paying that much attention to the briefings while I was gone --
  MS. NULAND: You weren't?
  QUESTION: No, I'm sorry.
  MS. NULAND: We missed you, Matt.
  QUESTION: I'm sure. I'm sure you did. Are there any plans to talk to them once they get back to see what they learned, if anything?
  MS. NULAND: Jo did ask that question on Friday. I think we are always open to hearing from Americans who have been in North Korea. As you know, it's --
  QUESTION: (Inaudible) was an ill-advised trip, or not?
  MS. NULAND: As I said, we're obviously open to hearing from them. But we'll see what they have when they come back.
  QUESTION: Well, if they're going to get this gentleman out, then would you still consider the trip ill-advised?
  MS. NULAND: Again, you're taking me into hypotheticals that haven't produced yet. But we just think the timing is bad.
  QUESTION: I wonder if there's been any reaction even through back channels from Beijing, because they obviously went in via China, whether the Chinese are sort of telling you they also think the trip is ill-advised.
  MS. NULAND: I don't have anything on the Chinese attitudes. I would send you to them on that.
  Please, Said.
  QUESTION: Change topics?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: The Palestinian Authority.
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, took a decision to rename the Authority the State of Palestine. Do you have any comment on that?
  MS. NULAND: Well, our policy on continuing to call it the Palestinian Authority until such time that there is a negotiated agreement for a state with borders will not change.
  QUESTION: Is that what you call, I guess, unilateral actions, as you have described it in the past, that is not helpful, and provocative to the peace process?
  MS. NULAND: Well, you can't create a state by rhetoric and with labels and names. You can only create a state in this context through bilateral negotiations.
  QUESTION: And have you spoken to him or to any of his advisors on this particular issue?
  MS. NULAND: I don't know whether David Ratney had a chance to speak to them yesterday, but I think I --
  QUESTION: Michael.
  MS. NULAND: -- Michael, Matt, Ratney '' Michael. I'm so sorry, Michael. But as I said, Special Envoy Hale is on his way to the region. He'll be in Jerusalem for meetings tonight, and then he will see President Abbas and others tomorrow.
  QUESTION: So you don't '' I'm sorry '' so you don't really take a position on this, on them '' on the decision to start calling themselves the State of Palestine?
  MS. NULAND: Our point is that --
  QUESTION: I understand what the point is --
  MS. NULAND: -- we're not going to change what --
  QUESTION: -- but I mean, do you think '' but in the past, when they have done things like gone to the United Nations, you've been very outspoken and said that you don't think it's a good idea. Do you think this is a good idea, or is this also a bad idea that --
  MS. NULAND: I mean, it's provocative without changing the condition for the Palestinian people.
  QUESTION: I'm sorry, provocative without --
  MS. NULAND: Changing anything on the ground for the Palestinian people.
  QUESTION: Right. In fact it seems the only thing that would be changed would be some stationery and a couple signs, not really changing much on the ground --
  MS. NULAND: It doesn't change anything on the ground.
  QUESTION: -- unlike settlement activity, which does. So I'm just wondering if it is correct that you told the Palestinians that you thought this was a bad idea, or if you said, well, it's not going to do anything, but go ahead and do it because we're not going to loudly protest, like you have done with other things that they have done.
  MS. NULAND: Well, we're certainly going to tell them that it's a bad idea and it doesn't change anything for the Palestinian people, and if they really want to change things for the Palestinian people, they need to get back to the table.
  QUESTION: Okay. But do you know if that was '' was that opinion expressed to the Palestinians before this, when --
  MS. NULAND: Again, I don't know that we had any forewarning on this name declaration, but --
  QUESTION: But it certainly will be --
  MS. NULAND: -- David Hale will have a chance to say something, too.
  QUESTION: -- it certainly will be raised.
  MS. NULAND: It will.
  QUESTION: What '' how is it provocative? You said it's a provocative act. What does it provoke?
  MS. NULAND: Again, we have been calling on both sides not to take rhetorical action or action on the ground that could be '' could imperil the environment for peace. So it's the kind of thing that is antagonizing to the other side without changing the situation on the ground.
  Arshad.
  QUESTION: If we're done with that --
  MS. NULAND: Mm-hmm.
  QUESTION: -- Kuwait. A Kuwaiti man was sentenced to two years in prison today for a tweet that the authorities regarded as insulting the Emir. And he's the second Kuwaiti, I believe, to have been sentenced to prison for this offense in the last two days. Any comment on this?
  MS. NULAND: Well, we've seen these reports about the conviction and sentencing of two Kuwaitis for their posts on twitter. We call on the Government of Kuwait to adhere to its tradition of respect for freedom of assembly, association, and expression, all of which are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Kuwait is a party. You know how strongly we feel about locking people up for their use of Twitter.
  QUESTION: Have you raised this --
  MS. NULAND: Some people should be? Is that '' (laughter).
  QUESTION: Have you raised this with the Kuwaiti Government?
  MS. NULAND: We have.
  Please, Said.
  QUESTION: Bahrain.
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Would you update us on your position to '' or your reaction to the latest arrests and apparent heavy-handedness of the Bahraini Government against the opposition?
  MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, there was a final ruling today in the Bahraini Court of Cassation on the 13 Bahraini activists. We regret today's decision by the Bahraini Court of Cassation to uphold the convictions and the sentences of these 13 activists. We're concerned that this decision further restricts freedom of expression and compromises the atmosphere within Bahrain for reconciliation. We have repeatedly voiced our concern about these cases both publicly and privately and at the highest levels, and urged the Government of Bahrain to abide by its international obligations, and we have also had Embassy observers at the trial. So we call on the Government of Bahrain to investigate all reports of torture, including those made by the defendants in this case, as it has pledged to do, and to hold accountable any who are found responsible.
  Jo.
  QUESTION: Can we move to China?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Similarly '' in a similar vein on the freedom of expression, there have been demonstrations today outside the offices of a weekly newspaper in Guangzhou because an article was pulled, and there are demonstrations in favor of '' in support of media freedom. I just wondered if you '' if the United States has been following this and how interested this could be in terms of the overall picture of freedom of expression in China.
  MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, we have long defended and supported the right of media freedom, both for Chinese journalists and for international journalists operating in China. We believe that censorship of the media is incompatible with China's aspirations to build a modern information-based economy and society. It is, of course, interesting that we now have Chinese who are strongly taking up their right for free speech, and we hope the government's taking notice.
  Please.
  QUESTION: Can I go back to Bahrain for one second?
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Do you have anything on the case of Taqi Abulla (inaudible), who apparently is an American citizen, could be a dual Bahraini-American national, who's been detained, allegedly tortured in prison? I understand the Embassy knows about the case.
  MS. NULAND: I don't have anything today on this case. Let me see what I can get for you, Elise.
  QUESTION: Apparently, he's been '' he was arrested in October, and not only was he detained and abused in prison, but apparently his family was also roughed up.
  MS. NULAND: And he's an American citizen, you believe?
  QUESTION: I think he might be a dual national, but there is an American citizenship.
  MS. NULAND: Okay. So we'll get more information for you.
  I think we have time for two more. We need to get off the stage because the President, I think, is coming out in a few minutes.
  Please.
  QUESTION: In South Asia, in the disputed Kashmir region, Pakistani and Indian troops exchanged fire yesterday, and today Pakistan lodged a protest with New Delhi over the killing of a Pakistani soldier. Are you concerned that this incident will affect the recent normalization process between the two countries?
  MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, we have consistently supported attempts between India and Pakistan to find a positive way forward between them and to work on issues of Kashmir. We are concerned about any reports of violence along the Line of Control in Kashmir. We urge both sides to take steps to end exchanges of fire and to resume normal trade and travel across the Line of Control.
  Let's do one more. Please.
  QUESTION: Yes. The question about '' it's Japan, that the new Japanese administration is talking about reviewing the so-called Kono Statement on the comfort women issue, and that this is thought to have ripple effects for the Japan-Korea alliance '' I'm sorry, Japan-Korea relations. And the question is: Is the U.S. concerned that these tensions that could come up with the review of the Kono Statement could have a bleed-over to trilateral relations between U.S.-Japan in particular but also U.S.-Japan-Korea relations?
  MS. NULAND: Well, with regard to the issue at hand, we continue to hope that the countries in the region can work together to resolve their concerns over historical issues in an amicable way and through dialogue. As you know, we have no closer ally than Japan. We want to see the new Japanese Government, the new South Korean Government, all of the countries in Northeast Asia working together and solving any outstanding issues, whether they are territorial, whether they're historic, through dialogue.
  Okay?
  QUESTION: (Inaudible) have a meeting with Mr. Burns today. (Inaudible) Washington, D.C. today. What issue they discuss about?
  MS. NULAND: Deputy Secretary Burns has a meeting today with Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Kawai. He will also meet with Assistant Secretary Campbell today. They're going to discuss the full range of U.S.-Japan relations '' bilateral, regional, and global. This is a chance to see the new Abe government and launch that conversation.
  Thanks, everybody.
  QUESTION: Thank you.
  (The briefing was concluded at 1:11 p.m.)
Parked Boeing 787 Dreamliner Catches Fire At Boston's Logan International Airport
  Link to Article
  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:01
President Obama Announces National Security Nominations
  Link to Article
  Source: Crooks and Liars
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:01
  Amid Republicans' weeks-long display of sound and fury, President Obama nominated Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense and John Brennan for CIA director.
  At the moment, Hagel is being touted as the more controversial nominee by the Republicans. Log Cabin Republicans, who endorsed a virulently anti-gay candidate for President in Mitt Romney, are protesting Hagel's 1998 comments regarding the military's don't ask, don't tell policy, and put up a full page ad in the New York Times today opposing his nomination. On the other hand, neocons are outraged that Hagel isn't completely in the tank to blow up the world to save Israel.
  All of this would be comical if it weren't so pathetic. After all, in 2000, Mr. Neocon Bill Kristol thought Hagel would be a perfect running-mate for then-candidate George W. Bush. Now that Hagel is Obama's choice, not so much.
  Hero to zero politics at its best. Meanwhile, war hero Max Cleland says they'll quit the posturing and confirm Hagel. As much as I'd like to believe that, I have no confidence in Republicans' ability to scale down their insanity these days. The truth is, they'd oppose anyone Obama nominates, but Hagel scares them most because he's a Republican who isn't a neocon hawk or a policy elite.
  John Brennan, on the other hand, is a more troublesome nominee. Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald has a must-read column about why his nomination for CIA is troubling:
  In his current job, for example, Brennan has spearheaded some of Obama's most controversial national security tactics, such as the aggressive escalation of drone strikes and so-called signature strikes, where targets are hit based on incomplete intelligence. He's also caught flak for claiming drone attacks didn't result in a ''single'' civilian death in Pakistan one year and for initially (and erroneously) claiming that Osama Bin Laden ''engaged in a firefight'' with Navy SEALs during the 2011 raid in which he was killed.
  In 2008, liberals and civil libertarians were outraged by the possibility of Brennan heading the CIA. ''Appointing Brennan to the CIA does not mean a change from Bush. That was absolutely a critical part of Obama's message. With Brennan, we get the taint of a Bush and two-facedness of a Clinton,'' Andrew Sullivan, then at the Atlantic, wrote at the time.
  Four years later, civil liberties have largely disappeared from the range of issues liberals care about. Two weeks ago, the Senate quietly reauthorized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendment Act '-- which codifies warrantless wiretapping and email snooping '-- with little debate and no amendments.
  I'm sure the confirmation hearings will be a hoot. Republicans are already on the bizarro train, so it could be entertaining. Or frightening.
Body Found in Carnesville Identified | 92.1 WLHR
  Link to Article
  Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00
  In Carnesville, not much is known yet about the death of a Kentucky man found late last Thursday on Hayes Road.
  According to Franklin County Sheriff Stevie Thomas, the body of 32-year old Keith Ratliff of Frankfort, Kentucky was found about 5:45p Thursday evening.
  At the time, authorities would not release any information until the victim's relatives had been notified. On Sunday, Thomas said Ratliff's body was discovered after a 911 call.
  ''We received a call about a possible DOA,'' Thomas said Sunday. ''Upon the deputies arrival, they found a white male who was unconscious and not breathing. EMS personnel came and determined the man was deceased.''
  Thomas said they are treating the death as a homicide until the investigation proves otherwise. He would not say why the man was in Carnesville or give any other information.
  Investigators, Thomas said, determined Ratliff had died of a single gunshot to the head and that his body been there for some time. Thomas said investigators found numerous guns in the area where Ratliff's body was found.
  Sheriff Thomas said agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have been called in to assist in the investigation. Ratliff's body was taken to the GBI Crime Lab in Atlanta for autopsy.
  Thomas said the investigation is ongoing and more information will be released as it becomes available.
Manager Of FPS Russia Murdered: Pro-Gun YouTube Channel Was 3rd Most Popular YouTube Channel | Politics
  Link to Article
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 23:59
  Manager Of FPS Russia Murdered: Pro-Gun YouTube Channel Was 3rd Most Popular YouTube Channel
  (Before It's News)
  What is going on? Have the powers that be launched a full scale attack upon not only the 2nd Amendment but also those who are speaking up loudly and strongly in support of the 2nd Amendment? The manager for a pro-gun youtube channel has been found murdered; not just murdered but executed. The story below is from Liberty and Such. The video at the bottom of story is the most recent to be released by FPS Russia. I feel that this murder is a loud message to 2nd Amendment supporters.
  Keith Ratliff, the manager of FPS Russia, the 3rd most popular youtube channel was found dead yesterday, tied up to a chair and shot in the back of the head.
  http://www.921wlhr.com/body-found-in-carnesville-identified-2/
  http://m.topix.com/forum/city/frankfort-ky/TF7BSLPVVF7EIFRV6/p2
  http://www.independentmail.com/news/2013/jan/06/gbi-to-help-investigate-kentucky-mans-shooting/
  The radio and media at large isn't mentioning the exact details, however this is a very important thing. FPS Russia is a driving force in the pro-gun movement concerning youth. The videos published are very pro-gun, and reach literally millions of impressionable youth showing them that firearms just aren't for people in movies or video games.
Security Cameras Catch 2 Men Setting Off An "Acid Bomb" Outside A Texas Woman's Home
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 23:58
Who's Jacky Talking About? '' January 7, 2013
  Link to Article
  Source: Jacky Jasper's Diary of a Hollywood Street King
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:42
  by Jacky Jasper
  She may have been a chart-topping Grammy Award-winning singer, but her personal life has proven to be challenging for her. That may be because she began her music career marrying a much older, and powerful, music mogul. Sources say after saying their 'I do's', her controlling husband attempted to stop her from taking her career to the silver screen. That's just before our mystery woman was checked into a psych ward, before being dumped by her label.
  She was born to an Afro-American father and Irish mother. Being an interracial couple, during the 60'²s and 70'²s, the family was forced to move several times. The racial tension they endured may be what led to their split, when our blind item was just three-years-old. She was reportedly left ''racially confused'', and on a life-long search for a father figure.
  As a singer, she's generated a reputation of being a diva. During her heyday, she found herself at the center of controversy after a very public feud with one Motor City rapper '' and word of her distancing herself from her former 'street-walking' sister.
  As a sex partner, she's no stranger to a long list of entertainers and athletes. Don't believe me.. Ask Shawntae 'Da Brat' Harris '-- who sources say broke the heart of Total singer, Keisha, when the former Bad Boy recording artist walked in on our blind item and the So So Def rapper having sex in a New York City Parker Meridian hotel suite.Sources say another known sex session involving our mystery lady involved both Snoop Dogg and Pharrell. It's a three-way which we're told preceded the two men joining her in the studio to work on one of her comeback songs.
  Now, can you guess who I'm talking about?
Channel 4 News faces investigation over royal prank call bulletin | Media | guardian.co.uk
  Link to Article
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:36
  Channel 4 News faces investigation by Ofcom after complaints over the broadcast of early exchanges of the royal prank call just hours after the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
  Channel 4 News is being investigated by media regulator Ofcom over the broadcast of the Duchess of Cambridge prank royal phone call featuring nurse Jacintha Saldanha hours after she had been found dead.
  The news bulletin replayed the opening exchanges of the call, by Australian radio presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian, to the King Edward VII hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated. The edition of ITN-made Channel 4 News aired on 7 December.
  Earlier that day Saldanha, who transferred the call to the nurse treating the duchess, had been found dead in the nurses' quarters of the hospital in central London.
  Ofcom said it had received two complaints about the broadcast. The regulator is investigating the bulletin under section two of its broadcasting code, relating to harm and offence, requiring that "generally accepted standards" be applied to broadcasts to provide "adequate protection for members of the public from '... harmful and/or offensive material".
  Saldanha, who worked at the private hospital for four years, answered the call from the DJs on Austereo-owned station 2Day FM early on the morning of 4 December. The pair pretended to be the Queen and the Prince of Wales.
  The nurse was found dead in an apparent suicide three days later.
  Separately in the regulator's broadcasting code, it also warns against broadcasting footage or audio of people caught up in a "personal tragedy".
  It adds that broadcasters should "try to reduce the potential distress to victims and/or relatives when making or broadcasting programmes intended to examine past events that involve trauma to individuals".
  An ITN spokeswoman said: "At Channel 4 News the editorial team works hard to treat sensitive news events in a compassionate and appropriate way. In this instance, an editorial judgement was made on the day to broadcast a small segment (less than ten seconds) of the call for clarity. Although we do not accept there was a breach of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, with hindsight we may have made a different editorial decision and we regret any offence caused."
  ' To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
  ' To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.
Diana Ross schopt stennis
  Link to Article
  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:34
  ma 07 jan 2013, 14:57
  van onze redactieAMSTERDAM - Diana Ross heeft zichzelf compleet voor paal gezet in een chic restaurant in Beverly Hills.
  Diana ontpopte zich als een verwende diva toen medewerkers van restaurant La Scala niet direct een tafeltje vrijmaakten voor de zangeres.
  Diana wilde aan tafel wachten op haar dochter die verlaat was, maar gasten mogen in La Scala pas plaatsnemen als alle gasten zijn gearriveerd (C)n als er een reservering gemaakt is.
  De zangeres lapte de regels aan haar laars en zocht t"ch een plekje in het restaurant. Ze werd vriendelijk verzocht ergens anders te gaan wachten, dit tot grote ergernis van de diva. Een woedeuitbarsting volgde en ze stormde vervolgens kwaad naar buiten.
  De baas van het restaurant legt uit aan New York Post: "We vinden het erg spijtig dat mevrouw Ross problemen kreeg met ons en dat ze dacht dat de regels voor haar niet gelden. Maar iedereen krijgt dezelfde behandeling, of ze nou bekend zijn of niet."
  (C) 1996-2013 Telegraaf Media Nederland | Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlPrivacy | Cookies | Disclaimer
Master Counterfeiter Busted
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:21
School Bombing Plot Disrupted 17 Year Old "Self-Proclaimed White Supremacist" Alabama HS Student
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:19
Vladimir Lenin quotes
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:15
  Vladimir Lenin quotes
  Vladimir Lenin quotes (Russian Founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, 1870-1924)
  Similar Quotes. Add to Chapter...See also
  Quotes about:Inflation, Taxation.Quotes with:bourgeoisie, crush, grind, inflation, millstones, taxation, The Way.Vladimir Lenin said: "The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them..." and:
  ''A lie told often enough becomes truth'' Vladimir Lenin quotes (Russian Founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, 1870-1924)
  Similar Quotes. Add to Chapter... ''If it were necessary to give the briefest possible definition of imperialism, we should have to say that imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism.'' Vladimir Lenin quotes (Russian Founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, 1870-1924)
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Obama To Appoint John Brennan CIA Director'...
  Link to Article
  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:07
  Via Weekly Standard:
  President Obama is expected to nominate White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan for CIA director as early as Monday, Capitol Hill sources tell Fox News.
  Brennan has served in the counterterrorism post since the beginning of the Obama administration. Prior to taking that position, though, Brennan spent about 25 years at the CIA, which would suggest he knows the agency well.
  Same John Brennan who in 2010 professed his love for ''al-Quds,'' which is the Arabic name for Israel's capital, Jerusalem.
  ''And in all my travels, the city I have come to love most is al Quds '-- Jerusalem, where three great faiths come together.''
black sniffer plane - Google Search
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:04
  HowStuffWorks "How Bomb-sniffing Dogs Work"science.howstuffworks.com/bomb-sniffing-dog.htm- CachedBomb-sniffing dogs risk life and paw each day to protect the public. ... He turnedthe aircraft back to New York and rushed 45 passengers and seven crewmembers off the ... In the cockpit, she sniffed a black briefcase and sat down nextto it.A medal of courage for bomb dog Theo: Posthumous award for ...www.dailymail.co.uk/.../A-medal-courage-bomb-dog-Theo-Posthumous- award-heroic-animal-died-hours-master.html
  6 Sep 2012 ... Army sniffer dog Theo suffered a fatal seizure just hours after his handler, Lance... Tasker, 26, was shot dead by the Taliban in Afghanistan in March 2011. ...Courteney Cox vamps it up in black leather on Leno after admitting she'll .....Fashion heir and wife among six feared dead as aircraft disappears off ...'Nato plane crashes in Afghanistan' diff viewer (21/22) - News Snifferwww.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/177/diff/21/22- CachedVersion 21, Version 22. 14 UK troops die in Afghan crash ...'Nato plane crashes in Afghanistan' diff viewer (15/16) - News Snifferwww.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/177/diff/15/16- CachedVersion 15, Version 16. 14 Britons killed in Afghanistan...Hawker Siddeley Nimrod - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor the 1930s biplane fighter aircraft, see Hawker Nimrod. ... 3.2 Gulf War; 3.3Afghanistan and Iraq War; 3.4 Search and rescue; 3.5 Offshore Tapestry ....Sensor systems included radar, sonar, and the magnetic anomaly detector; a 'sniffer' could ... relay support of the Operation Black Buck bombing raids by AvroVulcans.Cargo planes bomb plot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaIt then was flown onward on a UPS cargo plane to Cologne/Bonn Airport in ...Searching with explosives detection equipment and sniffer dogs, they failed tofind ...Unmanned aerial vehicle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaHistorically, UAVs were simple remotely piloted aircraft, but autonomous ..... areorganized under Task Force Liberty in Afghanistan and Task Force ODIN in Iraq...... scanners, thermal imaging cameras, open WiFi sniffers, and other sensors.UK forces: operations in Afghanistan - Detailed guidance - GOV.UKhttps://www.gov.uk/uk-forces-operations-in-afghanistan- CachedRotary wing aircraft used by UK forces in Afghanistan...... A two-year-old blackLabrador military search dog is back on the Helmand front line sniffing out ...Dogs outdone by electronic sensors in Afghanistan - Washington ...www.washingtontimes.com/.../dogs-outdone-by-electronic-sensors-in- afghanistan/?...- Cached6 Jun 2012 ... In Afghanistan, a soldier's best friend is no longer a bomb-sniffing dog, ... Missoni:Fashion executive on small plane missing in Venezuela ... Ringo, a 3-year-oldblack Labrador, is used as an off-leash bomb sniffer. ... more > ...
'The Gardner Heist' cracks into art theft - USATODAY.com
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:03
  By Maria Puente, USA TODAY
  Everybody loves a mystery, but the mystery of who stole $500 million in art from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on March 18, 1990, is just plain maddening.
  It's maddening that this spectacular theft '-- a dozen artworks, including a Vermeer, three Rembrandts and five Degas '-- turns out to have been preventable: Poor security and inside help enabled two thieves dressed as cops to get in, tie up the guards and spend leisurely hours cutting Old Masters from frames.
  It's maddening that the list of suspects '-- brutal Boston gangsters, creepy con men, small-time hoods, veteran art thieves, Irish terrorists '-- has only grown in the past 19 years.
  Museum officials and art lovers, FBI agents and art detectives, journalists and filmmakers, and especially author Ulrich Boser all have been driven to a kind of Gardner madness over the years, chasing innumerable leads down innumerable dead ends.
  What's most maddening is that the paintings have not been found; all these years later, we still don't know whodunit.
  The Gardner Heist does not solve the case, but it comes close. Journalist Boser took up the chase after inheriting the case files of art-theft detective Harold Smith, who pursued the Gardner "caper" (as Boser repeatedly refers to it) for years until his death in 2005.
  Boser became as obsessed as Smith. He found an important but long-ignored witness. He traced how the official investigation was compromised by the Boston FBI's dirty ties to the local underworld. And he marshals a persuasive case against the man he thinks did it: David Turner, a repulsive Boston mobster (now serving a long prison sentence in an unrelated case) who, among other criminal acts, covered his tracks by allegedly murdering a string of witnesses, including his suspected partner in the heist.
  And the paintings? Maybe they're in Ireland. Maybe they're dispersed to the private sanctuaries of rich and unscrupulous collectors, or forgotten in a warehouse outside Boston. Most heart-clutching, maybe they're burned to crisps.
  "I believe that the Gardner paintings will reappear," Boser declares, although the previous 200 pages of reporting would suggest that they won't. But, as he points out, in the history of art theft, stranger things have happened '-- stolen masterpieces have turned up after decades, even centuries.
  If nothing else, Boser has done a public service in exposing the real world of art theft: It isn't about glamour and culture '-- it's about greed, violence and irreparable, maddening loss.
  Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.
Bulb Fiction (German) - Verbot der Gluehlampe
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  Source: bertb news feed
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:40
Defibrillators in Metra cars could save heart attack victims - Chicago Sun-Times
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:21
  BY TINA SFONDELES Staff Reporter tsfondeles@suntimes.com December 27, 2012 5:18PM
  Governor Pat Quinn with an automated external defibrillator (AED) device on Metra rail car, Thursday, December 27, 2012. I John H. White~Sun-Times
  storyidforme: 42232962tmspicid: 15614453fileheaderid: 7046974
  Updated: December 28, 2012 9:04AM
  All Metra trains will be equipped with automatic external defibrillators by the end of January, officials announced on Thursday.
  The easy-to-use, automated device helped a Naperville woman save two lives at the fitness center were she works.
  The latest involved a man who collapsed face first on a treadmill after going into cardiac arrest. Tracy Trimble got some help rolling the man over, then she performed CPR and chest compressions. And with the defibrillator, she brought the man back to life.
  ''His body jolted and the machine told me to continue CPR, so I continued,'' she said. ''And I gave one last breath and all of a sudden miraculously, he was awake again.''
  Trimble says she sees the man at the gym every so often: ''He's a big Italian guy so he gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek every time he sees me.''
  Trimble's heroic efforts might become more commonplace come next year, as Metra finishes adding AEDs to its railcars.
  The defibrillators are being placed near the bathrooms in all cab cars for the 10 Metra lines that use diesel locomotives. For Metra's Electric Line, they're being placed near the engineer compartment of every odd-numbered car. On Metra's newest Highliner cars, they'll be located near the bathroom on every odd-numbered car.
  To know whether an AED is on your car, look for a sticker near the door featuring an AED sign with a heart. When the latch to the device is opened, Metra staff showed, a loud siren goes off until the defibrillator is back in place.
  At a press conference Thursday morning at Millennium Station, an AED expert showed onlookers how the defibrillator is used. Via a recording, it tells you exactly where to place the pads and when to conduct chest compressions and it even analyzes whether or not the victim needs an electric shock.
  About 1,000 people in America have heart attacks every day. And about 50,000 will be saved by using AEDs, according to the American Red Cross.
  ''Bystanders can save the lives of their fellow citizens,'' said Dr. Amer Aldeen, director of the Chicago Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Education Service. ''Performing chest compressions and using AEDs can almost triple survival rates for someone in cardiac arrest.''
  Gov. Pat Quinn said his goal is to get AEDs in as many public spaces as possible to make the state leaders in the field.
  ''We want to make AEDs as common as fire extinguishers in the course of our daily lives, whether it be a school or another public place, or traveling,'' Quinn said. ''That's how you really have great public health, preventing bad things from happening in the first place. We don't want people to die from sudden cardiac arrest, and we can prevent that with an AED.''
  An RTA grant will cover the cost of purchasing the 300 AEDs from Cardiac Science Corporation. Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine is sponsoring the defibrillators to help offset the costs of traning about 1,000 Metra employees. The sponsorship also includes maintenance of the machines for five years.
A defibrillator would have saved our precious girl. Every school must have one | Health | Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express
  Link to Article
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:21
  The next day she was dead, one of 270 children who die after suffering sudden cardiac arrest, or Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS), in Britain each year.Since then her father Robert Underwood has raised thousands of pounds to install life-saving defibrillator machines, which restore normal heart rhythm, into as many schools and public places as possible.
  "The morning she died Charlotte woke saying she couldn't breathe," says Mr Underwood. "We tried CPR as best we could but she had stopped breathing by then as we waited for the ambulance to come.
  "The hospital staff were amazing and tried tirelessly to save her. They kept on trying something else. In the end, they had to stop as it was just to no avail, she was gone. Our beautiful, sporty, fit 16-year-old's heart had stopped working; it was almost impossible to comprehend."
  The coroner finally came back with a verdict of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome.
  "Like anyone would I looked it up on the internet and learned that it is when the heart goes too fast or too slowly and leads to a cardiac arrest," says Mr Underwood.
  "Charlotte was lying in her bed, so she wasn't exercising or anything when she arrested. It was just a complete mystery and we were left with only part of the answer to what had happened.
  "That was the moment I decided that Charlotte's life wouldn't be in vain. I read that CPR increases the chances of survival by five per cent but that a defibrillator hikes those chances up to 75-80 per cent survival rate.
  "The machines cost around £970 each and every five years they need to have around £200 spent on them to replace the batteries and the pads which apply the shocks to the heart.
  "In America they are already in most schools and public places and I will campaign till I drop to have it law for them to be in every school here. Every school and public place has to have a fire extinguisher, which is hardly ever used.
  "The argument against defibrillators is that they would not be used often and would need special training.
  "Anyone can use them: they are for the non-medically trained and actually speak to the person operating them. You just have to switch them on and apply the pads for the machine to take a reading.
  "They won't shock people who have not had a heart attack. They only operate when the heart is in an irregular rhythm and speak to the operator all the time telling them exactly what to do next. Obviously training is preferable but a total novice could use them with little difficulty to save a life.
  "It is not like something off Casualty. These are tiny machines which can be stored on a cupboard shelf, not the trolleys you see trundling down wards on the telly."
  Mr Underwood is currently asking people to sign a petition to get a machine in every school and has already raised enough cash to purchase 14 defibrillators for schools around Redditch, where he lives, along with the YMCA building and Redditch United football club which is used by 20 youth teams throughout the week.
  Last year he ran the 100metres in the Olympic Stadium before the Games opened to raise money and has cycled 1,200kilometres to bring in more cash.
  Most schools have welcomed the defibrillators, but one primary school, St George's First School in Redditch, turned down the offer after Worcestershire County Council's health and safety department said they were not suitable for use on small children. "I was utterly outraged," says Mr Underwood.
  "They are talking nonsense. Yes, you have to use a lesser current for children under eight years old but there are machines available out there where you simply flick a switch to go from paediatric to adult mode and that is what we would have got for them.
  "Hospital maternity units have defibrillators for newborn infants but if they listened to Worcestershire County Council they are going against health and safety advice. They don't know what they are talking about and it is ridiculous."
  Clive Werrett, Worcestershire County Council's corporate health and safety manager, said they had yet to establish a position on defibrillators.
  "There are a number of criteria involved in deciding whether a defibrillator is suitable for a facility. In terms of first schools for example it needs to be remembered most defibrillators are for adult use and are not suitable for young children.
  "There is emerging opinion in the USA supporting the use of defibrillators for children though the equipment requires special software and a lower power level than for adults." He added if fund-raisers could source the appropriate equipment then it was the school's decision whether or not to accept and maintain them.
  THE Underwoods are also campaigning for first aid to be added to the National Curriculum and they are starting a free first aid course which will be available to everyone in Redditch. "It will show basic first aid as well as how to do CPR and use a defibrillator for anyone who wants to turn up to it.
  "It will take just one day but we want to get people to think that it could be their friend lying there needing help, or themselves that need someone to know what to do in the event of an emergency.
  "Four days after Charlotte died her baby brother Mitchell Charlie was born. Not only does he carry Charlotte's name but it was she who picked the name for the baby brother she knew was on the way.
  "If just one person survives as a result of this campaign following Charlotte's death then, while nothing will ever replace our precious girl, in some way her death will have had some meaning."
  ' For more information go to sadsuk.org where you can sign the "Schools must have defibrillators petition" at the bottom of the home page
Sandy Hook School Massacre Timeline
  Link to Article
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:37
  The following timeline of the December 14 mass killing of 20 children and 8 adults in Newtown Connecticut attempts to demonstrate how the event was presented to the public by corporate news media. The chronological assemblage of coverage is not comprehensive of all reports published on the incident but rather seeks to verify how the storyline was to a substantial degree constructed by federal and to a lesser degree state law enforcement authorities and major media around the theory (prior to a complete and exhaustive police investigation) that 20-year-old Adam Lanza was the sole agent in the massacre.
  From the outset, this scenario became an established reality through the news media's pronounced repetition of the ''lone gunman'' narrative and meme. This proposed scenario significantly obscured the fact that police encountered and apprehended two additional shooting suspects on the school's grounds within minutes of the crime. These suspects remain unaccounted for by authorities but the roles they may have played arguably correlate with the shifting information presented by authorities and major news media on injuries and weapons vis- -vis the mass carnage meted out in the school. While the detainment of additional suspects was pointed to by alternative news media, in the days following the tragedy, the lone gunman narrative has become firmly established in the public psyche via an overwhelming chorus of corporate media reports and interpretations.
  Note: Times of occurrences referenced are Eastern Standard Time and in some instances signify time of publication rather than the specific incident cited. Time of publication does not always correlate with exact time of incident. ''n.t.'' denotes ''no time'' of publication referenced.
  2012
  At the start of the 2012-13 academic year Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Hochsprung announces in a public letter to families the Newtown School District's new security system installed ''in all elementary schools.'' Under the newly-announced security regimen, ''exterior doors will be locked during the day. Every visitor will be required to ring the doorbell at the front entrance and the office staff will use a visual monitoring system to allow entry. Visitors will still be required to report directly to the office and sign in. If our office staff does not recognize you, you will be required to show identification with a picture id. Please understand that with nearly 700 students and over 1,000 parents representing 500 SHS families, most parents will be asked to show identification. Doors will be locked at approximately 9:30 a.m.'' ''Principal Outlined New Security Procedures at Sandy Hook Elementary,'' Hartford Courant, December 14, 2012, 8:25PM EST.
  9:47AMSandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung Tweets photo of emergency drill held at Sandy Hook fire station with Sandy Hook Elementary faculty and students participating. Esther Zuckerman, ''The Sandy Hook Principal's Twitter Feed is Haunting,'' The Atlantic Wire, December 14, 2012.
  n.t.Following Obama's reelection Senator Diane Feinstein is believed to be meeting with relevant federal agencies to lay groundwork for reenacting assault weapons ban. ''Senator Diane Feinstein Moves to Ban All Assault Rifles, High Capacity Magazines, and Pistol Grips,'' Market Daily News, November 7, 2012.
  10:14AMHartford Courant publishes online Google map of Sandy Hook Elementary School. ''Map of Sandy Hook Elementary School,'' Hartford Courant, December 14, 2012.
  10:47AMConnecticut State Police report assisting Newtown police in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. ''The Hartford Courant [<-hyperlink is to a different story] reports there are multiple injures [sic] and unconfirmed reports that one of the shooters is dead while the other is still at large. The school superintendent's office says the district has locked down schools to ensure the safety of students and staff. Crimeside Staff, ''Connecticut School Shooting: Police Investigating Reports of a Shooting at Elementary School,'' CBS News, December 14, 2012.
  10:47AM[Famous photo taken by Newtown Bee editor is distributed via CBS and other national media.]
  Connecticut School Shooting: Police Investigating Reports of a Shooting at Elementary School,'' CBS News, December 14, 2012, 1047AM EST.
  11:30AMA Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps dispatcher says a Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher was taken to hospital after being shot in the foot. ''There are reports of multiple injuries,'' CBS notes. The Newton Bee reports a student with apparently serious wounds was carried out of the facility by a police officer. The school superintendent's office says all schools in the district remain in lockdown. Crimesider Staff, ''Connecticut School Shooting Update: One Gunman Dead, One Teacher Injured at Elementary School,'' CBS News, December 14, 2012.
  11:34AMPolice say the shooter is dead and two weapons were recovered from him. ''The source says one weapon recovered is a Glock and the other is a Sig Sauer.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  12:29PMHartford Courant mysteriously publishes online Googlemap of neighborhood of Lanza residence, which is 36 Yogananda St. ''Map of 46 Yogananda St. Sandy Hook, CT,'' Hartford Courant, December 14, 2012.
  12:27PMAnonymous witness and parent of student says that while attending a meeting with faculty regarding her child she heard ''at least 100 rounds'' being fired when the shooting began about 9:30 to 9:35AM. ''There was a 'pop pop pop' in the hall outside the room. Three people went out of the room into the hall where the sounds had come from. 'Only one person came back.''' The same witness says ''she then called 911. She said she never saw the shooter but she later was escorted outside the room past two bodies lying in blood.'' ''Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  1:57PMAn anonymous federal law enforcement source informs news media the death toll is closer to 30 than 20, with most of those killed being children. The source, who says he is in contact with authorities on the scene, says the suspected gunman had a connection to the school but would not elaborate. Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  2:09PMCNN is ''told that 18 to 20 of the dead are children.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  2:11PMAn anonymous law enforcement official tells CNN that the suspect's name is Ryan Lanza and he is in his 20s. Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  2:39PMAnonymous federal law enforcement authorities say ''the shooting happened quickly and happened in a concentrated area.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  2:52PMFather of Sandy Hook Elementary School third grade student Stephen Delgiudice describes to CBS News what his daughter heard over the loudspeaker from the principal's office. This prompted the teacher to lock the classroom door. ''We have a pretty good program in Newtown,'' Delgiudice says. ''where basically a code red reverse 911 type of a call, and a, came through. [It said] there's a shooting at the school and naturally I obeyed the speed limit and drove immediately to the school. And ah, y'know it was just mass-mass chaos. I finally got to my daughter'--a friend of mine led me to my daughter. I wanted to see her face and hold her, which I did, and once I did that there was a sense of relief, but, uhm, it was just chaos.'' Crimesider Staff, ''Connecticut School Shooting: Father Says Student Heard Commotion Over Loudspeaker,'' CBS News, December 14, 2012.
  3:16PMPresident Obama addresses nation. ''As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it's an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago '' these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children. And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  3:51PMA federal law enforcement official informs CNN that ''shooter arrived and headed directly toward and to his mother's classroom. That and the other information now emerging '' another family member killed, police interviews '' lead them to believe his mother was the primary target. But they note he also came armed with clear intention of mass killing.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  3:45PMThere were a total of 27 people dead at the school, Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police tells assembled reporters. ''Eighteen students were pronounced dead at the scene, and two others died at the hospital.'' In addition, six adults were pronounced dead at the scene. Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  3:54PMCNN now reports ''three guns found at the scene '... the third weapon found on the scene was a .223 Bushmaster. The other weapons, previously reported, are a Glock, and a Sig-Sauer. No word on the models of Glock or Sig-Sauer.'' Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  6:34PMWitnesses attest to seeing bloodied children, hearing as many as 100 shots, and ''loud booms.'' ''It was horrendous,'' parent Brenda Lebinski said, who rushed to the school where her daughter is a third grade student. ''Everyone was in hysterics '' parents, students. There were kids coming out of the school bloodied. I don't know if they were shot, but they were bloodied.'' Lebinski said another parent in the school ''during the shooting told her a 'masked man' entered the principal's office and may have shot the principal. Lebinski, who is friends with the mother who was at the school, said the principal was '''severely injured.''' Lebinski's daughter's teacher ''immediately locked the door to the classroom and put all the kids in the corner of the room.'' Nearby resident Melissa Murphy listened to events unfold on a police scanner. '''I kept hearing them call for the mass casualty kit and scream, ''Send everybody! Send everybody!'' Murphy said. 'It doesn't seem like it can be really happening. I feel like I'm in shock.''' A girl interviewed by an NBC Connecticut affiliate said she heard seven loud ''booms'' while in gym class. ''A police officer came in and told us to run outside and so we did,'' the unidentified girl said on camera. Dan Burns and Chris Kaufman, ''Connecticut Gun Rampage: 28 Dead, Including 20 Children,'' Reuters, December 14, 2012.
  6:34PMNew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls for greater gun control measures. ''We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership '' not from the White House and not from Congress,'' Bloomberg said. ''That must end today.'' Dan Burns and Chris Kaufman, ''Connecticut Gun Rampage: 28 Dead, Including 20 Children,'' Reuters, December 14, 2012.
  6:44PMUS officials representing three different lettered agencies separately identify the suspected shooter as Adam Lanza, in contrast to what investigators said earlier in the day. No explanation is given regarding what prompted confusion among investigators. Lanza's older brother, Ryan, was taken into custody for general questioning in Hoboken, New Jersey but was not labeled a suspect. ''Children and Adults Gunned Down in School Massacre,'' CNN, December 14, 2012.
  7:13PMFox News presents ''newly released police dispatch audio'' of exchange between 911 dispatcher and Newtown Police and Connecticut State Police encountering two shooting suspects on school grounds. ''I have reports that the teacher saw two shadows running past the building, past the gym which would be rear [inaudible].'' ''Yeah, we got him. He's coming at me, down [inaudible].'' ''911 Call Dispatch Audio Reveals Police Response to Sandy Hook School Shooting,'' Fox News, December 14, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16AfZXH33eQ
  [Night]Police recover long gun from automobile in Sandy Hook parking lot. ''Police Find Long Gun in Trunk of Car in Sandy Hook Parking Lot, Newtown Connecticut,'' NBC News, December 14, 2012.
  n.t.CBS correspondent notes how police have a second shooting suspect in custody who they are interrogating. ''Well, they have an individual in custody, who they're talking to. I am told they're looking into the person as possibly a second shooter. Now that changes the dynamics here a little bit which goes from'--if in fact this turns out to be confirmed'--it goes from a lone gunman scenario where somebody has this argument with society and wants to take revenge with the most defenseless people in society to a team of individuals who've gotten together and conspired to do something like this.'' ''School Shooting: Possible Second Gunman in Custody,'' CBS News Online, December 14, 2012.
  n.t.The Associated Press interviews an unidentified Sandy Hook Elementary student who describes seeing a shooting suspect prone on the ground in the school's parking lot. Unidentified student: ''And then the police like were knocking on the door, and they're like, 'We're evacuating people! We're evacuating people!' So we ran out. There's police about at every door. They're leading us, 'Down this way. Down this way. Quick! Quick! Come on!' Then we ran down to the firehouse. There's a man pinned down to the ground with handcuffs on. And we thought that was the victim [sic]. We really didn't get a good glance at him because there was a car blocking it. Plus we were running really quick.'' ''Raw: Student Describes Scene at School Shooting,'' Associated Press, December 14, 2012.
  7:05AMState Police Lt. J. Paul Advance on ABC's Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos.
  Vance: This is something that's going to take a significant amount of time. From the onset we've had teams looking into the background of [Adam Lanza], peeling back the layers of the onion, so to speak. We have many, many questions that we need to ask'--that we need to explore.Stephanopoulos: Three guns found on site?Vance: We haven't discussed that as of yet, but, uh, in excess of three guns.Stephanopoulos: More than three guns. And we know also that the guns match those of his mother may have had. Have you been able to put that together yet?''Vance: We're'--we're'--I don't have that information specifically''Stephanopoulos: Do you know if they were obtained legally?Vance: Again, that's something we would also have to explore during the investigation.
  ABC News, ''Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School,'' Good Morning America, December 15, 2012.
  8:40AMSandy Hook resident Gene Rosen comes forth with story that he encountered six first grade children from Sandy Hook Elementary in his front lawn while feeding his cats. ''I thought they were practicing for a play or Cub Scouts, and I went and approached them and it became clear that they were so distressed,'' Rosen told CBS News. ''And I took them into my house, and they were crying and talking, and I got them into my house, and they were crying and talking [sic], and I got them some stuffed animals.'' ''Neighbor Found Terrified Children on Front Lawn after School Massacre,'' CBS New York, December 15, 2012.
  3:45PMMSNBC: ''Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver provides an update to the media after he and his team examined the victims' bodies at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown following Friday's shootings.'' In this exchange Carver and State Police drastically change the story on what weapons were used in the shooting, contending that the Bushmaster 223 was the sole weapon Lanza wielded. Carver exhibits an amazing degree of deferral to law enforcement and overall lack of knowledge about the postmortem operation he has just presided over. For example, a reporter asks, ''Were [the students] sitting at their desks or were they running away when this happened?'' Carver responds, ''I'll let the guys who'--the scene guys talk'--address that issue. I, uh, obviously I was at the scene. Obviously I'm very experienced in that. But there are people who are, uh, the number one professionals in that. I'll let them'--let that [voice trails off].'' Shortly thereafter another reporter asks, ''How many boys and how many girls [were killed]?'' Carver shakes his head slowly, ''I don't know.'' ''Medical Examiner: Rifle Primary Weapon Used in Shootings,'' MSNBC, December 15, 2012.
  4:32PMList of Sandy Hook Elementary victims is released. ''Police Release Names of Newtown School Shooting Victims,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012,.
  8:55PMFederal authorities confirm there is no record of Adam Lanza using local Newtown shooting range. Michael Isikoff and Hannah Rappleye, ''Mom of Suspected Shooter-First to Die'--Was Avid Gun Enthusiast, Friend Says,'' NBC News, December 15, 2012.
  8:55PMFederal officials claim Lanza took three weapons to Sandy Hook Elementary, a Glock and Sig Sauer, and a Bushmaster .223-caliber semiautomatic assault-style rifle. Authorities remain unclear on whether all guns were used in the attack. Michael Isikoff and Hannah Rappleye, ''Mom of Suspected Shooter-First to Die'--Was Avid Gun Enthusiast, Friend Says,'' NBC News, December 15, 2012.
  9:15PM''An official with knowledge of the investigation'' informs the Associated Press that three weapons were found inside Sandy Hook Elementary on or near Adam Lanza's body'--a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle, a Glock 10mm pistol, and a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol. ''Three other guns have also been recovered, but it was not clear where they were found, the official told AP. They were a Henry repeating rifle, an Enfield rifle and a shotgun.'' Matt Appuzo and Pete Yost, ''Connecticut Shooter Adam Lanza's Guns Were Registered to Mother Nancy Lanza: Official,'' Associated Press/Huffington Post, December 15, 2012.
  11:31PMAdam Lanza's aunt Marsha Lanza describes Nancy Lanza as ''meticulous'' and ''self-reliant,'' pointing out that she kept three guns in the home ''for self-defense.'' ''She would never leave the guns out,'' Marsha Lanza asserts. Josh Kovner and Edmund H. Mahoney, ''Adam Lanza: A 'Quiet, Odd' Loner Living on the Fringes,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012.
  11:31PMLaw enforcement officials state the murder weapon was one of three guns owned by Nancy Lanza: a semiautomatic rifle or two semiautomatic pistols. Josh Kovner and Edmund H. Mahoney, ''Adam Lanza: A 'Quiet, Odd' Loner Living on the Fringes,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012.
  11:31PMInvestigators believe Adam Lanza's behavior was consistent with Asperger's syndrome, a disorder within ''the autism spectrum '... marked by difficulty with social interaction. Many with Asperger's are otherwise high-functioning people. There is no pre-disposition toward violence, experts said.'' Josh Kovner and Edmund H. Mahoney, ''Adam Lanza: A 'Quiet, Odd' Loner Living on the Fringes,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012.
  11:44PMLaw enforcement authorities provide press with detailed information on event which becomes bedrock ''official'' storyline that Adam Lanza murdered 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. After shooting his mother twice in the head while she lie in bed Lanza proceeded to Sandy Hook Elementary where he ''fired a half-dozen thunderous rounds from a semiautomatic rifle to open a hole big enough to step through in one of the school's glass doors.'' He entered the school and shot Principal Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Scherlach who after hearing the ''sounds of gunfire and shattering glass, bolted into a corridor from a conference room across the hall from the classrooms '... The first classroom Lanza reached was teacher Kaitlin Roig's. Alarmed by the gunfire, Roig hid her students in a bathroom and closed her classroom door. Lanza passed by Roig's classroom in lieu of substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau's, shooting all 14 children who investigators believe were huddled and clutching one another in fear, in addition to Rousseau and a special education teacher who happened to be in the room. Lanza next arrived at teacher Victoria Soto's classroom, who is believed to have hidden her 6- and 7-year old students in a closet. When Lanza demanded to know where the children were, Soto tried to divert him to the other end of the school by saying that her students were in the auditorium. As six of Soto's students attempted to flee Lanza shot them, Soto and another teacher in the room. Searching for survivors police found the remaining seven of Soto's students still hiding in the closet. They told the police what had happened. The two teacher's aides who were killed were Mary Anne Murphy and Rachel Davino. It was unclear which aide was in which room when they were killed. The first officer arriving at the school found Lanza's body near the door of Soto's classroom. The intense violence lasted about 10 minutes. Lanza fired at least three, 30-round magazines with deadly accuracy. Two of the people he shot survived. All of the victims were shot multiple times. 'I did seven (autopsies) myself with three to 11 wounds apiece,' Chief State Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver III said Saturday. 'Only two were shot at close range. I believe everybody was hit (by bullets) more than once.''' Edward H. Mahoney and Dave Altimari, ''A Methodical Massacre, Horror and Heroics,'' Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012.
  6:44AM''We too are asking why. We have cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so. Like so many of you, we are saddened, but struggling to make sense of what has transpired.'''--Adam Lanza's father Peter Lanza said in a statement. Jonathan Dienst, ''Conn. Shooting Suspect Adam Lanza's Father: 'We Too Are Asking Why,''' NBC News, December 16, 2012.
  10:30AMOn CBS's Face the Nation Bob Orr remarked that at least two computers at the Lanza residence were ''smashed to smithereens.'' CBS correspondent and former FBI agent John Miller noted ''that subpoenas have been issued for all of the shooter's email accounts and his mother's accounts, including all of the 'sent' mail and 'received' mail over a long period of time. Miller said that Lanza's mother, Nancy, had battled with the school system and eventually took her son out of the schools and home-schooled him.'' Christopher Keating, ''Newtown Update: CBS Says Two Computers 'Smashed to Smithereens' In Lanza Home in Newtown; Subpoenas for All Emails of Mother and Shooter,'' Capitol Watch, Courantblogs, December 16, 2012, n.t. [Such programs are typically taped the preceding Friday afternoon.-JT]
  12:12PMConnecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance states Adam Lanza possessed ''an extraordinary amount of weaponry '... In addition to an assault-style rifle and at least two handguns, he also had a shotgun in reserve in the car he drove to the school.'' Lance claims that when Lanza's body was found he ''still had 'hundreds of rounds' of ammunition in multiple magazines, after having already fired hundreds of rounds inside the school.'' M. Alex Johnson, ''Very Heavily Armed Gunman Shot Mother Multiple Times Before Killing 26 at Connecticut School, Police Say,'' NBC News, December 16, 2012.
  12:12PMDetails emerge on Adam Lanza enrolling at Western Connecticut State University in 2008 at age 16. Lanza successfully completed six courses ''including website production, data modeling, Philosophy 101 and ethical theory '-- and compiled a solid 3.26 grade-point average.'' University officials claim Lanza presented no disciplinary concerns. M. Alex Johnson, ''Very Heavily Armed Gunman Shot Mother Multiple Times Before Killing 26 at Connecticut School, Police Say,'' NBC News, December 16, 2012.
  [Afternoon]President Obama travels to Newtown to address grieving community and repeatedly allude to gun control legislation in an 18 minute speech. ''We're not doing enough. And we will have to change. Since I've been president, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by mass shootings, [the] fourth time we've hugged survivors, the fourth time we've consoled the families of victims '... Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?'' Daniela Altimari, ''We Must Change, President Tells Nation,'' Hartford Courant, December 16, 2012, 11:16PM EST.
  4:52PMAlex Israel was in the same class at Newtown High School with Adam Lanza, who lived a few houses down from her. ''You could definitely tell he was a genius,'' Israel says. ''He was really quiet, he kept to himself.'' Lanza's former bus driver regarded Lanza as '''a nice kid, very polite' like his brother.'' Another former classmate remarked that Lanza ''was just a kid'' '-- not a troublemaker, not antisocial, not suggesting in any way that he could erupt like this.'' Michael Martinez and David Ariosto, ''Adam Lanza's Family: Mom Liked Parlor Games, Guns; Dad, a Tax Exec, Remarried,'' CNN.com, December 16, 2012.
  8:06PMConnecticut State Police Lieutenant J. Paul Vance tells the Huffington Post that Adam Lanza specifically used the Bushmaster .223 rifle to carry out all of the Sandy Hook murders. ''Adam Lanza used a semiautomatic Bushmaster .223 rifle during his rampage through Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday,'' the Huffington Post reports, ''firing dozens of high-velocity rounds as he killed 20 children and six adults '... Lanza, 20, carried 'many high-capacity clips' for the lightweight military-style rifle, Lt. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police, told The Huffington Post in an email. Two handguns and a shotgun were also recovered at the scene. John Rudolf and Janet Ross, ''School Shooter Adam Lanza Used Military-Style Bushmaster Rifle,'' Huffington Post, December 16, 2012.
  8:06PMSenator Dianne Feinstein announces that she intends to introduce legislation reauthorizing a federal assault weapons ban originally passed in the early 1990s during the Clinton administration that was allowed to lapse in 2004. John Rudolf and Janet Ross, ''School Shooter Adam Lanza Used Military-Style Bushmaster Rifle,'' Huffington Post, December 16, 2012.
  Health science and investigative writer Mike Adams observes that much like the Tucson Arizona, Aurora Colorado, and Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings, mass media are scrubbing their coverage and doctoring the storyline to obscure the fact that there were additional suspects and probable shooters at the crime scene. Mike Adams, ''Newtown School Shooting Already Being Changed by the Media to Eliminate Eyewitness Reports of a Second Shooter,'' Natural News, December 16, 2012, n.t.
  12:51PMDivorce records reveal the parents of Adam Lanza had joint custody of their son and that Lanza's father paid yearly alimony totaling $240,000 in 2010, $265,000 in 2011 and $289,800 in 2012. Nancy and Peter Lanza's divorce cited irreconcilable and was made final in September 2009. The divorce decree designated Adam Lanza's primary residence with his mother in the Yogananda Street address which Peter Lanza quitclaimed to Nancy. Peter was designated as solely responsible for the cost of college for Adam and brother Ryan and for buying Adam a car. Nancy Lanza seldom discussed domestic affairs with friends. She was otherwise regarded as very open and generous. Allaine Griffith, ''After Divorce, Lanzas Had Joint Custody of Adam,'' Hartford Courant, December 17, 2012.
  12:51PMA spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is uncertain whether Nancy Lanza brought her son to the range or whether he ever fired a weapon there. Allaine Griffith, ''After Divorce, Lanzas Had Joint Custody of Adam,'' Hartford Courant, December 17, 2012.
  1:09PMSandy Hook Elementary nurse Sally Cox tells ABC of her encounter with gunman on the morning of December 14 as she crouched underneath her desk. ''I could see him from the knees down, 20 feet away, his boots were facing my desk,'' Cox said in an interview on Good Morning America. ''It was seconds'... and then he turned and walked out and I heard the door close.'' The 60-year-old staff member then heard ''loud popping noises'' outside the infirmary. Cox was joined by a school secretary and together they dialed 911 before hiding in a supply closet. Lauren Effron, ''Sandy Hook School Nurse Hid From Shooter, 'His Boots Were Facing My Desk,''' ABC News, December 17, 2012.
  1:15PMFunerals for massacre victims begin in Newtown, with first being for 6 year old Sandy Hook first-grader Jack Pinto. ''There are many ways to measure what was lost Friday morning at Sandy Hook,'' the Washington Post observes, ''a school shooting that has spurred a national debate about public safety and a speech by the president. But no accounting of the damage was as searing as the one that began Monday, when parents stepped behind lecterns and spoke about the children they would miss.'' Eli Saslow and Steve Vogel, ''Funerals for Newtown Massacre Victims Begin,'' Washington Post, December 17, 2012.
  1:26PMTwo witnesses in Sandy Hook school shooting are unidentified adults. ''There are two adults that were injured in the facility'--in the school'--and suffered gunshot wounds and are recovering,'' Connecticut State Police Lieutenant J. Paul Vance stated. ''Our investigators will in fact speak with them when it's medically appropriate, and certainly they will shed a great deal of light on the facts and circumstances of this tragic investigation that we're undertaking.'' [Vance's emphasis] ''Key Witnesses in Connecticut School Shooting are Survivors,'' Hartford Courant, December 17, 2012.
  6:39PMNew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveils ''Demand a Plan'' campaign, sponsored by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns bipartisan coalition that requests Congress and President Obama move immediately on gun control measures. Bloomberg calls Washington's inability to act a ''stain on our nation's commitment to protect our children.'' Carlo Delaverson, ''NYC Mayor Launches Campaign Against Gun Violence,'' NBC News, December 17, 2012.
  6:00PMInfowars reporter Rob Dew utilizes overlooked excerpts from CBS and Associated Press coverage of the massacre to explain how there were additional shooter suspects apprehended by law enforcement on the morning of December 14 that have been left unaccounted for and since dropped from public view. Rob Dew, ''Sandy Hook 2nd Shooter Coverup,'' Infowars Nightly News, December 18, 2012.
  1:07PMConnecticut Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver II says he will work with a University of Connecticut geneticist to determine what prompted Adam Lanza to act. ''I'm exploring with the department of genetics what might be possible, if anything is possible [sic],'' Carver says. ''Is there any identifiable disease associated with this behavior?'' David Owens, ''Obama Calls for New Proposals for Gun Control in Wake of Newtown Massacre,'' Hartford Courant, December 19, 2012.
  11:16PMHundreds attend wake of Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, US Senator Richard Blumenthal and US Senator-elect Chris Murphy. Matthew Kauffman, ''Communities Say Farewell to Four More Victims of Newtown Shootings,'' Hartford Courant, December 19, 2012.
  1:42PMUS Attorney General Eric Holder makes unannounced visit to Newtown to meet with Sandy Hook first responders following a meeting in Washington with Vice President Joe Biden, presumably to discuss forthcoming gun control legislation. ''Holder to Meet with First Responders in Newtown,'' Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press/Hartford Courant, December 20, 2012.
  n.t.Further analysis by alternative news media points to additional Sandy Hook shooting suspects overlooked by corporate media. Niall Bradley, ''Sandy Hook Massacre: Official Story Spins Out of Control,'' Veterans Today, December 20, 2012; James F. Tracy, ''The Newtown School Tragedy: More Than One Gunman?'' Global Research, December 20, 2012.
  7:20PMWitness to shooting Becky Virgalla interviewed by Connecticut news media. [Video of interview at Hartford Courant website has since been taken down.] ''Witness to the Sandy Hook Massacre,'' Hartford Courant, December 26, 2012.
  Attorney Irv Pinsky asks State of Connecticut Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr. for permission to file $100 million dollar lawsuit on behalf of unnamed 6-year-old Sandy Hook student for negligence and trauma suffered after hearing screaming, cursing, and gunfire over school's intercom system. As a result, the ''child has sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet to be determined,'' the proposed claim asserts. Pinsky's claim also alleges ''that the state Board of Education, Department of Education and Education Commissioner had failed to take appropriate steps to protect children from 'foreseeable harm.''' Mary Ellen Godin, ''Claim Seeks $100 Million for Child Survivor of Connecticut School Shooting,'' Reuters, December 28, 2012.
  Adam Lanza's body reportedly turned over by Connecticut Medical Examiner to father Peter Lanza ''sometime last week.'' ''Father Claims Adam Lanza's Body,'' Hartford Courant, December 31, 2012, 3:38PM.
  3:12PMConnecticut Attorney General says $100 million claim against state on behalf of 6 year old Sandy Hook student is ''misguided,'' and maintains that ''a public policy response by the U.S. Congress and the Connecticut state legislature would be 'more appropriate' than legal action.'' Edith Honan, ''Connecticut Attorney General Says Newtown Legal Claim Misguided,'' Reuters/Hartford Courant, December 31, 2012.
  2013
  11:49AMState Attorney General George Jepsen says lawsuit brought against state lacks a ''valid basis.'' According to a report Jepsen said ''the claims commissioner's office was not the appropriate venue for a discussion about the shooting.'' Amanda Falcone, Request to Sue State for Newtown Shooting Has No Basis, Attorney General Says,'' Hartford Courant, January 1, 2013.
  2:29PMNew Haven attorney Irving Pinsky withdraws claim on behalf of traumatized Sandy Hook student after receiving new evidence. ''If the state were liable in this instance, where would the state's liability ever end?'' State Attorney General George Jepsen said. Brian Dowling and Hilda Munoz, ''Attorney Withdrawing Request to Sue State in Sandy Hook Shootings,'' Hartford Courant, January 1, 2013.
  9:10PMJean Henry, a processing technician for the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is placed on a paid leave pending an investigation of an incident on December 16 where she permitted her husband, an unauthorized employee, to view the body of alleged mass killer Adam Lanza. Jon Lender and Dave Altimari, ''State Worker Placed on Leave After Showing Husband Adam Lanza's Body,'' Hartford Courant, January 2, 2013.
  [Morning]Sandy Hook students return to classes 7 miles south of Newtown at Chalk Hill School in Monroe Connecticut. The school was closed about two years ago and recently cleaned and painted to accommodate students. Amanda Falcone, ''Sandy Hook Students Back in Class,'' Hartford Courant, 5:18PM EST, January 3, 2013.
  6:18PMConnecticut State Attorney's Office and State Police refuse to give timeline for Sandy Hook shooting investigation. ''It cannot be stated too often how invaluable and necessary the work of the United States Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other federal agencies was and is to this investigation,'' State Attorney General Stephen J. Sedensky III said. Christine Dempsey, ''No Timeline for Newtown Shooting Probe,'' Hartford Courant, January 3, 2013.
  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg meets privately in his office with former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was almost fatally shot at a constituent meeting in Tucson in January 2011. The sit-down was not listed on Bloomberg's public schedule and a Bloomberg aide refused to state what was discussed. Holly Bailey, ''Bloomberg Meets with Gabrielle Giffords on Gun Control,'' Yahoo News, January 3, 2013, n.t.
  3:40AMFormer Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords visits Newtown families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook shooting. John Christoffersen, ''Wounded ex-Rep Giffords Meets with Conn. Families,'' Associated Press/Yahoo News, January 5.
  To be continued.
Hollywood Producer: John Wilkes Booth a ''Poster Child for the Tea Party''
  Link to Article
  Source: FrontPage Magazine» FrontPage
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:33
  Last year, noted Hollywood entrepreneur of independents Harvey Weinstein put out a movie about bullying. Bully featured the stories of teenagers who had been bullied in school. The New York Times lauded the film for taking a look at ''the extent to which that cruelty is embedded in our schools and therefore in our society as a whole.''
  And the Obama administration immediately showed the film at the White House, just after informing the public that he would support two bills designed to target bullying. Valerie Jarrett said, ''Earlier today, we screened BULLY at the White House. This film is a powerful call to action: We must do everything we can to work toward the day when no young person or family suffers the pain, agony, and loss caused by bulling in our schools and communities.''
  But the Obama administration has no interest in stopping Hollywood bullying. So they didn't call out Weinstein for his own career-long bullying '' he has assaulted a reporter from the New York Observer, threatened a director's companion, and screamed at Democratic higher-up Terry McAuliffe, ''You motherf***er! I'll rip your balls off!''
  Hollywood bullying isn't restricted to the screaming producers and vile thugs who inhabit the town. It carries over to the political viewpoint of those who work here. For example, producer Erik Jendresen, writer of Bill O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln special on National Geographic, said that Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth was just like today's Tea Party:
  This is not the act of somebody who can be easily dismissed as a psychopath so that it's easy to understand: 'Oh, well, he was crazy.' No. It's more disturbing to find out who Booth was. This is a man who believed what still probably 20 percent of this country still believes. He could be a poster child for the Tea Party.
  Well, no. Booth was an ardent anti-abolitionist who believed strongly in slavery. He actually signed up for the local militia to watch anti-slavery zealot John Brown meet his maker at his hanging. He smuggled quinine from North to South to help the slavery cause during the Civil War. This was not a Tea Partier, opposed to the growth of government and believing in basic capitalism. The Confederacy was an agrarian economy based on forced labor. And it was the Democrats primarily who defended its racism and its evil.
  But the left isn't interested in the truth. They're interested in bullying. They don't want to deal with the Constitutional and economic and moral arguments of the Tea Party. They just want to paint Tea Partiers as morally evil, so that they don't have to debate them. Because who would debate a John Wilkes Booth? Who would debate a Nazi? Even though its own ideas are marginal, the left knows that there is a mainstream of thought '' and that if you can marginalize your opposition beyond that mainstream, you need not contemplate their arguments.
  Insults and emotion are the only tactics Hollywood liberals have left. And it's infected our national politics. Now all that matters is the emotion in politics '' the sheer demonization of the other political point of view, the slandering of their intentions. And if you can cry '' if you can show that you care '' you can be as incompetent as you want. Bill Clinton said it himself during this last campaign cycle:
  Governor Romney's argument is, we're not fixed, so fire him and put me in. It is true we're not fixed. When President Obama looked into the eyes of that man who said in the debate, I had so much hope four years ago and I don't now, I thought he was going to cry. Because he knows that it's not fixed.
  If you cry, you're a good person. And if you disagree, you are an uncaring jerk unworthy of further discussion, even if your policies are more successful at forwarding human happiness.
  This is the way the Hollywood emotional calculus has infected traditional politics. We can laugh off the stupidity of the Hollywood celebs '' their shallowness, their foolishness '' but they have their desired effect: they turn the political into the emotional. And that's how they bully conservatives into defeat.
  Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.
Alarm in Albuquerque Over Plan to End Methadone for Inmates
  Link to Article
  Source: NYT > Home Page
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:31
  Mark Holm for The New York Times
  Officials at New Mexico's largest jail want to end its methadone program. Addicts like Penny Strayer hope otherwise.
  ALBUQUERQUE '-- It has been almost four decades since Betty Jo Lopez started using heroin.
  Her face gray and wizened well beyond her 59 years, Ms. Lopez would almost certainly still be addicted, if not for the fact that she is locked away in jail, not to mention the cup of pinkish liquid she downs every morning.
  ''It's the only thing that allows me to live a normal life,'' Ms. Lopez said of the concoction, which contains methadone, a drug used to treat opiate dependence. ''These nurses that give it to me, they're like my guardian angels.''
  For the last six years, the Metropolitan Detention Center, New Mexico's largest jail, has been administering methadone to inmates with drug addictions, one of a small number of jails and prisons around the country that do so.
  At this vast complex, sprawled out among the mesas west of downtown Albuquerque, any inmate who was enrolled at a methadone clinic just before being arrested can get the drug behind bars. Pregnant inmates addicted to heroin are also eligible.
  Here in New Mexico, which has long been plagued by one of the nation's worst heroin scourges, there is no shortage of participants '-- hundreds each year '-- who have gone through the program.
  In November, however, the jail's warden, Ramon Rustin, said he wanted to stop treating inmates with methadone. Mr. Rustin said the program, which had been costing Bernalillo County about $10,000 a month, was too expensive.
  Moreover, Mr. Rustin, a former warden of the Allegheny County Jail in Pennsylvania and a 32-year veteran of corrections work, said he did not believe that the program truly worked.
  Of the hundred or so inmates receiving daily methadone doses, he said, there was little evidence of a reduction in recidivism, one of the program's main selling points.
  ''My concern is that the courts and other authorities think that jail has become a treatment program, that it has become the community provider,'' he said. ''But jail is not the answer. Methadone programs belong in the community, not here.''
  Mr. Rustin's public stance has angered many in Albuquerque, where drug addiction has been passed down through generations in impoverished pockets of the city, as it has elsewhere across New Mexico.
  Recovery advocates and community members argue that cutting people off from methadone is too dangerous, akin to taking insulin from a diabetic.
  The New Mexico office of the Drug Policy Alliance, which promotes an overhaul to drug policy, has implored Mr. Rustin to reconsider his stance, saying in a letter that he did not have the medical expertise to make such a decision.
  Last month, the Bernalillo County Commission ordered Mr. Rustin to extend the program, which also relies on about $200,000 in state financing annually, for two months until its results could be studied further.
  ''Addiction needs to be treated like any other health issue,'' said Maggie Hart Stebbins, a county commissioner who supports the program.
  ''If we can treat addiction at the jail to the point where they stay clean and don't reoffend, that saves us the cost of reincarcerating that person,'' she said.
  Hard data, though, is difficult to come by '-- hence the county's coming review.
  Darren Webb, the director of Recovery Services of New Mexico, a private contractor that runs the methadone program, said inmates were tracked after their release to ensure that they remained enrolled at outside methadone clinics.
  While the outcome was never certain, Mr. Webb said, he maintained that providing methadone to inmates would give them a better chance of staying out of jail once they were released. ''When they get out, they won't be committing the same crimes they would if they were using,'' he said. ''They are functioning adults.''
  In a study published in 2009 in The Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, researchers found that male inmates in Baltimore who were treated with methadone were far more likely to continue their treatment in the community than inmates who received only counseling.
  Those who received methadone behind bars were also more likely to be free of opioids and cocaine than those who received only counseling or started methadone treatment after their release.
MSNBC: Is It Time To Get Rid Of The US Constitution?
  Link to Article
  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:21
Report: EPA Chief Lisa Jackson Abruptly Resigned Because She Was Convinced Obama Was Planning To Approve Keystone XL Pipeline'...
  Link to Article
  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:21
  I think she's being paranoid, Obama's far-left base will flip out if he approves Keystone.
  Via NY Post:
  EPA chief Lisa Jackson suddenly resigned last week because she was convinced that President Obama is planning to green-light the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, The Post has learned.
  ''She was going to stay on until November or December,'' said a Jackson insider. ''But this changed it. She will not be the EPA head when Obama supports it [Keystone] getting built.''
  While the State Department '-- not the Environmental Protection Agency '-- is responsible for the pipeline process because it's an international project, Jackson is still the president's top adviser on ecological policy.
  She has expressed concerns over the proposed $7 billion pipeline that would carry Canadian oil sands through the US to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
  Obama early this year rejected the Keystone project, but the pipeline's operators have refiled their applications. And Jackson has told insiders that the president will approve the project this time '-- perhaps as soon as March or April.
  Keep reading'...
  HT: Ed Driscoll
Benny Blanco, Hit Maker for Rihanna and Maroon 5
  Link to Article
  Source: LIVE@LEEDS
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:16
  JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. NY Times 01/04/13
  ONE of the first things you notice about Benny Blanco, besides the impish brown eyes and the curly hair piled up in a Prince-like coif, are the many curios adorning his hands and wrists.He started collecting them a few years ago to mark the hits he has helped write and produce. The old Rolex on his right wrist he bought when Maroon 5's ''Moves Like Jagger'' topped Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 2011. The fat silver ring on his left hand was added last summer when ''Payphone,'' by the same band, reached No. 2. And a Buddha ring on his left thumb marks the rise of Trey Songz's ''Heart Attack'' to No. 3 on the R&B chart last June.
  At 24 Mr. Blanco is already running out of fingers. Since 2008, when the pop hit maker Dr. Luke first recruited him into his stable of songwriters, he has had a hand in six No. 1 hits on Billboard's Hot 100 as a writer and producer, working with artists like Rihanna, Kesha, Katy Perry and Maroon 5. He's been a writer for another seven songs that have cracked the Top 10. It is hard to listen to pop radio for 10 minutes without hearing a song on which Mr. Blanco has played a pivotal role. Last month two songs he helped compose and produce '-- Rihanna's ''Diamonds'' and Kesha's ''Die Young'' '-- were lodged in the top two spots on Hot 100 chart. Over the past three years he has been behind ubiquitous radio hits like Gym Class Heroes' ''Stereo Hearts,'' Taio Cruz's ''Dynamite'' and Kesha's ''Tik Tok.''
  Lounging among giant pillows on the bed he keeps in his home studio in Chelsea '-- he says he likes putting a bed in every studio he uses '-- Mr. Blanco acknowledged that luck has played a role in his winning streak. ''I am still waiting for the day that they say 'Time's up, Blanco,' '' he said, grinning lazily. ''Back to your shift at Walmart.''
  Songwriting for pop radio is a team sport these days, and Mr. Blanco is by all accounts like a utility infielder in baseball, someone good at all positions who makes everyone better at their jobs. He is talented at making electronic beats and drum tracks from bizarre samples. But he also has a gift for sunny hooks and catchy chord progressions, and if the need arises, he can turn out competent lyrics, often with a crisp and profane edge.
  ''I just try to fit in where it makes sense,'' he said. ''I'm not particularly good at anything. I'm not an incredible guitarist or piano player or songwriter. I think what I do is, when I notice someone is really good at something, I try to get that out of them.''
  Mikkel S. Eriksen, part of the songwriting team Stargate, said that Mr. Blanco, as a producer, always reaches for unexpected sounds. On ''Diamonds,'' the Rihanna hit he wrote with Stargate, he took a snippet of Mr. Eriksen's singing, altered the sound electronically to make it dirtier, then used that timbre, manipulated with audio software, to create ghostly accompaniment lines. ''His technique is somewhat unorthodox,'' Mr. Eriksen said, ''as he almost never plays the keyboards but throws in weird samples and alters them to the right pitch to go with the song.''
  Mr. Blanco is a scavenger of peculiar sounds, including those made by his body; his French bulldog, Disco; the lock on his door; and the clatter of bowls on a table '-- all of which he has incorporated into Top 10 pop songs.
  He shuns building music from scratch with computer-generated timbres. He instead seeks out traditional instruments and low-end keyboards, records them and then builds melodies and chords from the tones they yield. His studio is littered with peculiar instruments: rare guitars, ukuleles, a pump organ from Egypt, a Roland analog synthesizer from the 1970s, stacks of cheap Yamaha and Casio keyboards and assorted percussion instruments, toy pianos and accordions.
  One of his favorites is a small Yamaha keyboard that he used to record parts of ''Tik Tok'' and Ms. Perry's ''California Gurls.'' He bought it for $25 at a yard sale. The keys are yellowed and uneven, and he had to install a jack so it could be connected to a soundboard.
  ''I just want to sound different than everyone else,'' he said. ''I don't care if it sounds bad. I just want people to be like, 'Yo, that dude Benny was different.' Even if it sounds awful, at least they can't say, 'Oh well, I've heard that before.' ''
  Yet his collaborators say Mr. Blanco's biggest asset lies not in his hard-to-duplicate catalog of sounds but in his ears and instincts. Much of what Mr. Blanco does during songwriting sessions, they say, is direct the creative flow of other musicians, pulling them in directions they would normally avoid.
  ''I think Benny's greatest strength is his taste and his ability to know when something is amazing,'' said Ammar Malik, who wrote ''Stereo Hearts'' and ''Payphone'' with Mr. Blanco. ''When I'm in the room with him, he inspires me to find a different sound, one that I didn't know how to do on my own.''
  Adam Levine, the lead singer and songwriter for Maroon 5, said: ''It's almost as if he has the Midas touch in putting the right people together at the right time to create a musical moment. He's about the collaboration. And he's so good at nailing down who does everything best.''
  When the production of ''Payphone'' stalled, Mr. Levine said, it was Mr. Blanco who called up the rapper Wiz Khalifa, with whom he had worked on other projects, and invited him to do a solo. Though Wiz Khalifa had never touched a ready-for-pop-radio song, he freestyled a rap over a beat that Mr. Blanco invented on the spot, and it became central to the song's appeal.
  Mr. Blanco starts songwriting sessions by playing a mixtape of tunes he finds inspiring, tracks he has harvested from the Internet to evoke the sound he wants. He then pushes the artists to jam along those lines until he hears the kernel of a song. He likens the process to group therapy.
  ''When you are writing in the studio, it's like the people who are in the studio with you are a dysfunctional family,'' he said. ''You are basically like a therapist. It's psychology.''
  His colleagues say one of his studio tools is a wicked, self-deprecating sense of humor, which he uses to break tension. ''He's so funny, it's crazy,'' the rapper Spank Rock said. Asked about his passions outside music, Mr. Blanco said, deadpan, ''Lots of peyote and masturbation.''
  Mr. Blanco, whose real surname is Levin, never expected to become a pop tunesmith. Growing up in Reston, Va., he fell in love with hip-hop, he said, when he bought a Nas cassette at the age of 5. He started rapping and making beats when he was a teenager, performing at his older brother's college parties at the University of Delaware. Before he graduated from South Lakes High School, he was making weekend trips to Philadelphia, Atlantic City and New York, where he befriended producers who let him use their studios.
  Among them was David Shayman, or Disco D, an eccentric and troubled beat maker who became his mentor. After graduation Mr. Blanco moved to Brooklyn and worked as Disco D's intern, an experience he likened to being a monk in a kung fu monastery. (At one point Mr. Shayman threw Mr. Blanco's CD collection out a window.) Through Mr. Shayman, who committed suicide in 2007, Mr. Blanco met the Baltimore rapper Spank Rock, and in 2008 the two of them put together ''Bangers & Cash,'' a raucous EP that quickly landed them a contract with Downtown Records.
  That collection of five risqu(C) raps also attracted the attention of Dr. Luke, the former guitarist for the ''Saturday Night Live'' band who has become a hugely successful pop songwriter. In 2008 Dr. Luke recruited Mr. Blanco to help create songs for Britney Spears and two new artists: Ms. Perry and Kesha. Mr. Blanco said he had little interest in writing Top 40 songs at the time. His tastes ran toward left-field electronic music, like the tracks Justice and Diplo were making, and his main influences were Prince and Motown vocalists like David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations.
  But working with Dr. Luke taught him about song structure and dynamics, about creating rising drama and moments of respite from that drama in the verse, bridge and chorus. ''Pop songs are like a D.J. set crammed into three minutes,'' he said. Asked to define the secret to a pop hit, he said it was simple: The message must resonate with listeners. ''You've got to feel like that could have been me,'' he said.
  Over the last two years, as his reputation has grown, he has started moving out of Dr. Luke's orbit, collaborating more with the Swedish songwriters Shellback and Max Martin and, more recently, with the Stargate duo and with Bruno Mars. He has also begun to dip back into hip-hop and urban music, composing songs with Wiz Khalifa like ''Work Hard, Play Hard'' and ''No Sleep.''
  Though his dance card this spring includes projects for Maroon 5 and Rihanna, he said he is looking to break out of pop and further establish himself in hip-hop. He relishes the role of newcomer. ''I want to be that new guy that no one wants to work with,'' he said.
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  Tags: Benny Blanco, Producer
  This entry was posted on January 7, 2013 at 2:46 am and is filed under Producer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Some Sunny Day
  Link to Article
  Source: Clusterfuck Nation
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:11
  The story behind the "fiscal cliff" melodrama and the much-memed handwringing about the "good-for-nothing congress" is probably not quite what it appears -- a set of problems that will eventually be overcome by "better leadership" armed with "solutions." The story is really about the permanent disabling of government at this scale and at this level of complexity. In other words, the federal government will never solve its obvious problems of mismanagement and bankruptcy and is now only in business to pretend that it can discharge its obligations (while employees enjoy the perqs). It's just another form of show business. The same can be said of most of the state governments, too, of course, except that they have a lower capacity to pretend they can take care of anything. They can and will go bankrupt, and then they'll go begging to the federal government to bail them out, which the federal government will pretend to do with pretend money. By then, though, the practical arrangements of daily life would probably be so askew that politics would take a new, darker, and more extreme turn --among other things, in the direction of secession and breakup. The wonder of it all is that there hasn't been civil disorder yet. When I go into the supermarket, I marvel at the price of things: a single onion for a dollar, four bucks for a jar of jam, five bucks for a box of Cheerios, four bucks for a wedge of cheese. Is everybody except Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, and Mark Zuckerberg living on store-brand macaroni and ketchup? It's hard to measure the desperation of households in this culture of rugged individualism. At social gatherings friends rarely tell you that they are two months behind in their mortgage payment and maxed out on their credit cards. And that's the supposed middle class, at least the remnants of it. I can't tell you what the tattoo-and-falling-down-pants crowd talks about in the parking lot outside the 7-Eleven store. Perhaps they swap meth recipes. Civil disorder would at least mean something, a consensus of dissatisfaction about how life is lived. Instead, we only get mad outbursts of tragic meaninglessness: the slaughter of innocent children in school, or movie theater patrons mowed down by a lone maniac during the coming attractions. Life imitates art, as Oscar Wilde said, and these days television is our art. Hence the United States is now equal parts Jersey Shore, Buck Wild, the Kardashians, and Honey Boo Boo. That's not really a lot to work with in terms of social capital, especially where radical politics might be called for. Does anybody now breathing even remember radical politics? Whether you liked them or not -- and I was not crazy about the whole "revolution" of the late 1960s, which I lived through -- it at least represented a level of seriousness that is now absolutely and starkly absent today, especially in young people. Who, in the West, besides Julian Assange, has stuck his neck out in the past ten years? And please don't tell me Ron Paul, who had ample opportunity in congressional hearings over the years to really call out the banksters and their government wankster errand boys, and all he ever did was nip around their trouser legs. So I stick to the point I made in The Long Emergency and again in Too Much Magic: expect America's national and state governments to only become more ineffectual and impotent. They will never recover from the insults inflicted on themselves. Events are in the drivers seat, including things unseen, and the people pretending to be in charge have arranged things into such a state of fragility that accidents are sure to happen, especially involving the basic structures of money. In case you don't know it yet, you're on your own now. Put whatever energy you can muster into finding a community to be a part of. Meanwhile, reality stands by with mandates of its own. Do people like Barack Obama and John Boehner think we're going to re-start another round of suburban expansion (a.k.a. the housing market)? That's largely what the old economy was based on, and what Wall Street fed off of parasitically the past twenty years. That is so over. Do they believe that when absolutely every task in America is computerized there will be any gainful work outside of a sort of janitorial IT to tend all the computers. We've already seen what happens with the telephone system: after 30 years of techno-innovation in "communications," it's now impossible to get a live human being on the phone and robots call you incessantly during the dinner hour. Anyway, we don't really have the energy resources to supply the electricity for all this crap indefinitely, or probably even another twenty years. All the tendencies and trends in contemporary life are reaching their limits at the same time, and as they do things will crack up and fall apart, whether it involves the despotic reach of a government, or a tyrannical corporation, or a hedge fund server farm stuffed with algo-crunching computers sucking the life out of every honest market transaction until the markets are zombies. The euphoria that greeted the end of the fiscal cliff ritual has settled back into the feckless collective state-of-mind that we call "bullish." It's all noise and the madness of crowds now. And black swans shitting on your head some sunny day. ____________________________________
Iran Continuing Its Covert Cyber War Against US Banks, Hits PNC Bank
  Link to Article
  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:10
  Via Washington Free Beacon:
  Iran is continuing aggressive cyber attacks against U.S. financial institutions and officials say the U.S. government has failed to take steps to halt the electronic strikes.
  The sophisticated denial-of-service cyber attacks have been underway for several months and involve Iranian-origin hackers who flood banking and financial institution web sites with massive log-in attempts that disrupt or halt remote banking services.
  ''The are going after the same types of sites,'' said an intelligence official familiar with reports of the attacks.
  The official criticized the Obama administration for failing to protect American corporations from what the official said were state-sponsored cyber attacks.
  Critics in government and the private sector say the U.S. government remains unprepared to respond to such coordinated covert cyber attacks.
  Several government agencies, including the military's U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. intelligence agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI are responsible for dealing with cyber attacks. Yet the White House is in charge of directing any counterattacks on nation-states and so far has refused to authorize aggressive action, such as retaliatory counter cyber attacks.
  The intelligence official suggested that the administration is reluctant to take action because of the president's conciliatory policies toward Iran. President Barack Obama failed to back Iran's democratic opposition in 2009 and has taken limited diplomatic action against Iran's illicit nuclear program.
  The administration appears to be treating the Iranian cyber attacks as a law enforcement matter rather than covert warfare.
  Keep reading'...
Teen Arrested After Posting On Facebook He Was Drunk Driving
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:09
"Anonymous You're Watching This! I'M COMING AFTER YOU!" Sheriff Abdalla
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:08
The giant, gaping hole in Sandy Hook reporting
  Link to Article
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 01:45
  One more case is instructive, that of 12-year-old Christopher Pittman, who struggled in court to explain why he murdered his grandparents, who had provided the only love and stability he'd ever known in his turbulent life. ''When I was lying in my bed that night,'' he testified, ''I couldn't sleep because my voice in my head kept echoing through my mind telling me to kill them.'' Christopher had been angry with his grandfather, who had disciplined him earlier that day for hurting another student during a fight on the school bus. So later that night, he shot both of his grandparents in the head with a .410 shotgun as they slept and then burned down their South Carolina home, where he had lived with them.''I got up, got the gun, and I went upstairs and I pulled the trigger,'' he recalled. ''Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite TV show. You know what is going to happen, but you can't do anything to stop it.''Pittman's lawyers would later argue that the boy had been a victim of ''involuntary intoxication,'' since his doctors had him taking the antidepressants Paxil and Zoloft just prior to the murders.
  Paxil's known ''adverse drug reactions'' '' according to the drug's FDA-approved label '' include ''mania,'' ''insomnia,'' ''anxiety,'' ''agitation,'' ''confusion,'' ''amnesia,'' ''depression,'' ''paranoid reaction,'' ''psychosis,'' ''hostility,'' ''delirium,'' ''hallucinations,'' ''abnormal thinking,'' ''depersonalization'' and ''lack of emotion,'' among others.
  The preceding examples are only a few of the best-known offenders who had been taking prescribed psychiatric drugs before committing their violent crimes '' there are many others.
  Whether we like to admit it or not, it is undeniable that when certain people living on the edge of sanity take psychiatric medications, those drugs can '' and occasionally do '' push them over the edge into violent madness. Remember, every single SSRI antidepressant sold in the United States of America today, no matter what brand or manufacturer, bears a ''black box'' FDA warning label '' the government's most serious drug warning '' of ''increased risks of suicidal thinking and behavior, known as suicidality, in young adults ages 18 to 24.'' Common sense tells us that where there are suicidal thoughts '' especially in a very, very angry person '' homicidal thoughts may not be far behind. Indeed, the mass shooters we are describing often take their own lives when the police show up, having planned their suicide ahead of time.
  So, what 'medication' was Lanza on?
  The Sandy Hook school massacre, we are constantly reminded, was the ''second-worst school shooting in U.S. history.'' Let's briefly revisit the worst, Virginia Tech, because it provides an important lesson for us. One would think, in light of the stunning correlation between psych meds and mass murders, that it would be considered critical to establish definitively whether the Virginia Tech murderer of 32 people, student Cho Seung-Hui, had been taking psychiatric drugs.
  Yet, more than five years later, the answer to that question remains a mystery.
  Even though initially the New York Times reported, ''officials said prescription medications related to the treatment of psychological problems had been found among Mr. Cho's effects,'' and the killer's roommate, Joseph Aust, had told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Cho's routine each morning had included taking prescription drugs, the state's toxicology report released two months later said ''no prescription drugs or toxic substances were found in Cho Seung-Hui.''
  Perhaps so, but one of the most notoriously unstable and unpredictable times for users of SSRI antidepressants is the period shortly after they've stopped taking them, during which time the substance may not be detectable in the body.
  What kind of meds might Cho have been taking '' or recently have stopped taking? Curiously, despite an exhaustive investigation by the Commonwealth of Virginia which disclosed that Cho had taken Paxil for a year in 1999, specifics on what meds he was taking prior to the Virginia Tech massacre have remained elusive. The final 20,000-word report manages to omit any conclusive information about the all-important issue of Cho's medications during the period of the mass shooting.
  To add to the drama, it wasn't until two years after the state's in-depth report was issued that, as disclosed in an Aug. 19, 2009, ABC News report, some of Cho's long-missing mental health records were located:
  The records released today were discovered to be missing during a Virginia panel's August 2007 investigation four-and-a-half months after the massacre.
  The notes were recovered last month from the home of Dr. Robert Miller, the former director of the counseling center, who says he inadvertently packed Cho's file into boxes of personal belongings when he left the center in February 2006. Until the July 2009 discovery of the documents, Miller said he had no idea he had the records.
  Miller has since been let go from the university.
  Although Cho's newly discovered mental-health files reportedly revealed nothing further about his medications, the issues raised by the initial accounts '' including the ''officials'' cited by the New York Times and the Richmond paper's eyewitness account of daily meds-taking '' remain unaddressed to this day.
  Some critics suggest these official omissions are motivated by a desire to protect the drug companies from ruinous product liability claims. Indeed, pharmaceutical manufacturers are nervous about lawsuits over the ''rare adverse effects'' of their mood-altering medications. To avoid costly settlements and public relations catastrophes '' such as when GlaxoSmithKline was ordered to pay $6.4 million to the family of 60-year-old Donald Schnell who murdered his wife, daughter and granddaughter in a fit of rage shortly after starting on Paxil '' drug companies' legal teams have quietly and skillfully settled hundreds of cases out-of-court, shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to plaintiffs. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly fought scores of legal claims against Prozac in this way, settling for cash before the complaint could go to court while stipulating that the settlement remain secret '' and then claiming it had never lost a Prozac lawsuit.
  All of which is, once again, to respectfully but urgently ask the question: When on earth are we going to find out if the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook school massacre, like so many other mass shooters, had been taking psychiatric drugs?
  In the end, it may well turn out that knowing what kinds of guns he used isn't nearly as important as what kind of drugs he used.
  That is, assuming we ever find out.
Rethinking the Bucket List: Kathleen Taylor at TEDx TampaBay (The Future of Stories)
  Link to Article
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 01:15
They're On the Dole And Watching The Pole- Welfare Recipients Taking Out Cash At Strip Clubs, Liquor Stores, X-rated Video Stores
  Link to Article
  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 01:01
  Isn't this where you thought your hard-earned tax dollars were going?
  Via NY Post:
  They're on the dole '-- and watching the pole.
  Welfare recipients took out cash at bars, liquor stores, X-rated video shops, hookah parlors and even strip clubs '-- where they presumably spent their taxpayer money on lap dances rather than diapers, a Post investigation found.
  A database of 200 million Electronic Benefit Transfer records from January 2011 to July 2012, obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information request, showed welfare recipients using their EBT cards to make dozens of cash withdrawals at ATMs inside Hank's Saloon in Brooklyn; the Blue Door Video porn shop in the East Village; The Anchor, a sleek SoHo lounge; the Patriot Saloon in TriBeCa; and Drinks Galore, a liquor distributor in The Bronx.
  The state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), which oversees the ''cash assistance program,'' even lists some of these welfare-ready ATMs on its Web site.
  One EBT machine is stationed inside Club Eleven, an infamous Hunts Point jiggle joint known as much for its violent history as its girls in pink thongs.
  Cops have been cracking down on the Bronx club since 2009 and shut it down temporarily in 2010. In July, five men were stabbed and two others shot outside after bouncers broke up a 4 a.m. brawl with pepper spray. The club appeared to be shuttered when The Post visited Thursday.
  Club Heat, another Bronx strip club that dispenses EBT cash, is also no stranger to violence. A 33-year-old woman was fatally shot in the head outside the club in December 2011.
  Critics blasted the government for turning a blind eye to welfare's sleazy money.
  ''This is morally scandalous,'' said Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. ''I have nothing against strip clubs, but that's not what benefits are for. I don't blame [recipients]. If you are poor, it's a crummy life and you want to have a drink or see a naked woman. I blame the people who are in charge of this.''
  Keep reading'...
Health Insurers Raise Some Rates By Double Digits
  Link to Article
  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:59
  But'...but.. ''Affordable Care Act''? Even the NY Times is reporting on the failures of Obamacare.
  Via NY Times:
  Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration's healthcare law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.
  Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.
  In California, Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers' filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which was passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014.
  In other states, like Florida and Ohio, insurers have been able to raise rates by at least 20 percent for some policy holders. The rate increases can amount to several hundred dollars a month.
  The proposed increases compare with about 4 percent for families with employer-based policies.
  Keep reading'...
2 Warehouses Of NY Police Evidence Flooded By Hurricane Sandy
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  Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:56