What Adam Curry is reading

What does growler mean? growler Definition. Meaning of growler. OnlineSlangDictionary.com
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  Other terms relating to 'alcohol':
  Definitions include: See forty.Definitions include: a "Long Island Ice Tea" (also called a "Long Island Iced Tea") which is a strong alcoholic mixed drink.Definitions include: a few drinks of alcohol.Definitions include: an alcoholic beverage.Definitions include: alcohol.Definitions include: alcoholic.Definitions include: acronym of "adios mother f*cker."Definitions include: whiskey or other strong liquor.Definitions include: a drink of cocaine dissolved in vodkaDefinitions include: Milwaukee's Best brand beer.Definitions include: alcohol.Definitions include: beer.Definitions include: a beer.Definitions include: acronym for "bring your own beer", "bring your own bottle", or "bring your own booze".Definitions include: "bring your own wine".Other terms relating to 'anus':
  Definitions include: amphetamine.Definitions include: the anus.Definitions include: a person who is offensive, pompous, rude, unkind, impolite, etc.; "jerk".Definitions include: the anus.Definitions include: the anus.Definitions include: the rectum.Definitions include: vagina.Definitions include: the anus.Definitions include: anus.Definitions include: the anus; "butt hole".Definitions include: anus.Definitions include: the anus.Definitions include: to engage in anal sex on the giving end.Definitions include: to be the penetrator during anal intercourse.Definitions include: the anus.Other terms relating to 'vulva ('vagina'), female genitalia':
  Definitions include: vulva ("vagina").Definitions include: vulva ("vagina").Definitions include: clitoris.Definitions include: vagina.Definitions include: an Ecstasy (MDMA) pill or tablet.Definitions include: female genitalia.Definitions include: female genitalia.Definitions include: shortened form of beaver.Definitions include: vagina.Definitions include: large outer labia; "large vaginal lip".Definitions include: large outer labia; "large vaginal lip".Definitions include: the outer labia; "vaginal lips".Definitions include: vagina.Definitions include: an infected vulva (vagina).Definitions include: an attractive female.None. How about some random words?
  Definitions include: Details are available in the entry for swap.Definitions include: secret sexual activity with a person other than one's partner.Definitions include: acronym for "best friend(s) for life".Definitions include: metaphorical sweating caused by intellectual work.Definitions include: n. oral sex.Definitions include: a haircut or hair style. Usually used derogatorily.Definitions include: a DJ's turntables.Definitions include: to defecate.Definitions include: very thin due to their cocaine usage.Definitions include: a person (usually male) who is attracted to overweight people.Your vote: None (To vote, click the pepper. Vote how vulgar the word is '' not how mean it is.)
  To link to this term in a web page or blog, insert the following.
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Growler obsolete in 5 years, expert says
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:57
  David Ellery August 24, 2012
  Australia's $1.5 billion ''Growler'' electronic warfare fleet may be redundant within four or five years of its delivery in 2018, a senior Lockheed Martin official has said.
  Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin's general manager for program integration, said his company's Joint Strike Fighter was one of the planes that would be able to carry the next generation jammer which is expected to come into operation with the US military early next decade.
  Although Australia is committed to buying up to 100 of the stealth strike aircraft under the current Defence White Paper, Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare yesterday announced the government had approved $1.5 billion for Australian Growlers.
  While the spend will ensure 12 aircraft have the capacity to operate the controversial ALQ-99 electronic warfare pods that were originally designed during the Vietnam War, it does not appear it will stretch to one pod for each aircraft.
  ''We are putting ourselves in the position where at any given time we can have six (Super Hornets) operating with Growler itself. So, we'll effectively have a fleet of 12 at any point in time we can have six in the air,'' Mr Smith said.
  ''The purpose of the Growler, of course, is it provides a capacity to jam the communications system of an adversary '... jam the communications system of a group of terrorists as well as a traditional adversary.''
  The American government has accelerated work on the next generation jammer program to counter problems with its own Growler fleet.
  Planes fitted with the next generation jammer could be flying as early as 2022.
  Defence insiders say the Growler buy will put pressure on the RAAF to retain its 24-strong Super Hornet fleet, acquired as a stop gap to give Australia a deterrent strike capability due to the early retirement of the F-111s, at the expense of future JSF numbers.
  ''If you are paying for the facilities to maintain and operate the 12 Super Hornet 'Growlers' then it makes sense to keep the other 12 Super Hornets as well,'' The Canberra Times was told.
  Designed in large part to bring America's electronic warfare capability into the 21st century, the next generation jammer is expected to be significantly more capable than the pods fitted to the Growlers which have been criticised as unreliable by the US Government Accountability Office and described as ''woefully inadequate'' by United States defence analyst Loren Thompson.
  ''The next generation jammer is a project that has a number of platforms that could potentially carry the equipment, the F-35 being one of them.''
  The $1.5 billion Growler price tag - coincidentally the same figure as the federal government's projected 2012-13 budget surplus - is $200 million less than the $1.7 billion quoted at a recent Senate Estimates hearing.
  It is still a hefty sum.
  Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Brown yesterday described the Growler as ''the biggest strategic increase in the ADF's capability since we ordered the F-111''.
  The $1.5 billion does not include the $55 million previously allocated to the project.
  Nor does it take into account the $120 million total procurement cost of each of the planes.
Bill Gates: 'Some days I wish we had a system like the UK' to give Obama more power [VIDEO]
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  Source: Infowars » Featured Stories
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:52
  Nicholas BallasyThe Daily CallerMarch 14, 2013
  Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the wealthiest American, said on ''some days'' he wishes the U.S. political system were like England's, so that President Barack Obama could have ''slightly more power.''
  Gates was asked for his assessment of President Obama's job performance during an interview at Politico's ''Playbook Cocktails'' event.
  ''Some days I wish we had a system like the U.K. where, you know, the party in power could do a lot and you know, you'd see how it went and then fine you could un-elect them,'' said Gates on Wednesday.
  ''Now, over time, our system has worked slightly better than theirs, theirs has worked okay but so it's ironic that right now it feels like I wish there was slightly more power in the presidency to avoid some of these deadlocks. So I think what he [Obama] wants to do and what he's actually able to do, the gap is so big there that it's hard to know in some ways.''
  Full story here.
  This article was posted: Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 6:37 am
  Tags: constitution, government corruption, mainstream media, police state
'Fed Up' Kim Kardashian Accuses Kris Humphries' Camp Of Leaking Damaging Deposition About Faked Scenes On Her Reality Shows
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  Source: Radar Online
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:50
  Kim Kardashian is fuming, as she believes Kris Humphries' team '-- in an attempt to illustrate how Kim only wed the NBA star as a publicity stunt '-- leaked sworn testimony from a deposition related to their upcoming divorce trial that claims her reality show is scripted and that she cries on camera with the aid of a tear stick.
  Thursday's New York Post reports ''Kim is fed up with the courtroom tactics of her estranged husband'...''
  PHOTOS: Reality TV's Top Families
  This comes on the heels of Life & Style's report that Keeping Up With The Kardashians producer Russell Jay said in a Feb. 4 deposition that there was a re-take when Kris famously proposed to Kim on camera, as ''she didn't like how her face looked in the first take.''
  In addition, the magazine reported that Kim shot a scene complaining about the state of her marriage AFTER the couple's infamous split on Halloween 2011.
  EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Kardashian Kids Never-Before-Seen Childhood Photos
  ''This is normal operating procedure on any reality show,'' an insider told the NY Post. ''None of this shows fraud, which is what Kris is trying to prove.
  ''His entire case is based on the premise that he is the stupidest person on the planet,'' the insider said, adding that the Brooklyn Nets forward isn't even interested in getting paid, but rather ''just trying to make her miserable.''
  PHOTOS: Celebs Who Have Slammed The Kardashians
  As RadarOnline.com previously reported even more distressing to Kim is that she's slated to be deposed in the case in two weeks at her lawyer Laura Wasser's office.
  ''It's scheduled to take all day and Kim has been dreading it,'' a source exclusively told Radar.
  As we previously reported, an insider told us that Kim and show's producers ''set Kris up to look like a jerk'' on her show throughout the course of their 72-day marriage.
  PHOTOS: Kim Shows Off Growing Baby Bump In Paris
  ''Anyone who loves someone,'' the insider said, ''would not team up with their production team to make them look like a fool on TV.''
  If the duo cannot come to some resolution, the case will advance to trial on May 6.
THE NEXT LEAP FORWARD IN INFORMATION PROCESSING: VACUUM TUBES
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  Source: Giza Death Star
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:47
  Hold on to your hats, the vacuum tube may stage a (long overdue) comeback:
  Vacuum tubes could be the future of computing
Google to retire Reader service
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  Source: BBC News - Home
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:44
  14 March 2013Last updated at08:19 ETGoogle is to shut down its Reader service in July, as usage has declined.
  A petition to save the service, which aggregates news content from web feeds, had 25,000 signatures in a few hours.
  Experts say shutting Reader is part of Google's plan to migrate more people to its social media service, Google+.
  Google said in its official blog: "There are two simple reasons for this - usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we are pouring all of our energy into fewer products."
  It added users and developers who wanted to use alternatives could export their data, including their subscriptions over the next four months, using its Google Takeout service.
  Google Reader launched in 2005, when Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds were a new way to keep tabs on favourite websites and blogs.
  The news of its demise has led to a debate about the service on Twitter. Some said its launch had effectively destroyed other RSS competitors.
  Security consultant @cortesi tweeted: "Google - a destroyer of ecosystems".
  In his blog, he added:" "Google destroyed the RSS feed-reader ecosystem with a subsidised product, stifling its competitors and killing innovation.
  "It then neglected Google Reader itself for years, after it had effectively become the only player."
  Adam Leach, a principal analyst at research firm Ovum, said Google's business model was to offer free services in order to draw people into its other offerings.
  Now, he said, Google wanted people to experience their favourite websites in a more social way and was seeking to migrate its aggregation platforms to its social media service.
  "This has been on the cards for a while. It is part of Google's strategy to shift people to Google + and other social tools," he said.
  Doomed to failHe added he would personally miss the service.
  "I use Google Reader every day," he said.
  "It is one of those tools that sits in the background and allows you to keep pace with what is going on."
  But Chris Wetherell, one of Reader's chief engineers, told tech news site GigaOm it had been "doomed to fail from the very beginning because Google "never really believed in the project".
Olivia Wilde Drops F-bombs While Discussing Bieber Twitter Scandal on Tonight Show
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  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:29
  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.
One of their own Storm Troopers
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  Source: Lame Cherry
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:27
  The Catholic religion, the Vatican, is based upon the power of one group, a group who in the Americans oversaw the need for communist liberation, a group denounced by Pope John Paul and Benedict. That group is the Jesuits, and if you do not know, CBS' resident Vatican expert just stated that Pope Francis, is a Jesuit, from the group of the Black Pope, the Storm Troopers of the Vatican who swept into nations and converted them.
  This is telling as Cardinal George took the name Francis who is the leader or father of the Italians in that order of Assisi.
  Pope Francis is of the political cabinet of the Vatican. He is not of the Italian order, but chose a name which means he is head of the Italian order.
  In a most interesting sign, when Pope Ben was forced into exile, lightning struck the Vatican. When Cardinal George was announced a gull sat atop the chimney which announced this page turning event.
  In a search for the connections of gulls and omens, the following recordings were found:
  Soul Birds - world, body, beliefs, time, humanwww.deathreference.com 'º Sh-SySeagulls ( Laridae ), too, warned of approaching storm. ... the raven ( Corvus corax ) and crow ( Corvus corone ) have been thought birds of ill omen. A document ...Pope's Dove Attacked By Seagull At Holocaust Remembrance Day ...www.huffingtonpost.com/.../popes-dove-attacked-by-seagu...Jan 29, 2013 '' The dove was eventually able to escape from the seagull. .... Those two women are so dumb not knowing the meaning of a white doveIt is of interest that in recent history, the gull warned of an approaching storm and that a gull tried to kill a dove of peace released on Holocaust Remembrance Day by Pope Benedict.
  This particular gull flew away and then came back. That has a duality of meaning and depth of twice the magnitude of meaning.Gulls have a happy laugh in following humans, but do so for the death the humans create and are there to devour.
  This is a bird of the sea, sitting upon the dry land. The sea is symbolic of the mass of humanity and this bird is perched upon it as a sign of that which is to come.
  This Pope Francis, the Italian order, had manifestations which were infused into the Catholic order.
  Though he was never ordained to the Catholic priesthood, Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history
  In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades
  Do you see things forming in this Pope, of choosing an Italian never ordained, a close link to Islamic conversion to the Universal religion, and..... In 1224, he received the stigmata, making him the first recorded person to bear the wounds of Christ's Passion.
  The strange miracles that are part of this illuminated group.Revelation 13:11, 12
  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
  Perhaps, by the signs and omens, Malachy might not be far off in this Pater of Rome.
  Another in the series of Lame Cherry exclusives in matter and anti matter.
  agtG 345YY signature 4, double deuce end
"A Man Like OBL's Son-In-Law Should Never Hear The Words You Have The Right To Remain Silent!"
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Internal intelligence agencies hungry for deeper cooperation from Skype '-- RT News
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:23
  While already giving intelligence services access to private data without a court order, some Russian experts say, Skype is still being pressured into registering as a telecom agency, allowing intelligence to operate around a series of legal loopholes.
  Intelligence services have for years have been monitoring Skype communications, several participants in the Russian information security industry have told Russian newspaper Vedomosti. According to security experts, access to correspondence and Skype conversations within the Russian intelligence community does not always go through the court system '' it is often obtained on a ''simple request.''
  After Microsoft acquired Skype in May 2011, it updated its software with a technology allowing ''legitimate wiretapping,'' Maksim Emm, CEO of Peak Systems, told the publication. Since then, any user account can be switched to a special mode in which the encryption keys that were previously generated on a user's mobile device or computer would be generated on Skype's server.
  With access to the server, anyone can listen to the conversation or read the correspondence, including short messages sent to mobile phones. Microsoft provides the opportunity to use this technology to security services all around the world, including Russia, the expert explained.
  Another expert elaborated that ''for a couple of years'' the intelligence agencies can not only listen, but also determine a user's location. ''That is why our employees, for example, are forbidden to talk on work-related manners on Skype,'' Ilya Sachkov, CEO of Group-IB, told Vedomosti.
  The Federal Security Service (FSB) asked Microsoft back in 2011 to provide Skype's source code, claiming it was required to reduce the threat to Russia's national security. Although the code would not allow authorities to obtain direct and easy access to private data, it could help to crack the encryption system.
  The request was apparently turned down, leaving security services with the only fully legal ways of obtaining private information '' through a direct court request to Microsoft.
  Microsoft's somewhat cooperative attitude towards releasing private data did not stop the FSB from filing numerous complaints to the company, pushing it to register under a different designation '' as a telecommunications operator.
  While Skype provides VoIP (Voice over IP) services, the company is not registered as an operator. Such a move would make accessing and collecting private data even easier for the authorities, because in accordance with Russian legislation, mobile operators and Internet service providers are required to collect personal data and store it for at least three years.
  Meanwhile, the French telecom regulator ARCEP is also pushing Skype towards further collaboration with the special security services.
  The body posted a notice on Tuesday saying that prosecutors had been notified that Skype should register with the authorities as telecom firm as it provides its users with the ability to make phone calls, and therefore is required to meet regulations including ''implementing the means required to perform legally ordered interceptions.''
  ARCEP added further that Skype's failure to register as an ''electronic communications operator,'' after several requests by ARCEP, could be viewed as a criminal offense.
  Skype's position on the matter was outlined in a statement sent to Ars Technica, which said:
I Give You Pope Francais The First!
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Senate Banking Committee Confirmation Hearing On The Nomination Of Financial Regulators
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:22
'ITALIAN FASCIST' POPE FRANCIS
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  Source: aangirfan
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:17
  Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now called Pope Francis, has Italian origins.Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now called Pope Francis, was reportedly involved in the 1976 kidnapping of two priests by fascist elements of the Argentinian Navy.[20]This was during Argentina's Dirty War.
  The priests, Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics, were found drugged and semi-naked, five months after being kidnapped.Yorio accused Bergoglio (Pope Francis) of handing them over to the death squads. Reportedly, the Argentine Navy with the help of Cardinal Bergoglio housed political prisoners in Bergoglio's holiday home [23]"Cardinal Primatesta met regularly with Videla and Papal nuncio Laghi played tennis with Masssera." en.mercopress.com"From 1973 to 1979, a period that overlapped with military dictatorship lasting from 1976 to 1983, Francis served as the top Argentine Jesuit official."During that time, the Catholic Church remained silent in the face of widespread human rights violations during the country's so-called "Dirty War," an effort by the military government to root out dissent by torture, murder, and disappearances.
  "In several cases, Catholic priests collaborated with the government and were even in the room as prisoners were tortured.
  "In February, an Argentine court ruled that the Catholic church hierarchy, of which Francis was arguably a member, had "closed its eyes" to the killing of progressive priests."
  ''Yesterday an accomplice of the Argentine military dictatorship '-- Today an accomplice of the coup-makers against the revolutionary process in Latin America. No pasaran!'' tumblr.com. He has openly attacked Argentina's president, Cristina Kirchner. dailymailBergoglio told his authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, that after the priests' imprisonment, he worked behind the scenes for their release.
  Admiral Emilio Massera was trained by the Pentagon, at the School of the Americas. Massera trafficked in babies and young children. (Admiral Emilio Massera.) He was involved with P2, the international masonic lodge which, as part of Operation Gladio, helped carry out terrorism in Italy. He set up a CIA-funded torture centre. (Cruyff - ZANI :: Articles) This was designed to kill an estimated 30,000 "enemies of the state". (Admiral Emilio Massera.)Pope Francis (Bergoglio) is the first Jesuit to be elected Pope.The parents of Pope Francis are Italians - Mario Jos(C) Bergoglio, a railway worker, and his wife Regina Mar­a S­vori, a housewife.
  In the 1960s, Pope Francis was a teacher of psychology.
  He completed his doctoral dissertation in Germany.
  Cardinal Bergoglio became known for 'doctrinal conservatism'.
  He lived in an apartment, rather than in the bishop's residence.[14]
  Pope Francis I, right, was the archbishop of Buenos Aires when he met with Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, in Buenos Aires in 2012. New pope, Jorge Mario Bergogli of Argentina, has Jewish connections... - JTAThe family of Pope Francis is originally from Portacomaro in the province of Asti in the North of Italy.Jewish landmarks in Asti have a history which goes back to the 14th century.
  Asti Italy Jewish tours travel itineraries heritage - Key Jewish Tours ...
  Bergoglio
  A Portacomaroun ancestor of the future pontiff purchased from a Jew in the first half of the nineteenth century, the only house which existed in this small village in the province of Asti.The great-grandfather came to Portacomaro from northern Asti, around Castelnuovo Don Bosco, probably Cortiglione of Robertsbridge, where even today there are many Bergoglio.
  After arriving in Portacomaro, the Bergoglio also built the other houses, then inhabited by the descendants.
  Papa Bergoglio ha radici piemontesi - Cronaca - Tgcom24
  Ettore Ovazza (Turin, 21 March 1892 - Intra, 11 October 1943) was an Italian Jew who was a financial patron of Mussolini, and served as a minister for some years with the Economy Ministry in Benito Mussolini's government.He was born, one of three brothers, to the Ovazza family, a wealthy and influential Jewish banking family based in Turin. They were one of the leading banking families in Italy.
  Ettore Ovazza was a committed Fascist from the start. He took part in the March on Rome in October 1922; in 1929 he was invited to meet Mussolini as a part of a delegation of Jewish war veterans.
  He later described the encounter: "On hearing my affirmation of the unshakeable loyalty of Italian Jews to the Fatherland, His Excellency Mussolini looks me straight in the eye and says with a voice that penetrates straight to my heart: 'I have never doubted it'.
  Ettore Ovazza - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  "The mutilated body of Gonzalez, a homeless child who lived from selling religious cards and artifacts, was found October 2006 in Mercedes, a city of 50,000 some 700km north of Buenos Aires."The boy 'was raped, impaled, tortured with cigarette burns, decapitated while still alive and then all the blood was drained from his body. They removed all the skin from his body, as well as his tongue, throat and several vertebrae', Mr Schmitt said.
  A R G E N T I N A - "Archbishop Edgardo Storni of Santa Fe resigned on Oct. 1, 2002, after a book accused him of abusing at least 47 young seminarians. The Vatican had investigated allegations against Storni in 1994, but found insufficient evidence to act. Storni said his resignation did not signify guilt." - Boston Globe / Spotlight / Abuse in the Catholic Church / Scandal ...
  aangirfan: Argentinaaangirfan.blogspot.com/2008/03/argentina.htmlApr 2, 2008 '' Argentina is not all sweetness and light. 1. An article in The Guardian, 2 April 2008, - Architects of the new Argentina - tells us that 7 million ...aangirfan: GOVERNMENTS KIDNAP KIDS - ARGENTINAaangirfan.blogspot.com/.../governments-kidnap-kids-argentina.htmlJul 6, 2012 '' In Argentina, the "CIA funded Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) was where opponents (active or perceived) to the dictatorship were raped, ...aangirfan: HITLER IN ARGENTINAaangirfan.blogspot.com/2009/09/hitler-in-argentina.htmlSep 29, 2009 '' In Argentina, the "CIA funded Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) was where opponents (active or perceived) to the dictatorship were raped, ...aangirfan: Hitler and Argentinaaangirfan.blogspot.com/2007/01/hitler-and-argentina.htmlJan 3, 2007 '' Back in 1944, Hoover had been told by an informant that Hitler would receive refuge in Argentina. A memo stated that Argentine's leaders ...aangirfan: SEX IN ARGENTINA - JUST LIKE USA AND EUROPEaangirfan.blogspot.com/2012/.../sex-in-argentina-just-like-usa-and.ht...Dec 14, 2012 '' Argentina's Admiral Emilio Massero trafficked in children. He was involved with P2, the international masonic lodge which, as part of the CIA's ...aangirfan: HITLER ESCAPEDaangirfan.blogspot.com/2011/10/hitler-escaped.htmlOct 18, 2011 '' Author Abel Basti, in his 2003 book Hitler In Argentina, said Hitler and... The ranch belonged to Argentine businessman Jorge Antonio, friend ...
Operation Jerusalem Dawn
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  Source: Lame Cherry
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:16
  There is an operation my children, and it is why Matt Drudge was signifying it, in the warning from Palestinians that if B. Hussein Obama walks upon Temple Mount that there will be riots there.
  In the Obama ledger, there are several events planned for acquisition of the Temple Mount. The Vatican controls most of the property in Judah, and in Jerusalem. The Rothschilds handle the management and the false pope will require a temple for what they will initiate.The problem is that Dome of the Rock, that Islamic blasphemy on the Mount.
  While there is room for a temple on that site, it is discussed in removing that mosque. War with missiles is deemed the most costly, but a Beslin type event is being authored with Obama the catalyst in his Middle East visit.
  I can assure readers that in my inquiries there is no harm that is destined to come to Barry Chin on this trip, in he will not die.
  The operation is termed Operation Jerusalem Dawn or Peaceful Sunrise.
  What it entails is a "danger event" which will be portrayed against Obama with nothing happening, but to generate media hype. What comes next is a "hostage event" with Jews and Muslims, inside the Dome, which has been wired and explosives will be rigged to "protect" the hostage takers from Obama's al Qaeda, who will be from somse murky Hezbollah Hamas.........dead Khadaffi's and living Syrian hosts....will be identities found like Chris Dorner and Mo Atta at the World Trade Center.
  What I mean by wired is, there are tunnel in charges laid under the Dome to bring it down, exactly like the OKC bombing at the Murrah Building in the outside blasts will be blamed, when it was the bombs in the basement.
  This will be a bloody affair with allot of offerings, and during an IDF raid, the terrorists will "detonate" the charges and bring the entire site down.There is discussion in making certain that cameras do not record the events as on 9 11, at least for the public as too much effort was involved in covering things up, and the last glitch this group wants is to have the fringe citing proof in Palestinians blew up the Dome for their own state, the Vatican blew it up for control, Rothschilds blew it up to get rid of Jews and Obama blew it up because he likes blow jobs.....from the false pope and the anti Christ.
  This of course is a Lame Cherry matter anti matter exclusive. I really in this case support the machinations of the machine, as the Dome comes down, the Temple goes up, and Jesus comes back.
  This will ignite eruptions all over as "cover" for what was done, and to bleed off the fury, so in time after a hot summer of warfare, all will be ready for a cool autumn of false peace set up by the anti Christ.I hope that by revealing this operation I do not scare chicken liver Obama off the plans in the ledger. This must be moved along and these satanists should not be cowardly in shrinking from the operation just because it is exposed here first.
  Does not take much to do a synopsis of that now did it.
  Hamas: 'Declaration Of War' If Obama Visits Temple MountHamas is warning that if President Obama visits the Temple Mount it ... A Palestinian man prepares to throw a snowball outside the Al-Aqsa ... the threat during a protest march at the religious site following riots on Friday.agtG 341YY
To amend title 44, United States Code, to require information on contributors to Presidential library fundraising organizations, and for other purposes. (H.R. 1133)
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:13
  GovTrack's Bill SummaryWe don't have a summary available yet.
  Library of Congress SummaryThe summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.
  No summary available.
  House Republican Conference SummaryThe summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.
  No summary available.
  House Democratic Caucus SummaryThe House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.
  So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference's summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That's because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.
  We'll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.
A bill to establish an advisory committee to issue nonbinding governmentwide guidelines on making public information available on the Internet, to require publicly available Government information held by the executive branch to be made available on the I
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:10
  GovTrack's Bill SummaryWe don't have a summary available yet.
  Library of Congress SummaryThe summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.
  No summary available.
  House Republican Conference SummaryThe summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.
  No summary available.
  House Democratic Caucus SummaryThe House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.
  So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference's summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That's because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.
  We'll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.
"THESE PEOPLE RIGHT HERE MEAN TO KILL US ALL!" Senator Lindsey Graham
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:08
Sanity Hearing Set To Begin For Soldier Accused Of Massacring Afghan Village
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:08
Louisiana Gas Pipeline Still Burning More Than 24 Hours After Exploding
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:08
New Defense Secretary Orders Review Of How Rape Charges A Handled By The Military
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:07
Israel Has A Government!
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:07
"Alzheimer's Is An Equal Opportunity Catastrophe For The High And Mighty And The Ordinary"
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:06
Anonymous plots massive cyber-attack '-- RT News
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  Archived Version
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:05
  Hacktivist group Anonymous, along with numerous other hackers, is planning a massive cyber-attack on Israel, threatening to ''erase'' the country from Internet. Israel is apparently taking the threats seriously, with defensive preparations underway.
  ''Hacktivists Starting Cyber Attack against Israel on 7th of April,'' Anonymous wrote on Twitter, calling on hackers around the world to join up for a second 'OpIsrael.'
  Israeli government agencies are reportedly readying for the attack: ''It's something being organized online over the past few days. What distinguishes this plan when compared to previous attacks is that it really seems to be organized by Anonymous-affiliated groups from around the world in what looks like a joining of forces,'' Ofir Ben Avi, director of online group Accessible Government told Haaretz.
  The first 'OpIsrael' cyber-attacks were launched by the hacktivist group during Israeli's 'Pillar of Defense' assault on Gaza in November 2012.
  ''We are Anonymous. We are legion. We will not forgive. We will not forget. Israel, it is too late to expect us,'' their message to Israeli authorities read.
  Some 700 Israeli website suffered repeated cyber-attacks, including high-profile government systems such as the Foreign Ministry, and the Israeli President's official website. The Israeli Finance Ministry reported an estimated 44 million unique attacks on government websites.
  Following 'OpIsrael,' Anonymous posted the online personal data of 5,000 Israeli officials, including names, ID numbers and personal emails.
  Anonymous was also involved in an attack in which the details of some 600,000 users of the popular Israeli email service Walla were exposed online.
PATENTWIZARD | PROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATION SOFTWARE
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:40
  Create an unlimited number of provisional applications.Prepare from the privacy of your own computer with no third-party storage of your data.Catches common mistakes and spell checks. Learn how to write like a patent attorney. Export your application to Microsoft Word® or HTML. $147*
  * The $125 government filing fee is not included.
  Prepare your provisional patent application online immediately.
  Three easy steps to get "Patent Pending".
  1. Complete Online Questionairre; 2. Neustel Law Offices Files Self-Drafted Provisional; and 3. Neustel Law Offices Notifies You Via E-mail.
  Electronically filed with U.S. Patent Office by a U.S. patent law firm - Neustel Law Offices.
  Automatically receive e-mail reminders of your one-year provisional expiration deadline.
  $97*
  "I got back a note from the PTO official working on my project, and she said, 'I love it when people get serious enough to hire a professional attorney to do this, it makes my job and yours much easier, great job!' I didn't tell her what I used!"
  - Samuel Anderson, CEO, Tekbrokers"We really appreciate the simple step by step instructions. Overall, PatentWizard is very user friendly. Even people with limited exposure to the patent process should be able to use it."
  - Gerald Udell, World Innovation Network"We are proud to tell you that our team won the NH State FIRST LEGO League competition for the fourth consecutive year and we are on to the International Tournament next month! We completed our provisional patent using the awesome Patent Wizard software your company so generously donated to our team. Thank you so much for supporting young inventors!"
  The Inventioneers, www.TheInventioneers.com, FLL World Champions"I have used PatentWizard to produce and submit two provisional patent applications. Both times the patent lawyer who reviewed them prior to submittal asked what law firm did the provisional write up!"
  - Tom Stone, Inventor"I found your software to be very helpful and easy to use. I have 8 patents and this by far was the easiest start I have experienced for the process."
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  Stan E. Delo, Inventor"I purchased your PatentWizard Professional software a few months ago and it was a fantastic product! Keep making great products!"
  Christopher Gibbons, Gibbons Innovations"This is by far the best software available for writing your provisional patent application. I use it myself for my PPA's and it works great. I highly recommend this software if you are writing your own PPA."
  - Stephen Key, Inventor"It was very user-friendly, and Neustel Law Offices reviewed my application for no extra cost. Don't think twice! Buy Patent Wizard now and set yourself on the smart path for turning your inventing dreams into reality. A very happy customer."
  - Alex H., NYC Real Estate Agent and Product Developer"I love this program!"
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  Dan Mohr, Inventor"PatentWizard 3.0 is by far the best way I have ever seen to produce a truly comprehensive Provisional Patent Application. It will be very interesting to experience the Patent Checker (TM) feature to discover how many of the common mistakes I might have made without it. The instructions alone are an excellent education in their own right."
  - Stan E. Delo, Inventor"I'm very impressed with PatentWizard and your firm's subsequent review of my ppa. My NYC attorney was highly impressed with how thorough my ppa was."
  Alex H., NYC Real Estate Agent and Product Developer"I love both products that we purchased from you '‚¬'' PatentWizard and ConfidentialityWizard. Your products have taken the complexity out of what can be a complex process."
  Christopher Gibbons, Gibbons Innovations
Electrum Bitcoin Client
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  Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:16
  Electrum Bitcoin ClientElectrum is an easy to use Bitcoin client. It protects you from losing coins in a backup mistake or computer failure, because your wallet can be recovered from a secret phrase that you can write on paper or learn by heart. There is no waiting time when you start the client, because it does not download the Bitcoin blockchain.
  Features:Instant on: Your client does not download the blockchain, it uses a remote server.Forgiving: Your wallet can be recovered from a secret seed.Safe: Private keys are never sent to the server. Information sent by the server is verified using SPVNo downtimes: Several public servers are available, you can switch instantly.Ubiquitous: You can use the same wallet on different computers, it will auto-synchronize.Open: You can export your private keys into other Bitcoin clients.Tested and audited: Electrum is open source and was first released in November 2011.User interfacesElectrum has several user interfaces, that share the same wallet code: Classic (Qt), Lite, Gtk, Android, Text (using curses).
USA TODAY
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:29
  Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP
  A Google sign sits outside the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
  by Brett Molina, USA TODAY
  Published: 03/13/2013 09:48pm
  Google is shutting down its popular RSS Reader as part of a broader "spring cleaning" to concentrate on a smaller selection of services.
  In a post on the official blog for Google Reader, software engineer Alan Green cites declining usage and a reshaped focus on fewer products. "We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience," he says.
  Google Reader will shut down July 1, so users have enough time to transition to a new option. Launched in 2005, the RSS Reader allowed users to pull content feeds from a variety of websites into one personal hub.
  The move to shut down Reader is part of a larger plan detailed on the company's official blog. Among other services getting shuttered: Google Building Maker, Google Cloud Connect and the voice app for BlackBerry devices.
  "It's been a long time since we have had this rate of change '-- it probably hasn't happened since the birth of personal computing 40 years ago," says Urs H¶lzle, Google's senior vice president of technical infrastructure. "To make the most of these opportunities, we need to focus'--otherwise we spread ourselves too thin and lack impact."
  Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
VIDEO-Farage: Watch this most boring and dangerous speech by Commissioner Rehn - YouTube
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:53
Officer Is Found Guilty in Cannibal Plot - NYTimes.com
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:53
  John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times
  Gilberto Valle's lawyer, Julia L. Gatto, center right, said that she did not believe the prosecution had proved its case and that her client had been convicted for his ''very ugly thoughts.''
  A New York police officer was convicted on Tuesday in a bizarre plot to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women, ending a trial whose outcome hinged on a delicate distinction between fantasy and reality.
  The trial had drawn widespread attention, in part because it involved an officer's disturbing behavior, but also because it raised a fundamental question: When does a virtual crime, contemplated in Internet chat rooms, become an actual crime?
  There was no evidence that any of the women whom the officer, Gilberto Valle, was accused of plotting to kill were harmed. But prosecutors argued that the officer took actual steps to further his plot, like conducting surveillance of potential victims.
  Mr. Valle, 28, could receive life in prison for one count of kidnapping conspiracy when he is sentenced on June 19. The Police Department fired him upon conviction.
  His lawyer, Julia L. Gatto, called the verdict ''devastating'' and said the government had not proved its case. ''This was a thought prosecution,'' she said. ''These are thoughts, very ugly thoughts, but we don't prosecute people for their thoughts. And we'll continue to appeal and continue to fight for Mr. Valle.''
  The trial highlighted some of the darkest corners of the Internet, where fetishists hide behind Web identities like Girlmeat Hunter '-- the name that Mr. Valle used '-- and engage in role-playing fantasy about cannibalism and sexual torture.
  At the crux of the case was whether prosecutors could prove that Mr. Valle, who is married and has a baby girl, was not simply role playing, as so many of his like-minded Internet peers apparently were, but laying the groundwork for actually kidnapping, torturing and killing the women he had singled out.
  The prosecutors, Randall W. Jackson and Hadassa Waxman, built their case around the chats and other online messages that Mr. Valle had exchanged with three co-conspirators and what prosecutors said were other concrete steps that he had taken to bring his plan to fruition.
  The United States attorney in Manhattan,Preet Bharara, said the jury unanimously found that Mr. Valle's ''detailed and specific plans to abduct women for the purpose of committing grotesque crimes were very real.''
  ''The Internet is a forum for the free exchange of ideas,'' he continued, ''but it does not confer immunity for plotting crimes and taking steps to carry out those crimes.''
  The verdict came on the 12th day of Mr. Valle's trial in Federal District Court, where he was also convicted of illegally gaining access to a law enforcement database that prosecutors said he had used to conduct research on potential victims. He faces up to one year in prison on that count.
  After the verdict, several members of the six-man, six-woman jury said an early straw poll had shown a broad split on the main conspiracy charge: about four jurors believed Mr. Valle to be not guilty, another group of perhaps five saw him as guilty, and the rest were undecided, one juror recalled.
  ''I did not know which way I was going to go '-- I was leaning toward not guilty,'' another juror recalled feeling as deliberations began. The jurors, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they spent about half a day reading the judge's instructions, and outlined the case chronologically with pieces of paper on a wall.
  At one point, two jurors read Mr. Valle's chats aloud, with one reading his words and another reading his conspirators' words. His communications with one man, who used the screen identity Moody Blues, were pivotal, a juror recalled. Without those chats, the juror said, there might have been a not-guilty verdict.
  A third juror said: ''I hate to see a person ruin their life '-- a baby, a wife, a career as a cop. And you hate to see that happen to people.''
  A juror recalled wondering whether Mr. Valle had merely been ''trying to make his fantasy more real.'' As the jury reviewed the evidence methodically, the juror said, ''the more you thought, 'Yeah, this is for real.' ''
  Daniel Krieger and Jack Styczynski contributed reporting.
Scarborough Mocks Mayor Bloomberg's Soda Ban Behind His Back; Won't Challenge Him In Person
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  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:44
  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.
Arming opposition in Syria is violation of international law
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  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:44
  Published time: March 13, 2013 16:30Edited time: March 13, 2013 17:49
  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that plans to arm the Syrian rebels would violate international law, citing Libya, where anti-Gadhafi forces received arms despite an embargo on the country.
  Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Hague, the Russian and British Foreign Ministers, met in London with the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the British Defense Secretary William Hammond, after lunch in Lancaster House.
  ''As for the possibility of arming the opposition, as far as i understand, it is not allowed by international law, that's why arming of the opposition directly or indirectly will be the violation of the international law,'' Lavrov told journalists at the Press Conference.
  Lavrov continued that in Libya, when the UN Security Council imposed an embargo on supplying arms to either side of the conflict, it was broken with arms deliveries continuing openly, from both European and Arab countries and that this was a violation of international law.
  Hague said the UK did not rule out anything for the future as the situation in Syria was unpredictable and may get even worse.
  He reiterated that to date, the help the UK was giving the Syrian opposition was largely made up of a humanitarian nature and was designed to save lives.
  He added that this help sent an important signal to the Syrian National Coalition in the absence of any political dialogue.
  Lavrov said that there should be no preconditions for dialogue in Syria ''if we want to save lives'' but that if the goal was regime change then different conditions for talks may be discussed.
  ''The Geneva Communiqu(C) doesn't have any preconditions, such as the removal President Assad from power, and those who say this is necessary in order to start a political process put this geopolitical goal first, before the goal of stopping the violence,'' Lavrov said
  On Monday Prime Minster David Cameron said he may break with the EU in May and veto an extension of the EU arms embargo on Syria.
  While last month Mr. Hague announced that the UK would supply non-lethal aid to the Syrian rebels, including four-wheel drive armored vehicles and body armor.
  Lavrov has repeatedly said that as Assad was not about to leave Syria, the only meaningful way for talks to progress was for Assad's government to be included in talks with the opposition.
Statement from the Press Secretary on H.R. 307
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  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:40
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  March 13, 2013
  On March 13, 2013, the President signed into law:
  H.R. 307, the "Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013," which reauthorizes appropriations through Fiscal Year 2018 and revises authorities for activities to improve public health and bioterrorism emergency planning, preparedness, and response; streamlines authorities within the Department of Health and Human Services to improve coordination and eliminate inefficiencies; and strengthens the role of the Food and Drug Administration to bring prevention and treatment products, known as "countermeasures," to market for emergency use.
Statement from the President on His Holiness Pope Francis
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:35
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  March 13, 2013
  On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis as he ascends to the Chair of Saint Peter and begins his papacy. As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than two thousand years'--that in each other we see the face of God. As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day. Just as I appreciated our work with Pope Benedict XVI, I look forward to working with His Holiness to advance peace, security and dignity for our fellow human beings, regardless of their faith. We join with people around the world in offering our prayers for the Holy Father as he begins the sacred work of leading the Catholic Church in our modern world.
Anatomy of a problem '' Bitcoin loses 25% in value due to a long-missed bug | Naked Security
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:34
  We've written several times about the controversial decentralised digital currency known as Bitcoin.
  Bitcoin is an algorithmic currency, backed not by printed banknotes or government assurances, but by a database of cryptographic proofs-of-work.
  That's fancy talk for: find a block of data that produces a cryptographic hash with a specific bit pattern (this gets harder and harder as you lock more bits into the pattern); convince a majority of other participants you've come up wth a solution; and add the new proof-of-work into a blockchain.
  The blockchain forms a cryptographic record of bitcoin creation and use.
  Because each component in the blockchain depends on the hash of the previous one, you can't go back and revise the bitcoin history:
  We implement the proof-of-work by incrementing a nonce in the block until a value is found that gives the block's hash the required zero bits. Once the CPU effort has been expended to make it satisfy the proof-of-work, the block cannot be changed without redoing the work. As later blocks are chained after it, the work to change the block would include redoing all the blocks after it.
  A blockchain forms a sort of transaction log, and acts as a starting point for the next round of bitcoin mining.
  The transaction log allows other players in the Bitcoin contest to verify your solution to the cryptographic puzzle (finding data that produces a hash with a specific number of leading zeros); once a majority of nodes in the Bitcoin scene accept that your solution came first, you've "mined" that coin, and it belongs to you.
  Your new block is folded into the blockchain and everyone sets to work trying to solve the next cryptographic link in the chain, as depicted above.
  "Winning" the next bitcoin in a chain means happening upon a bitstring, or nonce, that when combined with the data in the chain so far, produces a SHA-256 hash with a certain number of leading zeros. The probability of finding such a pattern by chance - and there is no better way known - is 1/2z, where z is the number of needed zero bits.
  The Bitcoin protocol estimates the amount of CPU power currently in the Bitcoin mining network, and continually adjusts z so that, on average, one successful solution turns up every ten minutes. Each successful solution is currently worth 25 bitcoins; this halves every four years so as to limit the total number of bitcoins in circulation.
  By 2140, each successful solution will be worth just 0.00000001 bitcoins; when this reward gets halved, it will effectively round down to zero, because bitcoins are denominated to eight decimal places, and no more bitcoins will be possible.
  Ecosystem problemsOur previous articles describing problems with the Bitcoin ecosystem have all related to the services, known as exchanges, which trade real money into, and out of, bitcoins.
  The biggest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, suffered a temporary meltdown in 2011 which saw the price of bitcoins plunge in minutes from $17 to about one cent.
  The exchange operators decided to recover by pretending that the meltdown never happened, reversing the apparently-bogus trades and allowing the value of the "currency" to restore itself.
  And in 2012, Bitcoin exchange Bitcoinica suffered not one but two digital breakins, leading to bitcoins (which are effectively just strings of data bytes) worth more than $300,000 being stolen.
  Bitcoinica was then sued for nearly half-a-million dollars by disgruntled customers.
  In 2012, Roman Shtylman, the operator of the Bitfloor exchange, ended up $250,000 out of pocket when he suffered a double-dose of bad luck.
  Whils upgrading his servers, he decided to take the risk of making a temporary, unencrypted backup, which he kept online, just in case.
  I'm sure you can guess what happened next.
  '†' Many of us will have committed this sort of security sin at some time, a problem for which there are three simple words: "Don't do that." Anything worth encrypting is worth encrypting always.
  That's just the moment that hackers - who probably didn't believe their luck at first - got into his network, making off with a cool quarter-million's worth of bitcoins he had in his possession.
  Implementation problemsYesterday, Bitcoin suffered another small setback, but of a different sort.
  The side-effect was to force a brief but sudden devaluation of approximately 25% in the value of bitcoins, at least on the Mt. Gox exchange:
  This reminds us that even algorithmic currencies backed by cryptography rather than fiat can suffer wild fluctuations in value.
  This time, it wasn't the surrounding ecosystem that turned out to have feet of clay, but the software behind Bitcoin itself.
  It seems that version 0.7 of the Bitcoin mining software - the program that does the cryptographic guessing, and exchanges blockchains over its peer-to-peer network - had a fatal but unknown flaw.
  This flaw was inherited from a database library module known as Oracle Berkeley DB that was used by Bitcoin coders until version 0.7; in version 0.8, they switched to a different database library, created by Google, known as LevelDB.
  It turns out that a bug in Berkeley DB made it choke on blockchains bigger than a certain size; LevelDB, however, handled them just fine.
  So a good, old-fashioned backwards incompatibility, albeit one that was caused by a flaw and thus terribly hard to predict, caught Bitcoiners on the hop.
  Some of the ecosystem was willing to accept recently-minted bitcoins; some of it was not.
  The stopgap solution, it seems, has been to persuade the community to commit to a temporary regression, and to:
  ' Run 0.8 software with artificial limits on the size of the blockchains it will tolerate, so it doesn't make different decisions to the 0.7 version, or
  ' Downgrade to version 0.7 software.
  ConclusionsThis episode is an excellent reminder of one of computer science's great ironies, namely that fixing bugs isn't always the positive step you might hope.
  In this case, switching to a more reliable database library made the 0.8 implementation more correct, yet annoyingly more fragile, simply because it wasn't backwardly compatible with the 0.7 code.
  It also reminds us how difficult it is to carry out a comprehensive code review on software that relies on third-party libraries, even if they are open source.
  The moral of the story is: test, test and test again.
  Follow @duckblog
ABC: New Pope Can Help Catholics 'Revive' Mission to the Poor?
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:29
  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.
US Pacific commander declares climate change top security threat '-- RT USA
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  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:26
  Published time: March 13, 2013 19:29
  The head of the US Navy's Pacific fleet has declared climate change as the biggest long-term security threat in the region. Anticipating severe typhoons and rising sea levels that will displace nations, he emphasized a weather crisis few had foreseen.
  Fallout from the shifting global temperature is ''probably the most likely thing that is going to happen... that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about,'' said Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III in an interview with the Boston Globe.
  Locklear, a four-star admiral who is in charge of monitoring hostilities between North and South Koreas as well as tensions between China and Japan, discussed his concerns at a Cambridge hotel on Friday with national security experts at Tufts and Harvard. Previously, Locklear was in charge of maritime operations in NATO's conflict with Libya in 2011.
  Stationed in East Asia, Locklear currently deals with the increasing number of destructive weather crises, which he believes will eventually have a negative political impact on countries in the region.
  ''You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level,'' Locklear said in an interview with the Boston Globe. ''Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17.''
  Islands like Tarawa in Kiribati are ''contemplating moving their entire population to another country because [it] is not going to exist anymore,'' Locklear said. Tarawa, an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, is already struggling with overcrowding on an island whose size is only 6 sq. miles.
  Aside from disappearing land, climate change has also taken a toll on fisheries, creating hostilities between neighboring countries competing for resources. In February, China was accused of threatening a Japanese warship with its navy radars over a dispute regarding fishing rights near islands that both nations claim sovereignty.
  ''We have an ongoing number of disputes,'' Locklear said. ''It is not just about China and everybody else, because there are disputes between other partners down there, too. Sometimes I think the Chinese get handled a little too roughly on this.''
  One of Locklear's major concerns is North Korea, which has recently threatened to nuke the US and prompted the UN Security Council to vote for tighter sanctions. Tensions between North Korea and South Korea have also increased, since the North Korean government threatened to abolish its nonaggression pacts with its neighbor.
  But overall, Locklear said the most destabilizing force in the region is climate change, which inflicts long-term damages that will increase tensions between East-Asian countries in the future.
  ''The ice is melting and sea is getting higher,'' Locklear said.
  ''We have interjected into our multilateral dialogue '' even with China and India '' the imperative to kind of get military capabilities aligned [for] when the effects of climate change start to impact these massive populations,'' he added. ''If it goes bad, you could have hundreds of thousands or millions of people displaced and then security will start to crumble pretty quickly.''
  Scientists predict countries hit hardest by climate change and will face rising temperatures, extreme weather, rising sea levels, increasing cyclonic activity and severe flooding. Natural resources will be affected and largely populated areas could see an increase in poverty. As land and resources begin to disappear, conflicts will arise in places like East Asia, especially where population densities are highest.
Vice President Biden and Attorney General Holder Announce Grants to Help Reduce Domestic Violence Homicides
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  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:26
  The White House
  Office of the Vice President
  For Immediate Release
  March 13, 2013
  12 Cities and Counties Receive Grants as Part of New Evidence-Based Prevention Initiative
  WASHINGTON, DC '' Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder today announced grants to twelve programs across the country to target the urgent need to reduce domestic violence homicides. On average, three women a day die as a result of domestic violence. Research shows that women whose partner threatens them with a gun or other weapon are 20 times more likely to subsequently be murdered than other abused women. Moreover, children, coworkers, neighbors and police officers are also killed as a result of domestic violence. From 2009 to 2012, 40 percent of mass shootings'--those with four or more victims killed'--started with the shooter targeting their girlfriend, wife or ex-wife.
  In total, the Department of Justice will award $2.3 million to twelve sites across the country as part of the new Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Demonstration Initiative (DVHP Initiative). The DVHP Initiative, created by the Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), helps state and local jurisdictions reduce domestic violence homicides by effectively identifying potential victims and monitoring high-risk offenders. The DVHP Initiative is modeled after programs in Massachusetts and Maryland, where the use of coordinated teams of law enforcement, prosecutors, health professionals and victims services significantly reduced the domestic violence homicide rate.
  ''Every single day in America, three women die at the hands of their boyfriend, or their husband, or their ex-husband. Many of these women have been threatened or severely abused in the past. We know what risk factors put someone in greater danger of being killed by the person they love '' and that also means we have the opportunity to step in and try to prevent these murders. That's why these grants are so important. They'll help stop violence before it turns deadly,'' said Vice President Biden.
  ''Domestic violence is a devastating crime '' and it claims far too many lives each and every day,'' said Attorney General Holder. ''With today's grant announcement, we are strengthening our ability to fight back more effectively '' and aggressively '' than ever before. And we're supporting the kinds of evidence-based domestic violence homicide prevention models that will allow us to reliably predict potentially lethal behavior, take steps to stop the escalation of violence and save lives.''
  The Vice President and Attorney General announced the grant awards at the Montgomery County Executive Office Building in Rockville, MD, where they were joined by dozens of Maryland law enforcement officers who have been at the forefront of domestic violence homicide prevention efforts in that state.
  ''While the statistics seem overwhelming, we are not helpless in the face of these terrible crimes,'' said Acting Director of the Office on Violence Against Women Bea Hanson. ''We hope this evidence-based initiative to reduce domestic violence homicide is a breakthrough in preventing murders and serious injuries across the country.''
  The new DVHP Initiative is based on an assessment tool that researchers have identified that can be used to reliably recognize women who may be in fatally abusive relationships. Attempted strangulation, threats with weapons, sexual assault and obsessively jealous and controlling behavior are among the markers of particularly lethal abusers. Once at-risk victims are identified, law enforcement, prosecutors, courts and service providers can take action to protect them and their families.
  Since passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994, annual rates of domestic violence have dropped by more than 60 percent, but more work remains to reduce the most serious of this violence. OVW is partnering with the National Institute of Justice to rigorously monitor the implementation of the initiative and evaluate its outcomes. OVW is also working with national experts to provide technical assistance to the demonstration sites.
  The demonstration sites, each receiving one-year awards ranging from $100,658 to $200,000, are: Contra Costa County, CA; Miami-Dade County, FL; Palm Beach County, FL; Rockdale County, GA; Winnebago County, IL; City of Boston, MA; Borough of Brooklyn, NY; Westchester County, NY; Pitt County, NC; Cuyahoga County, OH; City of North Charleston, SC; and City of Rutland, VT. After the 12-month assessment phase, up to six of the demonstration sites will be selected to continue a three-year implementation phase.
  Click HERE for the fact sheet the Obama Administration's commitment to reducing domestic violence homicides.
  Click HERE for the fact sheet on the link between common sense efforts to reduce gun violence and preventing domestic violence homicides.
Dave Jones Worknotes: 3/12/13 - New feature: Storing articles in S3.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:25
  There's a new pref to enable this called: "I want a static version of each article stored in S3." After enabling, the articles you cartulize will also dump a printer-friendly version of the article to S3 in a sub-folder called "art". Adam's been asking for this for a while. I'm doing an inclusion of my articles opml below. You can see the most recent articles have an "Archived Version" link that points to the S3 copy of the article.
  Porn at College: Life at the Crossroads
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Covenant Eyes
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:43
  by O.R. Leslie''O.R., can we go outside and talk in private?'' the young man asked. He was in a Family Counseling class at a major Christian university where my wife, Brenda, and I had been asked to speak. As we went out the door, I put my arm on his shoulder, and he wept. ''What you said up there, hit me hard. I can see myself in your story. I want to take my relationship with a girl to the next level. But I want my porn habit to be gone, because I know how the porn will affect our relationship.''
  Brenda and I talked about this young man and his sensitive heart a great deal. We wondered'...if someone had talked to me when I was in college, would it have made a difference?
  I believe that for the porn user, college is the crossroads. The student is away from home for the first time and without parental supervision. They have freedom to make their own choices and sometimes make poor ones. Porn use frequently becomes a habit because it is most easily adopted when in secret and away from home. I don't know for sure if someone talking to me in college would have made a difference. No two hearts are the same. Was my heart soft enough to be willing to listen to such a message when I was 13 to 21 years old?
  In the Christian college classes we've taught, young ladies state, ''Our boyfriends are pressuring us to either watch porn or make pornographic videos with them.'' They ask, ''Is there anything wrong with using a little porn and should we leave him if he won't stop?'' We are stunned.
  They felt as if they were competing with the porn models and needed to compromise their values in order to have a relationship with the opposite sex. University deans and counselors have observed young men who would rather barricade themselves in their dorm room to engage in a porn fantasy than take a chance on a real relationship.
  Why would someone trade interacting with a live human being for a fantasy? In a real relationship there are risks. Self confidence can be shattered when someone is turned down. But pornography does not bring anything meaningful into the user's life. It never provides a true satisfactory experience for the user. Otherwise, the never-ending search for the perfect video or picture would end. True satisfaction can only be found in a real relationship with another person where intimacy can be experienced.
  Parents, Christian colleges, and churches, need to make sure that our young people who are at this crossroad in life receive solid Biblical teaching about the sexual relationship. They need to understand how pornography is a habit that will continue to grow into an obsession, unless it is stopped early. They need to see the face of pornography for what it is. They need to see that it is a dead-end street full of despair, addiction, and pain. It neither fulfills nor satisfies. If a young man or young woman is not willing to stop a bad habit or addiction at 20, in all likelihood, unless something happens that is dramatic, he or she will not stop later on.
  When Brenda and I tell our testimony about how pornography caused me to be incarcerated, nearly ended our marriage, hurt our children, blew up my career, and devastated our church family, they can see the face of pornography. They see real people who were profoundly affected in a negative way, but they also see that there is hope in overcoming an addiction. We hope young people will rethink their choices. We pray that they will.
  Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/regentscollegelondon/. . . .
  O.R. Leslie and his wife Brenda are partners in Three Voices Ministry, assisting those who suffer under the weight of pornography. They conduct classes and seminars throughout the United States at churches to educate and assist leadership and members.
  . We're looking for engaging authors who want to share some of their personal wisdom with our readers.
  Strange lights over Birmingham (photos)
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Real-Time News from Birmingham
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:32
  BIRMINGHAM, Alabama--Did you see the strange lights over downtown Birmingham Tuesday night?
  Don't be alarmed. The lights are there every night.
  It is not an alien invasion. The lights are from airliners descending to land at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.
  Using 30-second time exposures, the aircraft show as graceful streaks of lights lining up for Runway 6 in photographs.
  The pictures are best viewed in this big-picture photo essay.
  Opposition to Obama-backed National Education Scheme Grows
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: rss
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:08
  As the Obama administration continues its effort to bribe or bludgeon state governments into accepting the widely criticized ''Common Core'' national education curriculum standards, opposition is growing '-- especially among homeschooling families and private institutions worried about the loss of educational liberty, parental rights, and local authority. While the controversial school standardization scheme does not directly apply to home educators or private schools yet, experts and advocates say the effects are already starting to be felt. This may be just the beginning, too, which is why activists are gearing up for a fight to defeat the agenda.
  The Home School Legal Defense Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and advancing the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children, is on the front lines of the battle. According to the HSLDA, which has been expressing serious concerns about ''Common Core'' for years, the deeply controversial effort to standardize what government schools all across America are teaching is problematic for several reasons. It will affect homeschoolers, too.
  ''Our concern with the Common Core is twofold,'' HSLDA Director of Federal Relations William Estrada told The New American in a phone interview. ''The first is that the success of homeschooling shows that kids do best when parents are in control of educational decisions. Common Core centralizes what kids are taught, how they are taught, and what they should learn, in the hands of a few educational bureaucrats at the national level '-- completely cutting out parents, teachers, and local school boards.''
  Indeed, a wide range of organizations and activists have expressed similar fears about the national education scheme, which is being pushed on state governments and local school districts by the Obama administration through the use of federal ''Race to the Top'' grants and other means. Under the radar until very recently, some 45 states have already signed on to the controversial program. The opposition, however, is just getting started.
  Of course, supporters of Common Core claim that it does not directly affect homeschoolers or non-government-funded private schools. Home education advocates, families, and experts, though, are not buying the denials. Led in large part by the HSLDA and other liberty-minded organizations, the home-education community is just one of the powerful political forces getting involved in the fight. The problem for homeschoolers, Estrada explained, is that the Common Core will, at some point, seek control over all education.
  ''The second major concern is that a national curriculum and national standards will eventually be broadened to include homeschoolers, which would eliminate the ability of parents to tailor their educational message to each specific child,'' said Estrada, an attorney who lobbies the federal government on behalf of homeschooling families. ''It will eliminate the freedom of homeschool parents to choose their child's education.''
  Indeed, the first symptoms of the ''Common Core'' problem are already being felt by the homeschooling community. Among the most serious: An increasing number of home education-related companies, for example, have started aligning their curricula and learning materials with the national program. In fact, at least ten popular homeschool curricula produced by various companies are now tailored to conform with the national scheme being pushed by the Obama administration and his radical allies, according to Kristen Chevrier of Home School Wise, who is working to compile a list. There are probably many more.
  Despite fears that potential national exams and tracking schemes could one day de-facto force families and private schools to adopt the controversial system, there are still many more companies and organizations that do not incorporate ''Common Core.'' Chevrier provides an extensive list of instructional materials for homeschoolers that '-- at least so far '-- have not been aligned with standards being pushed by the federal government and other powerful forces.
  Meanwhile, groups like Freedom Project Education, which provides classical K-12 online schooling, actually boast of their independence from government control, speaking out forcefully against the extremist attempt to impose a national education system on America. FPE Curriculum Director Mary Black warned The New American that, while starting with just less-controversial subjects like English and math, Common Core proponents eventually plan to control the entire educational process nationwide '-- they essentially admit as much in their own documents, actually.
  ''The true intent of those who authored it is not to improve the education of our students,'' explained Black, who spent 36 years teaching all ages before joining FPE. ''The true purpose, I believe, is to remove control of our schools and children from local, even state, and parental authority. There are many inherent dangers, but chief among them is the surrender of control of our children to the federal government, which intends to use schools as purveyors of a socialist agenda.''
  According to Black and other experts, documentation shows Common Core is actually a step in the process toward achieving a longtime goal of the United Nations and its supporters: a one-world education system. The UN, of course, has long sought to harmonize global educational standards. And billionaire Bill Gates '-- one of the primary figures behind Common Core '-- has also expressed devotion to a similar agenda.
  The national curriculum itself is problematic, too. ''My review of the Common Core standards indicated that they were designed to teach students what to think and not how to think,'' Black explained, echoing concerns expressed by numerous analysts who have investigated the scheme. ''The literary classics have been stripped and replaced with books promoting a socialist agenda.... It is certain that it will leave students unable to think for themselves.''
  Americans, Black added, must resist the scheme to nationalize the education system. ''This is a battle for the control of our children and their education,'' she explained, pointing to the far-reaching threat inherent in central government usurpation of the minds of the young '-- a top priority for totalitarian-minded leaders throughout centuries of history.
  Like the HSLDA and other home education advocates, Black also believes Common Core will eventually affect homeschoolers '-- even if the process may be slow and sneaky at first. She cited federalized testing and changes to the widely used ACT and SAT as among the primary tools to gradually enforce broader compliance with the dubious national standards.
  ''Those who have not used the textbooks designed to teach these standards have little chance to do well, giving parents and students who want to go to college no choice but to use those textbooks,'' Black explained. However, she continued, in addition to the vested interests hoping to profit from Common Core '-- textbook publishers, for instance '-- powerful forces such as the global-government-promoting Council on Foreign Relations are helping to advance the plan as well.
  Of course, there is a real educational crisis going on in America. Consider, for example, a stunning announcement by officials in New York City last week: Almost 80 percent of high school graduates actually need to re-learn basic skills like reading and math before they can enter even the city's community college system, according to CBS New York. Across America, students are increasingly graduating without even basic reading and writing abilities.
  The real solution to America's education crisis, however, is not to nationalize the system, experts say. ''The local school boards and parents of that school district should determine the standards because they are most personally vested with the education of their children,'' Black explained, a common sentiment expressed by parents and educators alike. ''The idea of all schools being exactly the same is Utopian, a goal of socialists since the 1800s.''
  Across the nation, as awareness of Common Core grows, opposition is surging as well '-- after all, the whole idea is completely at odds with American traditions of liberty, federalism, and self-governance. State school board officials who have spoken with The New American are outraged. Teachers are too. With homeschoolers joining the fight, however, the forces seeking to impose a national curriculum on the American people without their consent are likely to face an increasingly tough battle '-- a war, perhaps, that is only just getting started.
  Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more.He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
  Photo of President Obama: AP Images
  Related articles:
  Obama Bribes States to Adopt National Education Curriculum
  Obama Bid to Deport Homeschool Refugees May Threaten U.S. Rights
  Texas Curriculum Attacks Christianity and Liberty, Critics Fight Back
  Obama's "Common Core of Standards": Final Step in Phony School Reform
  Who's Behind the Common Core Curriculum?
  Will Common Core Standards Solve the Reading Problem?
  Big Brother and Education Data Collection
  CFR Task Force Calls for Education Reform
  Federalized Progressive Education Marches On
  The Race to '¨Centralize Education
  Education Department Throws America's Kids Under the Bus
  UN Summit: Transforming Your Kids into ''Climate Change Agents''
  UN: Turning America's Students Into Good Global Citizens
  Homeschoolers Worldwide Join Forces
  Government Schools Are Bad for Your Kids
  A Short History of Government Education
  Trussville officials urge residents to prepare for April 8 Interstate 20 East closure
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Real-Time News from Birmingham
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:01
  TRUSSVILLE, Alabama -- State officials have said when the east bound lanes of Interstate 20 between I-459 and I-20/59 close April 8, an additional 35,000 to 38,000 vehicles will likely pass through Trussville each day."It's going to affect us big time," Mayor Gene Melton said at tonight's council meeting. "You need to start thinking about changing your routes now and maybe even plan on leaving a little early."
  The closure is part of the Alabama Department of Transportation's $38.5 million I-20 refurbishing project. Once the east bound lanes are done, the westbound lanes will close. The work is expected to take three months.
  I-20 East traffic going to St. Clair County or Atlanta will be required to take I-59 North to exit 138, get on I-459, and then get back to I-20 East, Trussville police recently announced on the department's webpage.
  Melton said he is worried about the safety of drivers who will try to get to Birmingham by taking U.S. 11 to I-459 South and then merging onto I-59 South.
  Police Chief Don Sivley shares that concern. "It's hard to do that now in rush hour traffic, with that much additional traffic it's going to be nearly impossible," Sivley said.
  Melton said he wants ALDOT to place barriers on the interstate to keep drivers from merging from I-459 South to I-59 South because he fears there will be "multiple fatalities" at that spot once the I-20 East lanes are closed.
  If ALDOT does erect those barriers, drivers would have to take Parkway East or John Rogers Drive to get to Birmingham, Sivley said.
  ALDOT officials have said they plan to announce their detour plans later this month.
  Follow @jgray78Follow @alcomBirmingham
  Hackers steal over $12000 of Bitcoins from transaction broker Bitinstant - The Verge
  Another strike against marriage?
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Alpha Game
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:12
  At first glance, it appears a contract is no longer a contract if state marriage is involved:A Long Island mother of three has become a postnuptial hero, after a prenup nearly cost her everything. In a landmark case, Elizabeth Cioffi-Petrakis, 39, won an appeal overturning a bizarre premarital agreement with her millionaire husband. Now she says she may be entitled to half of her ex's worth when their divorce becomes final.
  However, if one read the article, it is readily apparent that isn't actually the case. A contract induced by fraud is intrinsically invalid.
  Is Rice Gluten-free?
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:46
  Rice, in its pure form, is gluten-free. The problem you can run into with rice is the way it's cooked, or rather what it's cooked in. Many restaurants use chicken stock to cook their rice. Some chicken stocks contain gluten, so any rice cooked in such stocks is not gluten-free. Always ask about how rice is cooked when dining out, unless you are ordering rice off a gluten-free menu. I've run into rice cooked in gluten containing stocks when dining out more times than I can count. Since I always ask about rice before ordering, I've never unknowingly ordered any that contain gluten.
  Another way to find gluten in rice in restaurants is in sauce that is added to it. Some times it is possible to order safe, plain rice with no sauce and some times it's not. It depends on whether the rice comes in a bag already in the sauce or if sauce is made in house and added to plain rice. Even when the latter happens, all the rice and sauce might be mixed up before each shift, so there is still no way to order plain gluten-free rice. It is quite annoying not to be able to have something as simple as rice when dining out, but it's often a problem. Never assume anything is gluten-free when dining out.
  Several rice products available at the grocery store contain gluten. At last check, every Rice-A-Roni product contained wheat. Don't ask me why '' the amount of products that companies add wheat to is mind boggling. Lundberg Farms makes many wonderful gluten-free rice meals. Our house favorite is Creamy Parmesan Risotto. Tasty Bites makes several rice products that are gluten-free. They even make microwavable rice pouches that are ready in only 90 seconds. Both Lundberg and Tasty Bites gluten-free products are marked as such. Most of the Publix rice products are gluten-free, but are not marked as such. Many Uncle Ben's rice products are gluten-free, but they were not labeled that way the last time I checked them at the store. As always, if the products are not marked gluten-free, label reading is required.
  Other brands that make some gluten-free rice products include (but are not limited to) Mahatma, Minute Rice, Thai Kitchen, Rice Select and Ortega. Most of the gluten-free products from these lines are not labeled gluten-free so you have to read the labels to make sure you get a gluten-free product. When gluten is used in a rice product, it is generally in the form of wheat, which is legally required to be listed on the label. Therefore, hidden gluten is usually not a problem in rice products. There are a couple of items that list malt in the ingredients. The malt in these items is almost always barley malt, which should be avoided.
  Labels on rice are some of the easiest to read and understand, in terms of what is and is not gluten-free. Rice pastas and rice noodles are also generally gluten-free and the ingredients in those are usually rice, rice bran and water. Again, the labels for these are typically very easy to read and understand. Enjoy your rice, rice meals and rice pasta. Luckily, these days there are plenty of safe options to choose from!
  Have a question about the gluten-free diet which we haven't covered yet? You can now submit your questionshere! (Note: All medical questions should be directed to your physician)
  Butterfly Labs: BFL_Josh has the chips in hand, Send in your FPGA Trade-ins
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Mineforeman
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:28
  BFL_Jody the customer service representative from Butterfly Labs has made a blog post asking people who have pre-orders with trade-ins to please start sending their FPGA bitcoin miners back to Butterfly Labs for processing adding ''With Josh's return today with chips in hand, I feel comfortable with talking about trade-ins.''
  Jody has offered a few ways to proceed for people with FPGA trad-ins for their new ASIC devices;-
  First (and most obvious) send tour FPGA devices back to their new address ( Butterfly Labs, Inc., 10770 El Monte, Suite 101, Leawood, KS 66211)Second, pay a deposit for your old FPGA devices of 20 BTC for a single and 500 BTC for a Mini Rig and keep mining with your FPGA devices until your ASIC devices arrive and only then shipping back your FPGA devices. On arrival of your FPGA devices Butterfly Labs will refund your deposit.Third, Butterfly Labs will hold back part of your ASIC order until your FPGA devices arrive back at Butterfly Labs.After many months of waiting and hoping it finally seems that Butterfly Labs is on the final stretch in the race to bring ASIC bitcoin miners to the public and I know a lot of people in the community will be relieved to know that the wait may soon be over, even though Butterfly Labs seem to have come in last.
  The full open letter to customers is contained below.
  Dear FPGA Upgrade Customer,
  We are nearly ready to begin shipping and we want to give you time to arrange your trade-in so you won't lose any time getting into ASIC mining. We are putting forth 3 ways to help you get your miner as quickly as possible.
  1. The first way to satisfy your trade-in is to simply mail the unit back with your Single Upgrade order number for the order or orders you wish your trade-in to apply to. Of course, also include your name and address in the package. Please send back your power supply and cables. If you are an international customer mark your package as ''returned goods'' or whatever conveys this status. When we receive your unit or units we will mark your order as ready to ship. Mail all miners to Butterfly Labs, Inc., 10770 El Monte, Suite 101, Leawood, KS 66211. We cannot be responsible for miners mailed to our old address.
  2. The second method is to send us a deposit of 20 BTC for each Single Upgrade and 500 BTC for a MiniRig Upgrade. We will hold these BTC until your FPGA's arrive at our facility, thus allowing you to mine with your old units until you receive the new ones. This deposit is not an exchange for dollars. It is a BTC deposit that will be returned whole to you. If you want to pay a deposit email us at BTCdeposit@butterflylabs.com and we will send you a wallet address so that we can receive your coins. When your FPGA arrives at our facility we will return your coins within 3 business days. You will also mail your FPGA miners to the address given above.
  3. The third way you can make a Single Upgrade ready to ship is to ask us to hold a later shipment as collateral. To do this you tell us what later paid order number you want us to hold until we receive your miner. For example, if you have ordered a Single Upgrade on June 23 and a Little Single on August 5, we will put a HOLD on the August 5 miner until your FPGA is returned for your June 23 order. If we start shipping the August 5 orders and your FPGA still has not been received, the HOLD will not allow u to ship that unit. The HOLD will be released as soon as your FPGA is received. You must email us at hold@butterflylabs.comand tell us on which order number you want the HOLD placed. We will only hold orders for Singles or Little Singles as collateral for a Single Upgrades. A MiniRig order must be placed on hold for a MiniRig Upgrade order to ship. When we receive your FPGA we will lift the HOLD on your order within 3 business days. You will also mail your trade-ins to the address above.
  Thank you for your cooperation and patience in this endeavor.
  JodyCustomer ServiceBF Labs, IncJody '' Butterfly Labs Customer Service
  Google+
  How large can a MySQL database become?
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:31
  In Maximum MySQL Database Size? Nick Duncan wants to find out what the maximum size of his MySQL database can possibly be. He answers that with a list of maximum file sizes per file system type. That is not a useful answer.While every file system does have a maximum file size, this limitation is usually not relevant when it comes to MySQL maximum database size. But let's start with file systems, anyway.
  First: You never want to run a database system on a FAT filesystem, ever. In FAT, a file is a linked list of blocks in the FAT. That is, certain "seek" (backwards seek operations) operations become slower the larger a file is, because the file system has to position the file pointer by traversing the linked list of blocks in the FAT. Since seek operations are basically what a large database does all day, FAT is completely useless for this. So the actual file size limit of FAT is kind of moot for the purpose of this discussion.
  Second: You also never want to run a database system on a 32 bit operating system. Not only does that limit your file size in Windows and also in certain ways in Linux, it will also limit the amount of system memory you can invest into MySQL buffer caches. That's kind of useless, because it is memory that makes databases fast.
  In 64 bit systems and with modern file systems (NTFS in Windows and XFS on LVM2 in Linux, on a recent kernel), the operating imposed file size limit is multiple terabytes or petabytes, even. We will soon see that the exact number is not really relevant.
  The limits listed in Nick's table are file size limits, they are not database size limits.In MyISAM, the limit, if it is ever reached, means that a single table is limited to that much data or index size (data is stored in one file, with a MYD extension, and indices are stored in another file, with a MYI extension).
  In InnoDB, we have two modes of operation, depending on innodb_file_per_table. If it is on, each table gets its own file with an ibd extension; if it is off, the actual tables are stored in a set of files most commonly called ibdataXXX, the size and number of which are freely configureable.
  Every database uses indices, and in every database the index needs to be able to address the data records. In MyISAM, a table can have a FIXED or DYNAMIC row format (COMPRESSED also exists, but is not really relevant here). In FIXED format, the MYI file refers to positions in the MYD file by using record numbers. These are converted into byte offsets within the MYD file by multiplying with the fixed row length. In a DYNAMIC row format table, MYI files store byte offsets into the MYD file.
  It is not useful to have a MYD file that is larger than the addressable range from an index, so MySQL prevents you from having such a file with the error message 'table full'. The addressable range is set in MyISAM with the table attribute MAX_ROWS: You can CREATE TABLE t ... MAX_ROWS = x or you can later ALTER TABLE t MAX_ROWS=... and MyISAM will determine how many bytes will be needed to store a pointer to a row to be able to address the data. Be warned, though: ALTER TABLE makes a copy of your data during the ALTER TABLE command, and that will take time. Running an ALTER TABLE on a 4 GB table can take quite some time - it is not a good idea to get the MAX_ROWS value too small.
  If you do not define a MAX_ROWS attribute at all, MyISAM will use a default number of bytes for the row pointer: myisam_data_pointer_size. This used to be 4 bytes up to MySQL 5.0, and is 6 bytes since and including MySQL 5.0.
  Like any default, it can of course be changed in your my.cnf file. If you change it, it will affect all newly created or altered tables, but not any existing tables. The default value of 6 bytes is good for 256TB of data in each single MYD file. Note that even MySQL versions prior to 5.0 could use more than 4 GB per file, but not by default. Note also that the documentation states that the data pointer could be as large as 8 bytes, but that is rather pointless as we will see later.
  In InnoDB, the situation is more complicated: Secondary indices are using the primary key to address a row of data. Depending on the definition of the primary key that can be less or far more than in MyISAM. There are other internal limits in InnoDB, and these limit the size of any single table to 256 TB.
  Thus, as long as your file system supports a maximum file size of at least 256 TB, you will never run into any file system limitations before MySQL runs into other internal limits.
  But it is very likely that your database will perform very badly long before that: Databases need memory to perform efficiently - disk seeks are counted in milliseconds (1/1 000 of a second), while memory accesses are counted in nanoseconds (1/1 000 000 000 of a second, that is one million times faster). Thus, any disk seek necessary because of a cache miss will be about a hundred thousand times to a million times slower that a regular cache hit.
  So the useful size of your database is most likely limited by the amount of RAM that your database can use. A useful rule of thumb is about 10 times the amount of memory you dedicate to your caches, but with knowledge of the internal operation of the database it is easy to build a pathological case that pessimizes that well below that, as well as to optimize it way past that limit.
  In any case, memory is more likely to be the limiting factor than file size limits of your operating system.
  Static files hosting with SSL on custom domain.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:48
  SubToMe is a universal subscribe button. One of its key design goals was to use only static files. There should be no server involved: it's not an app, it's a button.
  Another key aspects of the SubToMe button is that it's included on many page, and needs to be able to run on any page (thanks to the bookmarklet), including https pages. With that in mind, we are forced to host the button on a system that supports SSL.
  The third (and final) constraint is that we must be using the subtome.com domain for it, because it stores the user's default in his browser's localstorage. As we know browsers have different localStorage instances for each domain. If we used different domains, then, we'll found ourselves with different versions of the users default.
  We needed a platform to host static files, with our domain and SSL.When thinking about static files in a very scalable and fully managed way, the almost immediate answer is AWS S3. That's what we initially tried'... create a www.subtome.com bucket, create the right CNAME, upload and hope for profit. The problem is that this does not match the SSL requirement. Amazon offers SSL, but only on their *.aws.amazon.com domain.
  In despair, we started considering running a small box somewhere, put Nginx on top, get an SSL cert and run it like in the old days: hoping that I'll always find the courage to do the basic ops this box will eventually need.
  At that point, my first savior comes in the picture. Paddy Foran tweets:
  After reading that doc, I felt that this could be a solution, but was still a bit worried about Google App Engine's heavy bills. Of course, if that worked, it meant I wouldn't have to maintain any box after all, but that could cost me more than a full time engineer to maintain these boxes =)
  And that's where my 2nd hero of the day comes to the party. In one of his posts, Harper Reed wrote this:
  I am constantly telling my friends about the new technology tricks that I learn in my internet travels. I learn a lot, which has caused my friends to ignore around 90% of what I say about technology. I don't mind, because I know that I am a genius(heh) and they will come around some day.
  Well, in this exact same post, Harper gives out a little secret that I ignored for too long: hosting static files on GAE is free, free as in beer.
  The GAE pricing machine is triggered only when instances are running. For static files, Google uses some kind of cache which means that there is no CPU involved in running them'...
  Hosting any static site on GAE is easy.Here is what it took to run SubToMe for free on Google App Engine: a small app.yaml file. That's it.
  Configuring SSL was a bit trickier, but I followed the docs, got a free cert from startssl; configured it and added Javascript redirects to all the SubToMe files.
  All in all, we get static files hosting, under our own domain, with SSL, unlimited free traffic (and bandwidth) for $9/month, which is what GAE charges for 5 SSL SNI Certificates. I'd say it's a good deal which becomes even better when I remember that it's fully managed!
  Patch Tuesday Surprises: Surface Firmware Updates, IE 10 Flash Reversal
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:36
  Firmware updates for Surface Pro and Surface RT and a reversal of how IE 10 handles Flash
  I don't normally report on each month's set of ''Patch Tuesday'' updates since it's mostly just security updates that everyone should be installing automatically. But this month includes three surprises, including firmware updates for both the Surface Pro and Surface RT tablets, and a major update to Internet Explorer 10 that completely reverses the way this browser handles Adobe Flash.
  Firmware update for Surface ProThe most notable of these updates, perhaps, is the first-ever firmware update for Microsoft's Surface with Windows 8 Pro tablet. This update, dubbed the March update, includes the following changes, according to Microsoft:
  · Fixes to Wi-Fi reliability allowing for better roaming and improvements to "Limited" connectivity scenarios.
  · Windows To Go feature is enabled.
  · Improved onscreen keyboard detection synchronization when going in and out of sleep.
  If it's unclear why this is a big deal, Windows To Go is normally a feature of Windows 8 Enterprise only. Another reason to choose Surface Pro?
  Firmware update for Surface RTSurface RT's fourth firmware update'--the device first shipped back in October 2010, so there's been one every month since'--is also called the March update. This one includes the following changes:
  · Fixes to Wi-Fi reliability allowing for better roaming and improvements to "Limited" connectivity scenarios.
  · Resolves issues with integrated volume button.
  · Improved Type and Touch cover typing experience on soft surfaces and when devices and keyboard are lying flat.
  · Resolves issue with random muting.
  · Trackpad performance improvements.
  Internet Explorer 10 + FlashI wrote a news story about this yesterday'--see Microsoft Flip-Flop Fixes Flash'--but Microsoft also delivered a very interesting update for Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 8 and Windows RT. Basically, it completely changes how the browser handles Adobe Flash on these two operating systems.
  To be clear, this change impacts the ''Metro'' version of IE 10 on Windows 8 and both the Metro and desktop versions of IE 10 on Windows RT. This change does not affect IE 10 on Windows 7, nor does it affect the desktop version of IE 10 on Windows 8.
  If you've been following the Flash drama for the past few years, you may recall that Microsoft first stated its intention to focus primarily on HTML 5 for web-based video delivery almost three years ago in a post to the IEBlog called, appropriately enough, HTML5 Video. At the time, IE GM Dean Hachamovitch said that Flash had some issues around reliability, security, and performance, and that Flash was ''an important part of delivering a good consumer experience on today's web.''
  In May 2012, Rafael Rivera and I wrote about Microsoft's plans to include Flash as part of IE 10 in Windows 8 Secrets: Internet Explorer 10 will Ship with Adobe Flash. That Microsoft would actually embed a subset of Flash in its own browser was quite surprising, as was the news that it would create a white list called the Compatibility View list that would contain the only Flash-based sites that would work in the Metro versions of IE 10 in Windows 8/RT (and the desktop IE 10 in RT).
  Of course, lots of people didn't like this decision. So this week's change, which literally amounts to a total reversal of the previous policy, is quite interesting indeed. Now, IE 10 will allow all Flash sites to work, except for those that are in the Compatibility View list. So that CV list has effectively switched from a white list to a black list.
  ''We are updating Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 and Windows RT to enable Flash content to run by default,'' Microsoft group program manager Rob Mauceri explains in a post to the IEBlog. ''On Windows 8, all Flash content continues to be enabled for IE on the desktop '... Of the thousands of domains tested for Flash compatibility to date, we have found fewer than 4 percent are still incompatible, in the most part because the core site experience requires other ActiveX controls in addition to Flash '... With today's update to Windows 8 and Windows RT, consumers can experience more of the Web by default.''
  It's interesting that the three issues that Hachamovitch originally raises about Flash three years ago'--reliability, security, and performance'--are still the issues we're concerned with today. But it appears that Flash is too important to ignore, despite the continued evolution of HTML 5-based video online. Somewhere Steve Jobs must be very unhappy with this.
  I updated the site for my Microbeats side project. It's...
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Jxnblk
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:33
  I updated the site for my Microbeats side project. It's now generated with Jekyll, which was surprisingly easy to set up '' switching everything over from WordPress only took a few hours. I also swapped out the default SoundCloud widgets for custom players '' which made everything much, much faster.
  Bice says state loses no sovereignty by using Common Core standards.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:24
  MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- State Superintendent Tommy Bice held a news conference today to address opposition to the state's use of common core curriculum standards.
  Bice supports the standards.
  The news conference comes one day before a state Senate committee is expected to consider a bill that would repeal the standards in Alabama.
  Supporters of the bill say the Common Core State Standards are an intrusion by the federal government into education in Alabama.
  Bice said he wanted to assure the public and the Legislature about concerns that the state might lose some control over curriculum and standards because of common core.
  ''We remain committed to ensuring that the State Board of Education retains its sovereignty as the sole entity vested with the authority to approve standards in our state '... We make a commitment to our Legislature that we will not allow the federal government or any other politically motivated entity to try to force us to make decisions that aren't right for the students in our state," Bice said.
  The standards were developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, according to the Alabama Department of Education.
  The Alabama state Board of Education adopted the common core standards for mathematics and English language arts in 2010.
  The board reaffirmed that resolution in 2011 and renamed the standards the Alabama Career and College Ready Standards, with math taking effect at the start of the current school year and English standards set to take effect in August.
  Standards for other subjects have not been released yet.
  The Obama administration announced in 2009 that states seeking certain U.S. Department of Education grants would be scored, in part, on whether they adopt the standards.
  A bill by Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road, would overturn the state board's 2010 adoption of common core curriculum standards, require legislative approval for all future statewide standards passed by the board and limit the sharing of student and teacher data with entities outside the state.
  To date, 45 states, the District of Columbia, four U.S. territories and the Department of Defense Education Activity have adopted the standards.
  Testimony begins in trial of Birmingham man charged with rape and kidnapping of jogger
  Link to Article
  Source: Real-Time News from Birmingham
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:19
  BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Testimony began today in the trial of a Birmingham man charged with the kidnapping and rape of a jogger off Altamont Road in 2010.
  The trial of Nathaniel Lee Baker, 30, is being held before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Virginia Vinson.
  Baker is charged with first degree sex abuse, attempted kidnapping, first degree rape, first degree sodomy and first degree kidnapping in the Sept. 16, 2010 attack of the woman jogger. The attack happened in the 4000 block of Altamont Road.
  According to testimony from a Birmingham police officer and a nurse, the woman was jogging about 6:20 a.m. with earphones on when she passed a man unknown to her. The man, armed with a knife, turned around, caught up with her, and grabbed her by the arm, according to the nurse.
  Baker is represented by defense attorney Emory Anthony. Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Cynthia Raulston is prosecuting the case.
  Baker was arrested by Birmingham police in May 2011 after they received a report by a woman who said a man in a gold Dodge Neon was following her in the area of Clairmont Avenue and 10th Avenue South. The woman was able to get the tag number of the car and give it to police.
  Follow @krfaulkFollow @alcomBirmingham
  Drug raid in Birmingham turns up assault weapons, drugs, money and stolen identities
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Real-Time News from Birmingham
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:07
  JEFFERSON COUNTY, Alabama - A drug raid in Birmingham's Roosevelt City community turned up not only assault weapons, money and drugs, but also evidence of an ongoing identity theft operation.
  A convicted felon - 36-year-old Roderick Cole - was arrested at his home by Jefferson County sheriff's deputies. Authorities say Cole is a top-level neighborhood drug dealer who is no stranger to the law or to lawmen.
  Cole, Sheriff Mike Hale said, had a surveillance system on his Whatley Street home. Inside, there was heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs, handguns and long guns, and even a printer he used to make his own prescription forms.
  "We've known about Roderick Cole for some time, through our federal partners, through his past arrests and from complaints from our citizens,'' Hale said today. "He's been down this road before."
  Sheriff's narcotics investigators last week raided Cole's home in the 5000 block of Whatley Street in response to an investigation into drug dealing in the Roosevelt City and Brighton communities. They also raided a second home on Seventh Avenue in Brighton, which deputies say was Cole's stash house. From the two homes they seized multiple weapons, an array of drugs, electronics, computers, two vehicles and almost $9,000 in cash. "That's a lot of money for a neighborhood drug house,'' the sheriff said.
  They seized 10 flat screen televisions they said were bought with drug money, as well as Cole's video surveillance system, printer, cell phones and other tools of his trade, they said.
  Also in the Whatley Street home, investigators found more than 40 credit cards in the names of someone other than Cole. Authorities are in the beginning stages of trying to figure out who all of the victims are, but already they have found some of the credit cards are in the names of people who are dead, or in prison. "We really want to know how he is getting these identities,'' Hale said.
  The sheriff said while he would describe Cole as a typical neighborhood drug dealer, he said Cole ramped it up a bit. "He's dealing with small amounts of heroin and cocaine, but he's hedging his bets by printing his own prescription blanks,'' Hale said. "Evidently he learned a lot in the penitentiary. It's all about cash flow. He's done the drugs, ID theft, and he's protecting himself. That's the kind of thug he is."
  Authorities said Cole didn't resist arrest, but said he isn't being cooperative. He was charged on an outstanding warrant for trafficking in stolen identities and for new charges of trafficking in oxycodone, possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana. He was released from the county jail Monday after posting his $335,000 bond.
  Also arrested during the raid was Brandon Lee Williams, 26. Williams is charged with possession of a controlled substance, and was released from jail the day after his arrest on $5,000 bond.
  Hale said the investigation is ongoing, and additional charges are anticipated after all evidence is processed. "We think it was a pretty good day of crime-fighting,'' the sheriff said. "I'm sure the community is breathing easier."
  Follow @robinsoncarolFollow @alcombirmingham
  America's Great Depression Quote of the Week: How to Reduce Deficits
  Link to Article
  Source: The Circle Bastiat
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:06
  From the Introduction to the Fourth Edition (1982) of America's Great Depression
  While deficits are often inflationary and always pernicious, curing them by raising taxes is equivalent to curing an illness by shooting the patient. In the first place, politically higher taxes will simply give the government more money to spend, so that expenditures and therefore deficits are likely to rise still further. Cutting taxes, on the other hand, puts great political pressure on Congress and the administration to follow suit by cutting spending.
  And:
  Deficits, then, should be eliminated, but only by cutting government spending. If taxes and government spending are both slashed, then the salutary result will be to lower the parasitic burden of government taxes and spending upon the productive activities of the private sector.
  No ''balance'' of revenue enhancements combined with reductions in the rate of growth of spending, no ten year plan to bring budget balance in 10 years based on only mild reductions in the rate of spending increases and expected revenue enhnacements for higher growth rates. No revenue neutral tax ''reform''. Real cuts in spending made believable by cuts in tax rates actually intended to shrink, not grow government revenues. Government austerity or economy is the path to private sector prosperity.
  Antioxidants Will Not Cure All (or Anything) That Ails You
  Link to Article
  Source: Lifehacker
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:04
  Our food and drinks are chock-full of antioxidants nowadays, along with promises of protection from illness and even faster recovery when you've taken ill. US News explains that antioxidant studies show hardly conclusive data, and what we think heals us isn't really doing much at all.
  First, it's important to understand what antioxidants do. Charles H. Brown, writing for US News, explains:
  The body generates hundreds of substances called "free radicals" when converting food to energy. Other free radicals are extracted from food or breathed in from the air, and some are generated by the sunlight's action on the skin and eyes. Once formed, these toxic compounds can start a chain reaction like dominoes. Cells may function poorly or die. Resulting oxidative stress is associated with more than 200 diseases. The scavenger-free radical molecules are missing an electron in their outer shells and will do anything to fill them, including stealing electrons from your body's cellular structures. Such cellular thievery may damage DNA, proteins (enzymes), and cell membranes. When these cells are damaged, your body is damaged, creating the foundation for disease and accelerated aging.
  Antioxidants are molecules which can safely interact with free radicals and terminate the chain reaction before vital molecules are damaged. Although there are several enzyme systems within the body that disarm free radicals, the principal antioxidants are vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and selenium. When these antioxidants neutralize free radicals by donating an electron particle, they are left with a small problem. The antioxidants are now missing an electron and have become free radicals themselves. The body cannot manufacture these antioxidants, so they must be supplied in your diet.
  While antioxidants can help in theory, US News found no studies with any conclusive evidence of disease prevention. At best, they seemed to help slow "age-related macular degeneration" but nothing more. Currently the benefits of antioxidants don't appear helpful in most cases, and certainly won't cure an illness like many would like to believe. If you're spending extra money to have them in your daily diet, you might want to reconsider.
  Do You Really Need Antioxidants? | US News
  Photo by AGorohov (Shutterstock).
  Google Glass Will Support Prescription Glasses
  Link to Article
  Source: Ubergizmo
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:58
  With Google Glass expected to be released to the public sometime later this year, as a glasses-wearing American, I have always wondered if I'd need to ditch my prescription glasses in order to enjoy the device. It seems Google has been hearing that same concern from their potential customers and have addressed it on their Project Glass Google+ page.
  If you've been wondering if Google Glass will be available for prescription glasses, Google confirms there will be something for us in the future.
  ''The Glass design is modular, so you will be able to add frames and lenses that match your prescription,'' the Project Glass page says. ''We understand how important this is and we've been working hard on it. We're still perfecting the design for prescription frames. Although the frames won't be ready for the Explorer Edition's release, hang in there '-- you can expect to see them later this year.''
  I really like the prescription glasses I have right now, especially since I spent over $200 for them. Knowing there will be an option for prescription-glasses wearers is one I'm sure many others like me were wondering.
  Related articles:Gmail, Evernote and The New York Times on Google GlassKMW i-MetH Helmet Boasts Of Wireless Connectivity and LED LampGoogle Shoes Will Keep You Motivated By Talking To YouGiayee Android Set Top Box Brings Back Memories Of Nexus Q
  Seen at: plus.google Gadgetsglassesgoogle glassprescriptionprescription lensesproject glass
  Google Google is an Internet Search company with profits mainly derived from its AdWords advertising program. Google is also known for other high-profile web-related products such as Chrome, GMail, Google Docs or Google Map, and it has also made a very successful entry into the mobile handset market with its Android mobile operating system. The company was created in 1998 and went public in 2004. Google is one of the most visited site in the world. Join a great community!
  The Bitcoin Crypto-Currency Mystery Reopened.
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:17
  A New Yorker writer implies he found Bitcoin's mysterious creator. We think he got the wrong man, and offer far more compelling evidence that points to someone else entirely.
  In a recent New Yorker story, Joshua Davis wrote a story on Bitcoin, the crypto-currency that has ignited the imaginations of the technorati and led to a rush of media coverage. But this is no usual magazine feature. Not only does Davis, a marvelous writer whose work I've long admired, offer a primer on Bitcoin--what it is, how it works, why it's important--he sets off on a journey to find its mysterious, secrecy-obsessed inventor, who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. I think the man he found at the end of his search is the wrong guy. And by transparently sharing my own process for tracking Bitcoin's elusive inventor, I will show how a stream of stunning coincidences can end up pointing to not one, but three potential candidates.
  // Bitcoins are a decentralized virtual currency that rely on public-key cryptography. If you buy something with a Bitcoin you're simply transmitting a symbolic token stamped with a complex number that transfers ownership to someone else. Unlike traditional banking, which keeps customer information private, Bitcoin transactions are transparent so the "market" knows when a bitcoin is spent but not the owner's identity. Money supply is increased by users who "mine" bitcoins by dedicating computer processing power to the Bitcoin network. Bitcoins are not regulated by any government or bank, and the currency has seeped into criminal activities. As a result, legislators are threatening crackdowns, and some claim it is a vast scam.
  For more, watch this.
  As Davis reported, Nakamoto published a research paper in 2008 that detailed the ideas underpinning Bitcoins and wrote hundreds of posts to a forum in "flawless English." After one last post in April in which he claimed he had "moved on to other things," he vanished, yet his footprints are everywhere. Davis pored through Nakamoto's online writings, all 80,000 words and searched for clues. The mystery man's prose was quite clean, he noted, very few typos, and after his first post, in which he employed American spellings, he switched to the Queen's English for all the rest. Color was "colour," gray, "grey," an apartment was a "flat" and he wrote "bloody hard" at least once. What's more, embedded into the Bitcoin code is a tag that relates to a Times of London headline from January 3, 2009, on the government being on the brink to rescue Britain's banks with a second bailout. Then Davis interviewed a leading computer security researcher who sifted through Bitcoin's code, searching for flaws. He didn't find any, concluding that Nakamoto would have to be "a world-class programmer" with "a deep understanding" of C++--the programming language--and an extensive background in cryptography, economics, and peer-to-peer networking.
  Davis reasoned that Satoshi Nakamoto was probably a British national and set off for the Crytpo 2011 conference in Santa Barbara to find him. It led him to Michael Clear, a 23-year-old graduate student in cryptography at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Clear had worked at a bank, co-authored a paper on peer-to-peer, and, unsurprisingly, employed British spellings. The first time Davis asked Clear, who was named Trinity's top computer student in 2008, if he were Bitcoin's creator, Clear just laughed. The next time Davis asked, Clear replied, "I'm not Satoshi, but even if I was I wouldn't tell you."
  After the article was published and numerous media outlets picked up on the sleuth-mystery angle, Clear denied he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He told IrishCentral, "My sense of humor when I said 'even if I was I wouldn't tell you' is missing, this was said jokingly." Clear "found it funny that the New Yorker reporter thought I was Satoshi, but I have always (beyond conversational jokes like the quote above) vehemently denied it. I could never allow myself to be even remotely given credit for someone else's creativity and hard work."
  This is where I come in. Like Davis, I too had been trying to find Satoshi Nakamoto and had accumulated a body of circumstantial evidence--including some crazy coincidences--that, taken as a whole, led me to believe that Bitcoin's creator was probably someone else entirely. I wondered if the British spellings and the headline inserted into Bitcoin's code were red herrings, placed there to throw pursuers off the scent. Wasn't Nakamoto's first post written with American spellings? It wouldn't take much for someone as bright as Nakamoto to create a modest disinformation campaign.
  But I wasn't confident I could confirm my suspicions. The man (or men) behind Bitcoin had shown he wanted to disappear, and unless he would agree to talk, there was no way I could ever be sure. Unlike, say, Dan Lyons as "Fake Steve Jobs," who confirmed his pseudonymous identity when finally confronted, Satoshi Nakamoto wasn't likely to cooperate, even if promised anonymity in exchange for an interview. For months I sat on this research. Then Davis's article came out.
  So I offer my process here, with the caveat that these unlikely coincidences could end up being just that, even though in my opinion my evidence is much more convincing than Davis's. (Said with respect, yo!)
  First, most believe that Satoshi Nakamoto is a made up name, and it seems a person as learned as Bitcoin's creator might be tempted to choose a pseudonym that encompasses a deeper meaning. In Japanese Satoshi translates into "clear-thinking; quick-witted; wise." "Naka" can mean "inside" or "relationship" while "moto" is defined as "the origin; the cause; the foundation; the basis." So we have "clear-thinking" "inside" "the foundation." Mystical, isn't it?
  I started with some amateur textual analysis of Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin paper, extracting fragments of phrases and running them through Google. I figured I'd see if any of the ones in the paper appear elsewhere online. People tend to repeat themselves. The trick is to plug in unique-sounding fragments and place them in quotes. That way you only get a handful of results to comb through. I struck out on the first few, which all appeared solely in the Bitcoin paper, and there was one irrelevant link. Then I tried the term "computationally impractical to reverse." It resulted in 26 results, the vast majority related to the Bitcoin paper or to bitcoins themselves. Except for one of the last ones--a patent application:
  Updating And Distributing Encryption Keys invention
  Feb 18, 2010'--... the outputs of which are fixed-size strings that are computationally impractical to reverse-map. In this manner, the shared secret, ...
  It was for a "system and method for providing secure communications." Initially, "an exchange protocol, such as a password-authenticated key exchange protocol, is used to create a shared secret. From the shared secret, two keys are created: a utilized key and a stored key. The utilized key is used to encrypt messages between nodes. When it is time to replace the utilized key to maintain security, the stored key is utilized to encrypt messages for generating/distributing a new shared secret. The new shared secret is then used to generate a new utilized key and a new stored key. This process may be repeated any number of times to maintain security."
  After reading that, I wondered if it could be related to Bitcoin's technology. What are bitcoins but shared secrets? Encryption plays a vital role, and they are certainly dynamic.
  I looked at the date on the patent application filing: 08/15/2008.
  Now take a look at the domain bitcoin.org. It was registered three days later.
  Domain Name:BITCOIN.ORG
  Created On:18-Aug-2008
  Now that is one hell of a coincidence. What are the odds that a phrase in Nakamoto's Bitcoin paper would be replicated in a patent application filed the same year? Further, what are the odds the domain name for Bitcoin would have been registered 72 hours after the patent application was filed?
  Based on the timing, I wondered if one of the people on the patent application--or perhaps all three--had based the Bitcoin concept on research that led them to this patent application. The three inventors listed on patent #20100042841 are Neal King, Vladimir Oksman, Charles Bry, and all three have filed numerous patent applications over the years.
  Neal King (he also goes by Neal J. King from Munich, Germany) is listed on a number of patent applications, notably "UPDATING AND DISTRIBUTING ENCRYPTION KEYS" (#20100042841) and "CONTENTION ACCESS TO A COMMUNICATION MEDIUM IN A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK" (#20090196306), both of which seem Bitcoin-y to me.
  Charles Bry, who also resides in Munich, has filed several applications, many dealing with nodes and networks.
  Vladamir Oksman, who lives in the U.S., has several patent applications, too, and they too seem related to networks, nodes.
  I found another patent application that lists the three of them as inventors, filed June 2008--two months before the Bitcoin.org domain was registered.
  KEY MANAGEMENT FOR COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  "Abstract One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for key management in a communications network. In this method, a public key authentication scheme is carried out between a security controller and a plurality of nodes to establish a plurality of node-to-security-controller (NSC) keys. The NSC keys are respectively associated with the plurality of nodes and are used for secure communication between the security controller and the respective nodes."
  Could that also be related to Bitcoin?
  Now, another coincidence: The Bitcoin.org domain was registered by a Finnish provider, based in Helsinki.
  Charles Bry traveled to Finland in late 2007, six months before the domain was registered. In addition, Bry, who is a senior system engineer, lists German, English, French, and Italian as languages he speaks, and went to college in Paris. He works for a company called Lantiq.
  Then there's Neal J. King, and there are more oddities. A Neal J. King has a Facebook page that is sketchy with personal information, yet if you search for "Neal J. King" in Facebook's search box, his profile doesn't pop up. His wall is filled with posts about the recent Wall Street protests, banking, and criticism of the Patriot Act. Keep scrolling down and he "likes" blau.de, a German mobile phone sim card site. He also claims highbrow taste in literature and books, and it seems he's an avid reader, having reviewed 46 books on Amazon--many deal with astronomy, biology, cryptography, linguistics, literature, mathematics, philosophy and physics. I read through his reviews, and his writing is excellent. Very clean. No typos. His sentences are elegant yet there are no extra words. The writing style reminds me of Satoshi Nakamoto's posts in the Bitcoin Forum minus British spellings, which, as I noted above, I believe is a canard.
  Finally, I looked up Vladamir Oksman's LinkedIn profile (there are a couple of guys with this name, but he was easy to find). He is a staff software engineer at Samsung, driving integration and commercialization of Android-based smartphones, and also has a vast technical background, including Linux, Msft, etc. Oksman lives in New Jersey.
  Here's another subtle connection, and I'm not sure what it means. If you google "Vladimir Oksman bitcoin" you get a handful of results, including his LinkedIn profile, a patent application listing him as an inventor, and his resume. Yet "bitcoin" does not appear on any of these pages. When I checked cached versions of the first two results, it said, "These search terms are highlighted: vladimir oksman. These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: bitcoin."
  So the word "bitcoin" appears in links pointing to this page? Why? I tried this with the two other inventors on the "Updating And Distributing Encryption Keys invention" patent. "Neal King Bitcoin" gets you two useless results, and neither have links with bitcoin pointing to their pages. '"Charles Bry Bitcoin" has zero results.
  In conclusion, each of the three inventors listed on the patents can be circumstantially tied to Bitcoin. A fairly obscure phrase from the Bitcoin paper leads to a patent application that explores a similar technical topic and was filed that same year. The bitcoin.org doman was registered three days after the patent application was filed. The three inventors seem to have the skills, and King's writing shares similarities with Nakamoto's, as do his interests.
  But are they Satoshi Nakamoto? I showed my research, including the patents, to several computer security professionals--ranging from experts in cryptogaphraphy to network analysis pros--and there was a wide range of opinions. Meanwhile Charles Bry denies that he and/or his co-inventors are related in any way to Bitcoin: "I hope I do not disappoint you too much by saying that I am not Satoshi Nakamoto, nor am I associated with him or with Bitcoin in any way. I believe I can state with absolute certainty the same of the other co-authors of our cryptography patents." I also messaged Vladamir Oksman through LinkedIn, and he replied with a terse "Wrong person."
  Neal J. King offered the most detailed response. He said the technical topics between his patent application and Bitcoin, "are very different, excepting that both relate to authentication to some extent." He claims he "had never heard of Bitcoin until this question came up," and had to look up Bitcoin on Wikipedia, concluding that, "It's not a very good idea: Nakamoto's algorithm is a solution in search of a problem." He finds fault with the lack of a guaranteed value for Bitcoins. "As long as people want to play the game, they can pretend that a Bitcoin has value, but if someone refuses to accept it, you can't make him; and it would be seriously unwise for him to accept it." He contrasts this with the U.S. dollar, which "also has no intrinsic value" but since it can be used to pay taxes it can be used to settle debt. "If the U.S. government loses the ability to enforce payment obligation on that person, a $1 bill will also have no value beyond the paper."
  He concludes: "So whether I have dazzled you with my insight, or baffled you with my obtuseness, I think you will agree that no one who would write the paragraphs above would have invested the considerable amount of time Nakamoto spent elaborating the Bitcoin concept."
  I didn't find his argument particularly persuasive. For one, it begs credulity that someone who has filed patent applications dealing with cryptography had never heard of Bitcoin until I asked about it. That would be like a journalist claiming he never heard of Twitter. And just because a currency is accepted by a government to settle taxes doesn't mean its citizens will continue to believe in its value. When a currency suffers hyperinflation--like in Zimbabwe, for example--people adopt other currencies, namely the dollar or euro. And recall that Joe Klein, who was eventually outed as "Anonymous," the author of Primary Colors--that oh-so-mid-1990s literary mystery--also initially denied writing the book.
  But the point of this column isn't to claim we found Satoshi Nakamoto. It's to show how circumstantial evidence, which is what the New Yorker based its conclusions on, isn't synonymous with truth. I doubt the New Yorker found the right guy. I also believe that our evidence is far more compelling, yet we also probably haven't nailed it either. In fact, we may have to wait a Deep Throat length of time before we ever find out who the real Nakamoto is, and by then it might not matter.
  In the end, Nakamoto's greatest, uncrackable code might be his own identity. In Davis's New Yorker article he describes the impenetrable nature of Nakamoto's code. Every time his computer security researcher thought he found a hole, he would discover a taunting message from Nakamoto indicating it had already been patched. It was, Davis said, like a thief tunneling under a bank only to discover that someone had poured concrete into his path "with a sign telling him to go home."
  Just like Davis, I found all this information that pointed directly to someone, but in the end I ran into a brick wall, albeit accompanied by far more gentler denials.
  Classic Nakamoto.
  Adam L. Penenberg is a journalism professor at NYU and a contributing writer to Fast Company. Follow him on Twitter: @penenberg.
  [Image: Flickr user Matre]
  Vatican Members Reportedly Living 'Yards' Away From Huge Gay Bathhouse
  Link to Article
  Source: Religion on HuffingtonPost.com
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:16
  Situated on a private road in Rome, an historic palazzo that houses a key Vatican department is also home to a huge gay sauna.
  On Monday Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that the Vatican had dropped around ''š¬20 million in 2008 on a block of apartments for members of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, which coordinates the Church's missionary activities. The block is also home to the gay sauna and fitness venue, Europa Multiclub.
  Boasting a Turkish bath, sauna, whirlpool and massage areas, Europa Multiclub also hosts themed events, including "dove parties" and "bear parties." The club's website describes the location at 2 Via Carducci as "a safe and quiet neighborhood, home to institutions and ministries, a few steps from Termini station."
  "There is a lot of cruising," one anonymous clubgoer told La Repubblica, according to the New York Daily News. "Everybody looks at each other and thinks, 'Do I like him? Is he going to like me?' You can go to a private room or stay where you are."
  Cardinal Ivan Dias, the conservative head of the Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples, reportedly has a 12-room apartment "just yards from the ground floor entrance" to the club, according to The Independent's report on La Repubblica's story. The 76-year-old former archbishop of Bombay, India, has previously called homosexuality a "disease of the soul."
  According to the BBC, the Church has yet to comment.
  PinkNews reports news of the gay bathhouse's adjacency to Vatican housing has caused a flurry of buzz on Italian gay websites. One commenter joked, '''Oops, I took the wrong door, I thought it was the chapel.''...If you can't go to the gay sauna for fear of being seen what do you do if you have millions of Euros stolen from Italians? You buy the apartment block with the sauna inside.''
  This is the latest gay scandal to rock the Catholic Church in recent weeks, just days after Benedict officially resigned and before the conclave to select the new pope began.
  Previously, La Repubblica claimed Benedict may have resigned in part because of a powerful Vatican gay lobby that had internal influence. Following this report, Britain's Cardinal Keith O'Brien admitted to sexual misbehavior against multiple unnamed priests and offered his resigned.
  Also on HuffPost:
Sink Hole Swallows Golfer In The Middle Of Golf Course
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:21
Clarification on Covert Testing at Newark (EWR)
  Link to Article
  Source: The TSA Blog
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:10
  You've likely read various media accounts of how our TSOs at Newark (EWR) missed an IED during covert testing -- training. I'd like to take a few moments to talk about covert testing at TSA since this has drawn so much attention.TSA undergoes covert testing by The GAO, the DHS Inspector General, TSA's Office of Inspection, and Local TSA staff. The aforementioned test was conducted by the TSA Office of Inspection. You've probably heard them referred to as the ''Red Team.''
  The goal of the Red Team is to build tests that push the boundaries of our people, processes, and technology. We know that the adversary innovates and we have to push ourselves to capacity in order to remain one step ahead. With that said, our testers often make these covert tests as difficult as possible. It's not like they're using a cartoonish bundle of dynamite with an alarm clock strapped to it. These items are extremely hard to spot.
  You might be wondering why our testers run tests that our Officers are prone to fail? It's because we want to see if our procedures, technology, and policies are or are not working. We also are constantly looking for ways to improve our performance. When a test is failed, we don't simply check a tick mark in a box and move on. Nor do we take punitive measures as this testing is a learning experience. The results are shared with TSA leadership at the airport and HQ, as well as the officers who were part of the test, noting areas for improvement where warranted. The findings from these covert tests can result in changes to our policies and procedures, or even tweaks to our technology.
  Also, it's important to note that this specific covert test was only testing one of the 20 layers of security. It was checking one aspect of the Checkpoint Transportation Security Officer SOP. These other layers include behavior detection officers, travel document checkers, intelligence gathering and analysis, checking passenger manifests against watch lists, random canine team searches, and more security measures both visible and invisible to the public. In a normal setting, all 20 layers would be working in concert; however, all layers cannot be tested in the same way.
  Since we're on the topic of Newark, an article with comments from an alleged anonymous former Transportation Security Officer from EWR was posted over the weekend by the New York Post. It's amazing how much credence a newspaper can give to someone who is not accountable for what he or she says. With that said, much of what this alleged former TSO had to say is just uninformed generalizations painted with a very wide brush. In the past, we have seen former employees who were terminated for wrongdoing quoted in stories like this one. As you might imagine, we think they have a credibility gap.
  The TSA workforce carries out the agency's transportation security responsibilities in support of our Nation's counterterrorism efforts with responsibility and dedication. The Agency's responsibilities include security screening of passengers and baggage at 450 airports in the United States that facilitate safe air travel for 1.8 million people per day. That is why we train for success.
H.R.748 - Universal National Service Act - Bill Text | Congress.gov
  Link to Article
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:49
  There is one version of the bill.
  Shown Here:Introduced in House (02/14/2013)[Congressional Bills 113th Congress][From the U.S. Government Printing Office][H.R. 748 Introduced in House (IH)]113th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 748To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or as civilian service in a Federal, State, or local government program or with a community-based agency or community-based entity, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, to provide for the registration of women under the Military Selective Service Act, and for other purposes._______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 15, 2013 Mr. Rangel introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services_______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or as civilian service in a Federal, State, or local government program or with a community-based agency or community-based entity, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, to provide for the registration of women under the Military Selective Service Act, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Universal National Service Act''. (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as follows:Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. TITLE I--NATIONAL SERVICESec. 101. Definitions.Sec. 102. National service obligation.Sec. 103. Induction to perform national service.Sec. 104. Two-year period of national service.Sec. 105. Implementation by the President.Sec. 106. Examination and classification of persons.Sec. 107. Deferments and postponements.Sec. 108. Induction exemptions.Sec. 109. Conscientious objection.Sec. 110. Discharge following national service. TITLE II--AMENDMENTS TO MILITARY SELECTIVE SERVICE ACTSec. 201. Registration of females.Sec. 202. Registration and induction authority. TITLE I--NATIONAL SERVICESEC. 101. DEFINITIONS. In this title: (1) The terms ``community-based agency'' and ``community- based entity'' have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12511). (2) The term ``contingency operation'' has the meaning given that term in section 101(a)(13) of title 10, United States Code. (3) The term ``military service'' means service performed as a member of an active or reserve component of the uniformed services. (4) The term ``national service'' means-- (A) military service; or (B) civilian service in a Federal, State, or local government program or with a community-based agency or community-based entity that, as determined by the President, is engaged in meeting human, educational, environmental, or public safety needs. (5) The term ``Secretary concerned'' means-- (A) the Secretary of Defense with respect to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps; (B) the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard; (C) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and (D) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to the Public Health Service. (6) The term ``United States'', when used in a geographical sense, means the several States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. (7) The term ``uniformed services'' means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and commissioned corps of the Public Health Service.SEC. 102. NATIONAL SERVICE OBLIGATION. (a) Obligation for Service.--It is the obligation of every citizen of the United States, and every other person residing in the United States, who is between the ages of 18 and 25 to perform a period of national service as prescribed in this title unless exempted under the provisions of this title. (b) Forms of National Service.--The national service obligation under this title shall be performed either through-- (1) military service; or (2) civilian service in a Federal, State, or local government program or with a community-based agency or community-based entity that, as determined by the President, is engaged in meeting human, educational, environmental, or public safety needs. (c) Age Limits.--A person may be inducted under this title only if the person has attained the age of 18 and has not attained the age of 25.SEC. 103. INDUCTION TO PERFORM NATIONAL SERVICE. (a) Induction Requirements.--The President shall provide for the induction of persons described in section 102(a) to perform their national service obligation. (b) Limitation on Induction for Military Service.--Persons described in section 102(a) may be inducted to perform military service only if-- (1) a declaration of war is in effect; (2) the President declares a national emergency, which the President determines necessitates the induction of persons to perform military service, and immediately informs Congress of the reasons for the declaration and the need to induct persons for military service; or (3) members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps are engaged in a contingency operation pursuant to a congressional authorization for the use of military force. (c) Limitation on Number of Persons Inducted for Military Service.--When the induction of persons for military service is authorized by subsection (b), the President shall determine the number of persons described in section 102(a) whose national service obligation is to be satisfied through military service based on-- (1) the authorized end strengths of the uniformed services; and (2) the feasibility of the uniformed services to recruit sufficient volunteers to achieve such end-strength levels. (d) Selection for Induction.-- (1) Random selection for military service.--When the induction of persons for military service is authorized by subsection (b), the President shall utilize a mechanism for the random selection of persons to be inducted to perform military service. (2) Random selection for civilian service.--Persons described in section 102(a) who do not volunteer to perform military service or are not inducted for military service shall perform their national service obligation in a civilian capacity pursuant to section 102(b)(2). (e) Voluntary Service.--A person subject to induction under this title may-- (1) volunteer to perform national service in lieu of being inducted; or (2) request permission to be inducted at a time other than the time at which the person is otherwise called for induction.SEC. 104. TWO-YEAR PERIOD OF NATIONAL SERVICE. (a) General Rule.--Except as otherwise provided in this section, the period of national service performed by a person under this title shall be two years. (b) Grounds for Extension.--At the discretion of the President, the period of military service for a member of the uniformed services under this title may be extended-- (1) with the consent of the member, for the purpose of furnishing hospitalization, medical, or surgical care for injury or illness incurred in line of duty; or (2) for the purpose of requiring the member to compensate for any time lost to training for any cause. (c) Early Termination.--The period of national service for a person under this title shall be terminated before the end of such period under the following circumstances: (1) The voluntary enlistment and active service of the person in an active or reserve component of the uniformed services for a period of at least two years, in which case the period of basic military training and education actually served by the person shall be counted toward the term of enlistment. (2) The admission and service of the person as a cadet or midshipman at the United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, the Coast Guard Academy, or the United States Merchant Marine Academy. (3) The enrollment and service of the person in an officer candidate program, if the person has signed an agreement to accept a Reserve commission in the appropriate service with an obligation to serve on active duty if such a commission is offered upon completion of the program. (4) Such other grounds as the President may establish.SEC. 105. IMPLEMENTATION BY THE PRESIDENT. (a) In General.--The President shall prescribe such regulations as are necessary to carry out this title. (b) Matter To Be Covered by Regulations.--Such regulations shall include specification of the following: (1) The types of civilian service that may be performed in order for a person to satisfy the person's national service obligation under this title. (2) The types of Federal, State, and local government programs and programs carried out by a community-based agency or community-based entity that may be used for the performance of national service. (3) Standards for satisfactory performance of civilian service and of penalties for failure to perform civilian service satisfactorily. (4) The manner in which persons shall be selected for induction under this title, including the manner in which those selected will be notified of such selection. (5) All other administrative matters in connection with the induction of persons under this title and the registration, examination, and classification of such persons. (6) A means to determine questions or claims with respect to inclusion for, or exemption or deferment from induction under this title, including questions of conscientious objection. (7) Standards for compensation and benefits for persons performing their national service obligation under this title through civilian service. (8) Such other matters as the President determines necessary to carry out this title. (c) Use of Prior Act.--To the extent determined appropriate by the President, the President may use for purposes of this title the procedures provided in the Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 451 et seq.), including procedures for registration, selection, and induction.SEC. 106. EXAMINATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF PERSONS. (a) Examination.--Every person subject to induction under this title shall, before induction, be physically and mentally examined and shall be classified as to fitness to perform national service. (b) Different Classification Standards.--The President may apply different classification standards for fitness for military service and fitness for civilian service.SEC. 107. DEFERMENTS AND POSTPONEMENTS. (a) High School Students.--A person who is pursuing a standard course of study, on a full-time basis, in a secondary school or similar institution of learning shall be entitled to have induction under this title postponed until the person-- (1) obtains a high school diploma; (2) ceases to pursue satisfactorily such course of study; or (3) attains the age of 20. (b) Post Secondary Students.--A person who is pursuing a standard course of study, on a full-time basis, in a university, technical school or similar institution of learning shall be entitled to have induction under this title postponed until the person-- (1) obtains a certificate or diploma; (2) ceases to pursue satisfactorily such course of study; or (3) attains the age of 24. (c) Hardship and Disability.--Deferments from national service under this title may be made for-- (1) extreme hardship; or (2) physical or mental disability. (d) Training Capacity.--The President may postpone or suspend the induction of persons for military service under this title as necessary to limit the number of persons receiving basic military training and education to the maximum number that can be adequately trained. (e) Termination.--No deferment or postponement of induction under this title shall continue after the cause of such deferment or postponement ceases.SEC. 108. INDUCTION EXEMPTIONS. (a) Qualifications.--No person may be inducted for military service under this title unless the person is acceptable to the Secretary concerned for training and meets the same health and physical qualifications applicable under section 505 of title 10, United States Code, to persons seeking original enlistment in a regular component of the Armed Forces. (b) Other Military Service.--No person shall be liable for induction under this title who-- (1) is serving, or has served honorably for at least six months, in any component of the uniformed services on active duty; or (2) is or becomes a cadet or midshipman at the United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, the Coast Guard Academy, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, a midshipman of a Navy accredited State maritime academy, a member of the Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or the naval aviation college program, so long as that person satisfactorily continues in and completes at least two years training therein.SEC. 109. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION. (a) Claims as Conscientious Objector.--Nothing in this title shall be construed to require a person to be subject to combatant training and service in the uniformed services, if that person, by reason of sincerely held moral, ethical, or religious beliefs, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form. (b) Alternative Noncombatant or Civilian Service.--A person who claims exemption from combatant training and service under subsection (a) and whose claim is sustained by the local board shall-- (1) be assigned to noncombatant service (as defined by the President), if the person is inducted into the uniformed services; or (2) be ordered by the local board, if found to be conscientiously opposed to participation in such noncombatant service, to perform civilian service for the period specified in section 104(a) and subject to such regulations as the President may prescribe.SEC. 110. DISCHARGE FOLLOWING NATIONAL SERVICE. (a) Discharge.--Upon completion or termination of the obligation to perform national service under this title, a person shall be discharged from the uniformed services or from civilian service, as the case may be, and shall not be subject to any further service under this title. (b) Coordination With Other Authorities.--Nothing in this section shall limit or prohibit the call to active service in the uniformed services of any person who is a member of a regular or reserve component of the uniformed services. TITLE II--AMENDMENTS TO MILITARY SELECTIVE SERVICE ACTSEC. 201. REGISTRATION OF FEMALES. (a) Registration Required.--Section 3(a) of the Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. 453(a)) is amended-- (1) by striking ``male'' both places it appears; (2) by inserting ``or herself'' after ``himself''; and (3) by striking ``he'' and inserting ``the person''. (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 16(a) of the Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 466(a)) is amended by striking ``men'' and inserting ``persons''.SEC. 202. REGISTRATION AND INDUCTION AUTHORITY. (a) Registration.--Section 4 of the Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 454) is amended by inserting after subsection (g) the following new subsection: ``(h) This section does not apply with respect to the induction of persons into the Armed Forces pursuant to the Universal National Service Act.''. (b) Induction.--Section 17(c) of the Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 467(c)) is amended by striking ``now or hereafter'' and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting ``inducted pursuant to the Universal National Service Act.''.
Two years after Fukushima accident, Japan starts turning back to nuclear power Hot Air
  Link to Article
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:43
  posted at 12:26 pm on March 11, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
  Two years ago today, an earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc on Japan, killing almost 16,000 people with another 2600 still listed as missing. Estimates of the cost of the destruction go as high as $235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in history. One aspect of the disaster dominated the news for weeks afterward '-- the nuclear ''meltdown'' at Fukushima, which prompted Japan to take all of its reactors off line, and which stopped the nuclear-power movement in its tracks in the US. The exposure of radioactive materials was thought to be the worst consequence of the overall disaster.
  Now, two years later, Japan has quietly resumed its use of nuclear power, and is even building a new facility:
  At the remote northwestern tip of a snowy peninsula, beyond a small road of fishing shacks and empty one-story homes, 600 construction workers and engineers are building a brand-new nuclear plant for a country still recovering from the most severe atomic accident since Chernobyl.
  The main reactor building is already at its full height, though draped in heavy fabric to protect it from the wind and freezing temperatures. A 500-foot crane swivels overhead. A completed power line stretches along a nearby ridge, where it might one day carry electricity down the peninsula and back toward the Japanese mainland '-- a place still fiercely divided over the long-term role of nuclear power.
  In the aftermath of March 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima that contaminated 700 square miles with radiation and forced 150,000 to flee their homes, most never to return, Japan's utility companies paused nearly all nuclear-related projects. The accident sparked a global debate about nuclear power, but it was especially fierce in Japan, where all 50 operable reactors were taken offline and work was halted on three new plants where building had been underway.
  But two of the existing reactors are back in action, and the resumption of construction at the Oma Nuclear Power Plant here '-- a project that broke ground in 2008 and was halted by the operator, J-Power, after the accident '-- marks the clearest sign yet that the stalemate is breaking.
  What happened? The first election after the disaster produced an anti-nuclear hardline agenda. The next produced a moderately nuclear-skeptical government, and the most recent election produced what the Post calls as ''cautiously pro-nuclear'' government. Before the accident, Japan produced a third of its own electricity through nuclear plants, and the need for new resources may have some questioning whether Japan acted too hastily in abruptly stopping its nuclear-power production. Their normally large trade surpluses disappeared in the middle of last year, instead incurring a $78 billion trade deficit as Japan had to start importing large amounts of crude to make up for the demand.
  Bloomberg's Robert Peter Gale and Eric Lax provide another explanation. It turns out that the worst-case scenarios simply never arose. While the contamination from the accident is real, the health catastrophe predicted happily didn't materialize:
  Remarkably, outside the immediate area of Fukushima, this is hardly a problem at all. Although the crippled nuclear reactors themselves still pose a danger, no one, including personnel who worked in the buildings, died fromradiation exposure. Most experts agree that future health risks from the released radiation, notably radioactive iodine-131 and cesiums-134 and '' 137, are extremely small and likely to be undetectable.
  Even considering the upper boundary of estimated effects, there is unlikely to be any detectable increase in cancers in Japan, Asia or the world except close to the facility, according to a World Health Organization report. There will almost certainly be no increase in birth defects or genetic abnormalities from radiation.
  Even in the most contaminated areas, any increase in cancer risk will be small. For example, a male exposed at age 1 has his lifetime cancer risk increase from 43 percent to 44 percent. Those exposed at 10 or 20 face even smaller increases in risk '-- similar to what comes from having a whole-body computer tomography scan or living for 12 to 25 years in Denver amid background radiation in the Rocky Mountains. (There is no discernible difference in the cancer rates between people who live in Denver and those in Los Angeles or New York.)
  Rather than stand as a warning of the radiation danger posed by nuclear power, in other words, Fukushima has become a reminder that uninformed fears aren't the same as actual risks.
  Be sure to read the article to find out why this turned out to be the case, but to summarize, rapid evacuation and Fukushima's position near the ocean made most of the difference. Medical treatment was particularly effective. However, Fukushima wasn't the only disaster whose predicted long-term consequences turned out to be (again, happily) overblown; Chernobyl also hasn't produced nearly as many long-term illnesses, despite a much-worse response from authorities.
  These new realities have Japan cautiously moving back to nuclear power, and should be a lesson to all of us. After all, no energy production is risk-free, and as the Bloomberg piece makes clear, nuclear power has a better track record than most.
Susan Rice to NSA? Hot Air
  Link to Article
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:42
  posted at 6:31 pm on March 10, 2013 by Jazz Shaw
  Speaking of battles that you thought were ancient history'... remember back when that woman '' what was her name again? '' was a sure fire lock to be the the next Secretary of State? And the Republicans were all up in arms about some television show she was on? And then she really didn't want to be Secretary of State anyway and John Kerry was Obama's first choice all along, so what was all the fighting about anyway? Ah'... good times, my friends. Good times.
  Glad all that is behind us, eh?
  Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who lost out in a bruising bid for the job of secretary of state, may have the last laugh.
  Rice has emerged as far and away the front-runner to succeed Thomas E. Donilon as President Obama's national security adviser later this year, according to an administration official familiar with the president's thinking. The job would place her at the nexus of foreign-policy decision making and allow her to rival the influence of Secretary of State John F. Kerry in shaping the president's foreign policy.
  The appointment would mark a dramatic twist of fortune for Rice, whose prospects to become the country's top diplomat fizzled last year after a round of television appearances in which she provided what turned out to be a flawed account of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
  Doug Mataconis points out the one big difference between a potential National Security Adviser and the Secretary of State. (emphasis mine)
  This isn't really much of a surprise. After Rice withdrew her name from contention for Secretary of State, there was much speculation that Obama would be likely to pick her as his National Security Adviser, a position that does not require Senate confirmation.
  This would put Rice right back in the center of strategic planning on foreign affairs, indeed matching or possibly exceeding the influence of Kerry, since the NSA is the person with the President's ear on the inner circle. And the nature of the position means that President Obama can simply appoint her and be done with it. The GOP in the Senate will have nothing to say about it.
  Of course, if Barack Obama actually is trying to mend fences '' or at least arrange dinners '' with the GOP leadership in the hopes of getting something done, this would be a fairly significant finger in the eye to Republicans. I've no doubt it will be viewed as such if it happens, and the President would simply be giving John Boehner and company cover to say that there was no thawing of relations across the aisle coming any time soon.
Whistle Blower Discloses Secret Syria War Plan To Balkanize Syria And Turkey
  Link to Article
  Source: StratRisks
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:41
  Source: MSNI
  The spokesperson of Russia´s Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich criticized the United States for its biased interpretation of the Geneva Communique on Syria, and for US State Department Speaker Victoria Nuland´s statement, that the USA will continue aiding the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. US '' Russian relations have been frozen since US Secretary of State John Kerry granted additional USD 60 million for the subversion. The recent revelation, by a member the general secretariat of Kuwait´s National Party, according to whom the USA and Qatar are planning to divide Syria into small-states, is likely to further cool down east-west relations.
  In interviews with international media, Lukashevich said, ''Public statements by representatives of the US administration in support of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces in fact point to a one-sided interpretation of the Geneva Communique''. Lukashevich continued, ''This naturally complicates the search for ways to put an end to the armed confrontation in Syria and put the conflict on course for an all-Syria dialog''. Lukashevich asserted Russia´s position by stating, ''The Geneva consensus leaves no room for any 'interpretation''.
  US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on the other hand stated, that the USA remains committed to trying to support both the Syrian Opposition Coalition and others inside Syria who believe in using Geneva and trying to implement it now, adding, that the USA thinks it is the best way to end the violence.
  Continuing the US ''regime change'' discourse, Nuland stated, ''From our perspective, there's no way that mutual consent would ever be given to Assad or regime members with blood on their hands''. Nuland criticized Russia for not asserting its influence over the Syrian government and President Assad for him and ''the regime'' to step down, implicitly blaming Russia for the fact that more than 70,000 people had died in the conflict already.
  Russia on the other hand reiterates, that it has no particular interest in seeing President Assad remaining in power, but that Russia is concerned about an eventual power vacuum in the case that he should step down, and Russia opposes US regime change policy and the US habit of interfering into sovereign nations affairs to serve its own agenda.
  Russian attempts last week, to defuse the situation by taking part in a dialog with the ''Friends of Syria'' seem not to having been successful. A recent statements by a member of the general secretariat of Kuwait´s National Party Faisal al-Hamad, that secret agreements had been made at the sidelines of the Friends of Syria conference in Qatar last week, may in fact further aggravate the situation even though the geo-politic strategy behind the purported ''secret agreement'' has been known since 1990s.
  Faisal al-Hamad has, according to the German, independent media Die Evidenz, stated, that a separate and secret agreement had been signed at the sidelines of the Friends of Syria meeting in Doha. In several blog posts and social media, so Die Evidenz, al-Hamad has stated, that a separeate agreement had been signed between the Foreign Mister of Qatar, Hamad Bin Jassim Al-Thani, the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmad Dauvutoglu, Abdulla bin Zayid Al Nahyan, the american Ambassador Robert Ford, the opposition member Riyad Saif, and the representative of the council of Istanbul´s Muslim Brotherhood organization Mohammed Riad Shaqfeh.
  The agreement, so al-Hamad, contains several points, such as a division of Syria into several smaller states with so-called moderate Islamist governments, the permanent annexation of the disputed Hatay region by Turkey, a reduction of the Syrian military forces to maximum 50,000 troops and other, which coincide with recent analysis by Dr. Perencik and Major Agha H. Amin. (1
  So far, nsnbc has not been able to independently confirm the statements of al-Hamad. The details of the purported secret separate agreement however, coincide with an evaluation of the Pakistani security consultant and retired Major of Pakistan´s Armed Forces, Major Agha H. Amin, according to whose analysis the war in Syria is part of a greater US/NATO project toward the establishment of a Kurdish Corridor and a NATO corridor from the Mediterranean to India, discussed in a recent interview with the scribe. According to Major Agha H. Amin, Turkey will first be used as a basis for dividing Syria, whereafter Turkey will be divided into smaller states, to establish a Kurdish Corridor. The next phase, so Amin, will be the establsihment of a NATO corridor along the oil-rich underbelly of Russia and China, from the Mediterranean to Baluchistan, Pakistan. (2
  The statements of al-Hamad are also consistent with the Greater Middle East Project, developed by the RAND Corporation for the US Department of Defense in 1996. The Chairman of Turkey´s Workers´Party and lawyer Dr. Dogun Perencik has in several articles and statements emphasized, that the war on Syria is aiming at dividing Syria into smaller states first, and to divide Turkey into smaller states afterwards. 3)
  Although the statements of the member the general secretariat of Kuwait´s National Party, Faisal al-Hamad, don´t reveal details of strategies which have not been known for years, there are two points that make them noteworthy, which are likely to further aggravate the dispute between the USA and Russia.
  If al-Hamad´s statements can be independently confirmed, they constitute direct evidence for, that the Syria part of the USA´s Greater Middle East Project is being implemented and precisely by whom, under which conditionalities.
  If al-Hamad´s statements can be confirmed, which is not unlikely, they are also direct evidence of, that the USA is committed to wage a series of low-intensity conflicts along the soft, oil-rich underbelly of Russia and China, from the Mediterranean to Baluchistan, in preparation of an ultimate war, directed against Russia and China. Recent declarations by the US administration, that it will significantly reduce the number of troops deployed abroad, and that the USA will reduce defense spending, are also consistent with the war-plan, which is based on waging low-intensity conflicts with irregular, mercenary troops, proxies and state-sponsored terrorist organizations, under the umbrella of a US/NATO missile shield from Northern Europe to India.
  Understood from that perspective, the statements of al-Hamad are not only a courageous act of disclosure, they are also equivalent to the disclosure of a secret, implicit declaration of war on Russia, and explanatory for the continued deterioration in US '' Russian relations.
  Notes:
  1) Geheinabmachung regelt die Ausr¼stung der Arme und'..... (Die Evidenz).
  2) The volatility of Gas, Geo-Politics and the Greater Middle East. An Interview with Major Agha H. Amin
  3) A 'Kurdish Corridor' to be set up by the US & Israel
  Tags: Assad, conflict, Die Evidenz, general, Greater Middle East Project, Kurdish Corridor, Kuwait, MSNI, National Party, NATO, pakistan, President Assad, Qatar, relations, russia, Syria, Turkey, us, USA, war
African Children Still Paralyzed After Vaccines, Government Says ''All in Their Head''
  Link to Article
  Source: pg.chrys news feed
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:40
  African government is denying vaccines harmed children.
  It has now been officially confirmed that in December 2012, 38 children were hospitalized after receiving the meningitis vaccine, MenAfriVac, during a vaccination campaign arranged by the Chadian government. News program France 24 stated that Saleh Ahmat Bodoumi, a former Member of Parliament in Chad, confirmed that seven of the most seriously affected children have since been evacuated from hospitals in the capital city of Ndjamena to the Republic of Tunisia in northern Africa to undergo further investigation and specialized treatment. [1]
  This news was confirmed by the 'Medical Xpress' a health news service, which said Health Minister Mamouth Nahor N'Gawara made the following statement to the Agence France-Presse, the largest French news agency in the world (AFP):
  ''During the last phase of the vaccination campaign organized at Gouro (near the Libyan border) on December 11 to 15, 2012, unusual reactions were noted.''
  N'Gawara added that ''their state of health is not worrying.'' [2]
  FORCED VACCINATIONSHowever, the Medical Xpress, along with other websites, followed this story the next day by backtracking and stating the following information:
  ''In a statement, the country's health ministry said tests ''failed to establish a causal link between the clinical manifestations observed in the patients and the MenAfriVac vaccine.''
  According to the statement, one child who never received the meningitis shot 'complained of suffering from the same symptoms' found in the other children.'' [3]
  However, a contact in Chad gave VacTruth an extremely different version of events. He said:
  ''The government and the World Health Organization have made up these facts.
  The government banned journalists from visiting the hospital since the children brought in. (sic) All the children from Gouro received the vaccine.
  Firstly, they (Government/WHO) collaborated with the school's headmaster who locked the school's main door before vaccinating all the children. The school headmaster told the children that anyone who refused the vaccine would be banned from school and be arrested.
  Secondly, they went door to door and injected the babies over one year.''
  If you find this event difficult to believe, then cast your mind back to 2007 when the news broke that children in Maryland had been forcibly vaccinated at gunpoint under orders from the state Attorney General, various state judges and the local school board director, all of whom illegally conspired to threaten parents with imprisonment if they did not submit their children to vaccinations. [4]
  Another example of these bully boy tactics was seen in Malawi last year, where 131 children were vaccinated at gunpoint after their parents had refused the measles vaccine. [5] [6]
  A TRAGIC TIMELINEInterestingly, the health minister ended his official statement by saying that the state of the paralyzed children's health is not worrisome. If that is true, then why did the Chadian government move them to another hospital and why was this move done in secret?
  Our Chadian contact informed me that the parents were not even allowed to know where the children were being evacuated to prior to evacuation. He confirmed that on the day that the children were evacuated, the N'Djamena International Airport had been closed to visitors!
  VacTruth reported on the Chadian tragedy on January 6, 2013. [7] However, a team of experts in Chad did not begin to investigate the situation fully until January 9. The Prime Minister of Chad did not visit the sick children in hospital until a few days later. On January 13, VacTruth released a film of the TV footage of this visit that had been copied and forwarded to us. [8]
  So, why did the Chadian government take so long to act on this appalling situation? According to France 24, the Health Minister did not make his announcement until January 9, five weeks after the incident occurred.
  Another false representation of the facts being portrayed to the public is the following information which has been reported by several websites:
  ''In total, more than 100 million people in ten African countries have been vaccinated against the disease.''
  It is a possibility that tens of millions of people were vaccinated with MenAfriVac, although highly unlikely. However, it is a total impossibility, by the WHOS's own admission, that this number was vaccinated using the controlled temperature chain (CTC) implementations. In November 2012, WHO stated:
  ''Evidence of the heat stability of MenAfriVac® was validated by a team of experts from WHO, PATH, SIIL, and Health Canada. In collaboration with the government of Benin, the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), Optimize, and the WHO regional office for Africa, a pilot use of the MenAfrivac® vaccine in a CTC will be conducted during the upcoming MenAfriVac® campaign in the northern part of the country, from November 15 through 25. Benin is the 10th country to introduce the vaccine, as well as the first country to work with the new CTC implementation guidelines, developed through WHO's Immunization Practices Advisory Committee''. [9] (emphasis added)
  BREAKING THE RULES, AT LEAST TWICESo, what has been going on behind the scenes?
  MenAfriVac was a pre-licensed vaccine still in the testing stages. It had been advertised by all the major organizations involved in the campaign, including UNICEF, FDA, CDC, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH, Meningitis Vaccine Project and WHO, as a vaccine that could be kept in a controlled temperature chain (CTC) at temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius for up to four days. However, according to the manufacturer, this information was not strictly true because they state:
  ''MenAfriVac should be stored and transported between 2-8ºC. Protect from light. The diluent should be stored at 25°C. It is recommended to protect the reconstituted vaccine from direct sunlight.'' [10]
  According to a report of a meeting which took place in October 2012 between the World Health Organization's Immunizations, Vaccines and Biologicals group and the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (IPAC), the MenAfriVac vaccine had not been fully licensed and would not be due to be fully endorsed until 2013, at the earliest. [11]
  The children of Gouro were vaccinated in December 2012, apparently with a vaccine that was still being tested which had not yet gained approval to be used outside of a cold temperature chain. According to sources, Dr. Diego Buriot read this message in French on Chad TV, a local television station:
  ''We have done all analyses, we believe that the vaccine was not the cause of the paralysis and the children are not in danger. It is clear that the vaccine is not the cause. All seems to show that the vaccine, which already has been largely used on the whole of the chain, does not produce vaccinal complications.
  We have retested the vaccine, both at the level of the producer, as well as at the level of random checks, which are undecided. These will give their results within several weeks, but actually we are sure that the vaccine is not the cause.
  What we are sure of is first of all that there is no danger whatsoever for the children, that is very important to say. All the clinical trials that we have done are completely normal other than this agitation, which is real, it translates the fear of the children.'' [translated from French]
  This is the first public acknowledgement admitting that the children had became ill and paralyzed after they had received the vaccination, as well as the first of likely many denials that the vaccine is not to blame.
  So, who is Dr. Diego Buriot and who does he represent?
  IT'S ALL IN THEIR HEADDr. Diego Buriot is the Director of the WHO Office in Lyon, France. He is in charge of the Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response and with impressive credentials and ''considerable experience in the public health problems of developing countries.'' [12]
  Of course he would say that the vaccines did not cause the children's injuries, even though he has admitted that all the test results have not yet been received and won't be for several weeks. Remember his words?
  ''We have retested the vaccine, both at the level of the producer, as well as at the level of random checks, which are undecided. These will give their results within several weeks, but actually we are sure that the vaccine is not the cause.''
  On January 20, 2013, the human rights organization ECOTERRA International and I wrote a letter to the resident representative of WHO in Chad, Dr. Sa¯dou Path(C) Barry. We have checked the WHO website [13] regularly since submitting our inquiry, but we have not found any report or update. For this reason, we have been forced to make a public appeal to WHO and ask them to answer our fourteen questions regarding the MenAfriVac vaccination tragedy at their earliest convenience.
  On January 22, we were given a copy of the original press release signed by The Minister of Public Health, Dr. Mamouth Nahor N'gawara. It makes interesting but predictable reading:
  The findings were the same old same, although the release did admit to the inadequate hospital conditions, the lack of medical follow-up '-- especially on the psychological level '-- and the dialogue between the community and the health personnel as being insufficient.
  No cause for the illness of the children appears to have been found. Interestingly, the Experts' Recommendations stated:
  ' Make sure of a progressive yet fast return of the children to their families, and a medical follow up
  ' Maintain the dialogue with the families, the actors and the partners of the vaccination
  ' Reinforce the medical structure at the local level by adding a doctor and a state registered nurse for a better tracking of the health of the population and the routine activities
  ' Reinforce the health personnel capacity in crisis communication and rumor control
  The experts want to stress that the analysis of the epidemiological, medical, clinical and paraclinical data do not permit us to establish a causal link between the clinical manifestations observed in the patients, and the MenAfriVac' vaccine.
  The symptoms observed in the patients resemble those, which have been described in the literature under several names:
  ' collective hysteria' collective obsessive behavior' mass psychogenic phenomenon
  In other words, the ''experts'' are trying to say that the children's condition is psychological. This move is growing in popularity governments and the medical profession uses the 'its all in their heads' phenomenon to minimize vaccine damage, thus shifting the blame to the parents or the victim.
  They finish by stating, translated from French:
  ''The independent experts thank the population and the Chadian authorities for the confidence placed in them. They appeal to the diligence of the authorities to put quickly into action the recommendations, which will facilitate the return to a calmed down situation, beneficial to the correct proceeding of the vaccination programs.''
  The press release also says that a final report will be completed by the health services in Tunisia.
  What the press release fails to say is the following: out of the 500 children vaccinated, a total of 106 became ill. Only 38 of the sick children were hospitalized, leaving 62 sick children in Gouro to be cared for by relatives. [13]
  HOW ARE THE CHILDREN DOING?When I asked my contact if the conditions of the hospitalized children were improving, he replied:
  ''The children in hospital are still paralyzed. Most of the children still can't stand up. Some have convulsions so badly that they need four people to attend. Those who have convulsions end with their up arms straight and their eyes are fixed and open without reaction.
  We are not receiving enough information about the children the government and WHO took to Tunisia.
  There are sick children left in Gouro who may be evacuated to Libya.''
  CONCLUSIONWe have yet to see the full outcome of the MenAfriVac vaccine tragedy. There is little doubt that these children are very sick and may need lifelong care and attention. They will likely be returned home, if they recover sufficiently, without adequate care and attention and their parents left without help or support to care for their children's disabilities alone. Unfortunately, many third world countries do not have access to basic equipment such as wheelchairs that we in the Western world take for granted.
  Surely it is now time for the Chadian government and the organizations involved to stop trying to cover up this tragedy and instead, look after all of the sick children properly. I believe that the real tragedy of this whole situation is in a few months, these children like thousands of others, will be forgotten and it will be 'business as usual' for all of the organizations involved.
  The MenAfriVac vaccination will likely be given to millions more third world children across Africa. The vaccination of children with pre-licensed and unlicensed vaccines, which may be life-threatening, needs to cease. This is not health care, but a total disregard for human life in the name of profit.
  AcknowledgementI would like to thank Namaste UK Publishing and ECOTERRA International; Desiree Rover for translations; and my Chadian contacts.
  Photo Credit
  Christina England is a UK journalist and an author with a Higher National Diploma in Journalism and Media. She is studying for a BA Hons degree in English Literature and Humanities.
  Besides being a regular contributor to VacTruth.com, Christina writes for American Chronicle, Weekly Blitz, and Namaste Publishing UK on immunization safety and efficacy.
  Christina's main area of expertise is in researching the areas surrounding false allegations of child abuse, particularly when a child has suffered a vaccine injury. Her work is now read internationally and has been translated into many languages. Christina has been on many radio shows and she speaks at seminars worldwide.
  Christina is the mother of two adult sons, both with ASD and complex learning and behavior problems.
  She is co-author of Shaken Baby Syndrome or Vaccine Induced Encephalitis '' Are Parents Being Falsely Accused?
  Additionally, Christina is a contributing author in Voices of Autism: The Healing Companion: Stories for Courage, Comfort and Strength.
Haiti gets new luxury hotel
  Link to Article
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:34
  PETIONVILLE -- The long-awaited soiree in the middle of the week attracted an invitation-only crowd of 800, including foreign diplomats, local celebrities and Haiti's well-heeled and politically connected '-- all of whom had been waiting years for the final reveal.
  As they munched on passed hors d'oeuvres and sipped on free-flowing wine, they couldn't help but notice the bamboo, locally-grown orchids and sexy white furniture that lined the expansive courtyard. Oversized drum pendants hung from the building's ceiling.
  ''It's like being in New York City,'' said Dr. Ranley Desir, a Miami cardiologist who flew in with wife Karine.
  Nearly three years after it was hammered by disaster, Haiti's Royal Oasis hotel finally opened its glass doors this week. With high-end shops and 128 rooms managed by the Spanish hotel franchise Occidental Hotels & Resorts, the luxury boutique hotel is the country's first internationally branded hotel in more than a decade and the first multi-million dollar, high profile, locally built and financed project since the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake.
  ''Royal Oasis is a beacon of modernity that we are all proud of,'' said Jerry Tardieu, the 45-year-old Haitian entrepreneur who envisioned the project and brought 200 mostly Haitian shareholders together to make it a reality. ''But mostly, it is a symbol of what we Haitians can do when we dare to dream big.''
  That dream features a 10-level, earthquake-resistant South Beach-inspired building with a $1,300-a-night presidential suite, a yet-to-be-completed rooftop infinity pool and gray and off-white hues. They serve as a backdrop for the tributes to Haiti's vibrant culture '-- ironworks, colorful beaded vases and photographs of Haiti's untapped tourism potential '-- lining the otherwise neutral-colored walls.
  The Wednesday night opening drew not only the country's president and prime minister, but managers at competing hotels, who toured the $200 and up rooms, and those who regretted passing on the investment.
  ''I remember seeing the investor's packet in 2007 and thinking, 'This guy is crazy. No way is this going to work,''' said Andy Rene, the new head of Haiti's Investment Facilitation Center (CFI), a one-stop investment center. ''I didn't believe and so I missed the boat.''
  Ventura Serra, senior vice president of operations for Occidental, said the project will have an impact in Haiti.
  ''It's the new light in Port-au-Prince that is going to show everybody the new Haiti,'' said Serra, who now adds Haiti to his portfolio, which includes properties in the neighboring Dominican Republic and Cuba. ''It's a very beautiful hotel and very good location, and it's built with all of the highest standards of construction.''
  Those standards did not come easily or inexpensively. The devastating 2010 earthquake came just weeks after the opening of the restaurant in a similarly star-studded soiree inside its historic restaurant. The quake killed more than half of its investors and created a $6.5 million deficit that halted the project for eight months as Tardieu searched for additional financing.
  He found it in local Haitians, who range from struggling school teachers to wealthy bankers, and in the International Finance Corporation and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. The latter made a $2 million equity investment that officials said Wednesday aided in the creation of 400 construction jobs on site and the hiring of the hotel's 350 staffers.
Sean Penn's charity receives $8.75M - World News
  Link to Article
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:32
  Photo: The Canadian Press.
  FILE - U.S. actor Sean Penn. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)
  An aid group run by Hollywood actor Sean Penn announced Tuesday it is receiving $8.75 million from the World Bank to help move Haitians off of a golf course where many have been living since the January 2010 earthquake.
  A statement from a public relations firm for Penn said that the money will go for rent subsidies or for new housing units.
  Some 14,000 people still live at the Petionville Club in plywood shacks still living in the camp. Sixty thousand lived there at one point.
  The people are to be moved out by early 2014.
  Penn is an ambassador-at-large for Haiti. He uses the post to raise awareness about the nation still struggling to recover from the disaster.
  Penn's J/P Haitian Relief Organization took responsibility for the impromptu settlement a couple of months after the quake, which destroyed thousands of buildings.
  The number of people displaced by the quake has dropped from a high of 1.5 million people to 347,000, according to the International Organization for Migration, an aid group that seeks to help people displaced by disaster and conflict.
Freak snowstorm hits parts of Europe
  Link to Article
  Source: euronews
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:28
  Many parts of Europe are struggling to return to normal after a freak snowstorm caused travel chaos.
  On Tuesday the Eurostar trains had to be suspended as severe weather in Northern France and Belgium forced operators to close sections of the railway.
  Other high speed train services were also halted.
  Even Jersey, normally one of the warmest parts of the British Isles, was not spared from the severe conditions.
  Residents had to cope with 100 kph winds as snow covered the island.
  Meanwhile more snow fell on central Germany.
  North of Frankfurt the Autobahn had to be closed after a 100-car pile up injured dozens of people.
  Nearby, Europe's third largest airport also had to close. Forcing more than 355 flights to be canceled.
  More about:Europe, Snow storm, Snowfall, WeatherCopyright (C) 2013 euronews
  JavaScript is required in order to view this article's accompanying video
Bitcoin Crashed. Again.
  Link to Article
  Source: Zero Hedge
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:21
  When writing about economics (as opposed to trading), one does not expect to be proven right within days of publishing something. Things can take years to play out. On Monday, February 25, we published What Drives the Price of Gold and Silver? In that article, I wrote:
  If there is a credible rumor that the Fed is planning to further extend its ''Quantitative Easing'', how would you expect the monetary metals to react? Typically, the gold price would rise and the silver price would rise even more. The question is why.
  Traders read the headlines and they know how the price ''should'' react to such news, and they begin buying. For a while, the prophecy fulfills itself. But then what happens next? It may take an hour or a month, but sooner or later some of the new buyers begin to sell. What can be bought on speculation using leverage must eventually be sold.
  On Tuesday, Fed Chairman Bernanke testified before the Senate. Sure enough, the prices of gold and silver rose sharply. The next day, the prices were back down. By Thursday the price of silver was lower than it had been prior to his announcement.
  On March 3, we published a video asking Is Bitcoin Money? While I appreciate many aspects of the cool technology behind it (being a software developer in a previous career), and noting that it has several features that uniquely suit it for certain markets, I concluded that it is an irredeemable currency, but not money (i.e. the most marketable commodity). I received much feedback on the video, some of it negative, though mostly thoughtful and engaging.
  At the time of the video, Bitcoin was trading around under $40. Since then, it rose to about $48.
  I was surprised to read that yesterday it fell to a low of $37. It has mostly recovered though it is now a few dollars below its high of $49. What happened?
  The technical term is that the ''blockchain forked''. In the video, I was very careful not to criticize the digital currency on technical grounds such its cryptographic technology, peer-to-peer networking, its data formats, methods of validating transactions, or communications over Internet Protocol, etc. I wanted to keep the discussion about monetary science. There is a point that I could have made, and will now make here.
  If a currency is subject to Internet availability or other technological considerations, it simply is not money. It may still be useful for enabling commerce that would otherwise not be feasible'--this is not an attack on Bitcoin as such. But (at least) one key characteristic of money is missing. Money must be beyond question by everyone and at all times. By nature, gold never becomes ''unavailable'' (though one could entrust it to an institution that suffers from unavailability of course).
  When its ''blockchain forked'', Bitcoin's essence was called into question. Suddenly there were possible competing claims to the same coin, possible loss of coins, and certain lack of availability of the currency at least until engineers fixed the problem.
  It has crashed before, too. On August 17, it moved from about $15.50 to $10.50 in a few hours. There were previous crashes before that, and there will likely be more (no this is not a prediction for next week!)
  Technology aside, there is another factor that contributes to so-called ''flash crashes''. If there is a wide bid-ask spread and/or the stack of bids is sparse, then it does not take much selling pressure to cause the price to collapse. For purposes of this discussion, let's focus on the. While it is possible for the price to rise explosively, there is an important asymmetry between bid and ask: in times of extreme stress, it is always the bid that is withdrawn, never the ask.
  Imagine if the US Geological Survey said that there would be a massive earthquake in Los Angeles, estimated to be 15 in the Richter Scale and which would not leave anything taller than a fire hydrant standing. There would be no lack of offers to sell real estate. What would be gone would be the bids. Anyone who needed to sell would have to accept peanuts, if he could even get that.
  As I pen this, late Tuesday evening, I see a bid of $45.02 and an ask of $45.1377. This does not seem that bad, $0.1177 spread or about 26 basis points. But the bid looks thin to me! At $45.02, there is around 600 bid.
  This is a screen capture I just took from Bitcoincharts.
  $600 X $45 = $27,000
  There is about twice the depth a whole DOLLAR lower. And then again there is another 1200 or so bid a bit lower than that. Even assuming that there is little liquidity at 1:30am EST, this is not a picture of a highly marketable good, much less the most marketable good. One lone trader who needs to sell $100,000 worth of Bitcoin could drive the price down about 2.5%.
  To put this in perspective, a copper future is 25,000 pounds and copper is currently $3.55 per pound. One copper future is worth almost $90,000. I am reasonably certain that selling a copper future (or 10!) at this time of night would be but a small blip. In fact, in a few seconds, I watched the May copper future trade 25 contracts, or $2.2M. Copper is not money, of course.
  So what's the take-away?
  Bitcoin is still apparently a great trade'--a speculation'--as it has risen more than 12% even from when I recorded that video. Bitcoin is still useful for certain transactions particularly across borders, and especially for those people unfortunate to live in countries with censorship, capital controls, or in which some kinds of goods are prohibited.
  But it's not money. It is not the good to hoard as the core of one's savings, if one does not like the rate of interest or trust the banking system or feel comfortable about the future.
  The good for this purpose remains gold.
  Average:Your rating: None
European Parliament Just Voted To Ban Porn, But Refrains From Extending Scope To Internet Following Protests, And Hides Who Voted For It
  Link to Article
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:15
  The European Parliament has just voted in favor of the much-discussed blanket ban on all forms of pornography. But first, it decided to strike out the much-discussed extension of ''media'' into the internet, effectively limiting the ban to advertising and some undefined print media. It also struck out the original criminalization of any dissent against the report and the turning of ISPs into thought police. However, Parliament's decision to filter out its constituents' protests on the matter and decision to hide how the representatives voted on the report is a loud and clear warning signal.
  While this is an ''initiative report'', which means it is not the final vote in the legislative process, it is still part of the legislative process. Some people have used the term ''non-binding'' to describe the report. I would disagree that such recklessness can be excused at any point in the legislative process with the somewhat strange argument that things aren't finalized; if this lax attitude to quality and workmanship existed elsewhere in society, our cars would be falling apart and our food would be poisonous.
  The original report banned sexual text messaging between consenting adults.
  The report refers to an earlier report calling for a blanket ban on pornography in advertising, which it refers to as ''the media''. But this new report redefines media to include the Internet to an unclarified degree (in point 14) '' which can be as broad as making it illegal to send text messages with sexual content over the Internet between married couples.
  That is a clear and intolerable violation of the most basic freedoms of speech and expression.
  Fortunately, the entire point 14 '' which expanded ''the media'' onto the internet '' was deleted in the vote.
  The European Parliament responded by deleting the explaining language, but not the legislative effect in bill.
  To accommodate the storm of protests that ensued when this was first discovered, the report was amended to remove the explanation of what it did, but not the effect. Specifically, this part was taken out:
  17. Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism;
  Do you see what this does? It removes the explanation, but not the referenced report, so it just hides the clarification.
  The European Parliament responded by shutting off constituents' protests.
  But the next step was even worse. Some Members of European Parliament (MEPs) had complained to the Parliament's IT staff about citizens protesting, so protests against this particular report were classified as spam. Meanwhile, hundreds of mails protesting agricultural subsidies kept coming in to the MEPs' inboxes, so the spam filter was very specifically targeted. (Later tests confirmed that a test had been added that targeted the words ''gender stereotypes'', which are in the title of the report).
  When some MEPs can use Parliament's technical infrastructure and staff to prevent the constitutents of Europe to contact their representatives '-- other representatives than the ones complaining, all representatives, nota bene '-- then the respect for democracy is on its death bed.
  The original report made ISPs into thought police.
  The report also called for ISPs to enforce the ban, as originally written (but this point was defeated on the floor). We have seen theses attacks on the messenger immunity under the flag of ''self-regulation'' from many incumbent interests. But it is not ''self-'', because ISPs will be doing it to their customers, and it is not ''regulation'', because they don't get a say on the rules. It is ''policing''. We have an institution in society to perform that function and that is indeed the Police. Private interests should never be tasked with law enforcement, and for very good reasons.
  When ISPs are policing what you do privately on the internet, that is as close as you can get to a thought police today.
  Fortunately, this point '' point 14 '' was defeated on the floor, along with point 19 below.
  The original report criminalized dissent of the ban.
  Point 19 of the original report is even more interesting. It reads (my highlights);
  19. Calls on the Member States to establish independent regulation bodies with the aim of controlling the media and advertising industry and a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualization of girls
  This may look good on the surface but is incredibly broad. First, ''regulation bodies with the aim of controlling the media'' is not good from any angle, regardless of how noble the aim may be. Politicians should never, ever, under any circumstance, have a say in what the media may write about them.
  But note the second part of the mandate '' impose ''effective sanctions'' (which means anything from fine to jail) on individuals that ''promote sexualization of girls''.
  Note that it doesn't say ''individuals that sexualize girls''. It says ''promote sexualization of girls''. As in, express an idea that puts it in a positive light.
  Combined with covering the internet, this goes as far as criminalizing the expression ''I like pornography'', expressed by an individual in a private setting. Assuming women were involved, that would be a textbook promotion of such sexualization, and this report originally said that fines or jail should apply to that expressed thought.
  Fortunately, this point was defeated (along with point 14) in the vote. But the idea that it could even go as far as the floor is horrifying.
  The European Parliament hides who voted how.
  Finally, the Parliament didn't care to do a so-called ''roll call vote'' '' a vote where it shows who voted how. In other words, they decided collectively to disable their consituents from holding them accountable. Thus, the only thing published is how Parliament voted as a whole.
  The end result of the initiative report wasn't as bad as it could have been '' it mostly reaffirmed an ages-old and non-enforced ban on all forms of pornography in ''the media'', which is still rather undefined. But without the points 14 and 19 defeated, the report would have looked entirely different.
  This, along with the arrogance in deleting the explanation of what the report aimed at but not its effect, and the audacity of filtering out communication from constituents on a current affairs topic coming to a legislative vote, is quite damning for the European Parliament.
  The process is much more cause for concern than the end product.
  If the behavior of the European Parliament on this report is an indicator of the health of the institution of the European Union as a whole, then the federation's democratic legitimacy is already dead beyond Rigor Mortis, and the institution of the European Union as such is at a dead end.
  Meanwhile, we should be proud of ourselves as activists to having made noise on the issue. If we had not raised hell, the horrifying points 14 and 19 above would almost have been sure to pass in silence.
  You've read the whole article. Why not subscribe to the RSS flow using your favorite reader, or even have articles delivered by mail?About The Author: Rick FalkvingeRick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.
Daily Dot
  Link to Article
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:14
Judge Approves Use Of Sodium Pentothal On James Holmes
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:06
NYPD's "Cannibal Cop" Convicted Of Plotting To Kidnap Women
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:06
Brand NEW Evidence That Life On Earth May Have Come From OUTER SPACE!
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:05
European Union To Vote On Total Ban Of All Forms Of Pornography Including On The Internet
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:05
Website Publishes Secret Recording Of Bradley Manning's Full Testimony In Military Court
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:05
"I'm Not Confirming That That's What Happened" Pres Obama Talks About Michelle Being Hacked
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:01
NASA Says Mars Dry Lake Once Held Water Pure Enough For Humans To Drink
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:01
CNN: Outrage Over Medal For Drone Operators
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:01
"ALL Of The Bishops And Cardinals Are Involved In The Cover Up" Of Pedophile Priests
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:01
Maddow Uses JFK Assassination To Even Harder For New Gun Control Laws
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:00
"The Connecticut Effect Is Clearly Growing"
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:00
"Average Temperatures Were Higher In The Past Decade Than Over Most Of The Previous 11,300 Year!"
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  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:00
The Defense of Gabrielle Giffords
  Link to Article
  Source: Lame Cherry
  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:58
  Why does Gabrielle Giffords attract Psychopaths for Obama?This blog has been the exclusive source in this in matter anti matter cataloguing the abuses being endured by the brain dysfunctional Gabrielle Giffords.
  It started with the doctors taking her off her coma medication, so she would "open her eyes" as a n Obama miracle as B. Hussein arrived in Arizona for that blasphemous pagan Indian pow wow chant for here as Obama kicked off his 2012 election theft campaign.
  This blog stated that Gabrielle Giffords was abnormal and not capable of reasoning. She was shot in the skull with rubber bullets as some other Democrats were, and others were shot with lead bullets.No one has yet explained any of this nor the discrepancies as this had a reported second shooter, and that is exactly what this Jared Loughner event appears as in Sandy Hook and as in Christopher Dorner.
  In stating this, Gabrielle Gifford's sadistic husband, astronaut and Naval officer, Mark Kelly has done nothing but prostituionalize this woman. Kelly is not having Giffords perform blow jobs in back alleys, but for Democrats, Obama, his political career and for money off of Gabby's injuries he has done nothing but whore this woman for his own gain.
  That is CRIMINAL. That is ABUSE of a handicapped woman. That is what Mark Kelly is in a wife beater.
  We have all witnessed this sad sight of Gabrielle Giffords, a Jew, being hauled around the country, flapping her arms, sounding worse than Forest Gump in speaking and paraded about as a freak show by Democrats all for political gain.This is disgusting asn this blog first exposed Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota making a brain injured veteran jump through hoops for a political ad.
  This is all criminal and this blog will catalogue all of this for a future time, when a real American Medical and Psychiatric Association, the United States Military and a real United States Justice Department, assembles all of this evidence from the Democrats in Congress, Barack Hussein Obama, the medical associates who allowed this spectacle and Mark Kelly will all be indicted on multiple criminal felonies in the abuse of Gabrielle Giffords.
  Gabrielle Giffords belongs in protective custody.
  Mark Kelly allows cameras in Ms. Gifford's hospital room for an Obama political event. He of course was the one featured with Gabby's hand just visible. This is all about Mark Kelly's political whoring and is not conduct becoming and officer or a gentleman.
  Kellye's latest stunt was buying a handgun and then an AK 47 on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. He ran immediately for an interview with the Obama puppy press to exploit his purchases which were all legal and with background checks.
  Astro Kelly should be home taking care of his wife, and yet he has ample time to stage events and to perform on CNN. The question this blog demands in WHO IS TAKING CARE OF GABRIELLE GIFFORDS?This woman can not be left alone, so who monitoring her or monitoring the monitors so she is not abused, as Kelly has proven he has absolutely no love or caring for his wife, as he has been nothing but focused on how much this can advance his career.
  On this evidence, he is a loathsome, contemptible pimp. I have no sympathy for this low life for the reality he is abusing Gabrielle Giffords in every way holding her down as he allows others to gang rape her politically.
  Mark Kelly is a walking wife beater. Mark Kelly is an unconvicted criminal who belongs 20 years to life in prison. The things that Obama, Pelosi, Blitzer and Kelly have done are equal to the things the Nazi's did in Dr. Mengele camps just to see what would happen to make people react.
  Mark Kelly is in the ranks of the pedophile, but then this Obama ilk is trying to make that a "loving relationship" now that they have gay marriage in the bag to abuse children in rape, so why should Obama not be comfortable with Mark Kelly criminally abusing his wife, and the entire infrastructure of America which is designed to protect women like Gabrielle Giffords has signed on in this political gang rape.
  The reality is, Jared Loughner was some Obamachurian Candidate. The way the Obama machine went after Sarah Palin in talking points, means this was a staged event. The Obama cartel tried to tie this to the Bush family in the Sarah Palin attacks they were making, which made Karl Rove run for the closet.This is the reality of Gabrielle Giffords in this Jewess was sacrificed on the Obama despot altar and her husband, her protector, Mark Kelly has done nothing but lift this invalid's gown so Obama can keep having goes at her.
  CNN and Wolf Blitzer are rape sex videograhpers. They belong 20 years in prison.
  This is all recorded for a time when Americans are in control of the American system and all of these criminals are tried and sentenced to the just ends they have earned in their criminality.
  Mike Gallagher can state he has sympathy for Mark Kelly, but this blog has none when a handicapped woman is being abused. No matter what psychopathy Astro Kelly can feign, the reality is he is abusing Gabrielle Giffords and if only this blog will stand up and say NO MORE, then that is the case as others will then stand up and this criminal Mark Kelly and his gang of political rapists will be exposed.What Jared Loughner did was one act of an Obama Zombie. What Mark Kelly does is repeated acts of abuse of a handicapped woman in America.
  As you are my children, I will remind you that just like at Sandy Hook, there were immediate talking points, just like in Treyvon Martin, in the Gabreille Giffords event. These events were staged and had immediate political talking points, complete with blacks marching and legislation........just like Chris Stevens was being blamed on white Christian America in another staged event by this Obama regime.
  You need this pointed out, as no one else is. This is all coming out of the Obama ledger.
  Mark Kelly is an unconvicted criminal. The more people who comprehend his crimes with the Obama regime in the abuse of Gabrielle Giffords, will stop the abuse and in time, this cad will answer for all his wife beating in the courts.
  Just a bit more information on the hero Mark Kelly. He dumped his first wife after 15 years, leaving two daughters, he does not seem to have time for, now like his abused second wife, as Kelly prances around being an Obama stooge for gun control.
  Mark Kelly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_KellyKelly married Amelia Victoria Babis January 7, 1989. They have two daughters, Claudia and Claire, now teenagers. He was divorced from Babis on October 7, ...Who was the biggest perverted wacko in Gabrielle Gifford's life? The one minute cock shot wacko in Jared Loughner or the years long torturer in Mark Kelly?
  Why is no one but this blog advocating for the protection of this Jewess, Gabrielle Giffords, save this blog?
  nuff said
  agtG 274
Google Takes on Amazon and Microsoft for Cloud Computing Services
  Link to Article
  Source: Dave Winer's linkblog feed
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:52
  Stuart Isett for The New York Times
  Zhang Chengliang, seated, a Google engineer in Kirkland, Wash. Cloud computing uses dozens of computer servers to create one giant machine to handle many tasks.
  In a battle for dominance in cloud computing, Google is taking on Microsoft and Amazon in their own back yard.
  Google said Tuesday that it was doubling its office space near Seattle, just miles from the campuses of Amazon and Microsoft, and stepping up the hiring of engineers and others who work on cloud technology.
  It is part of Google's dive into a business known as cloud services '-- renting to other businesses access to its enormous data storage and computing power, accessible by the Internet.
  In cloud computing, dozens or even thousands of computer servers are joined to create a giant machine capable of handling many tasks at once, from storing data to running Web sites and mobile apps to tackling complicated analytical problems.
  Individual software developers, large companies and governments rent these services to run their operations often at a fraction of the cost of buying and managing their own machines.
  Amazon Web Services, or A.W.S., is far and away the leader in this area. Amazon expects that this business will eventually be as big as its retail operation.
  A.W.S. is followed by Microsoft's Windows Azure and offerings from other companies including Rackspace, Verizon, I.B.M. and Hewlett-Packard.
  Google says the cloud business is a new source of profit and a way to improve the Internet by providing other companies access to its sophisticated computing services.
  Analysts say it is also a strategy to lure developers and businesses to use Google products instead of those of archrivals like Amazon and Microsoft.
  The cloud business has become so vital to these companies, said James Staten, an analyst at Forrester, because it is crucial to other businesses like mobile apps and online video and music.
  Most of the apps that run on Google Android phones, for instance, are built using Amazon's cloud, and Google would like to wrest back control. Microsoft, Amazon and Google are all competing to host online video, a booming business that relies on cloud services.
  ''Almost every major consultancy supports Amazon; almost every advertising agency runs on Amazon; if I need to hire 10 people tomorrow to help me build my application, it's super easy to find people who have Amazon experience,'' Mr. Staten said.
  Google plans a major recruiting effort to increase its Seattle-area engineering staff by as much as five times. There is already fierce competition among tech companies for talented engineers, and many of those with skills in cloud computing work at Google's rivals in Seattle.
  ''We're not the first in this rodeo, but we have the history of Google,'' said Brian Goldfarb, Google's leader of cloud platform marketing, who joined the company last year after a decade at Microsoft. ''We have the best data centers on the planet. You can't really give engineers a bigger, badder thing to work on.''
  Google is also adding 180,000 square feet to its office in Kirkland, Wash., which together with its Seattle office already houses more than 1,000 employees, making it Google's third largest in the country after its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and its office in New York.
  The new office space will have all the requisite perks of tech businesses, where typical office cubicles and fluorescent lights are not enough. It will meet green building standards, with a solar roof and wood from recycled shipping containers. The Seattle office, on a canal, has kayaks and paddleboards for employees, and the Kirkland office uses boats for conference rooms, not to mention the office's espresso bars, massage parlor and climbing wall.
  Though the cloud business is still in its early days, Google is already late to the game.
  Over the years, Google, Amazon and Microsoft had each built world-class clouds, consisting of several giant data centers in different countries, to run their own businesses '-- doing things like searching the Web, hosting online video, managing business software and operating an online mall. Amazon was the first to rent its data storage and computing power to outside customers when it started A.W.S. in 2004, and Microsoft and Google followed. Another company with huge data centers and computing power, Apple, does not rent its cloud.
Children 'recruited' into Syria war
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Middle East
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:50
  12 March 2013Last updated at21:45 ETIncreasing numbers of children in Syria are being recruited by armed groups on both sides of the conflict, Save the Children says in a report.
  Children are being used as porters, guards, informers and fighters and, in some cases, as human shields, the UK charity said in Childhood Under Fire.
  Some two million children are in need of assistance in Syria, Save the Children estimates.
  It says the two-year conflict has affected all aspects of their lives.
  Risk of diseaseResearchers from Turkey found that three in every four Syrian children they interviewed had lost a loved one because of the fighting, the report says.
  Many have lost access to healthcare and are living in unsanitary conditions where the risk of disease is high. Their families are struggling for food as shortages send prices beyond the reach of poorer families.
  Their education has been disrupted as some 2,000 schools have either been damaged by the fighting or become temporary shelters for displaced people.
  Syria's children are the conflict's "forgotten victims - facing death, trauma and suffering, and deprived of basic humanitarian aid", the report said.
  Save the Children has appealed for international help, but said: "The only way to stop their suffering is to bring an end to the war."
  Lost generationThe report said it had found a growing pattern of children under the age of 18 being used by armed groups on both sides in the conflict.
  For many children and their families, it is seen as a source of pride, the report says, but some children are being forcibly recruited into military activities.
  In some cases, children as young as eight have been used as human shields, the report says.
  One group affiliated to the opposition has documented the deaths of at least 17 children associated with armed groups since the start of the conflict; many others have been severely injured and in some cases permanently disabled, the report also says.
  The research team at Bahcesehir University in Turkey found that not only had three in every four children they spoke to had lost a loved one, but one in every three children had been hit, kicked or shot at in the course of the conflict.
  "I don't think there is a single child untouched by this war," the report quotes a child called Safa as saying. "Everyone has seen death, everyone has lost someone. I know no one who has not suffered as we have. It is on such a scale."
  The Save the Children report echoes similar findings made public by the UN children's agency Unicef on Tuesday.
  Unicef warned of a lost generation in Syria, saying children under the age of 18 were growing up knowing nothing but violence, were being deprived of a right to an education and were suffering traumas that could scar them for life.
  As many as 70,000 people have died in the two-year conflict, the UN believes.
  More than a million Syrians have now been registered as refugees by the UN in neighbouring countries.
CNN: US UNDER CYBERATTACK!
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:46
This Is A Joke! White House Blames The Media For Budget Negotiation Problems
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  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:45
Scandal 'changing shoppers habits'
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:25
  12 March 2013Last updated at20:42 ETMore than half of consumers have changed their shopping habits as a result of the horsemeat scandal, according to a consumer group survey.
  Horsemeat was found in a number of processed beef products, sparking withdrawals across Europe and raising questions about food standards.
  The survey, by Which?, found six in 10 have changed how they shop, with many now buying less processed meat.
  It also suggested that public trust in the food industry had declined as well.
  "The horsemeat scandal exposed the need for urgent changes to the way food fraud is detected and standards are enforced," said Which? executive director Richard Lloyd.
  Which? interviewed more than 2,000 adults in the UK online.
  Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed don't think the government has been giving enough attention to enforcing labelling laws, with half of consumers not confident ingredient information is accurate.
  "These serious failings must be put right if consumers are to feel fully confident in the food they are buying once more," Mr Lloyd said.
  Irish food inspectors announced in mid-January that they had found horsemeat in frozen beef burgers made by firms in Ireland and the UK, and sold by a number of UK supermarket chains, including Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl.
  Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliamentary select committee chairs that the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the government and retailers all have lessons to learn from the horsemeat scandal,
  Mislabelled processed meat products have so far been discovered in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, France, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany.
Behind Soda Industry's Win, a Phalanx of Sponsored Minority Groups
  Link to Article
  Source: NYT > Home Page
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:23
  Earl Wilson/The New York Times
  Showing opposition in Brooklyn in 2010 to a state soda tax.
  The decision by a New York State judge striking down the Bloomberg administration's ban on large, sugary drinks this week was not just a high-profile victory for the soda companies in their pitched battle against anti-obesity policies that are aimed at their products. It was also a victory for the industry's steadfast, if surprising, allies: advocacy groups representing the very communities hit hardest by the obesity epidemic.
  Dozens of Hispanic and African-American civil rights groups, health advocacy organizations and business associations have joined the beverage industry in opposing soda regulation around the country in recent years, arguing that such measures '-- perhaps the greatest regulatory threat the soft-drink industry has ever faced '-- are discriminatory, paternalistic or ineffective.
  Many of these groups have something else in common: They are among the recipients of tens of millions of dollars from the beverage industry that has flowed to nonprofit and educational organizations serving blacks and Hispanics over the last decade, according to a review by The New York Times of charity records and other documents.
  Soda companies have sponsored conferences for the National Hispana Leadership Institute, scholarships for local chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, financial literacy classes offered by the National Puerto Rican Coalition and programs from the National Hispanic Medical Association.
  These connections came to the fore recently when the New York chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., along with the Hispanic Federation, a coalition of Hispanic community service agencies in the New York area, filed an amicus brief in support of the beverage industry's effort to block Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's proposal for a citywide ban on large, sugary beverages. The judge ruled on Monday that the limits would be ''arbitrary and capricious'' because they would apply unequally to some establishments and to different kinds of sugary beverages.
  The Bloomberg administration said it would appeal the decision. And the fight over soda regulation is likely to intensify beyond New York in the coming months.
  In February, after a string of defeats at the state and local level, a coalition of health advocates and public officials petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the amount of caloric sweeteners in sodas and other beverages, asserting that the scientific consensus was clear that added sugars had made such products unsafe.
  The two groups that opposed the New York ban '-- both of which have received grants or sponsorship dollars from Coca-Cola or PepsiCo '-- argued that the regulations unfairly discriminated against bodegas and other small neighborhood stores while leaving supermarkets and other retailers exempt.
  In an interview, Jose Calder"n, the president of the Hispanic Federation, said he shared Mr. Bloomberg's concern with obesity among Latinos but disagreed with his strategy. He also said the federation would have probably opposed a ban even if it had covered all businesses.
  ''I don't think we move the needle by legislating what people ultimately eat or drink,'' Mr. Calder"n said. ''Our experience has been that you educate folks, empower folks '-- meet them where they are, basically.''
  Longtime Relationships
  In many cases, the financial relationships between soda companies and nonprofit groups go back decades, stemming from the industry's early embrace of the civil rights movement. But as battles over soda taxes have broken out around the country in recent years, advocates for tighter regulation argue, the money has effectively muzzled organizations that might otherwise be on the side of regulation.
  ''A lot of these organizations have particular niches that they use to service the communities,'' said Gus K. West, president of the Hispanic Institute, a policy advocacy organization based in Washington that supports tighter regulation of sugary drinks. ''And they're getting funded by the soda industry. They're taking the money and looking the other way on obesity, diabetes, heart disease. They look the other way or issue statements that have no teeth or don't go after the industry.''
  Officials at PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, whose products dominate the beverage market, said there was no connection between the grants to community groups and their positions on soda regulation.
  ''We never ask our foundation or community relations partners to engage in public policy issues on our behalf,'' said Jeff Dahncke, a spokesman for PepsiCo. ''The nature of these relationships is focused on diversity and inclusion.''
  Katelyn Jackson, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola, said in an e-mail, ''The suggestion that our community philanthropic efforts are motivated by something other than good will is grossly inaccurate and ignores our history of true partnership for well over a century.''
  Kitty Bennett contributed reporting.
CNN: FLOTUS HACKED! Could YOU Be Next?
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:22
Commander Of U.S. Pacific Forces Says Global Warming Is Our Top Threat'...
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:49
  The People's Liberation Army seen nodding in approval.
  (Boston Globe) '-- America's top military officer in charge of monitoring hostile actions by North Korea, escalating tensions between China and Japan, and a spike in computer attacks traced to China provides an unexpected answer when asked what is the biggest long-term security threat in the Pacific region: climate change.
  Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, in an interview at a Cambridge hotel Friday after he met with scholars at Harvard and Tufts universities, said significant upheaval related to the warming planet ''is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen . . . that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.''
  ''People are surprised sometimes,'' he added, describing the reaction to his assessment. ''You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level. Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17.''
  Locklear said his Hawaii-based headquarters '-- which is assigned more than 400,00 military and civilian personnel and is responsible for operations from California to India, is working with Asian nations to stockpile supplies in strategic locations and planning a major exercise for May with nearly two dozen countries to practice the ''what-ifs.''
  Keep reading'...
Obama: ''My Goal Is Not A Balanced Budget'''...
  Link to Article
  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:46
  We noticed.
  Via Politico:
  President Obama's plans won't balance the federal budget in the coming decade, he said Tuesday, stressing that his top priority is growing the economy and not a balanced budget.
  ''My goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance. My goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back to work, and if we do that we are going to be bringing in more revenue,'' he said in an interview with ABC News's George Stephanopoulos.
  Obama said he's opposed to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's budget plan released Tuesday, which would balance the budget in a decade.
  ''We're not gonna balance the budget in ten years because if you look at what Paul Ryan does to balance the budget, it means that you have to voucher-ize Medicare, you have to slash deeply into programs like Medicaid, you've essentially got to either tax middle class families a lot higher than you currently are or you can't lower rates the way he's promised.''
Remarks by the President at Meeting with the President's Export Council
  Link to Article
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:43
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  March 12, 2013
  Room 350Eisenhower Executive Office Building
  10:22 A.M. EDT
  THE PRESIDENT: I want to get back to the official business at hand. But I did want to stop by. First of all, I just want to say thanks to the PEC for the unbelievable work that you guys have done and the extraordinary leadership that you've provided to our team and the administration as we've tried to promote exports all around the world. And I'm glad to see that we've got a couple of our outstanding senators here as well who I know care deeply about exports because their states benefit from exports. We all do.
  And I assume that part of these charts was Becky going over the progress that we've made over the last several years, so I won't reiterate it. The good news is we are well on our way to meeting a very ambitious goal that we set several years ago to double U.S. exports. And what we know is, is that a lot of the growth, a lot of the new jobs that we've seen during the course of this recovery, have been export-driven.
  What's also encouraging is it's been coming from a whole variety of sectors. Obviously, our agricultural sector has always been strong and it's gotten even stronger. But what we've also seen is, is that our manufacturing base, our high-tech, our services across the board we're seeing significant increases. And the question now becomes how do we sustain this momentum?
  Part of it is making sure that we get in place strong trade deals. And having ratified with the help of a number of our legislators the Panama, Colombia and, most significantly, South Korean trade deals, we've now been moving aggressively on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a high standards trade regime that we think can advantage U.S. companies and U.S. workers because it sets a bar that ensures that trade is fair and free. And for those of us who abide by high labor standards and high environmental standards, obviously being able to lock in those kinds of high standards in the fastest-growing region of the world and the most populous region of the world can yield enormous benefits and help to generate billions of dollars in trade and millions of jobs.
  As I announced at the State of the Union address, we're also going to be launching an effort to lock in a EU-U.S. trade deal as well. And already, Europe is our largest trading partner -- the EU as a whole -- and we think that we can expand that even further. And some of this has to do with us being able to break down some existing barriers across the Atlantic to U.S. products and services, but some of it also has to do with smoothing out differences in regulatory approaches, just trade frictions that arise that are unnecessary that carries over from earlier periods. And we think just as the TPP can be an enormous boost to U.S. trade and growth that our trade with Europe can expand substantially, and that will advantage U.S. companies and U.S. businesses.
  But in order for us to do this, we're going to need the help of industry and labor and all the parties that are represented here. One of the things that we've also been trying to do during the course of this process is to make sure that it's not just the Xeroxes and the Dow Chemicals that are benefiting from this -- although we want our Fortune 100 companies to be selling as much as possible. They also have a whole lot of suppliers, so small businesses stand to benefit immensely from this process. We actually think that there's room for small and medium-size businesses to export directly -- not just supplying large businesses, but also to break open and enter into these markets. And that can make a huge difference in terms of our long-term prospects.
  So overall this is a good story; this is an optimistic story; but it's one that we're going to have to continue to sustain.
  One last point, just because I had a chance to see Bob -- I think many of you are aware of the fact that when tourists come here and spend money, that's an export. That goes on the export side of the ledger. And thanks to some of the great work that we've done in a public-private partnership, we've been able to accelerate visas. We've been able to make sure that we are out there actively seeking visitors to come here and promoting the U.S. as a tourist destination.
  Just to give you a small example, something that I didn't realize until I went to Disneyworld -- it turns out that in Florida, for example, Brazilians are the fastest-growing -- one of the largest sources of tourism in Florida. And, by the way, when they come, they stay a lot longer and they spend a lot more money.
  The problem we had was we had I think three places to get visas in all of Brazil, which is a pretty big country. And so we've been able to cut down visa times drastically. We've seen as a consequence some significant expansion in tourism out of South America because of some of the steps that we've taken. That's the kind of smart, very cost-effective set of steps that we can take that can make a big difference.
  And a lot of those ideas have been generated from this group. So I just want to say thank you to all of the terrific people who have been involved, and I'm looking forward to us just staying on this thing until we get it right.
  CHAIRMAN McNERNEY: Great to have you here.
  THE PRESIDENT: Good to be here.
  CHAIRMAN McNERNEY: We discussed a lot of the FTA momentum that was started during your first term and now you're doubling down in the second term, and many of us around the room are very supportive and delighted to be part of the effort.
  I think maybe just another word or two on the European effort from your point of view. TPP, I think we all get, we're working on, we're in the flow. The European thing, because it is a stalled, back-and-forth situation right now because of their economy, just wondered what the theory of the case was from your --
  THE PRESIDENT: Here's why we're modestly optimistic that we can get this done. I think in the past, the EU, because they've got to coordinate among so many countries, consistently had to pursue the lowest common denominator. And there are certain countries whose agricultural sector is very strong, who tended to block at critical junctures the kinds of broad-based trade agreements that would make it a good deal for us. If one of the areas where we've got the greatest comparative advantage is cordoned off from an overall trade deal, it's very hard to get something going.
  What I think has changed is the recognition throughout Europe that it is hard for them to figure out a recipe for growth at this point, in part because of the austerity measures that have been put in place throughout the eurozone, in the absence of a more aggressive trade component. So I think they are hungrier for a deal than they have been in the past.
  I think, thanks to the work of good people like Mike Froman, we've been able to narrow some of the differences. We've identified on the regulatory side, customs side, areas where we can synchronize without hurting either side, but simply lubricating more effective trade between the two countries.
  So we've narrowed down the issues. I think it will still be a heavy slog. There's no guarantee that in the end some of the countries that have been hard cases in the past won't block it again, but I think that you're going to see more pressure from more countries on the other side of the Atlantic to get this done than we've seen in the past.
  Lael, Mike, is that a fair assessment? These guys spend more time in Europe than I do.
  Q Yes.
  CHAIRMAN McNERNEY: Do you have time to take a couple questions --
  THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
  CHAIRMAN McNERNEY: -- from the group?
  Anybody care to weigh in?
  THE PRESIDENT: Or comments.
  CHAIRMAN McNERNEY: Or comments, sure.
  THE PRESIDENT: Everybody is just dying to get back to Becky's charts. (Laughter.) They're nice-looking charts.
  SENATOR KLOBUCHAR: They're very good. Mr. President, thank you for your leadership on this issue. And I just think setting that goal of doubling the exports was one that many of us have used over and over again. And many of us were talking about the need for more kids to go into science, engineering, technology. We literally have so many jobs that are unfilled right now, particularly in western Minnesota, and I think finding some simple goal like that of getting the increase in the number of kids going into these areas and selling it as something that they want to do would be a good idea.
  And I wanted to commend the State Department -- I did earlier -- for the work on the visas. I still think there's so much more that can be done. We've doubled -- doubled -- the tourism. It's up 50 percent from China. And I think that there's even, obviously, more that we can do with videoconferencing on visa interviews, other things that we should try to use the technology that we have.
  As you've noted, people are spending tons of money going to Disneyland -- I would also add going to the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota -- (laughter ) -- a hot spot for Asia tourists, especially. Not as much Brazilians -- it's too cold in our state for them. (Laughter.) But I see so much promise here with the tourism.
  And the last is what you mentioned -- this growing political support for fair trade agreements is huge. And it's about the big companies, but when people see in their own towns these small and medium-sized companies where their brothers and sisters work, it creates a kind of support for trade that is much more organic and really goes in a grassroots way across the country. And I think we have to remember that as a piece of what's good for the economy, but also it will grow support for this new global economy.
  So I just want to thank you for your efforts and hope that we can look at this -- the workforce training issue in a different way in terms of setting some goals for these kids so they see it as a career opportunity.
  THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, what's absolutely true is that exports, trade are one brick in this broader economic foundation that we're trying to build. But we're not going to succeed in meeting our export goals if we're not making great products and delivering great services. And we're not going to be able to do that unless we've got a great workforce.
  You may want to come with me, because after this I'm about to go these Intel National Science Award winners, where you meet 15- and 16-year-olds who invents plasmas -- (laughter) -- and cure cancer and -- most of the time I have no idea what they're talking about -- (laughter) -- but they're very impressive and inspiring.
  We are setting a set of goals for STEM education, number of engineers that we need to produce. All that stuff is going to be important. But one of the things that I've also been pointing out, when you look at a lot of those jobs that go unfilled, they're not necessarily Ph.D. jobs. The issue here is can we reintroduce an effective model for vocational training where -- and part of the goal that we've set for ourselves with respect to high schools is duplicating some of the things that are being done, for example, by IBM where they go into a high school in New York and they say, we'll train you and during high school you will get the equivalent of an associate's degree, so that by the time you graduate, maybe you take two years of community college, you are now fully trained for jobs that we know are out there and that people are hiring for -- which makes the kids more engaged in high school, saves them money, reduces the number of Pell grants they're taking out. It's a win-win situation for everybody. And the employers then have great quality control in terms of knowing who it is that they're getting.
  We want to see if we can duplicate that across the board.
  Yes, Kirsten.
  SENATOR GILLIBRAND: Well, I want to thank you, Mr. President, for your vision because I am telling you it's making an absolute difference in my own state in high-tech manufacturing and increasing our exports.
  We also had an easy win -- I appreciate the leadership you took with regard to Canada, something so parochial, so easy -- but increasing our exports to Canada. For New York State to have Montreal and Toronto a stone's throw away is such a huge market for our entrepreneurs.
  And some work still can be done. There's no streamlining of what governmental requirements are required on both sides of the border, and that's something that we can actually fix -- making a one-stop shop for a young entrepreneur who's starting a business who wants to know what forms do I have to fill out to export my product abroad. That's a place where we have enormous export potential.
  And even just in agricultural products -- for apples that are going from New York to Canada, they have to be inspected on both sides of the border. Unnecessary. So there's some real streamlining I think we could do to increase exports just between those two areas of the country.
  But I just want to thank you because, as Amy said, in terms of filling these jobs, what's really worked is part of your initiatives of allowing the community colleges to work directly with the manufacturers to build the course work for the job the manufacturer needs.
  And we had a fantastic example where Bombardier, who builds a lot of things, including subways, needed advanced welders. Well, they want to Adirondack Community College, built the course work, and those employees got their training, got a higher wage and filled the spots. And so it's really exciting what you're doing in education innovation, which is training the people for the jobs that are available with the collaboration of the employers building the course work. It's a win-win for everybody. And I just want to congratulate you for your vision on that issue.
  THE PRESIDENT: Great.
  A couple more?
  MAYOR BROWN: Mr. President, I want to thank you for supporting the U.S. Conference of Mayors for the ports. Ports are a big economic engine in our cities, and they really focus on small business and entrepreneurs, helping them to export. So I want to thank you for that.
  I know the policy you pushed to allow the study to be released early from the Army Corps of Engineers, which helped Jacksonville, Florida, by the way. Really appreciate that. Florida is very important. And like you said with Brazil, which is Florida's number-one trading partner, so we really appreciate your support on the ports, and modernizing the port so that we can compete and position cities to really be competitive in the marketplace.
  THE PRESIDENT: Well, one of the things that we talked about is if we're going to export effectively, we've got to have effective infrastructure. The ports issue all around the Gulf is going to be critical. The Panama Canal is being modified. You're going to have bigger ships coming in. And if you want to unload those ships, you got to have high-quality ports. That obviously is a gateway for everything that's happening in Central and South America.
  Recently, we had the challenge of -- I know I talked to Pat about this -- getting goods from the Midwest down the Mississippi when the water started going down. And if, in fact, temperatures are warming -- I know this is not our climate change meeting -- (laughter) -- but I think we can anticipate that we may end up having some challenges in terms of managing our waterways. Well, whether or not we can continue to use barges to move a lot of product out of the American heartland to ports around the world, that's going to depend on our infrastructure.
  So we are going to, in our budget, continue to push Congress to see if we can essentially deal with deferred maintenance. Sometimes, when it comes to government spending, everybody thinks it's all the same. I think everybody around this table knows in your businesses you think very differently about capital investments, long-term investments that are going to make your company more competitive, versus wasting money. And here's an example of where we should be doing less of some things that are not helping us grow. Building infrastructure is something that does help us grow.
  All right, guys, I think you've got smarter people around the table than me to deal with some of these issues. Again, I just want to thank all of you who've been involved. We are going to continue to push this agenda.
  One of the things I hope that you've seen during the course of these last four years is that if we hear good ideas, we'll implement them, we'll move them. So the great thing about a council like this is that it gives us insight into how things are actually operating or not operating, and we can start cutting through some of the red tape and get things done.
  So continue to provide us with recommendations. We'll work them through. There's an interagency process -- it's a good way for us to break down some of the silos that develop between various agencies. And I think we can make significant improvement and continue to build on the goals that we've set.
  Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)
  END10:42 A.M. EDT
Daily Press Briefing - March 12, 2013
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:42
  12:51 p.m. EST
  MS. NULAND: All right. Happy Tuesday, everyone. I have nothing at the top. Let's go --
  QUESTION: Really?
  MS. NULAND: -- to what's on your minds.
  QUESTION: You don't have anything to start off about the awesome referendum in the Falkland Islands?
  MS. NULAND: I was hoping you would ask, Matt. Was there a question in there?
  QUESTION: Yeah. What do you think about the results of this? Do you think that the three people who voted against should get their way and that you should '' you'll start encouraging the Brits to hand over the islands to the Argentines, or what do you think?
  MS. NULAND: Well, we take note of the results of the recent democratic referendum in the islands, where the residents voted to retain the islands' current political status as a British overseas territory. The residents have clearly expressed their preference for a continued relationship with the United Kingdom. That said, we obviously recognize that there are competing claims. Our formal position has not changed. We recognize the de facto U.K. Administration of the islands, but we take no position on sovereignty claims.
  QUESTION: So you don't think that this referendum enhances the '' or augments the British claim?
  MS. NULAND: What we have said is that the residents have clearly expressed themselves and expressed their will, but we also acknowledge the competing claims.
  QUESTION: Well, I'm sure, but you do agree with the principle of self determination? You do agree with that, correct?
  MS. NULAND: Let me say it one more time, that the residents have expressed their clear preference. We acknowledge that there are conflicting claims, and we recognize the U.K. de facto administration.
  QUESTION: Can you explain to me why it is that on this issue you refuse to give the Brits any leeway? I mean, they are your closest ally, arguably. And you're just '' you've just refused to '' all they're asking for '' they're not asking for much here. They're just asking you to recognize the vote. And if you do agree with the principle of self determination, I don't understand why it wouldn't '' this wouldn't affect your policy.
  MS. NULAND: And as I said, we've been very clear about what we see in this referendum and the will that's been expressed by the people of the island, but that doesn't change the fact that there are competing claims. Our own legal position has not changed.
  QUESTION: So are you going to now take a look at your position and perhaps review it going further down the line?
  MS. NULAND: Again, I think I just stated where we are. I don't have anything further to announce.
  QUESTION: So no change in the U.S. position?
  MS. NULAND: As I said, conflicting claims, but we recognize the de facto U.K. Administration of the islands. We don't take any position on sovereignty claims. We do think it's important for the parties to continue to have '' to be constructive in their approach and focus their own efforts on a resolution.
  QUESTION: So would you consider this referendum a failure then? Because part of the reason for holding it was to demonstrate to the world that the people who live in the Falkland Islands want to remain British and to validate that position before international bodies and other governments. If the United States, which, as Matt said, is the closest ally of Britain, is not going to change its longstanding neutrality on this position, then by definition the referendum has failed to convince you of that.
  MS. NULAND: Well, as I said, we have been very straight up here about acknowledging what happened in this referendum, which is that the residents have expressed their preference. But with regard to our legal position, it is as I stated.
  Said.
  QUESTION: Can we change topics?
  MS. NULAND: We can.
  QUESTION: Syria. Your Russian counterpart, Lukashevich, contradicted what you're saying. He's suggesting that your understanding of the Geneva points is not quite '' is not proper, that there is nothing in the Geneva points that really calls for Bashar al-Assad to depart, to step aside. So how do you respond to Mr. Lukashevich?
  MS. NULAND: I saw the Russian Foreign Ministry statement. I frankly didn't quite understand what they were disputing in our position. We have said all along that if you read Geneva, it talks about creating, by mutual consent, a transitional governing structure with full executive powers. What we have said '' we have never asserted that the document said anything about Assad. We have simply asserted that once you have that mutual consent clause in there, based on our consultations with the opposition, we don't see any way Bashar al-Assad would be acceptable under the mutual consent clause.
  QUESTION: But the concept of mutuality would require two sides. In this case it would be the Syrian Government, correct?
  MS. NULAND: We've talked about a process whereby, as has the Syrian opposition itself '' Syrian Opposition Coalition President al-Khatib has said, that he would be willing to sit down with regime representatives who didn't have blood on their hands to try to implement Geneva. So obviously we would support that as well. The question is whether there are such people who would be prepared to negotiate in good faith.
  QUESTION: And finally, today the Foreign Minister to the European Union, they came out apparently disagreeing on supplying the Syrian rebels with arms. Do you have any comment on that?
  MS. NULAND: I frankly didn't see the results of the European Union discussions. We had '' as you know, when Secretary Kerry was in Europe, we had very good discussions with a number of our allies about how they can join us in ratcheting up support for the opposition. So I know that the discussions are continuing about how to interpret the lightening of the embargo that they've already done, and they need to continue to have that discussion.
  QUESTION: Do you see a split among your allies, the Europeans on one hand not wanting to arm the rebels, and then the Arabs on the other hand like Qatar and Saudi Arabia who are arming the rebels with a lot of weapons?
  MS. NULAND: Well, without getting into what individual countries are doing, if you look at the countries that were represented at the meeting with al-Khatib and the Syrian opposition in Rome, every country that was there '' I think there were 11 in all '' are helping support the opposition. We're doing it all in different ways. And as the Secretary has said, the totality of effort that we're all putting in is on the upswing and that's important for the opposition at this stage.
  Arshad.
  QUESTION: Staying with Syria, we have a story out saying that Syria has received something like $100 million worth of gas oil shipments recently.
  MS. NULAND: The Syrian regime has?
  QUESTION: Well, I deliberately used the word Syria as in the country.
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: Because, as I understand the sanctions, you cannot sell '' you are allowed to sell such refined petroleum products to Syria, but you can't sell them to the state-owned oil trading companies. And so what I think is happening, or what our story describes, is these are being sold to private Syrian companies, and I wonder if '' and thereby skirts the sanctions '' and I wonder if this is a source of concern for you that some of this gas oil, which runs heavy machinery but could also have military uses, may be getting in despite your efforts to constrict the flow of such goods to the Syrian Government?
  MS. NULAND: Well, I haven't seen your story, Arshad, so maybe if you can share it afterwards, we'll look into precisely how it's sourced and what we're talking about and how it compares with our own view.
  You know where we've been, which is '' both in our own sanction approach to Syria and in the sanctions we're trying to strengthen and enhance among the Friends of the Syrian People '' to focus particularly on anything that could fuel the Assad war machine, particularly the kinds of fuels that go into tanks and other military materiel as compared to cooking oil and that kind of thing. But let me look at what you've got and we'll go from there.
  Please. Can you tell me who you are?
  QUESTION: I am Ana Baron from Clarin, Argentina. I have a follow-up, of course, on the Falklands/Malvina. There is here in Washington two members of the legislative organ of the Malvinas to Falklanders that came to visit congressmen and also government official. I was wondering if they are coming to the State Department and if someone is going to receive them here.
  MS. NULAND: Let me take that and look into it. I'm frankly not sure.
  QUESTION: Okay. The second question is about freedom of the press in Argentina. There have been allegations that the government is putting pressure in two companies '' three companies, big companies of supermarket. One of those is American, is Walmart, in order not to advertise in the main newspapers which are Clarin and La Nacion. And there has been the Inter-American Society of the Press that has said that this is an attempt against freedom of the press because, of course, these newspapers need this advertising; it's one of the main revenues.
  So I wanted to know if you have a position on that.
  MS. NULAND: Frankly, I haven't seen that issue come forward, but let us look into it. You know where we stand generally around the world on freedom of expression. We support it. We think it's fundamental to democracy in any country. It's fundamental to '' it's a fundamental human right, obviously.
  Scott.
  QUESTION: Can we get a readout on the Uzbek Foreign Minister meeting, specifically on any human rights issues that Secretary Kerry would have raised?
  MS. NULAND: Well, as Secretary Kerry said himself in the spray before the meeting, we always raise our human rights concerns and our view with the Uzbeks that the more progress they can make in democratic rights, human rights in Uzbekistan, the more stable and prosperous and secure the country will be. I'm not going to get into details of the bilateral other than to say, as we always do, it came up this morning.
  QUESTION: Can we go back to Syria?
  MS. NULAND: Mm-hmm.
  QUESTION: Okay. Today, the Israeli President Shimon Peres called on the Arab League to send in forces, to send in Arab army into Syria. He says that international interference by foreign countries '' in this case, Arab countries are not foreign '' would be a good idea. Do you support that idea?
  MS. NULAND: I have not seen President Peres's comments. This is something that he said today?
  QUESTION: Yes.
  MS. NULAND: He's made no secret of his concern about the complete carnage in Syria and the threat that an implosion of the state would cause for Israel. Obviously, our course of action here has been to support the Syrian opposition and to maximize the pressure on Bashar al-Assad. So that's the way we work on this.
  QUESTION: But do you think the idea itself merits a discussion or a serious discussion of the upcoming Arab summit? Because they did that back in the '70s. They sent in what was called then the Arab Deterrent Force to Lebanon led by Syria. So do you support something similar to this?
  MS. NULAND: Again, let me look at what President Peres has actually said before I comment on it. It's certainly the case that at the Arab Summit, we expect Syria to be a main topic of conversation. That was clear in the meetings that the Secretary had when we were in the Gulf and when we were in Egypt.
  QUESTION: And finally, there was also '' the meeting that was supposed to take place today was postponed once again, and it '' apparently it was because of fundamental differences between the opposition groups, much like Moaz al-Khatib on one hand and Haytham Manna on the other and so on, on the issue of interference. Do you have any comment on that?
  MS. NULAND: You're talking about the opposition meeting where they were going to --
  QUESTION: Right, yeah.
  MS. NULAND: -- look at leadership decisions?
  QUESTION: Yes, yes.
  MS. NULAND: We've seen the same thing that you have, that they have postponed decisions on that. We have, as you know, continually encouraged them to focus first and foremost on unity, on pluralism, both in their membership and in the way they talk about the future of Syria, and in being effective in terms of delivering services and support, particularly in liberated areas of Syria.
  So obviously, they need to make their internal decisions when they think they are ripe, but we are interested in ensuring that they are also able to help the Syrian people as they work forward.
  QUESTION: Just forgive me if --
  MS. NULAND: Matt.
  QUESTION: -- this has been already answered, but have any of these --
  MS. NULAND: You mean you didn't read every transcript while you were away?
  QUESTION: No. No, I did not.
  MS. NULAND: I'm so disappointed.
  QUESTION: I apologize.
  MS. NULAND: Okay.
  QUESTION: I will '' (laughter) '' read them all when I get back to my desk, just to make sure.
  MS. NULAND: Excellent, excellent.
  QUESTION: Have any of these rations and bandages actually made it to the Free Syrian Army yet?
  MS. NULAND: My understanding is that we're in consultation with the FSA leaders now on exactly what they need that we might be able to provide and how we're going to get it in. Let me just check for you whether any of the actual material has started to flow. But as you know, we only made this announcement about a week ago, and we need to make sure that we're effective in the way that we do it.
  QUESTION: Right.
  QUESTION: Do you have a dollar figure for how '' for that?
  MS. NULAND: I think we said at the time that we were not going to put out a public dollar figure.
  QUESTION: So you're not going to put it out?
  MS. NULAND: We're not.
  QUESTION: Why? Is it embarrassing?
  MS. NULAND: No, because this is going to be something that grows over time, and we are going to seek support from the Congress as it moves forward and as we see the needs.
  Jill.
  QUESTION: Toria --
  QUESTION: Well, why not? Wait, I don't understand that. I mean, something that grows over time? Lots of things grow over time. I mean, why not just say what the amounts are?
  MS. NULAND: Because we're going to be scoping it with the FSA as we talk to them, and we're not there yet.
  Jill.
  QUESTION: No, no, but I don't '' I still don't understand why the resistance to '' once you've figured out what the amounts are, why not just say it? It's taxpayer dollars.
  MS. NULAND: When we're ready to talk about it and when we're ready to notify it appropriately, we will certainly tell you.
  Jill.
  QUESTION: What's the latest on the visit '' upcoming, eventually '' of the opposition to Washington? Do you have any news?
  MS. NULAND: We talked about this a little bit at the end of last week, I think. The invitation has been extended, both to Syrian Opposition Coalition President Khatib and to the FSA '' to the Syrian military group leader General Idris. When we saw '' when the Secretary saw President Khatib in Rome, he made clear that he wants to come to Washington at an appropriate time but that his priority now is on all of the things that we talked about in answer to Said's question on maintaining unity, on broadening the membership, on being effective on the ground, and that he wants to focus on those things before he makes long foreign trips. But we've made clear that the door is open whenever he and General Idris want to schedule.
  QUESTION: So that's another sign then that they are still not unified?
  MS. NULAND: No, I think it's a sign that their priorities are on the Syrian people rather than on foreign travel at the moment. But we'll see when they are ready to come together.
  QUESTION: Is there an update on helping the opposition find an office in Washington?
  MS. NULAND: To my knowledge, they haven't at this point yet sought an office in Washington. They're focused on their office in Cairo, which is the main headquarters of the SOC. And I think we mentioned that some of the additional funds that Secretary Kerry announced when he was in Rome will support that office in Cairo.
  QUESTION: But there was a plan, though, to open an office in New York and an office in Washington. Do you --
  MS. NULAND: They have talked about it, but I don't think that we've had any decisions come forward from them[1].
  Said.
  QUESTION: Sorry, Victoria, but are you aware that there are some areas that are called liberated areas that are actually run by Jabhat al-Nusrah and they are imposing something called the Sharia council and they are imposing the rule of very strict fundamentalist Islamic rule? Are you aware of that?
  MS. NULAND: Said, you might have been away, but we talked about this quite a bit just before the trip that we do have extreme concerns about efforts by al-Nusrah and other al-Qaida affiliates to infiltrate the legitimate opposition. We talked a lot about some of these areas where they've been successful in gaining some political control, and about two weeks ago I spoke about a number of villages and towns outside of Aleppo where there's actually been a negative reaction from the population to efforts to impose Sharia, to efforts to bring in outside imams, to efforts to impose justice in a manner that was not considered democratic, transparent, et cetera.
  So this is one of the main things, as you know, that we work with the opposition on, ensuring that as they move forward, and particularly as they begin to support good governance in liberated areas, that they do so in a manner that comports with the best democratic traditions that demonstrates their effectiveness in protecting the human rights of all and delivering justice in a manner that meets international standards.
  QUESTION: Thank you.
  MS. NULAND: Please. Yeah.
  QUESTION: How is that work going with the opposition? Because when we were in Rome, al-Khatib said that there were three things that he was tired of hearing from the international community, and one was the focus on terrorists in Syria and al-Qaida affiliates.
  MS. NULAND: Well, we have to have this conversation all the time. I think in the private conversations that we have had with the Syrian opposition, they certainly recognize the risks of extremists hijacking the Syrian revolution, of hijacking Syria's future, which they consider just as dangerous as the risk that Iran and Hezbollah become the main props for the Assad regime. So everybody sees the perils here. This is why in the work that we are doing to support the Syrian Opposition Coalition in liberated areas we are focused so much on administrative training, judicial training, educational training, all of these kinds of things, in a manner that comports with the future democracy we want to see in Syria.
  Please.
  QUESTION: Any reaction to the formation of a new government in Tunisia today? I mean, the parliament is expected to approve the new government.
  MS. NULAND: I think we mentioned, Samir, that we were looking forward to the parliament taking action on the Prime Minister's suggestion. I don't think they have yet acted, but we'll obviously have something to say after they do.
  QUESTION: Is there any reaction to '' there was a cigarette vendor, I believe, who set himself alight outside the parliament?
  MS. NULAND: We saw that. Obviously a tragedy for him and for his family, and we understand that they are doing their best to give him medical assistance. Our view in Tunisia, as it has been across the region, is that we want to see people who are frustrated, people who have concerns, whether they're political concerns or economic concerns, express themselves peacefully, express themselves through the political process, not to resort to violence, including violence against self, but now that there is a political process, to use it and to express themselves democratically.
  QUESTION: Wait. So you're opposed to people setting themselves on fire?
  MS. NULAND: We are. It's --
  QUESTION: Does that go for Tibet as well?
  MS. NULAND: It's '' well, in the Tibetan case it speaks to the extreme frustration of not having a democratic process in which they can express themselves and get their grievances addressed. And we've talked about that very clearly here.
  Please.
  QUESTION: On North Korea?
  MS. NULAND: Yes.
  QUESTION: On the new designations you announced yesterday, have you been working with any of your partners or China to try to get them to implement the same designations?
  MS. NULAND: Well, we're always transparent with our partners with regard to steps that the United States will take on its own hook to implement and strengthen UN Security Council resolutions, so it's a regular pattern for us that after the multilateral sanctions are set that we then announce implementation of them in a U.S. context. So we've been very transparent with the Chinese Government, as we have with our other partners, and particularly in making the case that we made in the public statements yesterday that this bank is aiding and abetting the D.P.R.K.'s proliferation efforts.
  QUESTION: So this is an extension of the UN resolution?
  MS. NULAND: Under UN Security Council Resolution 2094, there is a whole effort underway to further squeeze down the ability of the D.P.R.K. to proliferate, et cetera. This is an action that we took nationally to implement the spirit of that resolution.
  QUESTION: And some more comments today from the North Korean leadership, including that they threatened to attack an outlying island of South Korea. Does that have implications for U.S. posture in the region?
  MS. NULAND: As National Security Advisor Donilon made clear yesterday, as the Secretary has been making clear, this kind of provocative rhetoric, this kind of action that they're taking, is just going to take the country in the wrong direction. You would note that National Security Advisor Donilon also left the door open yesterday for a different set of choices by the D.P.R.K. if they are going to '' if they are willing to come towards us and implement their international obligations. They can have a better future for their people, but this kind of trash-talking is not going to take them there.
  QUESTION: I'm presuming the question is probably better directed at Pentagon, but what are the measures that you're implementing in the region to make sure that you can defend your ally to the best of your capabilities, as Mr. Donilon said yesterday?
  MS. NULAND: Well, let me just repeat what he said: ''We will defend the United States; we will defend our allies, Japan and Korea. I'm not going to get into specific measures.'' If you'd like to ask the Pentagon if they'd like to get into it, I will send you to them.
  QUESTION: You want '' are you trying to open the door to a round of vitriol between you and the North Korean Foreign Ministry by calling them trash talkers? Is that the idea?
  MS. NULAND: I'm just calling --
  QUESTION: Are you going for '' you want to be described like John Bolton was famously described?
  MS. NULAND: I'm just calling it like we see it. Just calling it like we see it.
  Okay. Anybody else?
  QUESTION: I have one more.
  MS. NULAND: Jo.
  QUESTION: Sorry. On Myanmar.
  MS. NULAND: Yeah.
  QUESTION: There was a report out today that back in November the Myanmar Government used smoke bombs containing phosphorus against a rally outside a copper mine in northern Myanmar. This was happening about the same time as United States was lifting the import sanctions on Myanmar, and I wondered if I could have a comment on that, please.
  MS. NULAND: We do note the report, which appears to confirm that security forces in Burma used smoke bombs containing phosphorus to disperse protestors. We have opposed the use of phosphorus as a crowd control agent. And we have urged the government to ensure that its security forces exercise maximum restraint, respect due process under the law, and protect the right of freedom of assembly in accordance with international standards. This phosphorus, as you know, can be quite damaging to humans. There are other crowd control elements that are better suited.
  QUESTION: What does this say about '' generally about the passage of reforms in Myanmar and how they might be being implemented by the government?
  MS. NULAND: Well, it's no secret that this is a work in progress in Burma. As we said from the beginning, we would take steps to open our relationship as they take steps, but we are continuing, as you know, as part of that, to have a rigorous human rights dialogue with Burma, which includes issues like police conduct, freedom of assembly, these kinds of things. So this is something that we're obviously watching very closely and continuing to work with the Burmese on as they open their country.
  Thank you, all.
  (The briefing was concluded at 1:17 p.m.)
  DPB # 42
  [1] The Syrian Opposition Coalition announced the opening of their Washington DC office and plans for their New York office on February 26, 2013.
"People Are Outraged We Have No White House Tours But We 250 Million To Give On Top Of The 2 Billion
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  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:41
Remarks by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, At the Security Council stakeout
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:40
  Remarks by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, At the Security Council stakeout
  Susan E. RiceU.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations U.S. Mission to the United Nations
  AS DELIVERED
  Ambassador Rice: Good morning, everyone, or is it afternoon already? It's just afternoon. We of course had a discussion today in the Council on Sudan and South Sudan. Members of the Council'--and the United States among them'--welcomed the recently signed agreements between South Sudan and Sudan in Addis Ababa, which we hope, if fully implemented, will begin the process long overdue of establishing a secure border demilitarized zone and a joint verification monitoring mechanism and get the other key elements of the September 27th agreements underway, including the resumption of the flow of oil, both of which are manifestly in the interests of each country. The United States' position, which we stressed and many other delegations did as well, is that there have been many agreements signed but too few actually implemented. And again the urgency and the necessity is that these agreements are not just signed and touted but in fact implemented in real terms promptly on the ground. These are joined with a concrete timetable that the parties have subscribed to, so it will be very clear to all in short order whether or not these agreements are in fact being implemented. And the Council, I hope, will continue to follow this closely and place a premium on monitoring effective implementation.
  There are unfortunately, however, important aspects of the previously agreed arrangements between the two parties that remain unaddressed and still very much outstanding, most notably the dire situation in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile where, as Special Envoy Menkerios reported, the SPLM-North has been sitting, waiting for the talks that have been convened to occur. They are ready and willing to participate. Khartoum has twice refused to join those talks on a cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access, and Special Envoy Menkerios made plain that they are putting up new conditions, which are in direct contravention of the previous agreements. So it is clear that Khartoum must return to the table, sit down with the SPLM-North, negotiate the cessation of hostilities and the humanitarian access which is vital for the people of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, which they have refused to do to date.
  At the same time, the situation in Abyei remains unaddressed and stalled, and that too is of grave concern to the United States and to members of the Security Council. There, also, the parties need to act'--and Khartoum in particular'--to implement what it is committed to, including the establishment of the administrative mechanisms, particularly the police and the withdrawal of their own oil police. So there are some important steps that we hope will signify progress on the ground, but as we learned before, that is by no means assured simply because the agreements are signed. We want to see the signed agreements implemented promptly, fully, and effectively, and the outstanding issues'--most importantly the dire situation in the Two Areas and the situation which is now languishing in Abyei'--to be addressed.
  We had discussions in the Council about whether the Council would be in a position to speak on this issue finally. For months, the Council has not pronounced itself in a formal product on the issue of Sudan and South Sudan. Since our last meeting two weeks ago, we've been negotiating with the full Council and particular countries as well on a draft PRST. We were close to agreement on that, and we were very ready to update it to take account of recent events. Unfortunately, perhaps in the interests of derailing such a PRST, the Russian Federation, which does not typically utilize the pen on South Sudan or Sudan, tabled a draft press statement, which only discussed a very narrow aspect of the substance of the larger press statement and excluded language on the Two Areas, excluded mention of the cross border incidents, including the aerial bombardments, which were confirmed by Herve Ladsous yet again today and which did not mention the situation in Abyei. And they were unwilling to commit to a swift issuance of a PRST at the same time, and we therefore objected to the issuance of a press statement that was'--or even elements to the press'--that were divorced from the larger set of issues. So it is unfortunate that yet again this Council will not be speaking in a unified fashion in public on Sudan and South Sudan, but I think on the scope of the issues, there was broad agreement within the Council that these agreements have been signed, that that's a good thing, they must be implemented otherwise it is just another piece of paper, but that many, many members of the Council are gravely concerned about the Two Areas and the lack of seriousness thus far demonstrated by Khartoum.
  Reporter: I was wondering if you could answer directly, the Ambassador of Sudan Daffa-Alla said that he thinks that the non-passage of the PRST in some way made his government more open to reaching the agreement with South Sudan. What do you think of that? And also on the Two Areas, is it the AU's fault as well? Is the AU mediation team pushing the dates back? Is it just a matter of Khartoum or does the U.S. feel the AU should set a date for the talks to begin and try to get that moving? I think there is some criticism of the AU by the SPLM-North.
  Ambassador Rice: Well the AU has set a date twice'--the 5th, I believe, and the 10th'--and the SPLM-North was ready, its delegation waiting, as was reported to us by Haile Menkerios, to proceed to Addis for the talks, but Khartoum refused to show and in fact put additional conditions in place, as was reported to the Council, and thus the talks have not resumed. I will let the Sudanese Ambassador speak for the Government of Sudan.
  Reporter: Ambassador, on a non-Sudan-related issue. Mary Robinson is the top candidate for the Great Lakes envoy position. Do you think that this is a good choice? Is this is the kind of person who can give weight to that? And then, second question, several Swiss companies have acknowledged to supplying Iran with aluminum oxide in barter agreements, and some people are saying that this could be in violation of either the spirit or the letter of 1929. What's your position?
  Ambassador Rice: Lou, I'm unfamiliar with the materials you described that may have been supplied to Iran, so I can't comment with any certainty on either what it is or whether it's a violation. We are happy to take a look at that. With respect to the Secretary-General's choice for special envoy for the Great Lakes region, I'd prefer to wait until his decision is taken and agreed by the countries concerned and announced, and at that point, I'm happy to comment. But obviously we'--I and the United States has great respect for Mary Robinson.
  Reporter: Not on Sudan, I'm sorry, but on Syria: the Grand Mufti of Syria, Hassoun, and also the Fatwa Council'--the High Fatwa Council in Syria has issued an edict yesterday, a fatwa that all Syrians and Arabs and Muslims must defend Syria and the regime. For a regime that pretends'--that claims that it is the most secular in the area, do you have any comment on such fatwa, why the Supreme Council in Syria'...?
  Ambassador Rice: I am not in the habit of commenting on fatwas.
  Reporter: Madame Ambassador, on Sudan and South Sudan, what's the United States doing or can they do anything to try and ensure'--help ensure that this time the agreement is actually going to be implemented and in this case that oil will actually start flowing? And on the other key issues'--Abyei and the Blue Nile and South Kordofan'--is the U.S. doing anything specific to try and get those issues moving?
  Ambassador Rice: Well, the United States as you know has played a leading role both in supporting the implementation of these agreements but also supporting the negotiation of these agreements, and we remain active in support of Special Envoy Menkerios and Thabo Mbeki's efforts. Special Envoy Princeton Lyman has been very, very actively engaged for some years in this process, including these most recent efforts, so we will continue that. But the Security Council, Edie, has a role to play. We passed Resolution 2046 that made very clear that we would follow the implementation of our demands under Chapter VII very carefully, which is why we meet every two weeks on this issue. And we will continue to insist that the Council uphold its responsibility to implement 2046 and hold the parties to their obligations. Now, the aim of the Council in passing 2046 was not to punish the parties or to sanction the parties for the sake of sanctioning. It was, frankly, to spur the parties towards reaching the agreements that needed to be reached and implementing those agreements, and if indeed the Council's continued attention to this issue has had a salutary impact in some respects and will continue to do so, then our work has been beneficial. But I think it is unfortunate when we have the kinds of gambits that we witnessed today that the Council is not able to speak in a unified way, comprehensively about all elements of 2046 and to assess objectively the progress, welcoming it where it is deserved'--as I did earlier in my statement'--and noting where it is lacking.
  Thank you very much.
  # # #
Senator Whines About "Very Uncomfortable Pat-Down" By TSA Agents (Imagine If She Wasn't A Senator)
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:38
Nuts in Colorado
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:36
  This blog will have an expose' tomorrow on the mistreatment of Gabrielle Giffords, but what has happened to America is absolutely demonic.
  When one has a country, where the authorities AFTER events, like bin Laden's corpse murdered and leaving children to crawl around in blood and guts of the dead, to the pumping of Obamachurian Jared Loughner full of drugs, to the execution of the Sandy Hooker, and now the things, the tortures, being pervaded against James Holmes, I wonder what the hell this Conservative blogger is doing having to write about this stuff, because where are the liberals???????
  It is ghastly what has been done to James Holmes, because if he is insane it is criminal and if it is as this blog concludes he was a manufactured gun nut for the Obama regime, in retaliation of his father has he secrets of the 2008 Obama Super Depression, that too is criminal.
  Holmes after this arrest was banging his head against the wall and no one in the police facility provided any assistance, but instead had a psychologically unbalanced person tied up in restraints for days, which of course would drive him further insane.
  Court documents have revealed that Holmes was held for "several days, frequently in restraints" in hospital in November after authorities said he was in need of immediate psychiatric help.The same week he was rushed to the hospital after banging his head into a prison wall.
  The ring leader of this from top to bottom is a skin head judge who looks more insane now than Holmes, and apparently is getting off on torturing and railroading this man.This honestly is like some freak Hollywood Batman movie as the judge's name is Judge William Sylvester, a real comic book name, and appearance.
  The worst of this is that Holmes is constantly presented the world as unkept and in prison orange garb. The defense has not been able to dress him nor groom him, which as Americans know is par for the course, except in Colorado.
  As this has now spun into the satanic, the judge is now issuing the pleas for Holmes and his attorneys, when they were asking for more time for an insanity defense.
  The judge responded with a threat:
  Judge Sylvester has already ruled that if Holmes enters an insanity plea he could face being administered with a "truth serum" as part of his medical evaluation.
  They literally are going to fill a psychologically created Obamachurian with more drugs. Perhaps like the BATFE in Missouri for the Obama regime in 2008 will have Holmes admitting he is from Mars and he really belong on a cartoon page as that is where he was born.This is purely sadistic what Holmes is being put through. It reminds me of the insane hermit at Joan of Arc's village which she tamed, and when the marauders came, the savagely tortured and murdered the hermit.
  What is being done to this Holmes is unAmerican, but the California with Eric Holder looking on just burned a Negroid of some sort up in a cabin in the Christopher Holmes case.
  For those like Mark Levin who slobber over this in "natural or jungle law", the point is now as Levin tries to backtrack in saying he was the only one against what took place in Egypt........Egypt would not have happened if he was not wetting himself over bin Laden's corpse shot up.SEALS were murdered for that and Chris Stevens was raped and murdered for that.
  This entire Obama judiciary from his Birther manipulating judges starting with John Roberts on down, the mistreatment of Lawrence Sinclair being handicapped and lost in the system denied medication and legal access is the Treyvon Martin par for the course in this Age of Obama.
  For American sake people, can you not see this, that what they do to James Holmes THEY WILL DO TO YOU in this lawless age when they get you.They are leaving a psychotic person, manufactured or not, tied up, banging his head against the wall, driving him further insane, and then presenting him in hermit prison fashion as the Judge Sylvester threatens to dope him up more with "truth serum".
  This is not America any longer and she has been murdered. If you need any more proof just look at this, and how no one on the left and only myself on the right is making an issue of this.
  You want to murder James Holmes, then do it quick and humane in a lynching, but do not for America's sake torture someone created by the shadowlands as all of this is designed to make all of you brutes by hardening you into thinking this is normal behavior by a government by the people, for the people and of the people.
  Or are you the type to tie up insane people, let them go deranged further fighting restraints and when they slam their heads against walls, just leave them lay there?
  Obama conditioning has turned the majority mad. The very populace is nothing but blood lust and torture reflecting B. Hussein.
  nuff said 280Y
  agtG
Soledad O'Brien Supports Bloomberg Soda Ban
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:11
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  Count Soledad O'Brien as another CNN fan of Mayor Bloomberg's nanny state efforts to crack down on big sodas. "I've been a long supporter of it," she voiced on Tuesday's Starting Point.
French Catholic girls oppose 'Femen'
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  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:10
  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.
Al-Qaeda Electronic Army continues assault on US government websites '-- RT USA
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:10
  Published time: March 12, 2013 21:05
  The Tunisian Cyber Army and operatives aligned with al-Qaeda say they are continuing their assault on US government websites.
  One day after RT reported that Tunisian and al-Qaeda hackers waged an assault on US State Department and Department of Defense websites with the aid of Chinese cyber criminals, the alleged perpetrators say they are continuing with their attack against the United States of America's official sites.
  On Monday, the Tunisian Cyber Army and the al-Qaeda Electronic Army (AQEA) attributed themselves with hacking the State Department's Diplomacy In Action website, the website for the agency's official State Department magazine and the website for the Army National Guard by exploiting SQL injection vulnerabilities. Speaking with HackRead.com, the alleged persons responsible said they did the attack in cooperation with Chinese hackers and managed to pilfer important DoS and DoD files in the process. Now they say the attacks are continuing and claim to have compromised the security of yet more government websites.
  According to the website E Hacking News, the Tunisian Cyber Army and the AQEA have since targeted the websites for the US Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Personnel Management.
  ''The team managed to extract the information from the target database by exploiting the critical SQL Injection vulnerability in those websites,'' the website reports one day later, adding that a Tunisian Cyber Army operatives has claimed to have compromised sensitive information including usernames, passwords and private emails through the breach. An email was sent to the website with proof, but E Hacking New says, ''For a security reasons, we are not disclosing the links here.''
  The website's reporter, Sabari Selvan, adds that the hackers in question claim they will next target American utility companies, a claim that was reiterated on Twitter by an account supposedly registered with the Tunisian Cyber Army.
  ''We and #Electronic-Al-QAEDA got access to one of the most largest american gaz companies,'' reads one tweet from the @TN_Cyberarmy account. ''One of the largest companies on #USA is #Under attack by #TCA & #AQECA #then #chinise hackers will act,'' reads another.
  Hackers have named their mission OpBlackSummer and say they will follow through with plans to breach the security of other US websites. Meanwhile, a just-released report from the Pentagon's Defense Science Board says that American cyberwarriors are not equipped to currently keep up with foreign hackers.
  ''After conducting an 18-month study, this Task Force concluded that the cyber threat is serious and that the United States cannot be confident that our critical Information Technology (IT) systems will work under attack from a sophisticated and well-resourced opponent utilizing cyber capabilities in combination with all of their military and intelligence capabilities (a 'full spectrum' adversary),'' reads the report in part.
US-born former Army vet known as 'The American' fights alongside Al Qaeda
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:33
  An American who has gone by the name Eric Harroun has taken up arms with Islamists, most recently in Syria.
  A frequent poster on message boards favored by Islamic radicals, "The American" predicted the uprising he would later join.
  Harroun announced one of his trips on MySpace.
  He's a U.S.-trained soldier turned Muslim warrior who moves between America and countries where the winds of the Arab spring blow, fighting alongside jihadists and America-hating terrorists while celebrating his bloody exploits on YouTube videos.
  Eric Harroun, 30, grew up in Phoenix before joining the U.S. Army in 2000. Although Harroun was never deployed during his three-year hitch, he has seen plenty of combat fighting with Syrian rebels and, more recently, Jabhat al-Nusra, a group the U.S. State Department classifies as an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq.
  ''I was separated in a battle and most of my group was K.I.A. and Al-Nusra picked me up,'' Harroun told FoxNews.com during one of several brief interviews conducted via Skype.
  ''I hate bad guys like Bashar [Assad]. "I hate Iran, too. I am a freedom fighter."
  - Eric Harroun, U.S.-born jihadist known as "The American"
  Harroun, who said he is now in Turkey, shrugged off a question about fighting alongside Al Qaeda terrorists who have joined the Syrian rebellion, saying, "the U.S. plays both sides, too." He said the offshoot of the terror group behind the 9/11 attacks welcomed him.
  ''Getting into Al-Nusra is not rocket science," he said. "It just takes balls and brains.''
  Harroun, known among Syrian rebels and loyalists alike as ''The American,'' has moved from one country to another, joining protesters in the takedown of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before fighting alongside rebels attempting to depose Syria's Bashar al-Assad. A prolific poster of online diatribes against the infidel, he's joined the threads of those calling for the deaths of Zionists.
  His father, Darryl Harroun, told FoxNews.com that his son was discharged from the Army after he was seriously injured while riding in a pickup truck that hit a tree. He was left with full disability pay and a steel plate in his head, according to his father.
  "Now he has mood swings and what-not," said Darryl Harroun, who lives in Arizona and talks to his son by phone frequently. "He was already suffering from depression before that, and the accident just kind of multiplied it."
  Darryl Harroun said his son is seen as an adventurer by friends and relatives, who call him "Arizona Jones."
  "He just loves that part of the world," said Darryl Harroun, who said his family has been in the U.S. for several generations and is not Muslim. "We scratch our heads and wonder what the hell he's doing. I told him, 'You're never going to change those people's minds over there.' But he says they treat him like a hero.
  "I know one day I'm going to get a message from over there, telling me my son is dead," he said.
  Darryl Harroun said he doesn't believe the U.S. -- much less his own son -- has any business in Middle Eastern affairs. But at least one family member seems to believe Harroun is fighting a noble battle.
  "Keep fighting Eric!" Harroun's sister, Sarah Harroun, posted on Facebook this week. "The people of Syria and you are in my prayers."
  Harroun's descent into Islamic fanaticism seems to have begun sometime after his discharge from the military. With seemingly no way to pursue his lifelong dream of being a soldier, he fell in with two Iraqi brothers, Maadh and Hayder Ibrahim, who he met while attending Pima Community College in Tucson, and began to identify himself as a Muslim, according to people who know him.
  He became active on anti-Israeli message boards, posting virulent rants against Zionism as well as his own uploaded images and videos.
  A spokesman with the Syrian rebel group known as the Amr ibn al-'Aas Brigade told FoxNews.com ''The American'' operated with the organization until a month ago. Harroun confirmed reports from the Amr ibn al-'As brigade that he had left Syria, and said he is currently in Istanbul.
  Harroun is believed to have worked for a Phoenix-based mortgage company after leaving the military. Officials and co-workers there declined to discuss Harroun, whose online posts indicate he has traveled to and from the Middle East at least a half-dozen times over the last decade.
  Army spokesman Ray Gall confirmed that Harroun served in the Army's 568th Engineer Company and was based at Fort Riley, Kansas, from October 2000 to May 2003, attaining the rank of Private First Class before his discharge. Gall declined to provide any details regarding Harroun's discharge.
  In Syria, Harroun has become so well known that a pro-regime video was created claiming that ''The American'' is a ''criminal from Miami.'' A mugshot and rap sheet are provided as proof of Harroun's criminal past, but the picture in the video does not resemble Harroun.
  In recent months, Harroun has appeared in several online videos alongside Syrian rebels fighting in Damascus. Described in his Facebook profile as a Sunni Muslim, Harroun has posted in several threads claiming to have personally killed several Shabiha (supporters of the Assad regime), Syrian soldiers and an Iranian.
  ''I hate bad guys like Bashar [Assad]," Harroun told FoxNews.com. "I hate Iran, too. I am a freedom fighter."
  In one video posted online, Harroun is seen on the Syrian battlefield, speeding toward a downed helicopter in a Jeep detailed with a Free Syrian Army emblem on its windshield. Harroun told FoxNews.com the video was shot at a place called Mansura in eastern Syria.
  In the video, Harroun and a driver he addresses in Arabic as ''The Chechen'' ride toward the downed Syrian helicopter.
  ''We smoked the mother f*****s, didn't we?'' Harroun tells the driver.
  "Allah Akbar!'' he exclaims.
  The FSA is a conglomerate of militia-style groups and former Syrian military personnel, according to Rafael Green, a research fellow at the Middle East Media Research Institute. Green said the FSA cooperates with groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, and is not particular about who takes up its cause
  For Harroun, who claims to have been arrested twice by Egyptian security forces in 2011 and traveled extensively in Lebanon and Turkey, the war in Syria seems to be an opportunity to kill in the name of a cause. He said Israel may be next on his agenda -- specifically the Palestinian territories -- citing ''atrocities'' that ''Israel is doing to the Palestinians.
  "Maybe Gaza is next for me, maybe [the] West Bank," said Harroun, whose Facebook wall bears the quote: ''The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist.''
  Greg Tepper is a freelance journalist based in Israel. Ilan Ben Zion (@ilanbenzion) is a reporter for the Times of Israel.
Students claim exploitation after they paid thousands to work for McDonalds '-- RT USA
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:29
  Published time: March 12, 2013 16:42
  A 27-year-old Argentinian student claims he was ''exploited'' by a work-study program offered by a Pennsylvania McDonald's. The student claims he paid thousands to come to the US, only to find himself on call at all times and working overtime without pay.
  ''We have been exploited by McDonald's because we have been working for McDonald's but we did not receive overtime or the fact that we have been put to be on-call all day had to do with the way McDonald's designed our schedules,'' he told ABC News.
  Jorge Rios, the Argentinian student, came to the US in December 2012 to work for the franchise as part of a work-study program offered by the US State Department. Rios claims that he and 17 other foreign students have all faced the same mistreatment. Each of them paid $3,000 to $4,000 for their plane tickets, visa, and other travel costs, only to undergo a level of exploitation that they never expected to face in the US.
  A private company that brings foreign students to the US set Rios up with the McDonald's franchise. Rios is currently enrolled at the National University of Misiones in Posadas, Argentina, and was expecting valuable work experience in the US. He paid the hefty fees that the private company charged him to enroll him in the State Department's program. But thousands of dollars later, his experience has been nothing less than a nightmare.
  Rios has launched a petition demanding that McDonald's CEO and president Don Thompson provide overtime pay and ''basic labor standards'' for student workers. The petition, which was launched in partnership with the National Guestworker Alliance, currently has 5,283 signatures.
  ''We expected to have 40 hours of work a week, but we were given as little as four hours a week at the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour,'' he writes in the petition. ''The employer knew we were desperate for more hours, and he kept us on call to come in with 30 minutes' notice all day and night. I didn't even have time to visit the public library.''
  While constantly on call and making little money, Rios has so far been deprived of the cultural experience he was expecting to get out of his four-month visit. Additionally, he claims to have been forced to stay in unlivable conditions in a child-sized bunk bed. Rios and the other foreign workers each paid the McDonald's franchise $300 per month for inadequate housing.
  ''As many as eight of us lived in a single basement,'' he told ABC. ''We slept on bunk beds made for children that shook and squeaked. We had no privacy whatsoever.''
  A spokesperson for the McDonald's franchise told the news station that it was investigating the claims. The private company that runs the students' program, Geovisions, said it is also looking into the complaints.
  Meanwhile, Rios and a number of other students are currently protesting the actions of the McDonald's franchise in Harrisburg, PA, to receive overtime pay for the hours that weren't counted in their paychecks. And while Rios' experience is quickly garnering national attention, other foreign students might not be so lucky.
  The State Department's J-1 Summer Work Travel Program each year allows more than 100,000 foreign college students to work in the US for up to four months. But the program has come under scrutiny before: the Associated Press last year discovered an internal memo describing widespread exploitation by deceitful labor brokers and organized criminals in the sex industry. In the most severe cases, foreign students reported being beaten, raped and forced to work as strippers after being promised other jobs in the US, like waitressing. The State Department has since implemented a number of changes that banned jobs in factories and warehouses.
  But this most recent case of exploitation, as described by Rios, sheds further light on the misuses of the program. With a franchise as large as McDonald's exploiting its foreign workers, there's no telling how many smaller companies might be doing the same thing '' or worse '' to its work-study participants.
Notice -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Iran
  Link to Article
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:28
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  March 12, 2013
  NOTICE
  - - - - - - -
  CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO IRAN
  On March 15, 1995, the President issued Executive Order 12957, which declared a national emergency with respect to Iran and, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706), took related steps to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of the Government of Iran. On May 6, 1995, the President issued Executive Order 12959, imposing more comprehensive sanctions on Iran to further respond to this threat. On August 19, 1997, the President issued Executive Order 13059, consolidating and clarifying the previous orders. I took additional steps pursuant to this national emergency in Executive Order 13553 of September 28, 2010, Executive Order 13574 of May 23, 2011, Executive Order 13590 of November 20, 2011, Executive Order 13599 of February 5, 2012, Executive Order 13606 of April 22, 2012, Executive Order 13608 of May 1, 2012, Executive Order 13622 of July 30, 2012, and Executive Order 13628 of October 9, 2012.
  The actions and policies of the Government of Iran continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. For this reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12957 must continue in effect beyond March 15, 2013. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to Iran declared in Executive Order 12957. The emergency declared by Executive Order 12957 constitutes an emergency separate from that declared on November 14, 1979, by Executive Order 12170. This renewal, therefore, is distinct from the emergency renewal of November 2012.
  This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.
  BARACK OBAMA
Message -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Iran
  Link to Article
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:28
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  March 12, 2013
  TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
  Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency with respect to Iran that was declared on March 15, 1995, is to continue in effect beyond March 15, 2013.
  The crisis between the United States and Iran resulting from the actions and policies of the Government of Iran has not been resolved. The actions and policies of the Government of Iran are contrary to the interests of the United States in the region and continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to Iran and to maintain in force comprehensive sanctions against Iran to deal with this threat.
  BARACK OBAMA
Judge Blocks Large Size Soda Ban In New York City
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  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:28
Senate To Vote On New Gun Control Laws "This Is Something Law Enforcement Really Wants"
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  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:27
Hagel puts a hold on cyberwarfare award '-- RT USA
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:27
  Published time: March 12, 2013 18:35
  Only two weeks into his role as the head of the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the DoD to stop production on a medal that would have been awarded military drone pilots.
  Sec. Hagel took control of the Pentagon from former-Sec. Leon Panetta just recently on Feb. 27, and has issued only few orders since then. On Tuesday this week, though, the Washington Post reported that the Defense Department would momentarily halt plans for a Distinguished Warfare Medal per the secretary's request.
  The award, initially reported by RT in 2012, was formally revealed days before Sec. Hagel entered office. It was approved by his predecessor, Sec. Panetta, and was expected to be offered in the coming months to servicemen who, while vital to the US military, don't necessarily ever enter the battlefield.
  When the Associated Press reported on the medal last month, they said sources claimed it ''will be awarded to individuals for 'extraordinary achievement' related to a military operation.'' Unlike other combat awards, though, the Distinguished Warfare Medal was expected to be something that could be obtained without ever leaving the control room of the drone command centers that are often thousands of miles away from the battlefield.
  ''The medal could go to service members who never set foot in a combat zone, but launch drone strikes or cyberattacks that can kill or disable an enemy,'' the AP reported last month.
  Also separating the Distinguished Warfare Medal from other awards was that this one ranked about both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, two of the military's most respected honors. Sec. Hagel, 66, was the recipient of two Purple Hearts while serving in the Vietnam War.
  For now, though, plans for the medal will be put on hold. Sec. Hagel has asked the military to halt production while a 30-day study is launched to determine if drone pilots and other remotely-located servicemen could be awarded without being actually deployed. Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung says Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will have one month to conduct that study and make his determination.
  The Post says that a defense official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that a request from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) to reconsider the award was on his desk when he returned from Afghanistan on Monday. The source says that Sec. Hagel signed his name to a directive later in the day, effectively halting plans for the medal while a thorough review is launched.
  In writing Hagel, Sens. Levin and Inhofe said that while they were ''supportive of the new medal,'' they had concerns ''that it is given precedence above awards earned by service members for actions on the battlefield.''
  ''Hagel's obviously new, and he's going to take a fresh look,'' the source tells the paper.
Vatican Building Houses Gay Sauna
  Link to Article
  Source: Crooks and Liars
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:26
  NSFW: A promotional ad for "Subwoofer Sauna Night" at the Europa Multiclub, purchased by the Holy See and is reportedly the largest gay sauna in Europe.
  Apparently, the Holy See purchased $21 million in shares of a Rome apartment block that's home to Europe's biggest gay sauna. Cardinal Ivan Dias, head of the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples, lives in an apartment in the palazzo, mere yards from the sauna's entrance. The Vatican owns 18 apartments total. The sauna is known for its "bear nights," in which, according to its website, ''a hairy, overweight pastor of souls, is free to the music of his clergyman, remaining in a thong, because he wants to expose body and soul.''
  The Independent:
  It is not known, however, if the former archbishop of Bombay has popped downstairs to give spiritual guidances to the clients of the Europa Multiclub, given his belief that gays and lesbians can be cured of their ''unnatural tendencies'' through the ''sacrement of penance''.
  The sauna's website promotes one of its special ''bear nights'', with a video in which a rotund, hairy man strips down before changing into a priest's outfit. It says Bruno, ''a hairy, overweight pastor of souls, is free to the music of his clergyman, remaining in a thong, because he wants to expose body and soul''.
  There was further embarrassment for the Holy See when the press observed that thanks to generous tax breaks it received from the last Berlusconi government, the church will have avoided hefty payments to the Italian state. The properties are recognised as part of the Holy City....Readers on Italian gay websites were quick to make jokes at the cardinals' expense. One on the Gay.it site quipped: '''Oops, I took the wrong door, I thought it was the chapel.''...If you can't go to the gay sauna for fear of being seen what do you do if you have millions of Euros stolen from Italians? You buy the apartment block with the sauna inside.''
  The Europa Multiclub's website is here, and includes a "virtual tour" feature.
Better take the dirty money Egypt.. if you know whats good for you!
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:26
  Egypt has rejected an offer of a $750 million rescue loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), ruling out a fallback on emergency measures.
  The emergency credit offer came after delays in finalising a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF to bolster Egypt's battered economy and help counter a growing budget deficit.
  Egyptian Finance Minister El-Morsi Hegazy said on Tuesday that his country had started implementing a full economic reform programme, entitling it to a larger loan from the IMF, instead of emergency measures. Hegazy insisted that Egypt's economy was on the path to recovery.
  An IMF official would not comment on the minister's rejection of the rescue loan offer.
  "We are in discussion with the authorities on how best to support Egypt, including on the timing of the next staff visit," IMF spokeswoman Wafa Amr said in an email.
  More talks to follow
  The stopgap loan, part of the body's Rapid Financing Instrument, would not have been a substitute for Egypt's multibillion dollar loan request.
  The government has invited the IMF back to the country this month to resume talks, but no date has been set.
  An IMF official said late last month in Washington that the body received Egypt's revised economic programme, which it was studying.
  Negotiations over the larger loan have been stalled during political turmoil in Egypt, which has often deteriorated into violent clashes between protesters and police and widespread unrest in the form of labour and police strikes.
  The two years of unrest have contributed to a severe economic downturn.
  Over the past months, Egypt's foreign currency reserves have sharply dropped to a critical level of $13.5 billion, down from $36 billion in January 2011, before the popular uprising that forced longtime President Hosni Mubarak out of office.
  Egyptians have been hit by shortages of diesel fuel and rising prices of some basic commodities.
  310
Venezuela to probe Chavez cancer poisoning accusation
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:47
  Venezuela to probe Chavez cancer poisoning accusationTop News
  Venezuela to probe Chavez cancer "poisoning" accusation
  Tue, Mar 12 14:25 PM EDT
  By Andrew Cawthorne
  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will set up a formal inquiry into suspicions that the late President Hugo Chavez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government said.
  The accusation has been derided by critics of the government, who view it as a typical Chavez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed fears of "imperialist" threats to Venezuela's socialist system and distract people from daily problems.
  Still, acting President Nicolas Maduro vowed to push through a serious investigation into the claim, which was first raised by Chavez himself after he was diagnosed with the disease in 2011.
  "We will seek the truth," Maduro told regional TV network Telesur late on Monday. "We have the intuition that our commander Chavez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted him out of the way."
  Foreign scientists will be invited to join a government commission to probe the accusation, the OPEC nation's acting leader said.
  Maduro, 50, is Chavez's handpicked successor and is running as the government's candidate in a snap presidential election on April 14 that was triggered by his boss's death last week.
  He is trying to keep voters' attention firmly focused on Chavez to benefit from the outpouring of grief among his millions of supporters. The opposition is centering its campaign on portraying Maduro, a former bus driver, as an incompetent who, they say, is morbidly exploiting Chavez's demise.
  'HIS FAITHFUL SON'
  "They're attacking him saying he isn't Chavez. Of course Nicolas isn't Chavez. But he is his faithful, responsible, revolutionary son," senior Socialist Party and campaign official Jorge Rodriguez told reporters.
  "All these insults and vilification are going to be turned into votes for us on April 14."
  Running for the opposition's Democratic Unity coalition is a business-friendly state governor, Henrique Capriles, 40, who lost to Chavez in a presidential vote last year.
  Tuesday was the last day of official mourning for Chavez, although ceremonies appear set to continue. His embalmed body was to be taken in procession to a military museum on Friday.
  Millions have filed past Chavez's coffin to pay homage to a man who was adored by many of the poor for his humble roots and welfare policies, but was also hated by many people for his authoritarian style and bullying of opponents.
  Though Maduro has spoken about combating crime and extending development programs in the slums, he has mostly used his frequent appearances on state TV to talk about Chavez.
  The 58-year-old president was diagnosed with cancer in his pelvic region in June 2011 and underwent four surgeries before dying of what sources said was metastasis in the lungs.
  Maduro said it was too early to specifically point a finger over Chavez's cancer, but noted that the United States had laboratories with experience in producing diseases.
  "He had a cancer that broke all norms," Maduro told Telesur. "Everything seems to indicate that they affected his health using the most advanced techniques ... He had that intuition from the beginning."
  Maduro has compared his suspicions over Chavez's death with allegations that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in 2004 from poisoning by Israeli agents.
  The case echoes Chavez's long campaign to convince the world that his idol and Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar died of poisoning by his enemies in Colombia in 1830.
  Venezuela's National Assembly was expected to begin debating a proposal by pro-government legislators and Chavez supporters to call a referendum - which could also be held on April 14 - on whether he should be buried at the pantheon in Caracas, a mausoleum built for Bolivar's remains.
  OPPOSITION'S UPHILL FIGHT
  Though keeping a low profile out of respect for Chavez's supporters, opponents are furious at what they see as the use of his death by government officials to bolster their chances of staying in power.
  Launching his candidacy on Monday, Maduro's speech began with a recording of Chavez singing the national anthem. Hearing his booming voice again, many supporters wept.
  As well as the wave of sympathy over Chavez, the opposition faces a well-financed state apparatus, institutions packed with government supporters, and problems within its own rank-and-file, still demoralized over October's presidential election defeat and a mauling at gubernatorial polls in December.
  Capriles, an energetic lawyer and career politician, has tried to kick-start his campaign with accusations that Maduro and other senior officials lied about the details of Chavez's illness, hiding the gravity of his condition from Venezuelans.
  That has brought him a torrent of abuse in return, with the words "Nazi" and "fascist" being used by senior government officials - despite Capriles' Jewish roots.
  An opposition official, Henri Falcon, told a news conference Capriles had not registered his candidacy in person on Monday because his team had received "very serious information that an ambush was being prepared for him."
  At stake in the election is not only the future of Chavez's leftist "revolution," but the continuation of Venezuelan oil subsidies and other aid crucial to the economies of left-wing allies around Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia.
  Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves.
  Polls from before Chavez's death gave Maduro a lead over Capriles of more than 10 percentage points.
  Though there are hopes for a post-Chavez rapprochement between Venezuela and the United States, a diplomatic spat worsened on Monday when Washington expelled two Venezuelan diplomats in a tit-for-tat retaliation.
  (Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga.; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Christopher Wilson)
  Venezuela to probe Chavez cancer poisoning accusationTop News
  Venezuela to probe Chavez cancer "poisoning" accusation
  Tue, Mar 12 14:25 PM EDT
  By Andrew Cawthorne
  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will set up a formal inquiry into suspicions that the late President Hugo Chavez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government said.
  The accusation has been derided by critics of the government, who view it as a typical Chavez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed fears of "imperialist" threats to Venezuela's socialist system and distract people from daily problems.
  Still, acting President Nicolas Maduro vowed to push through a serious investigation into the claim, which was first raised by Chavez himself after he was diagnosed with the disease in 2011.
  "We will seek the truth," Maduro told regional TV network Telesur late on Monday. "We have the intuition that our commander Chavez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted him out of the way."
  Foreign scientists will be invited to join a government commission to probe the accusation, the OPEC nation's acting leader said.
  Maduro, 50, is Chavez's handpicked successor and is running as the government's candidate in a snap presidential election on April 14 that was triggered by his boss's death last week.
  He is trying to keep voters' attention firmly focused on Chavez to benefit from the outpouring of grief among his millions of supporters. The opposition is centering its campaign on portraying Maduro, a former bus driver, as an incompetent who, they say, is morbidly exploiting Chavez's demise.
  'HIS FAITHFUL SON'
  "They're attacking him saying he isn't Chavez. Of course Nicolas isn't Chavez. But he is his faithful, responsible, revolutionary son," senior Socialist Party and campaign official Jorge Rodriguez told reporters.
  "All these insults and vilification are going to be turned into votes for us on April 14."
  Running for the opposition's Democratic Unity coalition is a business-friendly state governor, Henrique Capriles, 40, who lost to Chavez in a presidential vote last year.
  Tuesday was the last day of official mourning for Chavez, although ceremonies appear set to continue. His embalmed body was to be taken in procession to a military museum on Friday.
  Millions have filed past Chavez's coffin to pay homage to a man who was adored by many of the poor for his humble roots and welfare policies, but was also hated by many people for his authoritarian style and bullying of opponents.
  Though Maduro has spoken about combating crime and extending development programs in the slums, he has mostly used his frequent appearances on state TV to talk about Chavez.
  The 58-year-old president was diagnosed with cancer in his pelvic region in June 2011 and underwent four surgeries before dying of what sources said was metastasis in the lungs.
  Maduro said it was too early to specifically point a finger over Chavez's cancer, but noted that the United States had laboratories with experience in producing diseases.
  "He had a cancer that broke all norms," Maduro told Telesur. "Everything seems to indicate that they affected his health using the most advanced techniques ... He had that intuition from the beginning."
  Maduro has compared his suspicions over Chavez's death with allegations that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in 2004 from poisoning by Israeli agents.
  The case echoes Chavez's long campaign to convince the world that his idol and Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar died of poisoning by his enemies in Colombia in 1830.
  Venezuela's National Assembly was expected to begin debating a proposal by pro-government legislators and Chavez supporters to call a referendum - which could also be held on April 14 - on whether he should be buried at the pantheon in Caracas, a mausoleum built for Bolivar's remains.
  OPPOSITION'S UPHILL FIGHT
  Though keeping a low profile out of respect for Chavez's supporters, opponents are furious at what they see as the use of his death by government officials to bolster their chances of staying in power.
  Launching his candidacy on Monday, Maduro's speech began with a recording of Chavez singing the national anthem. Hearing his booming voice again, many supporters wept.
  As well as the wave of sympathy over Chavez, the opposition faces a well-financed state apparatus, institutions packed with government supporters, and problems within its own rank-and-file, still demoralized over October's presidential election defeat and a mauling at gubernatorial polls in December.
  Capriles, an energetic lawyer and career politician, has tried to kick-start his campaign with accusations that Maduro and other senior officials lied about the details of Chavez's illness, hiding the gravity of his condition from Venezuelans.
  That has brought him a torrent of abuse in return, with the words "Nazi" and "fascist" being used by senior government officials - despite Capriles' Jewish roots.
  An opposition official, Henri Falcon, told a news conference Capriles had not registered his candidacy in person on Monday because his team had received "very serious information that an ambush was being prepared for him."
  At stake in the election is not only the future of Chavez's leftist "revolution," but the continuation of Venezuelan oil subsidies and other aid crucial to the economies of left-wing allies around Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia.
  Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves.
  Polls from before Chavez's death gave Maduro a lead over Capriles of more than 10 percentage points.
  Though there are hopes for a post-Chavez rapprochement between Venezuela and the United States, a diplomatic spat worsened on Monday when Washington expelled two Venezuelan diplomats in a tit-for-tat retaliation.
  (Additional reporting by Marianna Parraga.; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Christopher Wilson)
Remarks by President Obama and His Majesty Sultan of Brunei Darussalam After a Bilateral Meeting
  Link to Article
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:22
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  March 12, 2013
  Oval Office
  11:54 A.M. EDT
  PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it is a great pleasure to welcome my good friend, His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei. The Sultan and I had the opportunity to get to know each other from a series of multilateral meetings, particularly the ASEAN East Asia Summit meeting. He is a key leader in the Southeast Asia region but also widely respected around the world.
  And part of the reason that we thought now was a good time for a meeting here in the Oval Office is because His Majesty will be hosting the next ASEAN East Asia Summit meeting in Brunei this October. There are a range of issues that we've worked on together, and that should be no surprise because the friendship between the United States and Brunei actually dates back 160 years.
  His Majesty himself has led his country for 40 years now and he's gone through nine U.S. Presidents. I won't ask him which one was his favorite -- (laughter) -- but our interest in having a strong, peaceful, prosperous Asia Pacific region is something that we share.
  And so at the ASEAN East Asia Summit, we will be discussing a wide range of issues -- everything from how we deal with issues of energy and climate change to how we expand commerce, potentially through the Trans-Pacific Partnership that has the opportunity of creating jobs and prosperity here in the United States but also throughout the region.
  We'll be discussing maritime issues. Obviously there have been a lot of tensions in the region around maritime issues and His Majesty has shown great leadership in trying to bring the countries together to make sure that everybody is abiding by the basic precepts of rule of law and international standards so that conflicts can be resolved peacefully and effectively, and that everybody is brought into that kind of structure.
  We've also had a chance to work together on educational issues. His Majesty himself and Brunei have helped to finance a number of English language instructors so that more youth in the Southeast Asia region are learning English, which obviously can help to expand commerce, but also strengthen the ties between the United States and the region.
  And we're also going to be doing, for the first time, a joint ASEAN-U.S.-Chinese joint exercises around disaster and humanitarian relief, which points to the fact that our militaries, that are extraordinarily capable, and the bilateral military relationship between the United States and Brunei has the capacity to help people in times of need and to try to help avoid conflict rather than start conflict.
  So, overall, I'm very grateful for His Majesty's outstanding leadership and his friendship. I'm glad that he's had a chance to visit. He got here yesterday and flew in his own 747, meaning he actually piloted it himself. I think he's probably the only head of state in the world who flies a 747 himself. And so in case Air Force One pilots have problems, we know who to consult. (Laughter.)
  And my understanding is tomorrow he's going to have an opportunity to take his family up to New York, where we're going to encourage him to do some shopping because we want to continue to strengthen the U.S. economy. (Laughter.)
  So, Your Majesty, it's wonderful to see you. Thank you so much.
  HIS MAJESTY SULTAN HASSANAL: Ladies and gentlemen of the press. Mr. President, firstly, thank you for inviting me to visit the United States. I know you have a very busy schedule. It's very kind of you to receive me.
  This visit gives me a good opportunity to renew the longstanding and warm friendship between Brunei Darussalam and the United States -- the relations, which dated back to 1850, with the signing of the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation, soon after the USS Constitution called at our port.
  President Barack Obama and I have had an excellent meeting this morning. I am indeed very happy with the progress of our bilateral cooperation, especially in energy, education, defense interests. The Brunei-U.S. joint five-year English language program, which was launched last year, is progressing well. It is meant for the people in ASEAN in order to improve and strengthen the English language skills.
  On energy cooperation, there are already a number of American companies providing a range of upstream and downstream services in our oil and gas sector. In the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, we are negotiating with further build-up of this economic condition.
  I also had the pleasure to share with President Obama some of our plans as ASEAN chair this year. As ASEAN chair, we have extended an invitation to President Obama to the East Asia Summit and the first ASEAN-U.S. Leaders Summit in October this year.
  The United States has been a good friend to ASEAN and is actively involved in many of our projects, such as the Comprehensive Energy Partnership and the Expanded Economic Engagement of E3 Initiative. And we are confident that these initiatives will strengthen the economic linkages between ASEAN and the United States.
  In closing, I thank President Obama again for today's meeting. We look forward to welcoming you to Brunei Darussalam later this year, Mr. President, and to working together to strengthen the important relationship between ASEAN and the United States.
  Thank you.
  END 12:02 P.M. EDT
California seizes guns from owners - and it might become a national model
  Link to Article
  Source: USA RSS
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:42
  Published time: March 12, 2013 17:18
  In California, the government is already coming for the guns.
  Notwithstanding the Second Amendment, rules and regulations across the United States outline certain restrictions for who can legally possess a firearm. In the state of California, factors such as a felony conviction or a history of mental health issues mean roughly 20,000 gun owners are holding onto their firearms illegally. Slowly but surely, though, Golden State police officers are prying them away. There's more, though: backers of the program suggest this becomes a nation-wide practice, and are asking the White House to help make it happen.
  ''Very, very few states have an archive of firearm owners like we have,'' Garen Wintemute of the Violence Prevention Research Program tells Bloomberg News. Wintemute helped set up a program on the West Coast that monitors not just licensed gun owners but also watches for any red flags that could be raised after admittance to a mental health institute or a quick stint in the slammer.
  Wintemute says that as many as 200,000 people across the United States may no longer be qualified to own firearms, and in California they are making sure that number drops day by day. In one example cited in this week's Bloomberg report, journalists recall a recent scene where nine California Justice Department agents equipped with 40-caliber Glock pistols and outfitted in bulletproof vests knocked on a suburban residence, requested to speak to a certain gun owner and then walked away with whatever arsenal they could apprehend.
  California Attorney General Kamala Harris seized roughly 2,000 weapons last year, reports Bloomberg, as well as 117,000 rounds of ammunition and 11,000 high-capacity magazines. But as concerns escalate about a possible war against the right to bear arms in America, will other states soon follow suite?
  In California, some shortcuts are already meaning weapons are being removed from lawful owners. Bloomberg reports cite the example of 48-year-old Lynette Phillips, a California woman who was recently hospitalized for mental illness. When a team of agents went to collect her two registered firearms, they also walked out with one registered to her husband.
  ''The prohibited person can't have access to a firearm,'' regardless of who the registered owner is, said Michelle Gregory, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.
  In other cities and towns across the country, Americans are standing up against what many say are unconstitutional attempts to disarm the United States. In New York State, new legislation is making it harder for Americans to purchase firearms, and one provision will provide gun owners with a felony charge if they ignore new registration rules '-- which is enough on its own to make owning guns illegal. Across the board more states are demanding stricter background checks, but as efforts to remove weapons from the hands of Americans '-- voluntarily and involuntarily '-- are ramped up, though, those that disagree are doing what they can to keep their country armed.
  In the wake of last year's massacres in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut '-- among others '-- lawmakers and the public at large have called on Americans for a mass disarming. Gun buyback programs are being touted in countless cities, and in California the attorney general is hoping for even more help at getting guns away from their once-lawful owners '-- Attorney General Harris has asked Vice President Joe Biden for help and has asked state lawmakers to increase the number of agents tasked with collecting weapons up to 33. She also told Mr. Biden that she thought the efforts coming out of California could be a good model of a national program, reports Bloomberg.
  Meanwhile, though, others are making sure weapons aren't being put to waste. Residents in Maine hit the polls this week to vote on a law that would require everyone in the town of Byron to register a high-powered weapon.
  "It was never my intention to force anyone to own a gun who doesn't want to. My purpose was to make a statement in support of the Second Amendment,'' Head Selectman Anne Simmons-Edmund tells US News & World Report.
  "I'm just here because I'd rather see weapons stay with people, rather than turned in to be melted," a man named Joe, who declined to provide his last name, tells the Bainbridge Island Review. "I'm here to exercise the Second Amendment," he added. "Even if I don't get anything, honestly, I'd just rather see people keep them."
Aurora cinema shooting: Judge approves 'truth serum' interrogation
  Link to Article
  Source: USA RSS
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:52
  Published time: March 12, 2013 15:23
  James Holmes, the student accused of the 'Batman' movie massacre in a Colorado cinema, could be given truth serum in a narcoanalytic interview and a lie detector test to determine whether he is insane, as Colorado moves to tighten state gun laws.
  James Holmes, 25, a former neuroscience PHD student, is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 others during a shooting rampage during a 'Batman' movie premiere at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, last July.
  Holmes faces a total of 166 different counts relating to the shootings.
  His defense lawyers have indicated that he may plead not guilty by reason of insanity, and is expected to enter a plea on Tuesday. If he does enter an insanity plea, the judge has ruled that he may have to undergo an interview under the influence of drugs ''dubbed a 'truth serum' '' in order to evaluate his mental state.
  The process is designed to lower a patient's inhibition, and is decades old. Judge William Blair Sylvester has also ruled that he may be given a lie detector test.
  After Holmes has entered his plea, prosecutors will be given 60 days to announce whether they will seek the death sentence. If they do seek the death penalty following a not guilty by reasons of insanity plea, then legal complications are likely to develop, as the defense will have to submit incriminating evidence to prove Holmes's insanity.
  This evidence may then be later used against him by the prosecution, which under US law would breach his constitutional right not to incriminate himself.
  ''Was he suffering from a mental disease or defect that rendered him incapable from distinguishing right from wrong? If the defense had to prove that, that would be one thing, but here in Colorado the prosecution has to disprove it. To prove sanity beyond a reasonable doubt with James Holmes could be tough,'' Craig Silverman, deputy district attorney for Denver, told Sky News.
  Colorado is unusual in putting the burden of proof on the prosecution when a plea of insanity has been entered.
  Silverman added that he was expecting the case to be beset by delays: ''Delay is the natural ally of any death penalty defendant. The longer the case drags out the longer the client is assured to stay alive.''
  The case is one of the worst in US history in terms of the number of people killed. Like similar mass shootings that have occurred in America in recent years, it has prompted a debate about US gun laws. Politicians in Colorado have introduced new restrictions on gun ownership, while national efforts at gun control appear to have stalled.
  On Monday, a package put together by Colorado Democrats went through the state senate. They include a limit on the kind of high-capacity magazine Holmes is accused of using in the shooting, expanded background checks, and a new ban on owning a gun for people facing charges of domestic violence.
  While the measures have not yet been enacted, the house is under Democratic control and will likely approve the proposals.
Warhol Goes Social: Creativity in the Tech Age | Schedule | sxsw.com
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:14
  Today, everyone is a ''Creative.'' With the boom of visually-based social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, technology has leveled the playing field. Does this really change how we define art and creativity? Artistic purists believe these tools cheapen the creative output with seventeen standard filters available to every untrained eye. But in true entrepreneurial spirit, those apps encourage a more democrative view of creativity, allowing user to share their inspiration with their friends and create beauty where it previously would have been impossible. Is there a difference between high-brow and low-brow art in relation to what social media enables everyone to create?
  This panel will begin to tackle this debate, considering the very latest tools and trends, and arguing the new definition of creativity in the tech age.
  Christiaan WelzelAssoc Creative DirCritical MassChristiaan Welzel is an Associate Creative Director at Critical Mass. He continues to focus his successful interactive projects on the Clorox account,including Brita Water and the rebranding of Green Works cleaning products. He is passionate about CPG marketing with a special interest in social media programs and online advertising. In past, advertising agencySid Lee saw Christiaan co-leading the brand advertising and marketing for Danone Canada including products such as Activia, Silhouette and Creamy.
  Outside of his day job, Christiaan uses his spare time learning, creating and sharing DSLR cinematography content. With a focus on world travel as his inspiration, he also creates video marketing content for small businesses using low-cost and organic techniques including social media as the primary vehicle.
  Christiaan has specialized in interactive marketing for the last 10 years. Having lead and co-lead brands such as Dell, Rolex, Fido/Rogers Communications, The Weather Network, Nissan Global and more. His creative focused education has Christiaan holding a Honors Bachelor of Design from York University in Toronto, Canada. As well, he studied Design/Gestaltung at Bauhaus University in weimar, Germany.
  David JonesVP, SocialCritical MassDavid has recently joined Critical Mass as the global social media lead working with CM's strategy, creative and tech teams throughout the world. Based in his hometown of Toronto, David brings a multi-disciplinary background to the world of connected brands. A former PR man and corporate spokesperson, David's blend of communications skills ensures the digital experiences we create are social at the core.
  Laurie FrickArtistLaurieFrick.comLaurie Frick draws from neuroscience to construct intricately hand-built works and installations to investigate the nature of pattern and the mind. She completed an MFA from the New York Studio School, and now studies each summer at NYU's ITP technology and arts program. Formerly an executive in high-technology, she also holds an MBA from the University of Southern California. Using her background in engineering and high-technology she explores self-tracking and human patterns. Frick has been awarded residencies by the UT Neuroscience Imaging Research Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Headlands Center for the Arts, Yaddo, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. She is the winner of the Austin Critics' Table Outstanding artist award in 2012. Frick's talks and publications include The Huffington Post, Austin Statesman, Los Angeles Times, New Scientist, Arts Eclectic on NPR and in 2013 a TED talk at TEDxAustin. She has exhibited at Robert Steele Gallery in New York and Edward Cella in Los Angeles.
  Mitch GoodwinMedia ArtistScreenCulture.comMitch Goodwin is a digital media artist and academic of 12 years experience. He is the Founding Director of the Screengrab International New Media Arts Award and curator of the associated exhibition program. He is also the Founding Director of the Northern Lights Film Festival which seeks to promote film making among High School students in North Queensland.
  Mitch is currently employed at James Cook University where he was appointed the Course Coordinator of the New Media Arts degree in 2009.He is the Coordinator of the capstone subject Creative Exchange (CXC) which places multidisciplinary teams into WIL environments to deliver new creative work and professional standard services to the creative industries.The subject was included in the University of Gloucestershire's 2012 research project, Rethinking Final Year Projects & Dissertations.
  Mitch has previously taught at the Griffith Film School in Brisbane where he redesigned their core 1st year digital media subjects to reflect industry trends. He has also spent several years lecturing in the UK at Birmingham City University where he was appointed the Course Director of two postgraduate qualifications, the MSc in Interactive Media and the MSc in Digital Television Production.He also designed, authored and validated a new undergraduate degree program, BSc Film Production Technology, which accepted its first enrolments in 2007.
  In 2011 Mitch was awarded a teaching citation for his outstanding contribution to teaching for "the implementation of programs and initiatives which engender community engagement and industry relevant assessment outcomes and learning experiences for New Media Arts students."
  As a practitioner Mitch has won numerous awards for his digital art and film production and his work has toured many Australian arts and electronic festivals as well as being featured on radio, print and television.
  Mitch has a wide experience across the media arts sector including digital video, web design, photography, television and 35mm film production. His previous clients have included The Gold Coast City & Tweed Shire Councils, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Aston Villa Football Club, Channel 7, Tradelink, Bond University, the Homebake Music Festival and numerous bands, artists and kindred spirits.
  Mitch has also facilitated numerous community programs for young people with private and government sponsored initiatives for emerging artists including Cinem@tic (UK), Homegrown Filmworks (NSW, Aus), UFA Leadership Program (UK), Artspaced (QLD, Aus) and as the founding Director of the Renew Townsville project based on the successful Newcastle model.
  Mitch is currently completing his PHD in critical new media theory at Griffith University entitled, Dark Euphoria - The Neo-Gothic Narrative of Millennial Technoculture
ABC Falls in Line, Touts News Obama 'Charm Offensive' Effort With Congress
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:53
  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.
Chamber Pots '-- Roadwolf's Blog
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:50
  I am going to go out on a limb here'...
  Imagine if we never had the invention of the toilet. Infact it is very possible that that invention could of passed us by. It came and went as a passing fad, so many times in history.
  As early as 2800 B.c. Toilets had been invented in many parts of the world. Some of them also included underground drains which carried the waste away under the floor. But most simply emptied out through an outside wall. Somehow this technology was lost for several centuries, and re-emerged in the Roman era. The Roman toilets often included running water.
  However that invention was again forgotten about for a several more centuries, until John Harington invented the predecessor to the modern flush toilet in 1596 in England. Unfortunately Queen Elizabeth did not like his flush toilet idea, and thus it never really took off. That is until the late 1800'²s when the flush toilet became a widespread craze for wealthy families.
  So what did people do when they didn't have toilets? Well, most often they would use chamber pots. In fact it was considered common to have a chamber pot in the dining room, and under the bed. During the Victorian period, it was often expected for members at a dinner event, to all use their own chamber pots together after the meal, while still staying around the table to engage in discussion. Imagine the smell? Wow'... Not only that, but often kings and queens alike would address their subjects while using a chamber pot. Most royalty had servants who would be in charge of carrying around the chamber pot and placing it in position when it was needed.
  Back then, the act of going to the bathroom was not something to shy away from. It was quite clearly a public affair. While indeed, it was still disgraceful for a woman to show her body parts in public, for the most part. This is why woman of that era wore long flowing dresses. Mostly to envelop the chamber pot when they needed to squat'...
  These days, we have gotten so used to privacy in restrooms, that the prospect of urinating in public, a common event in the Victorian age, is now almost completely taboo. Many towns and cities have by-laws against outdoor urination.
  But why? I can understand why the toilet took off. It was considered a luxury, and people wanted what the wealthy had. But why have a separate enclosed room for it?
  I suppose now that the ladies no longer wear long flowing dresses, they can no longer remain 'decent' in public while going to the bathroom. But in our private homes, why must restrooms have doors? Just yesterday I was listening to the local fire channel, and heard a call for a child which locked himself in a bathroom and was having some sort of medical problem. The firemen who responded ended up finding out it was just the fact that he was scared that he was locked in a room, which freaked him out. There was no medical problem. How many times has this happened?
  Our society has grown to the point where anything remotely related to urination or defecation is considered dirty, and naughty'... And is not to be discussed publicly. We hide it away as if it is a sin to preform those acts. Why must we hide from body functions which we all have in common?
  There is still evidence of the old times, in houses today. I have seen many a farm house which had a toilet installed in the corner in a main living room. A tradition, I think, which should be continued. In this case, the toilet becomes the social chamber pot of the past, and allows a user to maintain in social contact with everyone, while they take care of their bodily functions. If I ever designed a house, I may consider just such an installation.
  Some interesting food for thought.
  Tags: Roadwolf's Rants // 2 Comments >>
JUDGE BLOCKS BLOOMBERG'S SODA BAN '-- Calls It 'Arbitrary' And 'Capricious'
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:51
  Business InsiderMonday, March 11, 2013 7:59 PM GMT
  A judge has invalidated New York City's soda ban, saying that the limits on sugary drinks are invalid, according to CNBC.
  "A state judge has blocked New York City from moving forward with Mayor Bloomberg's large sugary drink ban, a major defeat for the mayor," tweets Wall Street Journal City Hall reporter Michael Howard Saul.
  The New York City Mayor's Office says that it will appeal the decision "as soon as possible."
  Bloomberg's new sugary drink regulations are "fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences," New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling wrote, according to the WSJ.
  "It is arbitrary and capricious because it applies to some but not all food establishments in the City," he wrote. "it excludes other beverages that have significantly higher concentrations of sugar sweeteners and/or calories on suspect grounds."
  "The simple reading of the rule leads to the earlier acknowledged uneven enforcement even within a particular city block, much less the city as a whole," he continued. "The loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of the rule."
  The ban on large sugary drinks was supposed to go in effect Tuesday.
  Earlier today, Bloomberg predicted that his new regulations would be accepted by most, according to the New York Post.
  "I think you're not going to see a lot of push back here," he said.
  We reached out to the Mayor's Office, which declined to comment. But it did tweet out a note:
  We plan to appeal the sugary drinks decision as soon as possible, and we are confident the measure will ultimately be upheld.
  '-- NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) March 11, 2013More to come...
Hackers release financial records for vice president, attorney general, FBI director and others '-- RT USA
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:07
  Published time: March 11, 2013 19:49Edited time: March 11, 2013 20:27
  Hackers have published what are alleged to be the personal financial records for several politicians and celebrities, including US Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and musicians Jay-Z and Beyonc(C).
  Gossip website TMZ reported on Monday that hackers have leaked sensitive information pertaining to a list of prominent Americans, including celebrities Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Mel Gibson and Ashton Kutcher, as well as public figures Joe Biden, Robert Mueller, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, but elected to not share the information with their audience.
  ''A website -- we're not disclosing the name -- has posted social security numbers, mortgage amounts, credit card info, car loans, banking and other info of major celebs,'' the website wrote.
  RT has learned that the website is Exposed.Su.
  The documents, contained on a page titled 'The Secret Files,' were made known to RT on Monday afternoon. The page contains simply a link to the figures allegedly hacked, an image of a girl holding her forefinger up to her mouth and a quote from the television program Dexter: "If you believe that God makes miracles, you have to wonder if Satan has a few up his sleeve.''
  Among the specific details included in the data dump are the Social Security numbers and alleged home addresses and contact information for most of the figures profiled, as well as credit reports and other financial figures for a select bunch.
  For former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, hackers have released only her Social Security Number and places of residence. For other targets, though, the information leaked allows for much more of a glimpse into their finances.
  According to the documents hosted on Exposed.Su, Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher was spending $981 each month for a car he leased from Chase Auto Finance in 2004. Rapper Jay-Z, real name Sean Carter, has been reported to a collections agency on at least one occasion. As of this month, he also has a HSBC bank account with a balance of $816,882 '-- and a credit line of over five-and-a-half million. The page for his wife, performer Beyonc(C) Giselle Knowles-Carter, includes the singer's SSN, a list of homes and a handful of phone numbers, as well as bank transaction information.
  RT called one of those numbers listed as Beyonc(C) to confirm authenticity, but was transferred to two separate operators that claimed that they've been receiving a number of calls. That number was discovered as registered to Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, "a leading full-service business management firm for entertainers, executives and select high net worth individuals."
Anwar al-Awlaki Is the New Aluminum Tube
  Link to Article
  Source: Crooks and Liars
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:09
  Mark Mazzetti, Charlie Savage, and Scott Shane team up to provide the government's best case '-- and at times, an irresponsibly credulous one '-- for the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki and the collateral deaths of Samir Khan and Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.
  Yet even in a 3,600-word story, they don't present any evidence against the senior Awlaki that was fresher than a year old '-- the October 2010 toner cartridge plot '-- at the time the Yemeni-American was killed. (I'm not saying the government didn't have more recent intelligence; it just doesn't appear in this very Administration-friendly case.) Not surprisingly, then, the story completely ignores questions about the definition of ''imminent threat'' used in the OLC memo and whether Awlaki was an ''imminent'' threat when he was killed.
  The ''linked in various ways'' standard for killing Americans
  Moreover, the case they do present has various weaknesses.
  The story provides a fair amount of space to Awlaki's celebration of the Nidal Hasan attack (though it does make it clear Awlaki did not respond enthusiastically to Hasan's queries before the attack).
  Investigators quickly discovered that the major had exchanged e-mails with Mr. Awlaki, though the cleric's replies had been cautious and noncommittal. But four days after the shootings, the cleric removed any doubt about where he stood.
  ''Nidal Hassan is a hero,'' he wrote on his widely read blog. ''He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.''
  It uses far vaguer language to describe Awlaki's role in the Faisal Shahzad and toner cartridge plots.
  Meanwhile, attacks linked in various ways to Mr. Awlaki continued to mount, including the attempted car bombing of Times Square in May 2010 by Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen who had reached out to the preacher on the Internet, and the attempted bombing by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula of cargo planes bound for the United States that October.
  ''Linked in various ways'' seems to be the new standard for killing an American. That, in spite of the fact that Shahzad's tie to Awlaki seems to be the same Hasan had: an inspiration, but not any involvement in the plot. And while Awlaki is reported to have had some role in the toner cartridge plot, reports from Saudi infiltrator Jabir al-Fayfi apparently fingered others in AQAP as the chief plotters.
  I guess that would be too much nuance to include in a 3,600 word article.
  NYT doesn't care about problems with the Abu Tarak explanation
  Which leaves the UndieBomb attack as the sole attack in which the NYT presents evidence about Awlaki's direct role. But there's a problem with their claims there, too.
  The would-be underwear bomber told F.B.I. agents that after he went to Yemen and tracked down Mr. Awlaki, his online hero, the cleric had discussed ''martyrdom and jihad'' with him, approved him for a suicide mission, helped him prepare a martyrdom video and directed him to detonate his bomb over United States territory, according to court documents.
  In his initial 50-minute interrogation on Dec. 25, 2009, before he stopped speaking for a month, Mr. Abdulmutallab said he had been sent by a terrorist named Abu Tarek, although intelligence agencies quickly found indications that Mr. Awlaki was probably involved. When Mr. Abdulmutallab resumed cooperating with interrogators in late January, an official said, he admitted that ''Abu Tarek'' was Mr. Awlaki. With the Nigerian's statements, American officials had witness confirmation that Mr. Awlaki was clearly a direct plotter, no longer just a dangerous propagandist.
  I don't doubt that Awlaki was directly involved in this attack in some way. And I got the same explanation about Abu Tarak from ''an official'' back when I first noted the discrepancy between DOJ's public claims (thanks for not crediting me on that one, NYT boys). But either Abdulmutallab said something beyond ''Abu Tarak was Awlaki,'' or the entire explanation is not credible.
  That's because Abdulmutallab's initial interrogation '-- according to the version presented by Jonathan Tukel in the opening arguments of Abdulmutallab's trial '-- said Abu Tarak did the following:
  Spoke daily with Abdulmutallab about jihad and martyrdomSuggested to Abdulmutallab that he become involved in a plane attack against the United States aircraftGave him training in detonating the bombTold him to make sure he attacked a U.S. aircraft and make sure the attack takes place over the United StatesYet according to the version of Abdulmutallab's interrogation presented in his sentencing memo, here's who did those things:
  Awlaki and Abdulmutallab discussed martyrdom and jihadDefendant and Ibrahim Al Asiri discussed defendant's desire to commit an act of jihad; Asiri discussed a plan for a martyrdom mission with Awlaki, who gave it final approvalAsiri trained defendant in the use of the bombAwlaki instructed defendant that the only requirements were that the attack be on a U.S. airliner, and that the attack take place over U.S. soilThat is, the things Abdulmutallab attributed to Abu Tarak in his first interrogation include two things the government now says Awlaki did '-- talk about martyrdom and gave final instructions about attacking the US '-- and at least one thing Asiri did '-- train him on the bomb (the government narrative seems to suggest Asiri was the one who first approached Abdulmutallab about the plane attack, too, but that is perhaps deliberately left more vague).
  Moreover, Abdulmutallab also said he met Abu Tarak at a mosque and stayed with him for a period in Sanaa, which is totally inconsistent with the government narrative of how and where he met either Awlaki or Asiri.
  Abu Tarak is not simply Awlaki. Perhaps Abdulmutallab said Abu Tarak was an amalgam of three different people he met in Yemen. Perhaps he never said anything to explain the Abu Tarak reference, and DOJ just claims he did because some of what he attributed to Abu Tarak he later attributed to Awlaki. But the NYT presents a claim '-- that Abdulmutallab said Abu Tarak was Awlaki '-- that is not consistent with the public records and the government's own claims about what that public record represents.
  Add in the fact that the government's own expert, Dr. Simon Perry, after having read 18 or 19 of Abdulmutallab's interrogation reports, including the ones where he reportedly implicated Awlaki, seemed to believe that Abu Tarak was someone different than Awlaki. Perry further pointed out that one of the few public statements Abdulmutallab ever made about his attack '-- accusing Americans of being guilty at his trial '-- contradicts the claims he made in February 2010 interrogations where he said Awlaki chose his target.
  For example, in his statement to the court he claims that his attack was an outcome of the fact that the ''American people are guilty of the sin, and Obama should pay for the crime''. In contradiction to this statement made in court, UFAM previously, in his FBI debriefing, claims that he did not specifically target the U.S. for his mission.
  [snip]
  Once again as explained above (p.9 [sic] of this memorandum) what UFAM said when interviewed by FBI agents is a direct contradiction to later statement in court upon the entry of his guilty plea.
  None of this proves that Abdulmutallab didn't implicate Awlaki. I think he probably did. But what it does prove is the NYT took a single anonymous source's word as reason to dismiss real (albeit minor) inconsistencies with the government's public story, even though that anonymous source's explanation introduced more problems than it solved. That is, the way NYT treated the Abu Tarak reference doesn't necessarily say anything about the evidence against Awlaki, but it does show how uncritically it took the claims made by sources.
  NYT finally finds a WikiLeaks cable it doesn't like!
  There's one other really irresponsible piece to this story. Here's how they describe the December 24, 2009 strike when the government missed Awlaki.
  On Dec. 24, 2009, in the second American strike in Yemen in eight days, missiles hit a meeting of leaders of the affiliate group. News accounts said one target was Mr. Awlaki, who was falsely reported to have been killed.
  In fact, other top officials of the group were the strike's specific targets, and Mr. Awlaki's death would have been collateral damage '-- legally defensible as a death incidental to the military aim. As dangerous as Mr. Awlaki seemed, he was proved to be only an inciter; counterterrorism analysts did not yet have incontrovertible evidence that he was, in their language, ''operational.'' [my emphasis]
  It was not just ''news accounts'' that said one target was Awlaki. Then Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh strongly implied as much, in the days after the attack, in a conversation with David Petraeus (who apparently didn't dispute his understanding) recorded in a WikiLeaks cable. Now, that doesn't disprove the NYT's claim that the justification the US used for targeting Awlaki at a time they believed him not to be operational is that he would be known collateral damage in a strike ostensibly targeted at someone else. But introducing the cable (this is the NYT! They never pass up an opportunity to rely on WikiLeaks cables!) would have undermined the rest of their article.
  That's because the cable provides a great deal of evidence that the government has used a ''sitting next to baddies'' justification for killing (or, in this case, trying to kill) Americans against whom they don't have enough evidence to target directly. That's almost certainlywhat happened with Kamal Derwish back in 2002, too.
  If the US does use a ''sitting next to baddies'' excuse for killing Americans against whom the government doesn't have adequate evidence to justify killing directly, then what is the value of all this blather?
  The missile strike on Sept. 30, 2011, that killed Mr. Awlaki '-- a terrorist leader whose death lawyers in the Obama administration believed to be justifiable '-- also killed Mr. Khan, though officials had judged he was not a significant enough threat to warrant being specifically targeted.
  [snip]
  In April 2011, the United States captured Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, a Somali man who worked closely with the Qaeda affiliate in Yemen. He was held aboard a naval vessel for more than two months and spoke freely to interrogators, including about his encounters with the former North Carolina man now editing the group's magazine, Samir Khan.
  While the United States had long tracked Mr. Khan, the new details from the Warsame interrogation raised the question of whether another American citizen should be considered for targeting. There was still scant evidence tying Mr. Khan to any specific plot, so the administration left him off the list. But events would not turn out so neatly.
  [snip]
  Mr. Khan, whom they had specifically decided not to add to the kill list, was dead, too. While the lawyers believed that his killing was legally defensible as collateral damage, the death cast a cloud over all those months of seemingly cautious efforts to analyze who should go on the list and who should not.
  The NYT article strongly implies that in response to the Warsame intelligence, the government considered putting Khan on a targeting list at a time when he fit the same category Awlaki had been in when the government first tried to kill him under a ''sitting next to baddies'' standard: a propagandist who was not operational. And yet the NYT concludes from that that Khan's death '-- which the government had apparently wanted but not found a way to justify legally '-- ''cast a cloud'' over the Awlaki killing?
  Likewise, given the evidence the government does use a ''sitting next to baddies'' standard to kill people who are inconvenient, what is the credibility of this sob story?
  Then, on Oct. 14, a missile apparently intended for an Egyptian Qaeda operative, Ibrahim al-Banna, hit a modest outdoor eating place in Shabwa. The intelligence was bad: Mr. Banna was not there, and among about a dozen men killed was the young Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who had no connection to terrorism and would never have been deliberately targeted.
  It was a tragic error and, for the Obama administration, a public relations disaster, further muddying the moral clarity of the previous strike on his father and fueling skepticism about American assertions of drones' surgical precision. The damage was only compounded when anonymous officials at first gave the younger Mr. Awlaki's age as 21, prompting his grieving family to make public his birth certificate.
  He had been born in Denver, said the certificate from the Colorado health department. In the United States, at the time his government's missile killed him, the teenager would have just reached driving age.
  Um, fellas? You note that the Administration had a cover story ready for Abdulrahman's death (rather than remaining silent, which is what they normally do), but from that you conclude the government treats this as a horrible mistake?
  Mind you, the NYT makes their job '-- which, in addition to claiming critics of the legal case behind the Anwar al-Awlaki killing are simply confused, seems to be inventing narratives to make the Khan and Abdulrahman deaths less appalling '-- much easier by ignoring that WikiLeaks cable. But ignoring it does the same thing their demonstrably credulous acceptance of the Abu Tarak story does: It demonstrates how hard the NYT worked to preserve the narrative the government fed them, public evidence to the contrary.
  It's all very convenient, that the NYT worked so hard to preserve the Administration's narrative spinning its action as reasonable, just before Obama will reportedly make a speech about it. Any bets that what Obama says will match the story told here?
Jacking Up Taxes Working Wonders And Nobody's Upset! - Ed Schultz
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:09
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  ED SCHULTZ (08 March 2013): We've added 36 months of private-sector job growth. We're at a total of 6.4 million jobs added since we were in the toilet, a very solid sign that the economy is moving in the correct direction. Remember this guy? You can't raise taxes on the job creators! (imitates George W. Bush). Oh yes you can, because we just raised taxes on the job creators! Remember our old buddy Bushy?
  SCHULTZ (07:38): Well, we have raised taxes on the alleged job creators is what we've done with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts which kicked in on January 1st, 2013, not too long ago. Well, the job creators, they're not as pissed off as everybody thought they were going to be, apparently!
CNN Panel Laughs at Press Getting 'Manipulated' by White House, But CNN Was 'Manipulated' Too
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:04
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  On Sunday's Reliable Sources, the CNN panel scoffed at the media for getting "manipulated" by the White House last week into hyping Obama's meetings with the GOP as a "charm offensive." CNN's own reporting shows that it played right into that narrative.
Lawmakers Move To Make License Plate Flipper Illegal
  Link to Article
  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:01
Seattle's Five Point Cafe Becomes First In The Country To BAN Google Glasses
  Link to Article
  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:59
Guest Post: The 1984 Playbook Has Arrived: U.S. Air Force Deletes Drone Strike Data
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:58
  Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg
  The 1984 Playbook Has Arrived: U.S. Air Force Deletes Drone Strike Data
  If you recall, Winston Smith's job in George Orwell's classic novel 1984 was to go into historical records and literally change history. He would alter photographs and text in the archives so that history would always portray ''The Party'' in a positive light and as omniscient. Well folks, this behavior has arrived in America and we better nip it in the bud fast before one of these drones is flying right over our heads. From the Air Force Times:
  As scrutiny and debate over the use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) by the American military increased last month, the Air Force reversed a policy of sharing the number of airstrikes launched from RPAs in Afghanistan and quietly scrubbed those statistics from previous releases kept on their website.
  Last October, Air Force Central Command started tallying weapons releases from RPAs, broken down into monthly updates. At the time, AFCENT spokeswoman Capt. Kim Bender said the numbers would be put out every month as part of a service effort to ''provide more detailed information on RPA ops in Afghanistan.''
  The Air Force maintained that policy for the statistics reports for November, December and January. But the February numbers, released March 7, contained empty space where the box of RPA statistics had previously been.
  Additionally, monthly reports hosted on the Air Force website have had the RPA data removed '-- and recently.
  On Sunday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the decision was made to remove the statistics because the data disproportionately places emphasis on the airstrikes. The majority of the RPA missions are for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, with a small percent involving airstrikes.
  The data removal coincided with increased scrutiny on RPA policy caused by President Obama's nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA. Brennan faced opposition in the Senate over the use of RPAs and his defense of their legality in his role as Obama's deputy national security adviser.
  Nothing to see here folks, move along. Literally.
  Full article here.
  Average:Your rating: NoneAverage: 5(26 votes)
VIDEO-Jim Moran says Giffords was killed | MRCTV
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:58
  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.
Dennis Rodman: 'I'm Vacationing With Kim Jong Un In August'
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:55
  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.
Gore Defends Current TV Sale, Says Profit Motive Was Not Reason He Sold to Big Oil
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:54
  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.
Erin Burnett to Laura Bush: Must America Accept Anti-Semitism To Affect Change In Middle East?
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:54
  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.
FDIC Settled Bank Cases Since 2007 With 'No Press Release' Clause
  Link to Article
  Source: Crooks and Liars
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:50
  Sheila Bair talks about her time at the FDIC.Wow. I can't wait to hear what Elizabeth Warren has to say about this:
  At the request of rule-breaking bankers, a top U.S. regulator has for years settled bank cases in secret, raising the bar on just how far regulators are willing to go to help the industry they regulate.
  The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which insures bank deposits in the U.S. and shuts down failing banks, has since 2007 repeatedly settled charges of banker wrongdoing by agreeing to "no press release" clauses that keep the settlements a secret, the Los Angeles Times reports.
  In one particularly glaring example, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $54 million to quietly settle charges that its New York mortgage-banking subsidiary, MortgageIT, sold bad loans to another mortgage bank, Independent National Mortgage Corporation, a/k/a "IndyMac." IndyMac collapsed under the weight of bad mortgage loans in July 2008, a notable milestone in the financial crisis.
  In exchange for the settlement, the FDIC agreed not to announce the deal unless it was asked about it, the LAT writes. That was just one of "scores" of such settlements the LAT discovered through a Freedom of Information Act request that turned up 1,600 pages of documents.
  The FDIC would not comment to the LAT about the no-press-release clauses, but a spokesman did say that it announces settlements "when damage payments are large and media interest intense." And many of the settlements turned up by the FOIA request were indeed fairly small. That does not explain the non-announcement of the Deutsche Bank settlement, which was relatively large and would probably have attracted some media interest.
  The no-disclosure clauses might have helped the FDIC settle cases more easily, saving it the expense of going to trial. But so far the agency has been able to recover only $787 million of the $92.5 billion lost to bank collapses between 2007 and 2012, according to the LAT. Those bank failures were often helped along by the banker misbehavior flagged in the FOIA documents, which the LAT calls "a catalog of fraud and negligence: reckless loans to homeowners and builders; falsified documents; inflated appraisals; lender refusals to buy back bad loans."
  The revelation comes just days after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder admitted publicly that some banks are simply too big to prosecute without hurting the broader economy. Instead, U.S. regulators have repeatedly doled out wrist slaps to major banks over allegations such as money laundering, mortgage fraud and foreclosure fraud, while declining to file criminal charges against either banks or individual bankers.
'Fortune' Editor Applauds Nanny Bloomberg: 'You Have To Take People By The Hand'
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:50
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  On Morning Joe, 'Fortune' editor Leigh Gallagher, expressing support for NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on big soft drinks, says "sometimes you have to do not what people want you to do. You have to take people by the hand and lead them."
VIDEO-Residents Urged To Prep For 'Two Weeks On Your Own' On Quake Anny CBS Los Angeles
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:17
  LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) '-- People from Los Angeles to Tokyo have been gathering to honor the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan two years ago.
  KNX 1070'²s Claudia Peschiutta reports a memorial service held on Sunday near Little Tokyo included a panel discussion on how residents in the Southland can prepare for the next major quake.
  SoCal Marks 2nd Anniversary Of Tokyo QuakeClaudia PeschiuttaDisplays outside LAPD headquarters recalled the 2011 quake that left 18,000 dead and destroyed 300,000 homes, including a plaque underscoring the ongoing recovery for residents in the Tohoku region of Japan.
  Fire officials were on hand to remind the public of what a similar quake could mean for Southern California.
  ''A lot of people don't realize that we are earthquake prone in California, but we also could get a tsunami,'' Los Angeles County Fire Asst. Chief David Stone said. ''We just haven't had one in a long time.''
  Residents were urged to prepare for a number of disaster scenarios, including how to cope for being at least ''two weeks on your own''.
  ''The message for a lot of us needs to be, 'Be ready for anything','' said Battalion Chief Larry Collins. ''The message used to be 72 hours, but we've seen in disasters like [Hurricane] Katrina, even [Hurricane] Sandy recently, that, really, if it's wiped out your infrastructure, and your electricity grid and your communications, it will be very likely be more than three days before you start getting food, water and other supplies coming in from outside.''
  The event also featured an interfaith service including Buddhist monks, a Jewish cantor and Christian representatives.
  Residents in Tokyo on Monday, meanwhile, stood in silence at 2:46 p.m., the very moment the magnitude-9.0 quake struck on March 11, 2011, and wiped out entire coastal communities along with triggering a tsunami that caused three reactors to meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
VIDEO-U.S. Army veteran joins al Qaeda-linked group after months of fighting with rebel forces in Syria | Mail Online
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:13
  By Hayley Peterson
  PUBLISHED: 15:36 EST, 11 March 2013 | UPDATED: 07:30 EST, 12 March 2013
  A U.S. Army veteran says he has joined an offshoot of al Qaeda after spending several months fighting alongside Syrian rebel forces.
  Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, has joined al Qaeda-linked group Jabhat al-Nusra in part because of his fascination with the conflict in the Middle East.
  His story will undoubtedly infuriate the hundreds of thousands of service men and women who have risked their lives on the battlefields fighting al Qaeda, only to learn that he never actually served overseas for the United States, and has picked up disability pay for years before going over to fight for the terrorist-backed organization.
  'Getting into al-Nusra is not rocket science,' he said. 'It just takes balls and brains.'
  Scroll down for video
  Eric Harroun (right), a 30-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Phoenix, has joined al Qaeda alias Jabhat al-Nusra after months of fighting with Syrian rebels
  Harroun, who is known among Syrian rebels and loyalists as 'The American,' joined the U.S. Army in 2000 and he was dishcharged with full disability pay for an injury in 2003 without ever having seen battle
  Harroun, who is known among Syrian rebels and loyalists as 'The American,' joined the U.S. Army in 2000 and he was discharged with full disability pay for an injury in 2003 without ever having seen battle, according to his father.
  He was injured while riding in a pickup truck that hit a tree and he now has a steel plate in his head, his father Darryl Harroun told Fox.
  'Now he has mood swings and what-not,' he said. 'He was already suffering from depression before that, and the accident just kind of multiplied it,' the elder Mr Harroun said he frequently talks to his son by phone.
  He said he doesn't agree with what Eric is doing but can't get him to stop.
  Rebel fighting: In his time working for the U.S. army, Harroun never actually served in battle but earned his disability check because he was hit in a car crash on a base
  Harroun revels in his 'hero' status and brags on Facebook and in YouTube vidoes of his bloody exploits in the Middle East
  Harroun right) describes himself as a Sunni Muslim on Facebook and writes about his hatred of Israel and Zionists
  'He just loves that part of the world,' his father said. 'We scratch our heads and wonder what the hell he's doing.
  'I told him, "You're never going to change those people's minds over there." But he says they treat him like a hero.'
  Eric's life has changed dramatically from the days when he worked at Artisan Mortgage company in Phoenix, Arizona from 2006 to 2008 where he described his job as finalizing 'applications for home loans or second mortgages,and a lot of other boring paperwork.'
  Domestic life: Before going overseas, Harroun lived in this Phoenix, Arizona apartment building
  Previous life: He worked at Artisan Mortgage Company from 2006 to 2008 finalizing second mortgages 'and alot of other boring paperwork'
  Proud: Now he posts pictures as he holds machine guns and dressed in army fatigues while in Syria
  Eric Harroun revels in his 'hero' status and brags on Facebook and in YouTube videos of his bloody exploits in the Middle East.
  His Facebook page is littered with photos of himself brandishing handguns, rifles, mortars and other weaponry.
  'He says they treat him like a hero.'-Eric's father Darryl Harroun says
  In a photo of himself holding a mortar in one hand and a rifle in the other that he posted on Facebook, he writes, 'Lol Army of Darkness, This is my BOOM STICK. Lol.'
  A lit cigarette hangs out of his mouth in the image and in a similar photo featuring a sniper rifle, where he writes, 'Ready to tear Bashar Al-Assads [sic] Army and the Shabehah apart!!'
  He describes himself as a Sunni Muslim on Facebook and writes about his hatred of Israel and Zionists. Under his 'Favorite Quotations' section of his profile he writes, 'The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist.'
  The Syrian rebel group Amr ibn al-'Aas Brigade told Fox that 'The American' was working with them until last month - about the time he reportedly joined Al-Nusra
  Harroun's father said he fears for his son's safety and has little doubt that he will lose him battles abroad
  Early on: Harroun appears to have been in Cairo's Tehir Square at the time of the Arab Spring in 2011
  In a YouTube video uploaded in mid-January, Harroun warns Assad that his days are 'numbered.'
  'Bashar Assad, your days are numbered,' he says in the video, where he is surrounded by several rebel fighters.
  'You are going down in flames. You should just quit now, while you can, and leave. You are going to die, no matter what. Where you go we will find you and kill you. Do you understand?'
  At another point, he changed his Facebook status to read that he was 'LMAO at Bashar Al-Assads Speech today!!!!!'
  The Syrian rebel group Amr ibn al-'Aas Brigade told Fox that 'The American' was working with them until last month - about the time he reportedly joined al-Nusra.
  Harroun's father said he fears for his son's safety and has little doubt that he will lose him battles abroad.
  'I know one day I'm going to get a message from over there, telling me my son is dead,' he said.
  US Army veteran Eric Harroun joins al Qaeda-linked group after...
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FTC to Study Data Broker Industry's Collection and Use of Consumer Data
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:09
  For Release: 12/18/2012
  The Federal Trade Commission issued orders requiring nine data brokerage companies to provide the agency with information about how they collect and use data about consumers. The agency will use the information to study privacy practices in the data broker industry.
  Data brokers are companies that collect personal information about consumers from a variety of public and non-public sources and resell the information to other companies. In many ways, these data flows benefit consumers and the economy; for example, having this information about consumers enables companies to prevent fraud. Data brokers also provide data to enable their customers to better market their products and services.
  The nine data brokers receiving orders from the FTC are: 1) Acxiom, 2) Corelogic, 3) Datalogix, 4) eBureau, 5) ID Analytics, 6) Intelius, 7) Peekyou, 8) Rapleaf, and 9) Recorded Future. The FTC is seeking details about:
  the nature and sources of the consumer information the data brokers collect;how they use, maintain, and disseminate the information; andthe extent to which the data brokers allow consumers to access and correct their information or to opt out of having their personal information sold.Earlier this year the FTC called on the data broker industry to improve the transparency of its practices as part of a Commission report, Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations for Businesses and Policymakers.
  In the Privacy Report, the FTC set forth a voluntary framework of best practices for businesses based on the concepts of privacy by design, consumer control, and increased transparency for the collection and use of consumer data. The Report noted that while data brokers collect, maintain, and sell a wealth of information about consumers, they often do not interact directly with consumers. Rather, they get information from public records and purchase information from other companies.
  As a result, consumers are often unaware of the existence of data brokers as well as the purposes for which they collect and use consumers' data. This lack of transparency also means that even when data brokers offer consumers the ability to access their data, or provide other tools, many consumers do not know how to exercise this right. There are no current laws requiring data brokers to maintain the privacy of consumer data unless they use that data for credit, employment, insurance, housing, or other similar purposes.
  The FTC will use the responses it receives to prepare a study and to make recommendations on whether, and how, the data broker industry could improve its privacy practices. The Commission is authorized to issue Orders to File a Special Report by Section 6(b) of the FTC Act.
  The Commission vote to approve issuing the orders was 5-0.
  The FTC would like to thank Chairman Jay Rockefeller and Reps. Edward Markey and Joe Barton for their leadership on this issue.
  The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC's online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC's website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics. Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.
  MEDIA CONTACT:Mitchell J. Katz,Office of Public Affairs202-326-2161
  STAFF CONTACT:Tiffany George, Bureau of Consumer Protection202-326-3040
  (FTC File No. P125404)
These Data Brokers Know You Live in an Apartment, Play Yahtzee, and Voted Democrat | Mother Jones
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:09
  The companies also collect data about your hobbies and many of the purchases you make. Want to buy a list of people who read romance novels? Epsilon can sell you that, as well as a list of people who donate to international aid charities.
  A subsidiary of credit reporting company Equifax even collects detailed salary and paystub information for roughly 38 percent of employed Americans, as NBC news reported. As part of handling employee verification requests, the company gets the information directly from employers.
  Equifax said in a statement that the information is only sold to customers "who have been verified through a detailed credentialing process." It added that if a mortgage company or other lender wants to access information about your salary, they must obtain your permission to do so.
  Of course, data companies typically don't have all of this information on any one person. As Acxiom notes in its overview, "No individual record ever contains all the possible data." And some of the data these companies sell is really just a guess about your background or preferences, based on the characteristics of your neighborhood, or other people in a similar age or demographic group.
  Where are they getting all this info?
  The stores where you shop sell it to them.
  Datalogix, for instance, which collects information from store loyalty cards, says it has information on more than $1 trillion in consumer spending "across 1400 leading brands." It doesn't say which ones. (Datalogix did not respond to our requests for comment.)
  Data companies usually refuse to say exactly what companies sell them information, citing competitive reasons. And retailers also don't make it easy for you to find out whether they're selling your information.
  But thanks to California's "Shine the Light" law, researchers at U.C. Berkeley were able to get a small glimpse of how companies sell or share your data. The study recruited volunteers to ask more than 80 companies how the volunteers' information was being shared.
  Only two companies actually responded with details about how volunteers' information had been shared. Upscale furniture store Restoration Hardware said that it had sent "your name, address and what you purchased" to seven other companies, including a data "cooperative" that allows retailers to pool data about customer transactions, and another company that later became part of Datalogix. (Restoration Hardware hasn't responded to our request for comment.)
  Walt Disney also responded and described sharing even more information: not just a person's name and address and what they purchased, but their age, occupation, and the number, age and gender of their children. It listed companies that received data, among them companies owned by Disney, like ABC and ESPN, as well as others, including Honda, HarperCollins Publishing, Almay cosmetics, and yogurt company Dannon.
  But Disney spokeswoman Zenia Mucha said that Disney's letter, sent in 2007, "wasn't clear" about how the data was actually shared with different companies on the list. Outside companies like Honda only received personal information as part of a contest, sweepstakes, or other joint promotion that they had done with Disney, Mucha said. The data was shared "for the fulfillment of that contest prize, not for their own marketing purposes."
  Where else do data brokers get information about me?
  Government records and other publicly available information, including some sources that may surprise you. Your state Department of Motor Vehicles, for instance, may sell personal information'--like your name, address, and the type of vehicles you own'--to data companies, although only for certain permitted purposes, including identify verification.
  Public voting records, which include information about your party registration and how often you vote, can also be bought and sold for commercial purposes in some states.
  Are there limits to the kinds of data these companies can buy and sell?
  Yes, certain kinds of sensitive data are protected'--but much of your information can be bought and sold without any input from you.
  Federal law protects the confidentiality of your medical records and your conversations with your doctor. There are also strict rules regarding the sale of information used to determine your credit-worthiness, or your eligibility for employment, insurance and housing. For instance, consumers have the right to view and correct their own credit reports, and potential employers have to ask for your consent before they buy a credit report about you.
  Other than certain kinds of protected data'--including medical records and data used for credit reports'--consumers have no legal right to control or even monitor how information about them is bought and sold. As the FTC notes, "There are no current laws requiring data brokers to maintain the privacy of consumer data unless they use that data for credit, employment, insurance, housing, or other similar purposes."
  So they don't sell information about my health?
  Actually, they do.
  Data companies can capture information about your "interests" in certain health conditions based on what you buy'--or what you search for online. Datalogix has lists of people classified as "allergy sufferers" and "dieters." Acxiom sells data on whether an individual has an "online search propensity" for a certain "ailment or prescription."
  Consumer data is also beginning to be used to evaluate whether you're making healthy choices.
  One health insurance company recently bought data on more than three million people's consumer purchases in order to flag health-related actions, like purchasing plus-sized clothing, the Wall Street Journal reported. (The company bought purchasing information for current plan members, not as part of screening people for potential coverage.)
  Spokeswoman Michelle Douglas said that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina would use the data to target free programming offers to their customers.
  Douglas suggested that it might be more valuable for companies to use consumer data "to determine ways to help me improve my health" rather than "to buy my data to send me pre-paid credit card applications or catalogs full of stuff they want me to buy."
  Do companies collect information about my social media profiles and what I do online?
  Yes.
  As we highlighted last year, some data companies record'--and then resell'--all kinds of information you post online, including your screen names, website addresses, interests, hometown and professional history, and how many friends or followers you have.
  Acxiom said it collects information about which social media sites individual people use, and "whether they are a heavy or a light user," but that they do not collect information about "individual postings" or your "lists of friends."
  More traditional consumer data can also be connected with information about what you do online. Datalogix, the company that collects loyalty card data, has partnered with Facebook to track whether Facebook users who see ads for certain products actually end up buying them at local stores, as the Financial Times reported last year.
  Is there a way to find out exactly what these data companies know about me?
  Not really.
  You have the right to review and correct your credit report. But with marketing data, there's often no way to know exactly what information is attached to your name'--or whether it's accurate.
  Most companies offer, at best, a partial picture.
  While Acxiom lets consumers review some of the information the company sells about them, New York Times reporter Natasha Singer discovered this summer that only a sliver of information is shared, including whether you have a prison record or bankruptcy filings.
  When Singer finally received her report, all it included was a record of her residential addresses.
  Some companies do offer more access. A spokeswoman for Epsilon said it allows consumers to review "high level information" about their data'--like whether or not you're listed as making a purchase in the "home furnishings" category. (Requests to review this information cost $5 and can only be made by postal mail.)
  RapLeaf, a company that advertises that it has "real-time data" on 80 percent of U.S. email addresses, says that it gives customers "total control over the data we have on you," and allows them to review and edit the categories (like "estimated household income" and "Likely Political Contributor to Republicans") that RapLeaf has connected with their email addresses.
  How do I know when someone has purchased data about me?
  Most of the time, you don't.
  When you're checking out at a store and a cashier asks you for your Zip code, the store isn't just getting that single piece of information. Acxiom and other data companies offer services that allow stores to use your Zip code and the name on your credit card to pinpoint your home address'--without asking you for it directly.
  Is there any way to stop the companies from collecting and sharing information about me?
  Yes, but it would require a whole lot of work.
  Many data brokers offer consumers the chance to "opt out" of being included in their databases, or at least from receiving advertising enabled by that company. Rapleaf, for instance, has a "Permanent opt-out" that "deletes information associated with your email address from the Rapleaf database."
  But to actually opt-out effectively, you need to know about all the different data brokers and where to find their opt-outs. Most consumers, of course, don't have that information.
  In their privacy report last year, the FTC suggested that data brokers should create a centralized website that would make it easier for consumers to learn about the existence of these companies and their rights regarding the data they collect.
  How many people do these companies have information on?
  Basically everyone in the U.S. and many beyond it. Acxiom, recently profiled by the New York Times, says it has information on 500 million people worldwide, including "nearly every U.S. consumer."
  After the 9/11 attacks, CNN reported, Acxiom was able to locate 11 of the 19 hijackers in its database.
  How is all of this data actually used?
  Mostly to sell you stuff. Companies want to buy lists of people who might be interested in what they're selling'--and also want to learn more about their current customers.
  They also sell their information for other purposes, including identity verification, fraud prevention and background checks.
  If new privacy laws are passed, will they include the right to see what data these companies have collected about me?
  Unlikely.
  In a report on privacy last year, the Federal Trade Commission recommended that Congress pass legislation "that would provide consumers with access to information about them held by a data broker." President Barack Obama has also proposed a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights that would give consumers the right to access and correct certain information about them.
  But this probably won't include access to marketing data, which the Federal Trade Commission considers less sensitive than data used for credit reports or identity verification.
  In terms of marketing data, "we think at the very least consumers should have access to the general categories of data the companies have about consumers," said Maneesha Mithal of the FTC's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.
  Data companies have also pushed back against the idea of opening up marketing profiles for individual consumers' inspection.
  Even if there were errors in your marketing data profile, "the worst thing that could happen is that you get an advertising offer that isn't relevant to you," said Rachel Thomas, the vice president of government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association.
  "The fraud and security risks that you run by opening up those files is higher than any potential harm that could happen to the consumer," Thomas said.
Cardif University claims of meteor 'algae fossils' spark debate | thetelegraph.com.au
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:02
  An electron microscope view of a collection of "fossils" found in what is believed to be a fragment from a meteor that exploded over Sri Lanka. Picture: University of CardiffSource: Supplied
  CONTROVERSY is raging over whether fossilised algae has been found inside the remains of a meteor which exploded over Sri Lanka last year.
  A Cardiff University team of astrobiologists examined specimens forwarded to them by the Sri Lankan Medical Research Institute when "curious features" appeared under the microscope.
  Some 628 fragments were recovered from rice fields after the fireball exploded in the sky on December 29.
  The Cardiff researchers have published a report in the Journal of Cosmology that the fused rocks appear to contain fossilised "biological structures" buried within three of them.
  Jamie Wallis of Cardiff University said the density of the rock and its composition indicates it may have been the remains of a comet.
  Electron microscope images reveal microfossils of about 100 micrometres across. Researchers say they appear similar to an almost extinct class of marine algae.
  A map published in the Journal of Cosmology showing where a fragment from a meteor believed to contain fossilised algae was recovered. Picture: University of Cardiff
  Another image shows what researchers say are unusually long and thin fossilised flagella (a set of cells forming a whip-like shape to propel tiny organisms). Their size and shape indicate a weightless, low pressure environment, the researchers say.
  The claims have generated controversy among the scientific community. Previous similar "fossilised" structures found in meteorites have been dismissed as either later contamination or simple crystalline structures.
  This supposedly fossilised structure found in a meteor. Picture: University of Cardiff
VIDEO-Max Keiser on Bitcoin Currency | Interview with Max Keiser - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:01
VIDEO-Is Homeschooling a Universal Human Right? - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:00
VIDEO-2-10-TimeAlex Jones Show: Monday (3-11-13) Max Keiser - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:59
Dutch Pension Assets Can Help Mortgage Funding, PGGM Says - Bloomberg
  Link to Article
  Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:42
  Dutch investor PGGM NV said the country's pension funds, with more than $1 trillion in assets, could help ease a housing slump by shifting money to funding mortgages that are burdening banks' balance sheets.
  The retirement funds, which have suffered as Europe's debt crisis and low interest rates hurt government bond yields and drove up liabilities, could benefit from increased margins on mortgages, said Eloy Lindeijer, head of investment management at Zeist, Netherlands-based PGGM. Investors could use Dutch residential mortgage-backed securities to hedge interest rate risks, he said.
  ''Before the 2008 crisis we exited the mortgage market as we considered margins on mortgages far too low to make them interesting,'' Lindeijer said in an interview. ''Now margins have risen, and the market could benefit if large Dutch investors become more active. It is high quality paper with a very low credit risk. And we understand it well as it is close to home.''
  The Netherlands' mortgage debt is among the world's highest, amounting to 110 percent of gross domestic product, the Dutch central bank said in March. A 500 billion-euro ($625 billion) difference between outstanding loans and retail savings at banks makes lenders reliant on market funding, it said.
  Dutch house prices have dropped more than 10 percent from a peak in 2008, according to data from the country's statistical agency. They will continue to drop into 2014 because of stricter mortgage lending rules and a reduction of the homeowner tax break that spurred the lending boom, the central bank forecasts.
  Liquidity GapPension funds investing in Dutch mortgage securities ''wouldn't be the solution to the Dutch liquidity gap,'' said Lindeijer, 47. ''It might help boost residential mortgage-backed securities though if foreign investors see Dutch pension funds are investing.''
  The 2008 financial crisis, making investors wary of securitized products, pushed up funding costs for banks. To compensate, banks have increased mortgage rates, driving interest rates on savings deposits and mortgages to the highest levels in Europe, the central bank said in a report last month.
  Moody's ReviewMoody's Investors Service today placed on review for downgrade the ratings of eight notes in two residential mortgage-backed securities in the Netherlands. ''Today's rating action reflects the increased counterparty risk following the deterioration in credit quality of Dutch banks acting in various roles in the affected RMBS transactions,'' Moody's said in a statement.
  The nation's pension funds held 0.5 percent of Dutch securitizations at the end of 2011, according to the country's central bank. PGGM manages about 125 billion euros for six pension funds. Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn, the Netherlands second-largest retirement plan, is its biggest client with 120 billion euros in assets at the end of May.
  ''We are relatively under-invested in Dutch mortgages,'' said Lindeijer, who became PGGM's chief of investment management in September after more than 20 years at the Dutch central bank. In his last job there, he was director of the bank's financial markets division.
  The Netherlands has the euro currency union's biggest pension industry, with 913 billion euros in assets at the end of the first quarter, data from the Dutch central bank show. The assets are held in collective plans run by industry, company and occupational pension funds.
  To contact the reporter on this story: Maud van Gaal in Amsterdam at mvangaal@bloomberg.net
  To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at fconnelly@bloomberg.net
Major glitch in Bitcoin network sparks sell-off; price temporarily falls 23% | Ars Technica
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:36
  A technical glitch in the core Bitcoin software forced developers to call for a temporary halt to Bitcoin transactions, sparking a sharp sell-off. The currency's value briefly fell 23 percent to $37 before regaining much of its value later in the evening.
  The core of the Bitcoin network is a shared transaction register known as the blockchain. Approximately every 10 minutes, a new block is created containing a record of all Bitcoin transactions that occurred since the previous block. Nodes in the network, known as miners, race to "discover" this next block by solving a cryptographic puzzle. The winner of this race announces the new block to the other nodes. The other nodes verify that it complies with all the rules of the Bitcoin protocol and then accepts it as the next official entry in the block chain, starting the race anew.
  It's essential for all miners to enforce exactly the same rules about what counts as a valid block. If a client announces a block that half the network accepts and the other half rejects, the result could be a fork in the network. Different nodes could disagree about which transactions have occurred, potentially producing chaos.
  That's what happened on Monday evening. A block was produced that the latest version of the Bitcoin software, version 0.8, recognized as valid but that nodes still running version 0.7 or earlier rejected.
  "After some emergency discussion on #bitcoin-dev, it seems best to try to get the majority mining power back on the 'old' chain, that is, the one which 0.7 accepts," wrote Bitcoin developer Pieter Wuille in an e-mail. "That is the only chain every client out there will accept. If you're a miner, please revert to 0.7 until we at least understand exactly what causes this."
  He asked merchants to stop accepting transactions until the problems had been sorted out. Mt. Gox, the leading Bitcoin exchange, announced that it was suspending Bitcoin transactions shortly afterwards.
  The fix is technically straightforward, and (with the exception of coins "mined" in the last couple of hours) users' Bitcoins are not in any danger of being lost. Still, the incident shook the confidence of the markets. From a high of more than $48 earlier Monday, the value of Bitcoins plummeted to less than $37 around 10 PM Central time on Monday evening, a 23 percent decline. The price has since recovered; one Bitcoin is now worth about $46.
  This latest glitch is different from the problem that caused Bitcoin prices to briefly fall to zero on Mt. Gox in June of 2011. In that case, the sell-off was caused by the compromise of the exchange itself. The integrity of the underlying Bitcoin network was not affected, but the incident still contributed to a decline in public confidence in the currency. From a high of $32 earlier in the month, Bitcoins would decline to a value of $2 before the end of 2011.
  This time, the glitch occurred in the core Bitcoin software itself. Accordingly, the incident will be an important test of the cryptocurrency's decentralized governance structure. No single person or institution can order Bitcoin miners to abandon the 0.8 branch of the blockchain in favor of the 0.7 branch. Rather, the "winning" branch is effectively chosen by a majority vote of the network's computing power. Bitcoin's technical developers must convince a majority of the network's miners to voluntarily downgrade their software. Fortunately, Bitcoin still enjoys a relatively tight-knit community, and its leaders say they are confident they can get the cooperation they need.
  Disclosure: I own some Bitcoins.
Intrade - Home
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:44
  With sincere regret we must inform you that due to circumstances recently discovered we must immediately cease trading activity on www.intrade.com.
  These circumstances require immediate further investigation, and may include financial irregularities which in accordance with Irish law oblige the directors to take the following actions:
  Cease exchange trading on the website immediately.Settle all open positions and calculate the settled account value of all Member accounts immediately.Cease all banking transactions for all existing Company accounts immediately.During the upcoming weeks, we will investigate these circumstances further and determine the necessary course of action.
  To mitigate any further risk to members' accounts, we have closed and settled all open contracts at fair market value as of the close of business on March 10, 2013, in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of our customers' use of the website. You may view your account details and settled account balances by logging into the website.
  At this time and until further notice, it is not possible to make any payments to members in accordance with their settled account balance until the investigations have concluded.
  The Company will continue the maintenance and technology operations of the exchange system so that all information is preserved properly.
  We are not able to provide telephone support or live help services at this time, please contact the company by email at: accountservices@intrade.com
  We appreciate your custom and support over the years. We are committed to reporting faithfully the status of things as they are clarified and hope you will bear with us as we do all we can to resume operations as promptly as possible.
  Sincerely,
  The Board of Directors of Intrade the Prediction Market Limited
Barbara Walters Denies Elizabeth Hasselbeck Leaving 'The View'
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:26
  Obama cites improving job-creation numbers, steps toward more-equal pay for men and women, more consumer protection against predatory lending practices, and more Americans covered by health insurance than ever before. His campaign says, "We've come [...]
Joy Behar Claims 'You Can't Really Stay On TV Unless You're Likable'
  Link to Article
  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:25
  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.
After Helping Hype Sequestration as 'Vaporizing' U.S., George Stephanopoulos Admits Plan 'Isn't Working'
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  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:25
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  For weeks, ABC hyped the threat of sequestration as a threat that could "vaporize" America and "cripple" travel in the country. On Sunday's Good Morning America, however, George Stephanopoulos admitted that plan isn't "working." Perhaps helping the President shift strategies, the GMA segment focused on Obama "reaching out" to the Republican Party.
  Video cross-posted at NewsBusters.
VIDEO-SST - World Leader in Gunshot Detection | SST | World Leader in Gunshot Detection and Location
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  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:25
  SST delivers the world's most powerful, most scalable and most trusted gunshot detection solutions to local, state and federal agencies, governments and businesses all over the world.
  ShotSpotter Flex: Protecting Communities All Over the World
Cops patrolling Facebook for predictive policing '-- RT USA
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:23
  Published time: March 11, 2013 17:20
  Just seconds after the trigger of a gun is squeezed, police officers in cities and towns across America are alerted thanks to the latest and greatest state-of-the-art technology. Up-to-the-moment accuracy isn't always enough, though.
  Programs like the ShotSpotter system were already in place in 44 US cities by 2009, and in recent years the company has only added more names to its list of customers that can learn about gun activity the second shots are fired. ShotSpotter's developers describe it as ''a gunfire alert and analysis solution'' that uses specialized sensors and software to triangulate and pinpoint the precise location of each spent round within seconds, and dozens of law enforcement agencies across the United States have signed-on.
  When it's a matter of life or death, though, seconds can mean all the difference. That's the reasoning, at least, for why a number of police departments across America are relying not just on systems like ShotSpotter but other, more Orwellian surveillance techniques to spy on citizens and predict problems before they even occur. The result, depending on who you ask, means a drop in crime. It also, however, could mean no one is safe from the ever watching eye of Big Brother.
  Predictive policing programs that rely on algorithms and historic data to hypothesize the location and nature of future crimes are already being deployed New York City and other towns. Last month, in fact, Seattle, Washington Mayor Mike McGinn announced that two precincts there were starting to use predictive policing programs, promising ''This technology will allow us to be proactive rather than reactive in responding to crime.''
  ''The Predictive Policing software is estimated to be twice as effective as a human data analyst working from the same information'' Seattle Police Chief John Diaz told reporters. ''It's all part of our effort to build an agile, flexible and innovative police department that provides the best service possible to the public.''
  But specialized software and sensors aren't the only tools law enforcement officers are using to look into suspicious activity. In Los Angeles, one police department has at least one officer on the clock 24 hours a day patrolling social media sites for unusual activity.
  Tweets, Facebook posts and even Instagram photos are all subject to surveillance, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Mike Parker admits to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Parker works with the eight-member Electronic Communications Triage, or eComm Unit that monitor public social media posts at all hours of the day in order to see if advertised parties and other get-togethers could benefit from a surprise visit by the police.
  "They're watching social media and Internet comments that pertain to this geographic area, watching what would pertain to our agencies so we can prevent crime, help the public," Parker says. "And now they're going to be ramping up more and more with more sharing and interacting, especially during crises, whether it's local or regional."
  Tribute writer Brenda Gazzar cites unspecified incidents in LA where teenagers attend parties, drink heavily and engage in illegal activity. ''The partygoers usually get high, get a girl drugged up and then sexually assault her,'' Gazzar quotes Capt. Parker. ''Often gang members will show up, start fighting over a girl and end up shooting or stabbing someone.''
  "We are absolutely and completely convinced that we are preventing wild assaults from our efforts with these illegal social media advertised parties,'' Capt. Parker says, adding that the eComm unit has already thwarter around 250 ''illegal parties'' in Los Angeles County.
  So-called ''illegal parties'' aren't the only thing being searched for, though. The Tribune goes on to say that ''unsanctioned protests'' are also put under the magnifying glass by officers with the eComm unit who actively scour to Web to see what demonstrations are being planned and by whom.
  Capt. Parker says the eComm unit doesn't search for specific people, just certain activity, and stands by the system so far. With a number of other law enforcement agencies using state-of-the-art technologies to try and stop crime, though, it's forcing more and more Americans to submit to a society where the police become privy to their personal activity, whether they like it or not.
  Karen North, director of the University of Southern California's Annenberg Program on Online Communities, tells the Tribune that scouring social media sites for suspicious activity is ''a smart move'' on behalf of law enforcement, and that "All people should know that anything you put up on social media is public.''
  ''Even if you put it up on your private Facebook feed, you should still assume it's public" she tells the Tribune. When social media analysts have access to other implements, however, it raises all sorts of questions about what activity is fair game for the fuzz.
  Evgeny Morozov, a Bulgarian writer and researcher, reports for the UK's Observer this week that police agencies are starting to combine more and more of the data that enters eComm divisions and other units in agencies across the United States. In New York City, for example, Morozov acknowledges that the NYPD's recently rolled-out Domain Awareness System doesn't start and end with real-time gunshot alerts. That system, he says, ''syncs the city's 3,000 closed-circuit camera feeds with arrest records, 911 calls, licence plate recognition technology and radiation detectors.''
  ''It can monitor a situation in real time and draw on a lot of data to understand what's happening. The leap from here to predicting what might happen is not so great,'' he says.
  The thousands of surveillance cameras on the island of Manhattan alone have existed for years, and the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have led relentless campaigns against the NYPD's all-watching spy system and other constitutional-questionable behavior that brings every step in the City that Never Sleeps subject to police scrutiny. On the other side of the country, though, Seattle, Washington is soon becoming the surveillance capital of America. Earlier this year it was revealed that the major Pacific Northwest hub is in the midst of installing 30 surveillance cameras that will create a ''wireless mesh network security system'' on the city's harbor that can be monitored by law enforcement agencies across the region. Coupled with other activity, though, Seattle's eye-in-the-sky programs might be more serious than once suspected.
  When Seattle recently signed onto the ShotSpotter system at a cost of $950,000 over two years for installation and operation, the city agreed to install 52 mobile gunshot locators that can collect intelligence up to 600 feet away using high-tech microphones and cameras.
  ''Having a private corporation control more than fifty audio/video surveillance stations in Seattle is likely to attract external interest,'' security researcher Jacob Appelbaum tweeted over the weekend. A resident of Seattle, Appelbaum wrote on Twitter that he was looking for more information about the on-the-rise spy program being constructed in his city. ''I find it rather depressing that surveillance/dataveillance programs are created and are used without so much as a public discussion,'' he tweeted. ''It would be interesting to learn how much money it costs to spin up the system and to FOIA the real data as input into the system.''
  With public discourse on the subject sparse in many cities, though, obtaining, processing and sharing information with other concerned residents isn't as commonplace as Appelbaum and others might want it to be. When many cities sign contracts with ShotSpotter, press write-ups are few and far between. In other locales, cameras that monitor car traffic are accepted as a necessity to curb red-light runners and other haphazard drivers. Rarely, however, is it discussed what other intelligence these cameras collect, and with whom it's being shared with.
  Predictive policing ''may very well end up reducing crime to a certain degree,'' Loyola Law School professor Stan Goldman told National Public Radio in a 2011 interview. ''The question is at what cost, at what price?''
  According to a CBS report, a predictive policing program in an area of Los Angeles drove burglaries down by one-third in a matter of only five months. And when ShotSpotter was first installed in Saginaw, Michigan, crime soon dropped by 30 percent. As for the price, however, consider this: if each of the 52 ShotSpotter sensors in Seattle can collect data within a radius of 600 feet, then roughly 58,780,800 square feet of the city under surveillance '-- or over 2 square miles where privacy ceases to exist. That, of course, isn't even taking into account the other surveillance systems in place, including the one on the city's harbor.
  And don't even think about sharing this story on Facebook.
Freedom of (some) information: US 'national security' hampers data access
  Link to Article
  Source: USA RSS
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:48
  Published time: March 11, 2013 16:52
  Despite President Obama's promise that openness will prevail, America's government agencies continue to tighten their grip over free public access of state documents, AP reports. Papers are mostly being censored to conform to the security policy.
  America's Freedom of Information Act has been increasingly sacrificed for the sake of national security, revealed the latest analyses of the Associated Press.
  Having examined the annual document workflow of the 33 federal government agencies, the Associated Press concluded that just over a third of the private requests applied to US government agencies in 2012 were turned down altogether for various reasons, the most common of which are matters of national security.
  In some cases the requested records could not be found, while in others the requests were determined improper or the requestor refused to pay for the copies.
  A considerable part of the remaining nearly two-thirds of the requests that were finally handed over to the applicants had been either preliminarily censored or selectively curtailed.
  White House spokesman Eric Schultz reported of great effort the government agencies have demonstrated responsiveness in 2012 to ''the president's call for greater transparency.''
  Though the administration has answered a record number of requests in 2012, still matters of the national security withheld information in at least 5,223 cases in 2012, a sudden increase from 4,243 cases in 2011 (and even fewer - 3,805 cases - during Obama's first year in office).
  The US State Department answered just 57 per cent of its requests, a dramatic fall from 75 per cent in 2011.
  Up to 60 per cent of 3,586 requests applied to the CIA were either censored or withheld (49 per cent in 2011).
  The Pentagon's National Security Agency monitoring internet traffic and phone calls worldwide follows closely with 2,390 denials last year.
  The FOIA act is commonly understood as a remarkable index of Washington's transparency. Any citizen can ask for a copy of federal records for a symbolic cost '' but only if this poses no threat to national security, personal privacy, business secrets or national decision-making confidential data.
  Official documents are often needed as evidence in court, but the latest tendencies show that it is no longer enough to be a federal judge to resolve issues where governmental data is involved.
  When The New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union demanded access in January to government's legal justification for drone attacks to kill terrorist suspects, including the American citizens, abroad, they were denied the right.
  Federal judge Colleen McMahon of New York had to resort to literature, citing Alice in Wonderland and Catch-22, after ruling against the demand of NYT. And even her ruling in part became secret, being sealed and available to the government's lawyers only.
  ''I find myself stuck in a paradoxical situation in which I cannot solve a problem because of contradictory constraints and rules '-- a veritable Catch-22,'' Judge McMahon said. ''I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret.''
  Journalists who often need urgent information for breaking news probably suffered the most last year. So-called 'expedited processing' was granted by the US government in only 17 per cent of cases (24 per cent in 2011). Remarkably enough, the CIA denied all such requests in 2012.
  The US government agencies under the Obama administration continue to enhance the secrecy policies to an extent even greater than that at the times of George W. Bush and the laws supposed to prevent them from doing so, like the Freedom of Information Act, are losing their importance.
  ''FOIA is an imperfect law, and I don't think that's changed over the last four years since Obama took office,'' said Alexander Abdo, a staff attorney for its national security project at American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). ''We've seen a meteoric rise in the number of claims to protect secret law, the government's interpretations of laws or its understanding of its own authority. In some ways, the Obama administration is actually even more aggressive on secrecy than the [George W.] Bush administration,'' he told AP.
  In 2012 American citizens submitted over 590,000 FOIA-based requests for information.
  The leader of the number of requests among the agencies is the Homeland Security Department, requests to which almost doubled due to immigration files demands, reaching 190,589 new requests last year.
  Four agencies, including the Office of National Drug Control Policy, opted not to publish their annual FOIA performance for 2012 at all.
VIDEO-27 mins Dan Akroyd-Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - The Revolution in Intelligence. - YouTube
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  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:18
VIDEO-Obiden Chiners-Senate Session - C-SPAN Video Library
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:00
  U.S. Senate
  The Senate passed H.R. 598, to amend Title 38, to improve the capability of the Department of Veterans Affairs to recruit and retain physicians and dentists through increases in special pay authorities, and to authorize .. Read MoreThe Senate passed H.R. 598, to amend Title 38, to improve the capability of the Department of Veterans Affairs to recruit and retain physicians and dentists through increases in special pay authorities, and to authorize collective bargaining over conditions of employment for health-care employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs.'‚The Senate passed H.J. Res.'‚222, to provide for a settlement of the railroad labor-management disputes between certain railroad workers and their employers.'‚The Senate continued consideration of S.207, to amend the Commodity Exchange Act to authorize appropriations for and enhance the effectiveness of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.'‚The Senate indefinitely postponed S. 647, to require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit to Congress reports on the costs incurred by the United States in connection with the Persian Gulf conflict and the foreign contributions made to offset such costs, and to require the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury to submit to Congress reports on the contributions of foreign countries in response to the Persian Gulf crisis.
  13 hours, 30 minutes | 18 Views
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Google says the FBI is spying on some of you - The Week
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:22
  F
  or millions of Americans, Google is the fabric that weaves the various threads of our digital lives together: Gmail, Gchat, Google Voice, search queries, YouTube, Maps, Chrome '-- you name it. So it shouldn't really come as a surprise that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has repeatedly tapped the tech company for otherwise-private information concerning a small percentage of Google's users.
  But let's put it more plainly: The FBI has been spying on some of you.
  In a new Transparency Report announced in an official blog post, Google has released previously unseen information about the number of National Security Letters (NSLs) it has received from the FBI in the past couple of years. According to Wired, these letters "allow the government to get detailed information on Americans' finances and communications without oversight from a judge." Needless to say, the FBI sends NSLs out all the time '-- hundreds of thousands of them, in fact '-- to internet service providers, banks, credit companies, and other businesses. Unsurprisingly, organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union have accused the FBI of abusing the letters' power post-9/11.
  Until recently, it's been unlawful for a company to disclose when it has received an NSL. Now, thanks to a new deal with the Obama administration, Google is able to publish a broad range of instances in which it has received such FBI requests.
  As you can see, Google says it receives between 0 and 999 NSLs from the government each year. In 2009, those letters contained requests asking for information concerning between 1,000 and 1,999 users/accounts. In 2010, the FBI was slightly busier '-- 2,000 to 2,999 different users/accounts were requested. Then in 2011 and 2012, that range dipped back down.
  The search giant doesn't comply with every NSL it receives, and claims to carefully vet each request. "We review it carefully and only provide information within the scope and authority of the request," writes Google. "We may refuse to produce information or try to narrow the request in some cases." Google also says that the standard practice is to notify users when an NSL has been received concerning them, although the FBI has the power to nullify the disclosure if it may result in "a danger to the national security of the United States, interference with a criminal, counterterrorism, or counterintelligence investigation, interference with diplomatic relations, or danger to the life or physical safety of any person."
  You can read Google's Transparency Report for yourself here.
  And it's worth remembering: The FBI and other government agencies can still access your email without a warrant as long as the information has been stored on a third-party server for 180 days or more (per a convoluted and terribly antiquated 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act). A new email and phone tracking bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday seeks to make it harder for authorities to snoop around without a judge's order.
World Trembles As US Becomes Greatest Energy Nation In History
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:53
  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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  March 11, 2013
  World Trembles As US Becomes Greatest Energy Nation In History
  By:Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
  A startling report prepared by Energy Minister Alexander Novak for President Putin that is circulating in the Kremlin today warns that the United States is preparing to overturn the entire global economic system as it nears becoming the greatest energy producing nation in all of human history.
  According to this report, Russian, in fact global, fears of American energy dominance were realized this past week when the United States Energy Information Agency (EIA) announced that the US has catapulted past Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest fuel producer, meaning that they are expected to become almost self-sufficient in oil and gas by 2035, will overtake Russia in gas production by 2015, and Saudi Arabia in oil production by 2017.
  So profound has the Obama regimes push for global energy dominance become, this report notes, is that only three nations in history have increased their oil output by at least 900,000 barrels a day and done it in just a year.
  The nations are Saudi Arabia in 1974 following the OPEC oil embargo, Iraq in 1991 following the end of the Gulf War sparked by that nation's invasion of neighboring Kuwait, and the United States in 2012.
  The global fears raised by other nations as the United States becomes histories greatest energy powerhouse, this report continues, include the European Union, whose leaders fear this US move will make ''competition impossible,'' Canada, whose leaders say this has now become a ''direct threat to their economy,'' Africa's largest oil producer Nigeria, whose leaders warn their ''dominance may soon be history,'' and the OPEC nations who warn that US energy production has now become their cartels ''greatest threat.''
  Critical to note about the United States, this report says, it that this North American nation has the largest known deposits of oil shale in the world of which it is experiencing a ''revolution'' unseen in all of human history. [Note:Oil shale does not actually contain oil, but a waxy oil precursor known as kerogen.]
  This ''revolution'' in tapping these vast American shale oil reserves, this report says, involves an unconventional drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking), and which the number of these types of wells drilled by the Bush-Obama regimes between 2008 and 2011 in the US now equals 35,000, and as compared with the rest of entire world which during this time have drilled only 190.
  Even more astounding, new reports from the US are now stating that vast areas of their Western States, including California and Nevada, are set to expand the number of these fracking wells by over 500,000 within the next two years.
  Important to note, Minister Novak says in this report, is that the election of Obama as the ''Green President'' opposed to this historic push for oil production stands counters to his actions, and Administrations polices (actually funded by the major oil giants), which are now seeing the United States become the largest fossil fuel energy producer our world has ever seen.
  Equally, Minister Novak says, the United States global geopolitical positions regarding foreign relations and economics cannot be fully understood without knowing these US energy facts.
  For example, this report says: The so called Arab Spring, which continues to destabilize large portions of the Middle East, and is now hitting Saudi Arabia, the continued US-backed sanctions on Iran, and the Americans now attacking the oil-rich African nation of Mali, all clearly show the United States ''full intentions'' of keeping global oil prices at historic high levels in order to keep their domestic supplies competitive as compared to the rest of the world.
  As for the Obama regimes domestic economy, this report continues, the unconventional monetary policy being pursued by the US Federal Reserve called Quantitative Easing (QE) (which is the practice of printing trillions of US Dollars), is actually designed to strengthen the American currency as in the coming years these staggering sums (estimated at $2 trillion) of monies will flood back into the United States as nearly the entire world queues to buy its (then) cheap oil.
  Unfortunately for the masses of the American people, however, and as we had noted in our 4 March report ''Russia Moves To Label US As Plutocracy, Warns Of War'', the only ones who will actually benefit from this unprecedented wealth flooding into the United States will be their elite classes whose lust for wealth and luxury stand in sharp contrast to the suffering of nearly 100 million of their fellow citizens.
  March 11, 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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BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY; A Free and Simple Computer Link
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:13
  Think of it as a map to the buried treasures of the Information Age.
  A new software program available free to companies and individuals is helping even novice computer users find their way around the global Internet, the network of networks that is rich in information but can be baffling to navigate.
  Since its introduction earlier this year, the program, called Mosaic, has grown so popular that its use is causing data traffic jams on the Internet. That worries some computer scientists. But Mosaic's many passionate proponents hail it as the first "killer app" of network computing -- an applications program so different and so obviously useful that it can create a new industry from scratch.
  "Mosaic has given me a sense of limitless opportunity, which is the reason that I went into computer science in the first place," said Brian Reid, a computer researcher who is the director of the Digital Equipment Corporation's Network System's Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif.
  Digital, a leading computer maker, is exploring ways of using Mosaic as the basis for a whole new system of electronic commerce, letting customers easily browse through on-line product catalogues. Other companies -- including Xerox, the software company Novell Inc. and the publisher R. R. Donnelley -- are also exploring business opportunities they see springing from Mosaic. And in California, a government and private industry consortium called Smart Valley Inc. is using Mosaic to create an electronic marketplace for Silicon Valley high-tech companies.
  Before Mosaic, finding information on computer data bases scattered around the world required knowing -- and accurately typing -- arcane addresses and commands like "Telnet 192.100.81.100." Mosaic lets computer users simply click a mouse on words or images on their computer screens to summon text, sound and images from many of the hundreds of data bases on the Internet that have been configured to work with Mosaic.
  Click the mouse: there's a NASA weather movie taken from a satellite high over the Pacific Ocean. A few more clicks, and one is reading a speech by President Clinton, as digitally stored at the University of Missouri. Click-click: a sampler of digital music recordings as compiled by MTV. Click again, et voila: a small digital snapshot reveals whether a certain coffee pot in a computer science laboratory at Cambridge University in England is empty or full.
  Other data bases searchable with Mosaic include the card catalogues of the Library of Congress and hundreds of American and foreign university libraries, Federal Government archives, various NASA computers and the University of California at Berkeley paleontology museum. The French Government is also considering using Mosaic to display digitized versions of paintings and other art exhibits from its national galleries.
  "Mosaic is the first window into cyberspace," said Larry Smarr, the director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Champaign, Ill., where Mosaic was developed. The center in Champaign, which is one of the nation's four federally financed supercomputer research centers, is receiving more than 600,000 electronic information queries each week from Mosaic users.
  Available free to Internet users willing to download it to their computers, Mosaic has been acquired by several hundred thousand computer networkers in less than a year, according to several industry estimates. The users include computer scientists, librarians, software developers, magazine publishers, record companies and catalogue distributors, all of whom see it as the first general-purpose navigational tool for the emerging data highway. Helping Shape a Debate
  So sudden and dramatic has been Mosaic's success in attracting commercial software developers that the program may play a decisive role in determining the shape of the national "information infrastructure" now being debated by Government officials and telecommunications and computer executives.
  One evangelist for Mosaic is Mitchell D. Kapor, founder of the Lotus Development Corporation, the company whose Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet helped ignite the personal computer revolution in the early 1980's. Mr. Kapor, who heads the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public interest group on computer issues, visited a cable television industry show last week in Anaheim, Calif., and demonstrated Mosaic. He sees it as a tool in his crusade to cajole the telephone, cable television and computer industries to establish an open and accessible national data highway rather than a private toll road that many of the private companies seem to prefer.
  "For me Mosaic was a turning point," Mr. Kapor said. "It's like -C-Span for everyone." A Better Way to Browse
  Mosaic was created by a small group of software developers and students at the supercomputer center in Champaign, who set out 18 months ago to create a system for browsing through the World-Wide Web. The Web is an international string of computer data bases that uses an information-retrieval architecture developed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer specialist at the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva.
  Mr. Berners-Lee's system originally permitted many of the world's high-energy physics researchers to exchange information represented in a form known as hypertext. With hypertext, highlighted key words and images are employed to point a user to related sources of information.
  "I realized that if everyone had the same information as me, my life would be easier," Mr. Berners-Lee said.
  From a small electronic community of physicists, the World-Wide Web has grown into an international system of data base "server" computers offering diverse information. The Web has also fundamentally changed the way information is obtained over the Internet. In the past it has been largely necessary to connect to a remote host computer using a complicated software program that fooled the computer into thinking the far-away visitor was using one of the host machine's own local terminals. But the Web simplifies things by using a networking model called client-server computing, which allows remote requests for information from any personal computer or work station.
  "It's like the difference between the brain and the mind," Mr. Berners-Lee said. "Explore the Internet and you find cables and computers. Explore the Web and you find information."
  Much of the Web data now available to Mosaic users is being made available by university researchers who are constructing demonstration projects to explore the technology.
  But commercial applications are being worked on by a wide range of corporate developers. Novell, the world's largest developer of computer network software, has organized its technical reference literature so that any computer network user can retrieve it. Such browsing represents a form of advertising that is noninvasive and that seems to fit well with the culture of the Internet, whose users tend to be easily infuriated by electronic junk mail.
  "I'm convinced that very quickly we'll have a new Madison Avenue kind of industry devoted to this style of advertising," said Tony Rutkowski, an executive at the Sprint Corporation, one of the companies whose long-distance lines provide the backbone for the Internet.
  Already, O'Reilly & Associates, a technical book publisher based in Sebastapol, Calif., has used Mosaic and the Web to create an on-line magazine that includes advertising.
  There remain, however, significant barriers to using Mosaic. It requires that the user have a computer that is directly connected to the global Internet. Many businesses and almost all universities now have such connections, but the majority of personal computer users currently connect to the Internet only indirectly through on-line information services like Delphi or America Online.
  Many companies are now working on software that will make connecting to the Internet no more difficult than dialing into these on-line services. Earlier this week, for example, O'Reilly & Associates, in partnership with a Seattle software developer called Spry Inc., announced that next year it will begin distributing a software package for less than $100 called Internet-in-a-Box. The product, which will permit computer users to connect directly to the Internet, will also probably include a version of Mosaic to permit network novices to browse data stored in the Web.
  "The problem with Mosaic is that it's currently for the haves of the Internet," said Tim O'Reilly, president of the publishing company. "This is an attempt to bring this exciting end of the Internet to the average user. We think this is the future of on-line publishing."
Why an EC2 Instance is Not a Server
  Link to Article
  Source: Dave Winer's linkblog feed
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:03
  At Re:Invent, the AWS conference in Vegas last November, Amazon's CTO, Werner Vogels, made an interesting observation during his keynote address: ''An EC2 instance is not a server'--it's a building block.'' This sounded suspiciously like a tagline a car manufacturer might use to convince me that their car ''isn't just another car.'' But something about Vogels' statement stuck with me. I had used EC2 since the public beta and he succinctly stated something that I knew to be true but didn't understand why. It took a few months before I put the pieces together and could articulate what EC2 is and what it is not.
  From all outward appearances, and even functionally-speaking, an EC2 instance behaves as a virtualized server: A person can SSH (or Remote Desktop) into it and install nearly any application. In fact, from my experience, this is how >95% of developers are using AWS. However, this is a very myopic view of the platform. Most of the complaints levied against AWS (unreliable, costly, difficult to use) are by those who are trying to use EC2 as if it were a traditional server located in a datacenter.
  To truly understand AWS, we have to examine Amazon's DNA. In 2002-2003, a few years prior to the introduction of EC2, Bezos boldly committed the entire organization to embracing service-oriented architecture. SOA is not unlike object-oriented programming (OOP): each function is discretely contained into an isolated building block and these pieces connect together via an agreed-upon interface. In software design, for example, this would allow a programmer to use a third-party library without needing to understand how the innards work. SOA applies the same principles at the organizational level. Bezos mandated that all business units compartmentalize their operations and only communicate through well-defined (and documented) interfaces such as SOAP/RESTful APIs.
  For an organization of Amazon's size, this change was a big deal. The company had grown very rapidly over the previous decade which led to the web of interconnectedness seen in all large companies: purchasing and fulfillment might share the same database server without either knowing who's ultimately responsible for it, IT operations might have undocumented root access to payroll records, etc. Amazon.com's organic growth had left it full of the equivalent of legacy ''spaghetti code.'' Bezos' decision to refactor the core of operations required a tremendous amount of planning and effort but ultimately lead to much more scalable and manageable organization. As a result of the SOA initiative, in 2006, a small team in South Africa released a service that allowed computing resources to be provisioned on-demand using an API: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) was born. Along with S3, it was the first product of the newly introduced Amazon Web Services unit (since spun off into a separate business).
  Amazon Web Services is the world's most ambitious'--and successful'--result of service-oriented architecture. This philosophy drives product innovation and flows down to its intended usage. When competitors like Rackspace argue ''persistence'' as a competitive advantage, they're missing the entire point of AWS. EC2 is the antithesis of buying a server, lovingly configuring it into a unique work of art, and then making sure it doesn't break until it's depreciated off the books. Instead, EC2 instances are intended to be treated as disposable building blocks that provide dynamic compute resources to a larger application. This application will span multiple EC2 instances (autoscaling groups) and likely use other AWS products such as DynamoDB, S3, etc. The pieces are then glued together using Simple Queue Service (SQS), Simple Notification Service (SNS), and CloudWatch. When a single EC2 instance is misbehaving, it ought to be automatically killed and replaced, not fixed. When an application needs more resources, it should know how to provision them itself rather than needing an engineer to be paged in the middle of the night.
  Interconnecting loosely-coupled components is how a systems architect properly designs for AWS. Trying to build something on EC2 without SOA in mind is about as productive (and fun) as playing with a single Lego brick.
  This entry was posted in AWS on March 9, 2013by jamie. Post navigation'† List of Current Amazon Linux AMI IDs
Fortress of Lies
  Link to Article
  Source: Clusterfuck Nation
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:58
  History has a special purgatory where it sometimes stashes feckless nations punch drunk on their own tragic choices: the realm where anything goes, nothing matters, and nobody cares. We've surely crossed the frontier into that bad place in these days of dwindling winter, 2013. Case in point: Mr. Obama's choice of Mary Jo White to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. A federal prosecutor back in the Clinton years, Ms. White eventually spun through the revolving door onto the payroll of Wall Street law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, whose clients included Too Big To Fail banks JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and UBS AG, defending them in matters stemming from the financial crisis that began in 2008, as well as other companies that needed defending from allegations of financial misconduct, such as the giant HCA hospital chain (insider trading), General Electric (now a virtual hedge fund with cases before the SEC), and the German-based Siemens Corporation (federal bribery charges). A republic with a sense of common decency -- and common sense -- would have stopped the nomination right there and checked the "no" box on Mary Jo White just for violating the most basic premise of credibility: that trip through the revolving door that shuttles banking regulators from the government agencies to the companies they used to oversee and sometimes back again. Has there not been enough national conversation about the scuzziness of that routine to establish that it's not okay? Does it not clearly represent the essence of dysfunction and corruption in our regulatory affairs? Didn't President Obama promise to seal up the revolving door? So how could Mary Jo White possibly be taken seriously as a candidate for the job? And how is it possible that everyone and their uncle, from The New York Times editorial page to the Sunday cable news political shows to the halls of congress, is not jumping up and down hollering about this? Well, because anything goes, nothing matters, and nobody cares. The funny part is that, when challenged over her past connections to the banks and companies she would now have to regulate, Mary Jo White offered to recuse herself from future cases involving them. So, from the get-go as SEC head, Ms. White would not concern herself with the doings of JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley? How is it that gales of laughter did not blow Mary Jo White clean out of the hearing room? Is there not another qualified person from sea to shining sea who could come in and do the job without one hand tied behind his or her back? Now it also turns out that upon leaving Debevoise & Plimpton, Ms. White is scheduled to collect monthly retirement checks from the company amounting to a half million dollars a year -- that's for life, by the way -- while she supposedly runs the SEC. How is that not a conflict of interest? The remedy proposed by Ms. White and her attorneys was for her to take the retirement loot as a lump sum during her tenure as SEC chair, after which she could revert to collecting her pension in the $42,500 monthly payouts. Pardon me, but, well ...what the fuck? What planet are we on? As if that's not enough, Ms. White's husband, John W. White, is a partner at another giant Wall Street law firm, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which frequently tangles with the SEC on behalf of its clients. Mr. White proposed to change his pay structure while his wife runs the SEC. More gales of laughter. He is also on the advisory committee of the Financial Standards Accounting Board, the group that oversees national accounting practices and which, in 2009, infamously changed its Rule157 so that TBTF banks could "mark to fantasy" the fraudulent CDOs and other bond-like "innovative" securities that they created -- many of which they had to eat after the housing bubble bust when the collateral for these swindles lost its value and the "innovators" could no longer pawn the stuff off on credulous pension funds and other client "muppets." The silence over this disgraceful matter -- and many others like it, including the dead hand in the empty suit posing as US Attorney General -- indicates that not only is the rule of law extinct in this country, but so are public figures of principle and credible news organs. Nobody has made a noise about it. Anything goes, nothing matters, and nobody cares. So, the objection to it has to come from outside the authorized channels. And the consequences will mount outside the fortress of lies that the establishment has become.
Oops! Video-game image of Syria used in TV news segment - InGame on NBCNews.com.
  Link to Article
  Source: DaDenMan news feed
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:54
  The Associated Press '' 14 hrs.
  A Danish television channel has admitted it mistakenly used an image from a computer game to illustrate a news report about Syria.
  TV2 Head of News Jacob Nybroe said Sunday the picture that was used as a backdrop behind news anchor Cecilie Beck on Feb. 26 came from Ubisoft's adventure game "Assassin's Creed."
  He says he learned about the mistake this week, following speculation about the origin of the image on social media sites.
  One of the TV channel's employees had found the image online and thought it was a photo of Damascus' skyline. (You can see the original, with a Ubisoft copyright notice, here, as ITV points out.)
  Nybroe says it was a terrible mistake and a "reminder to us all of the importance of verifying the sources of pictures."
  (C) 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Public Afghanistan drone strike data disappears from Air Force site
  Link to Article
  Source: @adamcurry - Twitter Search
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:53
  Data on the monthly number of American drone strikes in Afghanistan has been quietly scrubbed from public records, reports The Air Force Times. Last October, the Air Force began releasing the monthly totals of strikes in Afghanistan in an effort to give the public more information on its overseas operations. But the move appears to have been reversed. The February numbers released March 7th just contain empty boxes for the drone strike data, and all of the previous data has also been deleted from older press releases on the site. Metadata in the files indicates that the revised versions were all created on the same day, February 22nd. Interestingly, the Defense Department says it wasn't involved in the decision to remove the statistics.
  Scrutiny of American drone operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere continues to build. Last month, a United Nations report that the number of drone strikes increased 72 percent in 2012, and last week Senator Rand Paul filibustered John Brennan's CIA confirmation for 12 hours to draw attention to US drone policy.
The Syria ''Gun-Running Program'': US and Britain Channel Large Shipments of Weapons to Al Qaeda Terrorists
  Link to Article
  Source: Global Research
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:52
  It's well known by now that NATO and the Gulf States initial plans to overturn the sovereign state of Syria has been running behind schedule since their operation was launched two years ago. They had hoped for the sort of slam dunk which they enjoyed in overturning the country of Libya in late 2011.
  This same formula could not be applied again however, so Plan B, a ground war using proxies has meant a longer drawn out conflict. It hasn't been working fast enough in Syria, and western backed terrorist groups still sustaining heavy losses in their fight to topple the Assad government on behalf of the NATO and its Gulf allies.
  The main obstacle with Plan B is that the very idea of directly arming terrorists in Syria is not one which can be sold openly in either the US or Britain.
  From the NATO Allied corner, something drastic needed to be done'...
  Whilst politicians in the West, namely those in Washington DC, London and parts of Europe, have been publicly denying that they were helping to organise running arms into Syria and issuing very public pleads for 'humanitarian aid' for those they identify as the Syrian Opposition, activity back stage has been furious. The debate in government and the media has been mere window dressing for the real operation being quietly carried out.
  NATO Gun-running via Croatia
  It can now be revealed that NATO allied nations were busy using proxy states to drive their war in Syria '' putting together one of the biggest international black operation transfers of military supplies in recent history. So it's official: large caches of hardware from the West have been transferred to the Syrian jihadist mercenary collective known as the 'Free Syrian Army' , 'Syrian Rebels', or 'Syrian Opposition' '' depending on who you ask, a brash move which may be vehemently opposed by other UN Security Council members '' namely Russia and China.
  Multiple media sources reveal the details of this massive airlift comprised of 75 airplanes, and an estimated 3,000 tons of military weaponry on board has left Croatia and has already been delivered'... to Syria.
  It is also confirmed from these reports that Saudi Arabia has financed a large portion of this purchase secretly transported to al Qaeda and other FSA fighters '' who are working with the support of the CIA, MI6 and others, along with other financial and material support of Qatar and Saudi, to further destabilise and overthrow the Assad government in Syria.
  Croatia's daily newspaper Jutarnji List reported:
  ''From the start of November last year, till February this year, 75 planes flew out from Zagreb Airport with over 3,000 tons of weapons and ammunition bound for Syrian rebels'...The newspaper, quoting diplomatic sources, says that besides Croatian weapons the planes were full with weapons from other European countries including the UK. The weapons were organised by the United States of America.
  Sources say that the first few flights to leave Croatia bound for Syria with weapons were operated by Turkish Cargo, which is owned by Turkish Airlines. After those flights, Jordanian International Air Cargo took over the flights. The deal to provide arms to the rebels was made between American officials and the Croatian Ambassador to the US.''
  In addition to this huge gun-running operation, Croatia also appears to be guilty of either having advanced knowledge, or possibly coordinating with Syrian terrorists as evidenced by their recently withdraw all of troops from the UN observer mission in Golan Heights, indicating that the recent kidnapping by Free Syrian Army Terrorists of at least 20 UNIFIL peacekeepers in the Golan Heights was known in advance by Croatia. The incident may have been designed to pull Syria's southern neighbor, Israel, even closer to the conflict, a development which would almost surely prompt the UN to declare this as trigger to a regional crisis, followed by an authorised military intervention.
  If it was known by Croatia, then one can only conclude that this was also known by US and British operatives as well. Both the US and Britain will naturally claim deniability as their legal out in this case, by deniability through the use of proxies makes no innocent parties when the prospect of a multi-regional war beckons as a result of the west's financial, logistical, political, and nowmaterial involvement in the overthrow of a sovereign state and internationally recognised government.
  US officials are on record as admitting to helping arrange the weapons airlift, as cited in this Feb 25, 2012 article in the New York Times:
  ''An official in Washington said the possibility of the transfers from the Balkans was broached last summer, when a senior Croatian official visited Washington and suggested to American officials that Croatia had many weapons available should anyone be interested in moving them to Syria's rebels.''
  Revelations are not limited to the Croatian news report, as we see the US and Europe's mainstream media wall of silence has begun to crack, including here a recent report from London's Daily Telegraph sent across Syria's borders with Jordan and NATO-member Turkey. The article entitled, ''US and Europe in 'major airlift of arms to Syrian rebels through Zagreb'''goes on to give further details of direct European involvement in illegal weapons running:
  ''The United States has coordinated a massive airlift of arms to Syrian rebels from Croatia with the help of Britain and other European states, despite the continuing European Union arms embargo, it was claimed yesterday'...
  Decisions by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, to provide non-lethal assistance and training, announced in the past week, were preceded by much greater though less direct Western involvement in the rebel cause, according to a Croat newspaper.
  The shipments were allegedly paid for by Saudi Arabia at the bidding of the United States, with assistance on supplying the weapons organised through Turkey and Jordan, Syria's neighbours.
  '...as from Croatia, weapons came ''from several other European countries including Britain'', without specifying if they were British-supplied or British-procured arms.
  British military advisers however are known to be operating in countries bordering Syria alongside French and Americans, offering training to rebel leaders and former Syrian army officers'...
  '... The weapons, including rocket launchers, recoil-less guns and the M79 anti-tank weapon, have been seen in rebel hands in numerous videos, and were first spotted by an arms expert Eliot Higgins, who blogs under the name Brown Moses. He traced them moving from Dera'a in the south, near the Jordanian border, to Aleppo and Idlib provinces in the north.''
  It is also no big secret that Britain has deployed a significant contingent of troops and support personnel to Jordan at least as far back as Autumn 2012 as part of its ongoing 'joint military exercises' with the Jordan military, but this latest revelation puts into clearer perspective the overwhelming likelihood that high level British military operation have actually been involved in the transfer of arms from Jordan into the hands of the international terrorist confab of mostly foreign fighter running under the west's media banner of ''Syrian Rebels''.
  Consequences for Croatia, and Britain
  What Britain may be guilty of here, is cynically '' and illegally, trying to side-stepping the EU embargo on arms into Syria by using the fledgling EU state of Croatia as their delivery mechanism, because Croatia does not officially join the EU until July 1, and has not implemented any binding EU legislation. This flagrant violation of both EU and international law should mean that Croatia's entrance into the EU could be appealed by other members states willing to raise an objection, with what are now clear grounds to mount a legal challenge against Croatia.
  Regardless of any EU outcomes however, Croatia at least '' is guilty of international war crimes.
  International and EU Sanctions Against the US, Britain, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia
  As expected, Britain's Foreign Office denies all of the claims connecting it to the Croatian gun-running program, but if Britain is involved '' even indirectly, through a proxy like Croatia, or if British military personnel are aiding and abetting these known terrorist fighters in Syria through the transfer of weaponry, then Britain can also be brought into the international legal framework to answer for what it has done behind the public's back.
  The international war crimes which are now in the public view could test the legal framework of the EU, the UN and the ICC in the Hague. The legal door is now open for charges against state actors including US, Britain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia '' for the crimes of illegally arming a force of foreign fighters and known terrorists in Syria '' designed to destroy the country from within. Many UN resolutions, including the recent Resolution 1973 applied in Libya by the UN, have been implemented on much more spurious and shaky grounds than the overwhelming evidence available regarding Syria.
  Moreover, Israel's unwarranted airstrike against a Syrian Military Research facility last month was also ignored by the UN, but this is not surprising as Israel has long been allowed to operate outside of international law and norms.
  If the international community does not act in this instance, then it opens the door to more brazen criminality sans borders, which could spawn similar illegal operations against Iran, opening the door to a Third World War.
  France sends 'aid' for Syria to Jordan
  France played an integral part in the destruction of Libya in 2011, and they might also have an interest in their former colonial possessions in Syria, but it's not clear as yet if France's commitment to overthrowing the Assad government is on par with the US and Britain's efforts. Back in August 2012, France had also been sending large shipments designated for Syria via Jordan, claiming that these shipment contained 'aid and medical supplies' '' intended for Syrian refugees. Real Syrian News reported:
  ''An Antonov 124 cargo aircraft landed at the Marka military airport in Amman on Saturday. The cargo is said to include a field hospital and medical supplies for the refugees in the Zaatari camp near the Syrian border. An A310 airliner carrying 85 French military staff and medical equipment arrived in Jordan on Thursday.''
  After the Croatian airlift, it's now not a stretch to suspect that other countries could be involved in similar operations under the cover of supplying 'humanitarian aid'.
  Syria Crisis Planned by the US and NATO Allies Before the 'Arab Spring'
  Despite previous denials and avoiding the issue by states persons like Hillary Clinton and William Hague, it is certain that 'al Qaeda' terrorists are operating in Syria and receive various kinds of support from the West and their Gulf allies, and that these are many of the same terrorist who are responsible for violence and killing in Iraq. The New York Times confirmed this fact recently:
  ''Iraqi officials said the extremists operating in Syria are in many cases the very same militants striking across their country. ''We are 100 percent sure from security coordination with Syrian authorities that the wanted names that we have are the same wanted names that the Syrian authorities have, especially within the last three months,'' Izzat al-Shahbandar '-- a close aide to the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki '-- said in an interview on Tuesday. ''Al Qaeda that is operating in Iraq is the same as that which is operating in Syria,'' he said.''
  Bangkok based analyst, Tony Cartalucci, from Land Destroyer blog, adds another important piece of evidence in this mix, pointing out the fact that the US and its NATO operatives have been engineering the crisis in Syria well before the official 'uprising' began in 2011:
  ''Pulitizer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, in his 2007 New Yorker report titled, ''The Redirection: Is the Administration's new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?''stated explicitly that:
  ''To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia's government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.''
  Cartalucci provides further background to support the west's own knowledge and involvement is the current crisis:
  Is there any doubt that the US has executed this plot in earnest, arming and funding sectarian extremists ''sympathetic to Al Qaeda'' on both Syria's northern and southern border? Where else, if not from the West and its regional allies, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, could extremists be getting their weapons, cash, and logistical support from?
  And of course, Syria's borders with Jordan and Turkey have been long-ago identified by the US Army's own West Point Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) as hotbeds of sectarian extremist/Al Qaeda activity '' hotbeds that the West is purposefully funneling thousands of tons of weaponry through, while disingenuously claiming it is attempting to prevent such weapons from falling into the hands of extremists.
  The CTC's 2007 report, ''Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq,'' identified Syria's southeastern region near Dayr Al-Zawr on the Iraqi-Syrian border, the northwestern region of Idlib near the Turkish-Syrian border, and Dar'a in the south near the Jordanian-Syrian border, as having produced the majority of fighters found crossing over into Iraq throughout the duration of the Iraq War.
  Image: (Left) West Point's Combating Terrorism Center's 2007 report, ''Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq'' indicated which areas in Syria Al Qaeda fighters filtering into Iraq came from during the US invasion/occupation. The overwhelming majority of them came from Dayr Al-Zawr in Syria's southeast, Idlib in the north near the Turkish-Syrian border, and Dar'a in the south near the Jordanian-Syrian border. (Right) A map indicating the epicenters of violence in Syria indicate that the exact same hotbeds for Al Qaeda in 2007, now serve as the epicenters of so-called ''pro-democracy fighters.''
  These areas are now admittedly the epicenters of fighting, and more importantly, despite being historical hotbeds of Al Qaeda activity, precisely where the West is flooding with cash, weapons, and military ''advisers.''
  Just like in Libya where the West literally handed an entire nation to sectarian extremists, we are watching a verbatim repeat in Syria '' where we are told Al Qaeda terrorists are ''pro-democracy'' ''freedom fighters'' that deserve US cash, weapons, and support, when it couldn't be any clearer they aren't.
  Not only has the US and UK lied to the world about their policy toward Syria and their current level of support for increasingly overt terrorists committing an array of atrocities '' their latest act including the taking of over 20 UN peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights - but have revealed once again the manufactured facade that is the ''War on Terror'...''
  Terrorist Groups Currently Active in Syria
  Known terrorist groups are operating in Syria and are receiving the full backing of NATO Allies and Gulf states Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They include '' but are not limited to, Saudi Intelligence-backed Jabhat al-Nusra or 'al Nursa Front', the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Abdullah Azzam Brigades and Al Baraa ibn Malik Martyrdom Brigade, the jihadist group Ahrar al-Sham, the PKK (in northeast Syria), Kata'ib Mohadzherin from the Russian Caucus region - to name only a few.
  Earlier reports of rogue Russian and Chechen terrorists filtering into Syria appear to be preceded by Salafists killing Sufi leaders in the Russian Federation. The Pakistan Christian Post reports:
  ''Recently in Dagestan the Sufi spiritual leader Said Efendi Chirkeisky was killed by a suicide bomber along with a few followers. This happened in late August and the closeness to the recent attack against Sufi leaders in Tatarstan is a clear reminder that Salafism is a potent force within parts of the Russian Federation. Therefore, not surprisingly the Russian Federation is extremely alarmed by major Western powers once more working in collusion with the FSA, al-Qaeda and a whole array of Salafi terrorist organizations.''
  It's worth noting also that like Libya's new militant governor of Tripoli, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, terrorist group Kata'ib Mohadzherin's leader Airat Vakhitov was also imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002 after being captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Both were released and filtered back into fighting regions to organise al Qaeda-type Islamist groups '' both active in countries which the US and NATO have been actively vying for regime change, in Libya and Syria respectively. You can draw your own conclusions here about what Guantanamo is in reality.
  The same New York Times article(above) also mentions terrorists' theocratic designs of establishing some caliphate in the region:
  ''One Qaeda operative, a 56-year-old known as Abu Thuha who lives in the Hawija district near Kirkuk in Iraq, spoke to an Iraqi reporter for The New York Times on Tuesday. ''We have experience now fighting the Americans, and more experience now with the Syrian revolution,'' he said. ''Our big hope is to form a Syrian-Iraqi Islamic state for all Muslims'...
  It's important to understand that such claims by any shadowy 'al Qaeda' figures must also be balance with the reality that these militants have been historically, and are still today, directed and funded at the highest levels of both US and Saudi intelligence, and others. When you see terror spokesman like Ayman al-Zawahri, the alleged leader of Al Qaeda, praise the Syrian fighters by referring to them as ''the lions of the Levant,'' in messages released exclusively via a known CIA media dissemination outlets like SITE, or INTEL CENTER, then readers should be suspicious of why it's been released and what political effect it is designed to have.
  Now that some of the scope of NATO Allies operation in Syria has been exposed to the public, perhaps political representatives and media journalist and editors will be able to report more accurately on the Syrian crisis, and demand a withdrawl of NATO, Arab League and others country's support for the growing and highly dangerous paramilitary and other al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups who are currently working to take power by destabilising the country of Syria.It's all happening out in the open now.
Shocking New Evidence Reveals Depths of 'Treason' and 'Treachery' of Watergate and Iran-Contra.
  Link to Article
  Source: DaDenMan news feed
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:49
  New evidence continues to accumulate showing how Official Washington got key elements of two major presidential scandals of the Nixon and Reagan administrations wrong.
  March 10, 2013 |
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  A favorite saying of Official Washington is that ''the cover-up is worse than the crime.'' But that presupposes you accurately understand what the crime was. And, in the case of the two major U.S. government scandals of the last third of the Twentieth Century '' Watergate and Iran-Contra '' that doesn't seem to be the case.
  Indeed, newly disclosed documents have put old evidence into a sharply different light and suggest that history has substantially miswritten the two scandals by failing to understand that they actually were sequels to earlier scandals that were far worse. Watergate and Iran-Contra were, in part at least, extensions of the original crimes, which involved dirty dealings to secure the immense power of the presidency.
  Shortly after Nixon took office in 1969, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover informed him of the existence of the file containing national security wiretaps documenting how Nixon's emissaries had gone behind President Lyndon Johnson's back to convince the South Vietnamese government to boycott the Paris Peace Talks, which were close to ending the Vietnam War in fall 1968.In the case of Watergate '' the foiled Republican break-in at the Democratic National Committee in June 1972 and Richard Nixon's botched cover-up leading to his resignation in August 1974 '' the evidence is now clear that Nixon created the Watergate burglars out of his panic that the Democrats might possess a file on his sabotage of Vietnam peace talks in 1968.
  The disruption of Johnson's peace talks then enabled Nixon to hang on for a narrow victory over Democrat Hubert Humphrey. However, as the new President was taking steps in 1969 to extend the war another four-plus years, he sensed the threat from the wiretap file and ordered two of his top aides, chief of staff H.R. ''Bob'' Haldeman and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, to locate it. But they couldn't find the file.
  We now know that was because President Johnson, who privately had called Nixon's Vietnam actions ''treason,'' had ordered the file removed from the White House by his national security aide Walt Rostow.
  Rostow labeled the file ''The 'X' Envelope'' and kept it in his possession, although having left government, he had no legal right to possess the highly classified documents, many of which were stamped ''Top Secret.'' Johnson had instructed Rostow to retain the papers as long as he, Johnson, was alive and then afterwards to decide what to do with them.
  Nixon, however, had no idea that Johnson and Rostow had taken the missing file or, indeed, who might possess it. Normally, national security documents are passed from the outgoing President to the incoming President to maintain continuity in government.
  But Haldeman and Kissinger had come up empty in their search. They were only able to recreate the file's contents, which included incriminating conversations between Nixon's emissaries and South Vietnamese officials regarding Nixon's promise to get them a better deal if they helped him torpedo Johnson's peace talks.
  So, the missing file remained a troubling mystery inside Nixon's White House, but Nixon still lived up to his pre-election agreement with South Vietnamese President Nguyen van Thieu to extend U.S. military participation in the war with the goal of getting the South Vietnamese a better outcome than they would have received from Johnson in 1968.
  Nixon not only continued the Vietnam War, which had already claimed more than 30,000 American lives and an estimated one million Vietnamese, but he expanded it, with intensified bombing campaigns and a U.S. incursion into Cambodia. At home, the war was bitterly dividing the nation with a massive anti-war movement and an angry backlash from war supporters.
Google Shows Off 'Talking Shoe'
  Link to Article
  Source: EconomicPolicyJournal.com
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:46
  Google Glass is still in beta but that's not stopping the search giant from showcasing more oddball projects bubbling out of its labs'--including a goofy "talking shoe" which is currently making a star turn at SXSW 2013 in Austin, Texas, reports PC Magazine.Google's latest toy "aims to translate movement data [into] witty messages to users and their friends," TechCrunch's Gregory Ferenstein reported. Thus, in a Google video promo (below) the sharp-tongued shoe mutters, "This is boring" when its wearer is loafing on a park bench but perks up when he breaks into a trot, enthusing, "I love the feeling of wind in my laces."
No vaccine needed for our 20 month old daughter, thanks.
  Link to Article
  Source: the tap
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:44
  Anonymous said...Our local surgery has been pestering us to have our 20 month old daughter poisoned... sorry, 'immunised'... with 'MMR 1 Pneumococcal Booster'.I'm even more angry now that they want to potentially kill my child especially after reading this thread:
  http://the-tap.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/pneumococcal-vaccines-are-creating.html
  ... and also noting the same things being said on other forums/blogs.
  Needless to say their yellow appointment slip sent through the post went straight in the bin.
  Keep up the good work Tap.
  http://the-tap.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/how-your-doctor-makes-money-by-killing.html
Raspberry Pi Media Center Rocks My World: Part 1
  Link to Article
  Source: What Jamie Flarity is reading.
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:41
  With over 1,000,000 Raspberry Pi's in the wild, it wouldn't surprise me if there are some left unused, tucked away in their boxes, waiting for a killer app. I'm here to tell you that the app is here and you can set it up in about 20 minutes. There is no coding or no command line work involved; You don't even need a keyboard. It's likely the most simple thing you can do with your Pi besides removing it from the box. That app is Raspbmc, a port of the classic media center program XBMC, which transforms your Raspberry Pi into a full-on media player.
  Last year, a 19-year-old developer from London named Sam Nazarko started to port XBMC (Xbox Media Center) over to the Raspberry Pi, hoping to leverage the Pi's GPU to turn it into an inexpensive HTPC. Over the course of a year, Sam built a team and slowly got things working on the Pi. On Feb. 14 this year, Sam announced the release of the ''final version'' of the software, making the Raspberry Pi an officially supported platform for XBMC.
  I've been using Raspbmc for the past three months and honestly don't know how I could get by without it. It's now the hub for all my digital media files. Music, TV shows, movies, pictures, it's all there playing on my TV at the click of a button. It's so straightforward and easy to use, my wife (who isn't exactly known for her technological abilities) figured out how to use it without any instruction.
  While there are many guides floating around the internet, I put together a quick one to get you started. I also included directions on setting up wifi and activating AirPlay / AirTunes.
  To follow along, you'll need:
  Raspberry Pi (256mb or 512mb model)4GB SD Card (minimum)Windows computerHDMI cableTV with HDMI InputUSB Mouse (if your TV remote isn't CEC compliant)USB power supply (if your TV doesn't have USB)USB A to Micro cableWired internet connection (just for setup)WiFi adapter (optional '' I'm using this one from Monoprice)Case (optional '' I use this one from Thingiverse)These items can all be found in Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Kit from the Maker Shed.
  Step 1These are the items you'll need to set-up and install Raspbmc on your Raspberry Pi. The speck in the upper left is the wireless adapter.
  Step 2Using a Windows computer, go to the download section of Raspbmc.com and download the installer. Mac and Linux versions are available but are a little more complicated (they are Python based) and won't be covered in this guide.
  Step 3Go ahead and insert your SD card into your computer or card reader. You can use a digital camera as a makeshift card reader as well.
  Step 4Unzip the files and double click the installer icon. Make sure your SD card is highlighted, click the "accept license agreement button" and then hit install. It takes about a minute to complete.
  Step 5If installation was successful, you'll be greeted with this pop-up. Feel free to drop Sam a couple bucks for his hard work. Or don't.
  Step 6Insert the SD card and plug the cables into your Pi. You'll need a wired Internet connection to complete setup.
  Step 7My TV happens to have a USB port that powers the Pi. If yours doesn't you'll have to use a USB power supply. Plug the HDMI cable into the TV and the power into the Pi.
  Step 8Once plugged in, the Pi should boot and begin installing Raspbmc. It should take about 20 minutes. Now's a great time to download the Firefly series so you have something to watch when setup is done.
  Step 9The buttons on your remote should work if your TV supports CEC. If not, you may have to plug in a mouse. Choose your language and hit enter.
  Step 10When you see this screen, you'll know it's set up! Now to get wireless working, turn on Airplay, and experience the awesome.
  Step 11To activate wireless, shut down the Pi, unplug the Ethernet cord, plug in the adapter, and turn everything back on. Navigate to Programs and click on the Raspbmc settings icon.
  Step 12Change the Network mode from Wired to Wireless. Scroll down to see the rest of the options.
  Step 13Enter in your SSID, select the security setting, enter the Wifi Key and hit OK. The system should now obtain an IP address from your network.
  Step 14To activate AirPlay, go to System -> Settings -> Services -> Airplay and click on "Allow XBMC to receive AirPlay content."
  Step 15That's it! In the next part of this tutorial I'll explain how to use AirPlay and play media from network sources. Feel free to play around!
  '¹'ºView All
  So far I've been very happy with the performance of Raspbmc on the Raspberry Pi. It has handled all content I have thrown at it, and will even play H.264 encoded 1080p video files (although there is some artifacting.) While Netflix and Hulu are not supported, Raspbmc is a great, inexpensive solution for playing archived movies, TV shows, or music from your personal collection. AirPlay support is what I consider to be ''icing on the cake.'' In my opinion Raspbmc is easily one of the most capable, refined, and easiest to use software packages available for the Raspberry Pi.
  Look for Part 2 soon where I'll explain how to use AirPlay, play media, and map network sources.
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How Good Groupon Leads to Bad Yelp
  Link to Article
  Source: Freakonomics
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:40
  A new paper by Giorgios Servas, John Byers, and Michael Mitzenmacher explores the relationship between a Groupon surge (like when a small bakery has to make 100,000 cupcakes) and a drop in Yelp ratings. Tim Worstall at Forbesexplains:
  Imagine that you are an enthusiastic and regular consumer of the finest chimichangas that you can find. You'll likely have scoped out your neighbourhood, tested the chimichangas on offer and zeroed in on those places that make excellent ones. You might even provide reviews on Yelp pointing other enthusiasts for the comestible so as to guide them to the good places.
  Now imagine that you're not actually very worried about or interested in chimichangas. Or even, as with myself, not entirely sure what they are. And you see a Groupon deal offering, say, 50% off at Jimmy's Chimichangas and you take it up. Heck, why not, it's a good way to try them out with a decent saving attached. But if you're uninterested, not sure what it is that you're about to get, it's not all that difficult to imagine that your subsequent Yelp review is less than glowingly enthusiastic.
  If you prefer, a Groupon is going to attract in the marginal customers for whatever it is. And marginal customers are likely to be less enthusiastic simply because they are marginal customers. They're marginals because the basic offering is not exactly aligned with their interests: thus the finding that marginal customers find the offering not exactly aligned with their interests or tastes is not entirely a surprise.
  (HT: Mark McCrery)
U.S. And South Korea Begin Joint War Games
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:39
Reserve Bank Of Australia Hacked!
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:39
Atomic Show #199 '' Fukushima happened 2 years ago
  Link to Article
  Source: Atomic Insights
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:36
  Before March 11, 2011, ''Fukushima'' was the name of a relatively unknown prefecture in Japan. Now it is a shorthand reference to an event in which three large nuclear power plants melted and released a small quantity of long lived radioactive material that has not harmed any human being.
  Here is a brief synopsis of the events that have turned ''Fukushima'' into one of the most frequently found words on the internet.
  Immediately after a very powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the north east coast of Japan, killing at least 16,000 people and destroying the man made infrastructure over more than 100 miles of the Japanese coast, the word ''Fukushima'' was still not well known outside of Japan. We were focused on the tragedy and the visual images of incredible shaking in offices, malls, and tall buildings and the frightening sight of a wall of black water washing over people, automobiles, and multi-story structures.
  Within about a day of the initial tragedy, however, the world was distracted as a larger and larger portion of the major news media outlets outside of Japan decided to focus our attention on the unfolding drama at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station. Though the station did not suffer any significant immediate damage, and though essentially all of the people on the site were safely protected from the effects of the earthquake and tsunami, the events had knocked out all electrical power.
  Both the off-site power system and 12 out of 13 diesel generators on site were severely damaged. Off-site power was knocked out by the earthquake when a large transmission line tower fell down; the diesel generators were knocked out by the tsunami. Unfortunately, those generators were on the sea side of the plant and located below the flooding caused by the tsunami. Even their fuel tanks were washed away. This loss of power made it very difficult for the operators to provide the continuing flow of coolant required after a nuclear plant shuts down. The plants were never ''out of control'' but they were gradually heating up due to the effects of radioactive decay.
  As Margaret Harding, one of my favorite nuclear energy professionals, describes the way the media decided to focus on the struggles at the nuclear plant instead of the immense human tragedy of the casualties and property damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami, the events at Fukushima Dai-ichi were like a slow motion disaster movie. The talking heads '' or their producers '' decided that it was more interesting to tell that story than to help us understand where the real needs were.
  Groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth and individuals like Arnie Gundersen and Helen Caldicott have worked overtime to use the difficulties at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear station to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about the use of nuclear energy. There are hundreds of thousands of real victims of that fear mongering campaign of disinformation, some of whom have already experienced shortened lives due to the negative health impacts of living under severe stress, worried that they have already become a victim of ''contamination'' that they cannot see, feel, or smell.
  Even after scientists and technicians have used the simple instruments that can detect incredibly minute quantities of radioactive material and given a clean bill of health, the fear mongers have convinced people that they are not out of the woods. According to their purposeful campaign, affected people must continue to stress out about ''hot particles'', about food whose measured radioactivity is less than the natural activity of a banana, a glass of beer or a Brazil nut, and about the very soil on which their children should be playing.
  Partly as a result of the focused fear-spreading campaign, Japan is spending at least $60 billion more per year for imported fossil fuel to replace the output of its 50 operable reactors. Even with all of that extra cost, the supply of electricity is still not as abundant as it was before the event, requiring continued personal sacrifices and continued curtailment of valuable production at certain times of day.
  This episode of the Atomic Show is a small attempt to spread calm by sharing useful information that can help people respect and understand radiation instead of trembling about the mere hint that it might be nearby.
  Guest list:Will Davis who publishes the excellent Atomic Power Review blog, writes for ANS Nuclear Cafe and writes a column for Fuel Cycle Week.Gwyneth Cravens, author of Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy and one of the stars of the Sundance Film Festival sensation titled Pandora's Promise.Margaret Harding, principle at 4 Factor Consulting, writer at Fuel Cycle Week and a technical consultant for the NGNP (Next Generation Nuclear Plant) projectSteve Aplin, an energy policy consultant in Ontario who publishes the highly regarded Canadian Energy Issues blogCal Abel, a PhD Nuclear Engineering student at Georgia Tech and former nuclear submarine engineer officer who was the first person to suggest using a concrete pumper truck to refill the elevated spent fuel pools at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station.
  Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Japan's Radiation Contamination Zone Remains Mostly Untouched
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:36
"Only About 400 People A Year Get Killed By Assault Rifles & High Capasity Magazines" Bloomberg
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  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:35
MOSSAD AND CIA CONTROL OF AUSTRALIA; ZYGIER; MERVYN JENKINS
  Link to Article
  Source: aangirfan
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:33
  According to Jim Dean, the managing editor of Veterans Today:Australia is a Mossad base
  Mark Dreyfus, whose father came to Australia as a refugee from Nazi Germany.4. Australia's Attorney General is the Zionist Mark Dreyfus. The Zionists always infiltrate justice departments. They want to be able to block investigations into Israeli espionage.Much of the corrupt campaign funding money comes from industrial espionage.5. "They never catch any Israeli spies or break up any networks in Australia because they aren't really trying to..."The biggest secret these infiltrated countries have is they don't have any security, because it has been sold to a third party."
  6. "Attorney General Dreyfus has refused an investigation of his own department, which would of course include their intelligence service's handling of Prisoner-X... "Independent media has tied Zygier into not only the Dubai assassination passport fraud but other terrorist operations...7. Haaretz's defense analyst, Amir Oren, reported that Zygier had told an Israeli friend, a special forces soldier, that he had killed a boy and girl in Lebanon while providing security for an Israeli covert operation in Lebanon.
  "This incident caused him to leave the army and he was hospitalized with trauma for a month afterward."Zygier came back to Australia after that to go to school, and the Mossad had him on board watching and recruiting foreign students...
  "'Australia long ago outsourced much of its military and intelligence, as well as foreign affairs sovereignty, to Israel and America.'""Canada is in worse shape than Australia in this regard, but both are Mossad bases for Israel's extensive international espionage..." The Pentagon backed the Indonesian military's killers in East Timor.Mervyn Jenkins, an Australian spook, knew too much about the bad guys in Washington.
  Was he murdered to shut him up?
  The USA's Admiral Blair.
  In 1999, the East Timorese voted to be independent of Indonesia.
  Angered by this, the Indonesian military then carried out mass murders in East Timor.
  When US Admiral Blair met Indonesia's General Wiranto he reassured Wiranto of US support for the Indonesian armed forces.
  Bar Mitzvah in Surabaya, Indonesia. "The Dutch East Indies Company's main financiers were Jews (Isaac le Maire) and the majority of the executives were Jews."The following is an extract from an article by Arlene Tyner, July 2001:(http://www.raven1.net/arlene4.htm)On June 13, 1999, in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, Mervyn Jenkins, the North American attache for the Australian Defence Intelligence Organization (DIO) was found hanged in the backyard of his home a week before the Jenkins family planned to return to Australia.
  Jenkins, an expert in covert action and electronic warfare, had been posted in Washington for a three-year assignment.
  He had been stressed by bureaucratic infighting between two Australian intelligence agencies over which documents could be shared with the CIA and the DIA.
  But would this happily married father of three sons take his own life on his 48th birthday?
  His diary showed detailed plans for his life in Australia 10 weeks into the future.
  The USA, Indonesia and Australia are interested in East Timor'soil.On April 16, 2001, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) popular investigative news show "Four Corners" probed Jenkins' mysterious "suicide," which had produced a storm of criticism in Australia, leading to a government investigation.
  Not satisfied with the results (the Blunn Report), Jenkins' wife filed a lawsuit against the government.
  Both his wife and mother appeared on the ABC broadcast, a transcript of which is posted online. (25)
  Betty Daly-King believes Jenkins was murdered to prevent him returning home with knowledge that the Pentagon didn't want him to bring back to Australia...
  According to the official story laid out by "Four Corners," Jenkins was caught in the crossfire between U.S. and Australian intelligence agencies over the issue of intelligence sharing.
  Daly-King believes that the conflict centered on the Indonesion repression of East Timorese who had voted for independence, withthe U.S. backing the Indonesians and the Australians leaning toward the East Timorese independence fighters.
  Hanukka in Bandung, Indonesia, 1935Influential Australian organizations such as the Returned Servicemen's League have historically sympathized with the East Timorese because so many had risked their lives to save Australians during World War II, she explains, and people-to-people relationships have been maintained ever since. (26)
  "The USA would do anything to appease Indonesia to keep access through their straits to get to and from Saudi's oil," she wrote to me.
  "They were not amused at Australia being in the forefront of restoring East Timor against perceived Indonesia and USA interests! All that lovely East Timor offshore oil, too."
  George Soros meets Indonesia's President Yudhoyono (Website for this image). Soros reportedly has links to the Rothschilds, Mark Rich, and Rafi Eytan. (The Secret Financial Network Behind "Wizard" George Soros)25. http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/"Australian Aide Under Probe Dead in Apparent Suicide", Washington Post, 6/17/99. Transcript of "Caught in the Crossfire":http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s276564.htm
  26. Background on the U.S./Australia military alliance can be found in two books by Desmond Ball, A Suitable Piece of Real Estate: American Intelligence in Australia (Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, 1980) and Richelson, J.T. & Ball, D., The Ties That Bind: Intelligence Cooperation Between UKUSA Countries -- the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Allen & Unwin, 1985); details about Indonesia's intervention in East Timor can be found in William Blum's Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (Common Courage Press, 1995).
  aangirfan: TOP PEDOPHILE RINGS - AUSTRALIA
  aangirfan: AUSTRALIAN JEWS UNDER SURVEILLANCE
  aangirfan: CIA control of Australia? Collins, Toohey, Jenkins, control ...
  aangirfan: Racist Fascist Australia?
  aangirfan: Mervyn Jenkins
Two Years After Meltdown At Fukushima They NO IDEA What Condition The Reactors Are In
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  Source: Uploads by MOXNEWSd0tC0M
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:33
US Sailors Sue TEPCO Over Radiation Exposure From Meltdown At Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
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  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:32
Fukushima tragedy 2 years on '-- RT News
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:30
  Published time: March 11, 2013 11:40Edited time: March 11, 2013 12:27
  Two years after the Fukushima disaster, much of the clean-up effort is still 'theoretical', survivors go to court for compensation and thousands march against nuclear power, while the government gives up on the phase-out promise.
  Experts estimate closing the damaged Fukushima reactors down will cost around US$15 billion and will take about 30 to 40 years.
  Two years ago the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 was provoked by an earthquake followed by a tsunami. The natural disaster knocked out cooling equipment at the Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo, leading to the meltdown of three reactor cores.
  The catastrophe claimed 19,000 lives.
  ''There are still buildings on the plant at Fukushima Daiichi that human beings cannot enter. There's a lot of work that cannot be done yet, because the radiation levels are too high. So at this point what's being done is that the grounds are being prepared for the work to come, but a lot of this work is still theoretical: how to remove the fuel, how to lessen the radiation there on the site and how to decommission the plants,'' Robert Jacobs, associate professor at the Hiroshima Peace University, told RT.
  What hampers the clean-up process even further is groundwater flooding, with hundreds of tonnes of water seeping daily into the damaged reactor buildings.
  Japan seems to be willing to rely solely on its domestic heavyweights, such as nuclear reactor-makers Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd, in the decommissioning process.
  Companies from outside Japan have failed to win any of the 21 contracts awarded this year to develop clean-up technology, Reuters reports. And that despite companies with expertise in similar projects having taken part in the tender process. Companies like Louisiana-based Shaw Group, which carried out the clean-up effort after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents, and also participated in decommissioning eight US commercial reactors.
  Foreign bidders say this tactic of leaving firms with prior experience out will only make recovery process longer, while the Japanese argue it will be easier to contact domestic companies in case of problems.
  Survivors demand compensationEight hundred Japanese are 'commemorating' the Fukushima anniversary by launching a legal case against the government and the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO).
  One hundred and sixty thousand survivors of the disaster were officially displaced from the area around the nuclear plant designated by the government. Thousands more just outside the official contaminated zone made their own decision to flee their homes or, having nowhere else to go, stayed in places where the radiation level is still very high.
  Only those who were forced to evacuate by officials are being provided with monthly compensation. Others have to get by on their own. Not a single person has yet received compensation for loss of property, according to a February Greenpeace report, which also explains why.
  ''TEPCO's compensation procedures are complicated and restrictive, initially requiring applicants to fill in a form of more than 60 pages, accompanied by a 156-page manual,'' Greenpeace says.
  People will try to get some help from the government and from TEPCO through a legal battle. However proving one's point will not be that easy.
  ''In Fukushima Prefecture data about some of the dose levels in areas where people were exposed was erased from a computer data base. So this makes it impossible to ascertain what kinds of exposures people had. This degrades their ability to understand what to expect in the future health-wise and also for them to be able to press any kind of legal case,'' Jacobs says in his RT interview.
  The plaintiffs are seeking some US$535 each in compensation for every month they have been displaced as a result of the accident. Litigation might take years.
  Global nuclear debateThe second anniversary of the Fukushima tragedy has once again brought the issue of nuclear power to spotlight.
  Anti-nuclear feeling is still strong in Japan, with thousands rallying on the streets of Tokyo for a total ban on the use of nuclear energy.
  Immediately after the disaster, Japan's government promised to altogether abandon atomic energy by the 2030s. However, Tokyo quickly realized that the archipelago nation had no other means to ensure sufficient electric energy supply but to return to nuclear power generation.
  The new government of Shinzo Abe has taken on a more pragmatic, rather than emotional approach. Japan's prime minister has already announced six reactors will be re-launched this year.
  This rehabilitation of nuclear energy is something considered wise by Matthew Machowski, a nuclear security expert, interviewed by RT. He believes ''green energy at this time is not viable.''
  He also argues countries like Germany, Italy and Switzerland, who announced giving up on nuclear energy, are a minority, unable to influence the unfading interest in this type of energy.
  ''Just last year in March 2012 the US has commissioned a new reactor, just last month United Arab Emirates in the midst of energy's richest part of the world has produced plans for extra two nuclear reactors on top of the two that they already have. And at this moment we have about 67 new nuclear reactors under construction,'' Machowski added.
  Robert Jacobs believes the opposite.
  ''The nuclear industry has essentially slowed down in the developed world because it is not cost-efficient, so that's not really a viable way forward, especially when you consider that the waste needs to be contained for hundreds of thousands of years,'' says Jacobs.
  He believes the nuclear power is only low in cost ''if nothing goes wrong. But as we can see things go wrong. And if you are factoring the costs of these disasters it's far from an affordable form of energy.''
Advocaat wil meer onderzoek naar foto's mishandelde grensrechter
  Link to Article
  Source: VK: Home
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 03:08
  Door: Redactie '' 11/03/13, 08:30
  (C) ANP. De velden van S.C. Buitenboys in Almere.
  Foto's van de mishandeling van grensrechter Richard Nieuwenhuizen uit Almere moeten beter worden onderzocht, vindt de advocaat van een van de verdachten in de zaak. Volgens hem kan meer onderzoek leiden tot een betere reconstructie van wat er begin december mis ging.
  Nieuwenhuizen werd toen zo zwaar mishandeld dat hij een dag later overleed aan zijn verwondingen. Vandaag begint de rechtszaak tegen zeven verdachten in de zaak, spelers van de Amsterdamse club Nieuw-Sloten van 15, 16 en 17 jaar en (C)(C)n van hun ouders.
  De advocaat zei tegen de NOS dat hij hoopt dat de foto's in 3D weergegeven kunnen worden, om zo meer duidelijkheid te krijgen over de vraag wie schuldig is aan de mishandeling van de grensrechter.
Juncker waarschuwt voor oorlog in Europa
  Link to Article
  Source: ZapLog
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 03:07
  ''Wie denkt dat de eeuwige vraag van oorlog en vrede in Europa niet meer actueel is, zou zich hevig kunnen vergissen. De demonen zijn niet weg, zij slapen alleen maar.''Dit zegt de Luxemburgse premier Jean-Claude Juncker in het Duitse weekblad Der Spiegel.''Ik vind het frappant hoezeer de verhoudingen in 2013 lijken op die 100 jaar geleden'', aldus Juncker. In 1914 brak de Eerste Wereldoorlog uit. Juncker is geschrokken van de verkiezingscampagnes in Griekenland en Itali. ''Daar kwamen ressentimenten naar boven waarvan men dacht dat zij definitief verleden tijd zijn.'' ...
  Annotaties:
If Grumpy Cat was the biggest news of all, is SXSW in trouble?
  Link to Article
  Source: CNET News
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 03:04
  Few expect SXSW to turn out a Twitter-like success every year. But if a small feline is far and away the biggest news of a show with tens of thousands of attendees, trouble may be brewing.
  Laughing Squid managing editor Rusty Blazenhoff with Grumpy Cat at SXSW.
  (Credit: Laughing Squid)AUSTIN, Texas--Talk to just about anyone who has been at South by Southwest this week, and there's pretty much no doubt what was the biggest news of all: Grumpy Cat.
  On the one hand a sweet little cat with a facial expression that looks annoyed, and on the other one of the biggest Internet memes of the last year, Grumpy Cat has been the unquestioned biggest star of SXSW, thanks to Mashable, which managed to bring the famous kitty to the world's most important interactive conference so that tons of her biggest fans could meet her.
  Never mind Al Gore, Neil Gaiman, or Elon Musk, all of whom spoke at SXSW over the last few days. It's Grumpy Cat that has been on everyone's lips. Whether for good -- after all, who doesn't love a sweet kitty, even with a taciturn expression -- or for bad (the poor kitty has had to deal with an unbelievable number of people pawing at her), it would be hard to find a bigger story here this week.
  This cannot be good for SXSW.
  Over the years, this interactive festival has been the launching pad for some pretty amazing technology. Twitter blew up here in 2007, and Foursquare launched here in 2009. GroupMe had its public coming-out at SXSW, and so did people discovery apps like Highlight.
  This year, no one really expected any new apps to break out, or for there to be any real big news or controversy. But I'm willing to bet that no one expected that the biggest story of all would be a small cat with a grumpy face.
  For several days now, tens of thousands of people have been prowling around the streets of downtown Austin, attending a billion panels, keynotes, featured sessions, parties, meetups, and so forth. Many of the smartest people in the industry have shared their wisdom, and thousands have happily listened during an impressive selection of talks available to badge-holders.
  But ask any veteran SXSW attendee, and I'm willing to bet that you'll hear a similar story: the energy level has been low. There's no buzz about anything. There's a few interesting new apps -- Takes and MessageMe come to mind -- but in general, there hasn't been much worth talking about, at least among companies that had yet to be in the public conversation.
  For the many, many startups that come to Austin every March hoping to be the next Twitter or Foursquare, the odds have always been low against repeating such a success. But every year, there's been a couple of new technologies that could rightly claim to have dominated the conversation, and it's the dream of being the next one to repeat that success that has for years fueled the journeys to Austin -- and the big budgets -- of a million startups, not to mention the big brands that want to latch on to the attention of the many early adopters who flock here annually.
  Some veteran attendees complain that SXSW has devolved into a marketing bacchanalia, and it's hard to argue with that idea when you see little more than branded cars, pedicabs, actors, and lamp posts everywhere you go. I would argue that still found amidst all that marketing hoopla is the best interactive festival on the planet, and many of the people that are responsible for making the modern Internet what it is.
  But those aren't the people paying SXSW's bills. Rather, it's the endless supply of startups and big brands that show up hoping to set the zeitgeist aflame. And when this year's crop returns home and has to admit to the beancounters that they were outgunned by a feline, I'm willing to bet there's going to be a lot of uncomfortable conversations.
  Does this mean, as I've heard several people suggest in the last 24 hours, that SXSW has jumped the shark? It's certainly tempting to think so. But then again, conferences have off years, and you can't expect a new Twitter or Foursquare every year.
  What you can expect, though, is some legitimate news to come out of a show this big, and where this much money is spent. The mayor of Austin introduced Al Gore on Friday and mentioned that SXSW brings in more than $200 million over its ten days. Certainly, much of that is attributable to the film and music portions of the show, but Interactive is at least as important as the others in terms of the economic impact on Austin. And if nothing happened that moved the needle during the show (which, of course, still has two days to go), there's going to be a lot of people in control of budgets who are going to have to wonder if they should write big checks for projects next year.
  I have no doubt that SXSWi 2014 will have tens of thousands of attendees, plenty of big brands with giant budgets, and a slew of startups and app makers looking to jump start their big futures. And the thousands of staffers and volunteers that produce SXSW will, as always, deserve heaps of praise for their hard work.
  But if SXSW 2014 comes and goes without a big story, without the kind of breakout hit that leaves those with rival technologies seeing red, people are going to start questioning what this show is really about. And a lot of people are going to start trying to book Grumpy Cat. Let's hope she's not a keynote speaker at SXSW 2015.
Juncker spricht von Kriegsgefahr in Europa
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:35
  Hamburg - Luxemburgs Premierminister Jean-Claude Juncker will im Bundestagswahlkampf daf¼r werben, dass Angela Merkel Kanzlerin bleibt. "Man hat mich bereits gebeten, und ich habe bereits zugesagt", verriet Juncker in einem SPIEGEL-Interview. "Ich f¼hle mich der Kanzlerin und der CDU sehr verbunden." Er habe zwar auch schon auf Veranstaltungen der SPD und der Gr¼nen geredet, habe aber nicht vor, den Wahlkampf der Sozialdemokraten und der Gr¼nen zu animieren.
  In der Debatte um die Zukunft der W¤hrungsunion warnte Juncker im SPIEGEL davor, dass sich die Konflikte in Europa gef¤hrlich zuspitzen k¶nnten. "Wer glaubt, dass sich die ewige Frage von Krieg und Frieden in Europa nie mehr stellt, k¶nnte sich gewaltig irren. Die D¤monen sind nicht weg, sie schlafen nur."
  Er sehe auff¤llige Parallelen zum Jahr 1913, als viele dachten, es werde in Europa nie mehr Krieg geben. "Mich frappiert die Erkenntnis, wie sehr die europ¤ischen Verh¤ltnisse im Jahr 2013 denen von vor 100 Jahren ¤hneln." Erste Anzeichen sieht Juncker in den Wahlk¤mpfen in Griechenland und Italien. "Pl¶tzlich kamen Ressentiments hoch, von denen man dachte, sie seien definitiv abgelegt."
  Juncker sagte, er strebe nicht den Vorsitz des Europ¤ischen Rates und die Nachfolge des Belgiers Herman Van Rompuy an. "Sie kriegen es hier schwarz auf weiŸ: Ich schlieŸe aus, Nachfolger Van Rompuys zu werden", sagte Juncker dem SPIEGEL. 2009 w¤re er bereit gewesen, den Job zu ¼bernehmen, so der 58-J¤hrige, "aber einige wenige wollten mich offenkundig nicht", darunter auch der damalige franz¶sische Staatspr¤sident Nicolas Sarkozy und Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel. "Wieso sollte ich heute etwas werden, was ich 2009 h¤tte werden k¶nnen?", sagte der Luxemburger. "Das ist mir, ehrlich gesagt, zu bl¶d."
  Sie wollen wissen, was in der neuesten SPIEGEL-Ausgabe steht? Dann melden Sie sich jetzt einfach f¼r den SPIEGEL-Brief an. Die Chefredaktion des Magazins informiert Sie pers¶nlich und kostenlos per Mail.
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Protesters arrested in Azerbaijan demo
  Link to Article
  Source: euronews
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:33
  Dozens of protesters were arrested in Baku the capital of Azerbaijan in a protest against alleged abuse in the country's army. About 500 people many of whom were young opposition activists shouted, ''No to deaths in the army,'' while others held up portraits of dead soldiers.
  The police wielding batons were swift to quell the protest which was not sanctioned by the authorities, firing water cannon and rubber bullets into the crowd.
  The protest was one of a series triggered by the death of conscript, Jeyhun Gubadov at a barracks in early January. Initially the Defence Ministry said he died of a heart attack. His family believe he was beaten to death and four soldiers were arrested after an investigation was opened.
  A local watchdog group the ''Doctrine'' Journalists' Military Research Centre which investigates events and process in the military and defence sector in Azerbaijan claims around 77 soldiers died last year in non-combat related deaths.
  More about:Army, Azerbaijan, ProtestCopyright (C) 2013 euronews
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Tens of thousands march throughout Spain
  Link to Article
  Source: euronews
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:33
  Tens of thousands of demonstrators have once more taken to the streets across Spain.
  They are angry about levels of unemployment and the government's handling of the economy.
  26 percent of the workforce are unemployed, a shocking figure for a developed country.
  And, digging deeper, things look even worse '' 50 percent of young people are out of work.
  Union representive Ignacio Fernandez Toro told the crowd the EU's insistence on austerity shows how inept it is; ''it is nothing more than suicide.''
  The event '' dubbed the ''Social Summit'' was organised by a 150 civil society organisations including trade unions.
  60 cities across Spain were involved. In Barcelona, one woman stopped to tell reporters,''The young people think there is no future here, she says, because so many of them are unemployed. We are poisoning their lives.''
  Protestors are also angry about allegations that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and others benefitted from years of slush fund handouts.Rajoy has denied any wrongdoing.
  More about:Austerity, Debt crisis, Eurozone in crisis, Protest, SpainCopyright (C) 2013 euronews
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Luxemburgse premier waarschuwt voor Europese oorlog
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:21
  Juncker ziet overeenkomsten met de periode voor de Eerste Wereldoorlog - Foto: EPA
  De verhouding tussen landen in Europa lijkt volgens de Luxemburgse premier Jean-Claude Juncker op de situatie voorafgaand aan de Eerste Wereldoorlog.
  'Wie denkt dat de eeuwige vraag van oorlog en vrede in Europa niet meer actueel is, zou zich hevig kunnen vergissen. De demonen zijn niet weg, zij slapen alleen maar,' zegt Juncker tegen het Duitse weekblad Der Spiegel.
  Griekenland en Itali'Ik vind het frappant hoezeer de verhoudingen in 2013 lijken op die honderd jaar geleden,' aldus Juncker.
  In 1914 brak de Eerste Wereldoorlog uit.
  Juncker is geschrokken van de verkiezingscampagnes in Griekenland en Itali. 'Daar kwamen ressentimenten naar boven waarvan men dacht dat zij definitief verleden tijd zijn.'
  Anti-DuitsJuncker maakte in zijn jaren als voorzitter van de eurogroep mee hoe Duitsland Zuid-Europese landen onder druk zette om te bezuinigen.
  Italiaanse en Griekse politici en burgers reageerden daarop met anti-Duitse gevoelens.
RTL.lu - National News - Jean-Claude Juncker: "2012 war kee gutt Joer fir d'Press"
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:20
  RTL - 07.01.2013, 20:49 | Fir d'lescht aktualis(C)iert: 08.01.2013, 07:03 | 21 Commentaire(n)
  (C) RTL (Archivfoto)Et h¤tt awer Relaunche ginn, d(C)i sch(C)in ze gesi wieren.De Premier huet '' e bsse proph(C)itesch '' gewarnt, d'Joer 2013 k(C)int e Virkrisejoer ginn w(C)i d'Joer 1913, wou all Mnsch u Fridde gegleeft huet, ier de Krich koum.
  Wat d'Presseaarbecht '' also den Zougang zu Informatiounen am m(C)i enke Snn ubelaangt - sot de Premier, datt deen neie Projet de loi nach virum Enn vum Mount op den Instanzewee soll goen ... an awer och op munch Bedenke st(C)isst.
  De Premier huet weider nach ugeknnegt, och den Deontologie-Code fir d'Regierung g(C)if deemn¤chst op den Instanzewee bruecht ginn.
  Weider Artiklen
Jean-Claude Juncker'... warning of a world war?
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:20
  Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the Euro Group, made a very strange statement. At a the New Year's reception in front of the Luxembourg press. He warned the eighty journalists with his speech, that they should take a good look at the year 1913, the last year of real peace before the end of the Cold War.
  On the Luxembourg RTL radio you can read his testimony as follows: http://news.rtl.lu/news/national/374419.html
  Luxembourgish:De Premier huet '' e bsse proph(C)itesch '' gewarnt, d'Joer 2013 k(C)int e Virkrisejoer ginn w(C)i d'Joer 1913, wou all Mnsch u Fridde gegleeft huet, ier de Krich koum.
  Translation in English:The prime minister - a little bit prophetically- warns that the years 2013 could become the same year before the war, such as the year 1913, where all people believed in peace until the war started.
  What does he mean with this warning? That in his opinion we are facing a world war in 2013 like in 1913?He is the senior leader of government in the European Union and the head of a committee which ensures the functioning of the European Economic and Monetary Union. Could it be that Juncker has insider knowledge about what is coming ahead?
  Interestingly is, although this alarming statement went to the assembled press of his country, there was almost nothing published in the media and not one word about it outside of Luxembourg. Why?Juncker is not a nobody whose words have no values. He is otherwise always taken very seriously and cited when he says something about the euro crisis.
  2013 could be the year before the war, he says. That would mean that in 2014 a war can start similar as in 1914 the First World War. I don't think that a person like him say something like this, just like that'...
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  Link to Article
  Source: usfollowme
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:18
  http://blogs.automotive.com/survey-drivers-trade-privacy-for-car-insurance-discounts-130433.html#axzz2ND5SruhM
From New York to New Cinder
  Link to Article
  Source: Lame Cherry
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:17
  As another Lame Cherry matter anti matter exclusive.
  Everyone is getting this wrong about the Holder Obama trial of that bin Laden driver or son or whatever that terrorist was and is, because they are missing the points in the ledger which Obama has been following.
  Obama could care less about stinking turban heads and has shown as much as when they are no Islamocommunists he tortures them and brutally murders them like Col. Khadaffi.Life is a trade of with Obama. He buys bin Laden's corpse to save his Birther ass, and then to appease the dope lords in Afghanistan he provides information on helo routes of SEALS coming in to "pay off" the Islamocommunists in murdering the Obama SEALS in that stage theater.Obama is one of the best camel traders in the world. He got a corpse from China for a Stealth Helo he had the SEALS blow up there and he got a 2012 election stolen on pile of dead SEALS to appease his dope lords Muslims.Obama is very successful at trading life.
  What the terror trials and importing Muslims into America is about, is not about justice. You will remember Obama bitching about making the terror war a trial instead as Bush was wrong.Obama has made more war and slaughtered more people, than Bush ever did. The fact is that Obama is as this blog has stated murdering Muslims who will not follow Obama's narco Islamarxist lead and he rewards those Islamocommunists with nations, dope dealerships and life.
  That is why Obama early on tried to import terrorists to Illinois. They were HOSTAGES. You have to get this, as there is a tier structure in all of this. That structure has two branches. The first is one takes hostages in the vicinity of Chicago so large dirty weapons of mass desturction in bio weapons or nuclear weapons are not deployed by competitor Muslims to punish Obama, the way Dr. Germ unleashed the 2012 New Obama West Nile Plague that only this blog covered.That West Nile was mutated in labs on Saddam's West Nile he released in America to use daytime mosquitos, instead of night mosquitos in the Tiger genus. Huge story broken here and no one bothered to hound the hell out of Mockingbird Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin or Ingraham to make them cover it.There was a Bush Texas based bio attack and an Illinois Obama based bio attack in 2012, and it was successful.
  See if one has Muslim hostages from both the Sunni and Shia branches, then those Muslims are not going to be blowing up or putting the pandemic into those large New York and Chicago cities. It is old operating procedure in putting the enemies elite into areas of your strongholds to protect those strongholds from attack.
  That is what the show trials of Holder and Obama are primarily about. Do not though be sucked into one dimensional thought in this, as there are other protocols staged in this.
  Iran for example could care less if some Sunni bin Laden Islamofascist is in New York. They would just as soon blow him up as they tried to get the Jews to blow up Assad in Syria to the greater good of destroying the Israeli state in making Assad a scapegoat several years ago.
  That is where the supplemental actions in this take place, which Obama has factored in for him.See an Iranian Islamocommunist will be allowed in time to vaporize or reduce to rubble New York City in a super 9 11 event, when Obama needs a game changer to implement the "war scenario" to cover up all his crimes for the cartel and those trillions he has looted.World War IV is not just about the primary control of the central Europeans of the global feudal state put into ashes, but it is the covering up in balancing the debt books of the world. See the debt will not be able to be paid, but in like manner when the financial trials are gone as in the destruction of the Twin Towers, than those who stole the money never have any records of that theft and get to keep the money which gives them absolute control of the financial and political structures.
  Into this nuking of New York in a future tense.........I will report here that as of a week ago there were not any major terror events which Obama was going to utilize to further his agenda. The agenda is being furthered on schedule with no more major events being necesary.The nuke tense of New York, I continue.........
  There are though draw station terror events, which that trial is designed to induce. These will not be major WMD attacks, but the spray and pray types of events if it is deemed necessary they should take place, for the trials also serve as a "fuck you" to the opposition in stating that Obama can try his competitors, in his courts, just like he can murder his competitors in their lands at his choice. The key in this is, the message of, Obama can try Islamofascists, because he as an Islamocommunist is in control of al Qaeda from 1600 Penn Avenue.It is a bitch slap to Muslims of the Nazi order, a rubbing in their faces of the control Obama now has and will continue to implement.
  It is the cementing of power. If Obama was interested in justice, he would have trials on all the Gitmo fascists there, but they are Obama hostages, just like Obama is running hostage camps around the globe to maintain leverage on his comrades. If Obama put those people on trial, it would give them venue and faces, but by keeping them in seclusion, it is a matter where he can lose them to the Brotherhood who will skin them alive after raping them with a broom handle like Chris Stevens.
  Do not neglect this my children, just because no one told you this, but Obama did use ANALGATE, even if it was a political disaster in his terrorists murdered the hostage Obama was supposed to rescue. Obama sent a definite message to all the terror families or the Muslim tribes that what his people did to Chris Stevens is exactly what his terrorists would do to all of the Islamists who bucked him.
  Assad stating to John Kerry a big "Fuck You" in his not vacating Syria to be assassinated later, reveals the Kremlin is backing him somewhat......it also means that several Exocet types missiles out of Libya are in hand in Syria and on timetable they will be used to blow Assad out of his warship he was living on.
  This is about control, and Obama is tying up the last groups of independent Muslims, to turn over to his Brohood community organized control of the Caliph.The Jewish state is being surrounded by one constrictor of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran is it's head, for the purpose of disarming the Jews of nuclear weapons.
  This is all playing out, and New York terror trials are in a future point meant to generate a WMD attack to holocaust the major threat to the Ashkenaz in control over the Israeli state in rich, independent Jews in New York.That attack will then provide carte blanche to Obama to wipe out whatever he has designs on for the 9 11 par dux or the false peace treaty order.
  I do not know if Obama is going to be around for this, but that is what the ledger speaks of that Obama is implementing for the cartel.
  That terror trail and it is TRAIL not trial, is designed to turn New York City into New Cinder City.
  No longer Sin City, but Cinder City in Obama Sharia Law.
  Enough of this.
  Nuff said
  agtG 283
  PS: As a note to the Obama trolls who have been sniping at this blog in lying about it in smearing it as racist, this is what this blog has been warning all in when the WMD attacks come, they are designed to wipe out liberal voting enclaves by the millions, because despots always prey on their own competitors first.
  I have been trying to save you ignorant bastards from Obama and Obama from hisself. When the day comes though in which the Obama fraud voting liberal enclaves are exterminated by Obama's terror wing, I will smile in the justice done in your getting exactly what you deserved in smearing this blog.
  Good riddance to the collective sewage of humanity that was flushed from the wild lands and collected in the sewer of the large liberal cities.
  agtG 293
Amazon's Quest for Web Names Draws Foes
  Link to Article
  Source: Dave Winer's linkblog feed
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:08
  BY GREG BENSINGERLarge and small companies are vying for control of an array of new Internet domain names, but Amazon.com Inc.'s plans are coming under particular scrutiny.
  Two publishing industry groups, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, are objecting to the online retailer's request for ownership of new top-level domain names that are part of a long-awaited expansion of the Web's addressing scheme. They argue that giving Amazon control over such addresses'--which include ".book," ".author" and ".read"'--would be a threat to competition and shouldn't be allowed.
  "Placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anticompetitive," wrote Scott Turow, ...
Italy, Greece confirm 7 hostages killed by Nigerian Islamists
  Link to Article
  Source: DEBKAFile
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:07
  The al-Qaeda affiliated group Ansaru announced Saturday it had killed the seven foreign hostages seized Feb. 7 from the Lebanese Setraco construction firm in northern Nigeria, because of Nigerian and British attempts to free them. They showed indistinct photos of the bodies of a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese hostages. The deaths were not confirmed until Sunday by the Italian and Greek foreign ministries.
Warning over antibiotics resistance
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:06
  11 March 2013Last updated at00:48 ETPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
  Professor Dame Sally Davies: "If you get an infection in your bloodstream, in about 10, 20 years it might be untreatable"
  The danger posed by growing resistance to antibiotics should be ranked along with terrorism on a list of threats to the nation, the government's chief medical officer for England has said.
  Professor Dame Sally Davies described it as a "ticking time bomb".
  She warned that routine operations could become deadly in just 20 years if we lose the ability to fight infection.
  Dame Sally urged the government to raise the issue during next month's G8 Summit in London.
  Dame Sally said: "If we don't take action, then we may all be back in an almost 19th Century environment where infections kill us as a result of routine operations. We won't be able to do a lot of our cancer treatments or organ transplants."
  She said pharmaceutical companies needed to be encouraged to develop new drugs, because the manufacture of antibiotics was not viewed as profitable.
  "We haven't had a new class of antibiotics since the late 80s and there are very few antibiotics in the pipeline of the big pharmaceutical companies that develop and make drugs," she said.
  "We haven't as a society globally incentivised making antibiotics. It's quite simple - if they make something to treat high blood pressure or diabetes and it works, we will use it on our patients everyday.
  "Whereas antibiotics will only be used for a week or two when they're needed, and then they have a limited life span because of resistance developing anyway."
  Dame Sally said action was needed to overcome this "market failure" and pointed to the Innovative Medicines Initiative - an EU funded body whose aim is to promote the development of new medicines.
  Continue reading the main storyAntimicrobial resistanceAntimicrobial resistance is a global threat.
  It happens when organisms are able to survive medicines aimed to destroy them.
  Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, viruses to antivirals and parasites to drugs like antimalarials.
  The World Health Organiziation says 150,000 deaths a year are caused by multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
  Dr Ibrahim Hassan, a consultant microbiologist at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, said there are more cases of patients with bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics - meaning there are fewer treatment options.
  "All you can hope of is a bit of holy water because you don't have too much option in terms of treatment.
  "We're beginning to see that in some hospitals, patients coming in with this infection with no antibiotic that can be used to treat them."
  Dame Sally's warning coincides with the publication of the second volume of her annual report which details the burden posed by infectious diseases.
  Death rates for infectious diseases have declined in developed countries in recent decades due to improvements in hygiene and sanitation, widespread immunisation and effective drug treatments.
  But the report says they still account for 7% of all deaths in England and account for one in five days off work.
  It says in decades to come we risk "losing the war" against microbes - and standard surgical procedures such as hip replacements could become riskier, as would treatments that suppress the immune system such as chemotherapy or organ transplant.
  Continue reading the main storyGram positive and gram negativeBacterial species are divided into two large groups based on the structure of their cell wall and their response to staining with a dye.
  A Gram positive results in a violet colour while a Gram negative is pink.
  Gram positive bacteria include Staphylococcus and Streptococcus Gram negative include E. coli, Klebsiella and Salmonella.
  Dame Sally said it was a global issue for governments, the medical profession, the pharmaceutical industry and individuals.
  She urged politicians to treat the threat as seriously as the superbug meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA.
  Cases have fallen by 80% since 2003 through improved hygiene measures in hospitals.
  Health officials say other infections have now overtaken MRSA as major sources of healthcare-acquired infections.
  In particular, cases of E.coli and Klebsiella bacteria have increased by two-thirds in recent years and are now the most frequent cause of hospital acquired infection.
  Both types of bacteria - known as Gram negative - are commonly found in the gut but can cause blood infections.
  In England, Wales and Northern Ireland 99,000 cases of blood stream infections were reported in 2011-12. E.coli alone accounted for 36% of cases compared with just 1.6% due to MRSA.
  The report estimates that up to 5,000 patients a a year die from Gram-negative blood poisoning each year, half with an antibiotic-resistant organism.
  Dame Sally said no new classes of antibiotics had been introduced since 1987 whereas new pathogens were emerging every year, and existing bugs were developing resistance to current treatments.
  A five-year UK Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy will be published shortly which will advocate the responsible use of antibiotics and strengthened surveillance.
  The Chief Medical Officer said antimicrobial resistance would be put on the government's national risk register of civil emergencies - which provides guidance on potential threats such as terrorist attacks, pandemic flu and major flooding.
  Dame Sally said she was shocked by the "woeful education" in antimicrobial resistance given to many medical students and doctors; she wanted to ensure fewer antibiotics were prescribed, so that they are used only when needed.
  Dame Sally is not the first chief medical officer to warn of the dangers of antibiotic overuse.
  In 2008 her predecessor, Liam Donaldson, urged doctors not to use antibiotics to treat colds and coughs as these are caused by viruses and do not respond to antibiotics.
  In 1999, Sir Kenneth Calman made a similar plea, saying the public had a responsibility not to demand antibiotics.
BREAKING InTrade Has Shutdown; Customer Account Money Frozen
  Link to Article
  Source: EconomicPolicyJournal.com
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:05
  The popular web-based events betting site, InTrade, has shutdown, citing irregularities. The exchange has closed out all trades.The exchange has frozen all accounts and will not be allowing withdrawals until further notice.The following is posted on the frontpage of the In Trade web site.To Our Customers:
  With sincere regret we must inform you that due to circumstances recently discovered we must immediately cease trading activity on www.intrade.com.
  These circumstances require immediate further investigation, and may include financial irregularities which in accordance with Irish law oblige the directors to take the following actions:
  Cease exchange trading on the website immediately.
  Settle all open positions and calculate the settled account value of all Member accounts immediately.
  Cease all banking transactions for all existing Company accounts immediately.During the upcoming weeks, we will investigate these circumstances further and determine the necessary course of action.
  To mitigate any further risk to members' accounts, we have closed and settled all open contracts at fair market value as of the close of business on March 10, 2013, in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of our customers' use of the website. You may view your account details and settled account balances by logging into the website.
  At this time and until further notice, it is not possible to make any payments to members in accordance with their settled account balance until the investigations have concluded.
  The Company will continue the maintenance and technology operations of the exchange system so that all information is preserved properly.
  We are not able to provide telephone support or live help services at this time, please contact the company by email at: accountservices@intrade.com
  We appreciate your custom and support over the years. We are committed to reporting faithfully the status of things as they are clarified and hope you will bear with us as we do all we can to resume operations as promptly as possible.
  Sincerely,
  The Board of Directors of Intrade the Prediction Market Limited
Hypocrite
  Link to Article
  Source: Second City Cop
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:03
  Being a liberal means never having to say you're sorry for being a two-faced asshole - until you get caught, then you spin and spin and spin!Mark E. Kelly, husband of former Congress-weasel Gabby Giffords, who was wounded by a mental deranged far-left lunatic some months back, has been traveling the country speaking out against "assault weapons," "high capacity" magazines, and other anti-gun talking points. But then a funny thing happened:
  Mark E. Kelly, gun-control proponent and husband to former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, recently purchased an AR-15 (an "assault weapon," he called it)'--which he now says he intended as an illustration of the need for more stringent gun laws.Kelly reportedly bought the AR-15 and a 1911-style semi-automatic pistol at a gun store in Tucson, Arizona.
  Oops. But he didn't mean to! In fact, wait until you hear the reason he bought these "assault" weapons:
  I just had a background check a few days ago when I went to my local gun store to buy a .45. As I was leaving, I noticed a used AR-15. Bought that too. Even to buy an assault weapon, the background check only takes a matter of minutes. I don't have possession of it yet but I'll be turning it over to the Tucson PD when I do.So he's a humanitarian! He's spending probably over $1,000 to give a gun away. He probably believes the Drop-Box Initiative is a brilliant new idea in 21st Century policing, too.As someone who served in the military (as he did), earned the Distinguished Flying Cross (which he did) and retired honorably (as he did) with no criminal record (as he doesn't) and served as a Space Shuttle pilot AND commander, he ought to be able to purchase a weapon with no problem, right? Well, yeah, that's what "Instant Background Check" means.
  But when you start preaching for the other side, restricting Constitutional Rights that you swore to uphold against all enemies, foreign and domestic, well then you open up a whole can of stupid on yourself and deserve whatever comes your way.
  No guns for anyone except the elite evidently - and we all know who the elite are, don't we?
  Labels: gun issues
Rafael van der Vaart openhartig over scheiding
  Link to Article
  Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:02
  Rafael van der Vaart openhartig over scheiding - Priv(C) | Het laatste Priv(C) nieuws leest u op Prive.nl van De Telegraaf [prive]Uw browser ondersteunt geen javascript of javascript staat uitgeschakeld. Hierdoor kunnen er cookies geplaatst worden waar u geen toestemming voor heeft gegeven.
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What's all this Wireless Mesh-net Commotion?
  Link to Article
  Source: Gitmo Detox Press
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:58
  Posted by ama2er on 2013/03/10I heard about Commotion Wireless on Democracy Now for the 5th of March, 2013. The open-source communication tool claims to, once downloaded to cellphones or PCs, will allow one to create a mesh network whereby they can share telecommunications ''resources'' with others. My understanding of the service is that this would in theory allow groups of people to pool together and buy the bandwidth normally provided by Internet Service Providers to individual consumers. This group of people could then create their own mesh network, or mesh-net, in order to share that internet access on their own terms. I believe that one benefit of this system is that sooner or later, the ISPs must give a bulk discount, right?
  Another positive use of this technology could be to push internet access out into the boonies where no other conduit to that internet access exists at the moment. This same capability could be used to replace typical conduits of internet access during crises.
  One aspect of this project worth investigation by more worthy minds than mine is the fact that this recently released software is the U.S. Release product of an effort that began under the funding of our very own, blood-stained, Department of State. Another aspect worth investigation may be related to the eager attention paid by mainstream media to this upstart. Democracy Now mentioned that this project was started two years ago, and I easily found one article in Infosecurity-Magazine from just one year ago. It seems curious that this outfit is such a media darling.
  The folks in charge of the FAQ at Commotion Wireless have got their heads on straight though, as outlined with the following sensible view:
  ''Software is not inherently good or evil and can be utilized by people with a variety of intents. Activists under an oppressive regime might be considered criminals by the government that they oppose,''
  Of course, the burning question is: Who do we mean when we say ''oppressive regime''?
  A Little bit of Who Is? http://www.wmtips.com/tools/info/?url=commotionwireless.net http://whois.net/whois/commotionwireless.net
  Like this:LikeLoading...
JCPenney, Sears Pull Ad Buys From Saturday Night Live
  Link to Article
  Source: FrontPage Magazine» FrontPage
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:57
  Back on February 16, Saturday Night Live '' a show that would never have the guts to lampoon Muslim prophet Mohammed '' went after Jesus with both barrels. Or rather, they had Jesus go after everyone else with both barrels. The skit, titled Djesus Uncrossed, featured Christoph Waltz's Jesus killing Roman soldiers using swords and firearms. ''He's risen from the dead,'' the voice-over says. ''And he's preaching anything but forgiveness.''
  In the aftermath of that slap against Christianity, Tim Wildmon's American Family Association went to sponsors of the program and asked them to pull their advertising. The skit, Wildmon wrote, was ''an affront to all people of faith, especially Christians '... NBC would never do this to any other religious group, but it's popular in Hollywood circles to go after 'crazy' Christian.'' Sears sent Wildmon a thank you, and pulled its ads, stating that they had also ''taken steps to ensure that our commercials do not air online '....'' Wildmon is pushing more boycotts, stating, ''As long as corporations support this kind of offensive material, their sales are going to suffer as shoppers abandon retailers that support blasphemy '.... When you embrace television programming with no morals, you can't possibly embrace the public you are trying to sell to.''
  So, is Wildmon right? Should conservatives begin targeting advertisers in order to curb Hollywood's anti-religious propaganda?
  In an ideal world, such boycotts wouldn't be necessary. We'd all be able to watch television without being hit over the head by propaganda. Comedians would be equal opportunity defenders. The Obama hacks at Saturday Night Live would spend time going after Islam the same way they go after Christianity.
  But we don't live in that ideal world. Which means that the only way to really fight back against offensive material on television is to target advertisers. We can take the high road, and declare that advertisers should be able to get away with placing their ads anywhere. But we'll lose the fight. The left uses such pressure tactics on a regular basis. The Obama administration unleashes its allies like Media Matters and Common Cause to launch boycott efforts against figures like Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs. They target advertisers and encourage them to pull their funding, not for breaches of public taste, but for breaches of political correctness.
  And it's tremendously effective.
  So why doesn't the right use such tactics? It used to. Back in the 1930s, all of Hollywood voluntarily adopted the so-called Hays Code after Catholics began boycotting films because of their sexual improprieties. For thirty years, Hollywood made films that didn't depict raunchy sex, criminals getting away with it, or anti-American themes. That wasn't fascism, as the left claims. It was the power of the free market.
  But now the right has been convinced that to boycott breaches the boundaries of appropriateness. While the left uses every tool in its arsenal to destroy the careers of those on the right, the right hopes to take the moral high ground, and then scold the left into decency. It isn't going to happen.
  Freedom of speech doesn't include freedom from consequences of speech, and it's perfectly within the rights of religious people to choose their consumption habits based on whether advertisers back views antithetical to their own. Will entertainment become more bland as it becomes more politicized? Surely it will. But it has already been made both bland and left-wing because the left has used boycotts so adroitly. If the right doesn't fight back, it loses the opportunity for a fair shake '-- and blows the opportunity to teach the left about mutually assured destruction.
  Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.
The Department of Justice Did NOT Disclaim Murder of Americans by Drone
  Link to Article
  Source: Washington's Blog
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:54
  He Did NOT Say What You Think He SaidAs we noted Friday, Attorney General Holder's statement that the president will not assassinate non-combatant Americans on U.S. soil with a drone left a huge loophole, and raised more questions than it answered.
  Later that day, top constitutional and military law expert Jonathan Turley agreed:
  We previously discussed how Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter confirming that the President would have authority to kill citizens on U.S. soil without a charge or conviction. His answer triggered a principled filibuster by Sen. Rand Paul and another embarrassment to Democratic Senators who, again, chose personality over principle in staying silent. Now, Holder has issued a new statement. No, President Obama still claims the right to kill U.S. citizens on his sole authority. However, Holder now says that, if the citizen is ''not engaged in combat on American soil,'' the President cannot vaporize him. The answer leaves the constitutional claim of Obama even more confused and conflicted. Does this mean we have a third category now under the policy: citizen, citizen terrorist, and citizen non-combatant terrorist?
  In his prior letter, Holder answered a question about whether the President was claiming the right to kill citizens on U.S. soil. This follows the release of a memo showing that Holder's description of the policy at Northwestern University Law School was narrower than the actual policy described within the Administration. A memo leaked to the press shows that the Administration has adopted a virtual limitless definition of imminence: ''The condition that an operational leader present an 'imminent' threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future.''
  Last week, Holder said ''It is possible I suppose to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States.''
  ***
  It is not clear what Holder means by ''engaged in combat'' since the Administration memo shows that the Administration is using an absurdly broad definition of ''imminent'' threat under the kill list policy. Since the Administration has continued to assert that terrorists are engaged in a war against the U.S., the terse reply of Holder seems designed to preserve later flexibility.
  Moreover, there is nothing in the constitutional claim of the Administration that reflects such a limitation. Deciding on where to kill a citizen would be an discretionary policy under the sweeping presidential authority described by the Administration. As noted in earlier columns (here and here and here), it is astonishing how citizens, including so many liberals and civil libertarians, Obama is saying that his appointment of a non-binding committee satisfied due process and relieves any need for judicial review. Moreover, if the President has the inherent authority to kill a citizen in Canada, it is not clear why such inherent authority would not exist a few hundred yards away in Detroit. The Administration has said that it can use the unilateral power when it considers a capture to pose undue risk to its personnel.
  What is particularly striking is that we have a president who is asserting the right to kill any citizen but the Administration has classified memos on that authority and the Attorney General will only give a Senator a terse two line conclusory statement on scope. The Administration appears to believe that there is little need to explain the details on killing citizens, such as how it defines ''combat.'' Obviously, if there is a war occurring in the United States, a president has the right to put down insurrection or attacks on the federal government. These strikes concern targeting terrorists. One can easily foresee this or a future president insisting that an alleged terrorism conspiracy is a form of combat.
  It would seem an obvious thing to explain how they define combat and whether an alleged terrorist would fall into it. Does this mean that there will be a category of non-combatant terrorists for domestic strikes? How is that defined? It seems like a hole big enough to fly a drone through.Since police can already use lethal force to stop an attack in progress, the answer leaves more questions than it answers in my view. For a citizen it would mean that he or she can be killed abroad on the basis of the Administration's wildly broad definition of ''imminent'' but domestically would fall under a different ''combat'' definition. Where is the line between an ''imminent'' threat and ''combat'' drawn? Does Holder mean there is a different meaning to imminence when someone steps over the border? We already have the definition of ''imminent'' and the Administration's new definition of ''imminent.'' Is this yet a third option?
  Today, former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald weighs in:
  As Law Professor Ryan Goodman wrote yesterday in the New York Times, ''the Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, has acted with an overly broad definition of what it means to be engaged in combat.'' That phrase '' ''engaged in combat'' '' does not only include people who are engaged in violence at the time you detain or kill them. It includes a huge array of people who we would not normally think of, using common language, as being ''engaged in combat''.
  Indeed, the whole point of the Paul filibuster was to ask whether the Obama administration believes that it has the power to target a US citizen for assassination on US soil the way it did to Anwar Awlaki in Yemen. The Awlaki assassination was justified on the ground that Awlaki was a ''combatant'', that he was ''engaged in combat'', even though he was killed not while making bombs or shooting at anyone but after he had left a cafe where he had breakfast. If the Obama administration believes that Awlaki was ''engaged in combat'' at the time he was killed '' and it clearly does '' then Holder's letter is meaningless at best, and menacing at worst, because that standard is so broad as to vest the president with exactly the power his supporters now insist he disclaimed.
  The phrase ''engaged in combat'' has come to mean little more than: anyone the President accuses, in secrecy and with no due process, of supporting a Terrorist group. Indeed, radically broad definitions of ''enemy combatant'' have been at the heart of every War on Terror policy, from Guantanamo to CIA black sites to torture. As Professor Goodman wrote:
  ''By declining to specify what it means to be 'engaged in combat' the letter does not foreclose the possible scenario '' however hypothetical '' of a military drone strike, against a United States citizen, on American soil. It also raises anew questions about the standards the administration has used in deciding to use drone strikes to kill Americans suspected of terrorist involvement overseas . . .
  ''The Obama administration's continued refusal to do so should alarm any American concerned about the constitutional right of our citizens '' no matter what evil they may or may not be engaged in '' to due process under the law. For those Americans, Mr. Holder's seemingly simple but maddeningly vague letter offers no reassurance.''
  Indeed, as both Law Professor Kevin Jon Heller and Marcy Wheeler noted, Holder, by deleting the word ''actively'' from Paul's question (can you kill someone not ''actively engaged in combat''?), raised more questions than he answered. As Professor Heller wrote:
  '''Engaged in combat' seems like a much broader standard than 'senior operational leader'. which the recently disclosed White Paper described as a necessary condition of killing an American citizen overseas. Does that mean the President can kill an American citizen inside the US who is a lower-ranking member of al-Qaeda or an associated force? . . . .
  ''What does 'engaged in combat' mean? That is a particularly important question, given that Holder did not restrict killing an American inside the US to senior operational leaders and deleted 'actively' from Paul's question. Does 'engaging' require participation in planning or executing a terrorist attack? Does any kind of direct participation in hostilities qualify? Do acts short of direct participation in hostilities '' such as financing terrorism or propagandizing '' qualify? Is mere membership, however loosely defined by the US, enough?''
  Particularly since the Obama administration continues to conceal the legal memos defining its claimed powers '' memos we would need to read to understand what it means by ''engaged in combat'' '' the Holder letter should exacerbate concerns, not resolve them. As Digby, comparing Bush and Obama legal language on these issues, wrote yesterday about Holder's letter: ''It's fair to say that these odd phrasings and very particular choices of words are not an accident and anyone with common sense can tell instantly that by being so precise, they are hiding something.''
  At best, Holder's letter begs the question: what do you mean when you accuse someone of being ''engaged in combat''? And what are the exact limits of your power to target US citizens for execution without due process? That these questions even need to be asked underscores how urgently needed Paul's filibuster was, and how much more serious pushback is still merited. But the primary obstacle to this effort has been, and remains, that the Democrats who spent all that time parading around as champions of these political values are now at the head of the line leading the war against them.
  Note: In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property.
Sen Paul Distracts Public While House Approves $1 Trillion Budget Increase
  Link to Article
  Source: WTF RLY REPORT
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:52
  Susanne PoselOccupy Corporatism
  After the filibuster spectacle on Capitol Hill by Senator Rand Paul, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote another letter wherein he retracted his original statement concerning Obama's legality to use drones in targeted assassination of American citizens on US soil. Holder said: ''It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question, 'Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?' The answer to that question is no.''
  Senator Rand Paul Second Letter by
  After receiving this letter, Paul agreed to support Brennan's nomination for director of the CIA.
  On a broadcast on FoxNews, Paul said that Holder explained that the President does not have the right to kill unarmed and non-combative Americans on American soil.
  Paul claimed a victory with this ''answer''; however it is glossed over in the mainstream media that the response from Holder did not clarify who is a combatant.
  Based on the National Defense Authorization Act, anyone can be suspected of being a combatant by having alleged ties to a terrorist group.
  Just recently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) have said that constitutionalists and anti-government groups are extremists and liken to being terrorist organizations.
  While both the mainstream and alternative media were focused on the dog-and-pony show conducted by Paul and Holder regarding drones, the House of Representatives approved a bill that would grant funding to the federal government through September of 2013 while a supposed major budget cut is running rampant, stifling the economic stance of the US government.
  House Representative Harold Rogers, head of the Appropriations Committee introduced this resolution to the tune of $982 billion (just shy of 1 trillion dollars) to avoid a near complete governmental shutdown at the end of this month.The very same day of Paul's 13 hour filibuster, the House secured funding for the federal government at the expense of taxpayer and under cover of a 13 hour distraction.
  While the rest of the country faces sequestering measures, the US Military Industrial Complex will be well funded to conduct their business.
  The Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Planned Parenthood would continue to remain funded with that nearly $1 trillion appropriated by the House resolution.
  Read more
China inflation hits 10-month high
  Link to Article
  Source: BBC News - Home
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:51
  11 March 2013Last updated at01:55 ETChina's inflation rate hit a 10-month high in February, as Lunar New Year festivities drove up food prices.
  Consumer prices rose 3.2% from a year earlier, with food prices up by 6%.
  Inflation has been a hot political issue in China. There have been concerns that if consumer prices rise too much, it may prompt Beijing to tighten monetary policies, which in turn may hurt China's growth.
  However, analysts said the latest data was unlikely to prompt any such moves.
  They argued that the price growth was driven mainly by the Lunar New Year celebrations, which are traditionally associated with an increase in consumer spending.
  "We expect limited market and policy impact as investors and officials understand the Lunar New Year distortions quite well," Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said in a note after the data was released over the weekend.
  "Though policymakers should be wary of inflation later this year with economic growth recovery, it's too early to call for significant monetary tightening at present," they said.
  'Big inflationary pressures'Continue reading the main storyIf monetary policy remains at the current loose stance, consumer price index in 2013 will likely be much higher than the 3.5% target set in the National People's Congress''
  End QuoteZhang ZhiweiNomuraAfter years of experiencing a blistering pace of growth, China has seen its economic expansion slow in recent times.
  In 2012, the country grew at a pace of 7.8%, its weakest performance in 13 years.
  Prompted by slowing growth, China has taken various steps over the past months to spur a fresh wave of economic growth.
  It cut interest rates twice last year, to bring down the cost of borrowing for consumers and businesses. It also lowered the amount of money that banks need to keep in reserves in an attempt to boost lending in the country.
  On the investment front, Beijing approved infrastructure projects worth more than $150bn (£94bn).
  Some analysts said that if China continues to pursue easy monetary policies, consumer prices may rise further in the latter half of the year.
  "If monetary policy remains at the current loose stance, consumer price index in 2013 will likely be much higher than the 3.5% target set in the National People's Congress," said Zhang Zhiwei, an economist with Nomura.
  China set a target of 3.5% inflation rate for the current year at the National People's Congress, its annual parliamentary session, last week.
  However, in his final appearance at the congress, outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao warned that keeping prices in check will remain a key challenge for the policymakers.
  "There are relatively big inflationary pressures this year, mainly because there are pressures on China's land, labour, agricultural products and services," he said.
  "And major countries are stepping up loose monetary policy, so we can't overlook imported inflationary pressures."
Remarks by the President at the Gridiron Dinner
  Link to Article
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:44
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  March 09, 2013
  Washington Renaissance HotelWashington, DC
  10:03 P.M. EST
  THE PRESIDENT: Before I begin, I know some of you have noticed that I'm dressed a little differently from the other gentlemen. Because of sequester, they cut my tails. (Laughter.) My joke writers have been placed on furlough. (Laughter.) I know a lot of you reported that no one will feel any immediate impact because of the sequester. Well, you're about to find out how wrong you are. (Laughter.)
  Of course, there's one thing in Washington that didn't get cut -- the length of this dinner. (Laughter.) Yet more proof that the sequester makes no sense. (Laughter.)
  As you know, I last attended the Gridiron dinner two years ago. Back then, I addressed a number of topics -- a dysfunctional Congress, a looming budget crisis, complaints that I don't spend enough time with the press. It's funny, it seems like it was just yesterday. (Laughter.)
  We noticed that some folks couldn't make it this evening. It's been noted that Bob Woodward sends his regrets, which Gene Sperling predicted. (Laughter.) I have to admit this whole brouhaha had me a little surprised. Who knew Gene could be so intimidating? (Laughter.) Or let me phrase it differently -- who knew anybody named Gene could be this intimidating? (Laughter.)
  Now I know that some folks think we responded to Woodward too aggressively. But hey, when has -- can anybody tell me when an administration has ever regretted picking a fight with Bob Woodward? (Laughter.) What's the worst that could happen? (Laughter and applause.)
  But don't worry. We're all friends again in the spirit of that wonderful song. As you may have heard, Bob invited Gene over to his place. And Bob says he actually thinks that I should make it too. And I might take him up on the offer. I mean, nothing says "not a threat" like showing up at somebody's house with guys with machine guns. (Laughter.)
  Now, since I don't often speak to a room full of journalists -- (laughter) -- I thought I should address a few concerns tonight. Some of you have said that I'm ignoring the Washington press corps -- that we're too controlling. You know what, you were right. I was wrong and I want to apologize in a video you can watch exclusively at whitehouse.gov. (Laughter.)
  While we're on this subject, I want to acknowledge Ed Henry, who is here -- who is the fearless leader of the Washington press corps now. (Applause.) And at Ed's request, tonight I will take one question from the press. Jay, do we have a question? (Laughter.) Surprisingly, it's a question from Ed Henry. (Laughter.) ''Mr. President, will you be taking any questions tonight?'' (Laughter.) I'm happy to answer that. No, Ed, I will not. (Laughter.)
  I also want to recognize David Corn. He's here from Mother Jones magazine. He brought his iPhone. So Bobby Jindal, if you thought your remarks were off the record, ask Mitt Romney about that. (Applause.)
  I have to say, I thought Bobby was incredibly funny this evening. (Applause.) I thought he was terrific. Amy Klobuchar was sparkling and fantastic and fabulous. (Applause.) I am worried about Al Franken though. (Laughter.) How do you start off being one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live and end up being the second-funniest Senator in Minnesota? (Laughter and applause.) How the mighty have fallen. (Laughter.)
  Now I'm sure that you've noticed that there's somebody very special in my life who is missing tonight, somebody who has always got my back, stands with me no matter what and gives me hope no matter how dark things seem. So tonight, I want to publicly thank my rock, my foundation -- thank you, Nate Silver. (Laughter.)
  Of course as I begin my second term, our country is still facing enormous challenges. We have a lot of work to do -- that, Marco Rubio, is how you take a sip of water. (Laughter and applause.)
  As I was saying, we face major challenges. March in particular is going to be full of tough decisions. But I want to assure you, I have my top advisors working around the clock. After all, my March Madness bracket isn't going to fill itself out. (Laughter.) And don't worry -- there is an entire team in the situation room as we speak, planning my next golf outing, right now at this moment. (Laughter.)
  But those aren't the only issues on my mind. As you are aware -- as has been noted this evening -- we've had to make some very tough, huge budget cuts apparently with no regard to long-term consequences, which means I know how you feel in journalism. (Laughter.) I've been trying to explain this situation to the American people, but clearly I am not perfect. After a very public mix-up last week, my communications team has provided me with an easy way to distinguish between Star Trek and Star Wars. (Laughter.) Spock is what Maureen Dowd calls me. Darth Vader is what John Boehner calls me. (Laughter.)
  Of course, maintaining credibility in this cynical atmosphere is harder than ever -- incredibly challenging. My administration recently put out a photo of me skeet shooting and even that wasn't enough for some people. Next week, we're releasing a photo of me clinging to religion. (Laughter and applause.)
  I'm also doing what I can to smooth things over with Republicans in Congress. In fact, these days John McCain and I are spending so much time together that he told me we were becoming friends. I said, ''John, stop. Chuck Hagel warned me how this ends up.'' (Laughter.)
  It took a while, but I'm glad that the Senate finally confirmed my Secretary of Defense. And I have to say, I don't know what happened to Chuck in those hearings. I know he worked hard, he studied his brief. And I even lent him my presidential debate team to work with him. (Laughter.) It's confusing what happened. (Laughter.)
  But all these changes to my team are tough to handle, I've got to admit. After nine years, I finally said goodbye to my chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau. I watched him grow up. He's almost like a son to me, he's been with me so long. And I said to him when he first informed me of his decision, I said, ''Favs, you can't leave.'' And he answered with three simple words -- "yes, I can." (Laughter.) Fortunately, he did not take the prompter on his way out. (Laughter.) That would have been a problem. (Laughter.)
  With all these new faces, it's hard to keep track of who is in, who is out. And I know it's difficult for you guys as reporters. But I can offer you an easy way of remembering the new team. If Ted Cruz calls somebody a communist, then you know they're in my cabinet. (Laughter.)
  Jack Lew is getting started on his new role as Treasury Secretary. Jack is so low key, he makes Tim Geithner look like Tom Cruise. (Laughter.) Don't worry, everybody, Jack signed off on that joke or a five year old drew a slinky. (Laughter.) I don't know which. (Applause.)
  Another big change has been at the State Department. Everybody has noticed that obviously. And let's face it -- Hillary is a tough act to follow. But John Kerry is doing great so far. He is doing everything he can to ensure continuity. Frankly, though, I think it's time for him to stop showing up at work in pantsuits. (Laughter.) It's a disturbing image. (Laughter.) It really is. (Laughter.) I don't know where he buys them. He is a tall guy. (Laughter.)
  And even though I'm just beginning my second term, I know that some folks are looking ahead to bigger things. Look, it's no secret that my Vice President is still ambitious. But let's face it, his age is an issue. Just the other day, I had to take Joe aside and say, ''Joe, you are way too young to be the pope." (Laughter.) "You can't do it. You got to mature a little bit." (Laughter.)
  Now, I do want to end on a serious note. I know that there are people who get frustrated with the way journalism is practiced these days. And sometimes those people are me. (Laughter.) But the truth is our country needs you and our democracy needs you.
  In an age when all it takes to attract attention is a Twitter handle and some followers, it's easier than ever to get it wrong. But it's more important than ever to get it right. And I am grateful for all the journalists who do one of the toughest jobs there is with integrity and insight and dedication -- and a sense of purpose -- that goes beyond a business model or a news cycle.
  This year alone, reporters have exposed corruption here at home and around the world. They've risked everything to bring us stories from places like Syria and Kenya, stories that need to be told. And they've helped people understand the ways in which we're all connected -- how something that happens or doesn't happen halfway around the world or here in Washington can have consequences for American families.
  These are extraordinary times. The stakes are high and the tensions can sometimes be high as well. But while we'll always have disagreements, I believe that we share the belief that a free press -- a press that questions us, that holds us accountable, that sometimes gets under our skin -- is absolutely an essential part of our democracy.
  So I want to thank everybody for not just a wonderful evening -- and, Chuck, I want to thank you for your outstanding presidency -- but I also just want to thank you for the work that you do each and every day. And in the words of one of my favorite Star Trek characters -- Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise -- ''May the force be with you." (Laughter and applause.)
  END 10:19 P.M. EST
Jeb Bush to David Gregory: 'You Guys Are Crack Addicts'
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  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:43
  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.
Dana Milbank: Future Scholars Will Be Shocked By Number of F-bombs Dropped By This White House
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  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:43
  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.
New drug being developed using compound found in red wine 'could help humans live until they are 150'
  Link to Article
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:42
  Drugs are synthetic versions of resveratrol, found in red wineResearch shows drugs which could prevent cancer and diabetes now viableMedication can be taken topically or orallyNo drugs yet developed to target aging skinBy Lucy Crossley
  PUBLISHED: 15:48 EST, 10 March 2013 | UPDATED: 16:40 EST, 10 March 2013
  Breakthrough: The new anti-aging drugs are synthetic versions of resveratrol which is found in red wine
  Drugs that could combat ageing and help people to live to 150-years-old may be available within five years, following landmark research.
  The new drugs are synthetic versions of resveratrol which is found in red wine and is believed to have an anti-ageing effect as it boosts activity of a protein called SIRT1.
  Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has been testing the medications on patients suffering with medical conditions including cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
  The work proves that a single anti-ageing enzyme in the body can be targeted, with the potential to prevent age-related diseases and extend lifespans.
  As each of the 117 drugs tested work on the single enzyme through a common mechanism is means that a whole new class of anti-ageing drugs is now viable, which could ultimately prevent cancer, Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes.
  Genetics professor David Sinclair, based at Harvard University, said: 'Ultimately, these drugs would treat one disease, but unlike drugs of today, they would prevent 20 others.
  'In effect, they would slow ageing.'
  The target enzyme, SIRT1, is switched on naturally by calorie restriction and exercise, but it can also be enhanced through activators.
  The most common naturally-occurring activator is resveratrol, which is found in small quantities in red wine, but synthetic activators with much stronger activity are already being developed.
  Although research surrounding resveratrol has been going on for a decade, until now the basic science had been contested.
  Despite this, there have already been promising results in some trials with implications for cancer, cardiovascular disease and cardiac failure, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, fatty liver disease, cataracts, osteoporosis, muscle wasting, sleep disorders and inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis, arthritis and colitis.
  Professor Sinclair said: 'In the history of pharmaceuticals, there has never been a drug that tweaks an enzyme to make it run faster.'
  Positive: Scientists have been testing the medications on patients suffering with medical conditions including cancer, diabetes and heart disease (file picture)
  The technology was sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2008.
  Four thousand synthetic activators, which are 100 times as potent as a single glass of red wine, have been developed - with the best three being used in human trials.
  Writing in the journal Science, Professor Sinclair, who suggests the first therapeutic to be marketed will be for diabetes, said: 'Our drugs can mimic the benefits of diet and exercise, but there is no impact on weight.'
  Limited trials have been carried out in people with type 2 diabetes and the skin inflammatory disease, psoriasis.
  Scientists found that there were benefits to the metabolism in the first group and a reduction in skin redness in the second.
  The drugs can be administered orally, or topically.
  So far, there have been no drugs developed to target ageing skin, but one major skin care range has developed a creme with resveratrol in it.
  Anti-aging: Drugs to target ageing skin have not yet been developed, but one major skin care range has created a creme containing resveratrol
  While any drug would be strictly prescribed for certain conditions, Professor Sinclair suggests that one day, they could be taken orally as a preventative.
  They could therefore be used in the same way as statin drugs are commonly prescribed to prevent, instead of simply treating, cardiovascular disease.
  In animal models, overweight mice given synthetic resveratrol were able to run twice as far as slim mice and they lived 15 per cent longer.
  Professor Sinclair added: 'Now we are looking at whether there are benefits for those who are already healthy.
  'Things there are also looking promising. We're finding that ageing isn't the irreversible affliction that we thought it was.
  'Some of us could live to 150, but we won't get there without more research.'
Iran blocks VPN access to global web, cracks down on 'illegal' filter workaround
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:39
  Iran's struggle with the unfiltered internet is well documented -- the nation has spent years fending off cyber attacks, blocking access and potentially fencing its own intranet off from the outside world. Sites like YouTube and Facebook can often only be accessed by using a VPN, bypassing the country's internet filter. Sadly, Iranian users may have to get their Harlem shake fix elsewhere: Iran is putting the lid on "illegal" VPN access. "Within the last few days illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked," explained Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, Iran's head of information and communications technology committee. "Only legal and registered VPNs can from now on be used."
  Registered and legal VPN access can still be purchased, but the typical filter workarounds no longer work. That's not stopping Iran's most dedicated internet users though: one local took to Facebook to confirm that VPN access had been restricting, noting that he was using an unrelated method to dodge Iran's content control efforts. The crackdown may have also blocked access to commonly used sites, such as Yahoo or Google Parliament plans to study the issue more in the coming week, and will presumably tweak the policy as necessary.
Russia to put dead whistle-blower on trial - Europe
  Link to Article
  Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:39
  A whistleblowing Russian lawyer whose death in custody became a symbol of rights abuses and strained relations with the United States will go on posthumous trial in what relatives say is revenge by the Kremlin.
  Sergei Magnitsky, who died while in pre-trial custody in 2009, is being prosecuted for defrauding the state in what will be the first time Russia has ever tried a dead person, a development Amnesty International says sets a "dangerous precedent".
  Magnitsky had been jailed after accusing police and tax officials of multimillion dollar tax fraud.
  His employer says the charges against him were a reprisal and he was murdered, and the Kremlin's own human rights council aired suspicions he was beaten to death.
  The circumstances of his demise led the United States last year to bar entry to Russians accused of involvement in his case or in other rights abuses.
  Critics say the trial, which will begin on Monday, more than three years after he died and despite pleas by relatives to drop the case, is an attempt by President Vladimir Putin's government to hit back at Washington and show the public Magnitsky was a crook not a hero.
  "It's inhuman to try a dead man. If I take part in this circus, I become an accomplice to this," Magnitsky's mother Natalya said.
  "I won't take part in the hearings."
  International criticism
  Russia took the highly unusual step of reopening the investigation against Magnitsky in 2011, as international criticism of Russia over his death mounted.
  "First they killed him, now they are dancing on his grave," said a lawyer for Magnitsky's family, Nikolai Gorokhov.
  After Magnitsky's lawyers boycotted pre-trial hearings, the court appointed a lawyer to defend him.
  Contacted by the Reuters news agency, the court-appointed lawyer Nikolai Guerasimov declined to comment on the case.
  Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov also declined to comment.
  Magnitsky died at the age of 37 after he said he was denied medical care over 358 days in jail.
  Putin said Magnitsky died of heart failure, but his former employer, London-based investment fund Hermitage Capital, says he was killed for testifying against officials he accused of a $230 million theft through fraudulent tax refunds.
  Hermitage owner William Browder is being tried in absentia alongside his former employee.
  "Something happened in that prison that no one wants to talk about," Zoya Svetova, an investigator for the independent prison watchdog, the Public Oversight Commission, that probed his death.
  "Magnitsky became a symbol of the fight against corruption, and the goal of this trial is to show he is no symbol but just a criminal who didn't pay his taxes," she said.
  "It is pure state propaganda because there is no point in trying a dead man."
  454
Drone Filibuster Debate
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  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:38
US Cancels Final Handover Of Afghan Prisoners Held By Americans
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  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:38
Afghan President Says US Working With Taliban To Prevent 2014 Troop Withdrawalh
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  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:38
Russian Al-Qaeda in Syria
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  Source: MRCTV - News & Politics
  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:37
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Senate Hearing On Executive Order On CyberSecurity Issued By President Obama
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  Mon, 11 Mar 2013 01:37