Friday, January 31, 2014

31 Jan - Blogs I'm Following

Evidence of InequityEvidence of Inequity (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The frontispiece of the book Leviathan by Thom...The frontispiece of the book Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes Deutsch: Titelblatt von Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
11:51am MST

Local Council By-Elections January 2014

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 1 minute ago
Party Number of candidates Total vote % +/- Dec Average/ contest +/- Dec +/- Seats Conservative 9 3,812 25.2% +8.4% 423 +178 -4 Labour 8 4,935 32.6% +1.1% 617 +7 +1 LibDem 8 1,139 7.6% -1.6% 142 -49 +1 UKIP 7 1,960 12.9% -1.6% 280 +59 +1 SNP* 2 1,190 7.9% +2.1% 595 -245 0 Plaid Cymru** 0 -5.8% -393 Green 3 331 2.2% -0.7% 36 -71 0 BNP 0 -0.3% -41 TUSC 1 43 0.3% -0.9% 43 -6 0 Independent*** 3 1,679 11.1% -0.7% 560 -249 +1 O... more »

Classroom Video Camera Project Spending Millions to Extend Teacher and Student Surveillance, Part 2

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 2 minutes ago
In Part 1 of this story, we shared how a little-known Gates Foundation grant pumped over $3 million into the Tennessee Department of Education to create a classroom video collection and sharing project, with video data and notes stored on a server owned by the camera company, *thereNow.net*. From talking with the camera project director, Courtney Seiler, the TDOE never had a plan for how children’s images would be protected. In fact, the TDOE left data security to each system to manage on its own, with varying results. For instance, Putnam County officials indicated that letters w... more »

The Economy: Gerald Celente: “We Are In A Global Depression”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 8 minutes ago
*Gerald Celente: “We Are In A Global Depression”* By Live Free or Die “Gerald Celente comes right out and says it how it is; we are now in a global depression. While countless Americans believe that we are somehow still in a ‘recovery’, followers of alternative news understand that we are anything but ‘recovering’. This is a jam packed 11 minute video with Alex Jones and Gerald Celente that sugar coats nothing.” - http://beforeitsnews.com/

Piercing the Corporate Veil

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 16 minutes ago
Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. v. 6470360 Canada Inc. (Energyshop Consulting Inc./Powerhouse Energy Management Inc.), 2014 ONCA 85: [43] I agree with Shoppers that the motions judge did not refer to *Fleischer*. *Fleischer* is the appropriate test to apply to piercing the corporate veil in Ontario. In*Fleischer*, Laskin J.A. stated that only exceptional cases that result in flagrant injustice warrant going behind the corporate veil. It can be pierced if those in control expressly direct a wrongful act to be done. At para. 68, he stated: Typically, the corporate veil is pierced w... more »

Income Inequity

Southern Man at Southern Man - 29 minutes ago
There has been much wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth of late about "income inequity" or the idea that some people having more money than others is a Very Bad Thing. Southern Man will now explain why income inequity is inevitable and why you shouldn't worry about it and why it is actually a Good Thing. Capitalism and free enterprise are the greatest engines of wealth that the world has ever seen. They are engines of wealth because they enable people to provide goods and services that other people want. And even in their highly regulated and overly taxed form here in the goo... more »

Online Media Caucus at the ISA: The Time Is Now-ish

Steve Saideman at Duck of Minerva - 32 minutes ago
The events of the last week within the International Studies Association indicate that there is much ignorance about social media and its role in 21st century IR scholarship and teaching. On the bright side, the reactions to the ISA’s misguided proposal demonstrated that there is a vibrant community of scholars who rely on “web 2.0″ Continue reading

Russell Investments' chief economist found dead in Tacoma Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/01/30/3019967/body-discovered-in-west-tacoma.html#storylink=cpy

        AMERICAN KABUKI at AMERICAN KABUKI - 32 minutes ago
Mike Dueker - Chief Economist Russell Investments *Russell Investments' chief economist found dead in Tacoma* The Associated Press January 30, 2014 Updated 19 hours ago Russell Investments chief economist Mike Dueker was found dead Thursday, and police said it appeared he had taken his own life by jumping from a ramp near the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. An officer who knew Dueker was missing in the area spotted the body about 8:30 a.m. at the base of a 40- to 50-foot embankment for a state Route 16 ramp, Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. Dueker’s car was parked at nearb... more »

Arctic Bay Promo

Way Way Up at Fort McMurray Adventures - 38 minutes ago
This post actually has nothing to do with Fort McMurray or even Alberta, but I felt compelled to do it anyway after seeing an amazing video promo of one of the communities in Nunavut where I was privileged to live prior to moving out here. It was created by InMotion, based out of Ottawa and posted on Facebook by Clare Kines, current Economic Development Officer in Arctic Bay. Truly a magical place. For me it was definitely a treat to see a professionally-done video about a place a woke up in almost every morning for 4 years. I instantly recognized the mountain I climbed a handf... more »

Guest Post From A Steve Israel Constituent

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 51 minutes ago
There are no words to describe the contempt I feel after reading an op-ed by my Congressman, Steve Israel, entitled *The State of Our Middle Class*. How pretentious that the same man whose mortgage obligation was forgiven by "friendly" banksters would opine on the struggles of the middle class. People all across Long Island are struggling under the weight of upside down mortgages, and most could never get the sweetheart deal that Congressman Israel obtained. It is therefore rather shocking that Steve Israel is the current Congressman in our district. He and his second former wife ... more »

YANG'S LONG JAIL SENTENCE

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 hour ago
Professor Yang Yoon-Mo hits his 365th day in prison today (January 31). Tomorrow is his birthday. It is Yang's 4th imprisonment for trying to block Navy base destruction vehicles on Jeju Island. He still has about six more months on this jail sentence. During his previous times in jail Yang has undertaken hunger strikes that nearly killed him. He was a renowned professor and movie critic in South Korea and came back to his native Jeju to fight against the Navy base. An earlier interview with Yang, filmed before the Gangjeong villagers were removed from their sacred rocky coast,... more »

A STONES THROW FROM HELL

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 hour ago
Footage of what appears to be a group of cheering Afghans stoning a wreck of a Predator drone. The MQ-1 Predator drone is used extensively by the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan for surveillance and to deliver airstrikes which frequently kill innocent civilians. Drone crashes are normally not reported by the Pentagon or the CIA, which operate them in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. Some transparency campaigners say the DoD is stonewalling their Freedom of Information requests for drone crash records. Yet such incidents happen fairly often, especially with the fl... more »

Sorry, not sorry kids, there's no free lunch

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 1 hour ago
There are some conservatives who would call this a teaching moment. One wonders what lesson they think they're teaching these children. Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents. ason Olsen, a Salt Lake City District spokesman, said the district’s child-nutrition department became aware that Uintah had a large number of students who owed money for lunches. [...] As a result, the child-nutritio... more »

THE STATE OF THE UNION IS: Fatuous, sad!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 2 hours ago
*FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2014* *Part 4—A celebrified Planet Bullshit:* “My fellow Americans, the state of the union is fatuous—celebrified, sad!” The president didn’t say it. It certainly would have been true if he had! Consider a rarely discussed historical fact: As many others have reported, John Kennedy was elected president in November 1960. In his iconic book about that campaign, Theodore White described the scene as Kennedy announced that he would be running. You can read the description on page 58. Senator Kennedy announced he was running on January 2—January 2 of 1960, the s... more »

Brooks Whigs Out

Karen Garcia at Sardonicky - 2 hours ago
(graphic by Kat Garcia) David Brooks, concerned that the president he frequently canoodles with is in "stately decline," has a solution. Barack Obama can battle Lame Duck Syndrome by appointing commissions made up of the Davos/Aspen Ideas Festival crowd to lay out the framework for his successor's agenda! Obama can become a Whig, and follow in the pragmatic footsteps of Lincoln! Never mind that Abe forsook Whiggery because of its regional factionalism and became a Republican. Brooks is counting on readers not to have boned up on any actual history. In the world of David Brooks, Ob... more »

Definition of irony - A Friday night Rule 5 lipstick lesbian post

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 2 hours ago
I hear that one of the bands chosen to open the Winter Olympics in Sochi on February 7 may be t.A.T.u. Back in 2003 tATu and especially the video for their single 'All The Things She Said' were accused of promoting homosexuality among teenagers. This would seem to be somewhat contrary to Vladimir Putin's stance on homosexuality. Actually it seems that neither of the singers in t.A.T.u, Lena Katina (the red-head) or Yulia Volkova (the brunette), were in fact lesbians and that the video was just to garner them some attention, a tactic that really worked. Just in case you are too yo... more »

From all viewpoints, string theory is "just right" to go beyond QFT

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 3 hours ago
*From QM to QFT to ST* Tomorrow, the Physics Stack Exchange should experience a silent completion of a Holy Trinity. Users are given a golden "tag" badge when the answers by a single user to questions with a particular tag reach the score 1,000. I have just learned it has to be from at least 200 questions now. A third "tag" is waiting to join the elite club; it had the score 998 and 195 questions today. After the daily update, it should break through both thresholds, unless I am overlooking some other condition in which case I apologize for the wrong rumors in advance. ;-) For th... more »

Obama's Suicide Pact with the Death Worshippers of Capitalism

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 3 hours ago
It's time to drink your kool-aid or turn over the tub. We can't wait for our grandchildren to act, as they are being cognitively disabled to make resistance impossible. From Alternet: Are there any self-respecting environmental organizations out there that are still behind President Obama? After his State of the Union on Tuesday it's hard to imagine there could be. In his address, Obama proudly declared, "The 'all the above' energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today America is closer to energy independence than we have been in decades." Based what we kno... more »

KIPP Teacher's Nude Photos Shared by Students

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 3 hours ago
Something that is not in the Doug Lemov miracle book of behaviors to make you a great teacher is the admonition to leave your phone home, at least the one with your nude pics. Perhaps this KIPP high school teacher did not have time to download her nudies to a personal phone after another evening of being on call to 10 PM. Anyway, the phone was on the desk, she was not in the room, and some KIPPster was not as KIPPnotized as he should have been. The results:

Of War and Murder

Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy - 3 hours ago
*by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy* The following joke is attributed to Hermann Göring who was at the time on trial in Nuremberg, charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war-crimes; and crimes against humanity: One Englishman --an idiot; Two Englishmen --a club; Three Englishmen --an empire! One German --a scholar; Two Germans --an army; Three Germans --a war! A mere joke, in bad taste! But consider the source. It is also a simple, if simple-minded, analysis of data. It even hints at the science of emergent ... more »

VETERANS SPEAK ON PALESTINIAN ISSUE

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 4 hours ago
I went to our Veterans for Peace monthly meeting last night in Augusta. We made final plans for this exciting event tomorrow evening in nearby Brunswick. Two of my favorite activists in the US are coming to speak about their recent trip to Palestine. Tarak Kauff and Ellen Davidson (both from New York) are active members of Veterans for Peace and are really dedicated and fun people. They've been up to Maine before and we are glad to have them coming back again. Yonatan Shipira will be with us via Skype to report on his experiences in the Israeli occupation forces. If you can ma... more »

State of disunion for working "folks " - Obama offers the sheeple MyRA - just recall the Poland example "folks " ..... Most food stamp payments issued to working Americans for first time ....... speaking of food stamp programs , note another attempt to block transparency shot down by Federal Courts - -- A federal appeals court has ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture can’t use an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act to keep secret how much businesses receive annually for participating in the food stamp program.

Catharsis Ours - 4 hours ago
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-28/obama-introduces-myra-no-risk-guaranteed-return-retirement-savings-bond ( Does MyRA stand for " My Ripped Arse " ? Which would be the case if the Poland example comes into play ... ) [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Obama Introduces MyRA: The "No Risk, Guaranteed Return" Retirement Savings BondSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 01/28/2014 - 22:32 *"Today, most workers don’t have a pension. A Social Security check often isn’t enough on its own. And while the stock market has doubled over the last five years, that doesn’t help folks who don’t have 401... more »

The Prime Directive: Do Nothing

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 4 hours ago
When it comes to managing the Canadian economy, Tom Walkom writes, the Harper government's prime directive is do nothing and let the American economy drag us along. The strategy is nothing new: It is, in fact, a classic Canadian strategy. The Liberal government of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin used it to great political effect during the downturn of the ’90s. But it requires the U.S. to play ball. The Americans, somehow, have to goose their own economy. The problem this time is that Barack Obama faces a House of Representatives who believe in the same mythology which infects the ... more »

Screaming Headlines, Old News: The Media Hype Over Iran Continues

Nima Shirazi at Wide Asleep in America - 4 hours ago
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, before the Senate Intelligence Committee. (Photo Credit: AP Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais) On January 29, 2014, the Times of Israel published what seemed to be some truly alarming news. “Iran now has all the technical infrastructure to produce nuclear weapons should it make

Reduce GHGs or Increase Energy Access?

noreply@blogger.com (Roger Pielke, Jr.) at Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog - 4 hours ago
At the Center for Global Development Todd Moss and Ben Leo have a provocative analysis up about an obscure but consequential decision facing the US Congress. It has to do with a little-known US government agency called the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Moss and Leo explain: President Obama’s Power Africa initiative, launched in June 2013, aims to increase electricity generation and access to modern energy services in six low-income countries. The success or failure of this effort will be determined in large part by the investment decisions of a dozen or so US government ... more »

Racism Takes A Pivotal Role In Determining Republican Party Immigration Agenda, According To Lindsey Graham

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 4 hours ago
Matt Hildreth works for America's Voice and his tweet (above) about the GOP immigration dilemma went right to the point: are they the Party of Abe Lincoln, the Great Emancipator or the Party of Jeff Sessions, a KKK sympathizer. Yesterday, Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned House Republicans not to support the Republican leadership's plan for comprehensive immigration reform. He called their plan to give legal status to immigrants "amnesty," code among Republicans that the world is coming to an end. “I think it would be a mistake if House Republicans were to support amnesty for those here ille... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 5 hours ago
*Vitter likely to leer over state Legislature as he preps for 2015 governor’s race ~Tyler Bridges, The Lens* *Atlas Shrugging ~Library Chronicles * *Battle of the brands: A newspaper war in New Orleans ~Roger Yu, USA Today* *U.S. Catfish Farmers Emerge As Big Winners in 2014 Farm Bill ~Dan Flynn, Food Safety News *

Friday Nerd Blogging

Charli Carpenter at Duck of Minerva - 5 hours ago
May the bard be with you. See also “The Empire Striketh Back.”

Reason For Outrage On Sunday: Unpaid Super Bowl "Volunteers" Are Illegal

Donna Ballman at Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home - 5 hours ago
The NFL will have an estimated 13,500 "volunteers" working at the Super Bowl. The NFL just announced that 1500 of these "volunteers" will now be paid. The rest will have to sign waivers agreeing not to sue, not to participate in a class action suit, and to arbitrate if they do sue. Since when is the NFL a not-for-profit agency? Am I missing something? There's no such thing as an unpaid volunteer working for a for-profit company. Period. Ask Major League Baseball, which is now defending against a class action suit for all the "volunteers" it had working without pay at for profit eve... more »

War Watch January 31 , 2014 - US trying to push every button to get Karzai to sign that BSA ( Hagel blasts Karzai , meanwhile Afghanistan not trustworthy with US Aid audit made public ) ...... Iraq daily death dealing not a shocker , Justice Department allegations that US and Kuwaiti contractors gave US soldiers unsanitized ice from temporary morgue trailers is shocking ..... Syria sees foreeign fighters getting on the ground training in Syria - and then they will go home , US grouses over slow speed of Syria chemical weapon disposal - how could syria security concerns being unfounded as shipping of the chemical weapons has to occur from the port of Latakia - deep within rebel held territory ( and note the Rbels have already hit Syria chemical arms sites twice since the disposal program commenced ) ?

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 5 hours ago
Afghanistan...... Hagel: Afghans Must Stop ‘Foot-Dragging’ on Troop DealClaims Karzai's Position 'Changes Constantly' by Jason Ditz, January 30, 2014 Print This | Share This Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel expressed growing frustration about the Karzai government’s refusal to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), saying they “can’t just keep deferring and deferring” because it’s screwing up Pentagon plans. The BSA would keep US troops in Afghanistan “through 2024 and beyond,” and US officials have repeatedly demanded President Hamid Karzai sign the pact, though he has insi... more »

War watch January 29 , 2014 - Obama's " State Of Disunion " rambler certainly reflects US Foreign Policy ..... US secret funding of Syria Rebels threats to derail Geneva 2 Talks , Homs remains under siege as humanitarian aid isn't worked out , Aleppo coming into play for Syria government forces - taking Aleppo would be the end of the War as presently constructed ........ Blowback for Saudi Arabia's intrusions against Syria and Iran could be coming - Iran, Iraq Plan Challenge to Saudi Control Over Oil Market Nations Plan to 'Flood the Market' With Increased Oil Production , Iran plays ball with Un inspectors while looking to improve ties with the UK , Iran sanction Bill stalled in Senate..........Senators: US Should ‘Drop’ Karzai Hope His Successor More Amenable to Occupation ....... Talks Now an Afterthought, Pakistan Taliban Clash Looms ....... Iraq sees another day of countrywide death dealing , Kurds playing hardball against PM Maliki , Syria War impacting Iraqi oilfields and pipelines.....

Catharsis Ours - 5 hours ago
State Of Disunion - Foreign Policy Version ..... http://news.antiwar.com/2014/01/28/obamas-muddled-foreign-policy-message-buried-in-state-of-the-union/ Obama’s Muddled Foreign Policy Message Buried in State of the UnionLittle Content and a Lot of Recycled Rhetoric by Jason Ditz, January 28, 2014 Print This | Share This A rambling, 80+ minute State of the Union Address tonight gave President Obama an opportunity to lay out his foreign policy positions, but 60 minutes into the talk he hadn’t touched the matter at all. When he finally did, what followed was a confusing muddle of claims o... more »

Don't want to see more snow

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 6 hours ago

Bad Egg

sue at Is the BBC biased? - 6 hours ago
Isn’t it odd that the BBC lags behind events in oh so many ways? When something they find distasteful comes along they drag their feet until they simply can’t ignore the elephant pounding on the door. This time it was the black egg over on Channel 4. I rarely watch Channel 4 news because of the obvious political bias of Jon Snow. He really can be a disgrace, as Richard Millett will testify. But via Harry’s Place (I know) I was urged to watch the episode of Channel Four News that was aired on the 28th. It was broadcast before the Newsnight edition I mentioned here. That probably exp... more »

Non Partisan Senators

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 6 hours ago
The dramatic announcement of Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader that Senators formerly sitting as Liberals will no longer be a formal caucus has shaken up Canada's political landscape. Some ask how can the Senate function without political parties. What about the concept of the Government and the Opposition? Surely this is essential to a Westminster style legislative body? Well, no - a parliamentary system can work without political parties. Indeed one of Canada's legislatures is explicitly not party based. And more, historically the Canadian Senate is probably better structured wi... more »

An Econ Conference for Undergrads

Greg Mankiw at Greg Mankiw's Blog - 6 hours ago
In April in Washington, DC.

Meditation Alters Genes: Mind over Matter

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 6 hours ago
Mind over Matter? It does work- I have practiced this myself many many times in the past. As conscious BEings, we are the creators of ourselves. More and more studies have shown that sound, thoughts and emotions are all frequencies and vibrations. If you apply this simple understanding to your own health, you can positively effect your body. Where you pay your energy is where you are directing your energy. Do you wake up in the morning and complain? Do you worry about your sore knee? Your headache? Your teeth? Or do you say to yourself "I am happy and healthy!" Both options ... more »

Why Are Banking Executives In London Killing Themselves?

urupiper at Yesterday 's Lies - 7 hours ago
[image: The Economic Collapse] The Economic Collapse By Michael Snyder, on January 28th, 2014 [image: JPMorgan Tower In London - Photo by Danesman1]Bankers committing suicide by jumping from the rooftops of their own banks is something that we think of when we think of the Great Depression. Well, it just happened in London, England. A vice president at JPMorgan's European headquarters in London plunged to his death after jumping from the top of the 33rd floor. He fell more than 500 feet, and it is being reported by an eyewitness that "there was quite a lot of blood". This comes on... more »

Busy with the fizzy

sue at Is the BBC biased? - 7 hours ago
As this is a blog (primarily) about the BBC, I’d better stick to the way the BBC has been reporting the Scarlett Johansson business. Naturally I think she’s fantastic. A celebrity role model who is sticking to a principle, and a good one. But the way the BBC is reporting it is odd. In some ways it’s balanced because for once they have aired the Israeli argument, but - as if they were afraid of being criticised for doing so - they’ve sought out the opposition in an almost gratuitous way. I would argue that it’s gratuitous because that particular position has been adequately covered ... more »

Where the Hell is Matt? Dance Around The World Video

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 7 hours ago
*Published on Jun 20, 2012* Put # and then your city and country/state in your comment so I know where you're from. #Seattle, Washington Download the video to your computer/tablet/phone: http://store.wherethehellismatt.com/ Wanna dance with me in in your town? Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/9h7qzss Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhereTheHIsMatt "Trip the Light" on iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/772ot8k Vocals by Alicia Lemke of Alice and the Glass Lake www.aliceandtheglasslake.com *Lyrics:* www.wherethehellismatt.com/about/faq#tri­plyrics The dancers in Syria are blurred for their s... more »

Co-Imagineering our ONEderful New FREEality

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 7 hours ago
A question asked. It is one that each person must weigh and evaluate and decide for themselves. | For the greater good? or for the GREATER Good. It's a tough one.... Thank you Pete. http://peoplestrustsaskatoon.blogspot.ca/2014/01/lets-co-imagineer-our-onedeful-new.html LET"S CO-IMAGINEER our ONEdeful New FREEality * There are many many distractions thrown at us. Why is this? Maybe it is known that these distractions can delay change indefinitely? I doubt that very much as the positive vibrational frequency just keeps building and is not going to stop! Or will it?* * Are we... more »

The Wisdom Of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov - Light

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 7 hours ago
*Daily Meditation: Friday, January 31, 2014 * *Light - springs to mind when we meet a true sage "In certain people’s presence, when you see the expression on their face, how they look at you, and feel everything they radiate, the word that immediately springs to mind is ‘light’. As if they were able to distil an imponderable substance in their heart and soul and then project it out in the form of light. Or as if they had captured something of the light diffused in space and had condensed it within them. Their whole body seems made of a translucent substance within which a flam... more »

Belated Cheers For the Demise of "Free Dominion"

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 8 hours ago
Internet discussion boards appear to be dying. But the rumours of "Free Dominion's" death* have nothing to do with sociological trends. Like many a right-wing boor, some person or persons on the site slandered and libeled an actual person and thought it was protected free speech. Here's a (too late) legal tip: If you actually believe what you're writing about someone, then it's libel. To whit: If you really think someone is a terrorist sympathizer, and you say that someone is a terrorist sympathizer on a public forum, you can't turn around later and say you were exaggerating for eff... more »

Greg Hunter, “Weekly News Wrap-Up 1.31.14”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 9 hours ago
*“Weekly News Wrap-Up 1.31.14”* By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com “Let’s go back to the Middle East for the top stories. The Syrian peace talks have gone nowhere. Absolutely nothing has been accomplished from the U.S. perspective. They have failed and the best thing you can hope for is another round of talks. The Syrians and the Assad regime, on the other hand, look to be the big winners. They claimed to be destroying their chemical weapon stockpile but are way behind schedule and have only come up with a little more than 4% of their stockpile. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is c... more »

HOT SEX IN SWEDEN

Anon at aangirfan - 9 hours ago
* King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (top left).* The Danish tabloid *Se og Hør* posted an article on its website speculating that Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf was a suspect in the investigation of the 23 January 2014 murder of reputed Stockholm underworld kingpin Mille Markovic. Danish tabloid fingers Sweden's king as a murder suspect *Markovic* *Milo 'Mille' Markovic* was a Serbian-Swedish gangster and 'porn club king'. Markovic claimed he had photos of *Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf* in compromising sexual situations with naked strippers. On 23 January 2014, Markovic was shot de... more »

Leader of the Free World

Paul Coker at News Spike - 10 hours ago
*Like a good, hardworking Southern Baptist, President Carter apparently didn't have time for something so silly as turkey pardoning, and so staffed it out to Roselyn, thereby completing her hat-trick of dubious photo-ops, alongside Jim Jones and John Wayne Gacy.* *Arguably, this is an impeachable abuse of power - but only if you believe that turkeys are subject to the Man's Law, and can be indicted for anything other than having been born naturally tasty and delicious.* *Baptists, it seems, are not big on Original Sin.*

Ukraine and How the West Treats Comparable Events in Satellite and Non-Satellite Countries Differently - by Stephen Gowan

Paul Coker at News Spike - 10 hours ago
The uprising in Ukraine represents a struggle between the West and Russia to integrate Ukraine economically, and, ultimately, militarily, into their respective orbits. I take no side in the struggle. All the same, each side wants me, and you, to take sides. Since I live in the West, and have greater exposure to the pronouncements of people of state in the West, and to the Western mass media than I do to their Russian counterparts, I’ll concentrate herein on analyzing Western efforts to shape public opinion to support the Western side of the struggle. *First, a few points by way of... more »

Untitled

JR at GREENIE WATCH - 11 hours ago
*Tropical cyclone frequency falls to centuries-low in Australia * *In America big wind events have been unusually rare in recent years. Warmists call them "extreme weather" and pretend that they are MORE frequent and also in some way "proof" of global warming. Skeptics simply point to the statistics. So it is interesting that in far-away Australia we have exactly the same situation -- including a proclamation that the unusual rarity of these rare events "proves" global warming. Hurricanes and cyclones prove global warming and the absence of hurricanes and cyclones also proves ... more »

Supporting "Green" Through Our Purchases

Small Footprints at Reduce Footprints - 13 hours ago
[image: Supporting "Green" Through Our Purchases] The most Eco-friendly purchase is, of course, no purchase at all. But sometimes we need stuff and when we do, it's important to research products and buy from companies who make an effort to minimize their impact on the environment. Supporting such companies sends a clear message that we insist on products which don't harm the earth through their manufacture, use, or disposal. Sounds easy enough, right? Unfortunately, it's not. Living green has become a trend; consequently, advertisers want to capitalize on our desire to live a more... more »

Cornered Rat and Pathological Liar Clapper Cries Wolf

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Coming on the heels of the all hype and little substance State of the Union Address in which President Barack Obama once again established himself as the nation’s preeminent bullshit artist we were all today offered up the theater of the absurd of a seasoned liar engaged in standard fear-mongering. Obama may have been devoid of shame when he cynically trotted out wounded Army Ranger Cory Remsburg to a thunderous roar of bipartisan support for the perpetual warfare state but as has always been the case for our fine Director of National Intelligence James Clapper he is in a league of... more »

Shameless: NSA Data Mining Includes Angry Birds

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Nothing is sacred to the NSA Stasi and their Norsefire partners across the pond at GCHQ. In yet another of those very embarrassing revelations that have generated perverse fantasies among the guilty of the murder of former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden the ravenous security state monster is also conducting data-mining operations on cell phone apps including the extremely popular Angry Birds game series. In a collaborative effort by *The Guardian,* The *New York Times* and *Pro Publica *it was revealed that the Anglo-American surveillance machine ha... more »

Bush Era Goons Issue Open Letter to Decry RNC's NSA Resolution

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Remember, remember the eleventh of September. That is the message being delivered by Bush era thugs in an open letter to RNC Chairman Reince Preibus over Friday’s daring “Resolution To Renounce The National Security Agency’s Surveillance Program”. The letter invokes nearly every bullshit talking point that Americans were fed after the September 11, 2001 attacks that were then seized upon by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats (including the signatories) and used to launch two ruinous Middle East wars and redistribute billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the national securi... more »

Fanatical Peter King Explodes over Republican NSA Resolution

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Predictably the RNC’s resolution to restrain the unconstitutional activities of the NSA has already met with fierce resistance from one of the more deranged defenders of the fascist security state. Representative Peter King of Long Island (as well as the terrorist Irish Republican Army) exploded over the brand new “Resolution To Renounce The National Security Agency’s Surveillance Program” before the ink had even had time to dry. For a very brief time the first step upward out of the gigantic hole that has been dug for the Republican party by the likes of George W. Bush, Karl Rove... more »

If Serious, Republican Interest in Curtailing NSA is a Winner

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Let us assume just for the sake of argument that the Republican party’s sudden interest in protecting the privacy of Americans isn’t just a political gimmick. This is after all a political party that has time and again showed that they would be willing to sell their own grandmothers and any serious proposal that comes from this entity should be viewed with extreme skepticism. But the demographics are rapidly changing and the pandering to racists, religious fanatics, cranks and outright idiots is increasingly becoming not only a recipe for losing elections but for becoming a shrink... more »

Coming to America? Ukraine Burns as Crackdown Looms

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
In an ominous sign of what will soon be coming to America the Ukranian government has begun targeting protesters through the tracking of cellphone metadata. The ongoing unrest that was sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to reject overtures by the European Union to enter into a trade pact in favor of a rapprochement with mother Russia continues to rage in the streets of Kiev with no end in sight. The pictures and video that are put out show a surreal and twisted winter wonderland scene of fire, paramilitary riot police forces in the traditional Darth Vader regalia i... more »

Return of “the Decider” - Obama Disagrees With Privacy Board Report

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Former U.S. President George W. Bush was widely mocked for his now infamous utterance in the course of defending Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld - *"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best"*. Bush passed into history as one of the least popular and disastrous leaders in American history but now his once immensely popular successor, Barack Obama is giving the man a run for his money. Obviously more than a bit miffed over Thursday’s bombshell report by the report released by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board rebutting Obama’s ongoing defense of the indefensible... more »

After Obama’s Big Speech NSA Programs are Still Illegal

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
The latest blow to the ongoing national disgrace of unconstitutional mass surveillance that is being conducted with zero oversight by the NSA came Thursday morning. The government’s own Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board released a report that confirms what any rational, thinking American who is not in the bag for big surveillance already knew: that the NSA programs to collect phone metadata are illegal. Not that this is a big deal to President Barack Obama who is still riding high after basically telling everyone to go to hell in his overly hyped speech last Friday at th... more »

Blowhard Mike Rogers Can’t Back Up Russian Spy Charges

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
With the Sunday morning appearance of the two members of Congress that are the most derelict of their official duties to uphold and protect the Constitution Mike Rogers and Dianne Feinstein both accusing Edward Snowden of essentially being a Russian spy the system continues to fail. Despite these serious allegations, more likely than anything the part of a rapidly growing narrative to paint the former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower as an enemy of the state there has been absolutely no effort from the state-corporate media to confront either of the two NSA toadies f... more »

Obama's Dilemma: How to Best Kill Snowden

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Barack Obama has a problem, with his heralded Friday announcement of NSA "reforms" being just the latest bill of goods foisted off on a doomed public by a professional con artist it should now be crystal clear that there will be no attempts to reign in the American Stasi. What Obama now has to do is to find an acceptable way to eliminate the source of the surveillance state's problems which is of course former government contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden from the equation. Barry's dilemma is that with Snowden continuing to receive public support - including what is li... more »

Princeton Snob Sean Wilentz's Epic Snowden-Greenwald-Assange Hit Piece

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
The establishment is bringing in the big guns to escalate the propaganda war on former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. In a massive hit piece just published by liberal establishment magazine The New Republic Princeton historian and writer Sean Wilentz empties the dirty trick bag in a deranged and rambling knee-capping. In addition to Snowden - who is likely rising to the top of Obama’s kill list after El Presidente nixed NSA reforms on Friday –the author also delivers shots to journalist Glenn Greenwald as well as Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. I must a... more »

Obama Will Reform NSA Just Like He Closed Gitmo

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
The fix has always been in on any meaningful accountability or reform for the NSA under the Obama regime and Sunday morning’s state media propaganda forums indicate just how powerless that the American people truly are. Appearing on NBC’s Press the Meat were the NSA Stasi’s two biggest cheerleaders, apple pie authoritarian House Intelligence Committee capo Mike Rogers and Senate Intelligence Committee boss Dianne Feinstein. Both of whom are an ongoing disgrace to any concept of a free country as well as two serial violators of their oaths to uphold the Constitution and they gushed... more »

Chump Change: Obama’s NSA “Reforms”

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Not that this is exactly earth-shattering news but El Presidente of *The Homeland*, commander of the U.S. killer drone fleet and overlord of the U.S. Stasi unconstitutional surveillance programs just pissed down the backs of all Americans today and told them that it was raining. The much hyped speech today on the NSA gathering of metadata on the phone calls of millions of law-abiding American citizens was delivered in the grand hall of the Department of Injustice and the bullshit artist in chief delivered a masterpiece of spin, obfuscation and long stale talking points as he doubl... more »

DISHFIRE Revelations are Opening Act to Obama’s Big NSA "Reforms" Announcement

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
In the ballyhooed lead up to dear leader’s Friday speech in which he will outline NSA “reforms” in an effort to begin to put a coat of fresh whitewash on the rampant unconstitutionality of surveillance programs run amok the latest revelation of snooping broke today. Not that anyone should be the least bit surprised given what has already been exposed in terms of the American Stasi’s frenzied spree of collecting the metadata, emails, browsing habits, purchasing histories, political views and everything outside of what Orwell referred to as those *“few cubic centimetres inside your ... more »

The Al Qaeda Switchboard: Did CIA Obstruction of Justice Enable 9/11 Attacks?

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
The arguments being presented by the defenders of the NSA Stasi’s metadata harvesting efforts, in particular federal judge William Pauley whose post-Christmas ruling erected a firewall for the activities of the unconstitutional fascist surveillance state should be carefully scrutinized. A recent article in *The New Yorker *entitled “The Al Qaeda Switchboard” poses some critical questions for arguments made to justify the intrusions on the telephone data of tens of millions of law abiding Americans. The story which was written by the Pulitzer Prize winning Lawrence Wright who wrote... more »

Financial Times Predicts Bright Future for Libertarians

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
An article in the online version of the Financial Times, “The tide is rising for America’s libertarians” by Edward Luce provides some valuable insight in that younger Americans, coming of age in the era of the abject failure of big government to do anything but subsidize Wall Street casinos, wage war and spy on everyone are turning away from the corrupt two party system. The system, now past any reasonable expectation of ever being fixed and getting worse by the minute cannot be fixed and while things are bleak for those of us who are currently entrapped by it the future belongs to... more »

Forked-Tongue McCain Calls for Congressional Investigation of NSA

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Surfacing again on the Sunday morning state propaganda circuit, blood-thirsty Arizona Senator John McCain, the politician best loved by the corrupt media made an appearance where he routinely calls for U.S. military action. On CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley 'flipper' shockingly commented that there has been "overreach" by the NSA and suggested that a select committee be formed for Congress to investigate the agency. It was a rare moment of rationality for *"bomb, bomb Iran"* McCain and should be taken with the necessary grain of salt. Firstly, any sort of select commi... more »

Citing Secret Report Fascist Rogers Claims Snowden Aided Terrorists

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
In the manner befitting the defenders of the NSA mass surveillance programs House Intelligence Committee head Mike Rogers has now accused former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden of putting our blessed troops in danger. Rogers and his crony Congressman Dutch Reppersberger (D-Md) whose district just happens to contain Fort Meade where the the American Stasi headquarters are located used a secret Pentagon report to back their latest media crusade against reforming the fascist spying colossus. Not only are they accusing Snowden of putting our heroic imper... more »

Chris Christie's Colossal Abuse of Power

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Watching the presidential hopes of anointed Republican savior Chris Christie go up in flames like the Hindenburg, another gas giant that met an untimely demise in New Jersey is a well needed bit of comic relief along the daily path to the great collapse. The New Jersey Governor, long a favorite of the corrupt GOP establishment of the Karl Rove wing of the party has been brought low by the very trait that so endeared him to so many, his arrogant, sarcastic, bullying way of doing business. He enraged the so-called tea party wing with his appearances with Barack Obama last fall prior... more »

Back to Fallujah

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
The famous warning by George Santayana that *"those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"* is like pearls cast before swine in the land of the permanent war that is the Homeland circa 2014. With the reverberations from former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ sucker punch to the solar plexus of former boss Barack Obama now in their second full day the dogs of war are howling and their keening pitch is that of Fallujah. This is the Iraqi city that was descended upon by American forces in spring of 2004 after the brutal ambush, murder and hanging of the mutilated... more »

Media Hypes Pissing Contest Between War Criminals

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Like the vast majority of well known former government officials Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense for both Bush Jr. and Obama has capitalized on his gig to write a tell all book and the early excerpts have elicited a near orgasmic response from the punditry. Gates book, "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" firmly embeds the hatchet between the shoulder blades of the narcissist in chief and the knives are out in a media attracted to sensationalist sleaze, tabloid tales and best of all political back biting. Not that Obama doesn't have it coming, his administration's contempt ... more »

The Hypocrisy of Obama's MSNBC Water Carriers

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
Seldom discussed as a propaganda organ that is in its own right every bit the equal of Fox News MSNBC plumbs the depths of political discourse in providing a constant forum of dishonesty and hypocrisy. The network, which is owned by GE, one of the largest defense contractors of the U.S. military industrial complex regularly shills for more war albeit wrapped up in the bright shining lie of a package of humanitarian interventions. The resulting dead from the collateral damage of wars of aggression or missions of ‘mercy’ are no different and the profits reaped by GE remain constant.... more »

Insane Demagogue Peter King Goes the Full McCarthy

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
*"**"If we listened to Rand Paul hundreds of New Yorkers would be dead today"* *- Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-IRA)* When it comes to screwing America there are few more guilty than New York’s 2nd Congressional District that continues to return the psychotic bigot Peter King (R-IRA) to his overly prominent position as the craziest bastard in the U.S. Congress. The one thing with King is that he never ceases to amaze with his uncanny ability to one up his latest asinine proclamation with yet another that is even more batshit crazy than the one befor. After an ... more »

Big Sister Napolitano is the Latest Ghoul to Defend NSA Stasi

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
With the massive establishment counteroffensive against efforts to bring the American Stasi under control it was a virtual certainty that this week's Sunday morning state media propaganda shows would feature a veritable parade of Nazis to smear the New York Times, the ACLU, federal Judge Richard Leon and of course former government contractor turned NSA leaker Edward Snowden. You know that it is all hands on deck when none other than Big Sister herself, former Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano appeared on Meet the Press very appropriately via telescreen. Napoli... more »

A Monolithic and Ruthless Conspiracy: Main Core and PROMIS

Donn Marten at Carrying a Flag - 13 hours ago
*“Over the last two weeks I have encountered just such an apocalyptic situation, where I and the Department of Justice have been asked to be part of something that is fundamentally wrong.”(Excerpt from Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s draft letter of resignation to President Bush, dated March 16, 2004, which Comey did not in the end send.)"Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull"(George Orwell: 1984)* *I: Main Core and PROMIS* Suppose that the United States Government, or more likely an unaccountable privatized intelligence colossus empowe... more »

India's Corrupt, Dysfunctional Politics Comes To California

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 13 hours ago
The first time I got to India, in 1969, I went the hard way-- overland in a VW van from Europe. What a trip, and I stayed in India, Nepal, Ceylon and Pakistan for two years. Over the years, I've been back many times, most recently over the Christmas holidays in 2012. And in the last decade, every time I went, there was some kind of election involving a fascist Indian politician, Narendra Modi, head of India's far right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which, in the right-wing constellation, is as more akin to the Nazi Party than the Republican Party. Imagine Paul Ryan's economic agend... more »

Kaya Henderson Implicated in Rhee Cheating Scandal that Will Not Die

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 14 hours ago
*From CBS WASHINGTON* — An elementary school principal’s claim that she saw teachers erasing answers on students’ test sheets had reached District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s desk within 24 hours of the alleged incident in late 2010, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request. Henderson was notified about the alleged cheating by two officials with the Washington Teachers’ Union, the emails show. However, school system officials did little to investigate the specific claims and never interviewed the principal about them, ... more »

After Supporting Al-Qaeda Terrorism Against The Egyptian State, Al Jazeera Gets A Strong Response

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 14 hours ago
Al Jazeera Journalists Face Egypt Terror Charges: Cairo charges journalists with aiding 'terrorists'. Source: JewishNewsOne. Date Published: January 30. Guess who is not in favoring of Al Jazeera facing strict justice for their support for Al-Qaeda terrorism and their crimes against the Egyptian people, nation, and state? None other than John Insane McCain, *the nutjob who posed with Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria last year*. Whatever John Insane McCain is against, it means it is good. Whatever he is for, it means it is bad. So it is a good thing that the Egyptian people and state... more »

Fukushima Daiichi is Steaming Pink Today

Majia's Blog at Majia's Blog - 15 hours ago
I was too busy today to watch the cams much but at 5:15 p.m. US west coast time I saw what looked like an earthquake on the TEPCO cam, followed by a pink haze surrounding the plant, which was then followed by the cam going down. TEPCO cam remained down even when I tried a new browser. I had to leave and just got back to my computer 2 hours later. The site still looks very strange, pink, and pixilated. The TEPCO cam looks like it is failing, but the TBS cam has the same quality of shimmering waves of pixilation as visible on the TEPCO cam. Something at the site itself may be produci... more »

Friday Afternoon Ramble: The State of Disunion Edition

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 15 hours ago
America, and half of what was once the free world, shut down last night to listen to a bloke talk nonsense. “… I used to fume and fume about our latter-day Speech from the Throne, but lately I’m no longer sure it’s worth the bother. For the speech to be worth getting worked up about, somebody would have to be listening.” *The State of the Union Is…Irrelevant* – Gene Healy, CATO AT LIBERTY “President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday wasn’t what I wanted to hear. This is what the president should have said.” *Re-state of the Union: What Obama Should Have Said* – Jo... more »

Natural Gas Prices

Steve at Thinking Aboot - 16 hours ago
They can no longer be natural. Put on the tinfoil if you must, but those safe behind the waves of reality distortion see what was once an option now has become a must.

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 16 hours ago
*Louisiana-Army Corps agreement to provide new money for coastal restoration projects ~Mark Schleifstein*

Hey, sports fans, it's raining phony 100s in Super Bowl City!

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 16 hours ago
*Plus: "Mullah John Smith" update* *No, this isn't the alert for the current wave of phony $100 bills flooding Super Bowl City. Still, I think it conveys the general spirit of the current excitement in the Big Apple.* *by Ken* Here in the Big Apple some of us are in the grip of Super Bowl XLVIII Mania. Or I should probably say "here in the Greater NY-NJ Metropolitan Area," since the NJ folk are touchy about being preempted by the Big Apple, what with the game being played in their state -- in East Rutherford's MetLife Stadium, the home of the, er, New York Giants and New York Jets... more »

How Do You Change a Policy That Doesn’t Exist?: the combat exclusion one year later

Megan MacKenzie at Duck of Minerva - 16 hours ago
Despite numerous calls to ‘Let Women Fight’, internal reviews of the policy, and growing evidence of women’s contributions to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the January 2013 announcement that the combat exclusion would be removed was not entirely expected. For years leading up to the announcement, Congress and the Department of Defense had justified the Continue reading

WATCH VIDEO: EMPLOYEES EXPERIENCE OBAMACARE STICKER SHOCK

Mark Daniels at Global Political Awakening - 17 hours ago
[image: Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...] A news station visited a local Pennsylvania small business which showed the devastating impact of Obamacare. One employee said, “they call it the affordable health plan? There is nothing affordable about it … wake up America. This is not acceptable.” Watch below: Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter: Delivered by FeedBurner Be the Change! Share this using the tools below.

False Flag alert ! Intelligence reports say there is a threat of a terrorist attack on US soil by an Al-Qaida-linked group based in Syria. But despite the Mideast country increasingly resembling a haven for terrorists, the US is still not convinced it wants to deal with the government. James Clapper should have been fired for perjury before our spineless Congress - anyone who trust him or believes a word from his lips is a fool ! But assume the intel has merit - why did Congress just secretly approve providing more weapons to Rebels who will promptly have them seized by the much stronger and aggressive Al Qaeda elements in Syria ?

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 17 hours ago
US intel fear attack on American soil, while Syria spirals out of control Published time: January 30, 2014 14:45 Edited time: January 30, 2014 16:30 Get short URL [image: U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)] U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst) Share on tumblr Tags Arms, Conflict, Opposition, Politics, War Intelligence reports say there is a threat of a terrorist attack on US soil by an Al-Qaida-linked group based in Syria. But despite the Mideast country increasingly resembling a haven for terrorists, t... more »

330 US drone strikes in Pakistan recorded in Leaked official document - simply amazing ! Key takeaways -- The Bureau is today publishing a leaked official document that records details of over 300 drone strikes, including their locations and an assessment of how many people died in each incident. The document is the fullest official record of drone strikes in Pakistan to have yet been published. It provides rare insight into what the government understands about the campaign. It also provides details about exactly when and where strikes took place, often including the names of homeowners. These details can be valuable to researchers attempting to verify eyewitness reports – and are often not reported elsewhere. But interestingly, the document stops recording civilian casualties after 2008, even omitting details of well-documented civilian deaths and those that have been acknowledged by the government.

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 17 hours ago
330 US drone strikes in Pakistan recorded in Leaked official document By Juan Cole | Jan. 30, 2014 | 2 - 0 - Retweet4 - 22 - Google +10 (By Alice K. Ross) The Bureau is today publishing a leaked official document that records details of over 300 drone strikes, including their locations and an assessment of how many people died in each incident. The document is the fullest official record of drone strikes in Pakistan to have yet been published. It provides rare insight into what the government understands about the campaign. It also provides details about exactly when a... more »

Mohawk Nation News 'Just-In Time'

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 17 hours ago
JUST-IN TIME Mohawk Nation News Posted on January 30, 2014 MNN. Jan. 31, 2014. It was May 1979 when a silver limousine pulled up beside my daughters and I on Wellington Street in, Ottawa, by the Parliament Buildings. A man in the back seat motioned me to roll down my window. It was Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. He told me he would call me the next day. I thought nothing more of it.

Mohawk Nation News 'Steering the Revolution'

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 17 hours ago
STEERING THE REVOLUTION Posted on January 29, 2014 Mohawk Nation News MNN. Jan. 29, 2014. Canada and the true globalists are trying to steal the agenda through “Idle No More Inc.” When Idle No More incorporated, it became registered as a sub-corporation within the rules of the Corporation of Canada. Idle No More Inc. is not grassroots, grassroots don’t have millions of dollars to

The only education policy consideration that matters.

Chris Cerrone at @ THE CHALK FACE - 17 hours ago
Every decision in education, whether it be made by: A classroom teacher, a principal, a district administrator, state or federal officials, corporate leaders or philanthropists, should apply the following consideration: “Would you want your own child to learn under this policy?” Connect with Chris Cerrone on twitter: @Stoptesting15 Filed under: CHRIS CERRONE: The "Parentucator"

MyRA hyping begins......Treasury Secretary follows up with speech to hype President Obama's State of the Union Executive Action MyRa scheme ..... short answer as to what's in this for the average Joe and Jane - not much !

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 17 hours ago
The MyRA Propaganda Begins: "A Start To A Secure Retirement" Promises Treasury Secretary [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/30/2014 13:38 -0500 - Barack Obama - Federal Deficit - None - Obama Administration - Recession - recovery - Student Loans - Treasury Department inShare2 You didn't think the US could at first slowly, and then all of a sudden, expropriate retirement accounts and invest them in the "*no risk, guaranteed return*" MyRA Ponzi scheme introduced by Obama during the State of the Union address without... more »

Sex: What Our Genes Have to Say

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 18 hours ago
*Guest post by Doug Hornig, from the **Casey Daily Dispatch* Human sexuality. It's complex and the subject of never-ending debate within our society. Could genetics help shed some light on the issue? Turns out, yes. Specifically, it has something to say about what our "natural" pattern of mating behaviour might be. Yes, I put "natural" in quotes because there probably is no such thing. Given human cultural variability, any kind of generalizing is about as useful as classifying flowers by stalk length. But there are a few things of which we are certain. First of all, humans are ... more »

"How It Really Is, And Always Will Be"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 18 hours ago

First Step: Republicans Win Food Stamp War - Nation Dies (Your Representatives Just Gave Your Winter Food Money To 'Thugs - Diaper Dave Vitter At the Helm) Thug Rule In NC Deepens? (SOTU Farce Called)

I will organize and vote against any politician who votes to hurt those at the bottom of the wealth pyramid, and especially against those who vote to cut food stamps, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And you should too. After all, that's the only way to counter the malicious damage being done to our country by the TeaThugs. BREAKING: Conservative Dems Work With Republicans To Cut

Al Qaeda groups in Syria want to attack US ?

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 18 hours ago
*As I read this headline- the first thought that comes to mind is ‘wow the US just never gives up” on pushing the ‘terror’ meme!But then it serves them so dam well?Recall I had mentioned so many months back about that changing narrative? From arab spring to fighting terrorIf AQ is in Syria and it want’s to attack the US... does this mean the US with it’s NATO subordinates will just have to intervene?* *If AQ is in Syria, why is it the US just keeps sending arms that way?* *Clapper is ‘flapping his lips’ for some reason. * Syrian al-Qaeda-linked groups want to attack the United Stat... more »

“A Glimpse into the Coming Economic Collapse”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 18 hours ago
*“A Glimpse into the Coming Economic Collapse”* By Jeff Thomas “Beginning in 1999, we predicted a systemic economic collapse that would take place in the First World and would impact all other economies. We began to list some of the "dominoes" that would fall as the collapse evolved and described that the "Great Unravelling," as we termed it, would take roughly ten years. At that time, we guesstimated that the first two of the dominoes, a real estate crash and subsequent stock market crash in the US, would begin in about 2005. We were premature in this prediction, as the first of t... more »

American Addict- Gregory Smith and John Rappaport

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 18 hours ago
*Excellent Interview!* *With much thanks to Lana @ Radio3-14 * The film American Addict unveils how America has gone from the land of the free to the land of the addicted. America represents 5% of the world's population but consumes 50% of the world's prescription pills and over 80% of the world's prescription narcotics; this is not a coincidence. We'll discuss the relationships between the FDA, big Pharma, physicians and the media that are in place to ensure that medical problems are treated primarily with pills. We'll talk about the horrific consequences that result from this. G... more »

Is Howard Hughes Dead and Buried Off a Greek Island? - BY MAE BRUSSELL AND STEPHANIE CARUANA (From Playgirl magazine, December 1974)

Paul Coker at News Spike - 19 hours ago
*Is Howard Hughes Dead and Buried Off a Greek Island?* *A noted theorist on conspiracies, a contributing editor, and an informer named Tiger Eye bring us an unlikely tale. Or is it?* BY MAE BRUSSELL AND STEPHANIE CARUANA *(From Playgirl magazine, December 1974)* ------------------------------ Howard Hughes is dead," said Tiger Eye. "He died on Tenos, a Greek island, on April 16, 1971. His coffin was lowered into the sea the next day, off the coast of Tenos. "Lots of people know, they just don't talk about it. It's called the Golden Silence -- *omerta*." Reference: a fr... more »

Thursday Linkage (I’m not even going to pretend it’s morning…)

Josh Busby at Duck of Minerva - 19 hours ago
Your humble blogger (I like saying that. Now that Dan Drezner no longer has a blog [sniff], I will say it for him)…Your humble blogger is in London, and after a red eye flight, a noon presentation, ten hours of a sleep coma, another presentation, I’m ready to provide you with your latest in belated Continue reading

My Proposed (but not accepted) Bet with Paul Krugman on the Obama Forecast

Greg Mankiw at Greg Mankiw's Blog - 19 hours ago
Scott Sumner declares that I would have been the winner.

Glory Road

Steve at Thinking Aboot - 20 hours ago
There is so much money invested every day in entertainment trash. The key to making profits is a good story. You can put great actors into a bad place and lose a lot of money. You can put unknown actors into a great story and make superstars. If I had a million dollars this is the story I would tell.

What worries Americans?

Greg Mankiw at Greg Mankiw's Blog - 20 hours ago
When Gallup recently asked Americans what the biggest problem facing the United States is, the four most common answers were dissatisfaction with government, the economy in general, unemployment, and healthcare. Each was mentioned by more than 15 percent of those polled. The gap between rich and poor was mentioned by only 4 percent. If President Obama wants to make the 2014 electoral debate about income inequality, as he seems to, he has an uphill climb ahead of him.

Easiest Question Of The Day: Why Is Henry Waxman REALLY Retiring?

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 20 hours ago
When Henry Waxman retires next year, he will be 75 years old. He will have served in Congress for 4 decades… 40 years! Even before being elected to Congress he had been a member of the state legislature. The man has served his country for a long time. He has 5 grandchildren. This morning he announced his retirement. People are reading much more into it-- as they did when George Miller announced his retirement-- than they should. The lesson? Democrats aren't really counting on re-taking the House in 2014. Waxman is the fourth top Democrat on a House committee who has either calle... more »

Why This Connecticut Teacher Wants to Give Up Teaching

freetoteach at Schools Matter - 20 hours ago
*"My value as a teacher is now reduced to how successful I am in getting a student who has eaten no breakfast and is a pawn in her parents' divorce to score well enough to meet my teacher evaluation goals."* Why This Connecticut teacher wants to give up teaching. Unfortunately, government attempts to improve education are stripping the joy out of teaching and doing nothing to help children. The Common Core standards require teachers to march lockstep in arming students with "21st-century skills." In English, emphasis on technology and nonfiction reading makes it more important for ... more »

By their tweets do ye know them

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 20 hours ago
The ever-attentive DB at *Biased BBC* has highlighted a revealing Twitter response from a BBC News journalist, Roland Hughes, to the news of Scarlett Johansson’s decision to cut ties with Oxfam over the charity's criticism of her adverts for Israeli company SodaStream. Please give it a read. It shows a BBC journalist revealing his anti-Israel hand - and then hastily deleting it. And if that doesn't call for a picture of Scarlett Johansson I don't know what does!

The Economy: “The Return of the Worldwide Crack-Up Boom”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 21 hours ago
*“The Return of the Worldwide Crack-Up Boom”* by Bill Bonner “A kiss is still a kiss. A sigh is still a sigh… And a bubble is still a bubble. When a kiss is over, it’s over. When a bubble pops…well…that’s all she wrote! All kisses end – even the wettest “French” kisses. And so do all bubbles – even sloppy mega-bubbles of liquidity. This one will be no exception. But of course, it’s not the certainties that make life interesting… it’s the uncertainties – the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns, as Mr. Rumsfeld says. We are all born of woman and end up where all men born of women... more »

The Newsnight of the Living Dead

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 21 hours ago
Fans of Radio 4's *Down the Line *will know of the recurring character Khalid. He invariably rings up to ask 'What is point?' of something or other. Well, in the spirit of Khalid, what is point wasting time analysing *Newsnight*? After all, according to the *Daily Mail*, *Newsnight* attracts a paltry 600,000 viewers a night on average. The *Guardian *suggests the figure fluctuates somewhere between 600,000 and below 800,000, averaging somewhere in the middle of those two figures. Either way, those are truly dreadful viewing figures, and *Newsnight* ultimate demise seems now to b... more »

i am really a librarian: in which i attend my first ola, and get paid for it, too

laura k at wmtc - 21 hours ago
For the next three days, I'll be attending the Ontario Library Association's annual Superconference, always referred to simply as "OLA". As the name implies, this is a gigantic conference covering issues related to all three types of libraries - public, academic, and special. You can see a program here. In library school, we were strongly encouraged to attend OLA. Students can volunteer to help run conference sessions in exchange for free attendance. I never did (honestly, I never even considered it), so now I attend my very first OLA, already a professional, and in place of three w... more »

Old in your face

Steve at Thinking Aboot - 22 hours ago
Some things just shout out to your perfectly toned body and mind, slathered with wrinkle cream and mind exercises that your getting old. We are living in the future today, but like everyone else I already knew that yesterday. A hardy shout out to Southern Man and Oldphartte. In particular Oldphartte is like my version of the Drudge Report. Trance music gets real old with me real quick, but sample this.

Today University of Arizona continues exploitation of Native Americans

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 22 hours ago
University of Arizona continues exploitation of Native American resources: Water rights, desecration of sacred lands, racial profiling and militarization By Brenda Norrell Censored News TUCSON -- Today the University of Arizona in Tucson continues its exploitation of Native people and their resources, with a featured speaker on water rights who is opposed by Navajo and Hopi people. Navajos and

Davis flap hits Times front page!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 22 hours ago
*THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014* *Complete with lack of reporting:* Did Wendy Davis ever misrepresent her widely-discussed life story? We’d have to say we aren’t really sure, though she perhaps maybe might have. We’d also say that some of the backlash has been standard-issue disgraceful, including the venomous statements by Fox’s predictably horrible Erick Erickson, formerly of CNN. This morning, the flap hit the front page of the New York Times, complete with the famous newspaper’s famous lack of reporting. Too perfect: In part, the Times is assessing the claim that Davis has misrep... more »

The "RV", China, SwissIndo and Slavery 2.0

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 22 hours ago
The past 18 hours have been brought to you by a mixture of adrenaline and caffeine. My greatest wish at this point of my exhaustive state is that I wish I had made a recording of the past 22 hours as I now have to rely on my brain to organize the massive amount of information that we have been through in the past 18 hours. ... it would of been a hell of a lot easier to have been able to just post the recording of the discussions! At the bottom of this article I am going to blast you with a massive amount of links to transparent news stories that I feel are important for people to r... more »

Can You Tell Someone Is Conservative Just By Looking At Their Face?

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
Would you ever in a billion years imagine either of these 2 gentlemen is a liberal? By now, everyone has seen Staten Island Mafia thug Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm (R-NY) in action at the State of the Union address. You may have missed Sean Hannity though. He was there as a guest of right-wing kook Louie Gohmert (R-TX). And, in fact, Hannity has been threatening to leave New York and move down to Texas, where more people appreciate his anti-democratic leanings-- and where rich people don't pay taxes. When someone on Facebook asked him if he'd consider running for office in Texas, he ... more »

NFL'S SUPER SHAME / CTE

Allen L Roland, Ph.D at Allen L Roland's Weblog - 1 day ago
*As we get ready for another super bowl, the NFL's super shame, becomes more obvious as former NFL player's brain injuries and CTE deaths keep piling up ~ for example there were 152 NFL concussions in 2013 with the majority being wide receiver and corner back positions and the obvious danger of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) proportionally increased along with the NFL's shame: Allen L Roland * *A few nights ago I watched League Of Denial on Frontline and was amazed at the depth of the NFL's concussion crisis. *Watch this hour long documentary on the hidden s... more »

You Make My Heart Saur Valentine with Free Printable

Debra Hawkins at Housewife Eclectic - 1 day ago
[image: Housewife Eclectic: You Make My Heart Saur Valentine with Free Printable] I have enjoyed making and sharing our Valentine's this year so much. Today I am sharing our sixth printable. This Dinosaur Valentine is really easy to pull together and perfect for anybody.I found these Grow and Glow Dinosaurs at the dollar store with four to a package. If you buy just regular dinosaur figures, you can get more out of one package, but I thought my nephews would love the glow and grow dinosaurs, so I went with them. You will need: - printable valentine found at the end of this blog ... more »

Tennessee Classroom Video Camera Project Spending Millions to Extend Teacher and Student Surveillance

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 1 day ago
*Tennessee Classroom Video Camera Project Spending Millions to Extend Teacher and Student Surveillance* Jim Horn and Denise Wilburn In a move to quell growing concern among parents over security issues related to new Common Core testing and the collection of student data, Tennessee Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman recently assured skeptical lawmakers and parents that “the federal government is prohibited from establishing a student-level *database* that would contain assessment data for every student.” Despite these assurances, the TN Department of Education has been eng... more »

Science and Politics with Henry Waxman

noreply@blogger.com (Roger Pielke, Jr.) at Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog - 1 day ago
Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced today that he will not be running for re-election in 2014. He has been a true role model as a public servant and member of Congress. The nation is better for his service. I wish him all the best in what comes next for him. I have had several opportunities to present Congressional testimony before Mr. Waxman. My favorite exchange occurred in 2007 when I was testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the subject of the science shenanigans of the Bush Administration. My testimony was focused not on the partisa... more »

BUSY DRONE ACTION SPRING COMING

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 day ago
*CALL FOR SPRING DAYS OF ACTION – 2014* Today we issue an international call for *Spring Days of Action – 2014, *a coordinated campaign in April and May to: * End Drone Killing, Drone Surveillance and Global Militarization * The campaign will focus on drone bases, drone research facilities and test sites and drone manufacturers. The campaign will provide information on: 1. The suffering of tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza who are under drone attack, documenting the killing, the wounding and the devastating impact of constan... more »

WHAT A GIFT

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 day ago
This creative video is from Gangjeong village on Jeju Island. Grace Kim writes, "It's an experimental short fiction film [by Han Kang Joung] composed of documentary footage from Gangjeong. The film follows the routine of a 'supernatural' living in Gangjeong and helping police to lift up the protesters in the air." I also wonder what the police are thinking. When the Global Network held our annual conference on Jeju this time two years ago we saw many police who were roughly preventing Korean protesters from getting into kayaks to go out onto their sacred rocky coastline to protec... more »

Are You One Cold (Or Super Bowl Flu) Away From Being Fired?

Donna Ballman at Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home - 1 day ago
It's cold and flu season, so you may be sick right now. It's likely you'll be sick at some point this year. Maybe you'll suffer from Super Bowl flu on Monday after too much partying on Sunday (or your boss will assume you partied too much if you call in sick Monday). So what are your rights? Can you be fired for being out sick? What if you have a doctor's note? Connecticut and six cities (Jersey City, NJ; New York City; Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC) have paid sick leave laws. Nebraska and California legislators recently introduced bills to require... more »

A bit of believing

sue at Is the BBC biased? - 1 day ago
“Now it takes a bit of believing that someone could be put in fear of their life by a cartoon but that’s the world we’re living in. When a Liberal Democrat candidate was shown a cartoon showing Jesus and Mohammad and then Tweeted that image, he so irritated some members of the Muslim community that they’ve demanded that he be stripped of his position in the party. Maajid Nawaz Tweeted that he didn’t feel threatened by the image despite the Islamic prohibition on likenesses of the prophet.” ..............said Jeremy Paxman introducing the Jesus and Mo T shirt debacle on Newsnight.... more »

Response to Obama’s Early Childhood Education Plan

Kris Nielsen at @ THE CHALK FACE - 1 day ago
President Obama promised us something in his State of the Union address that I think is bad news for our kids. Here is the excerpt, with my reply underneath: Race to the Top, with the help of governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance. Teachers and principals in schools from Tennessee […]

In which BBC News abandons all pretence of fact checking | BBC Watch

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
The story here http://bbcwatch.org/2014/01/30/in-which-bbc-news-abandons-all-pretence-of-fact-checking/helps to illustrate why I and many other supporters of the only multi cultural democracy in the Middle East, Israel, hate the BBC.

Children Tortured at Medomsley Detention Centre UK

Mother Sharon Damnable at GlobaLove Think Tank - 1 day ago
For those of you that say the ritual child abuse does not go on, does not happen, or for those that still turn away and refuse to see here is shockingly the chilling true tale of how more than 143 people have come forward to tell Durham Police of the horrific sexual, mental and physical abuse that they suffered at MEDOMSLEY detention centre, since this BBC report this number has doubled. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-25834368 “Boys at a detention centre asked other inmates to break their legs in order to be moved elsewhere and escape being abused by staff, a former d... more »

We learn a great many false facts from elites!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014* *Maddow does it again:* As we noted in our last post, we get a lot of the things we “know” from our ruling elites. Our elites settle on a “fact.” We all get told that it’s true. It’s a bad way to proceed. Often, our elites agree to tell us facts which simply aren’t true. One example: In the fall of 2012, the nation was told a bunch of crap about the things Susan Rice supposedly said. Plainly, the things we were told weren’t true. But so what? Everyone agreed to say them, or at least not to challenge the script. Example: For two solid months, Rachel M... more »

CHILD ABUSE TIMELINE - PART SIX

Anon at aangirfan - 1 day ago
*Barnardo's Duncroft Scool.* *2009* - Jimmy Savile is interviewed under caution by Surrey police investigating an alleged indecent assault at Duncroft school. Four teenagers claim they were abused by Jimmy Savile at Duncroft Scool in Surrey when it was run by Barnardo's. The notorious Crown Prosecution Service advised there was insufficient evidence to take any further action. Police failed to interview headmistress. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...llegation.html Cherie Blair, wife of Tony Blair, is President of Barnardo's. There have been many child abuse allegations c... more »

Edward Snowden - NWO actor

John Friend at John Friend's Blog - 1 day ago
Subscribe to *The Realist Report on YouTube* *Mike King on The Realist Report*

JPMorgan Loses 44% of Gold Inventories in 4 Days!

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 1 day ago
I am posting this to further the point I am about to make with the next article ..... http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=298034 *JPMorgan Loses 44% of Gold Inventories in 4 Days!* *Posted By: igots2noDate: Wednesday, 29-Jan-2014 16:31:08 * In another stunning withdrawal, JP Morgan had an additional 321,500 oz gold ounces removed from its vaults today. Since last Thursday, JP Morgan has lost 44% (20 metric tons = 643,000 oz) of its gold inventories. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the table below is worth over $400 million (at current market prices): ... more »

Vote Now! Demonstrate the Blogging Contributions to IR Scholarship

Jon Western at Duck of Minerva - 1 day ago
One of the best ways to respond to the ISA Executive Committee proposal is to demonstrate the professionalism and the significant intellectual and scholarly contribution that blogging makes to the IR profession. We’ve assembled a slate of impressive nominees in four categories for outstanding On-line Achievements in International Studies (OAIS) Awards for this year. If Continue reading

Harper's Conservatives Further Damaging Canada

LeDaro at LeDaro - 1 day ago
Are Harper's CONs completely out of touch? Don't they realize this is a multicultural country? Harper's CONs seem to have no use for Muslims, given statements by Harper's Chief of Communications towards a leading Canadian Muslim group, the National Council of Canadian Muslims, deriding them as a group with "terrorist" ties. This derisive statement reinforces negative stereotypes against Muslims, and is unbefitting for someone speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister. The flippant attitude of the Conservatives is appalling, especially in light of a libel action by the Muslim group ... more »

Musical Interlude: Michael Jackson, “Earth Song”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
Michael Jackson, “Earth Song” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAi3VTSdTxU

Billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra Seeks Personal Fiefdom in Northern Thailand

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 1 day ago
*January 30, 2014* (ATN) - For years, Thaksin Shinawatra, his political machine, and his Western backers have attempted to sell "liberation ideology" to the north and northeast of Thailand, in an attempt to implement imperialism's favorite stratagem - divide and conquer. Now, the Western media and Thaksin Shinawatra's embattled proxy regime are openly making plans to consolidate their crumbling support base in the north of Thailand in the city of Chiang Mai, and declare it the "capital." *Image: “This country has no justice. We want to split the country” (Photo by Saiarun Pinad... more »

Forced Displacement Returns To Iraq Part II

Joel Wing at MUSINGS ON IRAQ - 1 day ago
Starting in the summer of 2013 disturbing stories began emerging from Iraq of both armed groups and regular citizens forcing people out of their homes due to their sect or ethnicity. This occurred in Diyala, Ninewa, and Babil where the Islamic State of Iraq and other insurgent groups were likely responsible. There were also reports of refugees from Dhi Qar and Basra as well where angry citizens forced people out because they were blamed for violence, or being scapegoated for the actions of militants in the rest of the country. It now appears that this trend actually started a bit ... more »

Philadelphia Ritz East Theater Feb. 6th, 6 PM

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 1 day ago
*STANDARDIZED Lies, Money & Civil Rights: How Testing Is Ruining Public * *Education**: **A Documentary* By Daniel Hornberger January 28, 2014 *Philadelphia, PA *– Reading-based Rockfish Productions’ documentary *STANDARDIZED *will make its Philadelphia debut at 6PM onThursday, February 6th at The Ritz East Theater (S. 2nd Street). *STANDARDIZED *opens with a brief synopsis of the history of standardized testing in public schools. While many point the finger at the failed NCLB program, the desire to create a national curriculum began many years before the presidency of George W.... more »

THE STATE OF THE UNION IS: Heavily scripted!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014* *Interlude—Preschool’s one brief shining moment:* Something unusual happened this morning. For that reason, we’ll postpone, until our next post, the topic we had planned to discuss here. Something unusual happened today! On the New York Times op-ed page, three different columns discussed the explosive, hot new trend toward preschool education. Attention to a public school issue? This sort of thing just isn’t done! We thought we’d give you an overview. Two of the pieces were written by regular columnists—Gail Collins and Nicholas Kristof. By way of co... more »

A Force To Be Reckoned With

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 1 day ago
Yesterday, Justin Trudeau gave Stephen Harper and Tom Mulcair migraines. Micheal den Tandt writes: In one bold, risky and unexpected gambit, Justin Trudeau has turned the national debate about the Red Chamber on its head, blasted a crater-sized hole in the Conservative government’s strategy to sell its version of Senate reform, and forced NDP leader Tom Mulcair to play catch-up on his marquee issue. Trudeau knows that the Supreme Court will rule that the Senate cannot be reformed without the participation of the provinces. He also knows that Harper doesn't negotiate with the pro... more »

Elizabeth Warren: "It Hurts... It Just Makes Me Madder Than Hell"

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
*-by Mike Lux* She has always been willing to push for what is right no matter how powerful the lobbyists on the other side are. And it was fitting that the event we did with her was in a church, because the politics she preaches are deeply moral-- the politics not of right and left, but of right and wrong. President Obama gave a terrific State of the Union speech Tuesday night. His message was broadly progressive in a wide variety of ways, really focused on economic issues which will help low and middle income families, which was great to see. I was especially delighted by his ... more »

EU has secret plan for police to 'remote stop' cars - Telegraph

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
' The European Union is secretly developing a "remote stopping" device to be fitted to all cars that would allow the police to disable vehicles at the flick of a switch from a control room.' More here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10605328/EU-has-secret-plan-for-police-to-remote-stop-cars.html Because there's no way that a car could be disabled by mistake or the disabling device activate mistakenly or be hacked... Bloody dangerous and contrary to civil liberties. I presume the British Labour party are therefore in favour...

Under Ed Miliband's plan, unions will have 90pc of the Labour leadership vote. What the hell happened? - Telegraph Blogs

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
A bloody good question but not one that the BBC will ask. More here http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100257433/under-ed-milibands-plan-unions-will-have-90pc-of-the-labour-leadership-vote-what-the-hell-happened/

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 1 day ago
*La. high court reverses $258 million verdict ~Michelle Millhollon, New Orleans Advocate* *Ranking Saints needs: No. 8 TE/fullback ~Mike Triplett, ESPN* *Ray Nagin mistaken for UFO Orb over N.O.* *Fletcher marine facility expanding ~WDSU* *Breakthrough cotton research on water savings, Pima defoliation ~Carey Blake, Western Farm Press* *Mixing dry-aged steaks and an international outlook, a new French Quarter restaurant is a headturner ~Ian McNulty*
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