MEXICO CITY, April 28 (Reuters) - Mexico's Senate approved a bill on Tuesday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of narcotics for personal use, in order to free resources to fight violent drug cartels.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN28349522?rpc=64
On May 4, 2007, Kara Kopetsky, a 17-year-old high school junior in Belton, Missouri mysteriously vanished after she had an argument with the teacher.
Check it out here:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/28/grace.coldcase.kopetsky/index.html
SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Vienna has beaten Zurich to be crowned the place with the best quality of living in an annual survey in which European cities dominated the top 10. Management consultancy Mercer said Vienna scored the highest for...
The full story is here:
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-39287920090428?rpc=64
On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart's interview with The Foundation for Defense of Democracies President Cliff May turned to the subject of torture.
Things got so intense and involved that the segment had to be edited for time, but here now is the complete discussion.
Link source:
http://blog.indecisionforever.com/2009/04/29/jon-stewarts-extended-interview-with-cliff-may/
April 28 (Bloomberg) - Milans financial police seized 476 million euros ($620 million) of assets belonging to UBS AG, Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Depfa Bank amid a probe into alleged fraud linked to the sale of derivatives. - Like the torture cases being investigated in Spain, apparently Americans need to rely on Europe for justice
Link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aisvHIHmcwQs&refer=home
What a waste, all the way around.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvrc7x3Amps
At his 100th-day town hall meeting in St.
Louis Wednesday, President Barack Obama took direct aim at the anti-tax tea party demonstrations that have cropped up over the last month and took a veiled shot at the Fox News
At its core, the financial crisis is about uncertainty; who%27s holding what, how much it's worth, when it will blow up.
Workers demolishing the wall of a building that once belonged to the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp have found a message in a bottle written by prisoners 65 years ago, Auschwitz museum officials said.
Check it:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/28/2554179.htm
Reaction from top GOP officials to the defection of Sen.
Arlen Specter has been decidedly mixed. The less orthodox are interpreting the news as a validation of their biggest concerns, while the dyed-in-the-wool types wave 'good riddance.'
From:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/limbaugh-to-specter-take_n_192382.html
And then he ate it.
Get the low-down here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090427/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_serbia_finger
shows how involved Mr Geithner is with the bankers on Wall Street.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_weil&sid=aXHVu97lAGjs
Pennsylvania Sen.
Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning. Specter's decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in.
Link:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/specter-to-switch-parties.html
Governments around the world have been hurrying to contain the spread of a new swine flu virus after outbreaks were reported in Mexico, the US and Canada.
A White House official tells ABC News that President Obama was "furious" to hear about the incident this morning when Air Force One and Air Force fighter jets appeared to be flying into the Manhattan skyline.
The full story is here:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/president-ob-28.html
A deluge of GOP leaders have come out with a full-throated call to open up wide-ranging investigations into the former administration's abuses of power.
The full story is here:
http://www.eyesonobama.com/blog/content/id_52433/title_Breaking-GOP-Calls-for-Investigation-of-Previous-Administration/
During the April 24 edition of Fox News' Special Report, White House correspondent Wendell Goler cropped a comment by President Obama and took it out of context -- effectively reversing the statement's meaning -- to falsely suggest that Obama supports creating a health care system "like the European countries."
Check it out here:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200904250003
Its necessary to rescue Wall Street to protect the economy, but financial firms should be acting like public utilities, not returning to the practices and paychecks of 2007.
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27krugman.html
BBC - David Lucas was arrested on suspicion of selling illegal firearms
Check it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/8016752.stm
A state lawmaker from San Francisco has introduced legislation to decriminalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol.
It has been endorsed by a retired Orange County judge who used to be a federal prosecutor. In his view, it's 'high time' -- so to speak -- for another approach to marijuana.
Check it:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30406810
An Iranian vessel laden with weapons bound for the Gaza Strip was torpedoed off the coast of Sudan last week, allegedly by Israeli or American forces operating in the area, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Usbu reported on Sunday.
Link source:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081215.html
Minnesota Representative and free-range cougar Michele Bachmann got prominent play on The Daily Show last night as a key example of conservatives speaking crazy to power. At 2:50 into the clip (below), host Jon Stewart plays Bachmanns recent comments that an expansion of the AmeriCorps program might lead to PC re-education camps.
Read the full story here:
http://minnesotaindependent.com/31489/the-daily-show-on-bachmann-speaking-crazy-to-power
A major overhaul of the health care system, he told the Republican leadership, would be done using a legislative process known as reconciliation, meaning that the GOP won't be able to filibuster it.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/24/obama-repeatedly-reminded_n_191207.html
On the day that begun the genocide of Armenians in Turkey in 1915, Obama will not use the word genocide in his statement.
Yet again we have a president refusing to back up his promises on finally declaring this what it is- one of the worst genocides in human history. So much for change.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-genocide25-2009apr25,0,2595139.story
The only way for the nation to regain its moral compass is to investigate how the governments interrogation abuses happened, and, if necessary, to prosecute those responsible.
Read the full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/opinion/24krugman.html
The police officers beg and plead for the man to put on his robes, but all the Naked Wizard wants to do is be free of his wizard sleeves and hang in the breeze.
He throws his colorful garb onto the grass. "It doesn't have to stop," the Naked Wizard says.
Check it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/naked-wizard-tazered-at-c_n_190502.html
Former CIA official Mary O.
McCarthy had accused senior agency officials of lying to members of Congress during an intelligence briefing in 2005 when they said the agency did not violate treaties that bar, cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment of detainees during interrogations. In April 2006, 10 days before she was to retire, McCarthy was fired.
A former F.B.I. agent who questioned Abu Zubaydah in 2002 says the terrorist operative provided important intelligence under traditional interrogation methods.
Check it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/opinion/23soufan.html
The leader of a congressional effort to reform the criminal justice system said Thursday that all issues " including drug legalization " need to be on the table.
Sen. Jim Webb, who has made criminal justice and prison reform a signature issue of his this year in Congress, is the most high-profile lawmaker to indicate openness to drug legalization
The full story is here:
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/04/23/webb-pot-legalization-on-the-table-in-prison-reform-effort/
The chief executive of Craigslist has denied the website offers sex-related advertising. In the wake of the murder of Julissa Brisman, a 26-year-old masseuse who met her alleged killer after posting an ad on the site, Jim Buckmaster said offers to exchange sexual favors for money are "strictly prohibited" and removed.
Source:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/04/23/2009-04-23_craigslist_ceo_.html
More than the impossibility of getting a takeover accomplished on paper by the end of next week, it simply doesn't make sense for Fiat to strap on a bloated, teetering entity like the Chrysler.
So what does make sense in this end of days for two of the Big Three? It's simple. Fiat takes on Opel and Saturn.
From:
http://blogs.thecarconnection.com/marty-blog/1020223_fiat-gm-and-chrysler-what-needs-to-happen
Then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice verbally OK'd the CIA's request to subject alleged al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding in July 2002, a decision memorialized a few days later in a secret memo that the Obama administration declassified last week.
Check it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/condoleezza-rice-cheney-a_n_190340.html
Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Ariz., native, served with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne.
Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at our air base in troubled Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq. According to official records, she died on Sept. 15, 2003, from a "non-hostile weapons discharge."
Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/us-soldier-killed-herself_b_190517.html
ISLAMABAD - Taliban militants from Pakistan's Swat Valley are tightening their grip on a neighboring northwest district closer to the capital " patrolling roads, broadcasting sermons and spreading fear in another sign that a government-backed peace deal has emboldened the extremists to spread their reign.
The full story is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan;_ylt=AgQlW6KsTItAl2lHYoFbrgZvaA8F
Americans also have a hefty demand for Mexican beer, but there are no "Mexican beer cartels." When Obama visits France, he doesn't consult with politicians about "wine violence." What's happening on the Mexican border is prohibition-caused violence.
From:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/prohibition-spawns-drug-violence.html
In 1983, the Justice Department prosecuted a Texas sheriff and three of his deputies for waterboarding prisoners to get them to confess to crimes.
The deputies were sentenced to four years in prison and the sheriff got a 10-year sentence. Yet that case is not cited in the torture memos DOJ released that authorized the CIA to waterboard detainees
Orange County officials have agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was beaten by inmates while in custody at the Orange County jail.
The man had been arrested for molesting a 6-year-old girl at a park.
The full story is here:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/county-ramirez-eisenberg-2370202-chamberlain-jail
Iraqi security forces have arrested four children who were allegedly part of a group of youngsters being groomed by al-Qaeda to become suicide bombers, an Iraqi army general said.
The children, who were detained in a village near the northern city of Kirkuk, were part of a cell known as the Birds of Paradise and were being specially trained...
Source:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6135887.ece
The acting head of Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, has apparently committed suicide, Fairfax County Police tell WTOP.
Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings says Kellermann, 41, was found at his Hunter Mill Estates home Wednesday morning. Jennings says police responded to the home after family members called police around 5 a.m.
Link source:
http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1657033&nid=25
Overnight, the Blue Dog has been transformed from champion of the Lawless Surveillance State into a shrill advocate of investigations.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/21/harman/index.html
President Barack Obama is leaving the door to open to possible prosecution of Bush administration officials who devised harsh terrorism-era interrogation tactics.
Read the full story here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/21/obama-administration-bush_n_189521.html
Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall. Your tax dollars at work.
Link:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97MF9I00&show_article=1
A new tax year has begun which provides a great opportunity to do a little financial spring cleaning.
Even in a tough economy, it is possible to spend less without making major sacrifices.
Check it:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5220241/screw-the-recession-how-to-spend-less-and-get-more
Look out Susan Boyle and Paul Potts! In Tijuana--where drug cartels fight daily for street primacy, leaving a trail of shootouts, decapitations and kidnappings--Mexicanos have sought refuge indoors in Cafe de la Opera where soprano Zully Martinez is singing Puccini, Verdi and 'Besame Mucho.'
Get the low-down here:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/20/world/fg-tijuana-opera20
Holocaust Remembrance Day [PICs]
From:
http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Features/Holocaust-Remembrance-Day/1815/
Conflict of interest? Not when it's intentional. When are we going to start ruining the lives of these career criminals?
Check it:
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/21/senate-husbands-firm-cashes-in-on-crisis/
First-Ever Nationwide Pro-Marijuana TV Ad Campaign Is Launched in Conjunction with 4/20²
Get the low-down here:
http://blog.norml.org/2009/04/19/first-ever-nationwide-pro-marijuana-tv-ad-campaign-is-launched-in-conjunction-with-420/
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., April 20, 2009 -- Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash.
The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun's cash and deb
Check it:
http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/oracle/index.jsp
Sen.
John Ensign, R-Nevada, told CNN Sunday it was "irresponsible" for President Obama to have been seen "laughing and joking" with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas.
Rep.
Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.
The full story is here:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1
Known more for being a regular sparring partner with the U.S., the Iranian President has made a rare intervention into an American journalist's case by declaring that she should have the legal right to defend herself
Source:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892488,00.html?iid=digg_share
Itll be very interesting to see what the role of the Federal Reserve will be, Volcker said.
The possibilities range all the way from giving the Federal Reserve more supervisory and regulatory responsibility to largely taking away those powers.
Check it:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ainh3qdHJuoM&refer=home
The revolt began when a first year medical student "grew wary" when a professor promoted cholesterol drugs and "seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects." He later discovered that the professor, a full-time Harvard Medical faculty member, was a paid consultant to 10 drug companies, including manufacturers of cholesterol drugs.
A type of crime, and criminal, once foreign to this landscape of blooming dogwoods had arrived in Shelby County.
Sheriff Chris Curry felt it even before he laid eyes on the grisly scene. He called the state. The FBI. The DEA. Anyone he could think of. "I don't know what I've got," he warned them. "But I'm gonna need help."
Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_re_us/drug_war_the_fight_at_home
Spain's attorney general, Candido Conde-Pumpido, recommended that the judge, Baltasar Garz³n, should dismiss a complaint, brought by human rights lawyers, against six Bush administration lawyers who sanctioned torture.
But on Friday, the judge resisted pressure and said he will allow the case to proceed.
The United Nations top torture investigator has suggested it is illegal under International law for President Barack Obama to announce that the United States government has no intention of prosecuting low-level CIA officers who carried out torture sanctioned by the Bush Administratio
Check it out here:
http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/04/18/un-torture-investigator-obama-has-broken-international-law/
President Barack Obama said Saturday he will ask all of his department and agency heads for specific proposals for cutting their budgets at his Cabinet meeting early next week as he searches for ways to streamline government spending.
The full story is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_economy;_ylt=Ai7UUjV.HHzv6efGRGt.dweyFz4D
In response to Gov.
Perry stating that Texas would succeed from the US, the Texas House has slashed Perrys budget for the governors office by 96%. Take that you democrat turned republican wuss...
Get the low-down here:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/041909dntexhousebudget.e4ed7a0a.html
President Barack Obama says the US seeks a "new beginning" with Cuba at the opening of the Summit of the Americas.
The full story is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8004798.stm
One day after the Obama administration released four gruesome Bush-era torture memos, a majority of Democrats have remained collectively silent on whether the disclosures warrant a full-scale criminal investigation.
That begs the question: were Democrats aware of the torture program and are simply remaining silent because they approved it?
Link:
http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/839-bushs-torture-program-were-democrats-complicit.html
The United States may now have abjured torture but Baghdad continues the violent tradition, with little sign of diminution
Get the low-down here:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892038,00.html?iid=digg_share
Speaking publicly for one of the first times since the end of the presidential campaign, John McCain's campaign manager Steve Schmidt painted a dire portrait of the state of the Republican Party, arguing that the GOP has largely been co-opted by its religious elements.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/17/steve-schmidt-mccain-camp_n_188354.html
Texas voters say that their state has the right to secede from the United States and form an independent country. However, the latest Rasmussen Reports poll in the state finds that if the matter was put to a vote, it wouldnt even be close.
Three-fourths (75%) of Lone Star State voters would opt to remain in the United States.
Read the full story here:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/states_general/texas/in_texas_31_say_state_has_right_to_secede_from_u_s_but_75_opt_to_stay
Critics said the office overstepped its mandate by trying to organize information operations that violated Pentagon guidelines for accuracy and transparency....
Check it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/us/politics/16policy.html
Hard money enthusiasts have long watched for signs that China is switching its foreign reserves from US Treasury bonds into gold bullion.
They may have been eyeing the wrong metal.
"He didnt figure the police would side with the squatters, as he calls them.
He didnt expect that after installing new locks to keep them out, hed be asked by an officer to open the doors and let them back in. He could........"
Link:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/apr/17/couple-want-backyard-back/
His statement came after seven Minnesota judges...concluded that Al Franken won Minnesotas 2008 election for U.S.
Senate.
Check it:
http://minnesotaindependent.com/32417/coleman-we-will-never-know-who-won
The world's largest mobile-phone maker said net profit in the three months ended March 31 plummeted to ‚¬122 million ($161.3 million) from ‚¬1.22 billion last year, missing analysts' expectations for ...
Source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123987714448824693.html#mod=djemalertTECH
In a down market, especially when many investment portfolio values have been slashed by 30 or 40 percent over the course of a year, its become painfully apparent that a large part of those losses comes in the form of the fees you pay to invest your money.
From:
http://www.mint.com/blog/finance-core/how-to-invest-for-less/
The International Monetary Fund has warned of "worrisome parallels" between the current global crisis and the Great Depression, despite the unprecedented steps already taken by central banks and governments worldwide.
Check it out here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/5166956/IMF-warns-over-parallels-to-Great-Depression.html
The economic downturn is transforming how we spend, whom we trust, where we save and what we really value
The full story is here:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891527,00.html?iid=digg_share
On last night's edition of Hannity, the end of the Somali pirate standoff seemed to drive a wedge between the show's host and one of his frequent guests, conservative commentator and author Bernard Goldberg.
From:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/14/bernard-goldberg-hannity_n_186613.html
North Korea said Tuesday it was restarting its rogue nuclear program, booting U.N. inspectors and pulling out of disarmament talks in an angry reaction to U.N.
Security Council condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch.
From:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-as-nkorea-missile,0,6267827.story
The U.S.
Navy Military use High-tech vs. the pirates
Check it:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/13/1890480.aspx
A series of quotes from America's king of flatulent utterances.
Check it:
http://mtblog.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2009/03/rush-limbaughs-10-dumbest-remarks.html
Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships.
Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's. The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away.TIP: Follow "next page" links for PICS!
Link:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-04/14/content_7676526.htm
FTA: With this wrist slap for Kim, the Obama Administration has now had its first experience with the limits of the U.N. as the enforcer of global order and nonproliferation.
It won't be the last. See Darfur (feckless denunciation of), and Iran, which just announced it has 7,000 nuclear centrifuges and counting.
Get the low-down here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123966902509815497.html
Unclassified DHS document warns law enforcement of threat of "right-wing terrorists" due to black president, economy and imposition of gun control laws.
Spanish prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales and five top associates over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantnamo, several reliable sources close to the investigation have told The Daily Beast.
Their decision is expected to be an
Link:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-13/the-bush-six-to-be-indicted/
The investment bank delivered first-quarter earnings that sailed past even the most optimistic predictions and plans to raise $5 billion in stock to help pay back government bailout funds.
It would become the first big U.S. bank to repay federal loans extended last autumn at the height of the credit crisis.
Check it:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090413-709963.html
McCain says that Republican resistance to gay marriage goes against conservative values"and conservatives' own self-interests. She couldn't be more right.
Link source:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-13/a-gayer-gop/
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton let slip last week that the Obama administration has abandoned the phrase "war on terror." Its absence had been noted by commentators.
There was no directive, Clinton said, "it's just not being used." It might seem trivial, but the change in rhetoric marks a significant turning point in the ideological...
The full story is here:
http://article.wn.com/view/2009/04/12/Dropping_the_phrase_war_on_terror_is_a_smart_move/
Over five months after the election, a three-judge panel has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota U.S.
Senate race.
Check it out here:
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S877958.shtml?cat=1
Two pirates in Somalia vowed revenge Monday, after the U.S. military killed three pirates and freed a U.S. ship captain who had been held hostage for several days.
Link source:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/13/somalia.pirates.revenge/
ALTON BAY, N.H. " A massive Easter fire has damaged dozens of buildings on the grounds of a Christian center in New Hampshire.
Firefighters tell the News 9 television station in Manchester that 52 buildings burned at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center, 30 miles northeast of Concord. The buildings are cottage-type seasonal homes.
The full story is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090413/ap_on_re_us/christian_center_fire
(CNN) -- The captain of the Maersk Alabama was freed Sunday after being held captive by pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia since Wednesday, a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
The full story is here:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/12/somalia.pirates/index.html
Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan joined CBS' Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation today and said the U.S. should take the debate over marijuana legalization seriously.
He said, "Those that suggest that some of these measures need to be looked at understand the dynamics of the drug trade."
Get the low-down here:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Mexican_ambassador_US_should_take_marijuana_0412.html
The Obama administration fights harder for the power to abduct people and imprison them with no charges.
Check it out here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/11/bagram/index.html
Ace of Spades blogs about how Barack Obama's pizza party shows what a huge hypocrite he is. Except the facts don't back it up. Read my exclusive report that tears the lid off of Pizza-gate.
There's a storm gathering.
A minute-long TV spot by a group called the National Organization for Marriage is already spawning YouTube parodies of its grave, Terminator-esque warning about gay marriage
From:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/04/funny-anti-gay.html
It took nearly four years, but unionized workers at a Quebec Wal-Mart store now have their first collective agreement, a first in North America.
A Quebec arbitrator sealed the two-year deal for employees at the St-Hyacinthe Wal-Mart east of Montreal earlier this week.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/04/09/mtl-walmart-sthyacinthe-unionized-0409.html
A British Medical Journal paper says that males under 20 outnumber young females by 32 million, largely because of sex-selective abortion.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/asia/11china.html
Hijacked at sea. President Barack Obama has just joined an exclusive club of three modern presidents of the United States who were all faced with a version of the same problem: what is the right response for the United States when an American ship, or a ship with American passengers, is hijacked at sea?
Check it:
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/09/three-presidents-and-a-hijacki
Once again, a humble Midwestern state is being laughed at by cosmopolitan smarty-pants on the East and West coasts.
The victim this time, of course, is Iowa, which recently had the gall to legalize gay marriage and attempt to mess up decades of perfectly good Midwestern stereotyping. Turns out, Iowa has a long history of being-GASP!-progressive!!
Link:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-defending-iowa-web,0,2979128.story
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow dips into subject of conservative activists expressing themselves through teabagging.
Air America Radio national correspondent Ana Marie Cox offers analysis. Rachel somehow keep from cracking up through most of the segment.
Link source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/30145811#30145811
With a 312 vote victory for the Democrat, and nothing left to count, the corporate media continues to misreport the facts of the U.S.
Senate election in Minnesota...
The full story is here:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7056
VIDEO: Fox News' Glenn Beck imitates Barack Obama pouring gasoline on "average American"; says: "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? ...
We didn't vote to lose the Republic." You've got to see this to believe it.
Link source:
http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200904090036
Modern day life is changing the way companies are doing business, maybe for the worse.
Here is a list of changes I've noticed, especially in the customer service sector. See if you don't agree.
Link:
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/04/09/25-things-vanishing-in-america-part-2-customer-service/
Declaring "good news" in the midst of an economic meltdown, President Barack Obama on Thursday urged families to take advantage of near-record low mortgage rates by refinancing their home loans. "We are at a time where people can really take advantage of this," Obama said, seated with a handful of homeowners who have already lowered their bills.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_us/obama_housing
The president plans to begin addressing the immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal, an official said.
From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/politics/09immig.html
Yes, the captain of a U.S. ship was taken hostage on Wednesday.
But twenty other mariners fought off a Somali attack by taking cues from victims of the past year's surge in piracy " victims who almost literally walked the plank.
Read the full story here:
http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/somali-pirate-attack-rescues-040909?src=digg
His name is Spencer Bachus and he has made a list -- a secret list! -- of the socialists in the House of Representatives.
Check it out here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/09/spencer-bachus-socialists_n_185364.html
A powerful aftershock has hit central Italy, nearly two days after a major earthquake caused severe damage.
The 5.5-magnitude tremor brought down masonry from already damaged buildings and was felt as far away as Rome. Rescuers are continuing into the night their search for victims trapped in the rubble from Monday's earthquake.
In the 17th century, when groups of men plundered the seas in ships filled with rats and scurvy, they agreed on a code to keep themselves civilly uncivil.
I propose the same for BiTtorrent.
Get the low-down here:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5202399/a-pirates-code-of-conduct-for-bittorrent
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi authorities have beheaded three Pakistanis convicted of killing a fellow Pakistani man during a jewelry heist.
Read the full story here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040700963.html
Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software that could be used to disrupt the system.
Read the full story here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914805204099085.html
Video has emerged that shows the Police LIED in regard to the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 Protests.
The Police claimed they had tried to protect Mr Tomlinson but had come under attack by the Protesters, this Video clearly shows the Police OUT OF CONTROL launching an UNPROVOKED attack on Mr Tomlinson.
Stewart: Insert gun into barrel.
Shoot fish.
Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/08/baracknophobia-hannity-ba_n_184568.html
The Manhattan district attorney's office has smashed a sinister plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through unwitting New York banks, the Daily News has learned.
Link source:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/04/07/2009-04-07_iranian_nuke_plot_vaporized_in_the_city_-2.html
A Colorado man who works for Evangelical group Focus on the Family has been arrested after he solicited sex online from an investigator posing as a teenage girl, police have said.
Link source:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Police_Focus_on_Family_Bible_narrator_0406.html
Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said the number of Latinos who became Americans in fiscal year 2008 more than doubled over the previous year, to 461,317.
Check it:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1889841,00.html
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday proposed killing weapons programs that are over budget, behind schedule and out-of-date, urging Congress to rise above parochial interests to support his plan.
Link source:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE53600C20090407
Blockbuster Inc, the largest store-based U.S. movie rental chain, said the risk that it may not complete a deal to amend its credit facilities raises "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern, according to a securities filing on Monday.
The full story is here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2344572,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121
U.S.
District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the Justice Department improperly withheld important psychiatric records of a government witness who was used in a "significant" number of cases against Guantanamo detainees.
Read the full story here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/65608.html
A series of car bombs exploded Monday in and around Baghdad, killing more than 40 people and injuring dozens more, police and Iraqi officials said.
Source:
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/06/Multiple-car-bombs-kill-4-injure-34/UPI-10661239021392/
New claims from the Obama DOJ about why key OLC memos remain concealed are irrelevant even if true.
Read the full story here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/06/memos/index.html
Papers unearthed by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders ensured that the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was seen as a "whites only" victory.
Get the low-down here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7984436.stm
For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades.
Source:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1178/polarized-partisan-gap-in-obama-approval-historic
"...I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward..."
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/06/bachmann-obama-wants-re-e_n_183552.html
The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades.
How that statistic explains who we are nowï½and what, as a nation, we are about to become.
The full story is here:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional budget analysts have raised their estimate of the net cost to taxpayers for the government's financial rescue program to $356 billion, an increase of $167 billion from earlier estimates.
Check it out here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE53323420090404?rpc=64
Moyers talks with Amy Goodman and David Beckmann about the failures of modern journalism and the importance of truth in our current political climate.
The Obama Administration wants to replace the soon-to-expire 1991 START treaty with a new regime that would set a ceiling of 1,000 nuclear warheads apiece for the U.S. and Russia.
That would dramatically cut the two countries' existing number of operational weapons, both strategic and nonstrategic, from a current estimated total of about 4,100
From:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879970564788365.html
BAGHDAD (AP) - The bodies of two gay men have been found in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City after a leading cleric repeatedly condemned homosexuality, an Iraqi police official said Saturday.
The killings come after Shiite cleric Sattar al-Battat repeatedly condemned homosexuality during recent Friday prayers, saying Islam prohibits homosexuality
Link source:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090404/D97BP3G00.html
"The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut the Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said."
Source:
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/04/times_co_threat.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed3
After 9-11, the Fed kept interest rates low"in one year as low as 1 percent.
That money flooded into the housing and stock markets. And in 2008, as the Fed tightened, the bubble burst. Now the money supply is again expanding, to rescue us from a crisis created by the previous expansion.
From:
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/index.php/2009/04/03/should-we-kill-the-fed/
Iraq plans to open a museum filled with toppled dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons, statues, paintings, furniture and artefacts, officials told AFP on Saturday.
Check it:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hysvQZ6GUOwbYeoI_uc4caMThP0A
Rep.
John Conyers has recommended that Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a special prosecutor to launch a criminal inquiry to investigate, among other things, whether enhanced interrogation techniques used against alleged terrorist detainees violated international and federal laws against torture.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says "we have co-responsibility" for the cartel-driven carnage plaguing our southern border.
These are signs that key people have a clue about the madness that is our drug policy. Through pot legalization, we can bring the marijuana trade out of the shadows and into the safety of the regulated economy.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/04/04/drugs/
North Korea appears to have launched a rocket, reports from Japan and South Korea say.
Peter Schiff's daily vlog.
A few comments about the G20 summit, but he mostly discusses the new change in the Mark To Market rule. The rule has been rescinded to allow banks to hold their loans at face value if they are still being paid. Bad idea. Watch and learn why.
The full story is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqSmNyMM0K8
President Barack Obama plans to lift longstanding U.S. restrictions on Cuba, a senior administration official said, allowing Cuban-Americans to visit families there as often as they like and to send them unlimited funds.
Link source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879435046687885.html
The Air Force has launched a formal investigation to determine whether an e-mail distributed to thousands of Air Force personnel in Europe directing them to visit a far-right, Catholic website where President Barack Obama was compared to Adolf Hitler and the Antichrist violated the militarys position on religious neutrality.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.pubrecord.org/religion/810-air-force-investigating-whether-e-mail-endorsing-religious-site-violated-rules.html
Eight parents and teachers who used hi-tech equipment to help children cheat in Chinese college entrance exams have been sent to prison.
Read the full story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7980607.stm
If were to begin to roll back our stupid and deadly drug war, the stigma of responsible drug use has got to end, and marijuana is the best place to start.
Well make real progress when solid, upstanding folk come out of the cannabis closet, heads held high. So here we go. My name is Will Wilkinson. I smoke marijuana, and I like it.
Read the full story here:
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/94981/I_smoke_pot_and_I_like_it
Turns out "Don't Squeeze the Charmin" might have been the worst marketing message of all-time.
According to a new study to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers who touch products in the aisles will pay more money for them than those who keep their hands off the merchandise.
Get the low-down here:
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1889081,00.html
Capitol Hill aides received 2008 bonuses that were among the highest in years, a payroll tracker said, even as lawmakers criticized companies.
Last year alone, more than 200 House lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, awarded bonuses totaling $9.1 million to more than 2,000 staff members, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis...
Source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123854799133476409.html
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is warning of a third party mutiny in 2012 if Republicans dont figure out a way to shape up.
Check it out here:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/02/gingrich-warns-of-third-party-in-2012/
The movie theater business, which hasn't radically changed the way it does business in decades, is trying to adapt to the public's changing tastes.
Gerardo "Gerry" Lopez, a former Starbucks exec, was installed last month as CEO at AMC Entertainment Inc., thinks sushi and espresso at the concession stand could save the business
Check it out here:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/01/business/fi-cotown-amc1?tn=sn
