Wealthy, Un-Educated & Broke (but armed to the teeth...)

The USA is bemoaning it's lost status as a world power....and one of the reasons is

Farewell to an old friend over the years. Andy Rooney

First off, I'd like to express how deeply & truly sad I am at the death of Andy Rooney from CBS' 60 Minutes.

I grew up watching that show every Sunday night. If you knew me as a kid, it was playing in my home every Sunday when you were over for some of my mom's barely edible steaks, if you knew me as a young adult then it was playing every Sunday over Chinese/Pizza takeout AND if you had known me on Oct 6, 2011 when he did his last broadcast, I was there watching as well.

Andy represented to me a kindly, grumpy, wise and yet childish grandfather. He said some pretty pertinent shit, called it like he saw it and for all his faults, he was at least honest with himself and his audience.

I will miss him and his bushy eyebrows every Sunday from now on.

RIP Andy, you will be missed in my household.

Some quotes stolen from CNN (don't worry...they can afford it)


(CNN) -- Andy Rooney, who died Saturday at the age of 92, had the last word each week on the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes." Here are some of his great lines from those essays, along with a few others, that reveal his talent as a writer and the dry wit that made him famous.

"I try to look nice. I comb my hair, I tie my tie, I put on a jacket, but I draw the line when it comes to trimming my eyebrows. You work with what you got." -- from an essay on his eyebrows, Nov. 24, 1996

"We need people who can actually do things. We have too many bosses and too few workers. More college graduates ought to become plumbers or electricians, then go home at night and read Shakespeare." -- from an essay on finding a good job, March 21, 2010

"We didn't shock them, and we didn't awe them in Baghdad. The phrase makes us look like foolish braggarts. The president ought to fire whoever wrote that for him." -- on the start of the war in Iraq in 2003

"I recently bought this new laptop to use when I travel. Look at that. Fits right into my briefcase. It weighs less than three pounds. I lose that much getting mad, waiting to get on the plane through security at the airport." -- from an essay on computers, Feb. 11, 2009

"We can all be prouder to be human beings, because that's what they were. They make up for a lot of liars, cheats, and terrorists among us." -- on the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger after it exploded on takeoff in 1986

"Not many people in this world are as lucky as I've been. ... All this time I've been paid to say what is on my mind on television. You don't get any luckier in life than that." -- from Rooney's final "60 Minutes" essay, Oct. 2, 2011

"One of the things we can be sure of over the July 4th weekend is that news reports will keep telling us how many of us are going to die in automobile accidents." -- from Rooney's first "60 Minutes" essay, July 2, 1978

"The third rule of life is this: Everything you buy today is smaller, more expensive, and not as good as it was yesterday." -- from an essay on coffee cans, Oct. 23, 1988

"A lot of these products are actually pretty good. But why are they always trying to con us with the contrived pictures on the box that don't look anything like you get when you eat it?" -- from an essay on the pictures on food packages, Dec. 4, 1988

"I don't know anything offhand that mystifies Americans more than the cotton they put in pill bottles. Why do they do it? Are you supposed to put the cotton back in once you've taken a pill out?" -- from an essay on pill bottles, Oct. 12, 1986

"I understand shipping -- you have to expect to pay for the stamps or for the freight company -- but what's this handling they always have? How much does handling cost, anyway? I don't want a lot of people handling something I'm going to buy before I get it. How much would it cost if you didn't handle it before you sent it to me?" -- from an essay on fine print, March 12, 1989

"Dogs are nicer than people." -- from an essay on the true things in life, Dec. 5, 2007

"I did not believe in the war. I thought it was wrong to go into any war. And I got to the war, and saw the Germans, and I changed my mind. I decided we were right going into World War II." -- from a CBS interview with Morley Safer, Oct. 2, 2011

"I am interested in details. If you go into anything far enough, you get into the details of it, and people turn out to be interested in what makes things work." -- from a 2010 interview in The Colgate Scene

Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)

Occupy Wall Street - Photos

A sampling of photos from around the inter-webs.

Occupy Wall Street - And anywhere else you can

The New York City General Assembly — the decision-making body for the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in lower Manhattan — approved a statement of purpose on Friday amid concerns that the movement lacked a clear message.

As corporations enjoy near record profits and Americans face staggering unemployment, protesters have pledged to occupy Wall Street in lower Manhattan until something is done about corporate greed and the influence of the wealthy on American politics. The protesters have been camped out in New York’s old Liberty Plaza, now called Zuccotti Park, since September 17.


As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
 
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. 

We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. 

We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

• They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
• They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
• They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
• They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
• They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
• They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
• They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
• They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
• They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
• They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
• They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
• They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
• They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
• They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
• They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
• They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
• They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
• They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
• They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
• They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
• They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *

To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

Who here thinks YOU aren't being spied on ?

 Taken from WIRED
Which Telecoms Store Your Data the Longest? Secret Memo Tells All By David Kravets Email Author September 28, 2011 | 6:30 am |

________________________________________________________________

The nation’s major mobile-phone providers are keeping a treasure trove of sensitive data on their customers, according to newly-released Justice Department internal memo that for the first time reveals the data retention policies of America’s largest telecoms.

The single-page Department of Justice document, “Retention Periods of Major Cellular Service Providers,” is a guide for law enforcement agencies looking to get information — like customer IP addresses, call logs, text messages and web surfing habits – out of U.S. telecom companies, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

The document, marked “Law Enforcement Use Only” and dated August 2010, illustrates there are some significant differences in how long carriers retain your data.

Verizon, for example, keeps a list of everyone you’ve exchanged text messages with for the past year, according to the document. But T-Mobile stores the same data up to five years. It’s 18 months for Sprint, and seven years for AT&T.

That makes Verizon appear to have the most privacy-friendly policy. Except that Verizon is alone in retaining the actual contents of text messages. It allegedly stores the messages for five days, while T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint don’t store them at all.

The document was unearthed by the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina via a Freedom of Information Act claim. (After the group gave a copy to Wired.com, we also discovered it in two other places on the internet by searching its title.)

“People who are upset that Facebook is storing all their information should be really concerned that their cell phone is tracking them everywhere they’ve been,” said Catherine Crump, an ACLU staff attorney. “The government has this information because it wants to engage in surveillance.”

The biggest difference in retention surrounds so-called cell-site data.

That is information detailing a phone’s movement history via its connections to mobile phone towers while its traveling. Verizon keeps that data on a one-year rolling basis; T-Mobile for “a year or more;” Sprint up to two years, and AT&T indefinitely, from July 2008.

The document also includes retention policies for Nextel and Virgin Mobile. They have folded into the Sprint network.

The document release comes two months before the Supreme Court hears a case testing the government’s argument that it may use GPS devices to monitor a suspect’s every movement without a warrant. And the disclosure comes a month ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Electronic Privacy Communications Act, an outdated law that the government often invokes against targets to obtain, without a warrant, the data the Justice Department document describes.

“I don’t think there there is anything on this list the government would concede requires a warrant,” said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “This brings cellular retention practices out of the shadows, so we can have a rational discussion about how the law needs to be changed when it comes to the privacy of our records.”

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) has proposed legislation to alter the Electronic Privacy Communications Act to protect Americans from warrantless intrusions. Debate on the issue is expected to heat up as the anniversary nears, and the Justice Department document likely will take center stage.

How the EURO became broken

It's an interesting read and a primer if you (like me) want to make sure you've got your facts straight before you carry on condemning everything that's bad about Globalization, "Free Trade" and the power of money & greed. 

Also, as a side bar, it's interesting that CNN's web reporting is vastly better than the on-air crap that they feed the world. I wonder if they could learn a lesson from themselves but then again, that presupposes that their audience can actually read.  

__________________________________________________________________________

How the euro became a broken dream

By Irene Chapple, CNN

September 23, 2011 -- Updated 1544 GMT (2344 HKT)

The euro, a currency binding 17 European nations, is under pressure due to the eurozone's debt crisis.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The Treaty of Maastricht which enabled the euro's creation was signed in 1992
• The euro was available as cash by 2001
• It is used over the eurozone's 17 countries
• But it is under pressure due to the eurozone's debt crisis

London (CNN) -- Why was the euro created?
The euro, which created the world's largest trading power, was designed to link together the European nations for trade and political purposes. It was born amidst political and economic upheaval as Germany headed towards reunification - with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 - and communism disintegrated in Eastern Europe. The European Union was put in place after World War II, but as the economic winds shifted the drive to create a single economic and political bloc intensified.
The Treaty on European Union, known as the Treaty of Maastricht, was signed in the Netherlands city of Maastricht on February 7, 1992, before entering into force in 1993. It created the structure for a single currency, later named the euro, to be born. The currency's symbol was inspired by the Greek letter epsilon, with the notes and coins available by 2001. They were issued by the European Central Bank, which was based in Frankfurt to placate Germany's loss of its beloved Deutschmark.
But now the European dream -- which has the euro at its centre -- has been hobbled. Eurozone members, led by Germany, are being forced to bail out the weaker economies in a financial crisis which is threatening to drag the bloc into a recession and is reverberating across the globe.

The rise and fall of the euro

How does the euro work?
Creating a currency which could be used across such disparate economies was always a difficult task. The idea for a single currency was promoted by Jacques Delors, a former French minister of finance, who held the European Commission presidency from 1985 to 1995.
The aim was to stamp a European identity in the markets, bringing, among other things, price stability, growth and trading benefits. The Delors report of 1989 defined a monetary union objective as being, in part, a "complete liberalisation of capital movements."
The final structure was a bloc in which political and fiscal integration was minimal; The euro was not designed to create a 'United States' of Europe. Instead the Maastricht Treaty created specific conditions for entry into the single currency. Among other criteria, member countries must not allow annual budget deficits to exceed 3% of gross domestic product, and public debt must be under 60%.
The bloc's monetary policy was to be controlled by the European Central Bank, which had a remit of setting interest rates and controlling inflation around 2% or below. However, each country would retain its own tax policies, budgets and banks and issue their own bonds - with prices varying depending on the risks investors associated with each country.
Who belongs to the eurozone?
Of the 27 countries in the European Union, 17 nations -- comprising almost 332 million people -- use the euro as their currency. The eurozone's biggest economy is Germany, followed by France.

Europe growing nervous over Greece

The weaker economies are Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain, a group which gained the unwanted acronym PIIGS as the crisis unfolded. Other members are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia with the most recent edition, Estonia, joining in January this year. Sweden does not belong to the eurozone but is obligated to do so in the future, according to the terms of the treaty.
Those who don't qualify for the euro, even though they are members of the EU, are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. In 2000 Denmark rejected the adoption of the euro in a referendum, while the UK also stayed out.
Why didn't the UK want to belong to the eurozone?
Debate over joining the single currency was fierce. Margaret Thatcher, Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990, was anti-euro. The Tories remained largely eurosceptic under Thatcher's successor, John Major.
Then came Black Wednesday, the day in 1992 on which Britain was forced to halt its membership of euro's precursor, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Black Wednesday was seen as proof a monetary union and European currency could not work, says Hans-Joachim Voth, research professor of economics at Barcelona's Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
Adding to the political humiliation, Black Wednesday is also remembered as the day which enabled investor George Soros to collect an estimated $1 billion in profits from betting against the pound.
Tony Blair's Labour government, which succeeded Major's Conservative government, was in favor of joining the euro, but only if certain economic tests were met. They weren't, and the UK stayed out. Blair reiterated his support of the euro in an interview with the BBC this year, but said the case for Britain was not compelling. Public opinion polls have showed opposition to adopting the currency at up to 75%.
According to Voth, Britain "has always had the problem of wanting to be a part of Europe, without really signing up for the European project."
What was the issue with Greece?
The Greek economy has been in trouble since the country joined the euro, due to a mix of overspending and inability to raise enough revenue. In 2004, it admitted that the country's financial position was worse than reported and had breached the eurozone entry requirements.
By 2008 the government had narrowly passed a belt-tightening budget, designed to trim its massive national debt burden, triggering massive protests. In 2009, Greece admitted its deficit would be more than 12% of gross domestic product -- far higher than previous estimates and more than four times the requirements of entry into the eurozone.
The country was hit with ratings downgrades, pushing its sovereign bonds into so-called 'junk' territory, and the damage continued to spiral. Despite the introduction of brutal austerity measures - which have prompted waves of violent protests - Greece has been unable to balance its books. It is currently negotiating for the release of €8 billion in funds which it needs to pay its public sector wages. Greece will be out of money by about mid-October should the funds not be released, and likely default on its debt.
While a default is now widely expected, the consequences are not yet clear. A disorderly default, which would be sudden and unexpected, would most likely trigger global panic. An orderly default, in which creditors have clarity about the losses they will take, may ease some pain. Creditors can expect to take losses of up to 70% on their investments, according to Standard & Poor's figures.
Why is the eurozone cracking?
Greece's shifting economic data created panic among investors, who stopped buying its bonds, making it impossible to fund itself. In May 2010, Greece received a €110 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund and its eurozone partners.
A European bail-out fund was then set up to enable a more organized response to subsequent emergencies. The fund was quickly tapped again as turmoil gripped the markets. Ireland's banks were revealed to be a black hole of cash and it was forced to tap the fund for cash. Portugal followed, then Greece returned for more financial help.
While the countries which have been bailed out have specific problems - Greece's lax tax collection, and Ireland's black hole of a banking system, for example - the problem has been exacerbated by a currency which shackles the weak to the strong, economists say. Political difficulties in driving through a decisive plan for reining in the crisis has fed the panic.
What happens if a member defaults?
Nobody really knows, and the uncertainty has fed massive volatility in both the credit and equity markets across the world, driving the costs of global stocks dramatically lower and pushing both Europe and the U.S. -- which is also facing massive financial problems -- toward recession. The return of a recession will likely create increased unemployment and lower wages.
A default by Greece, or its departure from the eurozone, also carries contagion risk. That means investors will worry about other nations in trouble -- such as Italy, which makes up 17% of the eurozone economy, nearly seven times bigger than the economy of Greece -- and further increase financial instability across the globe.
Politically, it will ignite the debate about whether the European dream, and the euro, can survive, and if it should have even been created in the first place.

Unfuckable Lard Ass ?!?

I just saw heard this on the Colbert Report and after Googling it I came across the following news article....

Italy, seriously folks, this guy's gotta go.

Don't you people have any shame, any self respect, any sense of morals ? How in the hell can you tolerate having this lecherous, narcissistic, foul-mouthed, elitist pig as your head of state ?

Isn't it bad enough that he's been banging 17yr old girls who're prostitutes (I know prostitution is legal in Italy but surely not underage ones). Isn't it bad enough that this moron is making comments about the head of state of THE country that could very well be your economic saviour (or not after this)

Original post is located here

____________________________________________________________________________

Berlusconi calls Merkel an "unfuckable lard-arse:" reports

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi reportedly calls German Chancellor Angela Merkel an "unfuckable lard-arse."

News DeskSeptember 15, 2011 14:48

inShare

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi inside the Parliament in Rome on July 15, 2011. (FILIPPO MONTEFORTE /AFP/Getty Images)

Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi reportedly called German Chancellor Angela Merkel an "unfuckable lard-arse" during a wiretapped conversation, the Independent of London reports.
Investigators overheard the remarks during a July phone conversation between Berlusconi and the man accused of supplying prostitutes to the prime minister's parties, the Independent states. Berlusconi used the Italian phrase, "culona inchiavabile," reports the Atlantic.
More from GlobalPost: Italian voters run out of sympathy for Berlusconi
Investigators were searching for evidence against the prime minister regarding a number of charges including corruption, Germany's The Local reports.
“If the rumors are true, which are not only circulating in journalist circles but also in parliament, that the Prime Minister has spoken about Merkel in an unspeakable, unpronounceable, unacceptable way, the situation would be dramatic. Someone who has reached out their hand to us would be spat at in the face," Italian MP Rocco Buttiglione told parliament, according to The Local.
Berlusconi, 74, has made a series of what many describe as outrageous gaffes during his tenure as prime minister. Three years ago, he described President Barack Obama as "suntanned."
The latest sexist remarks concerning Merkel came as German officials were pressuring Italy over its implementation of budget cuts.
During the call, Berlusconi also called Italy a "shitty" country.

Not Your Parent's Ecomony Anymore.....

Wonder why we don't hear more about this in the media, or why our politicians aren't doing anything to rectify this ? Could it be that the media are owned by the wealthy and the politicians are beholden to the wealthy ? NAH....that would be too conspiratorial...too outlandish...Tickle Down Economics works !! Just look for yourself...

Click to Expand

The Defecit Chart Republican Hate

Kevin Drum

The Deficit Chart Republicans Hate

— By Kevin Drum

| Wed May. 11, 2011 8:48 AM PDT

I get a little bored repeating over and over that our short-term deficit is almost entirely not Barack Obama's fault. It's mostly the fault of the Bush tax cuts, the Bush wars, and the financial collapse that happened during the Bush presidency. At this point, though, this is more in the nature of a religious debate than a factual one, and conservatives are going to keep repeating the same tired disinformation about the deficit regardless of any evidence one way or the other.
Still, just on the off chance that a few people are still persuadable on this, it's nice of CBPP to update its chart showing the source of the deficit over the next decade. (Farther out than that, Medicare is largely responsible for most deficit projections.) As you can see, by 2013 or so, virtually the entire deficit is due to Bush-era policies/disasters. So cut this out and post it on your refrigerator.

G20: By the Numbers

What we wished we'd seen during the G20

• 1,100: Approximate number of people arrested during last summer’s G20 summit
• 317: Number of people charged with criminal offences related to the G20 summit
• 187: Criminal charges withdrawn since the G20 summit
• 58: Per cent of G20-related charges withdrawn, stayed or dismissed (187 cases)
• 39: Defendants who took advantage of diversion programs and had their charges dropped
• 24: Number of people who have pleaded guilty of G20-related crimes since the summit
• 11: Defendants subject to peace bonds
• 9: Number of people erroneously listed as charged

Source: Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General

What we actually saw

On Behalf of all Canadians....Congratulations and....Sorry !!

Unlike about 99.9% of my fellow Canadians, I am not a huge Hockey fan.

Yes, I know, it's out National Sport (sorry Lacrosse, I know you are officially it but really..) and as such, I should know the names and stats of every person who's ever laced up a pair of skates in the NHL. Ain't happening.

Hockey is to Canada what Soccer is to Brazil. Part religion, part sport and all National identity. But that being said, I just couldn't ever get my head around it. Sure, I've been to games, I cheer during the Olympics and I honestly expect us to win internationally every time because I don't know better...So there, the mea-culpa is done with.

Lastnight's Game 7 rout, blowout, beat-down of Vancouver by Boston was a National tragedy I'm told. Some kind of psychic wound felt at a very deep emotional level. Collectively we had our hopes riding on a Canadian team bringing home the Stanley Cup and instead Vancouver basically cratered.

Now I can understand the fans being disappointed, sad, upset and even really friggin' pissed off but what happened right after the game was a disgrace.

People pouring out of the arena rioted. Now Vancouver seems to have a particular fascination with this form of public behaviour. As I recall, there were in the last decade, riots over Hockey, the Olympics and a Concert. Windows get smashed, cars get torched, noses bloodied and arrests made.

Admit it people. The Cannucks lost to a better team. It's not as if they were cheated out of it by some crappy calls on the ice. They simply played a better team who quite frankly, kicked their asses !!

And over this Vancouver riots ?

So on behalf of all Canadians who're nursing a hangover and a grudge, Congratulations Boston. 39 years is a long time to wait for a championship. Trust me, I know, I live in Toronto. As for the city of Vancouver, sorry about the mess but I'm sure it was the beer eh ?

And for those pinheads who actually participated in last night's stupidity, keep it up ya friggin snapperheads. Next thing ya know,we'll get lumped in with British Soccer fans if ya keep this crap up...

Ellsberg: All the crimes Nixon committed against me are now legal

Things that make you go "hmmmmmmm.."

__________________________________________________________________________________
By David Edwards
Thursday, June 9th, 2011 -- 12:59 pm


Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg said Tuesday that disgraced former Republican President Richard M. Nixon would "admire [President Barack] Obama's boldness" in trying to stifle whistleblowers.


"Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, might take bittersweet satisfaction to know that he was not the last smart president to prolong unjustifiably a senseless, unwinnable war, at great cost in human life," Ellsberg told CNN. "And his aide Henry Kissinger was not the last American official to win an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize."


"He would probably also feel vindicated (and envious) that ALL the crimes he committed against me -- which forced his resignation facing impeachment -- are now legal," he continued.


"That includes burglarizing my former psychoanalyst's office (for material to blackmail me into silence), warrantless wiretapping, using the CIA against an American citizen in the US, and authorizing a White House hit squad to 'incapacitate me totally' (on the steps of the Capitol on May 3, 1971)... But under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, with the PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendment Act, and (for the hit squad) President Obama's executive orders. [T]hey have all become legal."


"There is no further need for present or future presidents to commit obstructions of justice (like Nixon's bribes to potential witnesses) to conceal such acts. Under the new laws, Nixon would have stayed in office, and the Vietnam War would have continued at least several more years," Ellsberg added.


The former military analyst noted that Obama, like Nixon before him, has tried to use the Espionage Act to silence whistleblowers.


Nixon "would be impressed to see that President Obama has now brought five such indictments against leaks, almost twice as many as all previous presidents put together," he said. "He could only admire Obama's boldness in using the same Espionage Act provisions used against me -- almost surely unconstitutional used against disclosures to the American press and public in my day, less surely under the current Supreme Court -- to indict Thomas Drake, a classic whistleblower who exposed illegality and waste in the NSA."


Ellsberg has also been an outspoken supporter of Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier accused of leaking thousands of documents to WikiLeaks. Ellsberg was arrested outside the White House in March while attending a protest in support of Manning.


"Do you believe what Bradley did was necessary and heroic?" CNN asked.


"Yes," Ellsberg replied.


PBS is set to air a two-part documentary on June 13 and 14 entitled The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.


The U.S government announced last month that 40 years after Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and 18 other newspapers, the study was being declassified and released to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library.

SWAT team busts into house over student loan default

This caught my eye.... Scary that a government department thought this acceptable.

SWAT team busts into house over student loan default


Posted on 06.8.11
By Sahil Kapur

Acting on orders from the U.S. Department of Education, a S.W.A.T. team broke into a California home Tuesday at 6 a.m. and reportedly roughed up a man — all because of his estranged wife’s defaulted student loans. She wasn’t there.

Yet, Kenneth Wright of the city of Stockton was grabbed by the neck by handcuffed before he and his three young children were put in a police car as the officers search his house, he told ABC News10. He said he was in his underwear the whole time.

“They busted down my door for this. It wasn’t even me,” Wright told the local news station. “All I want is an apology for me and my kids and for them to get me a new door.”

Local police were reportedly not involved in the incident.

Watch the video, via ABC News10.

Storm Season Kicks Off

Hurricane, Tropical Depression, Squall and basically CNN fodder type weather is starting up in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

Lower left is a storm that's going to get lotsa Texans wet and as for the one in the lower right, those rum loving Jamaicans & Cubans are gonna get walloped !

Here's hoping that Anderson Cooper has had all his shots, that the UN tear making machine is geared up and that you're ready for 24/7 coverage.

More Space related stuff..

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Something to think about when watching CNN or FOX re; Japan

Japan Earthquake - The Swarm

Quick video showing earthquakes in Japan between 9 March and 14 March. 1 hour ~ 1 second. Big one is around 1:17

Inspiration and Hope from Libya

Exclamations of joy fill the air as residents of Benghazi find themselves in an unimaginable situation: Freed from Moammar Khadafy's rule for the first time in more than four decades. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

Protesters celebrate and shout slogans following their takeover of Benghazi. Even amid the euphoria, rumors abound that Moammar Khadafy will strike back, either through massive aerial or naval bombardments or through a string of stealth attacks from his plainclothes agents. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

Flashing V for victory, a Libyan protester celebrates as he stands on a destroyed tank at Al-Katiba military base after it fell to rebels. (Hussein Malla/Associated Press)

An anti-government demonstrator, the colors of the Kingdom of Libya flag on his face, grabs a cup of tea in Benghazi Thursday. Rebels have seized control of Benghazi, the nation's second-largest city. (Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)

After fleeing Libya, dozens celebrate in Ras Jdir, Tunisia. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Wikileaks Guide to the Gaddafi Family

The leader of the Libyan revolution presides over a "famously fractious" family that is powerful, wealthy, dysfunctional and marked by internecine struggles, according to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. The documents shed light on how his eight children – among whom rivalries have sharpened in recent years – his wife and Gaddafi himself lead their lives.

Muammar Gaddafi

The patriarch, now 68, was described by US ambassador to Tripoli, Gene Cretz, in 2009 as a "mercurial and eccentric figure who suffers from severe phobias, enjoys flamenco dancing and horseracing, acts on whims and irritates friends and enemies alike." Gaddafi has an intense dislike or fear of staying on upper floors, and prefers not to fly over water, the cables add.

From Al Jazeera: (click text to follow link)

In power since 1969, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is the longest-serving leader in both Africa and the Arab world.
He led a bloodless coup toppling King Idris at the age of 27, and has since maintained tight control of his oil-rich country by clamping down on dissidents. The ongoing bloody uprising poses the most serious domestic challenge to his rule.
Among his many eccentricities, Gaddafi is known to sleep in a Bedouin tent guarded by dozens of female bodyguards on trips abroad.
Gaddafi was born in 1942 in the coastal area of Sirte to nomadic parents. He went to Benghazi University to study geography, but dropped out to join the army.
After seizing power, he laid out a pan-Arab, anti-imperialist philosophy, blended with aspects of Islam. While he permitted private control over small companies, the government controlled the larger ones.
He was an admirer of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and his Arab socialist and nationalist ideology.
He tried without success to merge Libya, Egypt and Syria into a federation. A similar attempt to join Libya and Tunisia ended in acrimony.
Crushing dissident
In 1977 he changed the country's name to the Great Socialist Popular Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah (State of the Masses) and allowed people to air their views at people's congresses.
However, critics dismissed his leadership as a military dictatorship, accusing him of repressing civil society and ruthlessly crushing dissident.
To this day, the media remains under strict government control.
The regime has imprisoned hundreds of people for violating the law and sentenced some to death, according to Human Rights Watch.

At the UN General Assembly in 2009, Gaddafi accused the body of being a terrorism group like al-Qaeda

Gaddafi played a prominent role in organising Arab opposition to the 1978 Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.
Later shunned by a number of Arab states on the basis of his extreme views on how to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict among others, Gaddafi's foreign policy shifted from an Arab focus to an African focus.
His vision of a United States of Africa resulted in the foundation of the African Union.
In the West, Gaddafi is strongly associated with "terrorism", accused of supporting armed groups including FARC in Colombia and the IRA in Northern Ireland.
Libya’s alleged involvement in the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub in which two American soldiers were killed prompted US air attacks on Tripoli and Benghazi, killing 35 Libyans, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter. Ronald Reagan, the then US president, called him a "mad dog".
The 1988 bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in Scotland is possibly the most well known and controversial international incident in which Gaddafi has been involved.
For many years, Gaddafi denied involvement, resulting in UN sanctions and Libya’s status as a pariah state. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was convicted for planting the bomb. Gaddafi's regime formally accepted responsibility for the attack in 2003 and paid compensation to the families of those who died.
Isolation ended
Also in 2003, Gaddafi broke Libya's isolation from the West by relinquishing his entire inventory of weapons of mass destruction.
In September 2004, George Bush, the US president at the time, formally ended a US trade embargo as a result of Gaddafi's scrapping of the arms programme and taking responsibility for Lockerbie.
The normalisation of relations with Western powers has allowed the Libyan economy to grow and the oil industry in particular has benefited.
However, Gaddafi and Lockerbie came back into the spotlight in 2009, when al-Megrahi was released and returned to Libya. The hero’s welcome al-Megrahi received from Gaddafi on his return was condemned by the the US and the UK, among others.
In September 2009, Gaddafi visited the US for the first time for his his first appearance at the UN General Assembly.
His speech was supposed to be 15 minutes, but exceeded an hour and a half. He tore up a copy of the UN charter, accused the Security Council of being a terrorism body similar to al-Qaeda, and demanded $ 7.7 trillion in compensation to be paid to Africa from it's past colonial rulers.
During a visit to Italy in August 2010, Gaddafi's invitation to hundreds of young women to convert to Islam overshadowed the two-day trip, which was intended to cement the growing ties between Tripoli and Rome.

Safiya (nee Farkash)
Gaddafi's second wife travels by chartered jet in Libya, with a motorcade of Mercedes vehicles waiting to pick her up at the airport to take her to her destination, but her movements are limited and discreet. Hosted a banquet in the Bab al-Azizia compound on the occasion of the anniversary of the revolution that was festive but not extravagant. Hails from Benghazi, the centre of the rebellion in eastern Libya.

Saif al-Islam
Second-eldest son. Presumed heir-apparent in recent years who warned of civil war when he addressed the nation on Sunday night. A trained engineer who promotes political and economic reform and backed NGOs under the aegis of the International Charitable Gaddafi Foundation. Has PhD from the London School of Economics.

"Saif al-Islam's high-profile role as the public face of the regime to the west has been a mixed blessing for him. Has bolstered his image but many Libyans view him as self-aggrandising and too eager to please foreigners," the US embassy said.

Escorted the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi home to die in August 2009 "and persisted in his hard-partying, womanising ways, a source of concern in a socially conservative country like Libya". Cables claim at odds with siblings Muatassim, Aisha, Hannibal, and Sa'adi.

Sa'adi
Third-eldest son. "Notoriously ill-behaved Sa'adi has a troubled past, including scuffles with police in Europe (especially Italy), abuse of drugs and alcohol, excessive partying, travel abroad in contravention of his father's wishes Former professional footballer (a single season with Perugia in Italy's Serie A league, he owns a significant share of al-Ahli, one of the two biggest soccer teams in Libya, and has run Libya's football federation). An engineer by training, Sa'adi was briefly an officer in a special forces unit.

Used troops under his control to affect the outcome of business deals. Owns a film production company. Reported to have been involved in crushing the protests in Benghazi.

Muatassim
Fourth-eldest son. Father's national security adviser and until recently a rising star. In 2008 he asked for $1.2bn (£739m) to establish a military or security unit akin to that of his younger brother, Khamis. Lost control of many of his personal business interests between 2001 and 2005 when his brothers took advantage of his absence to put in place their own partnerships. Described as "not very bright" by Serbian ambassador. Gets on badly with Saif al-Islam.

Hannibal
Chequered history of unseemly behavior and public scuffles with authorities in Europe and elsewhere. Arrest in Geneva over alleged beating his servants led to bilateral spat with Switzerland, in which Swiss were forced to back down under threat of withdrawal of Libyan investments.

In December 2009, police were called to Claridge's hotel in London after staff heard a scream from Hannibal's room. Aline Skaf, now his wife, was found to have suffered facial injuries but charges were not brought after she maintained she had sustained the injuries in a fall. Fifth eldest son.

Khamis
Gaddafi's sixth son and the "well-respected" commander of a special forces unit – 32nd battalion or Khamis brigade that effectively serves as a regime protection unit and was reportedly involved in suppressing unrest in Benghazi. Trained in Russia.

Aisha
Daughter who mediates in family disputes ands runs NGO. Reported to have financial interests in a private clinic in Tripoli, one of two trustworthy facilities that supplement the unreliable healthcare available through public facilities. Lionel Richie was flown to Libya several years ago to sing at her birthday celebration. A younger adopted daughter, Hanna, was killed in the US bombing of Tripoli in 1986.

Muhammad
The eldest son, but by Gaddafi's first wife. Heads the Libyan Olympic committee that now owns 40% of the Libyan Beverage Company, currently the Libyan joint venture Coca-Cola franchisee. Also runs general post and telecommunications committee.

Saif al-Arab
Least publicly known of the eight children. Reportedly lives in Munich, where it is claimed he pursues ill-defined business interests and spends much time partying.

Like all the Gaddafi children and favourites is supposed to have income streams from the national oil company and oil services subsidiaries. A seventh son, Milad Abuztaia, is an adopted nephew.