Zombieland for real ?

Are you shit'n me ? Seriously ? This quote from the Miami Herald caught my eye and I couldn't believe it !!

Meanwhile, on the mainland side of the causeway, allegedly the quiet side this weekend, a naked man was shot to death by police after he was found chewing on another man’s face.

Here's the full article but man-ohhh-man.

Wild weekend: party on the Beach, police shooting on mainland

 

Police knew it would be a memorable Saturday. Little did they know how memorable.

Rashanti Le, left, and Tiffany Spencer, right, of Washington, D.C., at the intersection of Collins Avenue and 11th Street at Miami Beach on Saturday, May 26, 2012. Urban Beach Weekend is a large Hip Hop festival. Tessa Lighty / Miami Herald Staff

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BY DAVID SMILEY, LUISA YANEZ AND JULIE K. BROWN

JBROWN@MIAMIHERALD.COM

The scene in South Florida was surreal Saturday.

On one side of the MacArthur Causeway, the side where police had braced for trouble, scantily clad men and women poured beer and testosterone into the streets, cafes and clubs, while thumping to the loud, restless beats of South Beach.

Meanwhile, on the mainland side of the causeway, allegedly the quiet side this weekend, a naked man was shot to death by police after he was found chewing on another man’s face.

Under the hot sun Saturday in South Beach, long before the nighttime partying began, revelers took videos, posed for photographs and sipped basketball-sized cocktails, strolling Ocean Drive for the annual hip-hop/rap extravaganza known as Urban Beach Week. The event, which traditionally draws upward of 250,000 people from all over the country and from all walks of life, is known as much for its over-the-top fun as it is for its music and celebrity mix.

Ladies in bikinis, fishnet dresses and barely-there bra tops strolled in throngs (and thongs), some of them daring enough to wear spiked heels. Men with low-riding shorts and jeans mingled on the strip, talking game and getting turned away more often than not.

Police presence was heavy but relaxed. There were officers on golf carts, bikes and atop viewing towers. Throughout the day there were several arrests for minor offenses. Those detained were processed in a state-of-the-art police mobile unit set up on Ocean Drive.

Despite rumors that Beach cops had an arrest quota of 2,000 people per day, there were only 93 arrests Friday. Ironically, though South Beach residents braced for possible chaos as in year’s past, the bloodshed was miles away in Miami Saturday afternoon.

It was there, across the McArthur Causeway, just south of The Miami Herald building, that a naked man attacked another man and allegedly began eating the victim’s face. A woman who saw what was happening first flagged down a Miami Herald security guard, then a Miami police officer who happened by.

Police said the officer approached the naked man, ordered him to step away and when he continued to chew the man’s face, the officer shot him dead. The victim was rushed to the hospital, where he was in critical condition Saturday.

The incident made driving east on the Causeway a traffic nightmare, but the party went on despite weeks of buildup that focused mostly on an intense crowd and traffic enforcement plan that included altering South Beach traffic into a one-way loop and closing the eastbound MacArthur Causeway to one lane.

Though the crowd was thinner than year’s past, it was no less risqué.

“I love sex! I just can’t get enough!” bachelorette Yvonne Sosa, condoms dangling from her veil, shouted into Reginald Allison’s megaphone just after midnight Saturday.

Sosa, dressed in white, was in town from Nebraska, a lawyer getting married in a month partying on along with a half dozen friends, family, and legal clerks and secretaries at the law firm where she works.

Allison, a Morehouse College graduate from Atlanta, was promoting a party bus roving South Beach from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The two converged at 11th Street and Ocean Drive for a classic about-to-be-married moment during a weekend known for raucous parties.

But Allison said raucous isn’t the word that comes to mind.

“It’s real chill,” said Allison, who said he bought the megaphone at a store on Biscayne Boulevard.

It’s unclear just how many people were in South Beach’s entertainment district Saturday night, hours before massing inside the clubs. On Collins Avenue, foot traffic was light but cars were packed bumper to bumper. Two men in a baby-blue, 1964 Chevrolet Impala convertible rolled north amid rented motorcycles and Dodge Caravans, while Bentleys, Lamborghinis and a purple sedan with Barney the dinosaur detailed on the side rolled south down Washington Avenue.

That was before the lime green Laffy Taffy ride hit Washington.

Cars blared everything from Tupac and Jay Z and Kanye West to Marvin Gaye, and rolled slowly in one-way loops, implemented Friday, nearly one year after police say a driver refused to stop and then tried to run over several cops, leading to a shootout on the street that killed the driver and wounded four bystanders.

With this weekend the one-year anniversary, much of the media attention around the annual street and club parties focused on police.

But the news of shooting and a police crackdown didn’t reach Nebraska, or New Jersey, or London, where Shereyne Shillingford and eight friends came from for their own bachelorette party.

“We were going to come last week and we moved our flight at the last minute” to be on South Beach for Urban Beach Week, she said.

Over on Washington Avenue, a few storefronts from Mansion, Jimmy Slauson and a buddy burned blunts of pot down to the nub. Cops were swarming the area, but they said they weren’t concerned about police.

“We’re not really trying to test the cops,” said Slauson, from New Jersey, before an officer walked up.

He tossed the blunt.

Keshha Hakelison, 36, of Gainesville, has been coming to Urban Beach Week for the past 10 years.

She said the increased police presence was disturbing.

“This year it changed drastically because of the police. I feel like they are overdoing their protectiveness. I understand they are supposed to protect and serve but I really feel like they are trying to knock everybody’s opportunity to have fun.”

Hakelison said she liked to come to get away without having to spend a lot of money by going to another state. And she enjoys the camaraderie.

“It’s entertainment,’’ she said. “I love it. I love to see my sisters and brothers come together, embrace each other. Just where we can see each other in different shapes, sizes, colors. Just to enjoy being around each other, partying together and having a good time."

So far, the arrest of New York Knicks’ guard J.R. Smith, and a shooting in which no one was injured at 12th Street and Collins Avenue Thursday night, remain the rockiest parts of the beachside weekend.

“It’s pretty quiet, right?” said Miami Beach Commissioner Ed Tobin, a police academy graduate who has been a critic of the event.

Unofficial occupancy figures compiled by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau show that Miami Beach hotels were just 65 percent full Thursday, compared to 67 percent on the same day last year.

Local business were mixed.

On Saturday, restaurant hostesses aggressively tried to attract customers into their eateries.

Some restaurants were offering deals almost half off normal South Beach prices. Appetizers for $3.99, a steak meal for $25 and a lobster tail and shrimp dinner for $35.

All restaurants along Ocean Drive were surrounded by metal barricades to control crowds, but the cash registers were not ringing like last year.

“It used to be like bumping into people,’’ observed Charlotte Smith, who has been an attendee since 2000. “There’s not enough eye candy for us to look at and flirt with, said Jessica Reynolds from Fort Pierce.

Miami Herald writers Carissa Harris, David Ovalle, Daniela Guzman, Kate Howard and Margaux Herrera contributed to this report.

Silvio's finest...God I love democracy

ROME—Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned as prime minister on Saturday after dominating Italy for 17 years with a mix of political talent and brazen behaviour, has a sense of humour that often landed him in trouble.

Here are some of his memorable quotes:

Nov. 2011: Berlusconi comments on the state of Italy’s economy. “Life in Italy is life in a prosperous country. We see that on every occasion, consumption has not gone down, the restaurants are full, you have trouble booking seats on aeroplanes, holiday areas are totally booked out on long weekends. I don’t think that if you went to live in Italy that Italy is feeling anything that could resemble a serious crisis.”

Oct. 2011: In remarks to party deputies in parliament, Berlusconi suggests his ruling PDL party should rename itself “Forza Gnocca!” a play on the name of his original Forza Italia! (Go Italy!) party, using a slang term for female genitals.

Sept. 2011: In widely reported wiretapped conversations, Berlusconi brags of fending off a line of young women outside his door and “doing only eight girls, because I couldn’t do more.”

Nov. 2010: “As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it’s better to like beautiful girls than to be gay,” he tells a meeting at a motorcycle industry show in Milan.

April 2009: During a visit to survivors of an earthquake in the central Abruzzo region, who were staying in emergency tents, Berlusconi says: “They should look at it as a weekend of camping.”

Nov. 2008: Berlusconi hails Barack Obama as “handsome, young and also suntanned”, after he was elected the United States’ first black president.

Feb. 2006: “I am the Jesus Christ of politics,” Italian media quote Berlusconi as telling supporters. “I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone.”

Feb. 2006: “Only Napoleon did more than I have done,” he tells a TV talk show. “But I am definitely taller.”

Jan. 2006: Berlusconi promises to give up sex until the next election. “Thank you dear Father Massimiliano,” he tells a preacher who praised him for defending family values. “I’ll try not to let you down and I promise you two and a half months of complete sexual abstinence until April 9.”

June 2005: Berlusconi says he used his charms to persuade Finland’s president, Tarja Halonen, to give up her country’s claim to host the new European Food Safety Authority. “I had to use all my playboy tactics, even if they have not been used for some time,” he said. Finnish ambassador protests.

Sept. 2004: “Mussolini never killed anyone. Mussolini sent people on holiday in (internal) exile,” Berlusconi tells Britain’s Spectator magazine, replying “yes” when asked if he thought the World War II dictator was “benign”.

July 2003: “Mr. Schulz, I know there is in Italy a man producing a film on the Nazi concentration camps. I would like to suggest you for the role of Kapo. You’d be perfect,” Berlusconi told socialist German lawmaker Martin Schulz, who was heckling him during his debut at the European Parliament. A kapo was a concentration camp inmate who was given privileges for supervising prisoner work gangs.

June 2003: “One citizen is equal to another (in the eyes of the law) but perhaps this one is slightly more equal than the others, given that 50 percent of Italians have given him the responsibility of governing the country,” he says, referring to himself, during an appearance at his corruption trial in Milan.

Dec. 2002: “The most keen can certainly find a second job, maybe unofficial,” Berlusconi says, encouraging laid-off Fiat workers to seek employment on the black market.

Feb. 2002: During a group photograph at an informal EU summit in Spain, Berlusconi raises two fingers behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister, Josep Pique, in the traditional Latin gesture for a cuckold.

Oct. 2001: Berlusconi causes an outcry in the Muslim world when he says the West should be aware of its own “superiority”. “We should be conscious of the superiority of our civilisation, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it, and guarantees respect for human rights and religion,” he said. “This respect certainly does not exist in the Islamic countries.”

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

Boggling, Beautiful & Insane !! Base Jumping & Flying Squirrels

Laws for 21st century: A guide to Canada’s proposed cyber investigation bills

Kathryn Blaze Carlson Oct 22, 2011 – 10:35 AM ET | Last Updated: Oct 23, 2011 11:01 AM ET


Canadians spend more time online than anyone else in the world — an average of 44 hours per month — and nearly a third of the population owns a smartphone, spending more than 17 hours on the device each week. So when the Conservative government reintroduces three pieces of lawful access legislation aimed at giving police greater powers and more tools to conduct investigations using new technologies, Canadians should have a clear understanding of what is on the table. However, much of the rhetoric circulating online about the legislation is patently untrue, distracting from the meat of the bills and the very real privacy implications at stake. Although it is unclear whether the bills will appear exactly as they did when they were first tabled in the spring, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said this month his government is committed to reintroducing the lawful access legislation. Post reporter Kathryn Blaze Carlson has studied the previous legislation and spoken to experts. Here, she offers up eight things it would do — and three it would not:

1. CREATING “BACK DOORS” FOR POLICE INTERCEPTION The Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act would require telecommunications and Internet service providers to be capable of decrypting, decoding, and preserving historic and real-time online and telephone communications, essentially creating built-in “back doors” for police interception. Some providers already have this capability, but they preserve information on their servers for different lengths of time depending on company policy. Some smaller providers do not have this capability at all, particularly certain ones in northern Ontario and Quebec, said Christopher Parsons, a doctoral candidate at the University of Victoria studying digital surveillance. Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, said it is “very frustrating from an investigative perspective” when police obtain a court order to intercept communications, only to learn the relevant Internet service provider is technically incapable of digging up the communications data. The act would also give the RCMP and CSIS the authority to conduct background security checks on any employees who are involved in intercepting communications. Mr. Parsons said it is unclear whether the legislation will target anything more than the “low-hanging fruit” because savvy criminals will be able to evade authorities by encrypting their messages and sending them through several network nodes.


2. OBTAINING BASIC CUSTOMER INFORMATION WITHOUT A WARRANT Police could demand that telecommunications and Internet service providers turn over a customer’s name, address, telephone number, email address, and Internet protocol address — and they could do so without a warrant under exceptional circumstances. “When Internet service providers hear ‘exceptional circumstances,’ they hear ‘whenever (police) want,’” Mr. Parsons said. Michael Geist, chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, said that sort of customer information could be linked with other bits of information to build a detailed profile. It can also be used to “out” someone using a pseudonym in an online chat forum. “All of a sudden, you go from ‘HoneyBunny14’ or ‘BlackAnarchist’ to ‘John Smith’ living at a particular address with a particular phone number,” Mr. Parsons said, adding that social activists are concerned police will use the provision to monitor people organizing legal protests or expressing dissent online. Beyond that, the target is not necessarily the only person using a particular Internet protocol address, so others could be inadvertently monitored at a later stage in the investigation. Mr. Stamatakis said this sort of additional power would be exercised to investigate only the most serious crimes, including child pornography, organized crime and terrorism. “The legislation recognizes the technology criminals are using today,” he said, echoing Mr. Toews comments earlier this month that the Criminal Code contains out-of-date language such as the word “telegraph.”

3. CREATING NEW POLICE POWERS TO OBTAIN COMMUNICATIONS DATA Without a warrant, police could make a “preservation demand” requiring telecommunications and Internet service providers to single out a customer and preserve for 90 days what Dwayne Winseck, a Carleton University communications professor who has studied the Internet for two decades, called “meta data.” So-called meta data is communications information generated during the creation, transmission or reception of a communication including the type, time, duration, origin, and destination of the communication. Police would then have to ask a judge for a “production order” to actually obtain the preserved information. Once police get the court order, they could, for example, find out who a person called on their cell phone, the duration of the call, and when the call was placed. Importantly, the proposed legislation excludes the actual content of the conversation. Once police have a copy of what they want, the service providers must destroy the information. The warantless provision is a welcome one, Mr. Stamatakis said, because it acts as a stop-gap measure while police work to obtain a warrant — a lengthy, labour-intensive process at times.

4. CUSTOMERS MAY NEVER KNOW IF, OR WHY, THEY WERE TARGETED The proposed surveillance legislation says authorities could prohibit telecommunications and Internet service providers from telling a customer that he or she was the subject of information disclosures. The potential cumulative effect of all this legislation, said Mr. Geist, is self-censorship: “What we’re creating is nothing like the Chinese firewall … but I think it could have a chilling effect in terms of people’s willingness to express themselves online, even if they’re not doing anything illegal.”

5. POSSIBLY INCREASED COSTS FOR CELL PHONE AND INTERNET SERVICE If telecommunications and Internet service providers are forced to upgrade their technology and train their staff to use it, then their capital and operating costs will inevitably climb. “Customers might end up paying the added cost for something that could be used against them at any time,” Mr. Parsons said, adding the requirement could also squeeze out smaller, cash-strapped providers.

6. TRACKING DIALED NUMBERS WITHOUT A WARRANT The proposed legislation would allow police to install and use number recorders without a warrant in “exigent circumstances.” A number recorder, which records the telephone numbers associated with outgoing and incoming calls, would be installed remotely by a telecommunications provider at their call centre hub. The installation can last up to 60 days, but it could be extended to one year if a warrant is obtained and if the investigation involves organized crime or terrorism.

7. COVERTLY ACTIVATING DEVICES TO TRACK CELL PHONES AND VEHICLES The proposed legislation brings police powers into the 21st century by tacitly acknowledging that vehicles and mobile phones — and therefore the people using them — can be tracked using GPS or cell towers. The Criminal Code currently says police can, with a warrant or without one in an emergency, “install, maintain and remove a tracking device in or on any thing, including a thing carried, used or worn by any person.” The proposed bill would extend that list to include the power to “activate” a device, “including covertly.” Mr. Parsons said this allows police to “take advantage of existing technologies,” and said he would not object to the provision if it ensured there would be court oversight.

8. OPENING THE DOOR TO “FISHING EXPEDITIONS” The legislation surrounding preservation and production orders would allow police to get information from telecommunications and Internet service providers based on “reasonable grounds to suspect” the information would “assist an investigation.” The existing Criminal Code does not offer a similarly vague suspicion, but rather stipulates “reasonable grounds to believe” an offence “has been or is suspected to have been committed” or that the information will “afford evidence respecting the commission of the offence.” Mr. Winseck said this opens the door for police to go on “fishing expeditions” and potentially “turns the relationship between the cops and (Internet Service Providers) into a routine one.”

… AND THREE MISCONCEPTIONS

1. HYPERLINKING TO HATE PROPAGANDA WILL BE CRIMINALIZED When the legislative summary of one of the bills surfaced saying “the offences of public incitement of hatred and willful promotion of hatred may be committed… by creating a hyperlink that directs web surfers to a website where hate material is posted,” onlookers criticized the bill as overly far-reaching. However, the actual bill makes no explicit reference to hyperlinking, instead expanding the definition of “communicating” hate material to include “making available.” It is true the vague definition of “communicating” could capture posting a link to another website, but a recent Supreme Court libel decision will likely quiet that fear: The judges decided unanimously this week that a person cannot be held responsible for what appears on a hyperlinked site.

2. POLICE WILL GET NEW POWERS TO LISTEN IN ON PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS
The legislation does not extend police powers to intercept the actual content of private communications, for example what was said in a telephone call or written in an email. Mr. Toews has said those claims — put forward by online privacy activists — are a “complete fabrication.” Also, the Criminal Code already allows police to intercept private communications without a warrant, so long as the situation is urgent and the interception could prevent serious harm to a person or property.

3. INTERNET PROVIDERS WILL MONITOR ALL CANADIANS, ALL THE TIME
The government has been accused of embarking on warrantless online wiretapping where Canadians will be constantly monitored, but Mr. Geist said on his blog these charges amount to “political softball.” Yes, telecommunications and Internet service providers will need the capability to preserve information on all users, regardless of whether or not they are subject to an investigation. But those providers must only preserve and produce information relating to users who are actually targeted by police.

National Post kcarlson@nationalpost.com

The Everest of Amateur Sailing ?!?

A friend of mine has lost his freakin' mind and is now trying to drag me into it.

Seriously though, what he's setting out to do IS for a good cause and looks like one hell of an adventure so I'm gong to chip in.

Have a look for yourself and see if it's something you can get behind, if only for a few bucks. I mean just the thought of him freezing cold in some open boat is worth the cost of admission!

Washing Machine Orgasm ?

The Smoking Lounge Ceiling

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.

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.

Why I Hate Credit Cards, Credit Companies and Banks in General

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

A few rambings...war, strife and bugger all...

I'm incredibly lucky, I know that. I was raised and continue to live in a society where people are treated with a bit of respect (though I suggest you read a few other posts of mine).Our country & society has certain values that we seem to think inviolable, even for the potential repressors. But....like an idiot, I turn on the TV news like an idiot....looking for answers....looking...looking......................Did I mention I'm optimistic ?

See, you're not as dumb as me !!

In Libya, they just found a morgue containing some 50-100 bodies. Now this building isn't in the middle of some freakin' never-never land. This was in Tripoli !! The bodies had apparently come in to a hospital as wounded people and they were left to, or expected to expire. So there they sat, rotting. I don't know who was in charge of the hospital, who controlled that "sector" of the city. I don't pretend to understand the level of chaos in the area but at the end of the day, someone left them there and didn't even bother with a burial, a card and likely even a freakin' sheet to cover the gore. From what little I know of Islam, this is a VERBOTTEN !

Then we have Mubarak (the last pharoh he thought of himself apparently) who is now laying on a gurney in a courtroom. The media is barred from accessing or covering the proceedings lest they make a mockery of justice. Sorry........I can't come up with better irony than that. It's priceless.

I saw on the BBC, the new interim finance minister of Tunisia who was reluctant to answer a question of "just how much money have you identified in other countires" (relating to the amount the frmr President "stole"). Sheesh, stupid question, cause you know you ain't gonna get a truthful answer and yet at the same time, a question the Tunisians want answered !! (By the way, the Ali family had squirreled away an apparent $5B according to the interview)

My point is this. We're replacing strong-men with newer-strong-men. Tunisia was a template, Egypt was a template and now Libya is the template. Let's all just sit back and watch as the money changes from one ruling elite to the new usurpers. After a time things will settle down and we'll be back to secret prisons, stifling speech, backroom deals with the West and Business As Usual.

I wonder if that guy who started this all by immolating himself in Tunisia ever imagined that his personal revolution would rest in the hands of sell-outs satisfied with platitudes and a few coins.

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.

Debt Blame Game - Donkey vs. Elephant Edition

Well, August 2nd is just around the corner and you know what that means kids. That's right......The favorite pasttime of American Politicians is in full swing. It's time to let's play

"Your party is responsible for the current economic morass.....No, yours is.....No Yours is.....NO YOURS IS.....BOOM !!"

For a much saner explanation (if you need one) on what the graph above is trying to illustrate, please refer to the Atlantic that I blatantly ripped it off from.

Who hasn't had a night out, or morning after like this ?

.....NOM.....

Give us your money AND we'll F@CK you over.....

Recently a man in the US tried to cash a cheque and for his troubles, he lost his freedom, his job and his car.

It seems that the IRS (the US taxman) had given this guy a home buyer rebate which these blood suckers (Chase Bank) then converted into a cashier's cheque.

Now unless you've been living on the dark side of the moon, you know that a cashier's cheque is as good as gold. Sure, you gotta show a ton of ID to prove you're the payee but once that's established, you get your funds. 

Well, that's exactly what this guy did. He handed over his drivers license and a credit card proving his identity, that the cheque was his, it was his money, being cashed in the bank that issued the cheque to him in the first place etc..etc..etc..

Well, for reasons still unfathomable to any rational person, he was charged with trying to pass a bad cheque and was thrown in jail. Now while in jail, he obviously couldn't go to work and so he got fired from his job. His car, which had been sitting in the bank's parking lot was seized by the bank, towed away and auctioned off (over a weekend it seems) so now he's got no car. To top it all off, the bank has yet to apologize for any of it's actions. 

But I bet that somewhere on an American TV there's an ad from this freakin' bank claiming that they love their customers and want you to deposit with them...

I hope that this man sues the living bejesus out of them. I mean for MILLIONS. I want to see his ordeal highlighted on CNN, FOX and MSNBC !!

This guy lost his freedom, his livelihood, his vehicle and these blood sucking parasitical cocksu@kers can't even muster up a "whoops, my bad..." ? Then again, his name is Ikenna Njoku which in the USA seems to be enough to suspect him of something...afterall, you just can't trust them........

SHAME !! 

(full story here)

Step aside Bieber....The Blues is moving in

If you're a fan of the blues or just appreciate raw talent...enjoy

Hey NASA, Egypt & Tunisia....Chill Out !!

Here's a little tidbit to gnaw on over the summer. (click the post title for a link to the original story)

You know how it gets hot in the summertime right ? In some places around the world, it gets really, really hot...I mean 120 in the shade...sweat dripping from places you'd rather it didn't...kinda hot...

Well, turns out that the US Military, with it's two ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq don't like the heat any more than you or I do, at least not that kinda heat. Soooo....what's their solution ? Just like you and I, they crank up the A/C. Now we all know that air conditioning is energy intensive. Your gas milage drops, your electricity bill climbs and god forbid you have the frost blasting while you've got the window open. Remember how your parents would freak out on you over that ?!?

Well.....the US Military is spending more on A/C for it's troops in Iraq & Afghanistan than.......
The entire budget of NASA or The total aid offered to fledgling democracies in Egypt and Tunisia promoting and supporting freedom where little existed 6 months ago.

Now they'll tell us that it's the cost of the fuel + the transport of the fuel + the other assorted infrastructure but come on !!
- That it's higher than NASA or Democracy
- It's $20 Billion. That's one helluva A/C bill AND it's one tiny budget for NASA or Democracy.

To top it all off, if the Pentagon would only insulate their tents & buildings, they could save upwards of 92% in fuel to run the A/C. They have done the studies, have the results, the technology is available and the ongoing bills are staggering. But so far, they just haven't twigged to the fact that they could save some gas/oil if only they closed a window or put up some foam insulation.... Secretary Gates or President Obama needs to only sign a one page memo to make it happen !!

Also, lets not forget that in those two countries, with populations of Tens of Millions, most citizens do without air conditioning (let alone refrigerated food, drinks etc..) and they've been living there for centuries !!

Yet this is the most advanced military of the most advanced nation on earth ?

Not to be glib about it but when you can save 92% of the fuel and a good chunk of the expense, hassle and grief but choose not to then something is wrong with your thinking.

I think about the impending loss of Hubble, the Shuttles, the leadership position in space exploration, the lost goodwill that could be generated in the muslim world, the promotion of free and fair elections, setting up true representative democracies and institutions where you had animosity only months before....

Guess I better chill out myself.......