Sunday, May 27, 2012
Elizabeth Warren shuts door on Herald’s inquiry
Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren, in a sequel to an awkward on-camera encounter this week about her claim to Native American heritage, bolted from a campaign event yesterday, refusing to answer a Herald reporter’s questions about the controversy.
Moments after giving the keynote speech at the Young Democrats of Massachusetts convention, Warren and her handlers hustled out a rear exit of the SEIU 1199 offices in Dorchester. She climbed into the passenger side of an SUV and closed the door as a Herald reporter asked her a question and a photographer rolled video.
“Professor Warren, we’re with the Herald. Can you ... ” a Herald reporter said to Warren as she hopped into the car.
“She’s got to get going. I’m sorry,” a man who ushered Warren out of the building said. “Sorry, we’re running late.”
The man then apologized for earlier closing two stairwell doors on the Herald crew while it was hot on the heels of Warren and her entourage as they hustled out of the building.
“I didn’t know you were behind me,” he said.
Warren’s spokeswoman, Alethea Harney, declined to say where the candidate was headed after the Dorchester event.
Earlier this week, Warren repeatedly dodged on-camera questions about her ancestry from a Fox 25 reporter, responding instead with talking points about her campaign and its emphasis on middle-class families.
Yesterday’s SUV exit evoked memories of the great escape U.S. Sen. John Kerry pulled off in the summer of 2010, when he slammed a car door on a pack of newshounds eager to know how he would pony up the Massachusetts taxes on a $7 million yacht he’d docked in Rhode Island.
“Can I get out of here, please?” Kerry said to the media scrum that day, after an event at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station.
Harney said Warren’s campaign was unaware that the Herald crew had attended yesterday’s event. A Herald reporter and photographer identified themselves by name and affiliation to event staff at the door and stated their intention to speak with Warren after her address.
The campaign declined to make Warren available by telephone later in the day, and instead released the same statement it put out Friday, when U.S. Sen. Scott Brown urged Harvard University to correct its records for the years it has reported having a Native American woman on its law school staff.
The Herald broke the story last month that Harvard Law counted Warren as a minority hire and touted her Native American roots. The New England Historic Genealogical Society has found nothing to prove her claim that she is 1⁄32 Cherokee — a claim she says is based on generations of family lore.
SOURCE: Boston Herald
Commercial Sale of Firearms and Ammunition Banned in Venezuela
Mérida, 25th May 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – From 1 June the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition will be banned in Venezuela, confirmed Venezuelan Justice and Interior Relations minister Tareck El Aissami yesterday.
Since the measure was first passed on 29 February over 805,000 rounds of ammunition have been recovered by Venezuelan authorities as part of an auditing process of gun stores. These are now held by the Venezuelan Anonymous Company of Military Industries (Cavim), which manufactures ammunition for state security bodies.
The announcement was part of the first annual presentation by the Presidential Commission for Disarmament and Control of Arms and Ammunition, created in May 2011 to design and implement public policies aimed at gun control and disarmament in Venezuela.
As part of policies aimed at regulating the use of firearms among the civilian population, El Aissami also announced that requests for permits to carry arms will be made through the Justice Ministry and that on 1 June the period for registering arms and renewing permits will close.
In Venezuela carrying a firearm is legal with a permit; however the commission has previously stated that the government’s citizen security policies are aimed at the eventual disarmament of the civilian population.
Meanwhile police bodies will be required to request and buy arms directly from the Justice Ministry. Ammunition supplied to police bodies will have special identification marking from the Cavim factory.
Other measures spearheaded by the Commission for Disarmament this year include a publicity campaign to raise awareness on the “cultural problem” of violent crime and promote values of peace. 78% of homicides in Venezuela are linked to the use of firearms.
The justice minister reported that in designing these policies, over the past year more than 20,000 citizens had participated in the Commission’s consultation process, including 6,056 people attending workshops throughout the country.
Of those who participated in the consultation, 84.3% were in favour of banning the carrying of arms, while 79.8% supported ending the sale of arms and ammunition.
El Aissami responded to criticisms that the consultation process had only spoken with those who don’t possess firearms. “We are consulting the Venezuelan shooting federation, ranching sectors, [firearms] traders, the Armed Forces, police bodies, civil society, organised communities and special groups,” he said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Tuesday that the government’s anti-crime program, the Full Life mission, will be launched in June. The program aims to bring together all the government’s citizen security policies into a holistic approach toward tackling violent crime and transforming the judicial and prison systems.
SOURCE: Venezuela Analysis
Since the measure was first passed on 29 February over 805,000 rounds of ammunition have been recovered by Venezuelan authorities as part of an auditing process of gun stores. These are now held by the Venezuelan Anonymous Company of Military Industries (Cavim), which manufactures ammunition for state security bodies.
The announcement was part of the first annual presentation by the Presidential Commission for Disarmament and Control of Arms and Ammunition, created in May 2011 to design and implement public policies aimed at gun control and disarmament in Venezuela.
As part of policies aimed at regulating the use of firearms among the civilian population, El Aissami also announced that requests for permits to carry arms will be made through the Justice Ministry and that on 1 June the period for registering arms and renewing permits will close.
In Venezuela carrying a firearm is legal with a permit; however the commission has previously stated that the government’s citizen security policies are aimed at the eventual disarmament of the civilian population.
Meanwhile police bodies will be required to request and buy arms directly from the Justice Ministry. Ammunition supplied to police bodies will have special identification marking from the Cavim factory.
Other measures spearheaded by the Commission for Disarmament this year include a publicity campaign to raise awareness on the “cultural problem” of violent crime and promote values of peace. 78% of homicides in Venezuela are linked to the use of firearms.
The justice minister reported that in designing these policies, over the past year more than 20,000 citizens had participated in the Commission’s consultation process, including 6,056 people attending workshops throughout the country.
Of those who participated in the consultation, 84.3% were in favour of banning the carrying of arms, while 79.8% supported ending the sale of arms and ammunition.
El Aissami responded to criticisms that the consultation process had only spoken with those who don’t possess firearms. “We are consulting the Venezuelan shooting federation, ranching sectors, [firearms] traders, the Armed Forces, police bodies, civil society, organised communities and special groups,” he said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Tuesday that the government’s anti-crime program, the Full Life mission, will be launched in June. The program aims to bring together all the government’s citizen security policies into a holistic approach toward tackling violent crime and transforming the judicial and prison systems.
SOURCE: Venezuela Analysis
Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don't want the government spying on you (and they include 'pork', 'cloud' and 'Mexico')
Department of Homeland Security forced to release list following freedom of information request
Agency insists it only looks for evidence of genuine threats to the U.S. and not for signs of general dissent
Revealing: A list of keywords used by government analysts to scour the internet for evidence of threats to the U.S. has been released under the Freedom of Information Act
The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.
The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'.
Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.
The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.
Department chiefs were forced to release the manual following a House hearing over documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which revealed how analysts monitor social networks and media organisations for comments that 'reflect adversely' on the government.
However they insisted the practice was aimed not at policing the internet for disparaging remarks about the government and signs of general dissent, but to provide awareness of any potential threats.
As well as terrorism, analysts are instructed to search for evidence of unfolding natural disasters, public health threats and serious crimes such as mall/school shootings, major drug busts, illegal immigrant busts.
The list has been posted online by the Electronic Privacy Information Center - a privacy watchdog group who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act before suing to obtain the release of the documents.
In a letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence, the centre described the choice of words as 'broad, vague and ambiguous'.
Threat detection: Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats
They point out that it includes 'vast amounts of First Amendment protected speech that is entirely unrelated to the Department of Homeland Security mission to protect the public against terrorism and disasters.'
A senior Homeland Security official told the Huffington Post that the manual 'is a starting point, not the endgame' in maintaining situational awareness of natural and man-made threats and denied that the government was monitoring signs of dissent.
However the agency admitted that the language used was vague and in need of updating.
Spokesman Matthew Chandler told website: 'To ensure clarity, as part of ... routine compliance review, DHS will review the language contained in all materials to clearly and accurately convey the parameters and intention of the program.'
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE: THE LIST OF KEYWORDS IN FULL
SOURCE: UK Daily Mail
Agency insists it only looks for evidence of genuine threats to the U.S. and not for signs of general dissent
The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.
The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'.
Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.
The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.
Department chiefs were forced to release the manual following a House hearing over documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which revealed how analysts monitor social networks and media organisations for comments that 'reflect adversely' on the government.
However they insisted the practice was aimed not at policing the internet for disparaging remarks about the government and signs of general dissent, but to provide awareness of any potential threats.
As well as terrorism, analysts are instructed to search for evidence of unfolding natural disasters, public health threats and serious crimes such as mall/school shootings, major drug busts, illegal immigrant busts.
The list has been posted online by the Electronic Privacy Information Center - a privacy watchdog group who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act before suing to obtain the release of the documents.
In a letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence, the centre described the choice of words as 'broad, vague and ambiguous'.
They point out that it includes 'vast amounts of First Amendment protected speech that is entirely unrelated to the Department of Homeland Security mission to protect the public against terrorism and disasters.'
A senior Homeland Security official told the Huffington Post that the manual 'is a starting point, not the endgame' in maintaining situational awareness of natural and man-made threats and denied that the government was monitoring signs of dissent.
However the agency admitted that the language used was vague and in need of updating.
Spokesman Matthew Chandler told website: 'To ensure clarity, as part of ... routine compliance review, DHS will review the language contained in all materials to clearly and accurately convey the parameters and intention of the program.'
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE: THE LIST OF KEYWORDS IN FULL
SOURCE: UK Daily Mail
24 people shot across city overnight
Two dozen people were shot across the city between late Saturday afternoon and early Sunday morning.
One died and several others are in critical condition, according to police. A 6-year-old girl was among the wounded.
Five people were shot on the West Side within 20 minutes of each other in two separate attacks about 2:10 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Police are investigating the possibility that they're related – they happened about five blocks apart.
A party bus stopped on the 2400 block of West Roosevelt Road in the Lawndale neighborhood to let people into a bar and about 45 minutes later, the driver heard people shooting and hit the floor of his bus.
Only a few women were on the bus when the shots rang out, driver Cash Vait said. He was waiting for his passengers, some of whom were exiting the bar, when someone started shooting. Vait said he heard between three and five shots and dropped to the ground, unable to see who was shooting. Moments later, he heard a second volley of shots to the north.
Three men – 18, 19, and one whose age wasn't available – were hit. Vait said he saw people swarm one man, who dropped in the street.
"I saw three or four guys pumping him, he was wearing a white shirt, and it had blood all over it," Vait said.
Evidence markers littered the area in front of the bar and about seventy five feet to the east, in the street. About a dozen marked and unmarked cars were in the area, parked in a nearby gas station or blocking traffic both ways on Roosevelt Road. Casings were also found inside the bar, police said.
The 19-year-old, identified by the Cook County medical examiner's office as Jaleel Beasley, died at Mount Sinai Hospital at 2:34 a.m. A spokeswoman for that office wasn't able to say where Beasley lived.
The 18-year-old was shot in the leg and is in stable condition at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, and the other person was dropped off at Stroger hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest, police said.
The bus had picked people up from west suburban Bellwood but was stuck behind crime scene tape and everyone inside had to catch cabs back to the suburb, Vait said.
A couple blocks around the corner north in the 700 block of South Western Avenue, police found two people shot inside an SUV that appeared to have collided with something. The front end of the car was damaged and the driver's side airbag had deployed, though bullet holes weren't visible from the front, back or passenger sides, police said.
A 30-year-old man was shot in the leg and a 28-year-old man was shot in the back and shoulder, police said. Both of the men were taken to Stroger hospital. The younger of the two is in critical condition, and the older is in good condition.
Early Saturday night, a 6-year-old girl and two others were shot in two attacks blocks apart in the Marquette Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side. Police said the child was playing in front of her house on the 6900 block of South Artesian Avenue about 4:15 p.m. when two groups of people on the corner of 68th and Artesian – one in a car, one on the corner – started arguing.
Someone inside the car shot at the group on the corner and missed, instead hitting the girl. The intended targets fled south from 68th Street toward the girl and the car fled east on 68th Street, police said.
The child was shot in the arm and is in good condition at Holy Cross Hospital, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti said. The child's mother drove her to Holy Cross Hospital, a few blocks west on California Avenue between 68th and 69th streets.
Less than two hours later and a few blocks away, two men were wounded in what police said may have been a retaliatory attack. The shooting happened shortly before 6 p.m. on the 2500 block of West 71st Street, said police News Affairs Officer Dan O'Brien. According to preliminary reports, both victims drove themselves to Holy Cross Hospital.
One of them, 22, was listed in serious condition with gunshot wounds to his arm, leg and buttocks, O'Brien said. The other man, 25, suffered a wound to his hand. As of 6:45 p.m., no one was in custody for the shootings and Area Central detectives were investigating.
In other shootings:
A 29-year-old woman was shot in the arm about 7:30 p.m. on the 700 block of East 38th Street in the Ida B. Wells/Darrow Homes neighborhood, police said. She heard shots and felt pain, police said. No information was available on her condition or at which hospital she was treated.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
Will 1991 Biography Discovery Force Obama to Open the Hood?
If you have a young boy, you’ve probably watched Disney’s Cars 2 about a thousand times. For those who don’t know, at the movie’s end (an obligatory spoiler warning here), Sir Miles Axlerod is exposed as a fraud when he’s forced to open his hood by Mater, the hayseed hick. Hold that thought.
Three possibilities follow the bombshell discovery that Barack Obama was promoted in 1991 through 2007 by his professional agency as an author “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.” (1) Obama untruthfully presented himself as Kenya-born. (2) Obama untruthfully presents himself as Hawaii-born. (3) Obama had no knowledge that his bio contained the 16-year-old “error” which was corrected in April of 2007, when Obama was gearing up his campaign for the U.S. presidency.
Of the three possibilities, number three may be discarded on its face as absurd. Everyone in the publishing industry knows that authors write their own bios. At the very least, authors approve their own bios. I’ve written some law review articles, and in the law journal context, author bios are normally brief. Even so, in every instance, the respective publishers printed only what I approved.
SOURCE: PatriotUpdate.com
Three possibilities follow the bombshell discovery that Barack Obama was promoted in 1991 through 2007 by his professional agency as an author “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.” (1) Obama untruthfully presented himself as Kenya-born. (2) Obama untruthfully presents himself as Hawaii-born. (3) Obama had no knowledge that his bio contained the 16-year-old “error” which was corrected in April of 2007, when Obama was gearing up his campaign for the U.S. presidency.
Of the three possibilities, number three may be discarded on its face as absurd. Everyone in the publishing industry knows that authors write their own bios. At the very least, authors approve their own bios. I’ve written some law review articles, and in the law journal context, author bios are normally brief. Even so, in every instance, the respective publishers printed only what I approved.
SOURCE: PatriotUpdate.com
Report: Bin Laden hid in truck filled with chickens, goats
Sunday Times quotes Taliban sources as saying al-Qaeda leader was moved between safehouses in box hidden under cargoes of cement, flour, rice or livestock
Ynet
Ynet
Wisconsin's progressivism faces a recall
COLUMBUS, Wisc. (Reuters) - Tea Party activist Larry Gamble has spent the last few months leading an effort to disqualify the signatures of some of the 1 million residents who petitioned to recall Wisconsin's governor, Republican Scott Walker. The petition protests Walker's Act 10, which eliminates collective bargaining rights for most public workers, among other anti-union measures.
Gamble helped launch a "Verify the Recall" website that drew in 17,000 volunteer sleuths to scour public records for fraud. He says they uncovered about 100,000 suspicious signatures using scanned, publicly available copies of the petitions. Although the findings were not sufficient to halt a recall election for Walker, it electrified Wisconsin's grassroots conservatives by uncovering the names of judges, journalists and others who appeared to have signed the recall petition in breach of their own professional codes of ethics.
Gamble finds this level of civic activism where he lives unremarkable.
"Wisconsin has always been different from the other states," said Gamble, a retiree who heads the Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty, a Tea Party group based in Milwaukee. "We'll work through all of this in our own, unique way."
The so-called badger state sees itself as fiercely independent, with a history of both progressivism and free-market conservatism that has always been driven by a politically engaged population. The June 5 vote to determine whether Walker stays in office reflects progressive populist traditions dating back to at least the turn of the last century, Wisconsin activists say.
Throughout much of that time, Wisconsin has been "above party or personal agenda," where Democrats have acted like Republicans and Republicans like Democrats, explained Lynn Freeman, executive director of United Wisconsin, a group spearheading the recall effort. A prime example of what she called the state's "blue conservatism" was former Republican governor Tommy Thompson, who pushed for the creation of healthcare for low-income families in Wisconsin. "We called this the 'Wisconsin idea.'"
The term, long used by progressive Wisconsinites and appropriated by the recall group, dates to the time of Wisconsin's progressive Republican governor, Robert La Follette, who believed voters, not special interests, should control government institutions. Specialists in law, economics, and the social sciences at the University of Wisconsin were recruited to help enhance the effectiveness of government. That was the "idea."
The contention over Walker has acquired national dimensions. With strong Tea Party backing, the governor has become a hero to conservatives who see the curbing of unions as necessary for holding down labor costs, or who have a stake in seeing the power of the public sector reduced generally.
To labor unions, Walker is trampling on years of progressive policy in a state that was the first to recognize the collective bargaining rights of public workers, way back in 1959.
"I don't think any place in the country is crystallizing the debate over the future of the middle class like Wisconsin," said Brandon Davis, national political director of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents workers in health care and public and property services.
For some Wisconsin voters, Walker's rhetoric summons the thought of La Follette, a very different kind of Republican. "Fighting Bob" laid the groundwork for the Progressive movement by railing against "vast corporate combinations" and advocating power for the people.
Last year, La Follette's bust in the state capitol rotunda in Madison became a rallying point for Walker's opponents as they pressed the legislature to reject the governor's collective-bargaining restrictions.
Protesters with signs lined the hallways. One read simply: "Long Live La Follette."
FROM NO DECENCY BACK TO BREAD AND BUTTER
Wisconsin is often considered a Democratic Party stronghold because since 2000 it has backed Democrats in presidential elections.
But for a full century after the Civil War, the Republican Party dominated Wisconsin politics. Led by La Follette, progressive elements took control of the party during the peak of industrialization and initiated numerous populist reforms.
Wisconsin pioneered open primaries, open records and progressive income taxes, laws governing factory safety and child labor. It became known as a "laboratory of democracy" - the first U.S. state to introduce a workers' compensation law (1911) and unemployment benefits (1932).
In 1911 it became the first U.S. state to introduce a workers' compensation law. The following year former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt praised its "experimental laboratory," where the regulation of industry was advanced. Later experiments included unemployment benefits (1932). Much New Deal legislation, including the Social Security act, was the product of Badger brains.
The Democrats gained a foothold in the late 1950s after Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy was censured for his overreaching investigation of Communists in Hollywood and the federal government.
Still, the bipartisan Wisconsin legislature forged agreements on major issues. In 1959, when Democratic Governor Gaylord Nelson proposed giving municipal workers collective bargaining rights, he had agreement from a legislature partly controlled by Republicans.
"There was a broad progressive center in Wisconsin (in 1959) and a lot of common interest in bread-and-butter issues," said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "Issues were not filtered through a partisan lens. There was room for conversation because there was broad recognition of what was the right thing to do."
While McCarthy defined political extremism, more typical was middle-of-the-roader Tommy Thompson. The former Republican governor, who served from 1987 to 2001, spearheaded the creation of BadgerCare, a healthcare program for low-income families, and instituted America's first school choice program.
Thompson has since moved to the right, a recognition of the Tea Party's growing clout. As a candidate for U.S. Senate, he professes a "conservative political philosophy," but Tea Party activists call him a RINO, or "Republican in name only" - for supporting tax increases while he was governor, for instance.
Republican Representative Paul Ryan, a rising star best known for his debt-reducing budget proposals, is more palatable to the Tea Party. "Moderate politicians are a dying breed here," says Burden.
One exception is a four-term Democrat, U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, who combines a moderate fiscal philosophy with liberal social views.
But Kohl is retiring, and Democrats have banded together behind Representative Tammy Baldwin, an openly gay liberal.
"We were looking for a champion, and Tammy fit the bill," said SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin vice president of politics and growth, Bruce Colburn.
Baldwin has won endorsement from the local SEIU, which is pushing for Walker's ouster in what the union calls the "largest recall effort in U.S. history," when considered as a proportion of the population.
INDIVIDUALIST CULTURE
The recall fight has shaken up Wisconsin's labor movement. The state, which gave birth in 1936 to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was long known for its union-friendly environment.
Many were surprised when the Republican legislature last year voted with Walker to take on the unions.
"It takes guts to do that in Wisconsin," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a foundation funded by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch of oil and gas conglomerate Koch Industries. AFP has been active in Wisconsin since 2005 and has paid for an advertising campaign backing Walker.
"In Wisconsin, you have a governor and legislature ... who have the political courage to genuinely try to move the state forward with real policies," he said.
One reason Walker and his allies stepped into the fight, political experts say, is that even back in Fighting Bob's day, Wisconsin was home to a lesser-known but equally strong counterculture of conservative, free-market individualism.
"Since Walker's election in particular … I think that the individualist culture has returned with a vengeance," said James Conant, author of "Wisconsin Politics and Government: America's Laboratory of Democracy."
The recall battle is nothing less than a pitched fight between the culture of individualism and that of collective action.
Tea Party conservatives like Annette Olson, a farmer with little political experience before joining the movement in 2010, lobbied hard for passage of a concealed weapons law and for legislation allowing residents to arm themselves at home for self-defense.
Thwarting Walker's recall is now her top priority.
"Walker's stood up for what's right, which is why we'll work hard to keep him in office," she said.
On the other side is mother-of-two Lori Compas. She is running against former Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald after spearheading a successful effort last year to recall him. Fitzgerald had helped pass Act 10.
Compas thinks Walker's reliance on out-of-state money to fight the recall threatens the state's future. Of the $13 million raised this year, $8.8 million of it has come from outside Wisconsin.
"The big question is, can money buy elections?" Compas said. "Or are there still enough people who care about democracy to do the right thing here in Wisconsin?"
(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Prudence Crowther)
SOURCE: Yahoo
Gamble helped launch a "Verify the Recall" website that drew in 17,000 volunteer sleuths to scour public records for fraud. He says they uncovered about 100,000 suspicious signatures using scanned, publicly available copies of the petitions. Although the findings were not sufficient to halt a recall election for Walker, it electrified Wisconsin's grassroots conservatives by uncovering the names of judges, journalists and others who appeared to have signed the recall petition in breach of their own professional codes of ethics.
Gamble finds this level of civic activism where he lives unremarkable.
"Wisconsin has always been different from the other states," said Gamble, a retiree who heads the Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty, a Tea Party group based in Milwaukee. "We'll work through all of this in our own, unique way."
The so-called badger state sees itself as fiercely independent, with a history of both progressivism and free-market conservatism that has always been driven by a politically engaged population. The June 5 vote to determine whether Walker stays in office reflects progressive populist traditions dating back to at least the turn of the last century, Wisconsin activists say.
Throughout much of that time, Wisconsin has been "above party or personal agenda," where Democrats have acted like Republicans and Republicans like Democrats, explained Lynn Freeman, executive director of United Wisconsin, a group spearheading the recall effort. A prime example of what she called the state's "blue conservatism" was former Republican governor Tommy Thompson, who pushed for the creation of healthcare for low-income families in Wisconsin. "We called this the 'Wisconsin idea.'"
The term, long used by progressive Wisconsinites and appropriated by the recall group, dates to the time of Wisconsin's progressive Republican governor, Robert La Follette, who believed voters, not special interests, should control government institutions. Specialists in law, economics, and the social sciences at the University of Wisconsin were recruited to help enhance the effectiveness of government. That was the "idea."
The contention over Walker has acquired national dimensions. With strong Tea Party backing, the governor has become a hero to conservatives who see the curbing of unions as necessary for holding down labor costs, or who have a stake in seeing the power of the public sector reduced generally.
To labor unions, Walker is trampling on years of progressive policy in a state that was the first to recognize the collective bargaining rights of public workers, way back in 1959.
"I don't think any place in the country is crystallizing the debate over the future of the middle class like Wisconsin," said Brandon Davis, national political director of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents workers in health care and public and property services.
For some Wisconsin voters, Walker's rhetoric summons the thought of La Follette, a very different kind of Republican. "Fighting Bob" laid the groundwork for the Progressive movement by railing against "vast corporate combinations" and advocating power for the people.
Last year, La Follette's bust in the state capitol rotunda in Madison became a rallying point for Walker's opponents as they pressed the legislature to reject the governor's collective-bargaining restrictions.
Protesters with signs lined the hallways. One read simply: "Long Live La Follette."
FROM NO DECENCY BACK TO BREAD AND BUTTER
Wisconsin is often considered a Democratic Party stronghold because since 2000 it has backed Democrats in presidential elections.
But for a full century after the Civil War, the Republican Party dominated Wisconsin politics. Led by La Follette, progressive elements took control of the party during the peak of industrialization and initiated numerous populist reforms.
Wisconsin pioneered open primaries, open records and progressive income taxes, laws governing factory safety and child labor. It became known as a "laboratory of democracy" - the first U.S. state to introduce a workers' compensation law (1911) and unemployment benefits (1932).
In 1911 it became the first U.S. state to introduce a workers' compensation law. The following year former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt praised its "experimental laboratory," where the regulation of industry was advanced. Later experiments included unemployment benefits (1932). Much New Deal legislation, including the Social Security act, was the product of Badger brains.
The Democrats gained a foothold in the late 1950s after Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy was censured for his overreaching investigation of Communists in Hollywood and the federal government.
Still, the bipartisan Wisconsin legislature forged agreements on major issues. In 1959, when Democratic Governor Gaylord Nelson proposed giving municipal workers collective bargaining rights, he had agreement from a legislature partly controlled by Republicans.
"There was a broad progressive center in Wisconsin (in 1959) and a lot of common interest in bread-and-butter issues," said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "Issues were not filtered through a partisan lens. There was room for conversation because there was broad recognition of what was the right thing to do."
While McCarthy defined political extremism, more typical was middle-of-the-roader Tommy Thompson. The former Republican governor, who served from 1987 to 2001, spearheaded the creation of BadgerCare, a healthcare program for low-income families, and instituted America's first school choice program.
Thompson has since moved to the right, a recognition of the Tea Party's growing clout. As a candidate for U.S. Senate, he professes a "conservative political philosophy," but Tea Party activists call him a RINO, or "Republican in name only" - for supporting tax increases while he was governor, for instance.
Republican Representative Paul Ryan, a rising star best known for his debt-reducing budget proposals, is more palatable to the Tea Party. "Moderate politicians are a dying breed here," says Burden.
One exception is a four-term Democrat, U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, who combines a moderate fiscal philosophy with liberal social views.
But Kohl is retiring, and Democrats have banded together behind Representative Tammy Baldwin, an openly gay liberal.
"We were looking for a champion, and Tammy fit the bill," said SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin vice president of politics and growth, Bruce Colburn.
Baldwin has won endorsement from the local SEIU, which is pushing for Walker's ouster in what the union calls the "largest recall effort in U.S. history," when considered as a proportion of the population.
INDIVIDUALIST CULTURE
The recall fight has shaken up Wisconsin's labor movement. The state, which gave birth in 1936 to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was long known for its union-friendly environment.
Many were surprised when the Republican legislature last year voted with Walker to take on the unions.
"It takes guts to do that in Wisconsin," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a foundation funded by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch of oil and gas conglomerate Koch Industries. AFP has been active in Wisconsin since 2005 and has paid for an advertising campaign backing Walker.
"In Wisconsin, you have a governor and legislature ... who have the political courage to genuinely try to move the state forward with real policies," he said.
One reason Walker and his allies stepped into the fight, political experts say, is that even back in Fighting Bob's day, Wisconsin was home to a lesser-known but equally strong counterculture of conservative, free-market individualism.
"Since Walker's election in particular … I think that the individualist culture has returned with a vengeance," said James Conant, author of "Wisconsin Politics and Government: America's Laboratory of Democracy."
The recall battle is nothing less than a pitched fight between the culture of individualism and that of collective action.
Tea Party conservatives like Annette Olson, a farmer with little political experience before joining the movement in 2010, lobbied hard for passage of a concealed weapons law and for legislation allowing residents to arm themselves at home for self-defense.
Thwarting Walker's recall is now her top priority.
"Walker's stood up for what's right, which is why we'll work hard to keep him in office," she said.
On the other side is mother-of-two Lori Compas. She is running against former Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald after spearheading a successful effort last year to recall him. Fitzgerald had helped pass Act 10.
Compas thinks Walker's reliance on out-of-state money to fight the recall threatens the state's future. Of the $13 million raised this year, $8.8 million of it has come from outside Wisconsin.
"The big question is, can money buy elections?" Compas said. "Or are there still enough people who care about democracy to do the right thing here in Wisconsin?"
(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Prudence Crowther)
SOURCE: Yahoo
President Reagan's Address at the United States Military Academy 5/27/1981
President Reagan's Address at Commencement Exercises at the United States Military Academy on May 27, 1981.
For more information on the ongoing works of President Reagan's Foundation, visit us at http://www.reaganfoundation.org.
Duty and Sacrifice
Memorial Day is not about death. It is about duty.
For the majority of Americans, Memorial Day is first and foremost a three-day weekend. Time to watch the Indianapolis 500 or a baseball game; time to open the swimming pool or have a picnic. The American flag will be appropriated to embellish ads for supermarkets, department stores, car dealers, and home improvement centers. Sales on everything from garden fertilizer to bedroom furniture will be accompanied by perfunctory messages urging us to “remember those who died for our country” as we clip our coupons and make our way to the mall. The nearest most folks will get to any graveyard, let alone a military cemetery, is a file photo in the local newspaper or obligatory footage on the television news.
It is perhaps inevitable that days set aside for even the most poignant purposes soon become mere “holidays.” The majority of people observe them as such, ignoring even their rote civic rituals. So it is with Memorial Day. Only a relatively small core of people–veterans, those still in the military, their relatives, a cadre of willing, obliged, or calculating politicians, and those citizens who retain a vestigial sense of tradition or patriotism–plan and participate in its observation.
At our cemetery on the hill above Ligonier, Pennsylvania, the observation has already begun. The folks from the veterans’ organizations have walked the rows and planted fresh American flags at the graves of their comrades. You can see hundreds of them fluttering in the sunlight or soaking limply in the rain, and there are thousands more, millions more, in cemeteries all across the United States. And in U.S. military cemeteries all over the world, the marshaled lines of simple stones stand as milestones marking the endless road of duty.
Memorial Day is not about death.
It is about duty.
And about the ultimate limit of duty–sacrifice.
It is a time to remember that who we are and what we are as a nation unique in history has depended on our sense of duty and its inevitable call to sacrifice.
And while the particular duty–the often perilous duty–of defending our country is accepted by the professional soldier, it has often been imposed on many others and carried out reluctantly and with trepidation. For most, this duty has meant the sacrifice of time–“the best years of our lives”—and of broken bodies. But for many others it has meant a sacrifice of life itself.
It is easy to forget what those gravestones and fluttering flags mean; easy to fly on past the cemetery, headed for the lake or ball game without giving it a thought. I’ve been no better than most about this. So in recent years, I have made it a point to remember. I drive up to the Ligonier Valley Cemetery on or around Memorial Day. I park on the narrow road below Section D and walk up the grassy, flag-bedecked slope to row 4. There at my feet are two small rectangles of granite. Incised on the larger, older one is the inscription:
ALVIN P. CAREY 1916 – 1944 S/Sgt 38 Inf 2nd Div
A few feet below this monument, a newer, smaller stone, emplaced years later, bears Staff Sergeant Carey’s name and the words CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR. I never look down at those gray rectangles set against the green grass without my mind rushing back to a hot day in July 1948 when, as a little boy, I sat in a church pew transfixed by something I had never seen before–a coffin covered completely by a fresh new American flag.
Alvin Carey, quiet, bookish Alvin Carey, had come home. His body had been removed from a military grave in France and brought back to the green and forested valley he loved. I remember little about that day except my restlessness in the heat and the creaking sound of the floor and wooden pews in Laughlintown Christian Church as I stared at that flag-draped coffin and tried to imagine a soldier inside. It would be many, many years before I understood who he was and what he had done.
Today, the high school building in Ligonier is named after him and the road leading to it is called Carey School Road. But many people have no idea of the significance of the name. Alvin Carey was a handsome, brainy kid from the nearby village of Laughlintown. He was a voracious reader and by all reports a natural athlete, excelling in football and baseball. Going on to college in those Depression years after his high school graduation in 1935 was out of the question. So he worked at various jobs around Ligonier until, in January 1941, he joined the U.S. Army. By the end of that year, Pearl Harbor had been attacked and the United States was at war.
And so it was that on an August day in 1944, near the French village of Plougastel, Sgt. Carey, commanding a machine gun squad, found himself and his men pinned down by withering fire from German troops in and around a concrete pillbox high on a hill called 154. We will never know what went through Carey’s mind as machine gun bullets poured down on his exposed position 200 yards below that pillbox. He had placed his guns as best he could to return fire and tried to find what shelter he could for his men. He had done his duty.
But as the fire continued, Carey crawled quickly among his men, gathering up as many hand grenades as he could stuff in his pockets and belt. Then, armed with the grenades and his M1 carbine, he began crawling up that hill toward the distant pillbox.
Two hundred yards. That’s two football fields. Uphill. Under fire.
Killing one German infantryman who suddenly confronted him, Carey finally managed to reach a point just under the incessant muzzle flashes bursting from the narrow slit in the concrete face of the pillbox. He began throwing his grenades. He was trying to aim them directly into the slit where the German machine guns played back and forth. To do so he had to expose himself directly to the fire.
Machine gun bullets tore into his body, knocking him back. He got up. With his life fast bleeding out of his shattered body, he got up. In the crisp, spare words of his Medal of Honor citation, “Undaunted, he gathered his strength and continued his grenade attack.” Carey, a pretty good baseball player, finally pitched one grenade through the slit straight into the pillbox, killing the crew and silencing the guns. Then he fell dead. Stunned by what they had just seen, the men of the 38th rushed up Hill 154 and ended German resistance in that area.
Medal of Honor citations are notably chaste in their narration, so we can only guess Carey’s state of mind when, with “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life,” he went beyond the edge of duty that long ago August day. Whatever the combination of calculation and inchoate fear and anger within him, it is doubtful that the words duty or sacrifice or any thoughts connected with them crossed his mind.
But the sense was there. The sense that this thing had to be done, and Carey was there to do it. And thus, on an obscure hill by a tiny village in Brittany, he fulfilled his duty and went beyond—to the ultimate sacrifice.
You may have your own personal touchstone to remember Memorial Day. A friend or relative lost in Afghanistan or Iraq, or on the high seas, or in the air. Perhaps someone who never returned from Korea or Vietnam, or the Marine barracks in Lebanon. Remember them. Give thanks for them. Consider, for a few moments, the cost of duty.
If no such personal connection exists, go and visit a cemetery. Go to those little flags fluttering by the stones. Pick out one, or just consider the hundreds, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands, that mark the long road of duty… and of sacrifice.
SOURCE: Ralph Kinney Bennett is a contributing writer to THE AMERICAN.
For the majority of Americans, Memorial Day is first and foremost a three-day weekend. Time to watch the Indianapolis 500 or a baseball game; time to open the swimming pool or have a picnic. The American flag will be appropriated to embellish ads for supermarkets, department stores, car dealers, and home improvement centers. Sales on everything from garden fertilizer to bedroom furniture will be accompanied by perfunctory messages urging us to “remember those who died for our country” as we clip our coupons and make our way to the mall. The nearest most folks will get to any graveyard, let alone a military cemetery, is a file photo in the local newspaper or obligatory footage on the television news.
It is perhaps inevitable that days set aside for even the most poignant purposes soon become mere “holidays.” The majority of people observe them as such, ignoring even their rote civic rituals. So it is with Memorial Day. Only a relatively small core of people–veterans, those still in the military, their relatives, a cadre of willing, obliged, or calculating politicians, and those citizens who retain a vestigial sense of tradition or patriotism–plan and participate in its observation.
At our cemetery on the hill above Ligonier, Pennsylvania, the observation has already begun. The folks from the veterans’ organizations have walked the rows and planted fresh American flags at the graves of their comrades. You can see hundreds of them fluttering in the sunlight or soaking limply in the rain, and there are thousands more, millions more, in cemeteries all across the United States. And in U.S. military cemeteries all over the world, the marshaled lines of simple stones stand as milestones marking the endless road of duty.
Memorial Day is not about death.
It is about duty.
And about the ultimate limit of duty–sacrifice.
It is a time to remember that who we are and what we are as a nation unique in history has depended on our sense of duty and its inevitable call to sacrifice.
And while the particular duty–the often perilous duty–of defending our country is accepted by the professional soldier, it has often been imposed on many others and carried out reluctantly and with trepidation. For most, this duty has meant the sacrifice of time–“the best years of our lives”—and of broken bodies. But for many others it has meant a sacrifice of life itself.
It is easy to forget what those gravestones and fluttering flags mean; easy to fly on past the cemetery, headed for the lake or ball game without giving it a thought. I’ve been no better than most about this. So in recent years, I have made it a point to remember. I drive up to the Ligonier Valley Cemetery on or around Memorial Day. I park on the narrow road below Section D and walk up the grassy, flag-bedecked slope to row 4. There at my feet are two small rectangles of granite. Incised on the larger, older one is the inscription:
ALVIN P. CAREY 1916 – 1944 S/Sgt 38 Inf 2nd Div
A few feet below this monument, a newer, smaller stone, emplaced years later, bears Staff Sergeant Carey’s name and the words CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR. I never look down at those gray rectangles set against the green grass without my mind rushing back to a hot day in July 1948 when, as a little boy, I sat in a church pew transfixed by something I had never seen before–a coffin covered completely by a fresh new American flag.
Alvin Carey, quiet, bookish Alvin Carey, had come home. His body had been removed from a military grave in France and brought back to the green and forested valley he loved. I remember little about that day except my restlessness in the heat and the creaking sound of the floor and wooden pews in Laughlintown Christian Church as I stared at that flag-draped coffin and tried to imagine a soldier inside. It would be many, many years before I understood who he was and what he had done.
Today, the high school building in Ligonier is named after him and the road leading to it is called Carey School Road. But many people have no idea of the significance of the name. Alvin Carey was a handsome, brainy kid from the nearby village of Laughlintown. He was a voracious reader and by all reports a natural athlete, excelling in football and baseball. Going on to college in those Depression years after his high school graduation in 1935 was out of the question. So he worked at various jobs around Ligonier until, in January 1941, he joined the U.S. Army. By the end of that year, Pearl Harbor had been attacked and the United States was at war.
And so it was that on an August day in 1944, near the French village of Plougastel, Sgt. Carey, commanding a machine gun squad, found himself and his men pinned down by withering fire from German troops in and around a concrete pillbox high on a hill called 154. We will never know what went through Carey’s mind as machine gun bullets poured down on his exposed position 200 yards below that pillbox. He had placed his guns as best he could to return fire and tried to find what shelter he could for his men. He had done his duty.
But as the fire continued, Carey crawled quickly among his men, gathering up as many hand grenades as he could stuff in his pockets and belt. Then, armed with the grenades and his M1 carbine, he began crawling up that hill toward the distant pillbox.
Two hundred yards. That’s two football fields. Uphill. Under fire.
Killing one German infantryman who suddenly confronted him, Carey finally managed to reach a point just under the incessant muzzle flashes bursting from the narrow slit in the concrete face of the pillbox. He began throwing his grenades. He was trying to aim them directly into the slit where the German machine guns played back and forth. To do so he had to expose himself directly to the fire.
Machine gun bullets tore into his body, knocking him back. He got up. With his life fast bleeding out of his shattered body, he got up. In the crisp, spare words of his Medal of Honor citation, “Undaunted, he gathered his strength and continued his grenade attack.” Carey, a pretty good baseball player, finally pitched one grenade through the slit straight into the pillbox, killing the crew and silencing the guns. Then he fell dead. Stunned by what they had just seen, the men of the 38th rushed up Hill 154 and ended German resistance in that area.
Medal of Honor citations are notably chaste in their narration, so we can only guess Carey’s state of mind when, with “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life,” he went beyond the edge of duty that long ago August day. Whatever the combination of calculation and inchoate fear and anger within him, it is doubtful that the words duty or sacrifice or any thoughts connected with them crossed his mind.
But the sense was there. The sense that this thing had to be done, and Carey was there to do it. And thus, on an obscure hill by a tiny village in Brittany, he fulfilled his duty and went beyond—to the ultimate sacrifice.
You may have your own personal touchstone to remember Memorial Day. A friend or relative lost in Afghanistan or Iraq, or on the high seas, or in the air. Perhaps someone who never returned from Korea or Vietnam, or the Marine barracks in Lebanon. Remember them. Give thanks for them. Consider, for a few moments, the cost of duty.
If no such personal connection exists, go and visit a cemetery. Go to those little flags fluttering by the stones. Pick out one, or just consider the hundreds, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands, that mark the long road of duty… and of sacrifice.
SOURCE: Ralph Kinney Bennett is a contributing writer to THE AMERICAN.
Obama Campaign ‘Truth Team’ Conflates Smears with Criticisms, Citing Disputed Study
An email from the Obama campaign encapsulates the problem when political campaigns seize the language of fact checkers, muddying the waters.
In the note, sent later in the day today, Obama campaign deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter invites supporters to “report an attack” at the Truth Team report page.
“Received a robo-call or an email forward full of falsehoods?” the page asks. “Found a misleading leaflet in your mail? Tell us about it, and help fight back against the attacks on President Obama and his record.”
Cutter in her email hammers Mitt Romney for saying “Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history,” which she refutes with a Market Watch blog saying that federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since President Eisenhower.
Here’s the problem: the Market Watch item has been refuted by several fact checkers as severely flawed, notwithstanding its citation by White House press secretary Jay Carney along with the assertion that reporters should “not buy into the BS that you hear about spending and fiscal constraint with regard to this administration. I think doing so is a sign of sloth and laziness.”
The Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave Carney three Pinocchios, writing that the “data in the article are flawed, and the analysis lacks context — context that could easily could be found in the budget documents released by the White House.”
The Associated Press came to a similar conclusion, saying that “the problem with that rosy claim is that the Wall Street bailout is part of the calculation. The bailout ballooned the 2009 budget just before Obama took office, making Obama’s 2010 results look smaller in comparison. And as almost $150 billion of the bailout was paid back during Obama’s watch, the analysis counted them as government spending cuts. It also assumes Obama had less of a role setting the budget for 2009 than he really did. … The analysis simply looks at the year-to-year topline spending number for the government but doesn’t account for distortions baked into the figures by the Wall Street bailout and government takeover of the mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
Cutter also hammers Romney on classroom size, saying, “Mitt Romney made some more ridiculous claims and assertions this week, this time on education policy. He even had the nerve to tell a group of educators that: ‘It’s not the classroom size that’s driving the success of those school systems.’”
The problem is that Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, has also suggested classroom size isn’t as important as some necessarily think.
“We spent billions of dollars to reduce class size. As a parent, we all love small class size,” Duncan told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “But the best thing you can do is get children in front of an extraordinary teacher. So other countries have higher class sizes but extraordinary talent in those rooms.”
Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters, recently wrote an open letter to President Obama that appeared in the Washington Post, saying, “If you disagree with what Romney said, you should rein in your own education secretary and ask him to take back his erroneous statements on the subject.”
Cutter wrote: “Mitt Romney’s general disregard for the truth is why you all are so important to this campaign. So many Truth Team members have told me: You give us the facts to get the President’s back, and we’ll get it done.”
But voters should generally beware of campaigns claiming that they are fact checking. They have an interest in conflating nonsense — like the bizarre assertion that President Obama was born in Kenya — with legitimate criticisms. They want all attacks to be dismissed as falsehoods — and that is simply not the case.
SOURCE: Jake Tapper - ABC News
ATF to accept public comments prior to outlawing shotguns
The ATF completed a study regarding the importability of certain shotguns. The basis for a possible ban is based on a loosely defined “Sporting Purpose” test. Using the vague definition almost all pump-action and semi-automatic shotguns could be banned as they are all capable of accepting a magazine, box or tube capable of holding more than 5 rounds. Other characteristics determined to be “military” by the ATF can also be used as a basis for a ban.
Ironically, many shotguns with “military” features are currently being used in shooting competitions held by the USPSA, IDPA and IPSC. The rules could also result in obscure regulations where an individual would be unsure if he is violating them or not.
Dudley Brown, Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said if the ATF succeeds with the banning of tactical shotguns it “will be the most dangerous interpretation of the 1968 Gun Control Act ever envisioned and will outlaw thousands of perfectly legitimate home defense shotguns.”
The ATF is currently allowing public comments on the study until the end of the month. Those wishing to express concerns about the study can send an email to shotgunstudy@atf.gov
SOURCE: GreeleyGazette.com
Naked man killed by Police near MacArthur Causeway was ‘eating’ face off victim
One man was shot to death by Miami police, and another man is fighting for his life after he was attacked and his face allegedly half eaten, by a naked man on the MacArthur Causeway off ramp, police said.
The bloodshed began about 2 p.m. when a series of gunshots were heard on the ramp, which is along NE 13th Street, just south of The Miami Herald building. Witnesses said a woman saw the two men fighting and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.
The officer, who has not been identified, approached and saw that the naked man was actually chewing the other man’s head, according to witnesses. The officer ordered the naked man to back away, and when he continued the assault, the officer shot him. The attacker continued to eat the man, despite being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots.
Miami police were on the scene, which was just south of The Miami Herald building on Biscayne Boulevard. The naked man who was killed lay face down on the pedestrian walkway just below the newspaper’s two-story parking garage. Police requested The Herald’s video surveillance tapes.
The other man was transported to the hospital with critical injuries, according to police. Their identities were not released.
The incident, which came as crowds descended upon South Beach for the annual Urban Beach Week hip-hop festival, snarled traffic on the causeway for several hours.
In a text message, Javier Ortiz, spokesman for Miami police’s Fraternal Order of Police, said the officer who fired the fatal shots was “a hero.”
“Based on the information provided, our Miami police officer is a hero and saved a life,’’ he said.
Sergeant Altarr Williams, supervisor of Miami police’s Homicide Unit, said a man doesn’t have to be armed to be dangerous.
“There are other ways to injure people,’’ Williams said. “Some people know martial arts, others are very strong and can kill you with their hands.’’
SOURCE: Miami Herald
The bloodshed began about 2 p.m. when a series of gunshots were heard on the ramp, which is along NE 13th Street, just south of The Miami Herald building. Witnesses said a woman saw the two men fighting and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.
The officer, who has not been identified, approached and saw that the naked man was actually chewing the other man’s head, according to witnesses. The officer ordered the naked man to back away, and when he continued the assault, the officer shot him. The attacker continued to eat the man, despite being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots.
Miami police were on the scene, which was just south of The Miami Herald building on Biscayne Boulevard. The naked man who was killed lay face down on the pedestrian walkway just below the newspaper’s two-story parking garage. Police requested The Herald’s video surveillance tapes.
The other man was transported to the hospital with critical injuries, according to police. Their identities were not released.
The incident, which came as crowds descended upon South Beach for the annual Urban Beach Week hip-hop festival, snarled traffic on the causeway for several hours.
In a text message, Javier Ortiz, spokesman for Miami police’s Fraternal Order of Police, said the officer who fired the fatal shots was “a hero.”
“Based on the information provided, our Miami police officer is a hero and saved a life,’’ he said.
Sergeant Altarr Williams, supervisor of Miami police’s Homicide Unit, said a man doesn’t have to be armed to be dangerous.
“There are other ways to injure people,’’ Williams said. “Some people know martial arts, others are very strong and can kill you with their hands.’’
SOURCE: Miami Herald
Lady Gaga cancels Indonesia concerts after threats of ‘chaos’ from Muslims
Pop diva Lady Gaga’s show in Indonesia has been cancelled, her promoters said Sunday after Islamic hardliners threatened “chaos” if she entered the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
“Lady Gaga’s management has considered the situation minute to minute, and with threats if the concert goes ahead, Lady Gaga’s side is calling off the concert,” Minola Sebayang, lawyer for promoters Big Daddy, told reporters.
“This is not only about Lady Gaga’s security, but extends to those who will be watching her,” he added.
Earlier this month Jakarta police refused approval for the show after the hardline Islamic Defenders Front threatened violence if Lady Gaga performed, calling her a “devil’s messenger” who wears only a “bra and panties” on stage.
The promoters had indicated that a deal was being hammered out to tone down the star’s racy show, but her own management vowed no compromise to appease religious conservatives or censors.
Big Daddy president director Michael Rusli said it was “unfortunate” that the show had to be called off.
“For the past few days we have communicated with the government and Lady Gaga’s side. The government has given support, but this is not about the permit,” he said. “The cancellation is really due to concerns over security.”
“Lady Gaga’s management has considered the situation minute to minute, and with threats if the concert goes ahead, Lady Gaga’s side is calling off the concert,” Minola Sebayang, lawyer for promoters Big Daddy, told reporters.
“This is not only about Lady Gaga’s security, but extends to those who will be watching her,” he added.
Earlier this month Jakarta police refused approval for the show after the hardline Islamic Defenders Front threatened violence if Lady Gaga performed, calling her a “devil’s messenger” who wears only a “bra and panties” on stage.
The promoters had indicated that a deal was being hammered out to tone down the star’s racy show, but her own management vowed no compromise to appease religious conservatives or censors.
Big Daddy president director Michael Rusli said it was “unfortunate” that the show had to be called off.
“For the past few days we have communicated with the government and Lady Gaga’s side. The government has given support, but this is not about the permit,” he said. “The cancellation is really due to concerns over security.”
Obama's 'foie gras' attacks
The French delicacy of foie gras — light brown goose liver served in many culinary forms — should become the official food, if not symbol, of President Barack Hussein Obama's 2012 campaign to win re-election to the presidency.
Produced by ramming a feeding tube down the neck of a 3-month-old goose to force feed him with grain over a two to three week period, the bird's liver gets enlarged from about one ounce to a whopping pound and a quarter, increasing it to a bloated size ripe for harvesting at slaughter. This technique, according to the California Legislature, is so inhumane that it has just banned this practice, as have about 12 countries.
Of course, producers of foie gras, who are trying to repeal the prohibition, claim that this forced feeding is the only way to raise the goose to maximize its profitability and luscious taste, frequently in the form of a pasty paté spread on bread or whatever else suits one's fancy.
As the son and grandson of Philadelphia meat packers — indeed, I worked in my family's pork slaughterhouse as a young boy — I might have been convinced to side with the foie gras producers, but I have come to sympathize with the geese instead — given the experience we American citizens have had with being force-fed and effectively taken to slaughter over the last three and a half years by an unkosher socialist "butcher in chief," President Barack Hussein Obama. Our plight is much worse than the fatted goose, which is merely fed grain. We the People have had rammed down our throats Obama's brew of anti-American, anti-white, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian poison, all designed to kill the vision for our nation, conceived of by God through our Founding Fathers. This vision, which has been carried out over the last 236 years since the Declaration of Independence, rests not only on individual liberties and "Philadelphia freedom" for all, but also was intended to sustain and ensure a Judeo-Christian culture for our hard-won nation.
First and foremost, the American people were defrauded into electing as president a person who, even if he was not born in Kenya but Hawaii (Hawaii is unlikelihood given the doctored birth certificate Obama eventually produced), is the offspring of a Kenyan Muslim father. As provided for in the Constitution, only a "natural born citizen" can become president — that is, someone who is sired by both an American citizen mother and father. Thus, Obama was not eligible to be president of the United States, and his false claims that he is eligible is a poison he falsely rammed down the voters' throats. This lie not only got him and his accomplices control of the White House and executive branch of government, but has severely harmed our nation, given his anti-American sympathies and acts to aid foreign Muslim countries and groups (like the Muslim Brotherhood). The framers were smart. They understood that a president like Obama, with at best divided loyalties, could present a great problem, if not a security risk, for our nation.
Second, obviously as a result of Obama's foreign Muslim heritage, he has waged a war against not only our Judeo-Christian way of life, but also furthered a radical Muslim takeover of several Arab states that surround the Jewish state. To add more insult to injury, Obama's failure to support the Iranian freedom movement and take hard military actions to prevent the mullahs from obtaining nuclear weapons shows again that the potentially fatal poison he has used to harm our democratic ally Israel could come back to kill us as well.
Third, Obama has harmed our national security by illegally disclosing classified information about our intelligence-gathering methods, sources and capabilities. In recent front-page New York Times stories I have previously written about, Obama had his minions at the CIA, National Security Agency and Defense Department criminally leaked not only how we gather intelligence on the Iranian nuclear program, but also our war plans if the United States is drawn into a conflict between Israel and the mullahs should a unilateral Israeli attack of the nuclear facilities prove necessary. This force-fed national security breach is among the worst in American history, all designed to get Israel to back off from attacking Iran to eliminate its imminent production of weapons of mass destruction that threaten — as part of the ever successful and ongoing Islamic revolution — our nation and the entire Western Judeo-Christian world.
Fourth, and equally important on the domestic front, Obama and his leftist comrades like then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goosed us by ramming down our throats a socialistic health-care plan that became known as "Obamacare." Not even many of Obama's most ardent supporters like this heavy-handed and illegal legislation, which not only unconstitutionally forces Americans to buy health insurance, but has already raised its cost to most consumers.
Finally (given only the limited space constraints of this column), is Obama's latest foie gras attack, whereby he had the "gaul" to endorse so-called gay marriage on behalf of the American people. His ramming gay marriage up our derrieres, just as grain is shoved down the throats of 3-month-old geese, is not only contrary to our Judeo-Christian heritage and way of life, but it shows a complete disregard for moral values in general. No rational person would advocate prejudice or persecution of gays and lesbians, and I for one would not hinder their unfortunate decision to practice their sexual proclivities as they see fit, so long as it is in the privacy of their own homes and they do not try to ram their lifestyle down the throats of others. But neither God nor our framers contemplated gay marriage, as it is an anathema not only to society but also to Biology 101. Institutionalizing "gaydom" is the surest way to inject a "deadly STD" into our body politic. By way of history, when homosexuality became accepted and thus institutionalized in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, it ultimately contributed mightily to their destruction from within.
We the People have had enough of Obama's foie gras attacks. Now let's roll up our sleeves and not only save the poor geese, but ourselves!
SOURCE: RenewAmerica.com
Produced by ramming a feeding tube down the neck of a 3-month-old goose to force feed him with grain over a two to three week period, the bird's liver gets enlarged from about one ounce to a whopping pound and a quarter, increasing it to a bloated size ripe for harvesting at slaughter. This technique, according to the California Legislature, is so inhumane that it has just banned this practice, as have about 12 countries.
Of course, producers of foie gras, who are trying to repeal the prohibition, claim that this forced feeding is the only way to raise the goose to maximize its profitability and luscious taste, frequently in the form of a pasty paté spread on bread or whatever else suits one's fancy.
As the son and grandson of Philadelphia meat packers — indeed, I worked in my family's pork slaughterhouse as a young boy — I might have been convinced to side with the foie gras producers, but I have come to sympathize with the geese instead — given the experience we American citizens have had with being force-fed and effectively taken to slaughter over the last three and a half years by an unkosher socialist "butcher in chief," President Barack Hussein Obama. Our plight is much worse than the fatted goose, which is merely fed grain. We the People have had rammed down our throats Obama's brew of anti-American, anti-white, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian poison, all designed to kill the vision for our nation, conceived of by God through our Founding Fathers. This vision, which has been carried out over the last 236 years since the Declaration of Independence, rests not only on individual liberties and "Philadelphia freedom" for all, but also was intended to sustain and ensure a Judeo-Christian culture for our hard-won nation.
First and foremost, the American people were defrauded into electing as president a person who, even if he was not born in Kenya but Hawaii (Hawaii is unlikelihood given the doctored birth certificate Obama eventually produced), is the offspring of a Kenyan Muslim father. As provided for in the Constitution, only a "natural born citizen" can become president — that is, someone who is sired by both an American citizen mother and father. Thus, Obama was not eligible to be president of the United States, and his false claims that he is eligible is a poison he falsely rammed down the voters' throats. This lie not only got him and his accomplices control of the White House and executive branch of government, but has severely harmed our nation, given his anti-American sympathies and acts to aid foreign Muslim countries and groups (like the Muslim Brotherhood). The framers were smart. They understood that a president like Obama, with at best divided loyalties, could present a great problem, if not a security risk, for our nation.
Second, obviously as a result of Obama's foreign Muslim heritage, he has waged a war against not only our Judeo-Christian way of life, but also furthered a radical Muslim takeover of several Arab states that surround the Jewish state. To add more insult to injury, Obama's failure to support the Iranian freedom movement and take hard military actions to prevent the mullahs from obtaining nuclear weapons shows again that the potentially fatal poison he has used to harm our democratic ally Israel could come back to kill us as well.
Third, Obama has harmed our national security by illegally disclosing classified information about our intelligence-gathering methods, sources and capabilities. In recent front-page New York Times stories I have previously written about, Obama had his minions at the CIA, National Security Agency and Defense Department criminally leaked not only how we gather intelligence on the Iranian nuclear program, but also our war plans if the United States is drawn into a conflict between Israel and the mullahs should a unilateral Israeli attack of the nuclear facilities prove necessary. This force-fed national security breach is among the worst in American history, all designed to get Israel to back off from attacking Iran to eliminate its imminent production of weapons of mass destruction that threaten — as part of the ever successful and ongoing Islamic revolution — our nation and the entire Western Judeo-Christian world.
Fourth, and equally important on the domestic front, Obama and his leftist comrades like then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goosed us by ramming down our throats a socialistic health-care plan that became known as "Obamacare." Not even many of Obama's most ardent supporters like this heavy-handed and illegal legislation, which not only unconstitutionally forces Americans to buy health insurance, but has already raised its cost to most consumers.
Finally (given only the limited space constraints of this column), is Obama's latest foie gras attack, whereby he had the "gaul" to endorse so-called gay marriage on behalf of the American people. His ramming gay marriage up our derrieres, just as grain is shoved down the throats of 3-month-old geese, is not only contrary to our Judeo-Christian heritage and way of life, but it shows a complete disregard for moral values in general. No rational person would advocate prejudice or persecution of gays and lesbians, and I for one would not hinder their unfortunate decision to practice their sexual proclivities as they see fit, so long as it is in the privacy of their own homes and they do not try to ram their lifestyle down the throats of others. But neither God nor our framers contemplated gay marriage, as it is an anathema not only to society but also to Biology 101. Institutionalizing "gaydom" is the surest way to inject a "deadly STD" into our body politic. By way of history, when homosexuality became accepted and thus institutionalized in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, it ultimately contributed mightily to their destruction from within.
We the People have had enough of Obama's foie gras attacks. Now let's roll up our sleeves and not only save the poor geese, but ourselves!
SOURCE: RenewAmerica.com
Six-Point Growth Plan: Merkel Prepares to Strike Back Against Hollande
Full Story At Spiegel Online
U.S. senators: Al Qaeda calls for 'electronic jihad'
Washington (CNN) -- An al Qaeda video calling for "electronic jihad" illustrates the urgent need for cybersecurity standards for the most critical networks in the United States, a group of senators said.
"Internet piracy is an important field of jihad," the narrator of the video says, according to a translation. He advises followers with expertise to "target the websites and information systems of big companies and government agencies of the countries that attack Muslims."
The video calls for cyberattacks against networks such as the electric grid and compares vulnerabilities in the United States' critical cyber networks to the vulnerabilities in the country's aviation system before 9/11, according to a statement Tuesday from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
"This is the clearest evidence we've seen that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups want to attack the cyber systems of our critical infrastructure," committee chairman Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said in the statement. "Congress needs to act now to protect the American public from a possible devastating attack on our electric grid, water delivery systems or financial networks, for example."
Ranking committee member Susan Collins, R-Maine, said al Qaeda realizes that a cyberattack on critical infrastructure might cause more harm than a traditional physical attack.
"That is why the Senate needs to act on our bipartisan Cybersecurity Act that requires minimum security performance requirements for key critical infrastructure cyber networks," she said in the committee statement.
The Department of Homeland Security has received more than 50,000 reports of cyber intrusions or attempted intrusions since October 2011, an increase of 10,000 reports over the same period the previous year, the statement said.
The Senate committee said the video, made by al Qaeda's media outlet, was obtained by the FBI.
"Internet piracy is an important field of jihad," the narrator of the video says, according to a translation. He advises followers with expertise to "target the websites and information systems of big companies and government agencies of the countries that attack Muslims."
The video calls for cyberattacks against networks such as the electric grid and compares vulnerabilities in the United States' critical cyber networks to the vulnerabilities in the country's aviation system before 9/11, according to a statement Tuesday from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
"This is the clearest evidence we've seen that Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups want to attack the cyber systems of our critical infrastructure," committee chairman Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said in the statement. "Congress needs to act now to protect the American public from a possible devastating attack on our electric grid, water delivery systems or financial networks, for example."
Ranking committee member Susan Collins, R-Maine, said al Qaeda realizes that a cyberattack on critical infrastructure might cause more harm than a traditional physical attack.
"That is why the Senate needs to act on our bipartisan Cybersecurity Act that requires minimum security performance requirements for key critical infrastructure cyber networks," she said in the committee statement.
The Department of Homeland Security has received more than 50,000 reports of cyber intrusions or attempted intrusions since October 2011, an increase of 10,000 reports over the same period the previous year, the statement said.
The Senate committee said the video, made by al Qaeda's media outlet, was obtained by the FBI.
GOP Senators who Have NOT Opposed the Law of the Sea Treaty
The “Law of the Sea” Treaty Surrenders American Sovereignty at Sea to the United Nations, and Will FORCE American companies to pay Royalties TO It.
Below is a list of GOP Senators who have NOT opposed the Law of the Sea Treaty as of May 26th, 2012. The easiest way to contact your Senator with a pre-made message of opposition to this treaty is to visit Tell-Your-Senator-To-Oppose-LOST.
To send a message on your own, copy and paste the message below, click on the link under your Senator’s name, and then add what you want to tell your Senator. Their Twitter accounts are also listed if you want to Tweet them!
*****
Dear Senator,
LOST surrenders American Sovereignty and Industrial Innovation to Unaccountable International Bureaucrats at the United Nations! We Surrender American Sovereignty for Nothing in Return! The American People Do Not Want This! Ever! We Are Asking you to Please Oppose this Treaty! We Do Not Want This!
*****
GOP Senators Who Have Not Opposed the Treaty
Alexander, Lamar - (R - TN)Class II
455 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4944
Email Him! www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/senalexander
Ayotte, Kelly - (R - NH)Class III
144 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3324
Email Her! www.ayotte.senate.gov/?p=contact
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/kellyayotte
Brown, Scott P. - (R - MA)Class I
359 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Email Him! www.scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailscottbrown
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/ussenscottbrown
Cochran, Thad - (R - MS)Class II
113 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5054
Email Him! www.cochran.senate.gov/email.html
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/SenThadCochran
Collins, Susan M. - (R - ME)Class II
413 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2523
Email Her! http://www.collins.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/senatorcollins
Corker, Bob - (R - TN)Class I
185 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3344
Email Him! www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/senbobcorker
Enzi, Michael B. - (R - WY)Class II
379A RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3424
Email Him! http://www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=e-mail-senator-enzi
Not on Twitter
Graham, Lindsey - (R - SC)Class II
290 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5972
Email Him! http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EmailSenatorGraham
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/grahamblog
Grassley, Chuck - (R - IA)Class III
135 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3744
Email Him! www.grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/CHUCKGRASSLEY
Hutchison, Kay Bailey - (R - TX)Class I
284 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5922
Email Her! www.hutchison.senate.gov/?p=email_kay
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/kaybaileyhutch
Isakson, Johnny - (R - GA)Class III
131 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3643
Email Him! www.isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/senatorisakson
Johanns, Mike - (R - NE)Class II
404 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4224
Email Him! www.johanns.senate.gov/public/?p=ContactSenatorJohanns
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/mike_johanns
Kirk, Mark - (R - IL)Class III
524 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2854
Email Him! www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=contact
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/SENATORKIRK
Lugar, Richard G. - (R - IN)Class I
306 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4814
Email Him! www.lugar.senate.gov/contact/
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/dicklugar
Tweet his Staff! http://twitter.com/#!/senatorlugar
McCain, John - (R - AZ)Class III
241 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2235
Email Him! www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact...
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/senjohnmccain
McConnell, Mitch - (R - KY)Class II
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2541
Email Him! www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=contact
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/mcconnellpress
Murkowski, Lisa - (R - AK)Class III
709 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6665
Email Her! www.murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/lisamurkowski
Portman, Rob - (R - OH)Class III
338 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3353
Email Him! www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=contact...
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/robportman
Snowe, Olympia J. - (R - ME)Class I
154 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5344
Email Her! www.snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=email
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/senatorsnowe
Toomey, Patrick J. - (R - PA)Class III
502 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4254
Email Him! www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/sentoomey
SOURCE: Jeff Rainforth.com
Below is a list of GOP Senators who have NOT opposed the Law of the Sea Treaty as of May 26th, 2012. The easiest way to contact your Senator with a pre-made message of opposition to this treaty is to visit Tell-Your-Senator-To-Oppose-LOST.
To send a message on your own, copy and paste the message below, click on the link under your Senator’s name, and then add what you want to tell your Senator. Their Twitter accounts are also listed if you want to Tweet them!
*****
Dear Senator,
LOST surrenders American Sovereignty and Industrial Innovation to Unaccountable International Bureaucrats at the United Nations! We Surrender American Sovereignty for Nothing in Return! The American People Do Not Want This! Ever! We Are Asking you to Please Oppose this Treaty! We Do Not Want This!
*****
GOP Senators Who Have Not Opposed the Treaty
Alexander, Lamar - (R - TN)Class II
455 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4944
Email Him! www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/senalexander
Ayotte, Kelly - (R - NH)Class III
144 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3324
Email Her! www.ayotte.senate.gov/?p=contact
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/kellyayotte
Brown, Scott P. - (R - MA)Class I
359 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Email Him! www.scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailscottbrown
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/ussenscottbrown
Cochran, Thad - (R - MS)Class II
113 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5054
Email Him! www.cochran.senate.gov/email.html
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/SenThadCochran
Collins, Susan M. - (R - ME)Class II
413 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2523
Email Her! http://www.collins.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/senatorcollins
Corker, Bob - (R - TN)Class I
185 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3344
Email Him! www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/senbobcorker
Enzi, Michael B. - (R - WY)Class II
379A RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3424
Email Him! http://www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=e-mail-senator-enzi
Not on Twitter
Graham, Lindsey - (R - SC)Class II
290 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5972
Email Him! http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EmailSenatorGraham
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/grahamblog
Grassley, Chuck - (R - IA)Class III
135 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3744
Email Him! www.grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/CHUCKGRASSLEY
Hutchison, Kay Bailey - (R - TX)Class I
284 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5922
Email Her! www.hutchison.senate.gov/?p=email_kay
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/kaybaileyhutch
Isakson, Johnny - (R - GA)Class III
131 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3643
Email Him! www.isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/senatorisakson
Johanns, Mike - (R - NE)Class II
404 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4224
Email Him! www.johanns.senate.gov/public/?p=ContactSenatorJohanns
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/mike_johanns
Kirk, Mark - (R - IL)Class III
524 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2854
Email Him! www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=contact
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/SENATORKIRK
Lugar, Richard G. - (R - IN)Class I
306 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4814
Email Him! www.lugar.senate.gov/contact/
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/dicklugar
Tweet his Staff! http://twitter.com/#!/senatorlugar
McCain, John - (R - AZ)Class III
241 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2235
Email Him! www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact...
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/senjohnmccain
McConnell, Mitch - (R - KY)Class II
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2541
Email Him! www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=contact
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/mcconnellpress
Murkowski, Lisa - (R - AK)Class III
709 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6665
Email Her! www.murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/lisamurkowski
Portman, Rob - (R - OH)Class III
338 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3353
Email Him! www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=contact...
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/robportman
Snowe, Olympia J. - (R - ME)Class I
154 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5344
Email Her! www.snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=email
Tweet Her! http://twitter.com/#!/senatorsnowe
Toomey, Patrick J. - (R - PA)Class III
502 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4254
Email Him! www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact
Tweet Him! http://twitter.com/#!/sentoomey
SOURCE: Jeff Rainforth.com
PRESENCE: Jet-Set Royalty flies in to sold out Beyounce concert OR "1% Love" for 5 Trillion Dollars
Michelle Obama jetted in to Atlantic City last night to join 5,500 fans at a Beyonce concert.
The first lady was with daughters Sasha and Malia - but without her husband - at Revel Resorts, where Beyonce performed two dozen songs Saturday night.
The First Lady has made no secret of her admiration for the superstar - recently naming Beyonce as the person she would most like to be if she could be anyone else.
Governor Chris Christie was among the sell-out crowd packed into Revel's Ovation Hall.
Mrs Obama and the girls appeared excited throughout the concert, cheering Beyonce on. The daughters even sang along to the old school-sounding jam Love On Top.
The first lady got a roaring cheer that matched Beyonce's as she made her way to her seat in a shiny green dress.
Some fans took photos while others screamed her name. One yelled, 'This is history!'
Mrs Obama is due back in Washington on Monday for Memorial Day events before she heads to New York to continue promoting her new book about the White House Kitchen Garden.
In an interview promoting her book American Grown, Mrs Obama told People magazine: 'I'd be Beyonce. I'd be some great singer... It looks like musicians just have the most fun.’
Beyonce’s three-night stint of concerts are the main attraction at the opening of the $2.4 billion mega resort in Atlantic City. The tickets for the shows over Memorial Day weekend sold out within one minute.
The First Lady will have brought the tickets herself although the bill for jetting to the concert could well be picked up by taxpayers.
Mrs Obama is unlikely to be disappointed by her idol who won rave reviews for her first performance last night.
USA Today's Elysa Gardner wrote: 'Backed by an all-female band and a tireless posse of dancers and backup vocalists, Beyonce reasserted her unique pop persona; she was at once angel and seductress, cool diva and woman of the people.'
The gig was the first time Beyonce had performed since giving birth to her daughter, Blue, in January.
Speaking to the 5,500 fans at the Ovation Hall in the Revel, the 30-year-old said: 'I gotta say, it feels so good to be back home on stage.'
And the singer flaunted her post-pregnancy curves in custom-made costumes designed by Ralph & Russo, who used 500,000 Swarovski Elements crystals to create the show-stopping look.
In an open letter Beyonce praised the First Lady as the 'ultimate example of a truly strong African-American woman.'
The pop-star posted the handwritten missive on her website last month where she wrote that she was 'proud to have my daughter grow up in a world where she has people like you to look up to.'
Beyonce and her husband, rapper Jay-Z, have been prominent supporters of the Obamas since his 2008 presidential campaign.
Beyonce performed at Barack Obama's inaugural ball in 2009, where she sang the Etta James song At Last.
In 2010 the former Destiny’s Child singer took to the stage at the White House State dinner where the Obama’s hosted Mexican president Felipe Calderon.
More recently the singer has designed a T-shirt for the Runway To Win initiative, which is raising funds for the Obama re-election campaign, and last year she joined the First Lady in a Let's Move flash workout event.
Read more:
The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier: Report: Michelle Going to Atlantic City to Watch Beyonce
Law professor explains why Stand Your Ground Law might violate individual rights
FORT PIERCE — Before a crowd of approximately 100 people, Patricia Broussard, an FAMU constitutional law professor, explained that because of the immunity clause of the Stand Your Ground Law that was passed in 2005, the controversial law might violate a person’s right to due process.
Since that time, alleged perpetrators have invoked this defense 200 times. In Florida, one in every 17 Floridians has a valid concealed weapons permit, and public records show that police and prosecutors continue to apply the self-defense law unevenly.
On May 20, Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church was the setting for an educational forum on the Stand Your Ground Law sponsored by the Eta Eta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Valerie Bant-Wilson, the sorority’s public policy committee chairman, as well as the sorority’s State of Florida public policy coordinator, felt that because many citizens do not understand the Stand Your Ground Law, such a forum would be beneficial.
The very capable panel -- with representation from the Florida legislature, the State Attorney's Office, law enforcement community, and the judicial system -- was successful in sharing vital information with the audience.
According to Brant-Wilson, many citizens are more confused because of the conviction of Marissa Alexander and the judicial state of Trayvon Martin’s killing.
Broussard served as moderator of the esteemed panel (Chief Deputy State Attorney Thomas Bakedehl, Fort Pierce City Police Chief Sean Baldwin, St. Lucie County Chief Deputy Garry Wilson, attorney Lorenzo Williams, retired Judge Ralph Flowers, and State Rep. Steve Perman), which posed questions that ranged from how the law might pre-empt the law enforcement community and State Attorney's Office from doing their jobs to the reasons the state legislature felt the necessity to replace the Castle Doctrine, which allows a citizen to defend himself or herself.
The panel and audience were able to view several YouTube clips that gave varying examples of individuals using the Stand Your Ground Law to prove their innocence in road rage, auto theft, and domestic violence cases, as well as a neighbor killing two people who were robbing his neighbor’s house.
In light of the many questions germane to the Martin case, Mazella Smith, chapter co-chairman of the forum, articulated that the purpose of the educational forum was to educate and not litigate the particulars in Martin’s case.
It was quite evident that the cases used to illicit audience participation were quite confusing. The general theme conveyed by questioners was that if you killed someone, the law would protect you.
The two-hour forum provided critical thinking from both the panel and the audience.
At the end of the meeting, the audience, as well as the panel, relayed beliefs that the Stand Your Ground Law should be repealed. Perman encouraged the citizens, as he shared the recommendations of Governor Scott’s Task Force, which did not include repealing the law, to contact their representatives if they want to see the Stand Your Ground Law repealed.
This story is contributed by a member of the Treasure Coast community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with TCPalm.com
SOURCE: TCPalm.com
Kids with Cell Phones: Record Your Socialist Teachers!
This week audio surfaced of a North Carolina teacher, Tanya Dixon-Neely (black), berating 13-year-old Hunter Rogers (honky) for criticizing president Obama (hate crime). Neely said Rogers could be arrested for slandering Obama. What a crock! Children cannot be arrested for criticizing Obama—at least not until his second term when we will truly see our First Amendment rights vanish like a pack of raw wieners at Rosie’s house.
Thankfully, Hunter hit the record button on his iPhone when this blathering big government gal started spewing lies to the kids—via North Carolinians’ tax dollar—exposing her incredible bias, and thereby getting her suspended. Hopefully she’ll get fired.
Parents in Hunter’s school district should demand she get canned. Why? Well, one reason is she doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about and is teaching your children. Hello. What kind of Bozo screening process is in place that people like Tanya get the keys to your tadpole’s future? I wouldn’t let her sell fried chicken gizzards at a carnival much less school one of my offspring.
The only positive upshot to this sordid socialist scenario is that Hunter turned his cell phone on this mental schoolmarm. Hallelujah. Now parents and the planet can get a dose of the propaganda that’s regularly doled out in public schools.
With this in mind I think parents should tell their progeny each day before they send them off to school, “Now, honey, when Ms. Smith starts saying psycho stuff and threatening you with prison if you don't madly love on Obama, it is okay for you to record her and then upload this mess to YouTube. Don’t be afraid of these bullies. Don’t punch ‘em in the nose but instead punch record and then forward it to Jesse Watters and see if he can get Bill to run it on The Factor.” * Check your state's laws to see if two party consent is needed before YouTubing your audio or video.
Which brings me to a vision I just had. I have had a dream … a dream where the Hunter Rogers of the nation will point their iPhones and Blackberries at their scary teachers en masse and with one voice yell to these anti-American propagandists the words of Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister—“We’re not gonna take it!”
I have had a dream … a dream where sellers of progressive swill are fearful of publicly braying their biased beliefs before an army of God- and country-loving kids.
Can I get a witness, my brothers and sisters?
SOURCE: Townhall.com
Liberals are Saving the Poor from the Back of a $7 Million Yacht
Ericynot wrote: You really ought to know, especially if you don't like foreign aid in general, that Israel is by far the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. In 2010, the most recent year I checked, we gave them $3.175 billion in economic and military aid. That's more than $61,000,000 a week. When we're $16 trillion in the hole, are you OK with that?- As Predicted Democrats Abandoning Obama
Dear Comrade Y-
I’m ok with it.
You know how much a freakin’ aircraft carrier costs? A new Ford class carrier costs about $12-$14 billion and carries about 75 aircraft.
Israel however has about 400 combat aircraft, plus about 600,000 trained troops for ground combat operations. They are the best ally we have.
Who do you think really protects the oilfields in the Middle East?
Imagine a Middle East without Israel.
Oh, that’s right. You’re an Obama liberal. You’re not just imagining a Middle East without Israel, you’re working to bring it about.
Ranuss wrote: Republicans should just shut up about it. Democrats might respond to having their noses rubbed in it by backing away and supporting Obama after all. If I was a democrat, I would push back if the opposition tried to use my comments on political position for political gain. Typical ignorance of the current GOP. - As Predicted Democrats Abandoning Obama
Dear Ranuss,
So you are thinking that the smart political move would be to NOT remind people at every opportunity that these 14 Democrats have turned on Obama; that we shouldn’t point out that this hurts his credibility; and that you fear that the other side will “push back?”
Yeah, that would be a shame. Then they’d have to try to have to explain themselves over and over again in the news media, with people reminded every time they speak of what they said previously to hurt Obama’s credibility.
BTW, who’s ignorant in this equation?
READ PAGE 2 HERE
Dear Comrade Y-
I’m ok with it.
You know how much a freakin’ aircraft carrier costs? A new Ford class carrier costs about $12-$14 billion and carries about 75 aircraft.
Israel however has about 400 combat aircraft, plus about 600,000 trained troops for ground combat operations. They are the best ally we have.
Who do you think really protects the oilfields in the Middle East?
Imagine a Middle East without Israel.
Oh, that’s right. You’re an Obama liberal. You’re not just imagining a Middle East without Israel, you’re working to bring it about.
Ranuss wrote: Republicans should just shut up about it. Democrats might respond to having their noses rubbed in it by backing away and supporting Obama after all. If I was a democrat, I would push back if the opposition tried to use my comments on political position for political gain. Typical ignorance of the current GOP. - As Predicted Democrats Abandoning Obama
Dear Ranuss,
So you are thinking that the smart political move would be to NOT remind people at every opportunity that these 14 Democrats have turned on Obama; that we shouldn’t point out that this hurts his credibility; and that you fear that the other side will “push back?”
Yeah, that would be a shame. Then they’d have to try to have to explain themselves over and over again in the news media, with people reminded every time they speak of what they said previously to hurt Obama’s credibility.
BTW, who’s ignorant in this equation?
READ PAGE 2 HERE
How Google used tech to ‘pry into people’s lives’
After months of negotiation , Johannes Caspar, a German data protection official, forced Google to show him exactly what its Street View cars had been collecting from potentially millions of his fellow citizens. Snippets of e-mails , photographs , passwords, chat messages, postings on Web sites and social networks - all sorts of private internet communications - were casually scooped up as the specially equipped cars photographed the world's streets.
"It was one of the biggest violations of data protection laws that we had ever seen," Caspar recently recalled about that long-sought viewing in late 2010. "We were very angry."
Google might be one of the coolest and smartest companies of this or any era, but it also upsets a lot of people - competitors who argue it wields its tremendous weight unfairly, officials like Caspar who says it ignores local laws, privacy advocates who think it takes too much from its users . Just this week, European antitrust regulators gave the company an ultimatum to change its search business or face legal consequences. American regulators may not be far behind.
The high-stakes antitrust assault, which will play out this summer behind closed doors in Brussels, might be the beginning of a tough time for Google. A similar US case in the 1990s heralded the comeuppance of Microsoft, the most fearsome tech company of its day.
But never count Google out. It is superb at getting out of trouble. Just ask Caspar or any of his counterparts around the world who tried to hold Google accountable for what one of them, the Australian communication minister Stephen Conroy, called "probably the single greatest breach in the history of privacy ." The secret Street View data collection led to inquiries in at least a dozen countries , including four in the US alone. But Google has yet to give a complete explanation of why the data was collected and who at the company knew about it. No regulator in the US has ever seen the information that Google's cars gathered from Americans
How Google escaped a full accounting for Street View shows not only how technology firms outstripped regulators , but also their complicated relationship with customers.
NYT NEWS SERVICE
SOURCE: Times of India
"It was one of the biggest violations of data protection laws that we had ever seen," Caspar recently recalled about that long-sought viewing in late 2010. "We were very angry."
Google might be one of the coolest and smartest companies of this or any era, but it also upsets a lot of people - competitors who argue it wields its tremendous weight unfairly, officials like Caspar who says it ignores local laws, privacy advocates who think it takes too much from its users . Just this week, European antitrust regulators gave the company an ultimatum to change its search business or face legal consequences. American regulators may not be far behind.
The high-stakes antitrust assault, which will play out this summer behind closed doors in Brussels, might be the beginning of a tough time for Google. A similar US case in the 1990s heralded the comeuppance of Microsoft, the most fearsome tech company of its day.
But never count Google out. It is superb at getting out of trouble. Just ask Caspar or any of his counterparts around the world who tried to hold Google accountable for what one of them, the Australian communication minister Stephen Conroy, called "probably the single greatest breach in the history of privacy ." The secret Street View data collection led to inquiries in at least a dozen countries , including four in the US alone. But Google has yet to give a complete explanation of why the data was collected and who at the company knew about it. No regulator in the US has ever seen the information that Google's cars gathered from Americans
How Google escaped a full accounting for Street View shows not only how technology firms outstripped regulators , but also their complicated relationship with customers.
NYT NEWS SERVICE
SOURCE: Times of India
African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Deep in the rainforest of south-east Cameroon, the voices of the men rang through the trees. "Where are the white people?" they shouted. The men, who begin to surround us, are poachers, who make their money from the illegal slaughter of gorillas and chimpanzees. They disperse but make it known that they are not keen for their activities to be reported; the trade they ply could not only wipe out critically endangered species but, scientists are now warning, could also create the next pandemic of a deadly virus in humans.
Eighty per cent of the meat eaten in Cameroon is killed in the wild and is known as "bushmeat". The nation's favoured dishes are gorilla, chimpanzee or monkey because of their succulent and tender flesh. According to one estimate, up to 3,000 gorillas are slaughtered in southern Cameroon every year to supply an illicit but pervasive commercial demand for ape meat .
"Everyone is eating it," said one game warden. "If they have money they will buy gorilla or chimp to eat."
Frankie, a poacher in the southern Dja Wildlife reserve who gave a fake name, said he is involved in the trade because he can earn good money from it, charging around £60 per adult gorilla killed. "I have to make a living," he said. "Women come from the market and order a gorilla or a chimp and I go and kill them."
Cameroon's south-eastern rainforests are also home to the Baka – traditional forest hunters who have the legal right to hunt wild animals, with the exception of great apes.
Felix Biango, a Baka elder, said the group used to hunt gorilla every few weeks to feed his village, Ayene, but has stopped since Cameroon outlawed the practice 10 years ago. However, he says that every week, three or four people come from the cities to ask the group to help them to hunt wild animals, such as gorillas and chimpanzees.
While the Baka no longer hunt primates for themselves, Mr Biango says that they still kill gorillas for the commercial trade and will eat the meat if they find the animals already dead.
Though Cameroonians have eaten primate meat for years, recent health scares have begun to raise fears about the safety of the meat. "In the village of Bakaklion our brothers found a dead gorilla in the forest," Mr Biango said. "They took it back to the village and ate the meat. Almost immediately, everyone died – 25 men, women and children – the only person who didn't was a woman who didn't eat the meat."
Three-quarters of all new human viruses are known to come from animals, and some scientists believe humans are particularly susceptible to those carried by apes. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is now widely believed to have originated in chimps. Apes are known to host other potentially deadly viruses, such as ebola, anthrax, yellow fever and other potential viruses yet to be discovered.
Babila Tafon, head vet at the primate sanctuary Ape Action Africa (AAA), in Mefou, just outside the capital Yaounde, believes the incident that Biango describes could have been caused by an outbreak of ebola, but cannot be sure because no tests were carried out.
AAA now cares for 22 gorillas and more than one hundred chimps – all orphans of the bushmeat trade.
Mr Tafon tests the blood of all apes arriving at the sanctuary. He says he has recently detected a new virus in the apes – simian foamy virus, which is closely related to HIV. "A recent survey confirmed this is now in humans, especially in some of those who are hunters and cutting up the apes in the south-east of the country," he said.
Viruses are often transferred from ape to human through a bite, scratch or the blood of a dead ape getting into an open wound. There is a lower risk from eating cooked or smoked primates, but it is not completely safe.
Bushmeat is not only a concern for Cameroonians. Each year, an estimated 11,000 tons of bushmeat is illegally smuggled in to the UK, mainly from West Africa, and is known to include some ape meat.
The transfer of viruses from ape to man is a primary concern for the international virology research and referral base run by the Pasteur Centre in Yaounde. Each week, it screens more than 500 blood samples for all manner of viruses, and alerts major international medical research centres if it finds an unfamiliar strain.
Professor Dominique Baudon, the director of the Cameroon centre, says he is concerned that the bushmeat trade is a major gateway for animal viruses to enter humans worldwide, due to the export trade.
He says that the deeper poachers go in to the forest, and the more that primates are consumed, the more exposed people become to new unknown viruses and the more potential there is for the viruses to mutate into potentially aggressive forms. At the Ape Action Africa sanctuary, Rachel Hogan, who came to Cameroon from Birmingham 11 years ago, and her team focus on the last of Cameroon's great apes.
It is not known exactly how many gorillas remain in the wild in Cameroon. Conservationists estimates there may be only a few thousand Western Lowland Gorillas left, which are being gradually forced in to smaller groups by hunting and the destruction of their habitat by logging. In the west of the country, there are only 250 Cross River Gorillas left.
Hunting does not just affect adult apes. One hunter said a baby gorilla had screamed so much for its dead mother, killed for her meat, that he eventually killed it to stop the noise.
Most of the gorillas and chimps Ms Hogan and her team look after are babies who have witnessed the murder of their parents. She says they are often suffering from terrible wounds and even trauma when they arrive at the sanctuary. "They grieve just like humans," she says. "We have had them where they will just sit rocking, grinding their teeth and they don't respond to anything. You have to be able to win back their trust."
Ms Hogan says the apes can even die after the trauma. "They'll stop eating, they won't respond to anything... [They] decide whether they live or die. It's like watching a clock wind down."
The increasing number of rescued apes is putting pressure on the sanctuary. A group of eight gorillas in the wild, protected by one dominant male, needs 16 square kilometres to roam in to live comfortably.
The sanctuary says there is nowhere in the vast tropical rainforest of Cameroon that the apes can safely be returned to the wild. "If this continues there might not be any wild populations of gorillas left," says Ms Hogan.
'Unreported World: The Monkey Business', Channel 4, 7.30pm tonight
Continue Reading:Out of Africa - How HIV was born
Deep in the rainforest of south-east Cameroon, the voices of the men rang through the trees. "Where are the white people?" they shouted. The men, who begin to surround us, are poachers, who make their money from the illegal slaughter of gorillas and chimpanzees. They disperse but make it known that they are not keen for their activities to be reported; the trade they ply could not only wipe out critically endangered species but, scientists are now warning, could also create the next pandemic of a deadly virus in humans.
Eighty per cent of the meat eaten in Cameroon is killed in the wild and is known as "bushmeat". The nation's favoured dishes are gorilla, chimpanzee or monkey because of their succulent and tender flesh. According to one estimate, up to 3,000 gorillas are slaughtered in southern Cameroon every year to supply an illicit but pervasive commercial demand for ape meat .
"Everyone is eating it," said one game warden. "If they have money they will buy gorilla or chimp to eat."
Frankie, a poacher in the southern Dja Wildlife reserve who gave a fake name, said he is involved in the trade because he can earn good money from it, charging around £60 per adult gorilla killed. "I have to make a living," he said. "Women come from the market and order a gorilla or a chimp and I go and kill them."
Cameroon's south-eastern rainforests are also home to the Baka – traditional forest hunters who have the legal right to hunt wild animals, with the exception of great apes.
Felix Biango, a Baka elder, said the group used to hunt gorilla every few weeks to feed his village, Ayene, but has stopped since Cameroon outlawed the practice 10 years ago. However, he says that every week, three or four people come from the cities to ask the group to help them to hunt wild animals, such as gorillas and chimpanzees.
While the Baka no longer hunt primates for themselves, Mr Biango says that they still kill gorillas for the commercial trade and will eat the meat if they find the animals already dead.
Though Cameroonians have eaten primate meat for years, recent health scares have begun to raise fears about the safety of the meat. "In the village of Bakaklion our brothers found a dead gorilla in the forest," Mr Biango said. "They took it back to the village and ate the meat. Almost immediately, everyone died – 25 men, women and children – the only person who didn't was a woman who didn't eat the meat."
Three-quarters of all new human viruses are known to come from animals, and some scientists believe humans are particularly susceptible to those carried by apes. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is now widely believed to have originated in chimps. Apes are known to host other potentially deadly viruses, such as ebola, anthrax, yellow fever and other potential viruses yet to be discovered.
Babila Tafon, head vet at the primate sanctuary Ape Action Africa (AAA), in Mefou, just outside the capital Yaounde, believes the incident that Biango describes could have been caused by an outbreak of ebola, but cannot be sure because no tests were carried out.
AAA now cares for 22 gorillas and more than one hundred chimps – all orphans of the bushmeat trade.
Mr Tafon tests the blood of all apes arriving at the sanctuary. He says he has recently detected a new virus in the apes – simian foamy virus, which is closely related to HIV. "A recent survey confirmed this is now in humans, especially in some of those who are hunters and cutting up the apes in the south-east of the country," he said.
Viruses are often transferred from ape to human through a bite, scratch or the blood of a dead ape getting into an open wound. There is a lower risk from eating cooked or smoked primates, but it is not completely safe.
Bushmeat is not only a concern for Cameroonians. Each year, an estimated 11,000 tons of bushmeat is illegally smuggled in to the UK, mainly from West Africa, and is known to include some ape meat.
The transfer of viruses from ape to man is a primary concern for the international virology research and referral base run by the Pasteur Centre in Yaounde. Each week, it screens more than 500 blood samples for all manner of viruses, and alerts major international medical research centres if it finds an unfamiliar strain.
Professor Dominique Baudon, the director of the Cameroon centre, says he is concerned that the bushmeat trade is a major gateway for animal viruses to enter humans worldwide, due to the export trade.
He says that the deeper poachers go in to the forest, and the more that primates are consumed, the more exposed people become to new unknown viruses and the more potential there is for the viruses to mutate into potentially aggressive forms. At the Ape Action Africa sanctuary, Rachel Hogan, who came to Cameroon from Birmingham 11 years ago, and her team focus on the last of Cameroon's great apes.
It is not known exactly how many gorillas remain in the wild in Cameroon. Conservationists estimates there may be only a few thousand Western Lowland Gorillas left, which are being gradually forced in to smaller groups by hunting and the destruction of their habitat by logging. In the west of the country, there are only 250 Cross River Gorillas left.
Hunting does not just affect adult apes. One hunter said a baby gorilla had screamed so much for its dead mother, killed for her meat, that he eventually killed it to stop the noise.
Most of the gorillas and chimps Ms Hogan and her team look after are babies who have witnessed the murder of their parents. She says they are often suffering from terrible wounds and even trauma when they arrive at the sanctuary. "They grieve just like humans," she says. "We have had them where they will just sit rocking, grinding their teeth and they don't respond to anything. You have to be able to win back their trust."
Ms Hogan says the apes can even die after the trauma. "They'll stop eating, they won't respond to anything... [They] decide whether they live or die. It's like watching a clock wind down."
The increasing number of rescued apes is putting pressure on the sanctuary. A group of eight gorillas in the wild, protected by one dominant male, needs 16 square kilometres to roam in to live comfortably.
The sanctuary says there is nowhere in the vast tropical rainforest of Cameroon that the apes can safely be returned to the wild. "If this continues there might not be any wild populations of gorillas left," says Ms Hogan.
'Unreported World: The Monkey Business', Channel 4, 7.30pm tonight
Continue Reading:Out of Africa - How HIV was born
Theresa May: we'll stop migrants if euro collapses
More at UK Telegraph...
Number of the Week: Half of U.S. Lives in Household Getting Benefits
49.1%: Percent of the population that lives in a household where at least one member received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2011.
Cutting government spending is no easy task, and it’s made more complicated by recent Census Bureau data showing that nearly half of the people in the U.S. live in a household that receives at least one government benefit, and many likely received more than one.
The 49.1% of the population in a household that gets benefits is up from 30% in the early 1980s and 44.4% as recently as the third quarter of 2008.
The increase in recent years is likely due in large part to the lingering effects of the recession. As of early 2011, 15% of people lived in a household that received food stamps, 26% had someone enrolled in Medicaid and 2% had a member receiving unemployment benefits. Families doubling up to save money or pool expenses also is likely leading to more multigenerational households. But even without the effects of the recession, there would be a larger reliance on government.
The Census data show that 16% of the population lives in a household where at least one member receives Social Security and 15% receive or live with someone who gets Medicare. There is likely a lot of overlap, since Social Security and Medicare tend to go hand in hand, but those percentages also are likely to increase as the Baby Boom generation ages.
With increased government spending comes the need to pay for it, and if taxes aren’t going to increase that means deficits. Nearly three-quarters of Americans blame the U.S. budget deficit on spending too much money on federal programs, according to a Gallup poll last year, but when the conversation turns to which programs to cut, the majorities are harder to find. For example, 56% of respondents oppose making significant changes to Social Security or Medicare.
The more people who receive benefits, the harder it’s going to be to make cuts, and it’s never popular to raise taxes. In some respects that argues for letting a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that is set to automatically hit in 2013 take effect. There’s just one problem: the Congressional Budget Office says it would sink the economy into recession.
Letting the 2013 provisions come into force would be like dealing with a weight problem by cutting off your right arm. It may not be popular, but a long-term, well-planned diet is the only solution.
Cutting government spending is no easy task, and it’s made more complicated by recent Census Bureau data showing that nearly half of the people in the U.S. live in a household that receives at least one government benefit, and many likely received more than one.
The increase in recent years is likely due in large part to the lingering effects of the recession. As of early 2011, 15% of people lived in a household that received food stamps, 26% had someone enrolled in Medicaid and 2% had a member receiving unemployment benefits. Families doubling up to save money or pool expenses also is likely leading to more multigenerational households. But even without the effects of the recession, there would be a larger reliance on government.
The Census data show that 16% of the population lives in a household where at least one member receives Social Security and 15% receive or live with someone who gets Medicare. There is likely a lot of overlap, since Social Security and Medicare tend to go hand in hand, but those percentages also are likely to increase as the Baby Boom generation ages.
With increased government spending comes the need to pay for it, and if taxes aren’t going to increase that means deficits. Nearly three-quarters of Americans blame the U.S. budget deficit on spending too much money on federal programs, according to a Gallup poll last year, but when the conversation turns to which programs to cut, the majorities are harder to find. For example, 56% of respondents oppose making significant changes to Social Security or Medicare.
The more people who receive benefits, the harder it’s going to be to make cuts, and it’s never popular to raise taxes. In some respects that argues for letting a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that is set to automatically hit in 2013 take effect. There’s just one problem: the Congressional Budget Office says it would sink the economy into recession.
Letting the 2013 provisions come into force would be like dealing with a weight problem by cutting off your right arm. It may not be popular, but a long-term, well-planned diet is the only solution.
House to examine plan for United Nations to regulate the Internet
House lawmakers will consider an international proposal next week to give the United Nations more control over the Internet.
The proposal is backed by China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members, and would give the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) more control over the governance of the Internet.
It’s an unpopular idea with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress, and officials with the Obama administration have also criticized it.
“We're quite concerned,” Larry Strickling, the head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in an interview with The Hill earlier this year.
He said the measure would expose the Internet to “top-down regulation where it's really the governments that are at the table, but the rest of the stakeholders aren't.”
At a hearing earlier this month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also criticized the proposal. He said China and Russia are "not exactly bastions of Internet freedom."
"Any place that bans certain terms from search should not be a leader in international Internet regulatory frameworks," he said, adding that he will keep a close eye on the process.
Yet the proposal could come up for a vote at a UN conference in Dubai in December.
SOURCE: The Hill
The proposal is backed by China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members, and would give the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) more control over the governance of the Internet.
It’s an unpopular idea with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress, and officials with the Obama administration have also criticized it.
“We're quite concerned,” Larry Strickling, the head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in an interview with The Hill earlier this year.
He said the measure would expose the Internet to “top-down regulation where it's really the governments that are at the table, but the rest of the stakeholders aren't.”
At a hearing earlier this month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also criticized the proposal. He said China and Russia are "not exactly bastions of Internet freedom."
"Any place that bans certain terms from search should not be a leader in international Internet regulatory frameworks," he said, adding that he will keep a close eye on the process.
Yet the proposal could come up for a vote at a UN conference in Dubai in December.
SOURCE: The Hill
Egyptians warned: Muslim Brotherhood 'stealing your revolution'
Islamist and ex-PM vie for mantle of Egypt's revolt
(Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood and a military man close to ousted leader Hosni Mubarak courted defeated first-round candidates in Egypt's presidential election on Saturday, each trying to claim the mantle of the uprising before a run-off next month.
FULL STORY>>
FULL STORY>>
American terror group violently attacks Euro-American mtg. with clubs
Updated: May 26, 2012 2:09AM
A horde of masked figures stormed the restaurant in a single-file line, wielding bats, claw hammers and metal batons — their presence announced when one shouted, “‘Hey, bitches, the ARA is going to f--- up this place.’ ”
With that, the shrouded thugs went on a rampage, clubbing diners at The Ashford House restaurant on May 19 in Tinley Park. They did not discriminate as to the targets of their violence, even pushing an 80-year-old woman to the ground, according to an eyewitness who’s a former Chicago police officer.
“Although the terrorist assault lasted only about a minute, it was the longest minute of my life,” the eyewitness said.
Authorities have said the attackers were targeting a group that believes in white supremacy and calls itself the Illinois European Heritage Association. At least 10 people were hurt during the attack, with three taken to a hospital for treatment.
Five Indiana men who prosecutors say are linked to the Anti-Racist Action Group remain in the Cook County Jail, charged with felony mob action, aggravated battery and criminal damage to property. They are John Tucker, 26, of Martinsville, Ind.; Cody Sutherlin, 23, and Alex Stuck, 22, both of Bloomington, Ind.; and Dylan Sutherlin, 20, and Jason Sutherlin, 33, both of Gosport, Ind. Two victims also were arrested on charges unrelated to the attack.
The Anti-Racist Action Group (ARA) is a “radical left-wing group” that often resorts to violent acts, said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization based in Montgomery, Ala. The attack, he said, “did more harm to the cause of fighting racism than almost anyone can imagine.”
It was easy for the Anti-Racist Action Group to learn the other group was meeting in Tinley Park because it was advertised on two white supremacist websites, Potok said.
“It was incredibly foolish of them,” he said.
A member of the Illinois European Heritage Association has denied the group believes in white supremacy.
But one of the websites, Stormfront, is run by a man who is a former high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, Potok said, and the other, White News Now, is operated by the former “right-hand man to David Duke, the former Klan leader.
The eyewitness, whose identity the SouthtownStar has agreed to keep private because the man fears retaliation, said he and his family were having lunch when the frightening attack started. He quickly realized what he thought was a robbery had turned into a fight for his life.
“I also remember thinking that this must be the feeling that passengers experience on a hijacked plane,” he said.
The attackers began upending tables, hurling plates and silverware and attacking other diners.
“I stood up and grabbed a wooden chair as one of the assailants approached from the left. I started swinging the chair to protect my family and other elderly patrons in our corner,” the man says in a written statement. “Suddenly, another assailant charged at me from the right. He was violently swinging a metal baton. The terrorist swung two or three times at my head and face. Thank God I was able to block the brunt (of) his attack with the chair.”
The witness said he shared his account because he wants people to patronize The Ashford House, 7959 W. 159th St. He suffered a gash to his head, and one of his hands was still swollen days after the attack. But his injuries did not prevent him from dispensing some justice of his own.
“When I was fending them off, I realized my head was bleeding. And my hand was really hurting,” he said. “But when one of those guys said, ‘Don’t let him up,’ I ran across the room and hit him as hard as I could in the face with a chair.”
SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times
With that, the shrouded thugs went on a rampage, clubbing diners at The Ashford House restaurant on May 19 in Tinley Park. They did not discriminate as to the targets of their violence, even pushing an 80-year-old woman to the ground, according to an eyewitness who’s a former Chicago police officer.
“Although the terrorist assault lasted only about a minute, it was the longest minute of my life,” the eyewitness said.
Authorities have said the attackers were targeting a group that believes in white supremacy and calls itself the Illinois European Heritage Association. At least 10 people were hurt during the attack, with three taken to a hospital for treatment.
Five Indiana men who prosecutors say are linked to the Anti-Racist Action Group remain in the Cook County Jail, charged with felony mob action, aggravated battery and criminal damage to property. They are John Tucker, 26, of Martinsville, Ind.; Cody Sutherlin, 23, and Alex Stuck, 22, both of Bloomington, Ind.; and Dylan Sutherlin, 20, and Jason Sutherlin, 33, both of Gosport, Ind. Two victims also were arrested on charges unrelated to the attack.
The Anti-Racist Action Group (ARA) is a “radical left-wing group” that often resorts to violent acts, said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization based in Montgomery, Ala. The attack, he said, “did more harm to the cause of fighting racism than almost anyone can imagine.”
It was easy for the Anti-Racist Action Group to learn the other group was meeting in Tinley Park because it was advertised on two white supremacist websites, Potok said.
“It was incredibly foolish of them,” he said.
A member of the Illinois European Heritage Association has denied the group believes in white supremacy.
But one of the websites, Stormfront, is run by a man who is a former high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, Potok said, and the other, White News Now, is operated by the former “right-hand man to David Duke, the former Klan leader.
The eyewitness, whose identity the SouthtownStar has agreed to keep private because the man fears retaliation, said he and his family were having lunch when the frightening attack started. He quickly realized what he thought was a robbery had turned into a fight for his life.
“I also remember thinking that this must be the feeling that passengers experience on a hijacked plane,” he said.
The attackers began upending tables, hurling plates and silverware and attacking other diners.
“I stood up and grabbed a wooden chair as one of the assailants approached from the left. I started swinging the chair to protect my family and other elderly patrons in our corner,” the man says in a written statement. “Suddenly, another assailant charged at me from the right. He was violently swinging a metal baton. The terrorist swung two or three times at my head and face. Thank God I was able to block the brunt (of) his attack with the chair.”
The witness said he shared his account because he wants people to patronize The Ashford House, 7959 W. 159th St. He suffered a gash to his head, and one of his hands was still swollen days after the attack. But his injuries did not prevent him from dispensing some justice of his own.
“When I was fending them off, I realized my head was bleeding. And my hand was really hurting,” he said. “But when one of those guys said, ‘Don’t let him up,’ I ran across the room and hit him as hard as I could in the face with a chair.”
SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times
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