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POPSF-35 Squabble Could Kill Hate Bill Perfect, we need to get behind this and use it destroy the Totalitarian hate crimes bill, which is something even Bush would have shied away from. "The best way to assist veto of the defense/hate bill combination is to revive grassroots protest of the hate bill. We must convince Obama and Democrats in Congress that Americans hate the hate bill. They must know that Obama’s signature will result in even more town hall-style outrage against Democrats–and certain revenge in midterm elections next year Here’s how you can help
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POPSOur Tax Dollars At Work-Blackwater
More from the article as follows: "The Nisour Square shooting was the bloodiest and most controversial episode involving Blackwater in the Iraq war. At midday on Sept. 16, 2007, a Blackwater convoy opened fire on Iraqi civilians in the crowded intersection, spraying automatic weapons fire in ways that investigators later claimed was indiscriminate, and even launching grenades into a nearby school. Seventeen Iraqis were killed and dozens more were wounded." "Those responses deeply worried Blackwater officials. Before the Nisour Square shootings, the company had operated in Iraq without a license largely because the Iraqi government had never enforced the rules. Being blocked from the country would have been costly — the State Department deal was Blackwater’s single biggest contract. From 2004 through today, the company has collected more than $1.5 billion for its work protecting American diplomats and providing air transportation for them inside Iraq." "
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POPSBlackwater:Ain't Misbehaving, Saving My Contracts for You
Of course the US government was blind to this - they didn't want to know, they turned a blind eye to what Blackwater was doing because it would have been too hard to arrange for another contractor to do all the security missions that it had ongoing. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there are as many private contractors as there are uniformed military personnel. Most of them are not security guards as Blackwater's most visible function was. The lack of oversight is abhorrent but not surprising; the State Dept's failure to can this company is inexcusable. My only observation on this article is to suggest how the US government got into this predicament, and it's pretty easy to see. The Bush administration wanted to hold onto the fiction of a few conservative principles, one of those being the concept of a small federal government. Since it already blew that "principle" with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, I'm betting there was White House guidance that directed "no mo
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POPSFt. Hood Shooter’s Computer Reveals al Qaeda Connection
...who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak publicly. “The motive behind the massacre appears to be rooted in his ideology, an ideology which was emboldened by online activity,” added this source. As indicated by a ABC News Online article, intelligence sources reportedly had a level of knowledge that HASAN was in communication with al Qaeda assets abroad. The source speaking to this author confirmed that report but went further, stating that this and information similar but not directly related to such communications became a “political issue” between government agencies and officials “at the policy making levels” of the administration. According to this source, the now infamous pre-9/11 walls erected within government agencies have returned, “but this time they are higher and stronger.” “There is an unwillingness to address ‘delicate’ intelligence and security matters by sharing information outside of the beltway and that directive comes right from the top.
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POPSFt. Hood suspect reportedly shouted `Allahu Akbar' At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades. Investigators had not determined for certain whether Hasan was the author of the posting, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case. The FBI, local police and other agencies searched Hasan's apartment Thursday night after evacuating the complex in Killeen, said city spokeswoman Hilary Shine. She referred questions about what was found to the FBI. The FBI in Dallas referred questions to a spokesman who was not immediately available early Friday morning.
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POPSDem contingency plan for NJ Gov election They allegedly obtained messenger ballots from the county clerk and submitted them to the board of elections as votes on behalf of voters who, in fact, never received or voted the ballots or, in some cases, were given only the security envelope for the ballot and were told to sign it. Those voters were not given the opportunity to vote in most instances.
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POPSObama raise drone attacks
The obscenity of this policy is seldom mentioned. " the drone attacks have backfired. As he told The New Yorker, "Every one of these dead non-combatants represents an alienated family, a new revenge feud, and more recruits for a militant movement that has grown exponentially even as drone strikes have increased." And because of the C.I.A. program's secrecy, Mayer writes, "there is no visible system of accountability in place, despite the fact that the agency has killed many civilians inside a politically fragile, nuclear-armed country with which the U.S. is not at war." The New Yorker further reports the Obama Administration has also expanded the sphere of authorized drone assaults in Afghanistan. An August Senate Foreign Relations Committee report said the Pentagon's list of approved terrorist targets held 367 names and included some 50 Afghan drug lords "who are suspected of giving money to help finance the Taliban," Mayer reports. She quotes the Senate report as stating, "The
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POPS 6 Arrested in Inside Trade Case Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said the charges show Rajaratnam's "secret of success was not genius trading strategies." "He is not the master of the universe. He is a master of the Rolodex," Khuzami said. Rajaratnam, 52, was ranked No. 559 by Forbes magazine this year among the world's wealthiest billionaires, with a $1.3 billion net worth. Also charged in the scheme are Rajiv Goel, 51, of Los Altos, California, a director of strategic investments at Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp., Anil Kumar, 51, of Santa Clara, California, a director at McKinsey & Co. Inc., a global management consulting firm, and Robert Moffat, 53, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, senior vice president and group executive at International Business Machines Corp.'s Systems and Technology Group. The others charged in the case were identified as Danielle Chiesi, 43, and Mark Kurland, 60, both of New York City.
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POPS Securing the Web (These types of security checks operate in the background: they don't require you, for instance, to reenter your user name and password.) Many web applications also "sanitize" data posted by their subscribers: if a friend posts something to your social-network page, the application probably won't show you the post without inspecting it for malicious code. "We've looked at a lot of these web applications, and there's literally hundreds of places where these checks happen," says Nickolai Zeldovich, an assistant professor in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Indeed, Zeldovich and his colleagues identified one popular web application that sanitized data in more than 1,400 places (but still had about 60 security holes). They also, however, identified a feature that web application security checks usually had in common: "Namely," Zeldovich says, "it's that the same data is being handled in all these hundreds of places."
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POPSSF piers being invaded by sea lions More: There are specific authorized measures, and Hyde Street covered all bases, consulting nearly a dozen agencies and marinas, and gaining federal approval for action. At last month's meeting of the Fisherman's Wharf Waterfront Advisory Group, Dolphin Club President Ken Coren was encouraged by the port's plans: "These are formidable animals. ... Once they are established, they are not going away." Marine Mammal Center Executive Director Jeff Boehm confirms that sea lion populations are up statewide. The causes are uncertain, but he says Hyde Street is going about controlling the situation "as they should be, with appropriate passive and obstructive tools." Even with federal approval, Prince is mildly apprehensive about the growing attention. One comment he got last week was that "the problem isn't sea lions, but that the planet is infested with humans."
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POPSPuerto Rico: Massive Layoffs and a Scramble to Resist Critics say the layoffs, together with unprecedented budget cuts, will have a devastating impact on workers and their families—in addition to crippling many government agencies, including those that provide basic services and serve vulnerable groups, such as battered women and the elderly.
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POPS$20.3 MILLION to refugee assistance act for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register. (Presidential Sig.) THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, January 27, 2009 Billing code 4710-10-P SUMMARY: Presidential Documents DOCUMENT BODY: ] Presidential Determination No. 2009-15 of January 27, 2009 Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related To Gaza Memorandum for the Secretary of State By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of
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POPSCharges Filed against Rockefeller Among the revelations from the Horowitz-Kane research are those linking Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties, Inc., and the 9-11 terrorist attacks, to the drug cartel's geopolitical, economic, and population reduction activities. Mr. Silverstein, leaser of the World Trade Center who authorized to have Building-7 "pulled" is a chief suspect in the "9-11 truth" investigation. Silverstein is currently landlord and co-partner in the biotechnology trust founded by David Rockefeller and implicated by these new discoveries.
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POPSSupport the JUSTICE Act to Amend PATRIOT ACT Abuses This is about the Constitution and freedom for Americans from government intrusion. Read this and consider contacting your Congressmen immediately. This is a non-partisan issue. If conservative republicans in particular really support the Constitution they need to man-up and support this to really "defend freedom", instead of paying lip service to our liberties! What do you think 1776 was all about anyway? It was about restraining government from tyranny, in particular from the more conservative Tories under King George! Obama wants to continue the same Bush provisions...is that good....to sacrifice your precious liberties for "security"? You ought to know better than that: Those Who Would Sacrifice Liberty for Security Deserve Neither -- Ben Franklin "In short, the JUSTICE Act would give government agents powerful tools to spy on suspected terrorists, while preventing them from spying on YOU."
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POPSWhere Pot is Legal California now has more than two hundred thousand physician-sanctioned pot users and hundreds of dispensaries.
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POPSAmazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
Amazon effectively acknowledged that the deletions were a bad idea. “We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances,” Mr. Herdener said. Customers whose books were deleted indicated that MobileReference, a digital publisher, had sold them. An e-mail message to SoundTells, the company that owns MobileReference, was not immediately returned. Digital books bought for the Kindle are sent to it over a wireless network. Amazon can also use that network to synchronize electronic books between devices — and apparently to make them vanish. An authorized digital edition of “1984” from its American publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, was still available on the Kindle store Friday night, but there was no such version of “Animal Farm.” People who bought the rescinded editions of the books reacted with indignation, while acknowledging the literary ironies involved. “Of all the books to recall,” said Charles Slat
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POPSNew USA Missile Defense Strategy President Obama has ended plans to put missiles on the Russian border, in Poland. The Bush plans were stated to be as a protection from Iran. Russia considered missiles on its border to be a threat and was determined to stop the project, threatening a military strike and also targeting European cities with nukes.
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POPSAlex Jones & Charlie Sheen's 20 Minute Hoax This was a fraudulent publicity stunt, deliberately done. A. Jones is a fraud out for money and web hits and discredits legitimate questions by doing so. The truth is too important for gimmicks and fraudulent games like this.
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POPSWhat Ted Kennedy got right "He was also a longtime proponent of amending the U.S. Constitution to allow 18 year old citizens to vote. "Long ago, according to historians, the age of maturity was fixed at 21, because that was the age at which a young man was thought to be capable of bearing armor. Strange as it may seem, the weight of armor in the 11th century governs the right to vote of Americans in the 20th century," said Kennedy in 1970. His dream was accomplished in 1971 with the signing of the Twenty-sixth Amendment that lowered the voted age from 21 to 18."
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POPSCIA threatened to kill children; rape mother
Ah! There's nothing like the truth starting to show through the fading veneer. These were the techniques the Bush and Cheney authorized and then successfully hid from exposure, claiming we can't let the terrorist know our tactics. Note: the steps towards official Dept. of Justice (the Obama DOJ, not the DOJ of the Bush nightmare years)...an official prosecution took another big step. 8AM today it was announced this was recommended. 10AM today Obama appointed Attorney General, Eric Holder, has asked a federal prosecutor John Durham to investigate. So...the Bush Administration ignored clearly stated warnings and had the biggest domestic attack on US soil in our history (Um...not counting the British and our own Civil War). Then they turned to Nazi-like tactics of torture, secret prisons, kidnapping, holding people without trail...even, btw, murder of POW's (we haven't got much coverage of that - yet.). Then, starting a war based on deliberately fabricate lies. Just
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POPSUPDATE: Bombs And Mortars Kill At Least 50 In Iraqi Capital Series of Blasts in Central Baghdad Kill at Least 50, Injure 300, Police Say http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,540468,00.html BAGHDAD — Iraqi police and medical officials say at least six bomb and mortar attacks have struck high-profile targets in central Baghdad, including one near the parliament building, killing at least 50 people and wounding 300 others. It was not yet immediately clear where the other deaths among the 50 people killed occurred. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. AP Television News footage from inside parliament showed debris and broken glass from the blast in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. It wasn't immediately clear what caused that explosion. The Green Zone has often been a target of insurgent mortar and rocket attacks. The Associated Press contributed to this report.