Thursday, February 23, 2012

Breaking News Thurs. Feb. 23, 2012

Sorry I'm running a little late today, I went out to check on the greenhouse and it is so beautiful outside, I had trouble making myself come back in the house. LOL it's going to be in the lower 70's here today.
damn.
but hey...
Check this out.
Zerohedge: Top Social Media Websites Caught Censoring Controversial Content
Facebook pays low-wage foreign workers to delete certain content based upon a censorship list. For example, Facebook deletes accounts created by Palestinian resistance groups.
Digg was caught censoring stories which were controversial or too critical of the government. See this and this.
Now, even social media site Reddit – which helped launch the anti-Sopa Internet blackout and publicize GoDaddy’s slimy Sopa support – is doing the same thing.


Much much thanks to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for their help today!
Be sure to check out their blogs and also the forums linked at the bottom of this post.
Do that, then go outside, that's where I'm going. :D

Japan
DesdemonaDespair: Japan’s nuclear evacuees denied refuge in Canada
BBC: Cruise finds Fukushima pollution

Global Conflict
You gotta read the following article. Thank you RJ!

CounterPunch: What Really Happened in the “Yom Kippur” War?
NYT: Obama Sends Apology as Afghan Koran Protests Rage 
LegitGov: Fortress DC: New Capitol lockdown plan in works
IBTimes: Iran vs. Israel: Besides A-bomb Fear, Could Israel's Huge Gas Find Trigger Hostility?
IBTimes: Marie Colvin's Last Dispatch from Syria [GRAPHIC VIDEO]
McClatchy: 9 die in 2nd day of Afghan protests over Quran burnings
McClatchy: Pakistani health workers punished for helping U.S. find bin Laden
Reuters: Syrian tanks attack in Homs, world outrage grows
McClatchy: Syrian forces retake Zabadani as rebels withdraw, refugees say

USAToday: Attacks across Baghdad kill 50 
NYT: Afghan Protests Over Burning of Korans Spread for 3d Day 
VOA: Bomb Rips Through Bus Station in Pakistan - Officials say a car bomb has ripped through a bus terminal in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 12 people. 
VOA: Rights Groups: Syria Escalating Violent Campaign Against Journalists 

Atlantic: Would a Preemptive Attack Ensure That Iran Gets Nuclear Weapons?
Reuters: World security at stake in Somalia chaos, UK says
CBSNews: Afghan soldier kills 2 US troops 
RawStory: War and neglect leaves 500,000 Afghans homeless: Amnesty 
CNN: Taliban urge Muslims to kill NATO troops over Quran burning - The Taliban in Afghanistan called on Muslims Thursday to attack NATO military bases and convoys and kill its soldiers as demonstrations over Quran burning intensified.
Time: What Iran's Inspection Rebuff Says About Prospects for Nuclear Diplomacy
CNN: Cameron warns global security rests on Somalia's future 
JTA: Iran denies part in recent attacks in letter to Security Council 
Spiegel: The World from Berlin: 'Iranian Regime Will Make No Concessions' 
MSNBC: US, N. Korea in first nuclear talks since Kim death 
MSNBC: Iran blocking 30 million from email, Web ahead of election  

OWS
Truthout: Occupy for Prisoners Comes Out Against Mass Incarceration - "In the United States, more than 2.2 million people sit behind bars, according to the Justice Policy Institute.... But behind the shocking statistics are harsh sentencing laws and lucrative contracts for private prison firms that continue to drive the mass incarceration system, say the protesters at Occupy for Prisons, and they are calling for a fundamental change to the system."
RawStory: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ announces convention in Philadelphia for July
eXiled: The Occupy Super PAC Non-Story: How Lazy Hacks Helped Breitbart Smear the Occupy Movement
Truthout: We Are All Greeks Now
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "They chanted, 'We. Are. The 99 percent' with Greek accents in Zuccotti Park on Saturday. Greek-Americans, nationals and immigrants were joined by Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters in a show of solidarity with the people of Greece, thousands of whom took to the streets to protest the latest round of International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity cuts."
PlutocracyFiles: Georgia's Reaction to Occupy Striking With AT&T Workers -  ALERT:: here comes the full on assault on BOTH the labor movement, Occupy, and all social justice organizations in Georgia. : Georgia Senate Bill 469 (SB469), introduced today, attempts to effectively bankrupt labor organizations in our state and prevent our movements from 'mass picketing' outside of a business or private residence we 'target' with penalties up to $10,000 per day of violation. But there's more....perhaps the most blatant and outrageous assault on our movements, coming right on the heels of our historic direct action at Occupy AT&T is Section 5- which will make it a FELONY to 'conspire' to commit criminal trespass while engaged in a political direct action- the act that 12 of us led last Monday at AT&T. There is no coincidence that the anti-worker, corporate funded, sponsors of SB 469 have set their targets on ALL progressive social forces in Georgia and thus require our immediate and unified response. This bill poses an absolute attack on basic worker rights and on all of our movements- but should also be viewed as a historic opportunity for us to mobilize a response in kind with even more united, bold series of actions to defeat it. Read the bill in its entirety here: http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2011_12/versions/sb469_As_introduced_LC_37_1386ER_2.htm 
PlutocracyFiles: UC Davis Students Sue Over Pepper-Spray Cop


Domestic Financial News
BusinessInsider: ALBERT EDWARDS: Dear Investors: Prepare For The Market To Rip Out Your Hope, And Consume It In Front Of Your Eyes - Well this is going to be the hot read of the day. Albert Edwards blasts the rally, and says there's still way too much "hope" and that only when the hope is totally gone will we know the great ice age is over.
ChicagoTribune: Quinn's bad news budget: 'Our rendezvous with reality has arrived'
MathBabe: Creepy model watch
ProjectSyndicate: Too Big to Jail - Simon Johnson - Among the fundamental principles of any functioning justice system is the following: Don’t lie to a judge or falsify documents submitted to a court, or you will go to jail. Breaking an oath to tell the truth is perjury, and lying in official documents is both perjury and fraud. These are serious criminal offenses, but apparently not if you are at the heart of America’s financial system. 
CalculatedRisk: FNC House Prices, Zillow's forecast for Case-Shiller 
CreditWritedowns: The current housing bust is much worse than the Great Depression 
This next one is Brilliant! thanks RJ!
ColumbiaJournalismReview: The “Can’t Find Workers” Meme - In a time when millions of American workers can’t find work, it’s only natural to be intrigued by counterintuitive stories that claim American companies can’t find workers. Today, it’s the Washington Post’s turn to jump on this meme. It reports that manufacturers are having a hard time finding workers to work. Here’s the classically counterintuitive lede: Unemployment hovers above 9 percent. Foreign competition has thrown many out of work. It is a platitude that this industrial hub, like the country itself, needs more manufacturing work. But as the 2012 presidential candidates roam the state offering ways to “bring the jobs back,” many manufacturers say that, in fact, the jobs are already here. What’s missing are the skilled workers needed to fill them. The Post writes that the laid-off workers don’t know how to operate newfangled machinery and that Baby Boomers are retiring but younger generations “have avoided the manufacturing sector because of the volatility and stigma of factory work, as well as perceptions that U.S. manufacturing is a ‘dying industry.’” I have another way to put that: These young folks don’t want to spend a lot of money and time training to do a specific job they might not get only to get laid off when some private-equity slicks (where the real money’s at) buy out the company and ship the jobs to China. That’s what happens when owners and management have shredded the social contract.  
BusinessInsider: JP Morgan Uses European Weakness To Bet Billions On Non-U.S. Homeowners
BusinessWeek: 'PayPal Mafia' Gets RicherTaxFoundation: The President’s Corporate Tax Reform Plan: Rhetoric and Reality - The administration released today its corporate tax reform "framework", which is largely a rehash of previous proposals, but with a lowering of the corporate rate from 35 percent to 28 percent. As with previous proposals, there is a complete disconnect between the rhetoric and reality, particularly in regards to simplification of the tax code and elimination of special interest loopholes, aka tax expenditures.
FDL: Tom Miller, HUD Officials Laugh at Schneiderman Publicly
Politico: Firedog bitten - Firedoglake.com, the progressive website that has closely followed the settlement between the feds, states and mortgage lenders, somehow interpreted my story on HUD chief Shaun Donovan as a riff on how HUD and its allies gamed NYAG Eric Schneiderman into accepting a weak deal.
NACA: Servicers Continue to Wrongfully Initiate Foreclosures: All Types of Loans Affected - pdf - A February 2012 survey by the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA),i the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)ii and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA)iii demonstrates that mortgage servicers continue to initiate foreclosure proceedings improperly, either while a homeowner is awaiting a loan modification or due to improper fees or payment processing.
PublicCitizen: Sign the Petition to Break Up Bank of America
DealBook:NYT: Responding to Critics, S.E.C. Defends ‘No Wrongdoing’ Settlements - The chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission defended the agency’s record of settling fraud cases with Wall Street companies, saying on Wednesday that she believed the agency’s practices “clearly have deterrent value,” even though firms were often charged repeatedly for violating the same securities laws.
Time: Why Lower Corporate Taxes Won’t Create More Jobs
BusinessWeek: Three Types of People to Fire Immediately
 

Global Financial News
Keiser Report: Hang-a-Banker-a-Week! (E252)
ETFDaily: Could China’s Dragon Economy Lose Its Fire?
IBTimes: Nightline Tours Apple’s Foxconn Factory in China: 10 Things We Learned
BusinessInsider: There's A Huge Problem With The German Economy — And It Affects Everyone
Truthout: How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street
Ellen Brown, Web of Debt Blog: "The financial sector called [the Black-Scholes equation that opened up the world of derivatives] the Midas Formula and saw it as a recipe for making everything turn to gold. But the markets forgot how the story of King Midas ended. As Aristotle told this ancient Greek tale, Midas died of hunger as a result of his vain prayer for the golden touch. Today, the Greek people are going hungry to protect a rigged $32 trillion Wall Street casino."
FuelFix: China unveils plan to loosen capital controls
BusinessInsider: Global Markets Are Rallying, While European Banks Report Big Losses
Atlantic: The Next 5 Emerging Economies That Will Change the World
BBC: EU sees 'mild' eurozone recession
BBC: RBS bank's loss doubles in 2011 - State-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland reports a loss of £2bn in 2011, its fourth year of losses since the bank's bailout in 2008.
FT: Germany fights eurozone firewall moves 
MacroBusiness: More zombie PMIs - Last night saw the release of the February Flash PMIs in Europe and, like the Chinese result yesterday, the pulse towards growth that was apparent in January is fading in February. The headline results were weak:
MacroBusiness: Chinese inflation is here to stay 
FT: Wage Hikes in China Threaten Electronics Industry
FT: Fitch Downgrades Greece 

Peak Oil and Energy News
EnergyBulletin: Peak oil - Feb 22
NationOfChange: The Gas Wars - Robert Reich, Op-Ed: Nothing drives voter sentiment like the price of gas – now averaging $3.56 a gallon, up 30 cents from the start of the year. It’s already hit $4 in some places. The last time gas topped $4 was 2008. And nothing energizes Republicans like rising energy prices. Last week House Speaker John Boehner told Republicans to take advantage of voters’ looming anger over prices at the pump. On Thursday House Republicans passed a bill to expand offshore drilling and force the White House to issue a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. 
NationofChange: Infographic: Illusion of Choice - “Media has never been more consolidated. 6 media giants now control a staggering 90% of what we read, watch or listen to.” 
USAToday: 25% of super PAC money coming from just 5 rich donors - Five wealthy people, led by Dallas industrialist Harold Simmons and Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, have donated nearly $1 of every $4 flowing to the super PACs raising unlimited money in this year's presidential race, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
NYT: The Court and Citizens United II -  The Supreme Court has an opportunity to reconsider its disastrous Citizens United decision. The justices should take it.
AtWarBlogs: NYT: Pentagon Says U.S. Citizens With Terrorism Ties Can Be Targeted in Strikes - The Obama administration’s top Pentagon lawyer on Wednesday said that American citizens who join Al Qaeda can be targeted for killing and that courts should have no role in reviewing executive branch decisions about whether someone has met such criteria.
 Food and Water
Cryptogon: France Asks EU to Suspend GM Crop Authorisation
(Viva la France!)
Truthout: Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in France - Anthony Gucciardi, Natural Society: "In a major victory for public health and what will hopefully lead to other nations taking action, a French court decided today that GMO crops monster Monsanto is guilty of chemically poisoning a French farmer."
SeattleTimes: Farmers furious after Iraq stops buying US rice
 "That's just not right," the 63-year-old Stoesser fumed. "If we've got some rice to sell, they ought to pay a premium for it just because this is the country that freed them."

"You would think with all that we've done over there, there would be a way to get them to do business with us," said Ronald Gertson, who grows rice in Lissie, Texas.
John Alter, 64, also is considering alternatives. Usually, about one-third of his 1,500-acre farm in DeWitt, Ark., is devoted to rice. This year, it would be risky to dedicate too much land to the crop, he said. The loss of imports is disappointing, Alter said, noting the price difference between U.S. rice and Uruguayan grain was small.
"We spent billions and billions, if not trillions over there, and lots of people died," Alter said. "There should be some reciprocation ... Last time I checked, there wasn't any Uruguayan soldiers that lost their lives in Iraq."
 ArsTechnica: Humanity's water footprint: US exports the most, uses the most per capita
Most people are familiar with the concept of a "carbon footprint," and some even feel dutifully guilty about their own. "Water footprints" get a little less play:

Internet and Online Privacy News  
ArsTechinca: As ACTA support falters, treaty referred to European court
The prospects for quick European approval of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement dimmed Wednesday as the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, announced plans to seek an opinion from the European Court of Justice about ACTA's constitutionality.
ActivistPost: McCain to introduce cybersecurity legislation giving even more domestic control to NSA, military
Technolog: Report: These companies sell tech to dictators ActivistPost: Internet Freedom Killer ACTA Suspended for Questionable Legality 
BlacklistedNews: The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom
CNNMoney: Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights
ArsTechnica: White House announces new privacy "Bill of Rights," Do Not Track agreement
BlacklistedNews: Minority Report-Style Advertising Rolled Out In London

WSJ: Web Firms to Adopt 'No Track' Button

Science and Technology

NewScienceMag: Patton Boggs Lobbyists Threatens Scientific Journals with “Consequences” If They Publish or Distribute Diesel Exposure  - A protracted legal battle over an $11.5-million health study into whether diesel exhaust damages the lungs of miners has suddenly widened to take on scientific peer review. Editors with at least four research publications say they have received a letter advising them against "publication or other distribution" of data and draft documents. The warning, including a vague statement about "consequences" that could ensue if the advice is ignored, is signed by Henry Chajet, an attorney at the Patton Boggs firm in Washington, D.C., and a lobbyist for the Mining Awareness Resource Group, which works on behalf of the mining industry.
ArsTechnica: 500,000 zombie PCs imperiled as expiration of court order approaches
Reuters: The Book of Jobs - The drug LSD, referred to 33 times, is clearly important to Jobs. (The FBI thought the same, according to documents released this month.) “How many of you have taken LSD?” Jobs taunts an audience of Stanford business school students. “Are you a virgin? How many times have you taken LSD?” he demands of an Apple interviewee. Bill Gates would “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid.” Tripping was “one of the two or three most important things he’d done in his life.” People who had never dropped acid “would never fully understand him.” The generations that followed his own were more “materialistic” and less “idealistic” for not having tripped; also, they all looked like “virgins.” In the binary world within Steve’s reality, having consumed LSD was the key determinant of whether a colleague or employee was deemed “enlightened” or “an asshole.”
PopSci: Japanese Construction Company Plans Space Elevator By 2050
NewScientist: Men's Y chromosome is not about to go extinct
RawStory: Faulty wire error blamed for ‘faster-than-light’ particles
NewScientist: Prions point to a new style of evolution
ScientificAmerican: New Family of Limbless Amphibians Discovered in India
Wired: In Back Alleys and Basements, Video Arcades Quietly Survive
CNet: Score! NASA spots soccer-ball shape buckyballs in space

Medical and Health
USAToday: Va. governor opposes invasive ultrasound before abortion
ActivistPost: One Too Many In The Cuckoo's Nest -- Shock Therapy Still Used to Control Behavior - Heather Callaghan Activist Post Did you know that electroshock therapy is still a common practice?
PopSci: How Pigs on Antibiotics Are Making Superbugs Stronger
FoxNews: Virginia House passes scaled-back ultrasound bill
BusinessInsider: FDA Overwhelmingly Endorses This Weight Loss Pill (VVUS) - SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A previously rejected weight loss pill won an overwhelming endorsement from public health advisers Wednesday, raising hopes that the drug from Vivus Inc. could become the first new anti-obesity medication to reach the U.S. market in more than a decade.
HuffingtonPost: Georgia Democrats Seek Vasectomy Ban In Response To Abortion Bill
CNN: Migraines may raise depression risk in women, researchers find
PermacultureMag: Chill food without electricity with the flowerpot fridge - Here is a video version of how to make the world's cheapest and easiest refrigerator from two terracotta pots. It uses minimal resources and runs completely without electricity.
Spiegel: Taking a Stand Against Neo-Nazi Terror: Merkel Asks Victims' Relatives for ForgivenessWashingtonPost: ‘Underground palace’ roils Hong Kong leadership race 
MSNBC: Girl forced to run for 3 hours as punishment dies 


Politics
CBSNews: Christie: Buffett should "write a check and shut up"
RawStory: Jon Stewart rips Republican fear-mongering over Obama: ‘You have lost your d*mn mind’ 
UPI: Santorum: I voted for bills I didn't back 
IBTimes: Ray Kelly Death Threats: Gothamist Comments Get Richard Strauss Arrested - A commenter on the Gothamist was arrested for making online death threats targeting Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, according to the New York Post. 49-year-old Richard Strauss posted a series of comments allegedly encouraging New Yorkers to "aim their sights" at Kelly with "a well-placed [bullet] to his thick skull."
SeattleTimes: Romney calls for 20 percent income tax cuts
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Wednesday called for 20 percent across-the-board cuts in personal income tax rates as part of a program to help the economy grow

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