Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The New New World Order.

The New New World Order.

Does Facebook have an operational nuclear weapon yet? What do the analysts think Google’s leadership change will mean to its foreign policy? Is Twitter a destabilizing influence on world peace?

Sure these questions are satirical (sort of) and over the top. But when it comes to navigating the intricate, byzantine landscape of digital power in today’s business, communications and media world, is there any better model than geopolitics? Next Tuesday at ad:tech San Francisco, I’ll be leading a discussion called “The New Power Brokers: Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter & Beyond” featuring Molly Wood (CBS Interactive), Scott Symonds (AKQA) and Shawn Carolan (Menlo Ventures). The first thing I’ll ask them to do is help us understand today’s “Power Brokers” by comparing them to countries. If nothing else, it’s a fascinating parlor game. But it just might end up being a great tool for really making sense of a nonsensical world.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-new-new-world-order-2011-4#ixzz1IiBSr9fn

Who did Mossad catch – terrorist or engineer? — RT

Who did Mossad catch – terrorist or engineer?

A Palestinian engineer has been charged with terrorism by an Israeli court. Dirar Abu Sisi, who was kidnapped from a train in Ukraine by Israeli agents in February, is also accused of conducting training for Palestinian militants in Gaza.

“The rocket godfather of Hamas” – that is how Tel-Aviv has labeled this Palestinian engineer. Israel claims this man was behind the development of Qassam rockets and missiles that can penetrate steel.

“He’s accused of developing Qassam and Grad rockets, and creating rockets with a range of over six kilometers. Belonging to Hamas is a simple accusation. There are charges referring not only to weapons design and military training, but to planning a murder attempt. Such accusations may send him to prison for many years,” explains defense lawyer Tali Linor.

Saudis destroy Bahrain mosque: Video

Saudis destroy Bahrain mosque: Video
New footage from Bahrain shows a mosque in the northern town of Bu Quwah destroyed in attacks by Saudi forces as a growing anti-Riyadh sentiment overruns the Persian Gulf nation.


The video, the latest in a series of pictures depicting the brutal crackdown of anti-regime protests in Bahrain, shows burned pages of the Holy Qur'an buried under masses of debris.

Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo negotiating surrender

Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo negotiating surrender
Ivory Coast's president, Laurent Gbagbo, has been holed up in a bunker with his family and a handful of supporters as army generals negotiated his surrender.

Convoy of soldiers loyal to Ivory Coast presidential claimant Ouattara in Abidjan

Verizon customers exposed in massive U.S. data breach

Verizon customers exposed in massive U.S. data breach

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Customers of Verizon Communications had their email addresses exposed in a massive online data breach last week, according to an email to customers obtained by Reuters.

In what could be one of the biggest such attacks in U.S. history, a computer hacker penetrated the online marketer Epsilon, which controls the customer email databases for a broad swath of companies.

They're Selling Our Future For A Profit - Mike Rivero

Wealthy Americans Clueless to Economic Crisis

Pentagon sock puppet trolls attack alt media

Dylan Ratigan April 5 2011




MSNBC supporting Ron Paul

Ron Paul to Announce Presidential Bid Next Month

Alex Reaffirms Jesse Ventura's Facts on 9/11 Stand Down Order

Illegal War In Libya Is CIA Run, Media Shills Cover For Obama! Whistlebl...

Libya chaos 'allows al-Qaida to grab surface-to-air missiles'

Libya chaos 'allows al-Qaida to grab surface-to-air missiles'

Al-Qaida is exploiting the conflict in Libya to acquire weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, and smuggle them to a stronghold in northern Mali, a security official from neighbouring Algeria told Reuters.

The official said a convoy of eight Toyota pick-up trucks left eastern Libya, crossed into Chad and then Niger, and from there into northern Mali where in the past few days it delivered a cargo of weapons

"Bradley Manning Is In Jail But The Helicopter Murders Are Free!" Jesse ...

US commander: Libya mission upset some in Africa

US commander: Libya mission upset some in Africa

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The military force unleashed on Libya by the U.S. and its partners upset several African nations despite the international community's widespread concerns over Moammar Gadhafi's use of force against his own people, the top U.S. commander for the continent told Congress on Tuesday.

Deadly Clashes in Yemen As Saleh Clings to Power

Bachman to appear at Columbia Tea Party rally - S.C.

Bachman to appear at Columbia Tea Party rally - S.C.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., -- a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate -- will speak at the Columbia Tea Party's State House rally on April 18, according to the group.

Bachmann, an outspoken opponent of federal spending and the national health-care law, is one of the national faces of the Tea Party. Bachmann flirted with announcing a presidential run last month, before saying she will make a decision later this year.



Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/04/05/1765760/bachman-to-appear-at-columbia.html#ixzz1IhKK14my

UN Refugee Chief Warns Ivory Coast Conflict Could Spillover to Liberia

UN Refugee Chief Warns Ivory Coast Conflict Could Spillover to Liberia
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, warns the conflict in Ivory Coast could spillover to Liberia and have a major destabilizing affect in all of West Africa. The refugee chief has just returned from a series of missions, including one to Liberia at the border with Ivory Coast.


Government shutdown would mean soldiers stop getting paid

Government shutdown would mean soldiers stop getting paid

Posted By Josh Rogin Share

One consequence of a government shutdown -- which will occur on April 8 unless Congress passes a new funding bill -- is that members of the military will no longer be paid, even though they will continue to work. And as legislators and the Obama administration struggle to avoid a shutdown, officials are preparing contingency plans to keep key national security and foreign policy activities running when the money tap runs dry.

GOP Budget Proposal: 'Not a Penny' for Obamacare

GOP Budget Proposal: 'Not a Penny' for Obamacare

(CNSNews.com) - The fiscal 2012 budget proposal unveiled today by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) offers sweeping reforms in federal spending, including defunding and repealing the health-care law signed last year by President Barack Obama and converting the federal share of the Medicaid program into block grants to state governments.

The Republican proposal says one of its aims is “making sure that not a penny goes toward implementing the new [health care] law” enacted last year.

This includes repealing about $800 billion in new taxes that were built into the law.

The proposed Republican budget resolution lists as one of its “key objectives” that it “Repeals and defunds the President’s health care law, advancing instead common-sense solutions focused on lowering costs, expanding access and protecting the doctor-patient relationship.”

ABC News Reporter Served As FBI Informant

ABC News Reporter Served As FBI Informant


The Center for Public Integrity reportsthat a senior journalist at ABC News served as a confidential informant to the FBI in the mid-1990′s.

In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, ABC News received a tip that Iraq was behind the terrorist attack. The FBI got the ABC reporter to reveal their source, and proceeded to add them to the bureau’s informant database.

“If true, it would certainly be of grave concern to us that the FBI would have created an informant file based on information gleaned from a reporter,” [ABC spokesperson Jeffrey] Schneider said. “It certainly would be very troubling for the FBI to recruit a news employee as a confidential source.

“It can create a perception of collusion between the government and the news organization. It would put journalists everywhere at risk if people believed that journalists are acting as government agents. And it could raise the specter of the government trying to spy on a news organization,” he added.


Prisoners Of A White God

Revolutionary Politics::Revolutionary Politics : TSA doing eveything they can to block filming of pat down

Revolutionary Politics::Revolutionary Politics : TSA doing eveything they can to block filming of pat down

"You Want To Know Why We're In Afghanistan?" Jesse Ventura Interview pt.1

WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NATIONAL DEBT?

WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NATIONAL DEBT?

Michael Rivero

Let us imagine for a moment that you go to a restaurant, and you place an order for a hamburger. The proprietor of the restaurant tells you the cost is $10 for the hamburger, and you pay $10 for the hamburger. You get your food. No problems. Well worth the money you paid for it. No complaints.

Then when you are done eating, the owner of the restaurant shows up at your table, apologizes profusely, explains that he underestimated the real cost of providing you with the hamburger he agreed to serve you and hands you a bill for an additional sum he had to borrow in order to provide the meal plus interest since the start of your meal. Do you pay it? Of course not. You, the customer, entered into a verbal contract with the proprietor of the restaurant to provide you with your meal at the price agreed to by all parties prior to the transaction.

If the proprietor of the restaurant has miscalculated the cost of meeting his agreed-to obligation to the customer, is the customer obligated to cover the shortfall? No. The proprietor of the restaurant is responsible for the error, and if he cannot meet his agreed-to obligations for the agreed-upon price, he should declare bankruptcy, go out of business, and make way for a new restaurant with better fiscal sense.

Simple common sense.

Let us imagine for a moment that you live in a nation, and you request some benefits. The government tells you the cost is $1000 for the benefits, and you pay $1000 in taxes for the benefits. You get your benefits. No problems. Well worth the money you paid for them. No complaints.

Then when you have your benefits, the government shows up at your door, apologizes profusely, explains that it underestimated the real cost of providing you with the benefits it agreed to provide and hands you a bill for an additional sum it had to borrow in order to provide the services, plus interest since the start of your use of the benefits. Do you pay it? Of course not. You, the citizen, entered into a verbal contract with the government to provide you with your benefits at the taxes agreed to by all parties prior to the transaction.

If the government has miscalculated the cost of meeting the agreed-to obligation to the citizen, is the citizen obligated to cover the shortfall? No. The government is responsible for the error, and if it cannot meet it's agreed-to obligations for the agreed-upon price, it should declare bankruptcy, go out of business, and make way for a new government with better fiscal sense.

Simple common sense.

The claim is constantly made that "we" (meaning the citizens) have already spent the almost 30 trillion dollars that the Federal Government owes and that therefore "we" (meaning the citizens) must repay it.* This is nonsense. No taxpayer alive now ever voted or otherwise agreed to allow the government to borrow money on their behalf and agreed to underwrite the resultant ruinous interest obligation. No citizen spent that money. The government spent it, to keep promises it had no business making in the first place.

The Federal Reserve Act (Otherwise known as the currency act) was voted into law December 23, 1913. The people who voted in that law are all dead.

No taxpayer alive today had anything to say about repaying any money the government borrowed to keep it's promises. We did not have any choice in the matter. We did not choose to accept this obligation. It has been forced on us. It was manufactured for us by a government that spends the peoples' money not on the people,. but on wars of conquest, gifts to Israel, and endless bailouts for Wall Street and European bankers.

Certainly the young people who are becoming voters and taxpayers this year have had no say at all about the almost 30 trillion dollar debt that our government hands to them and says, "This thou shalt pay". To so encumber our children without their permission is at best indentured servitude; at the worst outright slavery. It is time for the slaves to rebel.

We The People didn't borrow that 30 trillion dollars. We The People, those of us alive today, paying taxes today, have never had the opportunity to decide whether or not we are obligated to cover the bad debts of a government that gets elected by selling $10 dollar hamburgers, only to tell us after election day that they really cost $15 and we are now obligated for that additional $5.

Every man, woman, retired senior citizen and even the tiniest newborn baby are being told that they owe a hundred thousand dollars extra for services that were bought and paid for by an agreed-to tax rate.

Are those tiny newborn babies really obligated for $100,000 because of a law passed 84 years before they were born?

Are those tiny newborn babies really obligated for $100,000 because our government makes promises it cannot keep?

Or is it time for the Federal Government to declare bankruptcy and make way for something better?

Japan Catches A Radioactive Fish Outside The Quarantine Zone

Japan Catches A Radioactive Fish Outside The Quarantine Zone

A fish was caught on Friday midway between Fukushima and Tokyo that contained dangerously high levels of radioactive iodine and high levels of cesium.

This catch has prompted Japan to announce its first legal limits for radiation in fish, according to the AP. Previously Japan had said it was enough to ban fishing in the near proximity of the nuclear plant.

Japan also just announced a huge surge in ocean contamination, as radioactive iodine-131 at 7.5 million times the legal limit was found near the plant, according to Japan Times. Yesterday, levels were only 5 million times the legal limit.

Ocean contamination will probably get worse. Yesterday TEPCO commenced a plan to dump 11,500 tons of radioactive water into the ocean, and it said a leak of even more toxic water could last for months.

Japan, like the Gulf of Mexico during the oil spill, faces a serious economic blow if its fishing industry dries up.

A Complete Guide To Japan's $200 Disaster And How It Will Affect The Global Economy >



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-radioactive-fish-2011-4#ixzz1IfwuYWB5

Geithner warns U.S. to hit debt ceiling by May 16

Geithner warns U.S. to hit debt ceiling by May 16

(Reuters) - The United States will hit the legal limit on its ability to borrow no later than May 16, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday, ramping up pressure on Congress to act to avoid a debt default.

"The longer Congress fails to act, the more we risk that investors here and around the world will lose confidence in our ability to meet our commitments and our obligations," Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders.

"Default by the United States is unthinkable."

Previously, the Treasury had forecast that the $14.3 trillion statutory debt limit would be reached between April 15 and May 31. As of Friday, Treasury borrowing stood just $95 billion from the ceiling.

9/11 NUKE DEMOLITION PROOF: Firefighters Radiation Cancers “Off the Scale”

9/11 NUKE DEMOLITION PROOF: Firefighters Radiation Cancers “Off the Scale”

By Daily Mail Reporter

Firefighters who recovered bodies at Ground Zero are developing cancer at a faster rate than those who worked before the atrocity, medical officials have revealed.

A seven-year study by the New York Fire Department has claimed that there are ‘unusual rises’ in the number of cancer cases among firefighters who worked in the aftermath of 9/11.

Some types of cancer among 9/11 firefighters are even ‘bizarrely off the charts’, according to sources who have seen the as-yet-undisclosed federal-funded study.

Dr. David Prezant, the Fire Department’s chief medical officer, has reportedly said that cancer cases across ‘all ranks’ of the FDNY who worked at Ground Zero are ‘up significantly’.

It is thought that the report – due to be officially disclosed in time for the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks in September – cites unusual rises in leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

Libya: Rebels set to export first oil shipment

Libya: Rebels set to export first oil shipment

Rebel fighter by the wreckage of a government vehicle near Brega (5 April 2011)

The first export of oil from rebel-held areas of eastern Libya for almost three weeks is due to begin later.

Libya's opposition groups are said to be making plans to load a tanker due to dock at a terminal near Tobruk.

It comes as Nato air strikes were reported against pro-Gaddafi forces and rebels gathered near the town of Brega.

Libya's government has remained defiant, with an envoy who is visiting Europe insisting that Col Muammar Gaddafi will not step down.

Meanwhile Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Col Gaddafi, has told the BBC that Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa did not betray Libya by leaving for the UK.

Lawmakers renew push for "rogue websites" bill

Lawmakers renew push for "rogue websites" bill



WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers from both chambers of Congress on Monday vowed to pass legislation giving the U.S. Justice Department new authority to go after foreign and domestic websites that sell pirated music and movies and counterfeit goods.

"Online infringement and the sale of counterfeit goods cost American creators, producers, and businesses billions of dollars and results in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, told reporters.

Intellectual property theft is "one of the greatest threats to our economy today" because of the big role that copyrights, patents and trademarks play in boosting U.S. exports and productivity, said House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Republican.

"If we're going to have a healthy economy, we need to have a healthy IP sector," Smith said.

Leahy said he would push forward with a new version of a "rogue websites" bill that cleared his committee last year by a vote of 19-O but did not get a vote in the full Senate.

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a second hearing this week on the issue, with the goal of crafting its own legislation, Smith said.

"I think with the leadership of both chairmen we're going to get a bill to the president's desk," Leahy said.

Many websites selling pirated and fake goods operate out of China, although lawmakers said their efforts were not aimed at any particular country.

U.S. labor and business groups backed the renewed push.

"Too few people who download entertainment illegally recognize that they are stealing wages and benefits from workers," said Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO labor federation's department for professional employees.

The Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center estimates piracy and counterfeiting have stolen 2-1/2 million jobs over the years, largely due to websites which a recent report said receive over 53 billion visits a year.

Gaddafi salutes supporters in Tripoli

Gaddafi salutes supporters in Tripoli


RABAT (Reuters) – Libyan state television Monday showed live footage of leader Muammar Gaddafi saluting supporters from a jeep that drove outside his fortified compound of Bab al-Aziziyah in Tripoli.

A written newsflash read: "The brother leader among his supporters."

Gaddafi briefly waved to his backers through the roof of his vehicle as bodyguards tried to prevent his supporters from mobbing him.

His appearance came as one of his envoys shuttled around southern Europe in an effort to convince the international community a negotiated end to the fighting was possible.

(Reporting by Maria Golovnina in Tripoli and Joseph Nasr in Berlin; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Main Street America is Rising Up

Govt holding radiation data back / IAEA gets info, but public doesn't

Govt holding radiation data back / IAEA gets info, but public doesn't

The Meteorological Agency has been withholding forecasts on dispersal of radioactive substances from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant despite making the forecasts every day, it was learned Monday.

Meteorological institutions in some European countries such as Germany and Norway have been publishing their own radiation dispersal forecasts on their Web sites based on their own meteorological observations.

Nuclear experts at home and abroad are criticizing the Japanese government for not releasing its own forecasts, raising new questions about the government's handling of information on the nuclear crisis.

The agency is making daily forecasts at the request of the International Atomic Energy Agency. When contamination by radioactive substances across national borders is feared, weather organizations of the member nations cooperate to make forecasts on possible migration of the substances.

The Meteorological Agency has been calculating its forecasts on the migration once or twice every day since March 11, when the great earthquake hit the Tohoku and Kanto regions.

The agency inputs observation data sent from the IAEA--such as the time when radioactive substances are first released, the duration of the release and how high the substances reach--into the agency's supercomputer, adding the agency's observation data, including wind directions and other data. The supercomputer then calculates the direction in which the radioactive substances will go and how much they will spread.

However, the agency has only been reporting the forecasts to the IAEA and not releasing them to the public at home.

The IAEA analyzes the data from Japan by adding observation data from other countries it similarly asked for cooperation, such as China and Russia, and notifies nuclear authorities of countries, including Japan, of the results.

Whether to announce the IAEA analysis is left to each government's judgment. The Japanese government's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters has so far not released the IAEA analysis.

"Japan has its own Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry- operated System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI) for dispersal forecasts. The government in its Basic Disaster Management Plan defines forecasts by SPEEDI as official forecasts," a Meteorological Agency official explained.

"We don't know whether the IAEA basic data the agency uses for the forecasts really fit the actual situation. If the government releases two different sets of data, it may cause disorder in the society."

However, the SPEEDI forecast was announced only once, on March 23. The Nuclear Safety Commission has been refusing to announce subsequent forecasts. "We can't do it because the accuracy is still low," Seiji Shiroya, a commission member said.

(Apr. 5, 2011)