Just about what the experts who visited MSNBC shows the next day said.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Analysis Says Russian Meteorite Was From the Asteroid Belt
Just about what the experts who visited MSNBC shows the next day said.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Prosecutors Intended 6 Month Sentence for Aaron Swartz
There are people who are manipulating the liberal community and many of them are not doing it for actual liberal causes, but to throw the next election to a Republican that has an agenda even worse than George W Bush's invasion of Iraq planned.
And they are doing everything to keep young Americans in the dark.
But:
And once done with the short sentence Swartz had the skill and the brains to go just about as far as he wanted.
It's too bad that many on the left still don't know this. It appears that some of their supposed friends would like them to never know it, because they think they'll be able to grab more power if the young activists don't know.
Information from Bloomberg News
And they are doing everything to keep young Americans in the dark.
But:
U.S. prosecutors handling computer- fraud charges against an Internet activist who killed himself last week had intended to recommend a sentence of six months, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston said.
The career prosecutors handling the case recognized that Aaron Swartz’s conduct didn’t warrant the severe punishment authorized by law, Ortiz said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
And once done with the short sentence Swartz had the skill and the brains to go just about as far as he wanted.
It's too bad that many on the left still don't know this. It appears that some of their supposed friends would like them to never know it, because they think they'll be able to grab more power if the young activists don't know.
Information from Bloomberg News
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Neo Nazi Murderer, Illegally Posessing Fire Arms, Was Tracking Officials
New details about the case of Richard Schmidt, the owner of a sporting goods store in Bowling Green, Ohio, dramatically highlight what law enforcement officials say are major loopholes in the nation’s gun laws. Schmidt, 47, is a convicted felon who spent 13 years in Ohio state prison for a homicide after being convicted of killing a man and wounding two others in a shooting during a traffic stop, according to state prison records. Under federal law, Schmidt, who was released on parole in 2003, is barred from possessing any firearms.
Yet when FBI agents last December searched his home and store, they discovered a cache of 18 weapons that included AR-15 assault rifles, 9 mm Ruger and Sig Sauer pistols, shotguns, high-capacity magazines and more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition...
Kudos to you Wayne La Pierre. Your valiant efforts are endangering those who protect us and run our communities.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Why the Proposed Minimum Wage Increase Won't Increase the Unemployment Rate
But that kind of increase in one jump might actually hurt the economy while the jump to $9 an hour won't according to historical record as shown in video above and is like to boost it in the long run. And the history has shown that the more Democrats are in power, the more often the minimum is boosted, and a venture capitalist last year showed that getting money into the hands of those who need it most for basic living is a more powerful economy booster than offering tax cuts for fat cats. That would also be applicable to raising the minimum wage (see video here of TED talk).
In fact, Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy and cut some for lower income workers while he also got a couple of minimum wage increases through the GOP majority during his tenure. Tax cuts for lower earners, I believe acted as a minimum wage boost replacement in the first couple of Clinton's years, and actually helped self employed people, too. I notice that he GOP now wants that kind of tax cut (and, of course they think they can force more supply side ones at the same time with their Gerrymandered control of the House of Representatives) instead of a minimum wage hike, but, oh wait, their tax cuts for fat cats and the wars started during Dubya's two term tenure precluded that possibility because the surplus that Clinton created is long gone and we are deep into more debt.
This tax cut, tax cut, tax cut, idea of the GOP is all about finally grabbing our Social Security moneys that we have paid into for all our working years and then throwing that at the fat cats. too.
See below for the record of minimum wage increases in standard monetary terms (darker violet) and in today's dollars (lighter violet). As you can see we have fallen a lot since the 60s.
A good short URL for this post is http://x.co/vIml .
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Is Your Anti-Drone Source of Information Really an Ayn Rand Follower?
Just a few days ago I pointed out to someone I follow on Twitter that a hyper anti drone guy whacking at Obama at The Atlantic lives in a pricey neighborhood out here in Cali --over a $1m for about 1100sq ft homes, and might not be very liberal. It turns out I didn't have to know his neighborhood (for some reason he had it right up there in his profile. I don't know which other authors list that on top of their writings). A short way down his list of articles is "Join My Atlas Shrugged Book Club". Other pieces show that he hates, not only Obama and other liberal leaders, but journalistic liberals too, because they aren't hyper Obama haters as he, so they are supposedly war mongers.
That is exactly how the Libertarians (whose ideals promote racist, ageist, and sexist goals) got the nation handed over to the Republicans in the 2000 election. Clinton had taken action to save Muslims in Serbia when they were being killed by Milosevic's forces first in Bosnia-Herzegovina and later in Kosovo. In fact he was able to save thousands of lives. For the Libertarians though, this was evil warmongering. We must eschew all war!!! War is evil!!! Here, vote for Ralph Nader who hates all war, liberals were told. I'm not accusing Nader of being Libertatian, only that he was used by the Republicans and the eat the poor Libertarians.
And their scheme worked. Enough people voted for Nader in Florida that the state was thrown to George W Bush who himself had declared "Aw won't take the country to war. Aw hate war!" Safe voting was anti Democrat voting many people claimed. And Bush won the election despite getting fewer votes from Americans over-all for president.
But that worked out spectacularly badly for peace lovers and everyone else. What some people forget is that after Bush-Cheney were elected there was virtually nothing that could be done to stop the inexorable march to war. Once basically Libertarian George W Bush was allowed to become president, his drug and alcohol damaged brain was no match for the committed war mongers led by Dick Cheney, and the journalists weren't going to risk their good paying jobs to make it clear what was happening (and they won't the next time either) as a matter of fact they'd caved to their billionaire backers, except for a few columnists who must then be balanced by right wing extremists to shift "the middle to the racist and sexist right."
The Libertarian types did the same to Jimmy Carter cutting him out of government and setting him loose to help the world get rid of some of its worst diseases in the third world at least. But we got Reagan who slashed fat cats' taxes in half claiming that that America needed to compete in the world and keep jobs at home, but he also started offering big tax breaks for businesses to take jobs overseas. No kidding! He was offering tax breaks for outsourcing because we needed more jobs at home (as even he acknowledged). (Reagan, like Bush 43 started with GOP majorities in Congress though the House flipped back in the next election. I know that after the 1994 election every news person with a venue claimed the Dems had held Congress for 40 years, but that was wrong. Journalism is a strange country in which journalists believe in their own popish infallibility a little too much Just the other day a couple of mainstream journalists claimed John Kerry would be the first male Secretary of State in 16 years, conveniently forgetting Colin Powell's 4 year tenure. You'd think that they would be just slightly humble and use a search engine or ask someone who gives a shit to do a Nexis-Lexus search, but no....).
Funny, but now the Libertarians are back to their old games, railing about military action that are very limited compared with a man they got installed into the White House just 12 years ago and again promoting themselves as peace lovers. Again, though follow them to their other beliefs and you'll see they don't care about you, only about their own future in journalism and politics and the big money is paid out to those who get strong right wing governments installed. The neocons will take care of the rest. Since our Democrat hating Libertarians, like other extreme rightists are serving, the desires of the ultra rich, they get paid well once they get into a position where their voices are heard by many, so they fit right in with the Republicans both monetarily and by nature.
What they don't fit in with are people who care about poor people, about racism and sexism, about young people who don't need to be drafted for war, or people in far lands who don't need us setting up major invasions into their nations to do regime change, and Americans who face trying to live through the winter without a home because they are poor, especially children.
Ayn Rand is widely known as a self serving individual who postured for the multi- millionaires and racists that promoted and protected her career because she promoted libertarian style politics, but took Medicare and Social Security the New Deal programs that "Libertarianism" emerged to fight when she got old. (Though Calvin Coolidge, and Hebert Hoover were of the Libertarian spirit as were most Republicans before them, the party with the name was created after the New Deal.
And your anti-drone fan may be taking advantage of war loving billionaires and multi-millionaires to promote their careers if not to simply collect cash on the sly to turn this nation back to the war mongering Republicans like the ones behind simple minded supposedly libertarian style George W Bush. We saw how that worked out, spectacularly badly. 3000 Americans killed in a terrorist attack, over 6000 Americans troops killed in retaliatory and opportunistic neo-con promoted war that did get access to Iraqi oil for the GOP's biggest backers and promised access to $1T worth of rare minerals in Afghanistan, and oh yeah plus financial meltdown that stole the life savings of millions, but protected the balance sheets of bankers who now rail about Social Security and Medicare users who we have proven have paid for their SS benefits. I will have to study and write about Medicare. I'm sure it is paid for, but again the right ignores the interest that saving is worth and their own hampering of Medicare to control it's cost. It also kept the US from charging the same Big Oil companies we went to war for for their extraction of the fuels they take free from our soil.
You don't know this because the same billionaires control our news system, both mainstream, right wing, and now most of the liberal sources through anti-drone fever. There really isn't time to go ballistic about drone strikes, which are not going to be done in the US. Drones were proposed to search for Christopher Dorner, not to kill him.
This is the real reason for the Libertarian party. To get us back to pre-depression era economics and to keep the American electorate misinformed. When poor children died while rich people selected tiaras with large diamonds. And yes, we are half way there, and no you won't be on the benefit side if you war not wealthy or in mainstream media now. There will come a time when they don't even need their Libertarian racist hangers on. And that might not be far off if we don't wake our friend up to how the billionaires are manipulating our minds through mainstream and social media.
Welcome to the new, old Libertarian nation:
Pictures used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr users Official US Navy Imagery (drone launch Pacific Ocean -- top) and Tony Fischer Photography (soup line memorial, DC -- bottom) neither of which have any connection to this blog or blogger.
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A good short URL for this article is http://x.co/uoZL
Friday, February 15, 2013
Why We Pay So Much For Internet Access And CellPhones And Get Bad Service When "We the People" Own the Internet
*The core of the problem is that our political and news system is run by the money of the billionaires and PACs very few of which are working for our good. If we all pressure together, though, we might get some action.
Contact your Congressional "leaders" via instructions at Thomas.gov (the official website of Congress --named after Thomas Jefferson). Tell them you want them to use our resources for us, not for the benefit of their billionaire and multi-millionaire backers and you won't take no for an answer. We don't need to be the third world of the Internet!
A shorter URL for this post is http://x.co/uOD8
Monday, February 11, 2013
Anwar "Al Alwaki's" Son Sought Martyrdom through Jihad
The Majestic Arabian Peninsula with it's Deep Emerald Persian Gulf by it's Side In A NASA Photo of A Massive Dust Storm.
According to a Yemeni journalist, Abdul Ramin, al Aulaqi who was the 16 year old son of Anwar al Aulaqi, told the emir of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in the hours before he met his death that he would seek to become a martyr and then he went and joined the traveling group of a known terrorist on the day he was killed.
It is also telling that the same thing was the intent of the powerful men in AQAP that Abdul follow in his father's footsteps as noted in the report linked above. What was the son going to do, run away and join a circus -- in Yemen -- seriously? Quit the family business and eke out a living by selling Khat (qat)? There is no other business that would make him a comfortable living (and I mean barely above subsistance comfortable, not the American millionaire meaning of the word) in Yemen since he did not come from a family that could control or profit from Yemeni oil. Follow the Money is just as potent an idea, if not more so, in Yemen as it is in America, since there are so few opportunities in their land to make more than subsistence living-- even if you call losing half your children before they are grown and your own life early actual "subsistence". (More explanation at * below. linking within a page does not seem to work on this blog, possibly because of security reasons.)
And the fact that young al Aulaqi then went and joined the camp of one of AQAP's most prominent terrorists, Ibrahim al-Banna, creates a scenario that is similar to a young American man saying he is going to become lawyer, and going to Harvard Law School, but people maintaining that the young man wasn't really interested in becoming a lawyer. (And, in fact, what really makes me mad is that the ultra-left talks like the US chose to attack young al Aulaqi when they wail about Obama's drones killing a "teenager". The drone tried to kill a proven murderous terrorist. To stop the terror attacks on us we have to stop the terrorists. It became a business to hire young impoverished youth to attack America. That's how we got 911 which led to the war in Afghanistan and the war on Iraq in which more that 6000 Americans died and over a million people from those nations. And the center of that Jihad business are Jihadist kingpins like al Banna and the senior al Aulaqi.)
Children grow up early in harsh circumstances and this young man was likely as adult as an 18 year old American, and could have left home earlier if his father's business was abhorrent to him. As it was he went on a journey from home to try to find his father and prove he wasn't dead when he heard the rumors and traveled straight to the emir of AQAP. This young man clearly wasn't a child. And what he said at the end of that journey was that he would continue to do what his father had done and he would apparently be proud of it. He pledged to go on helping to dole out deadly payback on non-Muslims for every imagined slight they thought they could get done until one of the plans led to his own death. Yes, I suppose the fact that the young man met that death before he had killed some of us, is tragic because it leaves us with less justification. If you want to volunteer to get killed by al Qaeda so one of them can be punished, there might be somewhere you can apply. Personally I don't think AQAP really cares who applies because they have been trying strike where they can, when they can. And why do they do it? Because their money backers will continue to dribble out the money for them to do so. Stopping the flow of that money has been one of the concerns of US Government, but it is constrained since much of it comes from oil on which we depend until we can change our ystem of fueling our automobiles.
Abdulramen's dad's gems were:
There were redacted papers released a few weeks ago that apparently show that the ekder al Aulaqi paid for plane tickets for three of the 911 hijackers in July and August of 2001 including the ring leader Mohammed Atta in the run up to the major attack. This blogger relates the details He is a conservative blogger, but liberals seem to be ignoring this new information which came from an FOI request, apparently because it hurts the case against drones strike that killed the terrorist leader. Two of the tickets were to Las Vegas and Miami, a couple of party towns, the kinds of places that are anathema to good Muslims.
If I remember correctly the Bipartisan 911 Report and/or journalists notes of the inquiry (which were much more extensive that the ridiculous report that emerged) said that others of the hijackers participated in carnal gratification in the weeks before the terror attack in a New Jersey town, too. Apparently, their enablers helped them party it up in ways that were against their religion, most likely (it seems reasonable to assume) to bind them to their pledge to go through with the deed to earn their redemption and avoid ostracism from their fellow believers who may also have provided the money that enabled them to live a decent life style for a while without the hardships of their earlier years (again it's follow the money). It's just such a package that often keeps people in a "faith group" or cult through their years of young adulthood might otherwise cause them to doubt and free themselves from the mind-control of religion. (And in fact, I'm convinced how destroying young people's ability to control their own bodies will lead to a Christian based oligarchy in the US if the GOP have their way.)
The senior al Aulaqi also preached to 3 of the 911 hijackers personally, and counseled Nidal Malik Hasan via e-mail before the Army major attacked fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009 according to Wikipedia. He is reported to have encouraged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallah (also noted in the link attached to NMH's name) in his quest for matrydom. This is what is reported in Wikipedia. (I believe that news reports also said that the senior al Aulaqi also actually provided the explosive device Mr. Abdulmutallah wore, but that is not in Wikipedia which doesn't do US news information very well-- or maybe that was disproven somewhere I didn't catch, but Wikipedia is prone to information manipulation because of it's ability to be edited by outside sources). So that's what was the al Aulaqi family way of doing Jihad.
The clearest path to self sufficiency, one that he said he would follow was to do what his father had been doing in the last years of his life, counseling violent Jihad and enabling violent Jihad.
I'm not saying that the drone or someone controlling it was prescient or knew this, but this young man was probably no more innocent of murderous intent, either in person or as a far off "adviser" like his father, and he was traveling in the company of someone who was a target for the kinds of reasons that Abdul (other places know as Abdulramen as one word) would have been in the future if he followed his father's path. It is tragic that people who are not trying to kill Americans and Europeans and anyone who won't submit to their murderous and rights destroying control, do get killed. Hopefully people can be convinced to work things out, so the killing will stop. I wonder what the same ultra left and ultra right would have said if young Mr. Abdulmutallah had been able to set off his bomb. I'm sure they would have folded their hands and said ah yes, that is the result of our demanding no reaction or retribution on people trying to kill us. (No they wouldn't. They'd be screaming about Obama letting this happen.)
My point here is that 2013 is beginning to look like 1997 and the start of a 4 year political jihad by right and ultra left to hand the nation to a Republican president in the next election, which many people hought and apparently still think will result in some ultra right or ultra left paradise at some time in the future.
Such a belief seems to defy sanity after how that worked out in the period after Ralph Nader's run basically handed the government to George W. Bush's wrecking crew that caused massive war and debt crises, and some pretty spectacular terror attacks.
Just insert Glenn Greenwald for Ralph Nader and you have it set up again, with many of the same enablers, and even more. In addition Greenwald is an admitted non liberal except in the case of his marriage rights, was in favor of the invasion of Iraq, and does conspiracy almost as well as Alex Jones, a recognized nut cake. At least Ralph Nader had been a real liberal, apparently.
Even worse, more mainstream liberal news sources feared being ostracized by powerful ultra-liberals if they didn't go full outrage mode over drone strikes like the ultra left did over Clinton's limited actions in Serbia and Kosovo in which no Americans died, and many Muslim lives were saved from racist extermination. In addition, a few years later, a new nation was born in which the people are free from attack by those who tried to eliminate their presence in a fertile land that the attackers coveted for their own.
Like Clinton, Obama does what he discerns most Americans want. It's our lookout to manage our reaction to the ultra left so we don't find our nation hijacked by neo-cons again. The lives that were destroyed by the George W Bush administration cry out for that kind of sanity.
Picture above sampled and used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user NASA Goddard photo and video which has no connection to this blog or blogger.
A good short URL for this is http://x.co/uJfA
* In fact, "follow the money" has been a mantra for 50 years or more (since the Watergate scandal was broken open by Mark Felt the FBI #2 and Watergate's "Deep Throat" contact with Washington Post reporters), and the more I understand business, and politics, and other endeavors we often think of as more divinely or at least sincerely heartfelt, the more I realize that passion and concern only go so far. Most of our own political and news reporting systems follow the dictates of making money, and I don't mean the money you plop down for your paper, but from the big money backing papers like that from their billionaire and mufti-millioniare investors and big ad buyers. And bloggers are no better at defying the source of their money, from working to boost the numbers of their readers through conspiracy theories and trying to gain more affluent people who are more likely to click on their ads or react to the ones in their paper edition, and those who will spend more money, to their advertisers' direct threats of canceling their contracts. I know personally relatable stories of people living decades being falsely promised relief from a deteriorating condition and trying all the herbal remedies, finally trying the conventional medicine road, and finding relief that is almost worth the harsh pricing of the same. But the herbal websites and magazines are still out there promising everything from flee control by splashing around vinegar or putting it on your pet (its only a repellent and the problem continues to grow) to cancer "cures", trust in which could be deadly -- as Steve Jobs found out, and allowing advertising or outright selling the same herbs they claim will cure or at least greatly reduce the effects of a person's real or imagined diseases. If you understand politics and the news business you will see that most of them are following the money these days often to the detriment of our understanding of our world.
Friday, February 8, 2013
GOP Wants Austerity, Except for Tanks, Tanks, Tanks
No wonder Senator Hagel says that we would have to find 100,000 soldiers to do it. There are millions in the military, so I don't think that's what he was talking about. He meant we would have to find 100k more American to replace those that would die in our grand adventure to "free" Iran. (Thank goodness they've already prepared us for a Universal Draft).
Of course that sounds ridiculous now, but just put a Republican in the White House, and it will no longer be unthinkable, No wonder the GOP wants more tanks, especially when military equipment is often made by companies with a large contingent of GOP donors, and others of their donors would love to take advantage of a privatized oil structure. Iranian oil is said to produce more gallons of fuel per barrel. In our world that's enough for some people to start talking about regime change.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
At Least 5 Dead After Tsunami Hits Solomon Islands
Picture above of a Solomon Island town shows how some houses are built near the sea, to catch the cooler ocean breezes, but they face danger when large earthquakes erupt nearby.
Reports are of at least 5 fatalities after an 8.0 earthquake struck near the Santa Cruz Islands a southern cluster of the Solomon islands about 500 miles from Honoria and a Tsunami hit the shores of the closest ones. An older man who was fishing offshore in a dugout and a 10 year old boy are said to have died, but further islands including the main Solomons and Hawaii and Vanuatu had their warnings expire without major incident.
The Tsunami that hit Santa Cruz was only 1.5 meters, but the amount of force said to be like a raging river with the whole of the ocean behind it, which then recedes dragging with the same intensity and power, noted in other Tsunamis as dragging children out of mothers and fathers hands to take its prisoners far out to sea. Tsunamis can grow larger is funneled into bays and can raise surprisingly in estuaris, ports, marinas, and as they go up river beds or are otherwise funneled. The video of the Samoa tsunami was the most terrifying thing I'd seen until the ones after the Tohoku quake in March 2011. It was hard to believe that Northeast Japan was being swamped by that monster, and I felt like it would actually be welcome if Godzilla should appear any second and let us know it was all fake.
Though apparently most people started heading towards higher ground after today's quake according to early reports as soon as they felt the shaking, as it usually happens that some don't make it especially if the triggering quake is nearby.
In 2007 an earlier quake hit near the Solomons at Richter scale 9 or more. The WSJ reminds its readers that 57 people died in that instance. It seemed to signal a renewed attack on the South Pacific after the horrific Tsunami hit off Sumatra on Boxing Day in 2004 (and another one a weeks later)..
The Solomons string off the southeast end of Papua New Guinea and are about 1500 miles from Samoan Islands that suffered a devastating post quake wave a few years ago. The whole area like Japan, and South and North America are part of the Ring of Fire known for it's large quakes and Tsunami creation.
I found WSJ's Tsunami Destroys Villages in Solomons and CBS Deadly tsunami hits Solomon Islands in South Pacific to be helpful though I read many reports from other sources too.
Or check a news search (Google, Bing, Yahoo) for the latest.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
Jennifer Hudson: America the Beautiful feat. The Sandy Hook Choir
Did I see tears in some of those Football players and coaches eyes?
I had to look this up because we have 1 TV in our house and someone had control of the remote didn't think the first 30 minutes of the Superbowl was important and he knows who he is.
Friday, February 1, 2013
False Arguments Are Used By Those Who Want to Protect Assault Weapons
In Agrigento, Sicily (Italy), Dorian Pillars Have Been Standing Their Ground Since the 5th Century BC. What were they protecting? They can't even say anymore.
At the Senate hearing on Assault weapons control this week a Gun Lobbyist Gayle Trotter used the case of Sarah McKinley an 18 year old woman with a 3 month old baby who defended herself and her child from an intruder with a large knife with a 12 gauge shotgun, which is not an assault weapon, or one of the weapons that Democrats are seeking to have banned. See more:
But, as O'Donnell noted, none of the cases of self protection mentioned by the speakers for the gun lobby, used assault weapons. And Senator Lindsay (Don' I look like a silver haired Reagan) Graham, if mama ran out of bullets after 6, couldn't she just grab another cartridge and stick it in? Yes, and she could go to the gun range all she wants and practice reloading until it's as easy as breathing.
Ms. McKinley even acknowledge herself she doesn't need an assault weapon. Her story is here.
Picture at top used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user Chiara Marra who has no connection to this blog or blogger. BTW, the sub-title under the picture of the pillars was mostly used to give me an excuse to put the picture of those gorgeous structures at the top of this post.
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