Sand Spill: Exxon off hook as US law says no ‘oil’ contamination in Arkansas [video]
Russia Today
April 3, 2013
The central Arkansas spill caused by Exxon’s aging Pegasus pipeline has reportedly unleashed 10,000 barrels of Canadian heavy crude – but a technicality says it’s not oil, letting the energy giant off the hook from paying into a national cleanup fund.
Chris Harrell – whose home was affected by the Pegasus pipeline spill – told RT that some people didn’t even know the pipeline existed.
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Fusion Centers, Surveillance, Government Spy Software and No-Knock Raids – End the Lie Radio Ep. 47 [audio]
End the Lie Radio
Ep. 47
April 2, 2013
End the Lie Radio with Madison Ruppert and guest Curt Williams of Room 101 Radio discussing the massive waste involved in fusion center operations, along with the real purpose of these nationwide surveillance powerhouses. They also explore the tale of a husband and wife who were subjected to a troubling police raid for little to no reason at all, as well as the highly invasive surveillance tools openly marketed directly to governments. End the Lie Radio airs from 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PM PT every Monday evening at http://UCY.TV/EndtheLie.
Room 101 Radio airs 9 AM ET/6 AM PT on Sunday and 9 PM ET/6 PM ET Wednesday on UCY.TV @ http://UCY.TV/Room101.
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Network: http://UCY.TV
All material(s) used in this video that are not original or are under copyright are used under Fair Use under the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107.
FBI Wants More Authority to Spy Live on Gmail, Skype, Dropbox and Cloud
Intellihub.com
March 2, 2013
Apparently not satisfied with the ability to read everyone’s emails and demand private bank and telephone records without a warrant, the FBI will not be content until it can legally listen in on citizens’ live conversations on email and social networks like Gmail, Skype, Dropbox and Cloud.
by Matt Bewig
All Gov
April 2, 2013
Calling court approval for government surveillance “obsolete,” FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann last month stated that getting the power to wiretap all forms of Internet conversation and cloud storage will be a “top priority” this year.
Specifically, law enforcement wants Congress to amend a 1994 surveillance law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). At present, CALEA allows the government to force Internet providers and phone companies to have surveillance equipment on their networks, but the law does not cover email, cloud services, or online chat providers like Skype. Although the FBI can use a “Title III Order” under the Wiretap Act to ask such providers to conduct surveillance, the FBI wants to be able to force them to do it—without a warrant signed by a judge.
Speaking to a luncheon organized by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security on March 20, Weissmann admitted that the FBI wants the power to mandate real-time snooping on all online communications, even including chat associated with online games like Scrabble because, he claims, “Those communications are being used for criminal conversations.” By that logic, law enforcement should have the power to listen in on all telephone conversations and to open and read all mail, since both are undoubtedly used for “criminal conversations” as well.
Further illustrating the Orwellian nature of his project, Weissmann—whose overzealous prosecution of one-time accounting giant Arthur Andersen was unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court in 2005—admitted that “it’s something that there should be a public debate about” even as he refused to reveal the FBI’s specific proposals because “it’s a very hard thing to talk about publicly.”
Because the requirement that law enforcement get a neutral judge to sign a search warrant based on probable cause is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment, if the FBI believes that search warrants are obsolete, it believes the Fourth Amendment is obsolete as well, and ought to have the honesty and integrity to say so publicly.
ACTION ALERT: Call Me, I Dare You: State Senator Blocking Nevada Anti-NDAA Bill
P.A.N.D.A. People Against The NDAA
April 2, 2013
On March 26th, we asked you to contact Representative Tobin, who was blocking HB 2573 from coming up for a vote.
The response was huge.
Activist Post, Western Journalism, Lew Rockwell Blog, and several other websites picked up the alert, which was seen by thousands of people across the web. The Action Alert worked so well, according to our friends at Freedom Outpost, that Rep. Tobin did a 180 and changed his stance on the bill.
Now, State Senator Tick Segerblom is blocking Nevada’s Anti-NDAA legislation.
The 2102 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorized the indefinite military detention, extraordinary rendition, and application of the laws of war without charge or trial of anyone, including U.S. citizens. SB378, once amended, will protect the rights of the people of Nevada. It has 16 cosponsors, including 14 Republicans and two Democrats, more than nearly every other bill in the legislature.
When PANDA Nevada’s State Team Leader, Chris Corbett, met with Senator Segerblom last week, the Senator laid out a challenge:
“If people really care about this bill, they’ll call me”
Tick Segerblom is playing games with our rights, and he has laid out a challenge. Let’s show him we don’t play games with our unalienable rights.
Challenge Accepted.
Call or Fax State Senator Tick Segerblom and politely tell him to defend our unalienable rights. Tell him to honor his oath, and bring SB 378 up for a vote. Most of all, tell him if he does not, you and countless others will not only refuse to vote for him, but do whatever it takes to unseat him from office.
Contact State Senator Tick Segerblom NOW (Out-of-staters are encouraged to contact as well, and we find it most effective if you don’t mention your state):
Sen. Tick Segerblom
Phone: 775-684-1422
Fax: 775-684-6522
(The Senator does not accept emails, he considers them not worth his time)
Dodgeball now banned in public schools as nanny state goes insane
Natural News
April 1, 2013
(NaturalNews) The nanny state mentality is becoming more institutionalized in America as evidenced by the recent decision to ban the age-old gym class game of “Dodgeball” in one New Hampshire school – though trust me, others will follow suit.
In an incredible four to one decision, the five-member school board panel at Windham School voted to ban the “classic gym class game” which “has been a rite of passage for years” for kids – not to mention a whole lot of fun – according to CBSBoston. At the same time, the board voted to end all other so-called “human target” activities – games with names like “Bombardment” and “Slaughter.”
“It’s almost turning into a nanny state,” said school board member Dennis Senibaldi, the lone school board member with enough sanity left to vote against the ban. “What happens when they replace that game with something different that another group doesn’t want to play, do we eliminate that group of games?”
Yes, Dennis. The answer is, appallingly, yes.
Didn’t you know? Dodgeball equals bullying
Oh, of course there were lots of touchy-feely reasons for banning a game that has been around longer than most board members have been alive, to be sure. They include a handful of complaints by whiny parents, who claimed their kids were being “bullied” – targeted by the other kids during Dodgeball games. After “studying” the issue, a “special committee” said the games should go away. After all, we can’t be teaching our kids to be competitive or to learn how to adapt to adversity and overcome because, you know, the world plays be the same rules as the Autobot Society.
Needless to say, not a few students were stunned by the decision.
“I think they’re really fun because they’re just soft balls so it doesn’t hurt if it hits you,” sixth-grade student Lindsey Stagg, who – at her tender age – spoke more truth and sanity then the four lunatics and their “special panel” who voted to end the traditional game.
Stephanie Wimmer, the board’s vice chair, told WBZ-TV the board is constantly “looking at our curriculum” for changes. Sure.
“We spend a lot of time making sure our kids are violence free,” Windham superintendent Dr. Henry LaBranche lectured. “Here we have games where we use children as targets. That seems to be counter to what we are trying to accomplish with our anti-bullying campaign.”
All of a sudden, Superintendent LaBranche?
“It’s an elimination game,” said Andrew Mead, program manager at the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. “Games like Dodgeball and Tag don’t keep kids involved and physically active. They objectify slower students who don’t catch as well.”
Raising a generation of pansies who can’t handle adversity
Objectify? How about motivate? Challenge? Concepts that encourage those who don’t play so well to find ways to be better?
What’s next, ending tackle football, basketball and track because, gee, some kids are just more physically talented than others?
There are alternative solutions other than simply banning an obviously popular activity. How about an “opt-out” clause, board members? Let kids who are getting “bullied” opt-out of this ultra-violent contact sport and do something else during gym class. That way, kids who still want to play can play. Why do you have to ban the activity?
Do you see where all of this nannyism is leading?
We are teaching an entire generation of kids that a) equality means equal outcomes, not equal opportunity; b) excelling at something should not be rewarded but criticized and the playing field “leveled;” c) that they should not have to face difficulty or adversity in life (and we wonder why so many of our kids are on psychotropic drugs); and d) choice, opportunity and freedom are archaic notions that have no place in “modern society.”
Meanwhile, children in the rest of the real world are still living in it. Perhaps that is part of the reason why the U.S. lags so far behind those countries in so many categories.
Sources:
‘US, UK hypocrisy shows in Bahrain’ [video]
CounterPsyOps
April 1, 2013
Terror’s State continues in Bahrain while Western World is asleep.
California city becomes America’s largest, latest to enter bankruptcy
End the Lie – Independent News
April 1, 2013
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
A federal judge has ruled that Stockton, California will be allowed to enter bankruptcy. The city, located near San Francisco and home to 300,000, is the largest yet in the US to file for bankruptcy, marking a new low point in a trend sweeping California.
US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein ruled Monday that Stockton would be allowed to begin reorganizing its debt in order to continue carrying out “its obligations to its citizens on fundamental public safety as well as other basic government services.”
Next, city officials must win the judge’s approval for a specific adjustment plan that allows them to adjust financial debts held by Wall Street creditors who have fought Stockton’s bankruptcy claim and, in the opinion of Judge Klein, acted in bad faith.
“The creditors got a big black eye today,” attorney Karol Denniston, who helped draft bankruptcy legislation for city officials, told the Los Angeles Times. “Now the stage is set for the real dogfight.”
Legal experts have kept a close watch on the case, because when it comes to massive pension bills combined with housing market debt, Stockton is far from alone and could set legal precedents. Last year Moody’s Investors Service warned of a domino effect on American cities crippled by poor financial planning.
In the early 2000s Stockton’s financial planners forecast city salaries, benefits, pensions and borrowing on long-term developer fees and slowly-rising tax revenue. That plan fell apart in the mid-2000s as tax revenues plummeted amid the national economic recession.
“There’s nothing to celebrate about bankruptcy,” said Stockton city manager Bob Deis. “But it is a vindication of what we’ve been saying for nine months.”
Financial gurus from California Common Sense, a state legislative think tank, pointed the blame squarely on Stockton politicians who, they say, staked the area’s financial future on booming home property values that were unlikely to last. The biggest piece of debt is a $900 million bill to the California Public Employee’s Retirement System (CalPERS) that the city has, so far, been able to continue paying while ignoring other fees.
Since Stockton filed for Chapter 9 in June of 2012, fellow California cities San Bernardino and Mammoth Lakes have followed suit.
“To summarize, we expect…more bankruptcy filings and bond defaults among California cities reflecting the increased risk to bondholders as investors are asked to contribute to plans for closing budget gaps,” read an August 2012 report by California Common Sense.
“In the current environment, as more municipalities approach the economic or political limit to raising taxes or adjusting spending, we expect an increase in defaults and bankruptcies over the next few years.”
While California has carried the heaviest debt, areas including Jefferson County, Alabama and the City of Central Falls, Rhode Island have also filed for bankruptcy.
“Every city in the state is looking on with some concern,” said Dave Vossbrink, a spokesman for the city of San Jose, California in an interview with CBS. “Governments of all kinds borrow money, usually to build infrastructure that lasts a long time. It’s like getting a mortgage to build roads, a sewage plant, whatever it might be. If the investment community perceives greater risk, you may not be able to borrow as much for public purposes.”
Source: RT
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