Idaho Libertarian Times

Podcast #16 The dont ask, don't tell, don't get the point episode

PODCAST#16 Sun Feb 07 2010, 09:45:52

New information emerging about arrested Idahoans
by Scott Evans Idaho's NewsChannel 7
Posted on February 6, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Updated yesterday at 10:18 PM
"More information continues to emerge about the group of Americans who were arrested in Haiti."
http://www.ktvb.com/news/Local-store-collecting-donations-for-planned-orphanage-shocked-by-arrests-83732252.html

Fark headline: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants to ease "don't ask, don't tell" out slowly, carefully. Doesn't understand the importance of rapid pull-out ; The Boston Globe Pentagon may ease ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
Could reduce expulsions of gay service members; Some in Congress want to keep existing rules By Bryan Bender Globe Staff / February 2, 2010
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/02/02/pentagon_may_ease_dont_ask_dont_tell_rules?mode=PF

FOX News Poll: Most Americans Want a ‘Do-Over’ On Health Reform
By Tami Buhr - FOXNews.com Updated February 05, 2010
A new Fox News Poll shows that less than one-quarter of American voters support passage of the legislation currently before Congress.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/05/fox-news-poll-americans-want-health-reform/

Dems To Force GOP Vote On Anti-Social Security Privatization Resolution
Christina Bellantoni | February 5, 2010, 2:02PM
"House Democrats are going to force their Republican colleagues to vote on a resolution opposing the privatization of Social Security."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/dems-to-force-gop-vote-on-anti-social-security-privatization-resolution.php?ref=fpa

Rich Lowry, February 5, 2010 12:00 A.M.
"For Government, Let the Good Times Roll" 1690% increase in federal employees making $170,000 or more.
http://article.nationalreview.com/424072/for-government-let-the-good-times-roll/rich-lowry

 President Obama wants to privatize much of NASA and... wait, what?  (blogs.discovermagazine.com) The Good News: Bye bye Constellation
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/02/01/president-obamas-nasa-budget-unveiled/
The real answer is http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php

www.chattanoogan.com
Cleveland Taking Down Red Light Cameras
posted February 5, 2010
Cleveland city officials said red light cameras in the city seem to be effective, but the company furnishing the cameras has asked that the cameras come down.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_168401.asp

Bad Astronomy: Give space a chance

OK, yes, Spirit is now stuck. It looks like even if it survives the Martian winter it may no longer be able to traverse the Red Planet’s landscape. But that doesn’t mean it’s dead. Instead of a rover, it’s now a stationary platform capable of doing a lot of science on the cheap (since most of the cost was getting it there).

via blogs.discovermagazine.com

Podcast #15 The off tangent ranty ranty podcast

PODCAST #15 Sun Jan 31 2010

Clearing the air on emissions testing in Idaho

Testing of Canyon County and Kuna cars and trucks for air pollution could begin by June 1, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality officials say.

BY ROCKY BARKER - rbarker@idahostatesman.com
Copyright: © 2010 Idaho Statesman
Published: 01/31/10
"Two legislative committees narrowly endorsed the Department of Environmental Quality rules that will require vehicles in Canyon County and Kuna to pass emissions tests."
"The problem is the federal government keeps lowering the bar," said Nampa Republican Rep. Steve Kren.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/1062630.html

10 Idahoans arrested in Haiti
Story Created: Jan 30, 2010 at 5:41 PM MST
Story Updated: Jan 30, 2010 at 11:27 PM MST
By Jen Wahl & Michael Calcagno
MERIDIAN - A rescue mission abruptly ended Saturday morning at the Haiti-Dominican Republic border as 10 Idahoans were detained for illegal trafficking of children.
http://www.2news.tv/news/83173907.html

Got Milk? Got Ethics? Animal Rights v. U.S. Dairy Industry
Undercover Videos Show Ugly Realities Behind the Scenes of 'Factory Dairy Farms'
By ANNA SCHECTER and BRIAN ROSS
Jan. 26, 2010
Undercover videos produced by animal rights groups are fueling a debate over the need for new laws to regulate the treatment of American dairy cows. "These animals are really treated as little more than milk-producing machines," said Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals. "The overall environment at this facility was really a culture of cruelty and neglect."
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/animal-rights-us-dairy-industry/story?id=9658866

Podcast #14 Sunday Jan 24 2010

PODCAST#14, Sun Jan 24 2010, 15:46:56

The Weekly Podcast of the Idaho Libertarian Times.

Jan 21, 6:15 PM EST

GOP's 41st senator gets movie star's greeting
By LAURIE KELLMAN and ANDREW MIGA
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican state senator who shook the political landscape from Massachusetts to California this week descended on Capitol Hill to a celebrity's welcome Thursday as he to introduced himself to a Congress he says has lost its way.
FULL STORY HERE

Dem health care talks collapsing
By PATRICK O'CONNOR & CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 1/21/10 8:20 PM EST

Health care reform teetered on the brink of collapse Thursday as House and Senate leaders struggled to coalesce around a strategy to rescue the plan, in the face of growing pessimism among lawmakers that the president’s top priority can survive.FULL STORY HERE

Obama blasts Court decision on campaign finance
Jan 21 01:41 PM US/Eastern By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
FARK TAG LINE:[President Obama blasts Supreme Court decision, saying the campaign finance ruling will lead to a "stampede of special interest money, " failing to add, "from groups that don't support me" (breitbart.com)]
FULL STORY HERE

Smear Fail!
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Fark Tag Line: DCCC attacks "right-wing extremist group" Cato Institute. You know, the same Cato that's to the left of the Democrats on national security, immigration, civil liberties, criminal justice, and foreign policy  (theagitator.com)
FULL STORY HERE

Dems fret: 'Every state is in play'
The Republican victory in Massachusetts has sent a wave of fear through the halls of the Senate, with moderate and liberal Democrats second-guessing their party’s agenda — and worrying that they’ll be the next victims of voters’ anger.
FULL STORY HERE

Press Takes a New Look at Tea Parties After Brown Win
It would have helped Dems if they'd done it sooner.
BY Mary Katharine Ham
January 20, 2010 12:12 PM
Now that voter discontent has appeared in the bluest of blue states, and it's focused on the president's handling of terror, taxes, and health care, it's become much harder to marginalize Tea Party activists and other critics of the administration as:
    "extremist mobs" by the Democratic National Committee, pawns of the insurance industry by Senator Dick Durbin, "un-American" by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, "brownshirts" by Representative Brian Baird of Washington, "manufactured" and "Astroturf" by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, "evilmongers" by Senator Harry Reid, accused of "fear-mongering" by the president, and been deemed "political terrorists" by Representative Baron Hill of Indiana.
FULL STORY HERE

State Needs More Revenue? Why Not Tax a Tax?
by Todd Shepherd
Colorado, like every other state in the nation, is struggling with revenue.
So what’s a state to do? Well, let’s see, the state already taxes income, gas, sales on goods, personal property, corporate income, entertainment, energy, phones, etc. All that’s left to do is…tax a tax.
Never happen you say?
Coloradans must pay a $1.50 waste-tire fee every time they dispose of an old tire at a retail outlet. And according to an “FYI Memo” from the state department of revenue, “Effective August 5, 2009, the waste tire recycling development fee is considered part of the purchase price and is subject to sales tax.”
FULL STORY HERE

gamepolitics.com: Guest Column: On TSA Laptop Searches
Dan Rosenthal
Sooner or later, most gamers will face the dreaded scenario of having to leave their desktop PC's and consoles behind and suffer through the misery of modern air travel.
FULL STORY HERE

Virginia delegate Morgan seeks to decriminalize marijuana
By Rosalind S. Helderman
FARK TAG: Radical hippie state legislator proposes decriminalizing marijuana possession in Virginia. Actually, he's a 79-year old Republican and a pharmacist who may know what he's talking about
RICHMOND, JAN. 20 -- It's high times in the Virginia General Assembly. The lobbyists are cracking jokes about "joint" sessions, and the legislators are laughing that free Girl Scout cookies delivered Wednesday could prove useful
FULL STORY HERE

Too much choice leaving us bewildered and depressed
Modern life is making us miserable because we have too much choice, claims new research.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 1:38PM GMT 21 Jan 2010
FULL STORY HERE

John Monds For Georgia Govenor
http://www.votemonds.com/

Survivor of Luby massacre defends Second Amendment

By Judith Pannebaker

Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp’s calm recounting of a sequence of events that occurred on Oct. 16, 1991, in a Luby’s restaurant in Killeen, kept the crowd at the Bandera County Public Library riveted. As one participant noted, “Nobody moved. You could have heard a pin drop.” It’s one thing to read about the massacre of 23 people in newspaper articles – and quite another to hear an account from a person who survived the killing field. Hupp, the author of “From Luby’s to the Legislature: One Woman’s Fight Against Gun Control,” appeared at a book signing at the library on Wednesday, Jan. 13. While in other parts of the country, the right to bear arms is a controversial issue, not so in Bandera. When Hupp asked, “How many of you own guns?” nearly every hand in the SRO crowd shot up. “This is going to be an easy audience,” she noted. “I don’t have to worry about offending anyone.” Hupp recalled that as a child, she and her brother, Bandera chiropractor, Allan Gratia, had grown up in a home where their father, although not a “gun fanatic,” had respected the Second Amendment. “When I was 21, a friend of mine, an assistant district attorney in Houston, gave me a .38 Smith & Wesson Air Weight,” Hupp said. At that time, however, it was illegal to carry a handgun in Texas. Worried about losing her just-acquired chiropractic license, she demurred from accepting the gun. “He told me, ‘You need to carry this at all times. You don’t see the things I do. Stuff happens and you need to be prepared’,” Hupp recalled. Fast forward to a sunny day in 1991 when she had met her parents for lunch in a Luby’s restaurant near their home in Copperas Cove. “Luby’s was packed that day since it was Boss’s Day,” Hupp noted. Suddenly, a pickup truck plowed through the front window, sending people flying. Thinking the crash was an accident, Hupp got up to help the driver – and then heard gunshots. She and her parents immediately took cover behind overturned tables. The truck blocked the exits. “It took me about 45 seconds to realize he was there to execute people,” Hupp said, describing the shooter going from person to person, deliberately taking aim and pulling the trigger. When the gunman was about 15 feet away, Hupp assessed the situation, noting, “I can use the table as cover and stablize my arm on the top. I’ve got this guy.” Then with a sinking feeling, she remembered that, fearing for revocation of her medical license, she had imprudently left her gun in her car “100 feet away in the parking lot.” All that was left in way of defense were salt and pepper shakers and a butter knife. Attempting to subdue the gunman, Hupp’s father, Al Gratia, charged, but was shot instantly. “The shooter had complete charge of the situation,” Hupp said. “My father was shot seven or eight feet in front of me.” She recognized the wound was fatal. However, her father’s sacrifice caused the gunman to veer to the left – away from Hupp and her mother, giving them extra moments. Just seconds later, a man launched himself through a plate glass window, opening an avenue of escape. “I grabbed my mother and starting running,” Hupp said. It was only after reaching safety that she realized her mother, Ursula, hadn’t followed her. “I should have known she would never leave my father.” After law enforcement officers stormed the building, the shooter “rabbited to a back room and killed himself,” Hupp said. In the final gruesome tally, 23 people had been shot to death and another 20 wounded. The incident at Luby’s remained the deadliest shooting rampage in the United States until the Virginia Tech massacre in April 16, 2007, in which 32 people were killed. In the aftermath of the shooting, interviewers asked Hupp about her feeling toward the shooter. “I can’t be mad at the man. He went nuts. It’s like being mad at a rabid dog,” she said. Hupp added repeatedly, however, “But I’m mad as hell at the legislators who legislated me out of the right to protect myself and my family.” She continued, “It’s the most frustrating thing in the world to lie and wait for it to be your turn.” Rethinking her decision to comply with then law, she said, “I’d rather be sitting in prison with a felony and have my parents here.” Hupp’s subsequent testimony about the shooting proved instrumental in the approval of Texas’ conceal carry statute. Via appearances on talk shows, she brought her story to millions of people who “wouldn’t have necessarily heard about the other side of gun control. “I wrote my book because I wanted my children to know my version of the story as it relates to guns and my recollections of how I formed by views of the Second Amendment,” Hupp said. Not surprisingly, she has little tolerance for people she regards as “squishy” when confronted with every US citizen’s fundamental right. “One time on a call-in radio program, a woman caller told me, ‘I’m not sure I could pull the trigger even to save my children.’ “I told her, ‘Then, by God, you shouldn’t be procreating – because even a goose protects its own’.” Hupp continued, “I’m not a hunter but I believe in the God-given right to protect myself and my family.” Not one to mince words, while testifying before a Senate subcommittee, she confronted New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, a member of the panel, saying, “The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting. It’s about protecting us from you up there.” Hupp concluded by painting a harrowing scenario. “You’re at a restaurant with your family and somebody in a trench coat catches your eye. As you watch, he pulls out a gun and starts executing people. If you don’t have a gun, do you think you might hope the guy behind you does?”

via www.bccourier.com

The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama

David Kirby is an associate policy analyst, and David Boaz is executive vice president, at the Cato Institute. They are coauthors of "The Libertarian Vote," Cato Institute ;

Libertarian — or fiscally conservative, socially liberal — voters are often torn between their aversions to the Republicans' social conservatism and the Democrats' fiscal irresponsibility. Yet libertarians rarely factor into pundits' and pollsters' analyses. LINK.: The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama

January 21, 2010
Policy Analysis no. 658
by David Kirby and David Boaz

via www.cato.org

PODCAST #13, The Neal Boortz, paper Gay edition!

PodCast#13, Sun Jan 17 2010

Health Care Overhaul Bill Is 'Hanging by a Thread': Dodd

Published: Monday, 11 Jan 2010 | 2:48 PM ET
By: CNBC.com
Health care reform is "hanging on by a thread," and one or two votes could determine the outcome of the heavily-debated bill, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd told CNBC Monday
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34804315

Amish families exempt from insurance mandate
HEALTH REFORM: People with religious objections can opt out
By MARC HELLER
TIMES WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT / www.watertowndailytimes.com
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010
WASHINGTON — Federal health care reform will require most Northern New Yorkers — but not all, it turns out — to carry health insurance or risk a fine. Hundreds of Amish families in the region are likely to be free from that requirement.
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20100109/NEWS02/301099964

Swine flu'False Pandemic' Claim

By CHRIS POLLARD

Published: 11 Jan 2010

A LEADING health expert says the swine flu scare was a "false pandemic" led by drugs companies that stood to make billions from vaccines.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2803049/Swine-flu-false-pandemic-claim.html#ixzz0ct4JoZpL

Guantanamo guard reunited with ex-inmates
By Gavin Lee
BBC News
Why would a former Guantanamo Bay prison guard track down two of his former captives - two British men - and agree to fly to London to meet them?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8452937.stm

Witness: Gay marriage made her feel like family
By LISA LEFF
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Getting married brought big changes to the lives of author Helen Zia and her partner Lia Shigemura.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GAY_MARRIAGE_TRIAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-01-11-15-26-20


Wall Street frets over Google's future in China
Wed, Jan 13 2010
By Franklin Paul and Alexei Oreskovic
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc's threat to withdraw from China over censorship and cyber attacks has suddenly jeopardized any plans it has for the world's biggest Internet market, stunning investors and analysts.
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE60B5RV20100113

Chinese surprise at Google pull-out threat
By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Shanghai
Google's warning that it might pull out of China over cyber attacks has surprised human rights activists here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8456950.stm

Google denies leaving China, seeks negotiations

3:49am EST By Melanie Lee

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Google Inc enters a second week of high stakes brinkmanship with China's government, amid speculation the firm has decided to pull out of the world's biggest Internet market over cyber-spying concerns. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60E0BC20100117

Google and China: the attacks and their aftermath
By Nate Anderson | Last updated January 13, 2010 12:39 PM
Google and China: the attacks and their aftermath
Yesterday's announcement that Google would stop censoring its search results in China, and that the company had been the victim of sophisticated Chinese cyberattacks, was a Big Deal; Secretary of State Hilary Clinton even felt the need to weigh in on it with an official statement. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/01/google-and-china-the-attacks-and-their-aftermath.ars

 BBC NEWS
Haiti devastated by massive quake
A massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti.
The extent of the devastation is still unclear but there are fears thousands of people may have died. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8455629.stm

Haiti earthquake: police open fire on looters
Haitian police have opened fire on a group of looters, killing at least one of them as hundreds of rioters ransacked a market in quake-hit Port-au-Prince.
By Philip Sherwell in New York and Colin Freeman
Published: 7:44PM GMT 16 Jan 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/7005853/Haiti-earthquake-police-open-fire-on-looters.html

White House criticizes evangelist's Haiti remark
Thu Jan 14, 5:26 pm ET
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – A White House spokesman on Thursday slammed evangelist broadcaster Pat Robertson's remark that Haiti has been cursed.
A devastating magnitude-7 earthquake hit there Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_haiti_pat_robertson/print

Limbaugh: 'We've Already Donated To Haiti, It's Called US Income Tax'

Huffington Post|Nicholas Graham First Posted: 01-14-10 08:14 AM   |   Updated: 01-14-10 09:04 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/14/limbaugh-weve-already-don_n_422958.html?view=print

TSA Isn't Telling the Whole Truth About Scanners, Charges Privacy Group
By Erika Morphy
TechNewsWorld
01/12/10 10:00 AM PT
The TSA has been "disingenuous" about the capabilities of backscatter airport scanners to store and send images, according to the privacy group EPIC. Concerns are growing that the scanners may violate individual rights and may even be harmful to the health of some passengers. Furthermore, say critics, they're not very effective in detecting explosives.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/69086.html?wlc=1263742893&wlc=1263744618#

Businessman is arrested in front of wife and son... for ‘anti-gipsy’
email that he didn’t even write
By James Millbank
Last updated at 10:04 AM on 10th January 2010
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241994/Businessman-arrested-wife-son--anti-gipsy--email-didn-t-write.html#ixzz0ctleVZvS

Businessman sues BA 'for treating men like perverts'
By Sophie Borland
Last updated at 4:32 PM on 16th January 2010
Mirko Fischer claims BA brand all men as potential sex offenders
A businessman is suing British Airways over a policy that bans male passengers from sitting next to children they don't know  -  even if the child's parents are on the same flight.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243625/Businessman-Mirko-Fischer-sues-British-Airwars-treating-men-like-perverts.html?printingPage=true

Appeals court to decide if 'sexting' is child porn
Saturday, January 16, 2010
By Nathan Gorenstein, Philadelphia Inquirer
Matt Rourke/Associated Press
The case involves photos of two 12 year-old-girls in training bras, and a 16-year-old wrapped in a towel with her breasts exposed as she leaves a shower.
Sexting is the widely talked about practice of using cell phones to send sexually provocative photos of yourself. The girls, from Wyoming County, northwest of Scranton, have not been accused of disseminating the photos, which have not been made public.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10016/1028736-454.stm

Four-hour electric rationing to be implemented in Greater Caracas: http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/01/12/en_eco_esp_four-hour-electric-r_12A3279811.shtml

Chávez suspends electricity rationing in Caracas

http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/01/14/en_eco_esp_chavez-suspends-elec_14A3286691.shtml

11-Year-Old Reports Mom, Her Boyfriend as Drug Dealers

Jennifer Lynn Patterson's 11-year-old son called police to tell them his mom and her boyfriend, Michael Dewayne French, were dealing drugs out of their home. Jennifer Lynn Patterson's 11-year-old son called police to tell them his mom and her boyfriend, Michael Dewayne French, were dealing drugs out of their home. By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9:http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?s=11818508&clienttype=printable

FDA Blocked From Stopping E-Cigarette Shipments
E-cigarette company wins import case in federal court, but faces challenge from California AG
By PETE YOST Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON January 14, 2010 (AP) : http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9565843

Tsunami spending? Wave your money bye
By Michael Stetz, UNION-TRIBUNE COLUMNIST
Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 2:50 a.m.
Imperial Beach spent $47,000 in grant money. San Diego County, $30,000. San Diego City has received $1,500 and may seek another $150,000 to protect us from a terrible tsunami. Link to Video produced to show the school kids where to run to in case of tsunami
Call Michael at: 619-293-1720
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/10/tsunami-spending-wave-your-money-bye/

Police fight cellphone recordings
Witnesses taking audio of officers arrested, charged with illegal surveillance
By Daniel Rowinski
New England Center For Investigative Reporting / January 12, 2010
Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking down Tremont Street in Boston when he saw three police officers struggling to extract a plastic bag from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking their force seemed excessive for a drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/12/police_fight_cellphone_recordings/

Antitrust Case Against RIAA Reinstated

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "After Starr v. SONY BMG Music Entertainment was dismissed at the District Court level, the antitrust class action against the RIAA has been reinstated by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In its 25-page opinion (PDF), the Appeals court held the following allegations sufficiently allege antitrust violations: 'First, defendants agreed to launch MusicNet and pressplay, both of which charged unreasonably high prices and contained similar DRMs. Second, none of the defendants dramatically reduced their prices for Internet Music (as compared to CDs), despite the fact that all defendants experienced dramatic cost reductions in producing Internet Music. Third, when defendants began to sell Internet Music through entities they did not own or control, they maintained the same unreasonably high prices and DRMs as MusicNet itself. Fourth, defendants used MFNs [most favored nation clauses] in their licenses that had the effect of guaranteeing that the licensor who signed the MFN received terms no less favorable than terms offered to other licensors. For example, both EMI and UMG used MFN clauses in their licensing agreements with MusicNet. Fifth, defendants used the MFNs to enforce a wholesale price floor of about 70 cents per song. Sixth, all defendants refuse to do business with eMusic, the #2 Internet Music retailer. Seventh, in or about May 2005, all defendants raised wholesale prices from about $0.65 per song to $0.70 per song. This price increase was enforced by MFNs.'"

via yro.slashdot.org

Slashdot Politics Story | Obama Appointee Sunstein Favors Infiltrating Online Groups

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 14, @05:28PM from the freedom-of-somethingeruther dept.

megamerican writes

"President Barack Obama's appointee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs advocated in a recent paper the 'cognitive infiltration' of groups that advocate 'conspiracy theories' like the ones surrounding 9/11 via 'chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine' those groups. Sunstein admits that 'some conspiracy theories, under our definition, have turned out to be true' Sunstein has also recently advocated banning websites which post 'right-wing rumors' and bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. You can find a PDF of his paper here. For decades (1956-1971), the FBI under COINTELPRO focused on disrupting, marginalizing and neutralizing political dissidents, most notably the Black Panthers. More recently CENTCOM announced it would be engaging bloggers 'who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are posting incomplete information.' In January 2009 the USAF released a flow-chart for 'counter-bloggers' to 'counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the US government and the Air Force.'"

PODCAST #12 for the week of 4th through 10th January 2010

Podcast #12

Nazi resistance fighter Moltke dead at 98: report
(AFP) – 6 days ago
NEW YORK — Freya von Moltke, a prominent member of the German resistance during World War II alongside her husband, has died at the age of 98 in the United States.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gRMu6FOilUxTnJBeZtPURFP5yX1g

U.S. lowers threshold for inclusion on no-fly lists
By Elise Labott, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
    * Government overhauls criteria it uses because of failed Christmas Day attack
    * Suspect Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab was not put on a no-fly list
    * Sources say intelligence community has reviewed entire terrorist database since attack
    * They say names have been added to watch, no-fly lists and visas revoked
Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. government has lowered the threshold for information deemed important enough to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or no-fly list, or have their visa revoked, senior State Department officials tell CNN.
 http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/01/05/terrorism.watch.list/index.html

guardian.co.uk home
White House: no 'smoking gun' clue in Detroit airline plot
    * Ed Pilkington in New York
    * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 January 2010 19.29 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/03/smoking-gun-detroit-airline-plot

Full body scanners may break child pornography laws
The full body scanners being introduced to Britain's airports risk breaking child protection laws against making indecent images of children, campaign groups have claimed.
By Heidi Blake
Published: 8:00AM GMT 05 Jan 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6933898/Full-body-scanners-may-break-child-pornography-laws.html


 BBC NEWS
Venezuela to devalue its currency
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has announced that the national currency, the bolivar, will be devalued for the first time since 2005, by at least 17%.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8449721.stm


Crash O's 'Cadillac'!
By SALLY GOLDENBERG and CARL CAMPANILE
Last Updated: 11:15 AM, January 8, 2010
Posted: 3:46 AM, January 8, 2010
Local unions are waging war against President Obama's proposed "Cadillac tax" on higher-cost health-care plans -- with one leader warning New York Democrats who approve the levy to watch out at the polls this year.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/crash_cadillac_mGWWhsbbhlkYHAD01Bx7QK

33% - Global Warming: A Hoax ... with Serious Ramifications
Tue Jan 5, 12:00 am ET
From April 2008 to October 2009 the percentage of Americans saying there is solid evidence of global warming has fallen from 71% to 57%. A third of the country now says there is no evidence of global warming, up from 21% last year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pew/20100105 ts_pew/33globalwarmingahoaxwithseriousramifications


Gang violence boosts death tally
A spike in the number of deadly gangland quarrels pushed last year's homicide count to 60
by Lou Michel
News Staff Reporter
Updated: January 03, 2010, 2:46 PM /
Just when it looked like Buffalo had a chance to begin a trend of fewer homicides, gang violence derailed the possibility.
City and police officials began last year buoyed by 2008's near-record low of 37 homicides, and they predicted the city was headed in the right direction.
But deadly quarrels among gang members fighting over drugs, money and turf pushed the number of homicides to 60 during the last 12 months.
That represents a 62 percent increase over 2008.
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/910802.html

Christian Science Monitor
More guns equal more crime? Not in 2009, FBI crime report shows.
FBI's latest crime report, for the first half of 2009, shows America is a less violent place even though ownership of guns has surged. Deterrent effect may have a role, but others see no correlation.
Temp Headline Image
By Patrik Jonsson Staff writer
posted December 23, 2009 at 2:44 pm EST
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2009/1223/More-guns-equal-more-crime-Not-in-2009-FBI-crime-report-shows.

How Automakers Abuse Intellectual Property Laws To Force You To Pay More For Repairs
from the it's-all-a-big-scam dept
Back in May, we wrote about the effort to get a Right to Repair bill passed for automobiles:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091228/0345127515.shtml

Litigation and Trial - Max Kennerly
Posted at 8:49 AM on November 2, 2009 by Maxwell Kennerly
Does Copyright Law Care If James Cameron's Avatar Ripped Off Parts Of "Call Me Joe?"
The sharp readers of io9, themselves a collective Library of Alexandria of science fiction, noted surprising common elements between James Cameron's Avatar and a 1957 short story by Poul Anderson, "Call Me Joe:"
http://www.litigationandtrial.com/2009/11/articles/the-law/for-people/does-copyright-law-care-if-james-camerons-avatar-ripped-off-parts-of-call-me-joe/print.html

Washington DC sues AT&T over calling cards
Thu, Dec 31 2009
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The attorney general for Washington D.C. has filed a lawsuit against an AT&T Inc unit, seeking to recover consumers' unused balances on prepaid calling cards.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BU3NF20091231

 BBC NEWS
Mobile use 'may help' Alzheimer's
After all the concern over possible damage to health from using mobile phones, scientists have found a potential benefit from radiation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8443541.stm

Mom of 9 cries foul
Claim: I was sterilized against my will
By Jessica Fargen  |   Sunday, January 3, 2010
Photo Christopher Evans

A 35-year-old mother of nine is suing a Springfield hospital, three doctors and two nurses, claiming they permanently sterilized her against her will, violating her reproductive rights, according to a lawsuit filed in Superior Court.

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional view/20100103mom_of_9_cries_foul_claim_i_was_sterilized_against_my_will/