next....

[DrLeftover]

U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News To Americans

For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. So what just happened?

Until this month, a vast ocean of U.S. programming produced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks could only be viewed or listened to at broadcast quality in foreign countries. The programming varies in tone and quality, but its breadth is vast: It's viewed in more than 100 countries in 61 languages. The topics covered include human rights abuses in Iran; self-immolation in Tibet; human trafficking across Asia; and on-the-ground reporting in Egypt and Iraq.

The restriction of these broadcasts was due to the Smith-Mundt Act, a long standing piece of legislation that has been amended numerous times over the years, perhaps most consequentially by Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/07/12/us_backs_off_propaganda_ban_spreads_government_made_news_to_americans

 

[Evil Eye]

Being able to watch what you're paying for seems all right. 'sides, what difference does it make?

 

[DrLeftover]

Yeah, you're right. We should be able to hear the big lies straight from the horse's asses that are telling them.

 

[Evil Eye]

Exactly. Also, as long as no one starts talking about cutting their budget, they might even be more neutral than some news networks.
How hard could it be?

 

[DrLeftover]

Exactly. Also, as long as no one starts talking about cutting their budget, they might even be more neutral than some news networks.
How hard could it be?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL0ROeZw7wA

 

[DrLeftover]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chances are, your local or state police departments have photographs of your car in their files, noting where you were driving on a particular day, even if you never did anything wrong.

Using automated scanners, law enforcement agencies across the country have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movement of every vehicle with a license plate, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. Affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings, the scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, uploading that information into police databases. Departments keep the records for weeks or years, sometimes indefinitely.

As the technology becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, and federal grants focus on aiding local terrorist detection, even small police agencies are able to deploy more sophisticated surveillance systems. While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a judge's approval is needed to track a car with GPS, networks of plate scanners allow police effectively to track a driver's location, sometimes several times every day, with few legal restrictions. The ACLU says the scanners assemble what it calls a "single, high-resolution image of our lives."

http://news.yahoo.com/driving-somewhere-theres-govt-record-140052644.html

 

[DrLeftover]

And from the NYC Nanny In Chief

First he came after the cigarettes. Then the trans-fats. Then the super-sized drinks. Now, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is coming after the elevators.

City officials announced a new initiative this afternoon aimed at encouraging office workers to take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. Under legislation proposed by the mayor, all new buildings and buildings undergoing major renovation would be required to give occupants access to at least one stairwell, as well as post signs near elevators pointing to nearby stairs.

http://politicker.com/2013/07/bloombergs-latest-nanny-move-pushing-people-to-take-the-stairs/

 

[Evil Eye]

Isn't it common sense to have at least one stairwell? With regard to fire and all...

 

[DrLeftover]

To "HAVE" them, yes, that is part of the fire code.

To "suggest" to the point of "nagging" people to use them....

 

[DrLeftover]

And today from the IRS-

More than two years after her upstart Senate campaign rocked the Delaware political world, Christine O'Donnell got an unexpected contact from a U.S. Treasury Department agent warning that her private tax records may have been breached.

The phone message earlier this year shocked the battled-scarred candidate, a tea party favorite who knocked off Republican mainstay Michael Castle in the primary before losing in a bid to win Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s former seat.

“Ms. O'Donnell, this is Dennis Martel, special agent with the U.S. Department of Treasury in Baltimore, Md. … We received information that your personal federal tax info may have been compromised and may have been misused by an individual,” he said in the January message left on her cellphone.

...

On March 9, 2010, the day she revealed her plan to run for the Senate in a press release, a tax lien was placed on a house purported to be hers and publicized. The problem was she no longer owned the house. The IRS eventually blamed the lien on a computer glitch and withdrew it.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/17/former-gop-senate-candidate-christine-odonnell-tol/

Yes, she's a nut. But, should the IRS be used for personal attacks on anybody?

 

[DrLeftover]

It's nice to have an admission that they did something stupid.

The director of Delaware’s tax-collection office said Friday that his agency accessed the federal tax records in 2010 of an unnamed taxpayer, believed to be former GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell.

Patrick Carter, director of the state’s division of revenue, would not identify Ms. O'Donnell as the taxpayer but said he approved the inquiry “for routine purposes.”

“A state Division of Revenue investigator accessed records on or after March 20, 2010 following information that came to the attention of the division,” Mr. Carter said in a statement. “The record access led the state revenue investigator to conclude there was no basis for further state investigation of a taxpayer and no action was taken by the state Division of Revenue against the taxpayer.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/19/delware-officials-admit-snooping-gop-candidate-chr/

 

[DrLeftover]

And from the Nanny In Chief in the UK

22 July 2013
Online pornography to be blocked by default, PM announces

Most households in the UK will have pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they choose to receive it, David Cameron has announced.

In addition, the prime minister said possessing online pornography depicting rape would become illegal in England and Wales - in line with Scotland.

Mr Cameron warned in a speech that access to online pornography was "corroding childhood".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401076

 

[Evil Eye]

Quite ambitious to want to block all porn...

To "suggest" to the point of "nagging" people to use them....

They'll put up some signs and everyone'll ignore them and it'll all have been a big waste of time. Other than that, it's not so bad.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

It seems he's just referring to illegal porn (i.e. child porn/rape). To that end I wholeheartedly agree, but internet censorship is never a good sign.

 

[DrLeftover]

It seems he's just referring to illegal porn (i.e. child porn/rape). To that end I wholeheartedly agree, but internet censorship is never a good sign.

Of course I agree with the law the explicitly criminalizes creation, distribution, or possession of child pornography, and I am surprised the 'loophole' existed.

But I also do not believe they will stop with that because of the language in the article.

The filters would apply to all devices linked to the affected home Wi-Fi network and across the public Wi-Fi network "wherever children are likely to be present".

Once they raise the "protect the children" flag, common sense goes away.

 

[Evil Eye]

It seems he's just referring to illegal porn

Nope, all porn. Otherwise being allowed to opt out of the censorship would be a bit weird.

 

[DrLeftover]

And in other news:

Unemployment Will Get Worse in 2014
by Jim Clifton
July 25, 2013

President Barack Obama gave a major economic policy speech yesterday. Here’s what he didn’t say, and probably won’t ever say: Businesses will not begin new, significant hiring this year or in 2014.

Business leaders around the country tell me they’re not thinking about new hires right now. Rather, their sole focus is on how to win new customers. Too few people know this, but employees follow customer growth, not the other way around. Most importantly, businesses want to survive. They’ve cut everything to the bone and stored cash, and they won’t risk anything until they experience customer growth. New hires don’t solve their problems.
...
As regular readers of this blog already know, the unemployment measure the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports is incomplete. The BLS defines unemployment as the percentage of people looking for a job who can’t find one. So, for instance, if you’ve given up on trying to find a job for the rest of the year, you’re not considered unemployed because you quit searching. In addition, if you mow my lawn and it took you one hour or longer to complete and I gave you at least $20 for the task, the federal government doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s even if you’re an out-of-work engineer and lawn mowing is the only work you can get right now.

The closely followed, single BLS unemployment metric, now 7.6%, fails to reflect the actual state of things: Unemployment and underemployment is, according to Gallup, 17.2%. That means more than 20 million Americans are unemployed or grossly underemployed. And here’s a much more significant metric: only 44.7% of adults 18 years and older in the U.S. are in a full-time job, according to Gallup’s Payroll to Population (P2P) metric.

Bluntly, the jobs picture is not improving, despite what you hear in the news, and it will get worse.

Jim Clifton is Chairman and CEO of Gallup.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130725112846-14634910-unemployment-will-get-worse-in-2014

 

[DrLeftover]

Aug 5, 2013

I have been dismayed, but unsurprised, to see that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is already spinning the launch of its federal health insurance exchange this October. The federal and state “exchanges”​—​HHS recently rebranded them “marketplaces”​—​are a linchpin of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that would allow uninsured Americans to assess and select health insurance plans. Repeated HHS assurances that the systems will be ready for launch have been a critical factor in state decisions as to whether they should use the HHS portal or build their own; at least 14 states have wisely chosen to build their own systems.
...

In reality, the beta version jammed through a few months ago will, unless delayed and fixed, inflict on the public the most widespread violation of the Privacy Act in our history. Almost a year ago both I and the IRS commissioner raised strong legal objections to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which has statutory oversight responsibilities for the Privacy Act. As of the time of my resignation as commissioner of Social Security last February, OMB lawyers could not bring themselves to bless a portal in which I could change Donald Trump’s health insurance and he could change mine.

Incredibly, at the time of our appeal, no senior legal official at HHS had reviewed the legal issues raised by this feature of the ACA. It is my understanding that OMB, despite the recent furor over this administration’s lack of respect for the privacy of citizens, has ordered agencies to bulldoze through the Privacy Act by invoking an absurdly broad interpretation of the Privacy Act’s “routine use” exemption.

Michael Astrue served as HHS general counsel (1989-1992) and commissioner of Social Security (2007-2013).

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/privacy-be-damned_741033.html

 

[DrLeftover]

And now, for your amusement, MAJOR International Food Stamp Fraud:

July 28, 2013

Food-stamp fraud in New York has turned into foreign aid — to black-market profiteers in the Dominican Republic.

Last week, The Post revealed how New Yorkers on welfare are buying food with their benefit cards and shipping it in blue barrels to poor relatives in the Caribbean.

But not everyone is giving the taxpayer-funded fare to starving children abroad. The Post last week found two people hawking barrels of American products for a profit on the streets of Santiago.

“It’s a really easy way to make money, and it doesn’t cost me anything,” a seller named Maria-Teresa said Friday.

The 47-year-old Bronx native told The Post she scalps barrels of Frosted Flakes and baby formula bought with welfare money in the United States.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/isle_take_that_welfare_scam_VBsTspIxia2GA9o2oS505L

 

[DrLeftover]

"KAZAT!"
- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (1937 - 2005)

29 July 2013

Speaking to reporters on a flight back from Brazil, he reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not.

"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge them?"

He also said he wanted a greater role for women in the Church, but insisted they could not be priests.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23489702


More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10208802/Pope-Francis-reaches-out-to-gays.html

US media a bit late to the party, but they made it:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/29/pope-gay-priests/2595255/

You may have to think about what he said for a few moments before you realize what he just said.