Author: Admin

The Daily Star – by Jason Straziuso

KAMPALA, Uganda: Rebel fire hit two U.S. military aircraft responding to the outbreak in violence in South Sudan on Saturday, wounding three U.S. service members and heavily damaging at least one of the aircraft, officials said. South Sudan blamed the attack on renegade troops in control of the breakaway region.

The U.S. military aircraft were heading to Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei and scene of some of the nation’s worst violence over the last week. One American service member was reported to be in critical condition. Officials said after the aircraft took incoming fire, they turned around and headed to Kampala, Uganda. From there the service members were flown on to Nairobi, Kenya for medical treatment, the officials said.   Continue reading “U.S. military aircraft hit in South Sudan”

LA Times – by Brian Bennett and Lisa Mascaro

WASHINGTON — In its last workday of the year, the Democratic-controlled Senate overcame GOP objections Friday to confirm two high-profile Obama nominees to the Department of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service, but put off final approval of Federal Reserve chairwoman candidate Janet L. Yellen until January as part of a late-night cease-fire so lawmakers could adjourn for the holiday recess.

The Hill – by Ramsey Cox

The Senate adjourned Friday afternoon, after a week full of passing a bipartisan budget deal, the Defense spending bill and confirming several of President Obama’s nominees.

On Thursday night, it was unclear if the Senate would have to continue to work on nominations through the weekend, but as it is often threatened and rarely occurs, it was not surprising that Senate leaders reached an agreement to avoid a prolonged schedule.   Continue reading “Senate adjourns after passing resolution condemning Iran”

Politics is big business, with millions spent each year trying to sway the electoral process. Which industries, businesses and outside interests have donated the most to which candidates?

How Much Money Are We Talking About?

In short, lots. Here’s a look at what candidates in 2013-2014 have raised for this election cycle:   Continue reading “Who Owns Your Congressman?”

Reuters – by JOSEPH MENN

As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers to create a “back door” in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September. Reuters later reported that RSA became the most important distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance security in personal computers and many other products.   Continue reading “Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer”

Ben Swann – by Sonya Sandage

Reports came out yesterday in the UK covering Google’s newest release of their “Transparency Report.”  Turkey has been known for it’s total lack of press freedom, and now reports show the U.S. is approaching the same leagues as Turkey.   Continue reading “U.S. Government asks Google to Remove Almost 4,000 Political Items from Search”

Hang the Bankers – by Clark Kent

ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, DynCorp, G4S, Walmart and McDonald’s are just a few of the companies that the mega ‘charity’ supports.

With an endowment larger than all but four of the world’s largest hedge funds, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is easily one of the most powerful ‘charities’ in the world. According to its website, the organization ”works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.”   Continue reading “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation exposed”

LifeNews – by Steven Ertelt

Planned Parenthood is after the career and livelihood of a distinguished, highly-qualified, good high school teacher, Bill Diss, who had the audacity to tell Planned Parenthood that they were not allowed in his classroom.After a second hearing last night, that pro-life teacher, Bill Diss, has been fired.

The school board for the Portland Public School District voted to terminate Diss’ contract after Planned Parenthood’s lobbying effort.   Continue reading “Pro-Life Teacher Fired After Kicking Planned Parenthood Out of His Class”

Here is absolute proof that gun registry leads to gun confiscation. The long gun registry information referenced in this article was supposed to be destroyed, BY LAW, last November, yet the RCMP had access to this supposedly destroyed list of firearms owners and the firearms that they owned.   – Jim Stenberg   Continue reading “High River – Long-Gun Registry Records used in Firearms Seizures”

Miami Herald – by MICHAEL DOYLE

In a Freedom of Information Act victory, a federal judge has slapped the Obama administration for its secretive ways and ordered officials to turn over a bland-sounding foreign policy document.

Chastising what she called “the government’s unwarranted expansion of the presidential communications privilege at the expense of the public’s interest in disclosure,” U.S. District Judge Ellen Seal Huvelle ruled the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development is not exempt from FOIA.   Continue reading “Judge smacks Obama secrecy in unique FOIA case”

The Telegraph – by Damien McElroy

NPR – by Scott Neuman

The Federal Reserve has decided to reduce by $10 billion its monthly bond-buying program beginning in January.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee says in a statement:

“In light of the cumulative progress toward maximum employment and the improvement in the outlook for labor market conditions, the Committee decided to modestly reduce the pace of its asset purchases. Beginning in January, the Committee will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $35 billion per month rather than $40 billion per month, and will add to its holdings of longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $40 billion per month rather than $45 billion per month.”   Continue reading “Fed Says It Will Begin Tapering Off Its Stimulus In January”

Jim Stone Freelance

Washington’s Blog did an absolutely brilliant write up about how the NSA has dealt their own nation an economic death blow with their mass surveillance. Here is a comment on the article:

“Did the idiots at the NSA have no clue that they would kill the US economy if they vacuumed up every electronic transaction on earth? And then allowed it to be used for political and economic purposes?   Continue reading “How the NSA destroyed the economy”

CNN

Washington (CNN) – Chinese hackers tapped into the Federal Election Commission’s website during the federal government shutdown in October, a report released Tuesday by an investigative news organization says.

The report from the Center for Public Integrity, one of the country’s oldest and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations, indicates that hackers crashed the FEC’s computer systems, which compiles federal election campaign finance information like contributions to parties and candidates, and how those billions of dollars are spent in each election by candidates, political parties, and independent groups such as political action committees.   Continue reading “Report: Chinese hackers attacked crucial government election website”

New York Times – by NEIL GOUGH

HONG KONG — China’s biggest Bitcoin exchange was forced to stop accepting deposits in the Chinese currency on Wednesday, sending the price of the virtual money tumbling in one of its biggest markets globally.

The exchange, BTC China, made the announcement in a post on its verified account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like messaging service.   Continue reading “Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move”