Month: October 2014

Fox News – by Todd Starnes

The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.

“The city’s subpoena of sermons and other pastoral communications is both needless and unprecedented,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christina Holcomb said in a statement. “The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions.”   Continue reading “City of Houston demands pastors turn over sermons”

Global Research – by Bill Van Auken and David North

With US politicians and the American media engaged in an increasingly acrimonious debate over the strategy guiding the latest US war in the Middle East, the United States Army has unveiled a new document entitled the Army Operating Concept (AOC), which provides a “vision of future armed conflict” that has the most ominous implications. It is the latest in a series of documents in which the Pentagon has elaborated the underlying strategy ofpreventive war that was unveiled in 1992—that is, the use of war as a means of destroying potential geopolitical and economic rivals before they acquire sufficient power to block American domination of the globe.

The document was formally released at this week’s Association of the United States Army (AUSA) conference, an annual event bringing together senior officers and Defense Department officials for a series of speeches and panel discussions, along with a giant trade show mounted by arms manufacturers to show off their latest weapons systems and pursue lucrative Pentagon contracts.   Continue reading “The Army Operating Concept (AOC): US Army Drafts Blueprint for World War III”

RT

Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that the next terrorist attack on the US will be far worse than 9/11 during a nearly two-hour interview. He also took pride in the use of waterboarding and in giving the National Security Agency free reign.

The 73-year-old sat down with neoconservative political pundit Bill Kristol on Sunday for the Weekly Standard editor’s latest installment of Conversations with Bill Kristol. The two discussed Cheney’s time as secretary of defense; the Gulf War; the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations; 9/11; and the threats we face today.   Continue reading “Cheney: Next attack on US will be ‘something far more deadlier’ than 9/11”

RT

A new study on the practice of hydraulic fracturing has found a direct connection to some 400 micro-earthquakes in an Ohio town. This is the second report on the Utica Shale this year. The town is one of very few where the quakes took place on a fault.

The new study, published Tuesday in the journal Seismological Research Letters, focuses on the eastern town of Canton, Harrison County, and three particular wells. It has found that the three wells operated in September-October 2013 in the Utica Shale caused 10 quakes of magnitude 1.7-2.2, among others.   Continue reading “Fracking triggered 400 earthquakes in Ohio, study finds”

RT

A black teenager killed by a police officer in St. Louis, coming just two months after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, had gunpowder residue on his hands, jeans and T-shirt, according to crime lab results.

Last Wednesday, Vonderrit Myers, 18, became the second black teenager to be shot and killed by a white officer in as many months. Meyer’s death reignited simmering rage on the streets of St. Louis, which is attempting to recover from the August 9 shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown.   Continue reading “Black teen shot by St. Louis cop had gunpowder residue on hands – crime report”

Mail.com

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police battling activists for control of an underpass in the dead of night Wednesday sparked public anger after officers were seen kicking a handcuffed protester in the worst violence since street demonstrations for greater democracy began more than two weeks ago.

Officers armed with riot shields, batons and pepper spray knocked activists to the ground, dragging dozens away, and tore down barricades protesters used as roadblocks around the underpass outside the government’s headquarters.   Continue reading “Hong Kong police attack on activist sparks anger”

Mail.com

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston auction house was set to close an online auction on 13 negatives from John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s wedding in Newport, Rhode Island.

The negatives feature images of the wedding party posing outside, the newlyweds leaving the church and the couple cutting the wedding cake. The Kennedys were married on Sept. 12, 1953, at St. Mary’s Church in the well-heeled summer resort located about 60 miles from Boston.   Continue reading “JFK wedding negatives being auctioned in Boston”

Sky News

Google says it has received 18,304 requests from Britons asking it to remove information about their past under the EU’s ‘right to be forgotten’ legislation.

The submissions came from more than 6,000 people who asked the search engine to erase links to more than 60,000 websites.

Altogether just over 145,000 requests have been made to Google by people across Europe wanting to improve their reputations.   Continue reading “Google Bombarded With Requests To Delete Info”

Salon – by David Dayen

Defenders of Eric Holder’s legacy on financial crimes keep saying that, although we sent no bankers to jail for their tsunami of fraudulent behavior, at least we punished the parent companies in settlements, and forced them to compensate victims. I call it “settlement justice,” and it has become the template for how the perpetrators of white-collar crime get treated in America.

Usually, supporters of “settlement justice” tout the headline numbers ($37 billion!) and leave it at that. But it’s what happens after law enforcement signs the deal that matters. And one New Jersey lawyer’s detailed inquiry into a post-crisis settlement with Wells Fargo shows conclusively how banks wiggle out of their commitments, and why only prison cells can stop a Wall Street crime spree.   Continue reading ““We hope they were duped”: How prosecutors gave banks the best “penalty” ever”

The Intercept – by PETER MAASS AND LAURA POITRAS

The National Security Agency has had agents in China, Germany, and South Korea working on programs that use “physical subversion” to infiltrate and compromise networks and devices, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.

The documents, leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, also indicate that the agency has used “under cover” operatives to gain access to sensitive data and systems in the global communications industry, and that these secret agents may have even dealt with American firms. The documents describe a range of clandestine field activities that are among the agency’s “core secrets” when it comes to computer network attacks, details of which are apparently shared with only a small number of officials outside the NSA.   Continue reading “Core Secrets: NSA Saboteurs in China and Germany”

RT

Released documents show that New York City shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to settle civil rights lawsuits involving the New York Police Department(NYPD).

The documents – released by the New York City Law Department – show more than 12,000 cases since 2009 where the city paid out $428 million in police-related settlements. The records were released after a Freedom of Information Act request was made by MuckRock, asking the department just how many civil rights lawsuits were filed against the city when the police department was listed as a defendant over a five-year period.   Continue reading “New York City paid $428mn in NYPD civil rights settlements”

BATR – by James Hall

Those fall season concerns in market volatility are once again upon us. After so many years of a zero interest rate environment, nervous tension is breaking out. Review the record. For a comparison of International Stock Indexes, Market Data Center statistics from the WSJ is useful. Now evaluate Doug Ramsey’s, chief investment officer at the Leuthold Group, argument in Comparing Valuations: U.S. vs. International Stocks.

“Using MSCI indexes, U.S. stocks trade for nearly 24 times those earnings. By contrast, the rest of the world trades at less than 19 times earnings, European stocks at about 17 times earnings, and emerging-markets stocks at barely 14 times earnings.   Continue reading “Are International Stocks Safer than U.S. Equities?”

New Eastern Outlook – by Tony Cartalucci

Because it didn’t stop ISIS terrorists in Iraq or Libya. Try Washington instead. US corporate-financier funded policy think tanks have been taking turns in recent weeks floating the narrative that the next logical step to stopping so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) terrorists in Syria is removing the Syrian government from power – this despite the fact that the only cohesive, organized force in the region capable of fighting ISIS terrorists is the Syrian government and its Syrian Arab Army.   Continue reading “Why Regime Change Won’t Stop ISIS in Syria”

Activist Post – by Brandon Turbeville

As the United States and its NATO allies openly eye the possibility of establishing a “buffer zone” and/or a “no-fly zone” inside Syria, a volley of media reports alleging yet more “crimes against humanity” by Bashar Al-Assad are emerging in the mainstream news.

Coming at just the right time to ignite outrage and indignation in the dazed American public, as virtually every other report and “incident” in Syria has attempted to do since 2010, an alleged “Syrian defector” has allegedly provided thousands of photographs revealing what mainstream propagandists are calling a “smoking gun” of Assad’s humanitarian crimes.    Continue reading “7 Reasons To Doubt Latest “Holocaust” Claims Against Assad”