Month: December 2014

RT

A freight train carrying a whole column of American armored vehicles has been caught on camera in Latvia. Dalbe Railway Station, where the train was reportedly spotted several days ago, is less than 300km from the Russian border.

The train was carrying at least 38 vehicles and several semitrailers, including eight Bradley Fighting Vehicles, nine M113 Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs), four petrol tankers, Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTTs), High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs), an M88 Hercules Armory recovery vehicle, a couple of trucks, some tactical engineering and medical vehicles, at least four containers and a pair of railcars with ammunition.   Continue reading “Move your arsenal! US tanks, APCs, Humvees roll through Latvia”

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

Judge Richard Posner is probably one of the most well-known and quoted appellate judges around. He’s an excellent writer as well, and I enjoy many of his books and his rulings, though when he gets things wrong, he seems to get them so very, very wrong. When he’s on, he’s great. For example, his recent attack on copyright trolling and defending the public domain was great. He’s also been good on patents. But… on surveillance he seems all too eager to side with the government.    Continue reading “Judge Posner Says NSA Should Be Able To Get Everything & That Privacy Is Overrated”

CNS News – by Terrence P. Jeffrey

House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama joined forces Thursday to push their respective party members to provide 219 votes–one more than was needed–to ensure passage of an omnibus government funding bill that permits the administration to spend money implementing Obamacare and Obama’s planned unilateral actions that will effectively amnesty as many as five million illegal aliens.

The bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will allow the administration to spend $1,188,927,000,000 on discretionary government programs. It provides funding for amost all of the government through the end of this fiscal year–which occurs on Sept. 30, 2015–and for the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 27, 2015.   Continue reading “Boehner and Obama Join to Pass Bill Funding Obamacare and Amnesty”

ABC News

Relishing an opportunity to turn the tables on the U.S., Russia says the Senate’s investigation into the CIA torture practices has highlighted rampant rights abuse.

The Foreign Ministry’s rights envoy, Konstantin Dolgov, said in Thursday’s statement that the evidence contained in the report “contradict the U.S. aspirations to serve as a model of democracy.”   Continue reading “Russia Criticizes US Over CIA Torture Report”

Washington’s Blog

The Big Story Torture Everyone Is Missing

While the torture report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee is very important, it doesn’t address the big scoop regarding torture.

Instead, it is the Senate Armed Services Committee’s report that dropped the big bombshell regarding the U.S.  torture program.   Continue reading “The Media Is Focusing On the WRONG Senate Torture Report”

CNN – by Mick Krever

CIA agents who tortured inmates can be prosecuted anywhere in the world, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, Ben Emmerson, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.

“They are considered as war crimes, they are crimes of international jurisdiction,” he said.

“Any country in the world can prosecute CIA agents involved in this activity, and Italy already has prosecuted, convicted 22 CIA agents, including the Milan station chief, and sentenced them to significant periods in prison in absentia.”   Continue reading “UN official: CIA agents could be prosecuted”

Yahoo News

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – The death of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy fatally shot by police in November has been formally ruled a homicide, according to a Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report released on Friday that found he was struck once in the abdomen.

Tamir Rice, who was black, was shot on Nov. 22 by police responding to a call of a suspect waving a handgun around in a Cleveland park. The weapon turned out to be a replica that typically fires plastic pellets. He died the next day.   Continue reading “Cleveland boy’s death in police shooting declared homicide”

Seattle PI – by Sadie Gennis

Fox News reporter Dominic Di-Natale has been found dead of an apparent suicide, the network reports. He was 43.

Di-Natale’s body was found Wednesday in Jefferson County, Co., where Di-Natle owned property, after a friend reached out to officials about Di-Natale’s state of mind. According to Fox News, the international correspondent had been struggling with undisclosed health issues.   Continue reading “Fox News Reporter Dies of Apparent Suicide”

Resource Investor – by Pete Thomas

The People’s Bank of China and the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) continue to move forward with the grand plan of making China the new world center for gold trading. Having covered the early steps in the post “The gold community sleeps, a giant awakens” we can now see the next important step. This is the ability to take and make delivery on the exchange.   Continue reading “China continues to move forward”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Republicans take control of Congress next month, top on their agenda will be undoing environmental regulations they claim will harm the economy, chief among them President Barack Obama’s plans to limit heat-trapping carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

The results of a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and Yale University show their priorities may be misplaced. Six in 10 Americans, including half of all Republicans, said they support regulation of carbon dioxide pollution, although they weren’t asked how. Nearly half of Republicans said the U.S. should lead the global fight to curb climate change, even if it means taking action when other countries do not. And majorities across party lines said environmental protections “improve economic growth and provide new jobs” in the long run, a popular Obama administration talking point.   Continue reading “Poll: Half of Republicans back limits on carbon”

Mail.com

A year ago, 13-year-old Jahi McMath underwent a tonsillectomy and tissue removal at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California, to treat sleep apnea. The girl suffered massive bleeding, had a heart attack and was declared brain-dead Dec. 12.

Her family battled to keep her on a ventilator and to have breathing and feeding tubes surgically inserted. Under a court agreement, the family and the hospital agreed that Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, could remove her from the hospital if she took responsibility for the girl’s care.   Continue reading “Teen girl still hooked to machines one year later”

Mail.com

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Southern California man was tackled as he began climbing over the railing of a bridge Thursday and police led his four young sons to safety, a day after his wife was found dead in the trunk of the family car.

Daniel Perez, 43, of Montebello, had been missing since last week when armored vehicles boxed in his car on a San Diego County freeway and he was hit with a beanbag round as he apparently tried to climb over the edge of the 150-foot-high overpass.   Continue reading “Body found in car is mother from California family”

Beverly-Mt Greenwood Patch – by Dennis Robaugh

The Chicago Police officer who blasted “Sweet Home Alabama” from his squad car as he and other officers trailed a “Black Lives Matter” march last week — a stunt many saw as racially antagonistic — has come forward.

The officer will be disciplined, the police department announced in a statement Thursday.Sources tell the Chicago Tribune the officer faces a 10-day suspension upon the approval of Supt. Garry McCarthy.   Continue reading “Chicago Cop Faces 10-Day Suspension for Playing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ at Black Protest March”

Houston Business Journal – by Olivia Pulsinelli

Houston-based Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) will cut about 1,000 jobs in the Eastern Hemisphere, effective immediately, according to reports.

The cuts are unrelated to the company’spending $35 billion acquisition of fellow Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI), the Houston Chronicle reports, and so far no cuts have occurred or are currently planned due to the proposed transaction, Rigzone reports.   Continue reading “Halliburton to cut 1,000 jobs”

ABC News – by JEFF BARNARD and GOSIA WOZNIACKA

Many in Indian Country are wary of the idea of growing and selling marijuana on tribal lands, even if it could present an economic windfall and the U.S. Department of Justice says it’s OK.

“I would really doubt tribes would be wanting to do something like that,” said Don Gentry, chairman of the Klamath Tribes in Oregon, where voters this year approved a measure to legalize recreational pot. “We have an alcohol- and drug-free policy at work. It would just not be something we would be looking for into the future.”   Continue reading “Tribes Wary of Selling Pot, Even If Feds Allow It”

The Daily Star

TEL AVIV: Israel doesn’t expect a Syrian or Lebanese response to an airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel earlier this week since they are too tied up with that country’s bloody civil war and can’t afford to open another front, a senior Israeli military officer said Wednesday.

The officer said Hezbollah militants had the capability, but not the motivation, at this time to harm Israel and there was no “logic” to picking a fight with the Jewish state while it was knee-deep in battling a Sunni insurgency.   Continue reading “Israeli military sees no reaction to strike on Syrian territory”