U.S. spying controversyYahoo News – by STEPHEN BRAUN and KIMBERLY DOZIER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A secretive U.S. spy court has ruled again that the National Security Agency can keep collecting every American’s telephone records every day, in the midst of dueling decisions in two other federal courts about whether the surveillance program is constitutional.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Friday renewed the NSA phone collection program, said Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Such periodic requests are somewhat formulaic but required since the program started in 2006.   Continue reading “US spy court: NSA to keep collecting phone records”

Sen. Bernie Sanders is not going to like this. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)Washington Post – by BRIAN FUNG

“Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other elected officials?”

That’s the question Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put to the National Security Agency’s chief in a bluntly worded letter Friday. It seems, however, that the agency cannot categorically say no.

Sanders didn’t use the word “spy” lightly. He was careful to define his terms, indicating he meant the collection of phone records from personal as well as official telephones, “content from Web sites visited or e-mails sent,” and data that companies collect but don’t release to the public.   Continue reading “The NSA refuses to deny spying on members of Congress”

ABC News – by ROD McGUIRK Associated Press

A U.S. Coast Guard heavy icebreaker will leave Australia for Antarctica on Sunday to rescue more than 120 crew members aboard two icebreakers trapped in pack ice near the frozen continent’s eastern edge, officials said.

The 122-meter (399-foot) cutter, the Polar Star, is responding to a Jan. 3 request from Australia, Russia and China to assist the Russian and Chinese ships because “there is sufficient concern that the vessels may not be able to free themselves from the ice,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.   Continue reading “US Icebreaker to Rescue 2 Ships in Antarctica”

New York Times – by EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS and ASHLEY SOUTHALL

A single-engine plane made an emergency landing on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx on Saturday afternoon, officials said. No one was seriously injured.

The plane landed in the northbound lane of the expressway around 3:20 p.m. near East 233rd Street, fire officials said.

The plane, which had flown from Danbury, Conn., on a tour of the Statue of Liberty, landed in the northbound lane around 3:20 p.m. near East 233rd Street, officials said. The pilot and his two women passengers were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital with minor injuries.   Continue reading “Small Plane Makes Emergency Landing on Bronx Highway”

80042Lobe Log – by Jim Lobe

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has published the list of senators who so far have agreed to co-sponsor the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013, aka the Wag the Dog Act of 2014. You’ll recall that the initial list, which was introduced by its principal engineers, Sens. Mark Kirk and Robert Menendez, Dec 19, included 26 co-sponsors equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, to which newly elected New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker quickly added his name. Since then, 20 other senators — all Republicans, unsurprisingly — have added their names, for a grand total of 47 — still short of a majority, let alone one that could survive an Obama veto that the White House has already committed the president to cast if the bill is passed in its present form.   Continue reading “47 Senators Take AIPAC’s Word Over U.S. Intel Community”

Syrian OilInternational Business Times – by David Kashi

As the United States and Western Europe struggle to find a resolution to the bloody civil war in Syria, Russia has undertaken another geo-strategic gambit in the Eastern Mediterranean by boldly claiming a stake in a huge oil and gas field off Syria’s shores. Last week, a Russian state-controlled energy group, Soyuzneftegaz, struck a deal with the Syrian regime for rights to develop and produce oil and gas off Syria’s coast.

Under terms of that deal, Soyuzneftegaz will be permitted to perform offshore drilling, development and production activities in Syria’s territorial waters. The agreement covers 2,190 square kilometers in the Mediterranean waters, at an initial cost of some $90 million, all assumed by Soyuzneftegaz.   Continue reading “Moscow Enters The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Fields: What’s Really Behind Russia’s Energy Deal With Syria?”

agent orange usda approvedThe Organic Prepper

Ah, the sweet smell of Agent Orange in the morning.

Our benevolent agricultural guardians at the USDA have announced that they are allowing the introduction of new corn and soybean seeds that have been designed specifically to withstand a dousing with 2,4-D, a key ingredient in the infamously deadly Agent Orange.

Now we get to be the unwilling guinea pigs while USDA-approved test fields are planted.   Continue reading “USDA-Approved Agent Orange: It’s Coming to a Farm Near You”

Allen West Wrong on Nullification and Supremacy ClauseThe New American – by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.

Allen West, former congressman and self-proclaimed “Guardian of the Republic,” is the latest “conservative” to publicly demonstrate an unacceptable misunderstanding of nullification.

In an article published January 3 on his website, West asks his readers whether state nullification of ObamaCare is “possible.” His uncertainty isn’t the worst of it, however.   Continue reading “Allen West Wrong on Nullification and Supremacy Clause”

Cornell University Law School

Current through Pub. L. 113-36. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

No individual, company, business, nonprofit entity, or health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall be required to participate in any Federal health insurance program created under this Act (or any amendments made by this Act), or in any Federal health insurance program expanded by this Act (or any such amendments), and there shall be no penalty or fine imposed upon any such issuer for choosing not to participate in such programs.   Continue reading “42 USC § 18115 – Freedom not to participate in Federal health insurance programs”

My husband, as I have mentioned many times in posts, is in a federal prison for the crime of not filing federal tax returns. A non crime for us plebs and a requirement for those on the federal dole.

This fight went back as far as 1999, where my husband and brother in-law went to the tax authorities and begged them to show them where in the tax law were they liable to pay a tax on their labor.  The bastard authorities could not come up with an answer, and 10 years later came after them with a vengeance. That included bringing me into the vengeance  against the uppity “citizen” and trying to convict us all into a “conspiracy against the US government”.     Continue reading “The Faces of Justice Need to be Smeared, Shamed, and Brought to the Gallows”

Reuters / Chris MillerRT News

Recent misconduct investigations of deputies of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department included rape, smuggling heroin into jail, stealing money from a narcotics arrest and misuse of a department helicopter, an oversight report details.

The Office of Independent Review’s new report on misconduct investigations pertaining to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) outlined administrative discipline cases resolved through Sept. 30, 2013. The Office of Independent Review (OIR) is a civilian oversight body charged with monitoring LASD’s internal investigations.   Continue reading “LA Sheriff’s Department misconduct includes rape, drug smuggling, kidnapping – report”