RTAmerica| December 31, 2010 |45 likes, 4 dislikes
What's in store for the world in 2011? Trends forecaster Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute provided his insights on the year ahead. He argues here will be a wakeup call on the economy, a crack down on the people and a loss of liberty, and also an increase in Journalism 2.0, alternative energy and a growth in cyber war tactics. And in the end, the world will end... what that means, only Celente knows.
Gerald Celente's Top Predictions for 2011
This blogger is looking at independent movie and documentary possibilities in the US and business opportunities, lodging locations, and possibly enjoying life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness outside the US ...
The below videos, themes, and activities can end any standard employment that I seek, or have sought. But, in the coming year, the below is actually going to help me get independent film and documentary work. I have met interesting people, have made some new contacts, and have high hopes for dancing in artistic realms in 2011.
I, Steven G. Erickson, had filmed Vermont Attorney General candidate Charlotte Dennett and Vincent Bugliosi from the current Attorney General's office around the streets of Montpelier, VT, as they were asking about prosecuting US President George W. Bush for murder and about voting.
Whether or not you live in Vermont, if you want to see Bush prosecuted I advise getting in touch with people in Vermont to get out in support of Progressive candidate Dennett.
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I helped with a horror film shot in Greenfield, Massachusetts, months ago. I should be listed in the credits. It was fun working with the people in the below video. I would yell, "Rolling," "Cut", "Last Looks", etc.
Meet the Maker on Chiller TV Pt. 5
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moderncine| November 27, 2010 |0 likes, 0 dislikes
Fifth installment of the Behind-The-Scenes look at the upcoming film by Lucky Mckee, "The Woman".
Webisodes by David J. Ruck
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Hope to do a project involving Mr. James Corbett of The Corbett Report in the future: http://corbettreport.com/
stevengerickson AT yahoo Dot Com
Cyberwar On, Banks Fail, New Year Predictions - New World Next Week
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corbettreport| December 30, 2010 |186 likes, 0 dislikes
new world next week - dec30: cyberwars, banks fail, 2011 predictions
Welcome back one last time in 2010 to http://NewWorldNextWeek.com - the video series from Corbett Report & Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in alternative news & open-source intelligence. This week:
Story #1: 2010 The Year The Internet Went to War http://ur1.ca/2parp Related: Greenwald Challenges Wired on Refusal to Publish Manning Evidence http://ur1.ca/2part
Story #2: 2010 Worst Year for Bank Failures Since 1992 http://ur1.ca/2parv Background: Inside the Global Banking Intelligence Complex http://ur1.ca/2pas1
Bonus: Media Monarchy Interview w/ Red Ice Radio on Wikileaks, Assange & The Pirate Party http://ur1.ca/2pasx Media Monarchy Mixtape007: Winter Wondaland & The Best of 2010 http://ur1.ca/2pat4
I met Robert Greenwald at the NCMR Free Press Event, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2008, filmed him, talked to him, and enjoyed the entire experience and people, over 3 days.
Media ignores infinite Afghan war
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RTAmerica| December 30, 2010 |42 likes, 1 dislikes
Instead of investigating further, the mainstream media appears to be more concerned with entertainment news, such as the Kardashian's new product, than a war that has claimed the lives of thousands of Americans and innocent Afghan civilians. Founder of Brave New Films Robert Greenwald says I think it's a combination of factors; first of all, it's only been in the last 5 or so years that the networks have forced news to become an income source the same way they look at sports or entertainment.
Corrupt, Bribed Judges are needed for a US Police State
I found the above image here, and re-posted the text below. I found the image and text below written by Jeffrey Steinberg [here]. The image seemed to fit the post theme. Los Angeles, California, Attorney Richard I. Fine stood up to judges who were taking bribes to cover up the embezzlement of child support payments, the stealing of property using Eminent Domain, covering up banks committing mortgage and other fraud, and in covering up the subversion of the courts and government. I suggest that you view the Richard I. Fine videos [found here]. Fine was held as a political prisoner for 18 months because he stood up against judges who should be arrested and jailed themselves. The videos in the link above are an eyeopener. Are courts in Los Angeles corporate entities breaking the law, not filing and paying taxes? [videos on that subject]
On February 5, 1999, in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, Nebraska, an extraordinary hearing occurred in Paul A. Bonacci v. Lawrence E. King, a civil action in which the plaintiff charged that he had been ritualistically abused by the defendant, as part of a nationwide pedophile ring linked to powerful political figures in Washington and to elements of the U.S. military and intelligence establishment. Three weeks later, on February 27, Judge Warren K. Urbom ordered King, who is currently in Federal prison, to pay $1 million in damages to Bonacci, in what Bonacci's attorney John DeCamp said was a clear signal that "the evidence presented was credible."
During the February 5 hearing, Noreen Gosch stunned the court with sworn testimony linking U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Aquino (ret.) to the nationwide pedophile ring. Her son, Johnny, then 12 years old, was kidnapped off the streets of West Des Moines, Iowa on September 5, 1982, while he was doing his early-morning newspaper deliveries. Since his kidnapping, she has devoted all of her time and resources to finding her son, and to exposing the dangers that millions of children in American face from this hideous, literally Satanic underground of ritualistic deviants.
"We have investigated, we have talked to so far 35 victims of this said organization that took my son and is responsible for what happened to Paul, and they can verify everything that has happened," she told the court.
"What this story involves is an elaborate function, I will say, that was an offshoot of a government program. The MK-Ultra program was developed in the 1950s by the CIA. It was used to help spy on other countries during the Cold War because they felt that the other countries were spying on us.
"It was very successful. They could do it very well."
US Sovereign States, Secession, Freedom, and Fighting Back
F. Steven Monk, "The General", proprietor of Confederate Mercantile, photo found on his website [here]. His claim is that he sells Confederate Flags, memorabilia, and other items not found at Wal-Mart. I posted his picture because it seemed like it would go well with the post subject.
I viewed the below video and interesting subjects were brought up. We the people need to do something.
Text with below video: RTAmerica| December 21, 2010 |94 likes, 5 dislikes
One hundred fifty years ago, on 20 December 1860, the South Carolina secession convention officially dissolved the state's connection with the American Union. Tom Utley the chairman of the Third Palmetto Republic says there is a new oppressive empire, the United States government.
South Carolina group seeks secession
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SHOCKING! Uncanny 1958 Prediction coming true; America's Destruction from Inside.flv
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NWOIS666| February 06, 2010 |269 likes, 6 dislikes
Courtest youtube user LeMahu. In 1958 Robert Welch founder of John Birch Society disclosed in a speech that America is going to be destroyed from within. Mr Welch goes on to tell how this will be done and destroying our liberties. Wake-up people, this is NO JOKE ! War is coming, be prepared, stock food water medical supplies and lots of barter items. Time is short, ignore the trolls and scoffers and PREPARE !
Think the Federal Reserve is a government institution? Think again. It's a group of privately owned banks that Congress illegally gave the right to print money. Now they print it, loan it to us, then we pay it back with interest. What a scam!
Image with post called, "Gangster Government", [found here]
Recently, one of the General Government’s District Court Judges dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the purported authority of the President to order the assassination overseas of American citizens whom someone in the Executive Branch has categorized as a dangerous “terrorist”. The Judge ruled that the plaintiff, being only the father of the threatened victim, rather than the victim himself, lacked “standing” to prosecute the suit, and that in any event the issue involved a “political question” that could not be adjudicated in court. So the underlying claim was not decided, one way or the other.
The judicial dodge of denying “standing” to people who raise contentions that are extremely embarrassing to rogue officials in the General Government has become all-too-familiar these days—particularly in lawsuits and other proceedings that raise challenges to the qualifications of Barak Obama for the office of President. But in this case, not merely usurpation, but nothing less than murder is the ultimate issue. Which, one might have imagined, should have given even the most legally dim-witted and morally obtuse judge serious cause for concern that perhaps the matter was not just a “political question”.
Rather than analyzing the some eighty-three pages of this particular Judge’s opinion, though, I shall simply lay out some of the principles on which any honest and competent jurist would not only find “standing” in a case such as this, but also declare the claims of the Executive Branch to be unconstitutional.
1. The basic assertion from the Executive Branch is that the President, in his capacity as “Commander in Chief” during “the war on terror”, enjoys the inherent power, by himself or through his subordinates, to identify certain American citizens as extremely dangerous “terrorists”, and on the basis of that determination to order operatives of the General Government to assassinate those Americans wherever they may be found in foreign venues. Furthermore, the exercise of this purported power: (i) is not dependent upon any prior judicial determination that an individual targeted for execution is guilty of any crime punishable by death, or that the individual could not be apprehended and made to stand trial in some court; and (ii) is not subject to any other kind of judicial review, either before or after the execution takes place. Indeed, because many of the supposed facts on which a determination of an individual’s status as a “terrorist” certainly will be claimed to be “state secrets”, meaningful judicial review either ex ante or ex post would routinely be impossible as a matter of practice. In addition, inasmuch as the Constitution does not limit the exercise of the powers of the “Commander in Chief” (whatever they may be) to foreign venues only, no reason can be found why the supposed authority to execute certain Americans outside of any judicial process, if it does exist at all, cannot be exercised within the United States proper, even on the lawn of the White House itself. After all, if an American “terrorist” who might be apprehended in Afghanistan may nonetheless simply be assassinated there, because some bureaucrat in the Executive Branch considers the latter course of action more efficient than the former, then why should not an American “terrorist” operating within the United States also simply be executed out of hand, for the same eminently practical reason? So, in its fullest statement, the President’s contention is that he enjoys judicially unreviewable discretion—acting either by his own hand or by the hands of his minions—to assassinate, anywhere in the world and presumably by whatever means may prove effective, any American citizen whom someone in the Executive Branch, whose identity may never be disclosed, has identified as a dangerous “terrorist” by some process and on the basis of some purported evidence that in its most important particulars may forever remain secret.
2. This stark statement of the issue settles the question of “standing”. For, on this statement, any American—and certainly every American who, for whatever reason, may run politically afoul of the Executive Branch or of some subversive private organization with malign influence over the Executive Branch—is potentially the victim of an “official” assassination, the real reason for which can easily be disguised behind some fictional, or perhaps merely erroneous, assertion that the victim is a “terrorist”. Because the process and criteria for selection of an individual for “official” assassination are largely secret, one cannot predict who these victims will be, until they are killed and someone from the Executive Branch admits to complicity in the deed. But, self-evidently, once a victim has been executed, an injury irreparable by judicial process will have occurred. So, if the courts are to enforce the constitutional mandate of the Fifth Amendment that “[n]o person shall * * * be deprived of life * * * without due process of law”—with proper emphasis on the word “[n]o”—then they must entertain at least one suit by one American to determine the legality of the power the President claims, before that individual—or anyone else—is actually assassinated. Which means that the very first lawsuit meeting the standard requirements for personal jurisdiction and venue should be heard on the merits. (Of course, this would not guarantee that the issue would be decided correctly, the Bench being overrun by one Judge Flapdoodle after another in every jurisdiction throughout the federal system. But at least it would move the process of inquiry ahead under public scrutiny.)
Prudential considerations compel the same result. The doctrine of “standing” is mostly the bastard contrivance of individual judges, in the formulation and application of which the personality on the Bench rather than any fixed and certain legal principle usually decides the outcome. As such, the doctrine of “standing” is wholly nonscientific—being both unverifiable and unfalsifiable. Yet, in this case, that is no demerit. Rather, it is an advantage. Because, here, a clever judicial wordsmith could easily concoct out of bits and snippets extracted from hundreds of other judicial opinions his own decision in favor of “standing”. And although other jurists and lawyers might disagree with his conclusion, who could declare him to be wrong in any objective sense? No one. He would, as well, be quite right morally. Because, having found “standing”, he could at least temporarily enjoin the continuation of the program of “official” assassinations, until the Judiciary could pass on the question after plenary consideration, thereby preventing who could predict how many irretrievable violations of the Fifth Amendment. Eventually, higher courts might overrule him, licensing the assassins to proceed. But then the blood would encarnadine those judges’ hands, not his.
If they were honest in their claim of constitutional authority, the President and his agents in the General Government, too, would themselves encourage this result, so as to find out exactly where they stand legally. For if “official” assassinations committed anywhere within the United States are unconstitutional, then both the assassins and their principals are criminals for whose transgressions the penalty may be death. For just one example, Title 18 of the United States Code provides as follows:
§ 241. Conspiracy against rights. If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured— They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, * * * or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
§ 242. Deprivation of rights under color of law. Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, * * * shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, * * * or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
Moreover, the victims of attempted unconstitutional “official” assassinations would, in the exercise of their natural right of self-defense, be entitled to resist their assailants with deadly force. Which means that, in an environment in which any agent of the General Government might secretly be engaged in an “official” assassination on American soil, against which the Judiciary refused to protect the citizenry, any American—and certainly any political dissident—could reasonably and justifiably resist any government agent with deadly force at any time, because the victim would have no way of knowing whether that particular agent’s assault was actually a “hit” disguised as some kind of supposedly valid “law enforcement”. Too many contemporary Americans may be sheep willing to be shorn; but it is unlikely that more than a few of them are sheep willing to be slaughtered after they finally realize that such is the shepherd’s intention, and are exposed to some examples of his bloody handiwork. And having publicly espoused the position that they may with impunity kill any American for secret (and judicially unreviewable) reasons at any time, agents of the General Government could hardly complain if every American took them at their word, and defended himself accordingly.
Obviously, to allow a situation of this kind to degenerate into widespread violence would verge on madness. So, any judge’s invocation of the “standing” ruse to derail timely litigation of this issue is more than merely intellectually indefensible and morally irresponsible. Unless the judge can successfully invoke the defense of insanity on his own behalf, his misuse of the “standing” doctrine amounts as well to his complicity in—and at least equal culpability for—whatever crimes may be perpetrated in the course of any attempted “official” assassinations. For part two click below.
(Below video contains an interesting discussion on Militia, Martial Law, 2nd Amendment Gun Ownership, and related subjects)
"Using National Guard and Military to maintain social order"
Dr. Edwin Vieira Explains States Rights and Personal Liberties on Alex Jones Tv 1/4
Text with video: TheAlexJonesChannel | May 18, 2010 | 96 likes, 2 dislikes
Alex also talks with attorney Edwin Vieira, Jr. For more than thirty years Vieira has practiced law with emphasis on constitutional issues. He has written numerous monographs and articles in scholarly journals and lectured throughout the county. Vieira is the author of the two-volume Pieces of Eight: The Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the United States Constitution. http://www.newswithviews.com/Vieira/e... http://www.infowars.com/
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End The Fed! - Why the Federal Reserve Must Be Abolished!
End the Fed! **Update: Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill, HR 1207. America's expert on Constitutional monetary policy and acclaimed author, Dr. Edwin Vieira tells why the Federal Reserve must be abolished, and warns of potential economic collapse as the result of the massive "stimulus" bills. All Americans must watch this program to learn the facts and the potential hyper inflationary consequences of current unconstitutional monetary policy. Dr. Vieira is the author of "Pieces Of Eight" and other important books on Constitutional monetary policy and other topics. You'll also learn the Constitutional definition of a Dollar (371-1/4 grains of silver) and just what is "legal tender" (starts at 9:40). If you are a Ron Paul supporter, you'll find this valuable information, as will EVERY American: share this with your friends and emai.l list.
Call your Congressman and Senators in favor of ending the Fed and creating a REAL American economic recovery!
This is an edition of Conservative Roundtable, the nationally broadcast conservative television program hosted by Howard Phillips, and produced by The Conservative Caucus; Art Harman is the creator, producer and showrunner.
In the days of Stalin's Russia, not only would dissidents "disappear" but also. even in that pre-digital era, photographs of purged officials at May Day reviewing stands would be erased from photographs when their political stars fell. Our own "Kremlinologists" would know who was in, and who was out by comparing last year's pictures with this years.
That's one way of concealing information.
Just last week, Republicans on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission pushed to have certain words removed from the report they were writing because they posed a conflict to their view that only the government was to blame for the financial collapse
Explained economist Paul Krugman, "Last week, reports Shahien Nasiripour of The Huffington Post, all four Republicans on the commission voted to exclude the following terms from the report: "deregulation," "shadow banking," "interconnection," and, yes, "Wall Street."
When Democratic members refused to go along with this insistence that the story of Hamlet be told without the prince, the Republicans went ahead and issued their own report, which did, indeed, avoid using any of the banned terms."
In our media today, omission of images and ideas is as key to sanitizing the news as is commission, What is not reported or perhaps even known is often more important than stories that are twisted by bias.
Enter Wikileaks and an age-old battle between our right to know and their right to keep us from knowing. Its critics make a fetish about keeping secrets as if it is a holy duty and not a system of keeping the public uninformed about what their government is doing in its name.
The public has a right to know if officials are saying one thing in private and another in public, if they are concealing information or just plain lying.
The Pentagon Papers showed us that wars could be waged deceptively, based on deliberate falsehoods. Wikileaks revelations about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars tell a similar story. We have learned how torture and civilian deaths were pervasive--and covered up.
Veteran investigative reporter Bob Parry argues that in the national security area, journalists--and the people--need leaks from officials of conscience.
He writes:
"Whatever the unusual aspects of the case, the Obama administration's reported plan to indict WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for conspiring with Army Pvt. Bradley Manning to obtain U.S. secrets strikes at the heart of investigative journalism on national security scandals.
That's because the process for reporters obtaining classified information about crimes of state most often involves a journalist persuading some government official to break the law either by turning over classified documents or at least by talking about the secret information. There is almost always some level of "conspiracy" between reporter and source.
Contrary to what some outsiders might believe, it's actually quite uncommon for sensitive material to simply arrive "over the transom" unsolicited. Indeed, during three decades of reporting on these kinds of stories, I can only recall a few secret documents arriving that way to me."
It's not just the government that hides behind secrecy rules it puts in place. The private sector does too--with the complicity of much of the media, which did not warn us about the financial crisis that was building. We didn't learn about the pervasive fraud in the banking and real estate industries and still don't know the full extent of the crimes of Wall Street.
Do we have to wait for historians to tell us that the stories we are being told are a crock?
Anyone remember reading about the Spanish American war. That's the one which also marked the beginnings of "yellow journalism" when screaming headlines and falsified photos were used to mobilize the public for war.
Back then, at the turn of the last century, an American battleship, the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor. The incident sparked a battle cry, "REMEMBER THE MAINE." We were told "THEY" sank it. And led to war which later spread to the Philippines at a cost of six million lives.
80 years later, a submersible submarine went down to the remains of the Maine on the harbor floor. What they found was that no one -- no terrorists, no Spaniards, no Cubans, sank the Maine. There had been an accident in the engine room. The whole war was based on an event that never happened.
If we had known that at the time, many lives would have been saved and the direction of US foreign policy might not have gone in an imperial direction.
So, back to today.
What do we gain from persecuting and prosecuting Bradley Manning who was among three million people with access to the diplomatic cables we are now reading about? What will we gain by jailing or killing (as some right wingers advocate) Julian Assange who is already being called "the Che Guevara of the Information Age"?
The CIA's murder of the original Guevara created a global martyr whose image is still among the most popular icons in the world. Guevara had his own problems with hostile women. One, Molly Gonzales, tried to break through barricades upon his arrival in New York with a seven-inch hunting knife. He later became famous for saying, "the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love"
Assange is being accused of sexual crimes in Sweden, a country, ironically, recently condemned by Amnesty International for not enforcing its own laws against rape. Now, the Wikileaker in chief, is being targeted by the leak of a Swedish police document detailing charges against him. (They are charges, not facts.)
The ongoing and well-orchestrated war on Wikileaks is also outraging millions worldwide who see the United States as a secretive and manipulative colossus that lives on lies and deception.
For many, this issue has reached a level of hysteria which, like the "Red Hunts" of the 1920s and the commie "crimes" of the cold war era, will only bring more shame to a Washington desperate to change the story away from the content of the leaked cables to allegations of wrongdoing by Assange. The Administration is also virtually torturing the man who dumped the documents, Bradley Manning, in Gtmo-like conditions, in an effort to turn hum against Assange. He has yet to be tried.
We can't put leaks genie back in the bottle. We might do better reflecting on the meaning of these disclosures for our democracy and media. The big secret is the one we don't want to see: that we are building support and respect for Wikileaks even as officials fulminate against it.
News Dissector Danny Schechter directed Plunder The Crime of Our Time, a film on DVD about the financial crisis as a crime story, (Plunderthecrimeofourtime.com) Comments to Email address removed
"Throw that Jew on the Barbie!" is a comment I heard in a bar on the Connecticut/New York City area within the last two weeks regarding US Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's wish to censor and remove blogs and websites from the Internet that he thinks should be removed. My message to Joe Lieberman is, "Eat shit and go fuck yourself asshole".
To the guy who made the comment, the comment is racist, offensive, is Anti-Semitic, and is inappropriate on so many levels. But, I can understand hating Lieberman for wanting to be Censor-in-Chief. The bigot when on to say the Lieberman will foster even more hatred for the Jews. No group, race, or category should be painted with a broad brush, that is just plain ignorance.
A "Rap News" Music video sums my thoughts up, too. The video that actually includes Julian Assange of WikiLeaks [found here].
Congressional Hearing: WikiLeaks, The Espionage Act & The Constitution pt.4
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MOXNEWSd0tCOM| December 17, 2010 |0 likes, 0 dislikes
December 16, 2010 C-SPAN http://MOXNews.com Constitutional law and national security scholars testified on the constitutionality of prosecuting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act. Among the topics addressed were the nature of journalism, the extent of constitutional protections of the press in protecting the divulgence of classified information, and the amount of information that is categorized as classified.
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"We are all subject to the Patriot Act"
Liars, Treason, Hackers and The Obama Deception Deleted!
Obama 'Internet kill switch' plan approved by US Senate panel President could get power to turn off Internet By Grant Gross | Published: 11:02 GMT, 25 June 10
A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.
Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet "kill switch." Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause "the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication" in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.
The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation by voice vote Thursday, a committee spokeswoman said. The bill next moves to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.
The bill, introduced earlier this month, would establish a White House Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, which would work with private US companies to create cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure.
The bill also would allow the US president to take emergency actions to protect critical parts of the Internet, including ordering owners of critical infrastructure to implement emergency response plans, during a cyber-emergency. The president would need congressional approval to extend a national cyber-emergency beyond 120 days under an amendment to the legislation approved by the committee.
The legislation would give the US Department of Homeland Security authority that it does not now have to respond to cyber-attacks, Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said earlier this month.
"Our responsibility for cyber defence goes well beyond the public sector because so much of cyberspace is owned and operated by the private sector," he said. "The Department of Homeland Security has actually shown that vulnerabilities in key private sector networks like utilities and communications could bring our economy down for a period of time if attacked or commandeered by a foreign power or cyber terrorists."
RTAmerica| December 17, 2010 |33 likes, 2 dislikes
Xe Services, the private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, announced on Friday that it had been sold to a group of private equity investors with ties to company founder Erik Prince. Investigative Journalist Wayne Madsen says the government involvement with Blackwater is a revolving door of former government officials becoming employed by the company.
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Who really killed JFK and why hasn't the mainstream media really jumped on this?:
A Bayesian Take on Julian Assange - Nate Silver in 538 (h/t: mr goodbar): Psychologists and behavioral economists have conducted a lot of experiments along these lines, testing our ability to t...
22 Dead In Series Of Pakistan Drone Attacks - US drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal region have increased under the presidency of Barack Obama, often occurring several times every week. But the US now...
Julian Assange 1st Presser After Release On Bail - RT | 17 December 2010 - The founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks released on bail by a British court says he will continue his work. An appeal...
Zappadan Comix: Smokestack Lightning - UPDATE: Captain Beefheart , Dead at Age 69 To be continued...Meanwhile, I think it was in The Real Frank Zappa Book where Zappa described Captain ...
Arts & Letters Daily (17 Dec 2010) - What makes music sad? Most people jump to "minor key" as the answer. But singer and lyrics can mean more than we realize... more
CHAN AKYA : : The value of a nuclear Iran - A nuclear-capable Iran may be exactly what is required to destabilize the Wahhabi establishment, reduce support for extreme groups such as al-Qaeda - and u...
End of the year rant - Here we are only days until the new year. Looking back on all the crap this year has brought up is quite overwhelming. So many things I could try to tou...
It’s All in Your Point of View - From the *Associated Press*: ARLINGTON, Va. — He may be leader of the free world, but when he takes his dog for a walk, President Barack Obama says he be...
Fundamental change - Bryan over at Why Now reminds us that today is the 107th anniversary of the 1st manned flight at Kitty Hawk. My grandmother was born when the nearest city...
Late Night Navel-gazing - If wingnuts are mad at Mexico for operating drones and want to do something about it, does this mean that they hate the Mexico for their freedom? American ...
Miss TSA Pinup Girl! (NSFW, sorta....) - Given the new "security" screening procedures at airports, I suppose this was rather inevitable. I suppose I could make a really crude remark about bo...
The Obama Renaissance - By James Kwak President Obama is enjoying something of a political resurgence, at least among the commentariat. Ezra Klein points out that his approval rat...
RIP Bruce McDonald, Progressive Blogger - Just heard the devastating news about the recent untimely passing of Bruce McDonald of Canuck Attitude. Brucie was a mensch, pure and simple. The fact that...
Why, exactly, is it... - ... that the modern conservative pseudo-intellectual's solution to every small problem seems to involve genocide? I guess some people see Generals Buck Tu...
Oh, Dear God - I hope that everyone enjoyed the irony of a tiny gaggle of angry Christians launching their out-and-proud campaign against the secular assault to whitewash ...
Our Weekly Podcast - We had problems with Skype and had to record this in four different segments, but we persisted! I'm grateful for the free programs I use to put this to...
Recent acquisitions - Modern Library's 1959 edition of Lady Chatterly's Lover is a steal at $10. This 1969 trade paperback edition of A Farewell to Arms can be yours for only ...
Working My Way to 100 Books - I really want to read 1o0 books in 2010 for some reason. Right now I’m only on my 83rd book. Can I read 17 more books in 14 days? We’ll see. I certainly do...
Guest Hosting 'Malloy Show' Tonight! (Friday) - Secrets and lies. Secrets and lies. Virtually every problem our nation (and world) now faces, seem to stem from secrets and lies. We'll be discussing that ...
On Julian Assange and the Tax Cuts - (By *American Zen*'s Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari.) *"We were better off at 28 percent under Reagan than we’ve been since. And we are going to be at ...
LA Port Traffic in November: Exports Increase - Notes: *this data is not seasonally adjusted.* LA area ports handle about 40% of the nation's container port traffic. The following graph shows the loaded ...
Just When You Think It Could Be Worse - You find out just how much worse. I wasn't anticipating three layers of comp roofing over the wood shingles, rat bastards hid a layer with a trim board. ...
Heads They Win, Tails We Lose - Fred Kaplan writes that the situation in Afghanistan is worse than ever. We're in a position of having to depend on an unstable nation (Pakistan) with a p...
Jejune for the Misbegotten - [image: going_vague3] David Brooks has a new column in the New York Times today. You can read it here. Or, if you'd rather not chug Mr. Brooks' 1,000th ide...
Recap - Week of 12/13/10 - Jon offers some lovely commemorative plates of the London riots and talks to 9/11 responders about the Senate's filibuster on the Zadroga bill.
America Deperately Needs Real Leadership! - This man was an extraordinary leader! Friends, America has become a lost cause. Part of the reason is that it has no real leadership. It is being led by a ...
Pasting and pooting and whizzing all the day - [image: Frank And Beans] Get over to The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing and educate yourselves, if you've got any guts. '...Just walked away and left it squ...
Bush v. Gore Plus Ten - The ten year anniversary came and went last week with little, if any, media attention. The minority of Americans with a functional memory vividly recall De...
MsPhD of Young Female Scientist Stops Blogging - The goodbye post is here, stop by and drop a note of thanks. I've certainly enjoyed reading her perspectives over the past several years and I know many...
Blog break - Lookout over Lyttelton from the briddle path I have a chest infection at the moment and take some rest. There are. lots of projects going on in the house ...
UN Lifts Key Restrictions From Iraq - NEW YORK - The United Nations Security Council has lifted restrictions prohibiting Iraq from pursuing a civilian nuclear program, in a step to help restore...
The Chechen War - From WikiLeaks, this cable from 2006 examines the War in Chechnya. Grozny is the capital city of Chechnya. It is worth keeping in mind that "grozny" is an...
No Chains On Me - I'm a latecomer to music, which makes all the old music a treasure trove I can dip into without having those emotional strings which mean so much for mos...
Personal Income by States - Q3 2010 - The BEA released personal income for states. Growth was only 0.7% for Q3 2010. PCE, or personal consumption expenditures had a price index increase of 0....
Douglas Holtz-Eakin Falls Into Lunatic Pandering - Once upon a time Douglas Holtz-Eakin was a reasonable professional economist, if of a conservative bent and clearly associated with the Republican Party. H...
Let’s Talk about Stress - We’ve been under stress of late. Lots of stress. Unfortunate, but it’s true for most of us, isn’t it? If it isn’t money, then it’s employment or the lack t...
"Bobby's Berms." - * I want to start this post by giving a shout out to *GQ Magazine* for featuring the last surviving member of the original three Wailers in this latest iss...
Robochess a chess playing bot - Robochess is the name of this chess playing robot. This robot was created by a 17 year old Iranian Student, Ebrahim Jahandar. The robot can play chess agai...
Birther Lakin's Big Day - It was a day of ups and downs for Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Lakin, a day in which he got what he asked for only to find that he didn't really want it, ...
The Real Republican Agenda - Why is stupidity so firmly entrenched in the Republican mindset? Like their claim that tax cuts for the wealthy will create jobs, for instance. Or that looti...
Goldman Sachs: Payday Again! - Eliot Spitzer understands Goldman Sachs as well as anyone except perhaps a GS insider. Not only does Goldman Sachs have incredible paydays, with egregious ...
Allison DuBois is Bullshit - Yeah, I noticed that there was a spike in traffic related to medium-performance artist Allison Dubois, who is a yeasty, curdled discharge. Most of the sear...
A SUPREME COUP - This is not judicial activism, it's judicial radicalism – a black-robed political coup over America's historic democratic ideals. Five men have just overth...
The Blair-Hitchens event in Toronto - *The Hitchens Watch Shura recently convened and has now declared a hudna against that infidel Peter Hitchens. Our Qassams shall not fire at that Zionist en...
Hubble Supernova Bubble Resembles Holiday Ornament - Get larger image formats A delicate sphere of gas, photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, floats serenely in the depths of space. The pristine sh...
Photo a day - John 3:16 - [image: IMG_0237]Jeebus I get tired of this stuff. It’s not enough that almost everyone I know is Christian. It’s not enough that there is a church on ev...
Shooting Everything, Including Herself in the Foot - From Taylor Marsh at THE HUFFINGTON POST: At the end of a defensive post about Sarah Palin’s hunting fiasco taped on her TLC show [Sarah Palin's Alaska], t...
Of knees and blood diamonds - No post today; the spinster knee must spend some time burning in the icy purgatorial fires of an MRI tube, the nearest one of which with an available appoi...
…Til It’s Gone - (Cross-posted at Balloon Juice) This is a follow up to John Cole’s Thug Nation observation. He’s right, of course: we’ve allowed our fears, and the cynical...
Yeah....I Know. - My hiatus sucks for me too, little muffins. There are so many, many things I want to tell you about -- illegal immigrants, shoes, blogging and your career,...
Bullied to Death- Seth Walsh's last words. - Seth was just a little boy in 8th grade, who wanted to live his life out in the open. Tehachapi is a beautiful place, up in the mountains east of Bakersfield...
The Opinuary Column - SONG FOR JOHN BOEHNER* From Gail Collins Boehner is opposed to extending unemployment benefits for the jobless, and he wants to kill off the law that gu...
AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM? - If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times. Much of the world, inc...
Christopher Bollyn, Monfils Conspiracy on TJ Radio! - Truth Jihad Radio Sat. 12/18/10, 5-7 pm Central, American Freedom Radio (archived here.) Call-in number: (402) 237-2525 or post your questions to my Facebo...
Behavioural law and economics symposium - A very strong article here (by Claire Hill, law professor at University of Minnesota) focusing on two principles: how people see the world, and how they va...
- I'm Writing A Novel I'm writing a novel in my head I'm writing it still when I'm dreaming in bed I'm writing it as I get up to pee I could swear someone is...
Word lens - Competing with Culturomics for meme room today is Word Lens, which has a great YouTube ad: According to Sam Grobart at the NYT Gadgetwise blog ("Una App lo...
Yes. - The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c March to Keep Fear Alive Related posts:Creeping Reasonableness Jeebus Parody, Meet Self-Parody Related post...
some news from the financial fiasco: - The Republicans' move puzzled some observers. "The four Republicans appointed to the commission investigating the root causes of the financial crisis plan t...
Library News Land - I am going on vacation right before X-mas like I always do so that I can run around getting the shopping done and get the house ready for company. I suppo...
Hope and Change......or still Hoping for Change? - In a series of debates on Lawfare, Jack Goldsmith engages The New Republic's David Cole. My recommended reading for the week. *In late January 2009, the c...
Carolina Burn Notice (A Flash Fiction Story) - (Author's note: Once again trying the Flash Fiction stuff working out of the "Icarus' Flight to Perfection" blog. Went over the word limit, so sue me! No ...
Moving, Driving, Poetry - There have been a lot of changes lately in this telescope tourist’s life. Two big changes dwarf the others, and gave rise to lots of little fractal-like ch...
BKR JUDGE: DISCOVERY IS KEY TO SPEED - Written by Cathy Moran, Esq More lawyering for faster confirmation of Chapter 13 cases was the advice. The newest judge on our bench called on a room full ...
Being Useless - BBC stated in his comment on my post of yesterday, "You should learn how to sew, it's more useful than writing." I considered answering him in a follow u...
Order of Service - Welcoming Address We would like to welcome you all here today to celebrate a very special year in the world of finance. Reading from the Gospel Accordin...
Mutton for Christmas? - A few Christmases ago I posted something about ostrich for Christmas which received quite a few ‘hits.’ My aunt always prepared goose for the celebration b...
Labile - Did you catch Leslie Stahl's interview with John Boehner last Sunday night on 60 Minutes? Most news shows picked it up, The Sniffle Heard Round The World. ...
A Cat's Eye View - Baxter here. Yes, I know. I've been Gone a Long Time. Not MY idea, let me tell You. My Humans have been in the Dumps for the past three weeks what with th...
Christmas Traditions - I'm heading out to KGB right this very minute for a free reading of selections from Best Lesbian Erotica 2011 For several years, December has been Best Le...
Honduras coup, day 341 - Radio Globo has a lot of interference, doubtless not accidental. Felix Molina complains about being sent a message of a kind that he’s not supposed to read...
Politics When the Media Shrugs - Driftglass makes an excellent observation: What happened this week was that the GOP finally dropped its last fig-leaf and with it, any pretense of a cons...
Happy Zappadan Day 13 - We have more interviews today, I’m not sure how well known these ones are. I think that they are newly republished, and they are kinda fascinating. I knew ...
Thursday Goodness: What's in your soapdish? - A friend of mine on FB shared this picture and link: Cleaner Science at Etsy.com Would you like the Hib virus or the glowing Legionella to rub on your ha...
This Week in Books 12/17/10 - Books......... this week! It was another big week for e-books and e-book readers, so let's get started. First up is my former colleague Sarah LaPolla, who ...
Saving Monsignor Ryan - *[image: In god we trust]Refuting the myths of neoconservative Roman Catholic economics.* In October 1936, Roman Catholic priest and professor of moral t...
The series finale of NOW on PBS - NOW on PBS goes off the air with not just a look back at our most memorable moments, but a mission to leverage these eight years of investigation and insig...
States Moving Ahead With High-Speed-Rail Projects - Wisconsin and Ohio have declined federal funding, to the benefit of California, Florida and other states, which will share that money. California is set to...
The Smithsonian’s New Culture War - David Cole A still from David Wojnarowicz's *Fire in My Belly* On November 29, a conservative website posted an 11-second clip of ants crawling over a...
Still Not Glen Beck... - Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck You know who else is really pissed off....."Beck". Not this Beck, "Beck".*.I'm a loser baby, so wh...
Interminable no-win war is hell for president - Pursuing something resembling victory in Afghanistan, President Obama is setting himself up to be whipsawed politically in 2012, courting the same disaster...
The Real Fighters - I don't have the words to express my admiration respect and thanks for all those arrested in front of the White House protesting the war in Afghanistan. No...
America's Path to Permanent War - No critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could have brighter conservative credentials. He (Andrew J. Bacevich) is a blunt-talking Midwesterner, a West P...
My Needs - The fact that no one in a bureaucracy cares about “my needs” is not an “issue” to be “realized”. It is a fundamental fact about all bureaucracies–academic ...
Noah's Ark must have been REALLY big. - I just got back from a trip to Washington D.C. I was mostly working but did get a chance to see a few things. I spent a few hours in the Smithsonian Mus...
Tired - Long drive, next day a marathon shopping trip and the revelation that the overtly political major is hated as is the political junkie mother. That would be...
Is Blackwater (aka Xe) still the GOP SS? - Few companies have a greater reputation for corruption and misconduct, from overbilling to murder, than Blackwater Corporation, who renamed themselves Xe i...
DATA POINTS IN THE FLOW OF HISTORY - The news flow of the last several weeks has centered around several very big issues: American structural budget deficits and the new tax agreement being ha...
It's Always Something! - Stuck duck in center of lake quickly frozen over after the winter storm and temperature drop. He couldn't get any purchase on the smooth ice- flapping...
STUDY CONFIRMS THAT FOX NEWS MAKES YOU STUPID - *UPDATES BELOW* *Well that's like saying water is wet, but it's good to see it confirmed by actual polls where devoted FAUX NOOZ fans have been asked ques...
Ignorance Isn't Bliss - Hieronymus Bosch, Ship of Fools 1. *I feel like following up* on the last assertion I made in my previous post--namely, that keeping the public in the da...
I’m Telling You, It WILL Happen. Get Ready For It - Americans are a peculiar lot. A lot of the same Americans who were witness to the sudden, speedy unraveling of the Soviet Union have either engaged in, or ...
Of Health Care and Insurance - Earlier this week, Thom Hartman had somebody named Joseph from World Nut Daily on his radio program. I think it might have been Joseph Farah, who seems to ...
Winter Solstice Greetings - At this The Season of The Winter Solstice may Reason prevail. The doctrines of the men who control organized religion are but myth and superstition that har...
I Enjoy a Good Obit - Here are some interesting excerpts from Blake Edwards': A lifelong depressive, Mr. Edwards told The New York Times in 2001 that at one point his depression...
The New Tax Deal: Reaganomics Redux - More than thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan came to Washington intent on reducing taxes on the wealthy and shrinking every aspect of government except defe...
By: Morgan_Le_Fay - and here we go; now the whole thread will be derailed with scriptural quotes and banter about religious belief. Good job....have you all figured out that r...
RIP Don Van Vliet (a.k.a. Captain Beefheart) - Words can’t begin to express how very, very sad I am right now. Don Van Vliet was one of the most inventive, influential and amazing musicians in the hi...
Thoughtfetti - Someone asked me how I was doing, yesterday. I answered "Up and down - I feel like a yo-yo". That about sums it up. ~~~~~ It's not that I don't like the ho...
Bowling Ball Grotto - JPhoto The postage sized lawn set along the quietly narrow city street with cars parked half cocked upon its aged cement chipped sidewalk, nestled two blo...
Dignity - Diogenes once famously searched for an honest man. Remember that parable as this story unfolds. We're all aware, possibly too aware, of the phrase "death wit...
Want To See A Celtic Tiger In Reverse? - Have a look at this Jeff Danziger cartoon, and then look at this image again: *Image credit: Danziger cartoon cropped and processed by Cujo359* It's the pu...
No deficit may be ok for Medicaid, prisons, welfare. - Whether South Carolina will pay for Medicaid programs for the state's poor and elderly after March was left in unknown by the state's financial oversight b...
Health Insurance Is NOT The Same As Auto Insurance - I’m getting really tired of explaining to people why the health insurance mandate is different from state auto insurance mandates. I keep hearing that argu...
Happy we'll be beyond the sea - Perfect music, performed perfectly. People, this can't be taught, only nurtured. Here's where the song came from. Bobby's version had different lyrics, ...
Nightmare on Plutonomy Street - In the movie Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger is one POS. An unconvicted killer, he’s burned alive. He takes his revenge by invading the dreams of p...
Oh noes! - We're still seeing lots of this pwoggie-boy blues: "...Already passed by the Senate, the House probably votes today... on extending the tax cuts for the rich...
Another Brother Gone but Not Forgotten - Lately I have been spending a lot of time on Facebook. It has been, for the most part, a rewarding experience. It has enabled me to meet people from all ov...
The Anatomy of a Fraud - I just finished reading an amazing three part series on the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) and its place at the heart of the most massive f...
Anti-establishment hero or rapist? - The Guardian has more information on the allegations against Julian Assange: The allegations centre on a 10-day period after Assange flew into Stockholm on...
Can You Handle the Truth? - Just read an op-ed piece in the *New York Times* by writer Ishmael Reedentitled *What Progressives Don't Understand About Obama*. It was an amen article, a ...
How GOP Fascism Screwed Texas - by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy When a state or nation fails to live up to its very basic obligations to the people, it is in breach of contract. It...
Thanks for listening to The Professional Left! - We are very grateful for your listenership, readership, and moral and financial support. Driftglass and Blue Gal (The Professional Left) are award-winning b...
The War on Christmas - And he did the same thing to the other Who's houses Leaving crumbs much-too-small for the other Who's Mouses -Theodor Geisel, AKA Dr. Seuss It's a secret...
SANTA'S BOZOS OF 2010 - *2008 WINNER: ROD BLAGOJEVICH 2009 WINNER: RICHARD HENNE 2010 WINNER: Keep reading... * Santa's been feeling a little queasy lately. With all the u...
Short take - My garden is all white again and it was snowing when I sat down here, but now the sun is out. Oh, well. Jay Ackroyd: "Suppose you're in good standing on ...
Climategate, more proof of US Gov/Media Propaganda? - Image [found here] Text with below video: *corbettreport* | December 16, 2010 | 168 likes, 5 dislikes Welcome back to http://NewWorldNextWeek.com - the v...
Relief is just a leak away - There's nothing like a good leak. No, I'm not talking about beer drinking or kidneys. Yes, it may still be all about indecent exposure, but exposure of a d...
O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? - Right here. It's stung me too many times this year to toss it off casually. Two family members (I think both were the last of their generation); too many...
Terrorists And Hostage Takers: Part Three - The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Worst Responders www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The ...
Bertolucci on Bertolucci - A former teacher of mine kindly passed on this neat feature: "Bernardo Bertolucci Dissects Ten of His Classic Scenes." I still need to see a couple of these...
Weile Weile Waile - My neighbor killed her baby and then herself tonight. She seemed a sweet young lady. I'm not feeling so good about it. In fact I'm feeling a bit sick. I'm ...
Runaway Climate Change and How To Avoid It - : Global warming is moving much more quickly than scientists thought it would. Even if the biggest current and prospective emitters - the United States, ...
Big Boring Strawman Wedding - Here is a Big Dumb Strawman put together by Glenn Reynolds: We often hear politicians and pundits denounce property rights. Property rights, we're told, prot...
Canadian Government Discredit Demonstrators? - Is the Canadian government using police as agents provocateurs to discredit demonstrators? And if so, does this only take place in Canada? Watch this and t...
Friday Cat Blogging - Night Shift Nom nom nom… [Editor: This is a Tonto-patterned feral that only shows up at night to eat. The distinctive markings show that this is a "family"...
Inside Ralph’s Garage - It was classic automobiles that Ralph Lauren pined for when he was growing up. Todd Eberle photographs the inner sanctum of his museum-like garage.
Always looking to learn something new, new places to travel to, and contacts for business, import/export, traveling, and forwarding my screenwriting interests and projects.
