silvershadow
silvershadow's JournalWith all this talk of disaffected Republicans, leaving their party, etc it is important to remember
to the extent they might be inclined to join the Democratic party it will just further dilute our ability to hold true to our principles and platform. The added numbers might look good on paper, but it won't do a thing to suit me. I would just as soon they become Independents, or better yet, just quit voting. jmho 
How much *heat is Fukyshima (sp?) putting into the the atmosphere? (rads aside)...anyone have an
educated guess? I'm not educated in this stuff, but would like to know about that. I already have a really sickening feeling about the radiation. Just wondering about the heat, and what I might need to be expecting. Thanks for ? 
Coroner's report: Michael Hastings crash death 'instantaneous,' drugs not factor
By Richard Esposito and Tom Winter, NBC News
The journalist whose controversial Rolling Stone article ended the career of the U.S. commander in Afghanistan died almost instantaneously when he drove his Mercedes at high speed into a tree in Hollywood, according to a just-released coroner’s report.
While small amounts of marijuana and methamphetamine were detected in the system of Michael Hastings, says the report, they likely did not contribute to his death.
Hastings’ charred body was pulled from the wreck of his silver 2013 Mercedes on North Highland Avenue after 4:20 a.m. on June 18.
The death spawned a flurry of conspiracy theories because Hastings, a 33-year-old writer for Gentleman’s Quarterly, Rolling Stone and Buzzfeed, reported on national security.
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More at link: http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/20/20108409-coroners-report-michael-hastings-crash-death-instantaneous-drugs-not-factor?lite
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I searched DU, and didn't see it posted.
Campaign to Defeat Indiana’s Marriage Amendment to Kick Off Tomorrow
Tomorrow, a bipartisan coalition, including businesses, HRC and other grassroots organizations, will kickoff a statewide campaign in Indiana to defeat HJR6, a proposed state constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage equality.
During the 2014 legislative session, Indiana lawmakers will have the opportunity to stand in support of marriage equality by either choosing to table or vote down the amendment or to send it to voters for a statewide referendum.
The bill first passed the General Assembly in 2011, and, if approved in next year's session, would be placed before voters at the November 2014 ballot box.
The majority of Americans support marriage equality, including Indiana Senate Joe Donnelly who announced his support in April.
From: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/campaign-to-defeat-indianas-marriage-amendment-to-kick-off-tomorrow?fb_action_ids=10201930645857940&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210201930645857940%22%3A591957697521016%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210201930645857940%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
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Developer exposed by WWL-TV pleads guilty to federal theft charges (ties to Jindal)
NEW ORLEANS -- Based on the findings of our Eyewitness Investigation, federal authorities have charged a developer with close ties to Gov. Bobby Jindal with fraudulently billing a state Katrina recovery program.
Praveen Kailas pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds and one count of theft of government funds.
He was charged in June and agreed to plead guilty Aug. 1. The case was unsealed Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Inspector General launched a probe of Kailas’ company, Lago Construction, in October 2012, after Eyewitness News collected thousands of pages of Lago billing records and questioned how employees could have claimed hours working as construction monitors on the state’s Small Rental Property Program when witnesses and other documentary evidence showed they were actually working on other projects.
more at link: http://www.wwltv.com/news/eyewitness/davidhammer/Developer-with-ties-Gov-Jindal-pleads-guilty--220403761.html
Pervez Musharraf, Former Pakistani President And Army Chief, Charged With Benezir Bhutto Assassinati
Source: Huffington Post
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — A Pakistani court Tuesday indicted former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf on murder charges in connection with the 2007 assassination of iconic Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, deepening the fall of a once-powerful figure who returned to the country this year in an effort to take part in elections.
The decision by a court in Rawalpindi marks the first time Musharraf, or any former army chief in Pakistan, has been charged with a crime.
Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup and stepped down from office in disgrace nearly a decade later, now faces a litany of legal problems that have in many ways broken taboos on the inviolability of the once-sacrosanct military in Pakistani society.
He has been charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and facilitation for murder, said prosecutor Chaudry Muhammed Azhar.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/pervez-musharraf-indicted_n_3783133.html
more at link
Of the 433 members of Congress listed on Roll Call, only 143 of them were even in Congress when the
Patriot Act was passed. So, 75% of Congress weren't even in the know to begin with. Of the 25% who were, only a handful were picked to be in the know, as in, selected as important enough to know. The few others who kinda know a little bit maybe are members who were not first-hand parties to the goings-on, but rather those who just received a few briefings here and there.
Now, looking over the list of just 143 members who might have a chance of knowing something, I am looking for names that stick out, since I don't have the info about who was actually in those meetings at hand. I see quite a few names I just don't really recognize, for whatever reason, and I see a few names that I just barely kinda have heard of. Here are some names in particular that might know something about NSA spying:
Mike Rogers, R, Michigan
Darrell Issa, R, California
Eric Cantor, R, Virginia
Paul D. Ryan,R, Wisconsin
A fair mix of Democrats and Republicans are on the list of 143. But then I look at their seniority dates...Even with heavy-hitting names such as those I just listed, it's really not possible that they knew much, is it? All of them were fairly new to Washington, I'm not sure they would be considered insider enough to have been briefed? I mean with the exception of Ryan, all were elected in 2001, and Ryan in 99, so it's not exactly like they would have been power players at that time, and I distinctly remember that only a few could be in the know, and those few were supposed to kind of brief others on a need-to-know basis.
Further perusing the list, in order to narrow it down to just those with 5 years experience in Congress, I have to narrow the list to just 87 people that could have possibly maybe been briefed. Elijah Cummings was elected in 96, so he had 5 years in on 9/11. Do you supposed he was senior enough at that time to get a full briefing?
More names: Peter King, R, New York. Spencer Bacchus, R, Ala. Inquiring minds want to know how all this spying could be going on and yet no one knows anything, but a quick look at the actual facts reveals that attrition alone accounts for much of the lack of knowledge. What do you guys think, am I thinking right on this?
*On edit: I realize the NSA spying didn't necessarily coincide with 9/11, and developed out of what was to come. I just did this exercise on first the general Patriot Act as passed in 2001 to kinda look at who might have known what.
Texas Police Hit Organic Farm With Massive SWAT Raid
A small organic farm in Arlington, Texas, was the target of a massive police action last week that included aerial surveillance, a SWAT raid and a 10-hour search.
Members of the local police raiding party had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm. But farm owners and residents who live on the property told a Dallas-Ft. Worth NBC station that that the real reason for the law enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. The police seized "17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, 14 tomatillo plants ... native grasses and sunflowers," after holding residents inside at gunpoint for at least a half-hour, property owner Shellie Smith said in a statement. The raid lasted about 10 hours, she said.
Local authorities had cited the Garden of Eden in recent weeks for code violations, including "grass that was too tall, bushes growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house, and generally unclean premises," Smith's statement said. She said the police didn't produce a warrant until two hours after the raid began, and officers shielded their name tags so they couldn't be identified. According to ABC affiliate WFAA, resident Quinn Eaker was the only person arrested -- for outstanding traffic violations.
The city of Arlington said in a statement that the code citations were issued to the farm following complaints by neighbors, who were "concerned that the conditions" at the farm "interfere with the useful enjoyment of their properties and are detrimental to property values and community appearance." The police SWAT raid came after "the Arlington Police Department received a number of complaints that the same property owner was cultivating marijuana plants on the premises," the city's statement said. "No cultivated marijuana plants were located on the premises," the statement acknowledged.
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more at link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/texas-swat-team-conducts-_n_3764951.html
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is not about free trade. It's a corporate coup d'etat--against us!
(Long read, by Jim Hightower. Well worth the read. I've clipped just four paragraphs
http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/3402#.Ugvfthbv3Qd
Drug prices. Big Pharma would be given more years of monopoly pricing on each of their patents and be empowered to block distribution of cheaper generic drugs. Besides artificially keeping everyone's prices high, this would be a death sentence to many people suffering from cancer, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other treatable diseases in impoverished lands. The deal would also restrict the rights of our government to negotiate with drug giants to get lower consumer prices with bulk purchases, as Medicare and Medicaid do in the US.
Banksters. Wall Street and the financial giants in other TPP countries would make out like bandits: The deal explicitly prohibits transaction taxes (such as the proposed Robin Hood Tax here) that would shut down super-rich speculators who have repeatedly triggered financial crises and economic crashes around the world; it restricts "firewall" reforms that separate consumer banking from risky investment banking (thus prohibiting Congress from reinstating the much needed Glass-Steagall firewall in our country); it could roll back reforms that governments adopted to fix the extreme bank-deregulation regimen that caused Wall Street's 2007 crash; and it provides a backdoor escape from national rules that would limit the size of "too-big-to-fail" behemoths. These extreme provisions would be enforceable by the banks themselves--TPP empowers them to force governments either to repeal reform laws or to compensate banks with taxpayer money for "losses" they say are caused by reforms.
Internet freedom. Thanks to public rebellion, corporations hoping to lock up and monopolize the internet failed in Congress last year to pass their repressive "Stop Online Piracy Act." However, they've slipped SOPA's most pernicious provisions into TPP. Corporate-created content, for example, would be given copyright protection for a stunning 120 years! The deal would also transform internet service providers into a private, Big Brother police force, empowered to monitor our "user activity," arbitrarily take down our content, and cut off our access to the internet. To top that off, consumers could be assessed mandatory fines for non-commercial, small-scale copying--like sending your mom a recipe you got off of a paid site.
Public services. TPP rules would limit how governments regulate such public services as utilities, transportation, and education, including restricting policies meant to ensure broad or universal access to those essential needs. One especially insidious rule says that member countries must open their service sectors to private competitors, which would allow the corporate provider to cherry pick the profitable customers and sink the public service. Also, corporations from any TPP nation must be allowed to bid on contracts to provide public services in the US on the same terms as American corporations.
Somewhere, in the ether, J. Edgar Hoover is smiling coyly, and looking through yet one more
index card file, scheming...(and wishing he had lived long enough to have spearheaded it all).
That is all. 
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Member since: Thu Jul 8, 2004, 03:14 PM
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