Posted 14 hours ago on Oct. 23, 2013, 4:43 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

#t=13

This video is a call to action released in support of the Stop Watching Us: Rally Against Mass Surveillance being held in Washington, DC, on Saturday, Oct. 26, the 12th anniversary of the Patriot Act. Formed in June 2013, the StopWatching.us coalition is comprised of more than 100 public advocacy organizations and companies from across the political spectrum demanding that Congress investigate the full extent of the NSA's spying programs.

A diverse cast of media, academic, political and legal figures and truth-speakers unite in the video to sound the alarm over unconstitutional government surveillance. The full list, in order of appearance, includes:

Daniel Ellsberg, “Pentagon Papers” whistleblower
Phil Donahue, television talk-show pioneer
US Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee
David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress
Maggie Gyllenhaal, actor and activist
Oliver Stone, director of The Untold History of the United States and Nixon
John Cusack, actor and activist
Wil Wheaton, actor and writer
Molly Crabapple, artist and writer
Jesselyn Radack, U.S. Department of Justice whistleblower and national security and human rights director at the Government Accountability Project
J. Kirk Wiebe, NSA whistleblower
Mark Klein, AT&T whistleblower who revealed the telecommunications company’s collaboration with the NSA in collecting customer data
Thomas Drake, NSA whistleblower
Cindy Cohn, Legal Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Dan Choi, LGBTQ activist and Iraq War veteran
Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School

Thomas Drake and Daniel Choi will also speak at the rally, which begins with a march from Columbus Circle to the Capitol Reflecting Pool at 12 p.m. EST on Saturday, Oct. 26. StopWatching.us will also deliver more than 500,000 signatures opposing the NSA’s mass surveillance to Congress. The coalition is calling for a full Congressional investigation of America’s surveillance programs, reform to federal surveillance law, and accountability from officials responsible for hiding this surveillance from lawmakers and the public.

http://occupywallst.org/article/stop-watching-us-now/

They'll bribe but they won't sell crooked voting machines, right?


ATM maker Diebold pays $48 million to settle foreign bribery case


Diebold Inc. was accused of bribing foreign bank officials with trips to Las Vegas and other locations. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / October 22, 2013)


By Stuart Pfeifer

October 22, 2013, 9:38 a.m.

Diebold Inc., a manufacturer of ATMs, bank security systems and voting machines, has agreed to pay a $48-million penalty to settle charges it bribed officials at government-owned banks in China, Russia and Indonesia in order to win their business.

The North Canton, Ohio, company was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department of spending about $1.8 million to send the foreign bank officials on vacations to the United States and Europe and provide entertainment and gifts in violation of a federal law that prohibits U.S. companies from bribing foreign government officials.

The company was also accused of giving annual cash gifts ranging from $100 to more than $600 to foreign bank executives.

Diebold falsely recorded the bribes in its books as training expenses, the SEC alleged.

"A bribe is a bribe, whether it’s a stack of cash or an all-expense-paid trip to Europe," said Scott W. Friestad, an associate director in the SEC’s enforcement division. "Public companies must be held accountable when they break the law to influence government officials with improper payments or gifts."

According to the SEC complaint filed in federal court in Washington, Diebold’s misconduct occurred from 2005 to 2010.

Among the destinations of the U.S. trips were the Grand Canyon, Napa Valley, Disneyland, and Universal Studios as well as Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, Washington and Hawaii, the agency said.

Officials also were treated to European vacations, the SEC charged. For example, it said, eight officials at a government-owned bank in China enjoyed a two-week trip at Diebold’s expense that included stays in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Klagenfurt, Venice, Florence and Rome.

The Russian bribes were funneled through a distributor using phony service contracts to hide and falsely record the payments as legitimate business expenses, according to the SEC.

In addition to the fine, Diebold agreed to appoint an independent compliance monitor to prevent future violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Diebold shares were up 25 cents, or 1%, to $29.97 in morning trading Tuesday.

Monday, 21 Oct 2013 11:11 PM

By Cathy Burke


Billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's pro-gun-control super PAC will finance $1.1 million in advertising for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in the final weeks of the race, Politico reported Monday.

The ads will roll out Tuesday. The election is Nov. 5.

McAuliffe journeyed to New York in August to seek the mayor's support.


Bloomberg, a political independent, has spent more than $15 million on various gun control initiatives — and spent $1 million helping elect Newark Mayor Cory Booker to a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey's special election to replace the late Frank Lautenberg, who championed gun control, The New York Post reported.

McAuliffe supports stricter gun laws, including an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, limiting the size of magazines and preventing people from buying more than one gun a month.

Roll Call reported Monday that the political action committee of the National Rifle Association has spent $466,000 on television and Internet ads highlighting McAuliffe-backed gun control measures.

The campaign of Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who supports a focus on mental health to reduce gun violence, slammed the ads as out-of-state interference.

"Terry McAuliffe and his allies are spending tens of millions of dollars in an attempt to buy Virginia's governor's mansion and impose an idealogical agenda that will severely restrict Virginian's Second Amendment rights, hike energy prices for Virginia families and undermine our right-to-work laws," Cuccinelli communications director Richard Cullen told Politico.

<snip>

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4793446658868162&w=166&h=170&c=7&rs=1&pid=1.7

&feature=player_embedded#t=93

Nebraska Court Rules Teen Too Immature for an Abortion, Fine to Raise a Kid

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/07/nebraska_supreme_court_rules_that_a_16_year_old_in_foster_care_is_not_mature.html?wpsrc=upworthy

By Katy Waldman

The Nebraska Supreme Court denied a 16-year-old foster child’s request for an abortion on Friday because she was "not sufficiently mature" to make the decision herself. So instead, this immature young woman who does not want a baby will become a mother. Everyone wins.

The teenager, identified in the court ruling as Anonymous 5, showed evidence of mature reasoning at a confidential hearing. She worried that she didn’t have the financial resources to support a child or to be “the right mom that I would like to be right now.” Yet district judge Peter C. Bataillon, whom the Raw Story reports once served on the committee for an Omaha anti-abortion group, disagreed, and the Supreme Court upheld his ruling in a split vote of 5-2.

<snip>

Since Anonymous 5 is a ward of the State Department of Health and Human Services—she actually requested the abortion at the confidential hearing dissolving the parental rights of her biological mother and father, who were physically abusive—she doesn’t have anyone to grant her consent. “She is in legal limbo—a quandary of the Legislature's making,” wrote Judge William Connolly in his Supreme Court minority opinion.

<snip>

Katy Waldman is a Slate assistant editor. Follow her on Twitter.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/10/03/ac-pkg-tuchman-road-rage-doctor.cnn.html

Unbelievable.

LAPD officer charged with assaulting arrested woman, who later died
By Greg Botelho, CNN
updated 10:38 PM EDT, Thu October 10, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Woman's family thinks officer is to blame, urges more action, spokesman says
Prosecutor: Video shows Alesia Thomas being kicked by officer, pushed in the throat
That officer is charged with assault; if convicted, she could face three years in prison
The accused police officer is "devastated" by the charge, her lawyer says

(CNN) -- A Los Angeles police officer has been charged with assaulting a woman under arrest, Alesia Thomas, who lost consciousness in a patrol car and was declared dead soon thereafter, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Mary O'Callaghan, 48, was charged a day earlier in a felony assault case, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

The prosecutor's office said it will request $35,000 bail for the officer who, if convicted, could spend three years in state prison.

<snip>

The charge stems from an incident July 22, 2012, when police investigating a possible child abandonment went to Thomas' home.

This was after Thomas had dropped off her two children at a police station because she felt her drug abuse had made her an unfit parent, according to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

At the mother's home, police talked with Thomas and arrested her.

It was then that O'Callaghan arrived on the scene, helping her fellow officers put Thomas -- then wearing handcuffs and leg restraints -- in a patrol car.

Video captured what happened next, the prosecutor's office said, including "O'Callaghan kicking Thomas in the stomach and groin area and pushing her in the throat."

Thomas lost consciousness in the patrol car, then was transported by paramedics to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

<snip

CNN's Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/justice/lapd-officer-charged-assault/index.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7381883n

The video says it all.

Tweet recalling Yom Kippur war, 40 years on, jolts oil traders


NEW YORK | Thu Oct 10, 2013 2:15pm EDT

(Reuters) - Oil traders razor-focused on signs of escalating violence in the Middle East were jolted on Thursday by a Twitter posting from the Israeli military that, at first glance, suggested they had just bombed Syrian airports.

Oil prices jumped $1 as the talk raced through oil markets, which frequently react quickly to rumors of geopolitical events and where traders have increasingly turned to the Internet and social media for advance warning of escalating risks, from the Arab Spring to the Iranian nuclear standoff.

The Tweet was true, but it wasn't news. The posting referred to an attack 40 years ago in the Yom Kippur war, the latest in a series of Tweets from the Israel Defense Forces Twitter handle (@IDFSpokesperson) commemorating the war.

The Tweet just before 10:30 a.m. EDT stated: "October 10 #YomKippur73: Israel Air Force bombards airports in Syria to prevent Soviet weapons reaching the Syrian Army". It then links to a website that gives a day-by-day account of the war.

"Obviously this was part of our Yom Kippur Twitter series. The facts are there and simple to read. It was apparent within the Tweet itself," said IDF spokesman Peter Lerner.

Although traders quickly realized the historical nature of the Tweet, oil prices maintained their gains, supported in large part by hopes of a breakthrough in U.S. debt discussions and earlier anxiety over political stability in Libya.

Front-month Brent crude prices rallied from $110.40 a barrel at 10:20 a.m. EDT -- just before the Tweet -- to as high as $111.50 just after 11 a.m., as trading volumes rose. By 1 p.m. oil was up $2.68 a barrel to $111.74, its highest in a month.

The incident is the latest example of how social media outlets are playing an increasingly important role in financial markets, often causing sudden moves - not always corrected.

In April, hackers took control of the Associated Press Twitter account and falsely posted that two explosions at the White House injured President Barack Obama. Reuters data showed the Tweet briefly wiped out $136.5 billion (89.5 billion pounds) of the S&P 500 index's value before markets recovered.

"The IDF tweet caused a bit of a stir in the oil market, with rumors circulating of a possible Israeli strike in Syria before people realized they were referring to events 40 years ago," said Richard Mallinson, chief policy analyst at consultancy Energy Aspects.

Oil prices surged in October 1973 after a coalition of Arab states launched a surprise attack on Israel during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, threatening to overwhelm the country. Israel launched a massive counter-offensive before a ceasefire took hold.

The war prompted Arab nations and members of OPEC to use what they called "the oil weapon," proclaiming an oil embargo that lasted several months and set off global oil price shocks.

More recently, the conflict in Syria, and its potential to spill over into large oil-producing nations in the region, have kept crude traders on closely watching for fresh news.

(Reporting by Robert Gibbons, Jeanine Prezioso, Selam Gebrekidan, David Sheppard, Matthew Robinson, Joshua Schneyer and Eileen Houlihan; and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem; Writing by Matthew Robinson, editing by Ross Colvin)