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Google to host fundraiser for Congress climate change denier
http://www.rtcc.org/google-to-host-fundraiser-for-congress-climate-change-denier/
Google is hosting a fundraiser for the most notorious climate change denier in Congress, Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe. Proceeds of the 11 July lunch, priced at $250 to $2,500, will go to the national Republican Senatorial Committee.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/09/google-climate-denier-jim-inhofe
Google, which prides itself on building a "better web that is better for the environment", is hosting a fundraiser for the most notorious climate change denier in Congress, it has emerged.
The lunch, at the company's Washington office, will benefit the Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe, who has made a career of dismissing climate change as a "hoax" on the Senate floor.
Proceeds of the 11 July lunch, priced at $250 to $2,500, will also go to the national Republican Senatorial Committee.
It's the second show of support from Google for the anti-climate cause in recent weeks.
Last month, the Washington Post reported that the internet company had donated $50,000 for a fundraising dinner for the ultra-conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute – topping the contributions even of the Koch oil billionaires.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has launched multiple law suits aimed at trying to discredit the science behind climate change – accusing scientists of fraud. None have so far succeeded.
The CEI also specialises in filing open records requests, demanding universities turn over email correspondence of climate scientists with journalists.
Facebook also contributed $25,000 to the CEI dinner last month.
Google's show of support for the leading climate contrarian in Congress was criticised by climate activists on Tuesday. "Google's motto is 'Don't Be Evil', but it is supporting one of the worst deniers of climate science in the world," said the Climate Progress website, which first reported on the story.
Inhofe has spent more than a decade challenging the science behind climate change, and trying to stop Congress from acting on climate change. He has repeatedly dismissed climate change as a "hoax" or "hysteria", and cited the benefits of global warming for the economy and the environment.
The campaign group Forecast the Facts launched a petition calling for Google's chief executive officer, Larry Page, to cancel the fundraiser.
Google has been a corporate leader in fighting climate change. The company claims on its Google Green website to be creating "a better web that is better for the environment"by investing $1bn in renewable energy and making considerable savings in electricity use at its data centres.
Google initially refused to comment on the record about its support for Inhofe.
However, a company spokesperson noted that Google maintained data centres in Oklahoma. The spokesperson then sent an email saying:
"We regularly host fundraisers for candidates, on both sides of the aisle, but that doesn't mean we endorse all of their positions. And while we disagree on climate change policy, we share an interest with Senator Inhofe in the employees and data center we have in Oklahoma."
Google's website notes the company has invested $700m in two data centres in Oklahoma. The state is a leading oil and gas producer - and Inhofe has been a strong promoter of the industry. However, Google has contracted to power its data centres through wind energy.
"They can probably rightfully claim that the facility is powered 100% by wind," said Gary Cook, technology campaigner for Greenpeace, which tracks greenhouse gas emissions from the IT sector. He added: "But even so, Jim Inhofe is the biggest obstacle to climate change action in the Senate so what are they doing raising money for him?"
Want to See Your NSA or FBI File? Here's How...
Have you ever Tweeted a politically subversive message, attended a protest, or signed an oppositional petition? If so, you may have a dedicated file on you kept by the FBI and/or the NSA.
With a simple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, any U.S. citizen can obtain one's NSA or FBI file, if such a file exists.
It simply takes a few minutes to fill out the requisite forms and mail them to the appropriate address. An independent site – www.getmyfbifile – will, free of charge, generate the necessary forms for you already filled out.
Of course, you can also do this directly through the NSA or FBI if you are worried about providing personal information to an independent site.
While an appropriate level of cynicism may be warranted concerning the level of transparency one should expect from such a request – should your file be substantial – it is the law that your complete file be provided to you upon request.
Demand that the law be followed, for it is your right as a citizen to know this information.
My request is going in the mail today.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/11/1215421/-Want-to-See-Your-NSA-or-FBI-File-Here-s-How?detail=email
My request is going out tomorrow.
Rush Limbaugh Admits StopRush is Kicking His Ass
&eature=player_detailpage#t=0sOn Tuesday's show, Rush Limbaugh acknowledged that the "sniveling jerks" of the StopRush movement have driven his advertising possibilities into the ground:
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"When you look at a ... show that is by far number 1, and they're still running penile enhancement ads, what's happening is that mainstream media buyers are sending money elsewhere, trying to harm them. Well, penile, take your pick,the Ronco Veg-o-matic, you know--while McDonald's and Coke and Meineke are everywhere else.
These are things we had to overcome on this pro--we have to fight that battle every day here anyway. Cause these little sniveling jerks are out there trying to scare advertisers, still goes on."
As usual, Limbaugh has some of his facts confused. The "little sniveling jerks" he refers to would be the StopRush movement, groups like the Flush Rush Facebook community.
But these groups aren't "trying to scare advertisers," they're simply contacting advertisers and quoting Rush Limbaugh verbatim to be sure the sponsor is aware of what they're being associated with.
Many of them aren't aware, and they often choose to pull their ads off the show.
2638 have requested their ads not air on the Rush Limbaugh Show as of today.
But the reason these organizations pull their ads off the show isn't because of StopRush volunteers, it's because of the offensive content that comes out of Limbaugh's mouth--including regular homophobic rants, racial stereotypes, poor bashing, and even last week's incredibly insensitive jokes about exploding pressure cookers, just one day after 3 people were brutally murdered in Boston. Respectable organizations want nothing to do with that kind of thing.
Limbaugh alone is responsible for his advertiser exodus--nobody else.
As Limbaugh's large, well known advertisers have headed for the door, ad rates that Limbaugh used to call "confiscatory" have dropped to all time lows.
Advertisers like Sony, Hallmark, Cadillac, and Office Depot have been replaced by a ragtag bunch including a suspected pyramid scheme, shady identity protection software, and even a church led by a murdering pastor. Oh, and the "penile enhancements."
One of Limbaugh's faithful advertisers is the National Male Medical Clinic, one of quite a few similar businesses peddling cures to men with limp noodles.
A warning to anyone who clicks on the youtube link in the second tweet--it's a graphic video of "Mr. S" injecting erectile dysfunction medication directly into his penis--because that's how far El Rushbo has sunk. He's now plugging intrapenous drug use.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/24/1204320/-Rush-Limbaugh-Admits-StopRush-is-Kicking-His-Ass?detail=email
Next Time Someone Tells You That Immigrants Are Destroying Our Country, Show Them This
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bJX5XHnONTI#t=43sNext Time Someone Tells You That Immigrants Are Destroying Our Country, Show Them This
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bJX5XHnONTI#t=43sMars, Nestle, Hershey accused of chocolate price-fixing conspiracy in Canada
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/07/18820597-mars-nestle-hershey-accused-of-chocolate-price-fixing-conspiracy-in-canada?liteBy Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News
Nestle, Mars and Hershey companies in Canada have been charged with conspiring with others to fix the price of chocolate, authorities said.
Nestle Canada and Mars Canada both said they would “vigorously defend” themselves against the claims.
Canada’s Competition Bureau said in a statement that Hershey Canada was expected to plead guilty later this month “for its role in the conspiracy to fix the price of chocolate confectionery products in Canada.”
However, the bureau said that Hershey had “cooperated” with the investigation and it had recommended to prosecutors that it should receive “lenient treatment.”
SNIP
ITWAL Ltd., a national network of independent wholesale distributors, has also been charged along with Robert Leonidas, former president of Nestlé Canada; Sandra Martinez, former president of confectionery for Nestlé Canada; and David Glenn Stevens, president and chief executive of ITWAL.
The Competition Bureau said it became aware of the allegations under a program in which the first party to disclose an offense “may receive immunity” from prosecution.
“Subsequent cooperating parties may receive lenient treatment under the Bureau's Leniency Program,” it added. “These programs provide powerful incentives for business organizations and individuals to come forward and cooperate with the Bureau's investigations.”
The bureau said the accused “face the possibility of a fine of up to $10 million and/or imprisonment for a term of up to five years.”
SNIP
Hershey Canada said in a statement that it had "promptly reported the conduct to the Competition Bureau, cooperated fully with its investigation and did not implement the planned price increase that was the subject of the 2007 communications."
Obama: Spying programs only ‘modest’ invasion of privacy
Source: Yahoo News
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 57 mins ago
President Barack Obama on Friday defiantly defended the government's newly revealed telephone and Internet spying programs on grounds that Americans must tolerate what he dismissed as "modest encroachments on privacy" in the name of security.
With evident impatience, Obama suggested at one point that he set limits on what the National Security Agency (NSA) can grab without a judge's OK because he himself might one day be the target of such snooping.
"I came in with a healthy skepticism about these programs," Obama said at an event in San Jose, CA, initially designed to trumpet Obamacare but subverted by the dramatic disclosures. "My team evaluated them. We scrubbed them thoroughly. We actually expanded some of the oversight, increased some of the safeguards."
But, the president said, "My assessment, and my team’s assessment, was that they help us prevent terrorist attacks. And the modest encorachments on privacy that are involved in getting phone numbers, or duration [of calls] without a name attached, and without looking at content, that on net it was worth us doing."
SNIP
Obama said Congress had been fully briefed on the various secret programs, and suggested that lawmakers who objected to those initiatives or to "abuses" could have done so. But lawmakers critical of such programs have repeatedly made clear that they are hamstrung by the Administration's decision to classify information -- making a full, public debate involving the American public impossible.
The president dismissed the "hype" that portrays such programs as s stepping stone towards a tyrannical "Big Brother"-like government. He also denounced the leaks that fed the news reports, saying the nation's secrets cannot be "dumped out willy-nilly" without damaging national security.
SNIP.
"With respect to my concerns about privacy issues: I will leave this office at some point -- sometime in the next three and a half years -- and after that I'll be a private citizen," he said. "And I suspect that on a list of people who might be targeted so that somebody could read their emails or listen to their phone calls, I’d probably be pretty high on that list. So it's not as though I don't have a a personal interest in making sure my privacy is protected."
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-spying-programs-only-modest-invasion-privacy-170140961.html
"modest"
Cory Booker to make New Jersey Senate run official
Source: Yahoo News
The Ticket
By Holly Bailey, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 45 mins ago
http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/fi1r0FsMeEemFQE2FRr7Hg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/
Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker is set to make official what the political world has long expected: He’ll run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Frank Lautenberg, who died Monday.
A source close to the Democratic mayor told Yahoo News Booker was expected to announce Saturday that he’ll enter the special election primary set for Aug. 13. But the source cautioned that the event could be postponed because of heavy rains and flooding from remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea that were forecast for the region over the next 24 hours. The campaign was expected to make a final call on the event later Friday.
Booker announced in December he was exploring a run for Lautenberg’s seat in 2014, and had long been considered the front-runner in that race. But the special election could complicate his plans—in part because several well-funded lawmakers have announced or expressed their interest in running in what looks to be an increasingly crowded Democratic primary. Booker would have to make up financial ground quickly.
<snip>
Several other Democrats are also said to be eying the race, including Rep. Frank Pallone and state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver. Beth Mason, a wealthy Hoboken City Council member, is considering financing her own primary bid, according to the Star-Ledger.
<snip>
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/cory-booker-jersey-senate-run-official-153922045.html
Cory Booker in a landslide. Future President here.
Viral Video Explains How Women’s Issues Are Men’s Issues (VIDEO)
Author: Leslie Salzillo 4:24 am
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/12/ted-talk-speaker-jackson-katz-captivates-women-and-men-on-the-subject-of-gender-violence-video/
<snip>
Recently, one particular TED talk video by American filmmaker, educator and author, Jackson Katz, was captured on the Upworthy site, and has since gone viral. I first saw the headline/title,
” A TED Talk That Might Turn Every Man Who Watches It Into A Feminist? It’s Pretty Fantastic.”
Okay. Sounds interesting, and I might have overlooked it had it not been posted on a women’s rights Facebook page, UniteWomen.org. So I took the time to watch the TED Talk video, and I’d say it goes well beyond the Upworthy title. Katz strikes a chord in both men and women. He tells us that ‘women’s issues’ are not just women’s issues; they are men’s issues. And as long as we segregate men’s violence against women, and men’s violence against men, as ‘gender issues,’ – the problem will continue. Here is a short excerpt from Katz’s beginning remarks:
Katz:
“I’m going to share with you, a paradigm shifting perspective, on the issues of gender violence, sexual assault, domestic violence, relationship abuse, sexual harassment, sexual abuse of children… that whole range of issues that are referred to, in shorthand, as ‘gender violence’ issues. They’ve been seen as women’s issues – that some good men help out with. But I have a problem with that frame, and I don’t accept it. I don’t see these as women’s issues that some good-men-help-out-with. In fact, I’m going to argue that these are men’s issues, first and foremost.” (There is applause)
“Now obviously, obviously, they are women’s issues. I appreciate that. But calling gender violence a women’s issue is part of the problem for a number of reasons.”
As Katz goes on to explain in his TED Talk, he is almost out of breath as he speaks. It’s as if he wants so badly to say everything he needs to say in less that 20 minutes, while having the strongest possible impact. If so, his mission was accomplished. After I watched it, my first thought was, “If only every man, woman, girl and boy could see this video and hear this message.” Then I realized I have an avenue from which I can spread the word, and I’m grateful to AddictingInfo.org, for giving me that platform.
Here is the TED Talk Video With Jackson Katz:
I know, I know – it’s no longer ‘cool’ to ask people to ‘please share.’ These days as we are barraged with that request all over social media, especially in activist circles. But today, I’m going to claim, ‘uncool’ (unlike other days) and hope all who watch the video, will share this worthy message.
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<snip>
Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/12/ted-talk-speaker-jackson-katz-captivates-women-and-men-on-the-subject-of-gender-violence-video/#ixzz2VY0MPyHL
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Hometown: marble falls, tx
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