June 30, 2014

Iraq crisis: Fighting in Tikrit after 'caliphate' declared

Source: BBC News

30 June 2014 Last updated at 16:15

Fresh clashes have been reported between jihadist-led Sunni rebels and government forces around the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

Witnesses said there had been a wave of air strikes and that former President Saddam Hussein's palace had been hit.

A local source told the BBC the rebels had meanwhile seized parts of a nearby military base in a counter-attack.

It comes a day after the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) announced the creation of a "caliphate".

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28092840

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Caliphate from Clusterfuck. Impressive!

June 30, 2014

If you don't vomit while watching this documentary, you're not a human being

Apparently, this was filmed many years ago, but I only came upon it earlier tonight on YouTube. I had to wash my hands after viewing it. Trigger warning in full effect.

I'm going to bed now, but probably won't sleep well.

June 29, 2014

Blacks to Thad Cochran: You owe us

Source: Republitico

By ANNA PALMER and LAUREN FRENCH | 6/29/14 5:22 PM EDT

Thad Cochran won a primary runoff by turning out the black vote. Now they are asking — what are you going to do for us?

Already the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are talking about what they want Cochran to do. The wish list is fulling up with ideas like maintaining funding for food stamps, beefing up programs that help poor blacks in Mississippi and even supporting the Voting Rights Act.

“Absolutely we have expectations,’’ Rep Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), said in an interview.

And while Cochran beat back a tea party challenger by reminding voters, particularly black voters, that he brings home the federal bucks, the policy asks are far more liberal than much of what the moderate Republican has championed in his four decades in office.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/thad-cochran-mississippi-election-2014-black-vote-108411.html#ixzz364YlF5W8

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First of all, Cochran does owe the black community in MS.
Secondly, white Mississipians receive more federal largesse than non-whites.
Finally, does anyone disagree that the source site should really be called Republitico? The link sends you to the same place!

June 29, 2014

Facebook admits manipulating users' emotions by modifying news feeds

Source: The Guardian

Robert Booth
The Guardian, Sunday 29 June 2014 16.56 BST

It already knows whether you are single or dating, the first school you went to and whether you like or loathe Justin Bieber. But now Facebook, the world's biggest social networking site, is facing a storm of protest after it revealed it had discovered how to make users feel happier or sadder with a few computer key strokes.

It has published details of a vast experiment in which it manipulated information posted on 689,000 users' home pages and found it could make people feel more positive or negative through a process of "emotional contagion".

In a study with academics from Cornell and the University of California, Facebook filtered users' news feeds – the flow of comments, videos, pictures and web links posted by other people in their social network. One test reduced users' exposure to their friends' "positive emotional content", resulting in fewer positive posts of their own. Another test reduced exposure to "negative emotional content" and the opposite happened.

The study concluded: "Emotions expressed by friends, via online social networks, influence our own moods, constituting, to our knowledge, the first experimental evidence for massive-scale emotional contagion via social networks."

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds

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Who needs Skynet or 666 when we have Zuckerberg's Monster?

June 29, 2014

Am I the only one here who's "just not that into" Twitter?

I have an account, but I almost never check it, and, since setting it up in February of this year, I have tweeted exactly twice: One about Republicretin obstructionism, the other about Chemeybush's long-lasting clusterfuck in Iraq. I'm sorry, but telling people I don't know about my family, my hour-by-hour (or minute-by-minute!) personal activities, the rash I had last week from the new detergent I tried, etc., simply isn't my thing.

On the other hand, I've posted on DU more than 270 times in barely a month here. I tell you, this place is fucking addictive!

June 29, 2014

Iraq 'receives Russian fighter jets' to fight rebels

Source: BBC News

29 June 2014 Last updated at 04:00

Iraq says it has received the first batch of fighter jets it ordered from Russia to help it as it fights an offensive by Sunni rebels. Iraqi security officials said that five second-hand Sukhoi attack aircraft would enter service within a few days, and that more were on their way.

The insurgents control large swathes of the north and west after a string of attacks over the past three weeks.

On Saturday, the government said it had retaken the northern city of Tikrit. State television said 60 militants had been killed and that preparations were now being made to move north towards rebel-held Mosul.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28077273

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Ah, the "free-market" system: We bleed, Russia profits.

June 29, 2014

"They can court-martial me if they want; I'm not going!"

That was my brother-in-law Sam, less than an hour ago. He's back from his second tour in Afghanistan, so I called him to see how he (and my sister Miranda) were doing. The conversation eventually got around to the ongoing clusterfuck in Iraq, and he told me that speculation around Fort Riley (Kansas) has it that Army personnel, regular, not just Special Forces, are going to be sent into Iraq within the next two months.

Practically verbatim, he told me, "Alec,* I don't want any part of this fucking shit. I'm not going into Iraq. Period. If the order comes down, I'm not fucking obeying it. They can court-martial me if they want; I'm not going!"

Now, as I mentioned, this is a guy who's done two tours of duty in Afghanistan. He has FIVE medals. But he knows which side is up!

I told him he had my complete support. Miranda wasn't home, but I hope she backs him, too. He didn't say.



*Sam always calls me Alec, because my (partially!!!) grey hair and beard, according to him, make me look like Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars. Both times he and Miranda have visited me here in Hilo, he has bought me a six-pack of Guinness. Not my brand, but hey, free beer!

June 28, 2014

Censorship: What is it good for?

Whiners!