Thursday, October 31, 2013

TEXAS MAN ARRESTED AND JAILED FOR OVERDUE LIBRARY BOOK

Jory Enck

KFVS12 News

Jory Enck, who checked out a GED study guide in 2010, was placed behind bars last Wednesday after police noticed a warrant for the overdue book during a routine encounter. According to a highly controversial city ordinance, any person who does not respond to calls or emails about an an overdue library book checked out for more than 90 days will be reported to the municipal court.

“The reason they passed it was that they were spending a tremendous amount of money replacing these materials that people just didn’t return,” said Municipal Court Judge Bill Price.
Copperas Cove Police Officer Julie Lehmann confirmed that police would always make an arrest anytime a delinquent reader with a library warrant was encountered during routine stops.
Despite the city’s attempts to justify the ordinance, almost all of Copperas Cove’s residents are adamantly opposed to filling up crowded jails with library patrons.
“Universal hatred, nobody wants to get arrested over a library book. The other side of that is people that go to our library and can’t have these materials, they’re put out too,” Price said.
Copperas Cove is not alone when it comes to using vital city resources to track down rouge card-carrying library members.
Last year, a 4-year-old in Freeport, Pennsylvania was visited by police after failing to promptly return several books including “Sleeping Beauty” and “Dora The Explorer: The Halloween Cat.”
5-year-old in Charlton, Massachusetts was visited by police in 2012 as well, demanding to know why she hadn’t returned several books to the local library, causing the young girl to burst into tears.
A woman in Albuquerque, New Mexico was arrested in front of her five small children last year after police ran her name and saw a warrant from an overdue Twilight book. The woman spent a night in jail over the $36 late fee.

Rebels conduct new chemical weapons attack in Syria near Turkish border



A United Nations (UN) arms expert collects samples on August 29, 2013, as they inspect the site where rockets had fallen in Damascus' eastern Ghouta suburb during an investigation into a suspected chemical weapons strike near the capital (AFP Photo)


The rebels used chemical weapons in north-eastern Syria near the border with Turkey on Tuesday, a Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen reported.
The toxic shell exploded near a Kurdish defense forces’ checkpoint close to the border with Turkey in the city of Ras al-Ayn al-Hasakah.
The attack was reported by Kurdish defense forces who are conducting military operations against the rebels in the region.
They are quoted as saying they saw toxic yellow smoke that followed the shell explosion, while some of them had symptoms of severe chemical intoxication accompanied by nausea.
The reported chemical attack comes amid the second day of fierce fighting in the town.
The Kurdish forces have successfully repelled several attacks by armed groups of extremists of the Nusra Front ( Jabhat al-Nusra), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, killing 28 militants.
This comes as the joint mission of UN international experts and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is in Syria inspecting the sites of the toxic attacks and destroying chemical weaponry.

The joint mission was launched after the US and its allies threatened to apply military action on Syria following the August 21 attack in Damascus’ eastern Ghouta suburb, which killed between dozens and 1,300 people, according to varying reports.

Syria officially became an OPCW member at the beginning of October, in an attempt to resolve the chemical weapons issue in the war-torn country.

Damascus also began destroying the first chemical weapons at that time, which, according to the deal brokered by the US and Russia in September, must be fully eliminated by June 30, 2014. 
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by Moadamiyet al-Sham media centre on August 26, 2013 allegedly shows a United Nations (UN) arms expert measuring and photographing a canister in Damascus' Moadamiyet al-Sham suburb as they investigate an alleged chemical weapons strike in the capital (AFP Photo)

Syrian authorities have declared 23 chemical weapons sites. The joint mission have verified 21 sites, the organization said in a report acquired by AP on Monday.

“The two remaining sites have not been visited due to security reasons,” the report added, suggesting that are in rebel-held areas.

Syria has also declared 41 facilities -  18 chemical weapons production facilities, 12 chemical weapons storage facilities, eight mobile units to fill chemical weapons, and three chemical weapons-related facilities -  at the chemical sites where it stored approximately 1,300 tons of precursors and agents, and over 1,200 unfilled munitions to deliver them.

"In addition, the Syrian authorities have reported finding two cylinders not belonging to them, which are believed to contain chemical weapons," said Ahmet Uzumcu, chief of the global chemical weapons watchdog, in the OPCW report. 
As part of his regional trip, UN –Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has traveled to Damascus in an attempt to gain support for the Geneva-2 peace conference. The talks, aimed at ending the Syrian conflict, were jointly proposed by the US and Russia.

Nineteen Syrian rebel groups announced on Sunday that they would not take part in the peace talks, which are scheduled for the end of November.  

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called threats to undermine the talks “outrageous.”

The main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, recently reiterated its demand for President Bashar Assad to step down as a precondition for the peace conference.

Lavrov has also called on those who have influence on the Syrian opposition to persuade them to attend so that all sides of the conflict can take part in the Geneva-2 conference. 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Goodbye To A Legend: Allen Iverson’s Heartfelt NBA Retirement Speech (Video)





Untitled

After 14 years in the NBA, Allen Iverson has officially retired from the league. Earlier today, the Virgina native gave his official retirement speech from the Wells Fargo Center in Philly. A.I. broke down barriers after first being drafted in ’96 by the Philadelphia 76ers, his style of play, tattoos, attitude, and style of dress were 100% hip-hop and the NBA was not ready for the kid. As someone who grew up in the Philly area, Allen was a f*ckin’ icon. A real local super heroe. I’m shedding a few tears as I watch this.
“I gave everything I had to basketball,” Iverson said at the Wells Fargo Center. “The passion is still there but the desire to play is not. It was a great ride.”
“I promise you it is a happy day for me,” he said. “I thought this day would be a tough day but it’s a happy day.”
 “It wasn’t just about that I didn’t like practice or care about practice or anything like that,” Iverson said. “If I could go back and do it all over again, I would never have done the interview. As far as how I expressed practice, practice, practice over and over again, I wouldn’t take that back. That soundbyte — because it’s great for the media and great for the fans, they love it — but they had no idea my best friend just got killed. They had no idea that press conference wasn’t about practice, it was about me not being traded from Philadelphia. That’s what I thought I was at that podium to talk about.”
“I took an ass kicking for me being me in my career,” Iverson said. “For me looking the way I look and me dressing the way I dress. It was just being me. Now, look around, now all of the guys in the NBA have tattoos. You used to think the suspect was the guy with the cornrows. Now you see the police offers with the cornrows. I took a beating for those type of things and I’m proud to say I changed a lot with this culture and this game.”

72 types of Americans that are considered to be “extremists” and “potential terrorists” in official U.S. government documents.


The groups of people in the list above are considered “problems” that need to be dealt with.  In some of the documents referenced above, members of the military are specifically warned not to have anything to do with such groups.
We are moving into a very dangerous time in American history.  You can now be considered a “potential terrorist” just because of your religious or political beliefs.  Free speech is becoming a thing of the past, and we are rapidly becoming an Orwellian society that is the exact opposite of what our founding fathers intended.
Please pray for the United States of America.  We definitely need it.

Pentagon Spent $5 Billion on Weapons on the Eve of the Shutdown



The Pentagon pumped billions of dollars into contractors' bank accounts on the eve of the U.S. government's shutdown that saw 400,000 Defense Department employees furloughed.
All told, the Pentagon awarded 94 contracts yesterday evening on its annual end-of-the-fiscal-year spending spree, spending more than five billion dollars on everything from robot submarines to Finnish hand grenades and a radar base mounted on an offshore oil platform. To put things in perspective, the Pentagon gave out only 14 contracts on September 3, the first workday of the month.
Here are some of the more interesting purchases from Monday's dollar-dump.

 As of Friday, nearly 48 million Americans receiving food stamps are set to see their benefits reduced.

First up: the Defense Logistics Agency, the Pentagon branch that provides the armed services with things like fuel and spare parts. DLA has the honor of dropping the most cash in one contract last night with the $2.5 billion award it gave to aircraft engine-maker Pratt & Whitney for "various weapons system spare parts" used by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Other highlights of DLA's last-minute spree included: $65 million for military helmets from BAE Systems, $24 million for "traveling wave tubes" to amplify radio signals from Thales, $17 million for liquid nitrogen, $15 million for helium and $19 million on cots. Yes, cots.
Then came the Navy. The sea service spent hundreds of millions of dollars on 31 contracts buying everything from high-tech Finnish hand grenades to janitorial services.
The service's biggest contracts were aimed at protecting ships from underwater attack. It gave Lockheed Martin a total of $139 million for sonar that allows Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to detect submarines and underwater mines. The Navy is also buying $40 million worth of hand grenades made in Vihtavuori, Finland, that allow "users to choose the level of blast needed for the situation." Another $18 million is going to Phoenix International Holdings to operate a robot submarine called the Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System that can save people from disabled subs sitting up to 2,000 feet underwater.
Not everything the Navy spent its end of year cash on was high tech, however. The service also gave $64 million contract to build a new fuel pier in Point Loma, Calif. It also added $9 million onto an existing $138 million contract for janitors at Navy medical centers in San Diego.
.The automatic cut which is scheduled for Nov. 1, as a temporary boost from the 2009 stimulus bill expires, will reduce around $5 billion from federal food-stamp spending over the coming year. 

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) currently costs about $80 billion per year and provides food aid to 14 percent of all US households. 

As of September 2012, 47.7 million Americans were receiving an average of $133 per month in food assistance. Food stamp recipients are mostly children, the elderly and disabled people. 

The Washington Post reported that the number of Americans on food stamps could drop even further as Congress and various states consider further changes to the program. 

According to the newspaper, the House and Senate will resume this week their arguments over a five-year farm bill which includes the food-stamp program. 

The Senate approved a farm bill that would make changes to the food-stamp program, saving $4.5 billion over 10 years. 

But the House bill would remove 3.8 million people from the food-stamp rolls over the upcoming year only and take an additional 1.8 million people per year off food stamps for the next decade. 

It is not clear how many of these cuts will get passed into law nut event if Congress doesn’t pass further cuts some states could act on their own to restrict eligibility. 

In 2013, according to the Post, 44 states qualified for federal waivers that would allow more able-bodied adults to receive food stamps if unemployment in the area was particularly high. Some states are planning to stop asking for waivers. 

Kansas’ waiver is expected to expire at the start of October. That could affect some 20,000 residents. The Oklahoma state, Ohio and Washington are also planning to enact similar restrictions. 

The CEO of the Food Bank for New York City has warned that the cuts would end in riots across the US. Margaret Purvis said that riots always begin when people cannot afford to eat food. 

Illinois Cop Threatens to Arrest Man on Felony Charges for Recording Him in Public



Despite the fact that the Illinois eavesdropping law was determined to be unconstitutional earlier this year, police still continue to threaten citizens with felonies for recording them in public.
The Sycamore police officer was parked on the side of a busy road as the man walked up to him. The cop then stepped out of his car and the man asked him for his name.
The cop, in turn, threatened to arrest him with a felony if he did not stop recording. The man protested but when the cop threatened a second time, he stopped recording.
It is not clear what led up to the exchange, but it apparently involved the man’s father, who possibly was cited for a traffic violation or accident. Just speculating since there are no details in the video’s description.
The statute (720 ILCS 5/14-2) is unconstitutional, see People v. Melongo, 2012 WL 8016610 (Ill. Cir. Ct. July 26, 2012).
"The federal courts have declared the Act unconstitutional, and public officials have conceded the point, announcing publicly that they will not enforce it." Frobe v. Vill. of Lindenhurst, 11 C 1722, 2013 WL 5433512 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 30, 2013).

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Canadians Seek Dick Cheney's Arrest For War Crimes During Upcoming Visit

   dick cheney canada arrest


An international volunteer organization urged Canadian authorities to arrest former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on war crimes charges when he visits the 2013 Toronto Global Forum later this week.
Lawyers Against the War argued in a letter dated Sunday that Toronto Police Chief William Blair and Ontario Attorney General John Gerretsen have a duty to arrest Cheney "as a person suspected on reasonable grounds of authorizing, counseling, aiding, abetting and failing to prevent torture.”
“Once Richard (Dick) Cheney enters Canada … Canada must ensure that Dick Cheney is either investigated and prosecuted for the indictable offence of torture in Canada or extradited to another country willing and able to do so," Lawyers Against the War's Gail Davidson wrote.
The letter contended that Toronto police are legally obligated to arrest Cheney to prevent him from “escaping to the United States.” The organization argued that Canadian law would legally allow authorities to do so:
Torture is also a crime under the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Once Dick Cheney enters Canada, the torture (both the torture he has admitted to authorizing and the torture that he is accused of) are deemed to have been committed in Canada ...
Cheney has said he was "a big supporter" of waterboarding and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects during his vice presidency. He and former President George W. Bush, along with other top Bush administration officials, were convicted in absentia of war crimes last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for torture and cruelty. The verdict was largely symbolic.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, also has accused Cheney of war crimes.
"Waterboarding is a war crime, unwarranted surveillance ... all of which are crimes. I don't care whether the president authorized him to do it or not, they are crimes," Wilkerson said in 2011.
Protesters of Cheney's September 2011 visit to Vancouver kept him locked inside the exclusive Vancouver Club -- where he had been scheduled to speak -- for seven hours before police could evacuate him safely.
Cheney canceled a trip to Toronto in March 2012, citing personal safety concerns.
Read the full Lawyers Against the War letter here.

American Blackout (Full Length) 2000 to 2004 Voter Disenfranchisement

                             
Chronicles the recurring patterns of disenfranchisement witnessed from 2000 to 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who not only took an active role in investigating these election debacles but also found herself in the middle of one after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Starring: Cynthia Mckinney





Got Milk?? $8.00 For a Gallon of Milk as Soon as Next Month!!!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Obama admin. knew millions could not keep their health insurance

   
U.S. President Barack Obama walks out to deliver remarks alongside Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, October 1, 2013.


By Lisa Myers and Hannah Rappleye
NBC News
President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.
Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.”  
None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date -- the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example -- the policy would not be grandfathered.

Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, “40 to 67 percent” of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”  
That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them. 
Yet President Obama, who had promised in 2009, “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan,” was still saying in 2012, “If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”
“This says that when they made the promise, they knew half the people in this market outright couldn’t keep what they had and then they wrote the rules so that others couldn’t make it either,” said  Robert Laszewski, of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a consultant who works for health industry firms. Laszewski estimates that 80 percent of those in the individual market will not be able to keep their current policies and will have to buy insurance that meets requirements of the new law, which generally requires a richer package of benefits than most policies today. 
The White House does not dispute that many in the individual market will lose their current coverage, but argues they will be offered better coverage in its place, and that many will get tax subsidies that would offset any increased costs.
“One of the main goals of the law is to ensure that people have insurance they can rely on – that doesn’t discriminate or charge more based on pre-existing conditions.  The consumers who are getting notices are in plans that do not provide all these protections – but in the vast majority of cases, those same insurers will automatically shift their enrollees to a plan that provides new consumer protections and, for nearly half of individual market enrollees, discounts through premium tax credits,” said White House spokesperson Jessica Santillo.
“Nothing in the Affordable Care Act forces people out of their health plans: The law allows plans that covered people at the time the law was enacted to continue to offer that same coverage to the same enrollees – nothing has changed and that coverage can continue into 2014,” she said.
Heather Goldwater, 38, of South Carolina, says that she received a letter from her insurer saying the company would no longer offer her plan, but hasn't yet received a follow-up letter with a comparable option.
Individual insurance plans with low premiums often lack basic benefits, such as prescription drug coverage, or carry high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. The Affordable Care Act requires all companies to offer more benefits, such as mental health care, and also bars companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions.
Today, White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the president’s promise that consumers would be able to keep their health care. “What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there are going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act to create minimum standards of coverage, minimum services that every insurance plan has to provide,” Carney said. “So it's true that there are existing healthcare plans on the individual market that don't meet those minimum standards and therefore do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act.”
Other experts said that most consumers in the individual market will not be able to keep their policies. Nancy Thompson, senior vice president of CBIZ Benefits, which helps companies manage their employee benefits, says numbers in this market are hard to pin down, but that data from states and carriers suggests “anywhere from 50 to 75 percent” of individual policy holders will get cancellation letters. Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, who chairs the health committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, says that estimate is “probably about right.” She added that a few states are asking insurance companies to cancel and replace policies, rather than just amend them, to avoid confusion.
A spokesman for America's Health Plans says there are no precise numbers on how many will receive cancellations letters or get notices that their current policies don’t meet ACA standards. In both cases, consumers will not be able to keep their current coverage.
Those getting the cancellation letters are often shocked and unhappy.
George Schwab, 62, of North Carolina, said he was "perfectly happy" with his plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield, which also insured his wife for a $228 monthly premium. But this past September, he was surprised to receive a letter saying his policy was no longer available. The "comparable" plan the insurance company offered him carried a $1,208 monthly premium and a $5,500 deductible.
And the best option he’s found on the exchange so far offered a 415 percent jump in premium, to $948 a month.
"The deductible is less," he said, "But the plan doesn't meet my needs. Its unaffordable."
"I'm sitting here looking at this, thinking we ought to just pay the fine and just get insurance when we're sick," Schwab added. "Everybody's worried about whether the website works or not, but that's fixable. That's just the tip of the iceberg. This stuff isn't fixable."

Heather Goldwater, 38, of South Carolina, is raising a new baby while running her own PR firm. She said she received a letter last July from Cigna, her insurance company, that said the company would no longer offer her individual plan, and promised to send a letter by October offering a comparable option. So far, she hasn't received anything.

"I'm completely overwhelmed with a six-month-old and a business,” said Goldwater. “The last thing I can do is spend hours poring over a website that isn't working, trying to wrap my head around this entire health care overhaul."
Goldwater said she supports the new law and is grateful for provisions helping folks like her with pre-existing conditions, but she worries she won’t be able to afford the new insurance, which is expected to cost more because it has more benefits. "I'm jealous of people who have really good health insurance," she said. "It's people like me who are stuck in the middle who are going to get screwed."

Richard Helgren, a Lansing, Mich., retiree, said he was “irate” when he received a letter informing him that his wife Amy's $559 a month health plan was being changed because of the law. The plan the insurer offered raised his deductible from $0 to $2,500, and the company gave him 17 days to decide.
The higher costs spooked him and his wife, who have painstakingly planned for their retirement years. "Every dollar we didn't plan for erodes our standard of living," Helgren said.
Ulltimately, though Helgren opted not to shop through the ACA exchanges, he was able to apply for a good plan with a slightly lower premium through an insurance agent.
He said he never believed President Obama’s promise that people would be able to keep their current plans.
"I heard him only about a thousand times," he said. "I didn't believe him when he said it though because there was just no way that was going to happen. They wrote the regulations so strictly that none of the old polices can grandfather."
For months, Laszewski has warned that some consumers will face sticker shock. He recently got his own notice that he and his wife cannot keep their current policy, which he described as one of the best, so-called "Cadillac" plans offered for 2013. Now, he said, the best comparable plan he found for 2014 has a smaller doctor network, larger out-of-pocket costs, and a 66 percent premium increase.
“Mr. President, I like the coverage I have," Laszweski said. "It is the best health insurance policy you can buy."

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Police perform “simulated drug raid” on 5th graders; child attacked by police dog

Police State USA

A "drug awareness" event turned out to be more of a "police state" conditioning drill for a group of 5th graders.

BRAZIL, IN — Children were subjected to a “simulated raid” of a party so they could witness police searching citizens with dogs and look for reasons to arrest them in a “drug awareness” event.  The idea went from bad to worse when one of the children was attacked by the police dog as it sniffed them for drugs.
This week is apparently “Red Ribbon Awareness week,” in which children across the country are told how important it is to keep up the status quo with drug prohibition.  The Clay County Courthouse set up a police state demonstration for a group of 5th graders which involved a simulated police raid of a party involving searches and seizures using a vicious police dog.
With the goal of “educating the Clay County fifth-graders on drug awareness,” police crashed into a simulated party to search the attendees for narcotics.  The children involved were told to hold very still while they were searched by police and their K-9.
Brazil Police Chief Clint McQueen revealed that police deliberately planted drugs on an 11-year-old boy in order to make the raid appear more realistic.  According to the Brazil Times:
McQueen said a very small amount of illegal drugs were hidden on one of the juveniles to show how the dogs can find even the smallest trace of an illegal substance. He added all this was done “under exclusive control and supervision of members of the court and law enforcement.”
Dog handler, Ray Walters, issued a report that described the event that resulted in his dog attacking the 5th grader’s leg.
“As I got closer to the actors, Max [the dog] began searching the juveniles,” wrote Walters. “The first male juvenile began moving his legs around as Max searched him. When the male began moving his legs, (this is what) I believe prompted Max’s action to bite the male juvenile on the left calf.”
The unnamed boy was transported by ambulance to St. Vincent Clay Hospital for puncture wounds on his leg from where the police K-9′s fangs had ripped his skin open.
If this show of incompetence wasn’t enough, police went forward with one last drill as the young boy was being carted away in an ambulance.  There were 4 “scenarios” carried out that day.
What was pitched as a “drug awareness” event was in reality more of a “police state conditioning” drill.  Young, impressionable kids were subjected to witness first-hand one of America’s most offensive policies: cops crashing into private parties to arrest citizens for possessing a plant or a substance without permission.  The kids were being conditioned to accept that getting searched by police dogs without cause is normal behavior that should be supported.
The prohibitionists’ indoctrination plan may have backfired this time, with the children being taught an unintended lesson: that the police can be more dangerous than the drugs.

Food Fix: US corporations fuel obesity with addictive ingredients




US obesity rate has become a key health concern affecting one in three adults. Some say the phenomenon is a direct result of the tricks food companies use, to get consumers addicted to their products.


Thursday, October 24, 2013

How to Fight and Win against the Corporatocracy | Call to Action

   
 

  

Abby Martin highlights a number of communities around the world that have risked life and limb to force out corporations who are pillaging their land and resources citing cases like Dole in the Philippines and McDonalds in Bolivia.