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Archived News
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Friday February 13th, 2009
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Hey Kids, Wanna Play Security Checkpoint: The Terrifying Marketing Of Police State Normalcy To Children
posted 02/13/2009, 7:29 PM (Feminist Peace Network)
[Category: Commentary]
When I flew home from Washington, DC after a business trip last week, the TSA agent asked to test my laptop. I politely asked what they were testing for. It was just routine she told me. And she’s right, it has become routine, a much too routine standard operating procedure designed to make us believe that the usurping of our privacy and human rights is normal and necessary if we are to be secure and free.
The obvious irony is that we are not secure and free if government agents have a right to violate our privacy and deny our rights without cause. I considered protesting but I figured that the best outcome of that would be missing my flight, the worst case being detained incommunicado in an undisclosed location. The likelihood of a plausible explanation for this sudden interest in my laptop was undoubtedly nil. In otherwords, whatcha gonna do and TSA knows that.
My youngest son barely has a memory of when you could get on a plane without having to take off your shoes first. He was in 4th grade on Sept. 11, 2001 and within days his school was decked out in American flags and “I Support President Bush” signs appeared everywhere. For him this is normal, the way things are supposed to be. And that is no accident.
What is particularly disturbing about the normalizing of this notion that it is unpatriotic to question measures that supposedly defend us from acts of terror is the use of entertainment to hawk the message. In addition to the Disney-owned ABC’s Homeland Security reality show, there is now a Homeland Se... (more) |
Google cranks up the Consensus Engine
posted 02/13/2009, 7:29 PM (The Register)
[Category: Science/Technology]
Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.
Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that:
The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically ... (more)The significance is simple, a few months ago if you Googled "informationliberation" 250,000 results would be returned. Now if you search it 26,000 25,500 return. - IL |
Still Standing: The Building That Proves WTC 7 Was Imploded
posted 02/13/2009, 7:29 PM (PrisonPlanet)
[Category: Cover-Up/Deceptions]
 New videos of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel fire in Beijing highlight the vivid contrast between the damage it suffered as it was completely consumed by roaring flames, yet remained standing, and the comparative sporadic fires across just 8 floors that led to the complete free fall collapse of WTC 7.
9/11 truth debunkers are in a bind as to how to respond to the Beijing skyscraper fire because of the building’s similarity in size to Building 7 and the gargant... (more) |
The Pirate Bay: 'Political trial of the decade'
posted 02/13/2009, 7:27 PM (TheLocal.se)
[Category: Science/Technology]
 Next week sees the start of the long-awaited Pirate Bay trial. With the eyes of the world on Sweden, Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge argues that there is much more at stake than the future of the site's operators.
The world has changed. Technical developments allow all of us to collect, store and share digitized information on an unimagined scale. The cost of storage, bandwidth and processing power is, for business purposes, essentially zero.
So the world ... (more) |
Unredacted documents reveal prisoners tortured to death
posted 02/13/2009, 7:26 PM (Raw Story)
[Category: Tyranny/Police State]
The American Civil Liberties Union has released previously classified excerpts of a government report on harsh interrogation techniques used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. These previously unreported pages detail repeated use of "abusive" behavior, even to the point of prisoner deaths.
The documents, obtained by the ACLU under a Freedom of Information Act request, contain a report by Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, who was tapped to conduct a comprehensive review of Defe... (more) |
Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash
posted 02/13/2009, 7:25 PM (Associated Press)
[Category: Politics/Corruption]
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.
The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.
In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking million... (more) |
Google is watching
posted 02/13/2009, 7:25 PM (The Boston Globe)
[Category: Big Brother/Orwellian]
'THERE was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment . . . It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time."
That quote from George Orwell's "1984" becomes increasingly prescient in light of developments in eavesdropping, pioneered by Google. Recently the company launched a service called Latitude, which allows consenting users to monitor each other's whereabouts. It's the company's latest snooping tool, the most controversial ... (more) |
27,000 to work on Pentagon's image
posted 02/13/2009, 7:25 PM (Russia Today)
[Category: Politics/Corruption]
 The new Obama Administration is keen to tackle the problem of America's poor international image. This may be why the Pentagon will spend $US 4.7 billion and employ 27,000 staff for recruitment, advertising and public relations this year, an Associated Press investigation has revealed.
Moreover, on Tuesday U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the Pentagon to review its ban on filming the coffins of U.S. soldiers returning from combat zones overseas, which had been imposed s... (more) |
Army to work with 10 New York area schools
posted 02/13/2009, 7:25 PM (Associated Press)
[Category: Tyranny/Police State]
NEW YORK — Students at 10 New York-area high schools will learn skills from the Army under a program coordinated by the Public School Athletic League and a nonprofit organization.
The program is designed to teach student-athletes “life skills” from Army training, according to Academics in Motion, which operates in nine New York City public high schools plus Hillside High School in New Jersey.
“Army recruiters are people with a very solid background in working with y... (more) |
New law to give police access to online exchanges
posted 02/13/2009, 7:24 PM (Globe and Mail)
[Category: Big Brother/Orwellian]
OTTAWA — The Conservative government is preparing sweeping new eavesdropping legislation that will force Internet service providers to let police tap exchanges on their systems - but will likely reignite fear that Big Brother will be monitoring the private conversations of Canadians.
The goal of the move, which would require police to obtain court approval, is to close what has been described as digital "safe havens" for criminals, pedophiles and terrorists because current eavesdr... (more) |
Fed: Americans' net worth hammered by recession
posted 02/13/2009, 7:24 PM (Associated Press)
[Category: Economy]
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Reserve says the recession has cut many Americans' net worth by about 20 percent as the value of homes, stock portfolios and businesses plummet.
The Fed says the average net worth of American households plunged 22.7 percent since the recession began in December 2007 through October, when the report was prepared. The median net worth, or the midpoint between the wealthiest and poorest, fell 17.8 percent.
The Fed report says if the value ... (more) |
Asia cbanks call for new world financial order
posted 02/13/2009, 7:24 PM (Reuters)
[Category: Economy]
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 - Asian central banks called on Saturday for a new framework to regulate global financial markets as the world grapples with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Central bankers from 15 Asian countries also called for exit strategies to be put in place to ensure that temporary measures that have been put in place in response to the global economic crisis did not become permanent.
"The concern was raised that policy measures in s... (more) |
We're raising GM goats to make human breast milk, say Russians
posted 02/13/2009, 7:24 PM (Mail Online)
[Category: Science/Technology]
 Scientists are genetically engineering goats to produce the same milk as a human mother.
They claim the breakthrough will allow babies whose mothers can't feed them to receive all the goodness of breast milk.
Researchers behind the experiments reject fears of Dr Frankenstein-style tinkering with nature.
They say their work will also lead to the development of medicines exploiting the antibiotic qualities of lactoferrin, a protein found in women's mi... (more) |
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