Puppet Masters
A key Hawaii official in the dispute over Barack Obama's birth certificate - who lifted state restrictions to allow the White House to present the document to the public - has died in a plane crash.
Loretta Fuddy, the state health department director, was the only fatality among nine people aboard a Cessna Grand Caravan that went down at about 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday while heading to Honolulu.
© AP
The president of the United States, leader of the free world, standard-bearer for everything upright, good and wholesome about the nation he leads, lost his morality, his dignity and his mind, using the solemn occasion of Nelson Mandela's memorial service Tuesday to act like a hormone-ravaged frat boy on a road trip to a strip bar.
In front of 91 world leaders, the mourning nation of South Africa and Obama's clearly furious wife, Michelle, the president flirted, giggled, whispered like a recalcitrant child and made a damn fool of himself at first sight of Denmark's voluptuously curvy and married prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
Not to be outdone by the president's bad behavior, the Danish hellcat hiked up her skirt to expose long Scandinavian legs covered by nothing more substantial than sheer black stockings.
With Michelle glowering, the world judging and mental fidelity floating into the abyss, the president leaned into the air space of the cross-legged Danish cupcake, who is known in Copenhagen as a fan of America's randy TV show "Sex and the City.'' It was the memorial equivalent of a bodice-ripper.
The health director who approved the release of President Obama's birth certificate has died in a plane crash, Hawaiian officials said Thursday.
Loretta Fuddy died after the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft she was travelling on went down shortly after leaving Kalaupapa Airport at around 3:15 p.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET) on Wednesday.
The other eight people on board were rescued, Richard Schuman, president of Makani Kai Air, told NBC News early Thursday, adding that that there was no indication as to why the plane had crashed.
Fuddy hit the headlines two years ago when she approved a waiver request allowing Obama to access certified copies of his birth certificate, signed by the delivery doctor, Obama's mother and the local registrar. His mother, then 18, signed her name (Stanley) Ann Dunham Obama.
Comment: It is interesting to note that the other 8 people on board were rescued including the pilot - she was the only casualty!
© Security Blogs CNN
U.S. Marine rapid response force deploying to Spain base.
U.S. Marine rapid response force deploying to Spain base.
"They got the notion they were going to come to give me a lobotomy," Roman Tritz, a World War II bomber pilot, told the newspaper in a report published Wednesday. "To hell with them."
Tritz said the orderlies at the veterans hospital pinned him to the floor, and he initially fought them off. A few weeks later, just before his 30th birthday, he was lobotomized.
Besieged by psychologically damaged troops returning from the battlefields of North Africa, Europe and the Pacific, the Veterans Administration performed the brain-altering operation on former servicemen it diagnosed as depressives, psychotics and schizophrenics, and occasionally on people identified as homosexuals, according to the report.
The VA's use of lobotomy, in which doctors severed connections between parts of the brain then thought to control emotions, was known in medical circles in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and is occasionally cited in medical texts. But the VA's practice, never widely publicized, long ago slipped from public view. Even the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says it possesses no records detailing the creation and breadth of its lobotomy program.
The Wall Street Journal's reporting series began with Wednesday's Forgotten Soldiers and included a documentary, archived photos, maps and medical records.
© Sovereignman
Chile - The IMF just dropped another bombshell.
After it recently suggested a "one-off capital levy" - a one-time tax on private wealth as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainability across insolvent countries - it has now called for "revenue-maximizing top income tax rates".
The IMF's team of monkeys has been working around the clock on this one, figuring that developed nations can increase their overall tax revenue by increasing tax rates.
They've singled out the US, suggesting that the US government could maximize its tax revenue by increasing tax brackets to as high as 71%.
Coming from one of the grand wizards of the global financial system, this might be the clearest sign yet that the whole house of cards is dangerously close to being swept away.
Think about it - solvent governments with healthy economies don't go looking to steal 71% of people's wealth. They're raising this point because these governments are desperate. And flat broke.
The ratio of public debt to GDP across advanced economies will reach a historic peak of 110% next year, compared to 75% in 2007.
That's a staggering increase. Most of the 'wealithest' nations in the West now have to borrow money just to pay interest on the money they've already borrowed.
© AFP/Getty Images
Robert Levinson went missing in Iran nearly six years ago. He was revealed to have been working for the CIA.
Robert Levinson went missing in Iran nearly six years ago. He was revealed to have been working for the CIA.
Robert Levinson, a former DEA and FBI employee who gathered intelligence in Latin America for the Central Intelligence Agency after leaving the bureau, was long believed to have flown to an Iranian resort in 2007.
Known as Kish Island, the small Persian Gulf outpost is known to be a place where tourists and international criminals mingle. Levinson then disappeared just days after meeting with an admitted killer, with the US government maintaining all along that his fate was that of a private citizen whose status was unknown.
Yet, in a report published Thursday, the Associated Press revealed that the popular narrative that has pervaded in the media for the last seven years was not entirely true. The White House, FBI, US State Department, and CIA would all learn that Levinson's trip was planned by three CIA analysts who did not follow the proper vetting process or seek approval for the mission from the necessary supervisors.
Levinson was paid to gather intelligence on US foes in South America and was paid by the CIA to gather intelligence on the Iranian government in 2007.
© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva gestures as he arrives at the court in Bangkok on Thursday.
Former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva gestures as he arrives at the court in Bangkok on Thursday.
The indictment comes amid the biggest political upheaval in the country since the 2010 protests and risks further inflaming tensions. Antigovernment protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who served as Mr. Abhisit's deputy at the time, faces similar charges.
Mr. Suthep was due to appear for the indictment session Thursday, but he didn't show up. A public prosecutor told reporters that Mr. Suthep's lawyer had asked the court to postpone Mr. Suthep's appearance to mid-January, which prosecutors were considering. Both men deny the charges against them.
A photo published on the internet by the Naumann Foundation, shows an advisor in the course of Klein's debriefing on the "Thailand Project". On the screen depicting the project, one can read the allegation that a "coup d'état is a necessary evil" - supposedly in a "democratization process"
© Wiki
Abhisit Vejjajiva
Abhisit Vejjajiva
Since today is "judgement day" according to the minority protesters in Thailand who refuse to work with the current elected government and who also refuse to participate in the upcoming emergency elections being held because they took their balls and went home (quit the House seats they occupied (150 out of 500) because they couldn't get their way, I thought I would provide some history to the conflict in order to give readers here a little perspective.
The non-lethal aid includes medicine, vehicles and communications equipment
A US spokesman said it was concerned about reports that Islamist rebels had seized bases belonging to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Fighters from the Islamic Front, a new alliance of rebel groups, ousted FSA-aligned fighters from the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey last week.
The non-lethal aid includes medicine, vehicles and communications equipment.
Comment: A sincere apology is not likely forthcoming. Obama, along with other global political leaders is probably a psychopath:
"First described systematically by Medical College of Georgia psychiatrist Hervey M. Cleckley in 1941, psychopathy consists of a specific set of personality traits and behaviors. Superficially charming, psychopaths tend to make a good first impression on others and often strike observers as remarkably normal. Yet they are self-centered, dishonest and undependable, and at times they engage in irresponsible behavior for no apparent reason other than the sheer fun of it. Largely devoid of guilt, empathy and love, they have casual and callous interpersonal and romantic relationships. Psychopaths routinely offer excuses for their reckless and often outrageous actions, placing blame on others instead. They rarely learn from their mistakes or benefit from negative feedback, and they have difficulty inhibiting their impulses."
You can learn more here: What "Psychopath" Means; It is not quite what you may think