Puppet Masters

Barack Obama slams Republicans for threat to 'blow up entire economy'

Dan Roberts and Dominic Rushe
Guardian
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 18:26 UTC

© Michael Reynolds/Pool/EPA
Barack Obama delivers a statement on the budget, a possible US government shutdown and foreign policy.

President stands firm in confrontation over Obamacare and debt ceiling as government prepares for looming shutdown

President Barack Obama on Friday issued a stark warning over the consequences of the continued stalemate in Congress over funding the federal government, saying US troops face disruption to their pay in the event of a shutdown and castigating his opponents for threatening to "blow up the entire economy".

The president took to the podium for the second time in as many days, to issue his most withering attack yet on House Republicans who will spend this weekend deciding whether to attach new demands to stalled federal spending authorisation.

Obama said he was willing to negotiate over government spending, but would not give in to a laundry list of other demands from Republicans who want to repeal his signature healthcare law and advance other "pet projects" they have otherwise failed to pass. "We're not going to do this under the threat of blowing up the entire economy," Obama said.

NSA employee spied on nine women without detection, internal file shows

Paul Lewis
Guardian
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 18:21 UTC

© Alex Wong/Getty Images
General Keith Alexander said abuse of the NSA's powerful monitoring tools were 'with very rare exception' unintentional mistakes.

Twelve cases of unauthorised surveillance documented in letter from NSA's inspector general to senator Chuck Grassley

A National Security Agency employee was able to secretly intercept the phone calls of nine foreign women for six years without ever being detected by his managers, the agency's internal watchdog has revealed.

The unauthorised abuse of the NSA's surveillance tools only came to light after one of the women, who happened to be a US government employee, told a colleague that she suspected the man - with whom she was having a sexual relationship - was listening to her calls.

The case is among 12 documented in a letter from the NSA's inspector general to a leading member of Congress, who asked for a breakdown of cases in which the agency's powerful surveillance apparatus was deliberately abused by staff. One relates to a member of the US military who, on the first day he gained access to the surveillance system, used it to spy on six email addresses belonging to former girlfriends.

The letter, from Dr George Ellard, only lists cases that were investigated and later "substantiated" by his office. But it raises the possibility that there are many more cases that go undetected. In a quarter of the cases, the NSA only found out about the misconduct after the employee confessed.

The EPA takes an ax to self-sufficiency: Most wood burning stoves will soon be illegal

Daisy Luther
Activist Post
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 17:16 UTC

When you think of that little dream homestead in the woods, what does it include? Probably a well and septic system, a little stream bubbling nearby, a chicken coop, a sunroom for winter growing, and a cozy fire to curl up next to.

When my daughter and I spent a year living in a cabin in the Northwoods of Canada, our wood stove was our lifeline. It was the only source of heat in a place that reached -42 degrees. It was the only way we could cook when our power went out during snow and ice storms (as it did frequently). It was the cozy center of our home, and we survived for an entire frigid winter for less than $800. After that experience I vowed never to live in a home without a wood stove.

If the EPA has its way, however, heating your home self-sufficiently with wood could soon become illegal - or at the very least, insanely expensive.

Who will "punish" us? Photographs and testimony about United States' use of chemical and radiation weapons

Mike Rivage-Seul
OpEdNews
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 10:17 UTC

It is extremely interesting to compare the U.S. response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria and its suppression of evidence of similar weapons use by the U.S. and U.K. in Fallujah in March and November of 2004.

We all know about the U.S. reaction to the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

In the face of denials by the Syrian government, and on evidence that remains secret and other indications provided by photographs, testimonies of eye-witnesses, accusations of the al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels, and deductions derived from consideration of the delivery mechanisms necessary to launch such weapons, the U.S. government was determined to "punish" the al-Assad government for the heinous crime of using chemical weapons.

Such circumstantial evidence was considered more than sufficient for president Obama and secretary of state Kerry.

Mortar shell hits Chinese Embassy in Damascus

Press TV
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 10:34 UTC

Three mortar shells have hit the Syrian capital, Damascus, one of them landing near the Chinese Embassy in the city.

According to a report by China's state news agency, Xinhua, on Monday, the mortar shell damaged the compound's walls and shattered some windows.

The shell, which is said to have fallen about 100 meters from the embassy building, also set fire to two cars and damaged several others.

The report added that a Syrian employee suffered minor injuries in the attack.

Sources said the mortars were launched by foreign-backed militants in Syria probably from the southern suburbs of Damascus.

Comment: First the Saudi/US sponsored jihadists attack the Russian embassy, then a week later they attack the Chinese embassy. Coincidence that both Russia and China have been adamant of a political solution to the crisis?

Italy plunged into chaos as Berlusconi withdraws ministers from coalition

Lizzie Davies
The Guardian
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 02:45 UTC

All five ministers from Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party said on Saturday night they were resigning from Italy's grand coalition government in a dramatic move that plunged the country back into political uncertainty and raised the possibility of fresh elections.

Just days before a senate committee is expected to vote for him to be stripped of his seat following a conviction for tax fraud, Berlusconi said he was withdrawing his support from Enrico Letta's government over an increase in sales tax.

Letta, who has fought to hold the coalition together for five months of tensions and threats, called the move "mad and irresponsible" and said it was based on a "blatant lie". The centre-left prime minister will on Sunday meet the president, Giorgio Napolitano, who is known to be desperate to avoid any return to the polls.

Talks will begin on whether an alternative parliamentary majority can be found to support a new Letta cabinet. He had called last week for the government to be put to a confidence vote, and, although it was unclear whether that would go ahead, the prime minister said on Saturday night: "Everyone will assume their own responsibilities before the country in parliament."

Recovery hype: American capitalism's weapon of mass distraction

Richard Wolff
Guardian
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 21:52 UTC

You don't have to be a Marxist to see how the 1% tries to fool us that we too are sharing in their renewed wealth. But it helps

From President Obama on down, defenders of the status quo insist that the US economy has "recovered" or "is recovering". Some actually see the world that way. They inhabit, imagine they inhabit, or plan to soon inhabit the world of the infamous top 1%. Others simply seek security in life by loyally repeating whatever that 1% is saying.

Here is the "recovery" that they see. The top 1% of income-earners in the US took 19% of the national income in 2012, the largest share since 1928. That 1% also saw their average income rise by 31.4% from the current crisis's low point in 2009, through 2012. The top 1% certainly enjoyed a recovery.

In total contrast, income for the other 99% rose by an average of 0.4% during the same period. Many of those people actually saw their earnings drop. That was not a recovery, not even close. For the vast majority of Americans, the recovery hype is just a weapon of mass distraction.

The economic reality is driven home by this graph from the Wall Street Journal.

US government agencies go on "Use it or Lose it" spending sprees

Joe Randazzo
LongIsland.com
Sun, 29 Sep 2013 13:31 UTC

During last year's "use it or lose it" season, agencies spent more than $45 million in the last week of September.

Washington has entered "use it or lose it" season. It's a time when agencies spend whatever funds are left in their budget or else they will lose the money by October 1.

Last year more than $45 million was spent in the last week of September. If agencies don't spend everything this week they risk their budget being docked by congress next year.

"Use it or lose it" season is not marked on any official government calendars," Senator Tom Coburn said in an interview with the Washington Post. "But in Washington, it is as real as Christmas.

And as lucrative." This week the Department of Veteran Affairs bought $562,000 worth of artwork, and in one day the Agriculture Department spent $144,000 on toner cartridges. The most frivolous amount of spending came from the IRS in 2010. That year the leftover money was spent on shooting an IRS themed Star Trek parody video set on the planet NoTax.

Brazil's bold plan to combat the NSA

Amar Toor
The Verge
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 09:58 UTC

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (left) meets with President Barack Obama at the White House in 2012.

President Dilma Rousseff wants to route internet traffic away from the US, but experts say it will do little to deter American espionage

Revelations about the American government's ongoing electronic surveillance have sent shockwaves across the globe, but few countries have reacted as boldly as Brazil, where lawmakers are currently considering a plan to cut ties - quite literally - with the US.

Earlier this month, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff announced plans to create an undersea fiber-optic cable that would funnel internet traffic between South America and Europe, bypassing the US entirely. Rousseff also urged legislators to pass an amendment that would force Google, Microsoft, and other US web companies to store data for Brazilian users on servers located within Brazil, while the country's postal service has already begun developing an encrypted domestic email system.

The moves come as a direct response to allegations that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been eavesdropping on Rousseff's phone calls and emails, according to classified documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The reports, published earlier this year, have escalated diplomatic tensions between the Obama administration and Rousseff, who yesterday accused the US of violating international law in a scathing speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

Rousseff's proposals rest upon the premise that by routing web traffic away from American soil and keeping data within Brazil, the Brazilian government could more easily control and secure citizens' online information. But experts say the plans would do little to stop the NSA from spying on Brazilian communications, and some worry that they could lead to a more fractured internet.

The prison industrial complex: How Wall Street profits from human misery

Brasscheck TV
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 06:10 UTC

This is not a new problem. We first reported on this way back in 2000. That's 13 years ago.

It's just one of the many ways that the prison industrial complex profits from the VAST US prison population.

When there is money to be made abusing people, an industry will grow up around it and those involved will do everything they can to make it bigger and bigger.

Quote of the Day

The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim: nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences.

- Carroll Quigley

.. .. Clinto-Nulando body count? or, World Heritage Site

Jibrish

Yeah that's nice. Remember to ALWAYS use your smartphone for communication so that you can get categorized and easily tracked (as well as targeted...

Qafsiel

"guys ... when you were a kid, if you have ever stuck your palm into some recently poured sidewalk cement ... then go ahead and hit that subscribe...

life

...suffered an engine malfunction midair while departing from a Los Angeles airport: a malfunction. really. kinda like cnn describing a "mostly...

life

Wonderful bit of the Queen's English there! But, you know... Leicester....

PDX

Puppet Masters

Barack Obama slams Republicans for threat to 'blow up entire economy'

NSA employee spied on nine women without detection, internal file shows

The EPA takes an ax to self-sufficiency: Most wood burning stoves will soon be illegal

Who will "punish" us? Photographs and testimony about United States' use of chemical and radiation weapons

Mortar shell hits Chinese Embassy in Damascus

Italy plunged into chaos as Berlusconi withdraws ministers from coalition

Recovery hype: American capitalism's weapon of mass distraction

US government agencies go on "Use it or Lose it" spending sprees

Brazil's bold plan to combat the NSA

The prison industrial complex: How Wall Street profits from human misery

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