Puppet MastersS


Bulb

Patriot Act architect: No more spying unless my NSA reform bill passes

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© JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner warned government officials that they risk losing all spying authorization next year if his Freedom Act doesn't pass Congress.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner sent another warning shot Tuesday to members of the intelligence community that they risk losing all congressional authority for the National Security Agency's collection of bulk telephone records if his bill restricting the program is not passed.

Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, told Deputy Attorney General James Cole during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that Congress will not reauthorize Section 215 of the post-9/11 Patriot Act before it sunsets on June 1, 2015, if substantial reforms to government surveillance are not adopted by then. The NSA derives much of its surveillance power from that section of the law. He added that Congress would never have passed or twice reauthorized the Patriot Act, which he authored, had it known the full breadth of the NSA's surveillance muscle.

"Unless Section 215 gets fixed, you, Mr. Cole, and the intelligence community will get absolutely nothing, because I am confident there are not the votes in this Congress to reauthorize it," Sensenbrenner said. "And I can say that without qualification."

Cole refused to offer a position on the bill when pressed by Sensenbrenner, noting that the Justice Department held no stance on NSA legislation pending in Congress.

Smoking

Junk Science: Hundreds of U.K. "health experts" call for smoking ban in cars carrying children

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© AlamyIn a letter to the British Medical Journal, respiratory experts said second-hand smoke was a “major cause of ill health in children”
Around 700 doctors, nurses and other health experts have called on the Government to ban smoking in cars carrying children ahead of a Commons vote on Monday.

In a letter to the British Medical Journal, respiratory experts said second-hand smoke was a "major cause of ill health in children", damaging the lungs, causing sudden infant death and leading to thousands of hospital trips a year.

They claimed those objecting to a change in the law assumed there was a "right to force children to breathe tobacco smoke". Objectors "seem to value this more highly than the children's right to breathe clean air", they added.


Comment: Good luck with that. Open your car window in any city and you'll breathe in much worse than cigarette smoke. Once again so-called "experts" show a profound lack of critical thinking as they push their agenda further and further.


Comment: Some more links to enjoy!
Smokers' lungs used in half of transplants: Improves Survival Rate!
Smoking Does Not Cause Lung Cancer
Smoking Does Not Cause Lung Cancer (According to WHO/CDC Data)
Air pollution causes lung cancer in non-smokers (erm, can't it cause it in smokers too then?)
Government Suppresses Major Public Health Report
Air pollution leading cause of cancer, World Health Organisation warns
5 Health Benefits of Smoking
'World No Tobacco Day'? Let's All Light Up!


Magnify

Propaganda exposed: Fake images in Ukraine

Naked man in Ukraine
© UnknownFalse flag exposed
The images of a naked Ukrainian prisoner in the snow, surrounded by police forces taunting him, have been spread around the world. They show the brutality of the regime that the glorious activists of Maidan Square are trying to overthrow.

There is only one problem: at the end of the footage, Andrei Dubrovik can be spotted wearing a uniform. Yet, Mr. Dubrovik had left the Ministry of the Interior some time back to step in as security chief of the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" (Batkivshchyna) led by oligarch Yulia Tymoshenko.
Andrei Dubrovik
© UnknownAndrei Dubrovik
According to Vremia, this propaganda film was created by television producer Andriy Kozhemyakin, who is also on Mrs. Tymochenko's payroll [1].


Comment: It appears as though the propaganda is getting exposed, but to the rulers it doesn't matter, because the images and videos have already been viewed and believed the world over. Only few will ever discover that it was all just propaganda. Just like the chemical attack in Syria, which was blamed on the Syrian government and turned out to have been perpetrated by the Western armed terrorists.


Newspaper

Climate scientist's lawsuit could wipe out conservative National Review magazine

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© GuardianJunk scientist Michael Mann
The National Review magazine, longstanding house news organ of the establishment right, is facing a lawsuit that could shutter the publication permanently. According to The Week, a suit by a climate scientist threatens to bankrupt the already financially shaky publication and its website, the National Review Online (NRO).

Scientist Michael Mann is suing the Review over statements made by Canadian right-wing polemicist and occasional radio stand-in for Rush Limbaugh, Mark Steyn. Steyn was writing on the topic of climate change when he accused Mann of falsifying data and perpetuating intellectual fraud through his research.

Steyn went on to quote paid anti-climate science operative Rand Simberg - an employee of the right-wing think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute - who compared Mann to Penn State's convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky.

Mann, Simberg said, is "the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data."

Mann sued for defamation. Steyn and the Review vowed to fight the suit, given that defamation is notoriously difficult to prove in court.

"My advice to poor Michael is to go away and bother someone else," said Review editor Rich Lowry. "If he doesn't have the good sense to do that, we look forward to teaching him a thing or two about the law and about how free debate works in a free country."

Comment: More on Climategate junk scientist Michael Mann:

Dr. Michael Mann's dishonest political messaging
Yes, Virginia, A Climate Cover-Up
Climategate: Michael Mann's very unhappy New Year
Climategate Junk Scientist Michael Mann Awarded Half a Million in Stimulus Cash


Stop

What about apologizing to Ukraine, Mrs. Nuland?

Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey R. Pyatt on the Maidan square.
© UnknownVictoria Nuland and Geoffrey R. Pyatt on the Maidan square, Kiev, Ukraine.
Yesterday's leak of the flagrant telephone talk between the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt has already hit the international media headlines. In short, it turned out that the US officials were coordinating their actions on how to install a puppet government in Ukraine.

In this flagrant telephone talk between the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt agreed to nominate Bat'kyvshchina Party leader Arseniy Yatseniuk as Deputy Prime Minister, to bench Udar Party leader Vitaly Klitschko off the game for a while and to discredit neo-Nazi Svoboda party chief Oleh Tiahnybok as "Yanukovych's project". Then Mrs. Nuland informed the US Ambassador that the Washington's hand by the UN Secretary General, Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman had already instructed Ban Ki-moon to send his special envoy to Kyiv this week "to glue the things". Touching the European role in managing Ukraine's political crisis, she was matchlessly elegant: "Fuck the EU".


Comment: Full video and transcript of the conversation follows below in this article.


Comment: See also:
"F**k The EU" - U.S. State department blasts Europe; revealed as alleged mastermind behind Ukraine unrest
'Nuland apologized, but didn't mention US plans to midwife a new govt in Ukraine'
US will give money to Ukraine if Kiev makes necessary reforms - Nuland
China backs Russia over Ukraine


People 2

China backs Russia over Ukraine

Putin and Xi
© Unknown
The visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Sochi attend the inaugural ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics is invested with political symbolism. It is an expression of solidarity with Russia and with President Vladimir Putin in particular. In the event, Xi's meeting with Putin at Sochi on Thursday turned out to be substantive.

The Kremlin readout brings out that the meeting was marked by exceptional warmth. Putin disclosed that he will be meeting Xi on five occasions this year, which would include two visits to China. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov highlighted that Xi took a common stand with Putin with regard to Ukraine. In Peskov's words, "The sides aired much criticism of outside interference.

Both parties have emphasized the unacceptability of any interference from the outside in what is happening and a very serious condemnation of such interference has been voiced." This amounts to Beijing supporting Moscow's concerns over the Ukraine situation. It is a big Chinese move, considering that it is not a Eurasian power and it implies Beijing's censuring of the European Union and the US whose officials have been visiting Ukraine and openly encouraging anti-government protests.

Evil Rays

US will give US tax-payer's money to Ukraine if Kiev makes necessary reforms - Nuland

Victoria Nuland in Kiev
© AFP Photo/Andrew KravchenkoA handout picture released on December 10, 2013 by Ukrainian Union Opposition press services hows US Assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland (R) distributing cakes to protesters on the Independence Square in Kiev on December 10, 2013.
The United States is ready to provide financial support to Ukraine if the country implements the necessary political reforms, senior US diplomat Victoria Nuland said.

"We have had extensive discussions at all meetings concerning support from the international community, including the United States," Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs said at a press conference in Kiev on Friday.

"[The United States] is ready to support Ukraine if the will quickly move towards the path of protecting human rights, dignity, a de-escalation of the conflict, and political reforms."

Nuland's offer of support follows the leak of an apparently bugged phone conversation in which the senior US diplomat had choice words for the EU's mediation efforts in Ukraine.

On Thursday, a four-minute video - titled 'Maidan puppets,' referring to Independence Square in Ukraine's capital - was reported in the Kiev Post. In the clip, Nuland is allegedly heard saying "f**k the EU" while speaking with the American Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyat on how to end the crisis in Ukraine.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment on the tape's contents, but did not deny its authenticity.

"I did not say it was not authentic," she said, adding that Nuland had apologized to her EU counterparts for the reported comments.


Comment: The US has been very obvious in their support of the protests and riots in Ukraine. Divide and conquer is the strategy.


Comment: The comments from Nuland makes it clear how involved the US is in regime change in Ukraine and how they view the leaders of the "riots" as mere usefull idiots. Referring to them as "Klitch," "Yatsy" and "Tiny Bock", says it all.

"F**k The EU" - U.S. State department blasts Europe; revealed as alleged mastermind behind Ukraine unrest
'Nuland apologized, but didn't mention US plans to midwife a new govt in Ukraine'


Cookie

'Nuland apologized, but didn't mention US plans to midwife a new govt in Ukraine'

Unrest in Ukraine
© AFP Photo / Aris MessinisFebruary 6, 2014.
So long as the US and the EU are united in efforts to replace the government in Kiev, they will tolerate internal spats, Nebojsa Malic, foreign policy expert, told RT.

RT: The EU is one of the most powerful political bloc's in the world. Are we likely to see thestatements attributed to Nuland damaging relations with Washington?

Nebojsa Malic: Honestly, if I were the EU official, I would demand an apology but considering that they are on the same page with the US government, considering setting up a client regime in Ukraine, I'm inclined to believe that Brussels and various officials there, including commissars including Baroness Catherine Ashton, would tend to gloss over it. Again it's not necessarily what is done but who does it to whom. And so long as they are united in efforts to replace the government in Kiev with somebody more obedient, they'll tolerate internal spats. Honesty, even the US wiretapping of the EU officials hasn't done really much to damage relations despite obvious problems with it. I would hold my breath to see the Europeans cleave away from the US on this. On the other hand, it's very ironic that the US efforts are being effectively undone by the wiretapped phone conversation.

RT: Nuland apologized to her European counterparts, before the State Department tried to laugh it off. Do you think it goes a little deeper than that?

NM: She has apologized for a comment that she is not admitting she made, which is itself a conformation that the comment was indeed made. But what she hasn't apologized for is the plans to midwife a new government in Ukraine. In other words, she is apologizing for cussing out the EU but she is not apologizing for trying to overthrow the government in Kiev, calling it popular democracy. Obviously there is more to it than that. I don't think anyone in the US establishment feels sorry for what they are trying to do, I think they are very proud of it and they are going to pursue it.

RT: Where do you think the recording came from?

NM: That I honestly don't know. I'm as stumped as you are. I think it's most ironic that the US which is collecting everybody's phone conversations and has been for years had the tables turned in such a fashion, but how the phone conversation came to light I have no idea.

Comment: "F**k The EU" - U.S. State department blasts Europe; revealed as alleged mastermind behind Ukraine unrest


Bizarro Earth

Hysterical Australian government ignores science to cull vulnerable sharks

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© Theron Kirkman/EPAProtesters gather to rally against Western Australia's shark culling policy at Cottesloe Beach in Perth.
Where Russian premier Vladimir Putin totes a high-powered rifle, Western Australian premier Colin Barnett totes a giant barbed hook. One is to bears as the other is to sharks.

Playing up the ancient fear of monsters of the deep, Barnett responded to a series of fatal shark attacks last year by setting up drums trailing chains with baited hooks to catch, shoot and dump sharks of more than three metres length out at sea. The federal minister for the environment Greg Hunt gave Barnett a special exemption to ignore the national protected status of the great white shark.

The great white is the monster of the deep. It is found in all the earth's oceans, lives for 30 years or more, grows to six metres in length and more than two tonnes in weight, and feeds primarily on fish. It has no more trouble cruising from Australia to South Africa and back than it does returning year after year to its favoured seal colony when the seal pups are leaving the land to begin feeding in the sea - this has proven a dangerous place to be for people in wetsuits.

USA

"F**k The EU" - U.S. State department blasts Europe; revealed as alleged mastermind behind Ukraine unrest

Ms Nuland
Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs and wife of Robert Kagan, infamous for dismissing the European Union's concerns over Ukraine. "F*ck the EU!"
A leaked recording of a telephone conversation allegedly between US assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland and the US envoy to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt discussing who should be in Ukraine's next government has, according to The FT, threatened to fuel east-west tensions over the troubled nation's future. In apparent frustration with the EU - which has failed to join the US in threatening sanctions against Ukraine's leaders if they violently crush the protests - the voice resembling Ms Nuland at one point exclaims "Fuck the EU". As the two US diplomats decide whether "Klitsch" or "Yats" should be 'in' or 'out', listeners will be reminded (uncomfortably) that the governments of Ukraine and Russia previously alleged that the protests are being funded and orchestrated by the US.

The authenticity of the recording has not been confirmed (though comparisons to Nuland's recent media appearances provide some confidence) - the FT reported that the US embassy in Kiev declined to comment, which is a tacit admission: if the clip was a fake, the US would immediately make it clear.

Needless to say, as the FT adds, "[this clip] could also bolster a propaganda campaign by the governments of Ukraine and Russia alleging that the protests that erupted against Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich last November are being funded and orchestrated by the US." Its release ahead of the day the Sochi Olympics start is also somewhat disturbing.

An excerpt on the US meddling...