© Gilbert Mercier.
SOTT
SIGNS
OF THE
TIMES
OF THE
TIMES
Welcome to Sott.net
The World for People who Think
Puppet MastersS
House Republicans introduced legislation yesterday targeting the already-delayed whistleblower rule in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. The proposed change would require corporate whistleblowers to report problems internally before going to financial regulators. The move, backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is just the latest in a series of setbacks for those who favor strengthening whistleblower rules to encourage reporting of wrongdoing within government and businesses.
Whistleblowers were dealt another blow last week when a federal court of appeals ruled that corporate whistleblower protections don't cover leaks to the media. According to the Los Angeles Times, the panel of judges ruled that individuals blowing the whistle on publicly traded companies are protected from retaliation only when they report the wrongdoing to financial regulators - which could discourage future leaks to the media.
Whistleblower groups are also protesting a provision in the Intelligence Authorization Bill that would allow intelligence officials to penalize employees and former employees for disclosure of classified information without needing a conviction to do so. The Government Accountability Project has said that under the proposed law, intelligence officials need only reach a "determination" that a knowing violation occurred.
Whistleblowers were dealt another blow last week when a federal court of appeals ruled that corporate whistleblower protections don't cover leaks to the media. According to the Los Angeles Times, the panel of judges ruled that individuals blowing the whistle on publicly traded companies are protected from retaliation only when they report the wrongdoing to financial regulators - which could discourage future leaks to the media.
Whistleblower groups are also protesting a provision in the Intelligence Authorization Bill that would allow intelligence officials to penalize employees and former employees for disclosure of classified information without needing a conviction to do so. The Government Accountability Project has said that under the proposed law, intelligence officials need only reach a "determination" that a knowing violation occurred.
This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on collectivist top down tyranny running our monetary system. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Eric Sprott about precious metals, the ever increasing margin requirements and the ever decreasing dollar.
Best of the Web: Stunning court decision in Indiana: No right to resist illegal police entry into home
Indianapolis - Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.
In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry.
"We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David said. "We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest."
© GETTYMr Obama has been dubbed the 'texter-in-chief'
President Barack Obama will be able to send any mobile phone in the United States a text message warning of imminent danger, from a terror attack to a natural disaster, under plans announced on Tuesday.
From next year, new phones and other hand-held devices will be required to be fitted with special chips to receive the alerts, which will also be sent by state and local authorities. Users will be able to opt out of every type of alert except those from the president, said the Federal Communications Commission.
The system will include alerts about missing children and will supersede all other phone traffic to avoid delays.
Mr Obama, who has been dubbed the "texter-in-chief" thanks to his devotion to his BlackBerry and heavy use of text messages during his 2008 campaign, may face criticism from libertarians for the compulsory nature of the presidential alerts.
© JAMA
Many legislators in Congress still do not get it! The largest contributing factor in the outrageous cost of prescription drugs is advertising and promotion, estimated to be about 37% of the price we pay for those drugs. More money is spent on lobbying, advertising and promotion by the pharmaceutical industry than is spent on research and development.
The incredible waste of valuable prescription drug resources is appalling. Here's but one example of such waste: There are hundreds of thousands of pharmaceutical company ads that appear in many thousands of magazines and newspapers each year. Most of the major pharmaceutical company ads in magazines usually contain a couple of pages of 'stats' describing the product and its contraindications.
© AFP/General AtomicsUS drones have been frequently used on targets in the Pakistani tribal belt
The attack took place in the Kharkamar area, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Miranshah, a stronghold of the Taliban and militants linked to Al-Qaeda, whose leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan on May 2.
"A US drone fired two missiles targeting a militant vehicle, killing at least three militants," a senior security official told AFP.
It was the fourth such attack reported in Pakistan's tribal badlands on the Afghan border, which Washington has dubbed the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda, since US Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
The new attack coincided with a joint sitting of parliament in Islamabad, where Pakistan's intelligence chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha and army chief of staff Ashfaq Kayani were briefing lawmakers on the bin Laden operation.
© AFP/Getty Images/Tom PenningtonFormer president George W. Bush, pictured in Dallas, Texas on April 12, praised the mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden as a "good call" but said he was "not overjoyed" by the news.
ABC said Bush told an audience this week that he received word that his successor President Barack Obama wanted to talk to him while dining at a restaurant.
"I was eating souffle at Rise Restaurant with Laura and two buddies," Bush said according to an ABC News contributor. "I excused myself and went home to take the call," he added.
"Obama simply said 'Osama Bin Laden is dead.'"
'I heard someone shouting 'Allahu Akbar' ['God is great'] and then I heard a huge blast'
Shabqadar, Pakistan - A pair of suicide bombers attacked recruits leaving a paramilitary training center in Pakistan on Friday, killing 80 people in a strike that the Pakistani Taliban claimed it carried out to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The blasts in the northwest were a reminder of the savagery of al-Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan. They occurred even as the country faces international suspicion that elements within its security forces may have been harboring bin Laden, who was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, about a three hours' drive from the scene of the bombing.
"We have done this to avenge the Abbottabad incident," Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told The Associated Press in a phone call.
Shabqadar, Pakistan - A pair of suicide bombers attacked recruits leaving a paramilitary training center in Pakistan on Friday, killing 80 people in a strike that the Pakistani Taliban claimed it carried out to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The blasts in the northwest were a reminder of the savagery of al-Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan. They occurred even as the country faces international suspicion that elements within its security forces may have been harboring bin Laden, who was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, about a three hours' drive from the scene of the bombing.
"We have done this to avenge the Abbottabad incident," Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told The Associated Press in a phone call.
Connecting the Dots is a new series of short videos about...well, about everything.
This installment is about the death of Bin Laden and other lies. It's everything you need to know about U.S. politics in a song you can sing along to!
This installment is about the death of Bin Laden and other lies. It's everything you need to know about U.S. politics in a song you can sing along to!
