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Eye 1

Homeland Security refutes claims of 1.6 billion rounds of ammo, pepper ball guns and riot gear purchases

Connor Adams Sheets
International Business Times
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:03 UTC
Boxes of Bullets
© ReutersThe Department of Homeland Security has refuted a series of conspiracy theories alleging that it is purchasing ammo and riot gear to prepare for mass domestic dissent.
A range of conspiracy theories have arisen over the past year alleging that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking steps to hire a new squad of law enforcement officers and acquire an arsenal of riot gear, pepper spray-spewing guns and as many as 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, as part of a specific plan to quash dissent, monitor public events, and infiltrate peaceful protest groups.

But the DHS denies such claims, saying it has indeed posted solicitations for security and gear contractors but only as part of normal operations or to augment existing programs, and that the conspiracies being floated by certain reporters and bloggers are baseless.

The department's Federal Protective Service posted an Oct. 10 solicitation on the Federal Business Opportunities website seeking a company to fulfill an $75 million to $80 million contract to provide qualified people to serve about 400,000 hours as Protective Service Officers (PSOs) in upstate New York.
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Stock Down

Obama's second-term slide continues


Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Fri, 08 Nov 2013 20:57 UTC
Image
65% Disapprove of his Handling of Economy

Barack Obama has had a difficult year since his reelection victory. His overall job rating stands at 41%, down 14 points since last December. A majority (53%) now disapproves of the way he is handling his job as president.

The latest national poll by the Pew Research Center, conducted Oct. 30-Nov. 6 among 2,003 adults, finds that Obama's second-term job ratings have followed a similar downward trajectory as those of his predecessor, George W. Bush. A year after his reelection, 36% approved of Bush's job performance, down from 48% in December 2004.

In contrast, the two prior presidents who won reelection - Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan - enjoyed positive ratings over the course of the next year. At comparable points in their fifth year in office, 58% approved of Clinton's job performance while Reagan's job rating stood at 62%.

The new survey finds that majorities disapprove of the way Obama is handling four of five issues tested, with terrorism the lone exception (51% approve, 44% disapprove). For every issue, including terrorism, his ratings are lower than they were earlier this year.
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Gear

Best of the Web: JFK assassination: CIA and New York Times are still lying to us

David Talbot
Salon
Sat, 09 Nov 2013 16:18 UTC
Image
© Associated PressPresident John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy arrive at Dallas Airport, Nov. 22, 1963.
Fifty years later, a complicit media still covers up for the security state. We need to reclaim our history.

We'll never know, we'll never know, we'll never know. That's the mocking-bird media refrain this season as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of America's greatest mystery - the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson hijacked a large chunk of her paper's Sunday Book Review to ponder the Kennedy mystery. And after deliberating for page after page on the subject, she could only conclude that there was some "kind of void" at the center of the Kennedy story. Adam Gopnik was even more vaporousin the Nov. 4 issue of the New Yorker, turning the JFK milestone into an occasion for a windy cogitation on regicide as cultural phenomenon. Of course, constantly proclaiming "we'll never know" has become a self-fulfilling prophecy for the American press. It lets the watchdogs off the hook, and excuses their unforgivable failure to actually, you know, investigate the epic crime. When it comes to this deeply troubling American trauma, the highly refined writers of the New Yorker and the elite press would rather muse about the meta-issues than get at the meat.
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Newspaper

British lawmakers: Guardian editor to face lawmakers on Snowden leaks

AP
The Times of India
Sat, 09 Nov 2013 09:26 UTC
Chris Elliott
© The Guardian
LONDON: The editor of the Guardian newspaper will be questioned by British lawmakers over his paper's publication of files leaked by ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The paper confirmed in a statement on Saturday that Alan Rusbridger will appear to testify before Parliament's home affairs select committee next month.

The committee hearing follows warnings from Britain's top three spy chiefs on Thursday that al-Qaida and other terror groups were "rubbing their hands in glee" in the wake of Snowden's leaks.

In an unprecedented public parliamentary hearing, they said that terror groups are trying to switch to more secure means of communication as a result of the revelations.

Rusbridger has defended the newspaper's role, saying its coverage has prompted a debate about the extent of intelligence activities.
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Attention

Maddow: George W. Bush and the apocalyptic cult Jews for Jesus

David Ferguson
The Raw Story
Sat, 09 Nov 2013 12:50 UTC
Maddow on Bush and Jews for Jesus
© Unknown
Friday night on her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow cast a critical eye toward former President George W. Bush's decision to speak at the Messianic Bible Institute, the headquarters of the apocalyptic cult Jews for Jesus.

She compared what we know about Jews for Jesus with evidence of meetings held during the Bush presidency and said that one can only conclude that Bush was trying to bring about the Rapture and the apocalypse in order to hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Mother Jones reported this week that George W. Bush is scheduled to address Jews for Jesus on Nov. 14. The sect is a conservative Christian splinter group that seeks to convert Jews to Christianity in hopes of bringing about the end of the world and the second coming.
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Vader

Psychopaths on the Hill: "Unmanned: America's Drone Wars"

Video by Robert Greenwald
Informationclearinghouse
Wed, 30 Oct 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
One of the most anticipated documentaries on drones, directed and produced by Robert Greenwald, has been released so that audiences worldwide can finally see the US drone program for what it really is. The film takes viewers on a journey through the struggles of Pakistanis who have been affected by the strikes as well as a former USAF drone operator's feelings about what he has done.
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Airplane

Israeli bombers over Syria: Al Qaeda's air force

Prof. James Petras
Global Research
Sun, 10 Nov 2013 04:02 UTC
Israel strikes Syria
© Unknown
Israel has committed repeated acts of war against countries that opposed its Zionist policies of colonization and annexation of Palestinian territory in East Jerusalem and the West Bank . Israeli leaders have secured arms and diplomatic support for their attacks through their Zionist proxies in the United States Congress and the Executive Branch.

The current series of Israeli bombing raids and missile strikes against Syria are designed to strengthen the armed Syrian opposition and Islamist mercenaries seeking to destroy the government in Damascus . Israel intends to sabotage the upcoming round of peace negotiations. The Zionist state does not want a peaceful resolution to the current regional conflict. Its foreign policy depends on perpetual regional wars and political instability. Toward this end, Tel Aviv has the unconditional support of the 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organization and all other Zionist organizations in the US .
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Arrow Down

Spanish royals feel the heat as emails compound fall from grace

Paul Hamilos
The Guardian
Fri, 08 Nov 2013 02:50 UTC
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© Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty ImagesIñaki Urdangarín and his wife, Princess Cristina. A court has impounded 16 properties belonging to the Spanish king's son-in-law in a corruption case that has embarrassed the royal family.
Having seen the British royal family's private affairs splashed across the front pages, and Windsor Castle seriously damaged in a fire, the Queen famously described 1992 as her "annus horribilis".

Over in Spain, her counterpart, Juan Carlos, must be busily scrabbling through the Latin dictionary to find a phrase that goes a step further. "Annus horribilissimus," perhaps.

Things couldn't really get much worse for the once-loved Spanish royals. On Friday, the satirical magazine Mongolia published the latest in a series of emails that have emerged from the royal household, heaping yet more damage on an already tarnished brand.

In them, the king's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarín, is revealed as a rather ungallant character who thinks nothing of mocking his own sister-in-law, reveling in base, sexist humour, and laughing at the expense of his royal relatives.
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Dollars

Debt: The First 5000 Years - David Graeber talks about his book


realecontv.com
Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:28 UTC



There's a lot more than meets the eye here

Debt is a pretty easy concept, right?

You owe somebody something, you pay it back. Simple. It's a moral imperative.

Or is it?

For example, how exactly do you pay your parents back? (Even if they were lousy parent.)

Eighteen years (more or less) of room and board, child care, medical care, one-on-one language instruction etc. etc.

If the market values associated with these things were ever itemized they would be astronomical. Some may actually pay it in one form or another, but very, very few do. Yet life goes on, doesn't it?

Comment: Debt Came Before Money: An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber

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Arrow Down

California was sterilizing its female prisoners as late as 2010

Corey Johnson
The Guardian, UK
Fri, 08 Nov 2013 15:15 UTC

On a lazy Sunday in March 2012, I was headed out to run errands when CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 turned to a broadcast called Eugenics in America. The report recounted the sad history of minorities, prisoners, the poor and the disabled being forcibly sterilized during the early 20th century.

No news there, right? Yet, I was taken aback when the piece focused on California's role. I never knew the Golden State led the nation with nearly 20,000 sterilizations. Nor did I know that Nazi Germany consulted with California's eugenics leaders in the 1930s. I also was surprised that CNN's reporter was unable to get lawmakers in Sacramento to talk about this.

I set out to learn more. Were there any living victims? If so, how many and how could I find them?

Coincidentally, soon afterward, I received a tip that sterilizations may have occurred in California's women's prisons as recently as 2010. The assertion shocked me. It sounded outlandish.
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