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Smiley

Compliance on chem weapons is 'credit to Assad regime' - Kerry


RT
Mon, 07 Oct 2013 09:47 UTC
Lavrov and Kerry in Bali
© ReutersRussian FM Sergei Lavrov (L) and US counterpart John Kerry meet in Bali, October 7, 2013
The Assad regime in Syria deserves credit for complying with the chemical weapons deal, US Secretary of State John Kerry said after the first high-level meeting with his Russian counterpart since Moscow and Washington agreed on the deal.

Kerry and Russian Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia on Monday morning.

"The process has begun in record time and we are appreciative for the Russian co-operation and obviously for the Syrian compliance," Kerry said.

The Secretary of State also said that the US has agreed with Russia to move towards Syria peace talks as soon as possible.

Lavrov stressed that Russia is satisfied with the process of chemical weapons elimination in Syria, saying that over the last two weeks "Damascus flawlessly cooperated with the international inspectors."

The two parties spoke after the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that they had begun eliminating Syria's chemical weapons, with chemical experts in Syria destroying missile warheads, aerial bombs, and chemical mixing equipment on Sunday.

"I think it's extremely significant that yesterday, Sunday, within a week of the (UN) resolution being passed, some chemical weapons were being destroyed," Kerry stressed. "I think it's a credit to the Assad regime, frankly. It's a good beginning and we welcome a good beginning."
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Stormtrooper

At least 53 killed, over 200 wounded as Egypt protests turn violent


RT
Mon, 07 Oct 2013 09:33 UTC
Cairo protests
© Khaled Kamil/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesEgyptian security forces use tear gas to disperse pro-democracy activists during protests on Oct. 6 in Cairo, Egypt.
Egyptian celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Arab-Israeli War were marred by a fresh wave of violence, with at least 53 people killed and over 200 wounded in clashes between police and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

RT's Arabic team also got caught in the turmoil in Cairo, with producer Ahmad al-Ashqar getting injured in the right leg in Giza's Dokki district.

At least 53 people were killed and 268 others injured across Egypt, AFP cited senior health ministry official Ahmed al-Ansari as saying. At least 45 individuals were killed in Cairo and another five south of the capital, according to the official.

Deputy Interior Minister General Sayed Shafiq told local media that the security situation is now "under control" in Cairo.

At least 423 people were arrested in Cairo and Giza during clashes on Sunday, the country's Interior Ministry said. According to the Ministry's Facebook page, 180 people were detained in Giza, and another 243 people were apprehended in downtown Cairo.
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Eye 1

Former NSA/CIA Chief jokes about putting Edward Snowden on Obama's kill list

Bryan Preston
PJ Media
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 08:58 UTC
Snowden
© The GuardianNSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defence contractor, is seen in this still image taken from video during an interview by The Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong June 6, 2013. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offered asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on July 5, 2013 in defiance of Washington, which is demanding his arrest for divulging details of secret U.S. spy programs.
Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden is making waves today for an off-color joke he recently told.

The retired spymaster was speaking at a Washington Post forum on cyber security recently when he acknowledged that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been nominated for a human rights award. Hayden quipped, "I must admit in my darker moments over the past several months, I'd also thought of nominating Mr. Snowden but it was for a different list."
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Briefcase

Congress 2013: The white man's last tantrum?

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 22:48 UTC
gerrymandering
An example of gerrymandering a congressional district
With the U.S. government shutdown and a threatened credit default, Tea Party Republicans are testing out a new system of national governance in which they get their way - or else. But is this the beginning of a new Jim Crow era of imposed white supremacy or just the white man's last tantrum, asks Robert Parry.

American pundits are missing the bigger point about the Republican shutdown of the U.S. government and the GOP's threatened default on America's credit. The real question is not what policy concessions the Tea Partiers may extract, but rather can a determined right-wing white minority ensure continuation of white supremacy in the United States?

For years, political scientists have been talking about how the demographic changes in the United States are inexorably leading to a Democratic majority, with Hispanics and Asian-Americans joining African-Americans and liberal urban whites to erode the political domains of white conservatives and white racists.

But those predictions have always assumed a consistent commitment to the democratic principle of one person, one vote - and a readiness of Republicans to operate within the traditional standards of democratic governance. But what should now be crystal clear is that those assumptions are faulty.

Instead of accepting the emergence of this more diverse and multi-cultural America, the Right - through the Tea Party-controlled Republicans - has decided to alter the constitutional framework of the United States to guarantee the perpetuation of white supremacy and the acceptance of right-wing policies.

In effect, we are seeing the implementation of a principle enunciated by conservative thinker William F. Buckley in 1957: "The white community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically." Except now the Buckley rule is being applied nationally.
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Vader

Obamacare costing 66,000 jobs in Illinois

Elizabeth Harrington
Washington Free Beacon
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 22:54 UTC
Image
© APA cashier works at a Marshalls in Chicago
The president's health care law is driving down employment in his home state, according to a recent report.

Employers in Illinois are cutting worker hours to avoid costly penalties from Obamacare's employer mandate, where employees in the lowest wage sectors are the hardest hit.

The Illinois Policy Institute studied the three employment sectors - retail, food, and merchandise - whose average hours were closest to 30 hours per week prior to the Affordable Care Act.

The institute found that all three have now dipped below 30 hours per week, the threshold for a full-time worker under the law. Average hours for these sectors had remained steadily above 30 before Obamacare was enacted.
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USA

Park rangers ordered to 'make life difficult' during shutdown


Washington Free Beacon
Sun, 06 Oct 2013 22:40 UTC
Image
National Park Service rangers are being ordered to "make life difficult" during the government shutdown, according to the Washington Times.

After the shutdown began, park police have been barring tourists from a number of popular attractions nationwide, including the WWII memorial. Even privately-owned landmarks, such as Mount Vernon, are being told by the National Park Service to close their doors.
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Eye 1

Obamacare: 'WARNING: No explicit or implicit expectation of privacy'

Elizabeth Harrington
Washington Free Beacon
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 22:33 UTC
Image
User info 'may be intercepted, monitored, recorded ... and disclosed' to government personnel

The Kentucky Obamacare marketplace has no "expectation of privacy," warning its prospective customers that their information can be monitored and shared with government bureaucrats.

When clicking "let's get started" on the state-run health insurance marketplace "kynect," the user is quickly prompted to a "WARNING NOTICE."

"This is a government computer system and is the property of the Commonwealth of Kentucky," it states. "It is for authorized use only regardless of time of day, location or method of access. "

"Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy," the disclaimer reads. "Any or all uses of this system and all files on the system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized state government and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."
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Books

We have been transformed into a pathocracy: Political Ponerology, a must read

Jerry Lobdill
OpEdNews
Sun, 06 Oct 2013 21:58 UTC
Political Ponerology
© © Red Pill Press Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes
I lived through WWII. I remember hearing FDR's "I don't like war, Eleanor doesn't like war" speech on the old Philco console radio with my parents and sister gathered round. We lived in Grand Island, NE then. I recall our victory garden, churning milk to make butter, and the black-outs with Army Air Force war planes flying overhead. I remember driving by the prisoners-of-war prison at Fort Chaffee, Fort Smith, AR and seeing the Germans standing at the fence smoking American cigarettes. I recall the end of the war when I was 7 in Bartlesville, OK.

I also remember the Nuremberg trials and recall wondering how such an evil bunch ever got control over the German people. I never found an answer to that riddle. I wondered if it could happen again, maybe even here.

I recall Goering's shocking statements, "Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship." and "...the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
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USA

Arizona man with leukemia dropped from health insurance because of new Obamacare regulations

Ryan Cummings
abc15.com
Thu, 03 Oct 2013 22:05 UTC
Image
A Fountain Hills man says he may soon have to get another job just to pay for healthcare insurance under the new Affordable Care Act.

Michael Cerpok, is a high school drop-out, one of six kids born to a school teacher, and doesn't come from a wealthy family. He has run two businesses for more than 25 years and says he may have to do more to literally stay alive.

"I've worked hard because I've had to, and I've had to, because cancer runs in my family," says Cerpok, who picked his current health insurance based on that family history. His monthly premium is just about half of his monthly take-home pay.
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Vader

New York Times reporter: Obama admin 'most closed, control-freak administration I've ever covered'

Ed Morrissey
Hot Air
Sat, 05 Oct 2013 19:51 UTC
obama control freak
Remember when the media rushed to talk about transparency in the Barack Obama "Hope and Change" era? Good times, good times. Leonard Downie, who once worked as the executive editor of the Washington Post and wrote a novel about Washington corruption and the Iraq War, finds a bigger and non-fictional problem in the successor to George W. Bush. Downie gives the Post a preview of his report from the Committee to Protect Journalists which outlines the Obama war on reporters and their sources:
"A memo went out from the chief of staff a year ago to White House employees and the intelligence agencies that told people to freeze and retain any e-mail, and presumably phone logs, of communications with me," Sanger said. As a result, longtime sources no longer talk to him. "They tell me: 'David, I love you, but don't e-mail me. Let's don't chat until this blows over.' "

Sanger, who has worked for the Times in Washington for two decades, said, "This is most closed, control-freak administration I've ever covered." Many leak investigations include lie-detector tests for government officials with access to the information at issue. "Reporters are interviewing sources through intermediaries now," Barr told me, "so the sources can truthfully answer on polygraphs that they didn't talk to reporters."

The investigations have been "a kind of slap in the face" for reporters and their sources, said Smith of the Center for Public Integrity. "It means you have to use extraordinary measures for contacts with officials speaking without authorization."
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