Puppet MastersS


Dollars

Best of the Web: Wealth inequality in America

politizane
YouTube
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:11 UTC
The following video presents infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.

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V

Best of the Web: We Are Bradley Manning

Chris Hedges
truthdig
Sun, 03 Mar 2013 15:24 UTC
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Bradley Manning, persecuted by the US government to deter other potential whistleblowers from coming forward, anonymously or publicly
I was in a military courtroom at Fort Meade in Maryland on Thursday as Pfc. Bradley Manning admitted giving classified government documents to WikiLeaks. The hundreds of thousands of leaked documents exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as government misconduct. A statement that Manning made to the court was a powerful and moving treatise on the importance of placing conscience above personal safety, the necessity of sacrificing careers and liberty for the public good, and the moral imperative of carrying out acts of defiance. Manning will surely pay with many years - perhaps his entire life - in prison. But we too will pay. The war against Bradley Manning is a war against us all.

This trial is not simply the prosecution of a 25-year-old soldier who had the temerity to report to the outside world the indiscriminate slaughter, war crimes, torture and abuse that are carried out by our government and our occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a concerted effort by the security and surveillance state to extinguish what is left of a free press, one that has the constitutional right to expose crimes by those in power. The lonely individuals who take personal risks so that the public can know the truth - the Daniel Ellsbergs, the Ron Ridenhours, the Deep Throats and the Bradley Mannings - are from now on to be charged with "aiding the enemy." All those within the system who publicly reveal facts that challenge the official narrative will be imprisoned, as was John Kiriakou, the former CIA analyst who for exposing the U.S. government's use of torture began serving a 30-month prison term the day Manning read his statement. There is a word for states that create these kinds of information vacuums: totalitarian.
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Arrow Down

Darpa wants you to transcribe, and instantly recall, all of your conversations

Robert Beckhusen
Wired.com
Mon, 04 Mar 2013 06:30 UTC
US Navy Technicians
© US NavyNavy information technicians aboard the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush on Jan. 17, 2013.
The Pentagon's blue-sky researchers are funding a project that uses crowdsourcing to improve how machines analyze our speech. Even more radical: Darpa wants to make systems so accurate, you'll be able to easily record, transcribe and recall all the conversations you ever have.

Analyzing speech and improving speech-to-text machines has been a hobby horse for Darpa in recent years. But this takes it a step further, in exploring the ways crowdsourcing can make it possible for our speech to be recorded and stored forever. But it's not just about better recordings of what you say. It'll lead to more recorded conversations, quickly transcribed and then stored in perpetuity - like a Twitter feed or e-mail archive for everyday speech. Imagine living in a world where every errant utterance you make is preserved forever.

University of Texas computer scientist Matt Lease has studied crowdsourcing for years, including for an earlier Darpa project called Effective Affordable Reusable Speech-to-text, or EARS, which sought to boost the accuracy of automated transcription machines. His work has also attracted enough attention for Darpa to award him a $300,000 award over two years to study the new project, called "Blending Crowdsourcing with Automation for Fast, Cheap, and Accurate Analysis of Spontaneous Speech." The project envisions a world that is both radically transparent and a little freaky.
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Stop

Palestinian-only buses set off uproar in Israel

Josef Federman
Associated Press
Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:25 UTC
Israel's decision to launch a pair of "Palestinian-only" bus lines in the West Bank on Monday - presented by the government as a goodwill gesture, assailed by critics as racism and welcomed by Palestinian riders - is shining a light on the messy situation created by 45 years of military occupation and Jewish settlements in the area.

While full and formal peace remains distant, the Jewish and Palestinian populations of the West Bank are so intertwined that daily routines are often shaped in mind-boggling ways. Military checkpoints, special permits and different sets of laws are all part of everyday life, and even steps that are well-intentioned, such as the new bus lines, can backfire and spark controversy.

Israeli peace activists condemned the bus lines as racist, while Palestinian riders seemed to like the arrangement. Israeli officials insisted that Palestinians could still ride regular buses if they choose - despite Palestinian claims they are hardly welcomed there by Jewish settlers.
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Snakes in Suits

Washington Republican: Bicycles cause more pollution than cars

Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story
Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:08 UTC
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The ranking Republican member on Washington state's House Transportation Committee thinks that riding bicycles causes more pollution than driving cars, the Seattle Bike Blog reported Saturday.

State Rep. Ed Orcutt (R), pictured, wrote an email to a constituent who disagreed with his support for a new tax on the sales of bicycles, a proposal being considered as part of a larger piece of transportation legislation. Reached by the Seattle Bike Blog, he confirmed the email is real.

In his message, sent to the owner of a bicycle shop, Orcutt wrote: "If I am not mistaken, a cyclists [sic] has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider. Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride."

He added that when citizens drive cars they are helping to pay for the roads, whereas bicyclists "need to start paying for the roads they ride on rather than make motorists pay."
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Bad Guys

Iraqis' death certificates recorded signs of severe mutilation, inquiry hears

Ian Cobain and Richard Norton-Taylor
Guardian
Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:06 UTC
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© Andrew Winning/ReutersJonathan Acton Davis, counsel to the al-Sweady inquiry, said the MoD and the dead Iraqi men's relatives disagreed over how the deaths occurred.
Al-Sweady inquiry into accusations against British troops opens with evidence of alleged signs of torture on prisoners

A public inquiry into allegations that British troops murdered up to 20 unarmed prisoners and tortured five others following a fierce battle with Iraqi insurgents has opened in London with evidence that some of their death certificates recorded what were described as signs of severe mutilation.

Several of the deceased were said to bear signs of torture after their corpses were handed back to their families by British personnel at Camp Abu Naji, while the Iraqi death certificates recorded that one man's penis had been removed and two bodies were missing eyes, the inquiry was told on Monday.

But there is a "stark dispute" between the relatives of the dead men and the Ministry of Defence over the way in which the deaths occurred, said Jonathan Acton Davis QC, counsel to the inquiry.

"The Iraqi witnesses say that the evidence points to there having been a number of Iraqi men having been taken into Camp Abu Naji alive by the British military on 14 May 2004, and who were handed back to their families dead the next day.

"The military say the evidence points to 20 Iraqi dead having been recovered from the battle ... and handed back to the families the next day."

The two sides, said Acton Davis, could not reach agreement even over the number of deceased, or their identities.
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Bizarro Earth

Malaysia: At least 26 dead in ongoing Sabah siege

Charlie Campbell
TIME
Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
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© Bazuki Muhammad / ReutersThe coffins of two Malaysian police commandos who were killed on Friday in the standoff with armed followers of the Sultanate of Sulu.
The three-week standoff involving a band of Filipino rebels who stormed a northern Borneo village has now claimed at least 26 lives. Two Malaysian commandos and a dozen members of the Royal Army of Sulu died in a police raid on the insurgent-held territory on Friday evening, with a further five Malaysian policemen ambushed and killed nearby the next day. Another seven insurgents were reportedly slain in a separate incident on Saturday. While most of the remaining Sulu militants refuse to budge, police fear that some are planning further strikes in the surrounding coastal regions. The turmoil is causing domestic upheaval for the two governments involved; Malaysia has general elections due before the end of June, while Philippine President Benigno Aquino III could face renewed strife on home soil after he appeared to sanction the foreign use of deadly force against his defiant countrymen.

The situation, which was at first greeted with raised eyebrows within the international community, has deteriorated rapidly. On Feb. 9, more than 100 followers of self-professed Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, from the autonomous island province of Sulu in the southwestern Philippines, landed in the Malaysian province of Sabah to press their historic claim to the land. They seized control of the village of Lahad Datu only to be surrounded by the Malaysian security forces. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III appealed for his compatriots to return home peacefully and even sent a navy ship staffed with Filipino-Muslim leaders, social workers and medical personnel to facilitate their withdrawal. However, he finally lost patience with the recalcitrant Sulu insurgents and on Saturday said that they must surrender "without conditions." The rebels had previously snubbed two deadlines to vacate the land.
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Nuke

Iran building 3,000 advanced centrifuges: IAEO chief


Press TV
Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
Fereydoun Abbasi
Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereydoun Abbasi
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereydoun Abbasi says the Islamic Republic is building 3,000 new-generation uranium enrichment centrifuges.

"The [construction of the] final production line of these centrifuges has concluded and the earlier generations of these centrifuges that have a low efficiency will soon be phased out," Abbasi said.

On February 23, Iran said more than 180 second-generation centrifuges had been put in place at its Natanz nuclear facility, and that more 180 IR2M centrifuges would gradually be installed there.The Iranian private sector has successfully designed 360-megawatt nuclear power reactors, Abbasi said on Sunday, adding, "We are ready to cooperate with foreign parties in the construction of power reactors and so far we have had proposals from Russia and some Western countries in this regard."
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Stormtrooper

Air Force pilot's sex assault dismissal sparks cries for reform


Press TV
Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
James Wilkerson
Lt. Col. James Wilkerson speaks as the then 20th Fighter Wing chief of safety at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., Aug. 11, 2008.
An Air Force general's decision to overturn a jury's guilty verdict and reinstate a fighter pilot convicted of sexual assault could prove to be a lightning rod in efforts to legislatively strip commanders of their long-held authority in sexual assault cases, victims' advocates say.

Third Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin's decision to reinstate Lt. Col. James Wilkerson was a stunning example of structural problems in an outdated military justice system rife with bias that discounts victims while emboldening offenders, advocates said.

"It's really shocking," Susan Burke, a lawyer who represents numerous military women in lawsuits against the Defense Department, said of the case.

"It's inexcusable. It's like the poster child for why we need reform. It proves to Congress why they have to act," she said.

Greg Jacob, policy director of the Service Women's Action Network and a former Marine infantry officer, was likewise taken aback.

"It's atrocious. It's infuriating," he said. "It's a perfect example of the due process system being overridden just at the whim of the commander. It's a real travesty of justice.

"Now suddenly he's not guilty? If there's a sexual assault in this guy's unit after he shows up, do you think anyone's going to report it?"

The case has also outraged legislators and is expected to be examined at a congressional hearing later this month.
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Bomb

False flag? At least 45 killed, about 150 injured in twin blasts in Pakistan


RT
Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
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© Reuters / Akhtar SoomroFirefighters spray water to control a fire in a building after a bomb blast in a residential area in Karachi March 3, 2013.
Twin explosions killed at least 45 people and wounded more than 150 in a Shiite Muslim area of Karachi in southern Pakistan, officials said. Nearby apartment buildings caught fire in the bombing.

The cause of the first blast was a remote-detonated improvised explosive device strapped to a motorcycle at the entrance of Abbas Town, following which a CNG cylinder of a car exploded a few minutes later, the Pakistani based newspaper News International reports.

A suicide bomber is suspected to be behind the attack, Reuters quotes police Inspector General Fayyaz Leghari.

"There were two blasts but it was not clear whether the second was also a bomb", Leghari said.

The first explosion was so powerful that it blew off the facades of several flats facing the explosion. Window panes of most surrounding buildings were smashed, even some doors came off hinges, witnesses told the News International newspaper.
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