Puppet MastersS


Dollar

Best of the Web: Behind the Curtain: Romney Caught Expressing His Thinking on Secret Video from Fundraiser


During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could triumph in November, Romney replied:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what...These are people who pay no income tax.

Bizarro Earth

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Predicts U.S. War with Iran in Early 2013

Martin Indyk
© AFP Photo / Karim JaafarMartin Indyk, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel
The former US Ambassador to Israel predicts that war between with Iran is likely to occur in early 2013.Martin Indyk, the former Ambassador, said there may be about six months left to negotiate a solution that would avoid war - but he thinks this is unlikely. Joining a roundtable of foreign policy experts to discuss the latest Middle East protests and Israel's concern over Iran, Indyk's predictions were dire.

"There is still time, perhaps six months, even by Prime Minister Netanyahu's own time table to try to see if a negotiated solution can be worked out," he said on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday. "I'm pessimistic about that. If that doesn't work out - and we need to make every effort, exhaust every chance that it does work - then I am afraid that 2013 is going to be a year in which we're going to have a military confrontation with Iran."

While Indyk said that Iran does not have nuclear weapons at this point, it is only a matter of time before the US will need to take military action.

Comment: When will we see that needed 'red line' drawn for the U.S. and Israeli governments?


Arrow Up

France to Maintain Ban on GMO Crops

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© clatl.comFrance banned Monsanto's MON810 maize cultivation in 2008.
France is to maintain a temporary ban on the cultivation of genetically modified crops, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Saturday, dealing a blow to farmers and seed companies who say the move is unjustified and economically harmful.

The ban, which targets Monsanto's MON810 maize, the only genetically modified organism (GMO) currently allowed in Europe, was introduced in March after a previous moratorium was annulled by France's top court last November.

"The government is keeping its moratorium on the cultivation of GMO seeds currently authorized in the European Union," Ayrault told an environmental conference in Paris.

Question

Benghazi Demonstration: He says, She Says, Who Says?

Benghazi
© FOX NewsLibyan guard stands watch at U.S. Consulate in Benghazi
An intelligence source on the ground in Libya told Fox News that there was no demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi prior to last week's attack -- challenging the Obama administration's claims that the assault grew out of a "spontaneous" protest against an anti-Islam film.

"There was no protest and the attacks were not spontaneous," the source said, adding the attack "was planning and had nothing to do with the movie."

The source said the assault came with no warning at about 9:35 p.m. local time, and included fire from more than two locations. The assault included RPG's and mortar fire, the source said, and consisted of two waves.

The account backs up claims by a purported Libyan security guard who told McClatchy Newspapers late last week that the area was quiet before the attack.

"There wasn't a single ant outside," the unnamed guard, who was being treated in a hospital, said in the interview.

Chess

Media Circus Surprise!: Fox News Critical of Republican Mitt Romney

Romney
While Fox News still can't seem to say enough bad things about President Obama, they haven't exactly been uncritical of Mitt Romney lately. In fact, the criticism of Romney has been downright jaw-dropping considering where it's come from.

On today's Fox News Sunday, the panel was unanimously critical of Romney, including host Chris Wallace, an obvious Romney supporter - or at least he plays one on TV. Yet, as the panel criticized Romney for not being clear enough on what actual policy alternatives he'd enact and not discussing Afghanistan during the convention, Wallace noted that Romney is "losing ground," "not campaigning with a bold agenda" and asked - with obvious disapproval - why Romney had "absolutely no plans" to give a major foreign policy speech before the debates.

Bad Guys

Protecting your right to free speech - as long as you're 'one of us' that is.

Hillary Clinton
© Alex Brandon/AP Secretary of state Hillary Clinton speaks about the anti-US protests happening in the Middle East.
Nothing tests one's intellectual honesty and ability to apply principles consistently more than free speech controversies. It is exceedingly easy to invoke free speech values in defense of political views you like. It is exceedingly difficult to invoke them in defense of views you loathe. But the true test for determining the authenticity of one's belief in free speech is whether one does the latter, not the former.

The anti-US protests sweeping the Muslim world have presented a perfect challenge to test the free speech convictions of both the American right and the Democratic party version of the left. Neither is faring particularly well.

Cut

Billions to be Automatically Slashed From U.S. Budgets

Budget Puzzle
© St. Anthony's San FranciscoIf politicians can't agree on the U.S. budget for 2013, an automatic budget with large mandatory cuts drops into place.
Cuts will affect startups, universities, and various government labs

Whether you're developing a cure for cancer, or dreaming up solutions to put a human on Mars, there's a chance that you could be out of a job next year.

Laptop

US Role In Cyber War With Iran May Be Larger Than Suspected

Cyber War
© Photos.com
Earlier this year, the Iranian nuclear program was attacked by a powerful and targeted form of cyber weaponry known as the Stuxnet Trojan. Then in May, a cyber-surveillance tool called Flame was uncovered and was later called "the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed" by researchers at Kaspersky Labs.

It was later discovered that US military and intelligence agencies - including the CIA and NSA - had worked together with the Israeli military to craft this malicious software in an attempt to impede Iran's nuclear plans.

Today, Reuters reports that researchers have discovered three more computer viruses in the wild which were developed by the US military possibly for purposes of espionage and cyber warfare.

These new findings are another indication that the US government plans to continue its pursuit of cyber warfare as an extension of national security, particularly where matters in the Middle East are concerned.

Researchers from both Symantec Corp and Kaspersky Labs have say that they've found evidence indicating that those behind the Flame project have also collaborated on at least three other pieces of malware which, though identified, have not yet been classified.

These researchers found this information as the result of intensive forensic investigation of the control servers used in Flame. These servers were hidden to appear as publishing platforms for a service called "Newsforyou." Later, the servers were programmed to erase any digital footprint that it may have left behind, making tracing this tool extremely difficult.

According to the Kaspersky Labs blog post, the creators of this malware designed the UI to look as bland and boring as possible, so as to make it appear "generic and unpretentious."

Handcuffs

White House Demands Military Prisons for Americans Under NDAA

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The White House has asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals to place an emergency stay on a ruling made last week by a federal judge so that the president's power to indefinitely detain Americans without charge is reaffirmed immediately.

On Wednesday, September 12, US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest made permanent a temporary injunction she issued in May that bars the federal government from abiding by the indefinite detention provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA. Judge Forrest ruled that a clause that gives the government the power to arrest US citizens suspected of maintaining alliances with terrorists and hold them without due process violated the Constitution and that the White House would be stripped of that ability immediately.

Only hours after Judge Forrest issued last week's ruling, the Obama administration threatened to appeal the decision, and on Monday morning they followed through.

Vader

Protecting Americans from the encroachment of true democracy: Mass arrests of Occupy Wall Street protesters on one-year anniversary of movement's birth

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© Julie Dermansky/Corbis"Sir, we are confiscating your sign because it is illegal to think and promote certain thoughts and ideas in this country." NYPD Blueshirts confiscate an illegal banner during an illegal protest, before arresting the protesters who were carrying it on Broadway.
Police in New York have made "multiple" arrests during marches and protests ushering in the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Around 300 people were estimated to have taken part in a rally Saturday, which saw activists head towards Zuccotti Park - the lower Manhattan site which served as base camp for months of demonstration.

It was part of three days of action celebrating the anti-capitalist movement, which burst into life a year ago but has long since seen its momentum wane.

The main anniversary event will take place on Monday, when activists are expected to attempt to surround the New York Stock Exchange and disrupt morning rush hour traffic in Manhattan's financial district.