Society's ChildS


Bullseye

Alabama closes DMV offices after mandating photo IDs for voting -- ACLU to sue for discrimination

Andrea Germanos
Common Dreams
Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:38 UTC
voting
Some observers say that Alabama's move to close dozens of drivers license offices is a discriminatory move that could trigger a civil rights probe.

Here's why: in 2011 lawmakers approved a voter ID law requiring a government-issued ID to vote, and the 31 offices the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency set for closing—which the agency said was due to the $11 million cut in the new General Fund appropriation—will take a disproportionate hit on counties that are majority African-American.

Columnist John Archibald writes that "Alabama just took a giant step backward."

"Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one," he continues, writing that the state "might as well just send an invitation to the Justice Department."
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Quenelle

Woman flipped off vengeful mayor, so he had a SWAT team raid her house

John Vibes
Activist Post
Sun, 04 Oct 2015 15:25 UTC
Image
Tina Warren has been fighting her local government over rising water bills, leaving her at odds with the town's mayor, Bill Kirkpatrick. Warren has been running a number of campaigns against his policies, and she has even been flipping the mayor the middle finger every time she sees him.

Tina's local activism made her a target for the local police, who pulled her over several times, reportedly demanding that she stop a petition drive that she was organizing about water bills.

According to Warren, her house was also raided and searched for drugs on Kirkpatrick's orders. Now she is filing a harassment lawsuit against the city, stating that the mayor and the local police colluded to intimidate her and prevent her activism.
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Bad Guys

Anti-Muslim hysteria: Canadian conservatives encourage the public to report 'barbaric cultural practices', vow to set up a hotline

The Guardian
Mint Press News
Sat, 03 Oct 2015 15:46 UTC
Pledge comes on the heels of a surge in opinion polls based on a hardline stance against a woman donning her Muslim headwear during a citizenship ceremony.
Stephen Harper
© AP Photo/, Darren CalabresePrime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday, March 4, 2015.
Canada's ruling Conservatives have pledged to set up a police hotline to report what it called "barbaric cultural practices", as it sought to capitalize on a hardline stance which has helped it gain in the polls.

The new pledge follows a string of opinion polls showing that the incumbent party's hard line against Muslim headwear - refusing to permit a new immigrant the right to wear a veil during a ceremony affirming their citizenship - has helped lift it from third to first place in the drawn-out election campaign.

"We need to stand up for our values," said immigration minister Chris Alexander, as he announced the new initiative on Friday. "We need to do that in citizenship ceremonies. We need to do that to protect women and girls from forced marriage and other barbaric practices."


Comment: Canada Bans Burqas and Niqab Veils at Citizenship Ceremonies

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Handcuffs

London: Single mother sentenced to 3.5 years for killing her pedophile neighbor


BBC News
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 14:40 UTC
Sarah Sands
© Met PoliceSarah Sands was found guilty of the manslaughter by reason of loss of control.
A woman has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for killing a man charged with sexually assaulting young boys on the east London estate where they lived.

Sarah Sands, 32, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Michael Pleasted, 77, by reason of loss of control.

Pleasted, who had previous convictions, was on bail awaiting trial when he was killed at his flat in east London.

He was stabbed eight times and bled to death, the Old Bailey heard.

Comment: What can be said in a case like this? Pleasted will certainly not be missed, though Sand's children will surely miss her while she's away.

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Arrow Up

Over half of EU member states asking to opt-out of GMO crops


Common Dreams
Fri, 02 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
opt out GMO
© European Parliament/flickr/ccThe majority of EU governments are "rejecting the Commission's drive for GM crop approvals," Greenpeace EU said.
On the eve of the European Union's deadline for member states and territories to declare their stance on allowing or banning genetically modified (GM or GMO) crops, more than half of EU countries are asking to opt out—a total of 15 out of 28 members, according to the latest count by the European Commission.

The governments, including those of Germany and Scotland, are utilizing new EU rules which allow member states to send territorial exclusion requests to agrochemical manufacturers like Dow, Monsanto, Syngenta, and Pioneer—even if their crops snag wider EU approval.

As of October 2, the list of members opting out also includes Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Belgium's Wallonia region, and Wales and Northern Ireland in the UK.

By invoking those rights, Greenpeace EU food policy director Franziska Achterberg said, the majority of EU governments are "rejecting the Commission's drive for GM crop approvals."

Comment:

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Stock Down

Yes, we're in a financial crisis: 11 TRILLION dollars in stock market wealth was wiped out in recent months

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Fri, 02 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
Image
Did you know that 11 trillion dollars in global stock market wealth was wiped out during the third quarter of 2015? When I was emailed this figure by a friend, I was stunned for a moment. I knew that things were bad, but were they really this bad? When I first received this information, I had just finished a taping for a television show in which I had boldly declared that 5 trillion dollars of stock market wealth had been wiped out around the world. Unfortunately, the final number has turned out to be much larger than that. Over the past three months, the stock markets of all major global economies have been crashing simultaneously, and 11 trillion dollars of "paper wealth" has now completely vanished. The following comes from Fortune...

Comment: If this isn't a sign (though there are many others) that the US economy is on the brink of collapse - with all that that entails - then nothing is.

See also: Top threats to your life when the SHTF and how to prepare for them


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Heart - Black

Congress leaves 72,000 ailing 9/11 first responders in free fall by doing nothing


RT
Fri, 02 Oct 2015 04:13 UTC
first responders
© twitter.comAfter hell broke loose, they responded. Now that they are sick, Congress didn't.
The healthcare program for 9/11 first responders expired at midnight on Wednesday after Congress failed to act. With the expiration, the program will cover first responders until the end of the year but they will start facing challenges by February 2016. If it is not renewed, the program will have to start shutting down by next summer. First responders and advocates want to make the law permanent before it runs out of money early next year.

John Feal, a former World Trade Center demolition worker and leading advocate for sick responders, said some 72,000 people are registered with the health program across the US and are monitored or given annual check-ups. He said 33,000 are currently receiving treatment for 9/11-related illness that include shortness of breath, asthma and at least 50 different types of cancer.

"At midnight last night, Ray Pfeifer's stage 4 cancer didn't expire with the bill. He still has stage 4 cancer. Paul Johnson, who has pulmonary fibrosis, didn't expire - he is going to die, and he needs this program," Feal, the executive director of the FealGood Foundation, told RT. Firefighter Ray Pfeifer rushed to Ground Zero on September 11 and remained there, working every day amid the toxic air until May 2002. He has renal cancer.

Comment: See also: 3700: Number of responders and civilians with 9/11 Ground Zero-linked cancer

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Bulb

Putin comes out way ahead of Obama in post-UN General Assembly US media poll


Sputnik
Fri, 02 Oct 2015 14:45 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Mike Segar
An online poll conducted by a New York-based publication following the addresses of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama to the UN General Assembly shows the Russian leader enjoying an overwhelming support over his US counterpart as of Friday.

Who had the stronger arguments, Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin," asked the New York Daily News/JustRivals competition service in a vote posed to participants after the two leaders expressed opposite viewpoints at the UN headquarters.

Comment: It seems like the more people actually hear what Putin has to say, and the more they know him - the more they seem to like and trust him. And speaking of polls:
A new information tragedy in Ukraine. It started so innocently: the nationally conscious patriotic website Nedelya.ua organized a survey. The question was: which politician would you entrust with governing your country? 41,664 votes were cast. The results were a knock-out blow for the organizers--a full and crushing victory for Vladimir Putin. Treason! Let's look at the results:
  • Putin: 84% (34,905 votes)
  • Lukashenko: 5% (2032)
  • Xi Jinping 2% (820)
  • Zhirinovskiy 2% (708)
  • Poroshenko 1% (538)
  • Merkel 1% (430)
  • Marie Le Pen 1% (426)
  • Nazarbayev 1% (318)
  • Obama 1% (244)
  • Timoshenko 0% (176)
  • Lyashko 0% (170)
  • Yatsenyuk 0% (158)
  • Kolomoysky 0% (150)
  • Simonenko 0% (130)
  • Kuchma 0% (86)
  • Yanukovych 0% (116)
  • Tigipko 0% (76)
  • Kravchuk 0% (32)
  • Yushchenko 0% (32)
Even Zhirinovskiy doubled Poroshenko's score! In spite of the common wisdom which says that if Vladimir Volfovich takes up the Ukrainian question, the nationally conscious will be left in charge of Lvov, and even that will be a lease...All in all, pretty bad news for the embroidered shirt crowd...

One could of course argue that Kremlin trolls attacked the poll en masse, pushing the Putin button in order to play mind games with the patriotic citizens of Ukraine and to establish the "bloody dictatorship of the Moscow tyrant." One could, but who will believe it. The site is well known in a very narrow circle, and is rather not frequented by "trolls and bots": this landfill of an internet resource is visited mainly by the nationally conscious warriors.

Now about Putin. It's no wonder: he is considered to be the world's number 1 politician according to the global media community. That's the result of the 2013 world survey of 175 news agencies and media outlets around the world. Naturally, nedelya.ua did not participate in that survey but confirmed its results nevertheless: even in Ukraine where the population is being thoroughly zombified and threatened with the image of the Russian president 24 hours a day, his rating is off the scale. Therefore Ukraine's national idea, defined in terms of "Ending Putin" is suffering a defeat on all fronts.


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Info

Armed Syrian militants surrender in droves to Daraa Governorate near Jordan border


Sputnik
Sat, 03 Oct 2015 21:59 UTC
Syrian militant
© AP PhotoEmpty shells
Over 450 Syrian militants and 250 criminals wanted by government have laid down their arms and return to peaceful life in the south-west of war-torn country.

Roughly seven hundred armed militants and criminals surrendered themselves to the local authorities in the Syrian Daraa Governorate that is situated next to the border with Jordan in the last two days, national Syrian Arab News Agency Sana reported.

Hundreds of militants and other law offenders decided to hand themselves over to authorities under the terms of a national reconciliation program.

According to media reports, militants have surrendered their arms to law enforcement, including large numbers of machine guns, automatic weapons and sniper rifles.

Comment: Some clear results already being produced by Russia's decisive action in Syria. And it has only just begun.

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Smiley

NPR prank shows: Americans don't read past headlines

Heather Callaghan
Waking Times
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 17:36 UTC
Image
Abstract background on risk business concept, metaphor to small fish being in danger among many hooks.
But it may have proven more...

A social media April Fool's prank spearheaded by NPR in 2014 is - ironically - drawing some reflection. This isn't one of those frustrating social media psychology tests without the users' knowledge. It appears to have been a lighthearted joke and a thank you to readers.

NPR posed a question with a link:
Why Doesn't America Read Anymore?
According to writer Jay Hathaway, commenters squawked:
We totally do, NPR. Shut up. We read all the time. We're reading your article right now!
Which only proved that they didn't.
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