| 3/10/11 Goldenberg, Guardian, Prepare for Arctic struggle as climate changes, US navy warned Report also available here... |
Holy shit: Michigan quietly passes bill giving new Republican governor power to do anything in the name of economic stability: Void contracts, void collective bargaining agreements, dissolve town councils and school boards, fire elected officials, unincorporate towns, sell public property [link]
| An anonymous reader writes "Australia's Federal Government computer emergency response team and other spy agencies are teaming up to create a cyberspooks unit to counter threats from other countries, the nation's chief lawmaker said last night. In a speech referencing Stuxnet and GhostNet, Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the unit would protect sensitive Australian Government and business information from espionage by the nation's foes. Recently new powers were handed to spymasters to deal with the enhanced security threat that the Greens party said were 'excessive.'"
Read more of this story
|
| The Department of Homeland Security told a federal court that the agency believes it has the legal authority to strip search every air traveler... |
| A New York City teenager has been arrested on a felony charge in the death of a hamster. |
Kissinger wants US spy for Israel freed. MI5 short of surveillance officers says minister. US spy agencies lack fluent bilingual speakers. Continue reading →  |
| Der erbitterte Widerstand nutzte nichts, die Republikaner haben den Kampf gegen die Gewerkschaften gewonnen Wilde Szenen spielten sich gestern im Repräsentantenhaus ab, als die Abgeordneten über das so genannte Anti-Gewerkschaftsgesetz abstimmen wollten, das die Nacht zuvor durch einen Trick bereits im Senat durchgewinkt worden war. |
| Neue Dokumente bestätigen die schweren Vorwürfe des Schweizer Europaratsabgeordneten Dick Marty gegen das Sezessionsregime im Kosovo und seine westlichen Unterstützer. Wie aus Papieren hervorgeht, die kürzlich publiziert worden sind, war die von Berlin stets maßgeblich mitgetragene UN-Protektoratsverwaltung in Priština (UNMIK) schon 2003 über den mutmaßlichen Organhandel der kosovarischen UÇK-Miliz informiert, ohne dass es zu entschiedenen Maßnahmen gegen die Verantwortlichen kam. Wie einstige UNMIK-Mitarbeiter bestätigen, gilt das auch für die Amtszeit des deutschen UNMIK-Chefs Michael Steiner, der heute als Sonderbeauftragter der Bundesregierung für Afghanistan und Pakistan tätig ist. |
| Die Sendung ZAPP auf NDR hat gestern über Facebook und den "Umgang mit Daten" berichtet. Na, heute schon gepostet? Erstaunlich, wie viele Menschen ständig das Bedürfnis haben, banalste Erlebnisse, intimste Vorlieben oder peinliche Fotos durch das Internet an Gott und die Welt zu schicken. Nicht bei Facebook zu sein, gilt langsam schon als Makel. Und seit man sich auf dieser Internetseite verabredet, um arabische Regime zu stürzen, gilt Facebook sogar als eine Art Garant für Meinungsfreiheit. Wenn es allerdings um das eigene Unternehmen geht, dann hat man Opposition nicht so gerne. Kritiker werden massiv bekämpft. |
| Die Republikanische Mehrheit im Senat von Wisconsin verabschiedete am Mittwochabend ein Gesetz, das die Staatsangestellten der Tarifautonomie beraubt und sie zwingt, deutlich höhere Beiträge zu ihrer Kranken- und Rentenversicherung zu bezahlen. Das Gesetz wurde trotz der Abwesenheit der vierzehn Demokratischen Senatoren beschlossen, die aus dem Staat geflohen waren und so die Mindestanwesenheitszahl für diese Abstimmung legal unterlaufen hatten. |
| Offiziell entwerfen die Obama-Regierung und Washingtons Verbündete immer noch "Notfall-Pläne" für ihr Eingreifen in die libysche Krise. In Wirklichkeit sind längst intensive militärische und geheimdienstliche Operationen innerhalb und am Rande des Öl reichen Landes in vollem Gange. Unter dem scheinheiligen Banner, die "inakzeptable Gewalt" gegen das libysche Volk stoppen zu wollen, bemühen sich die USA und die europäischen Mächte, ein Regime in Tripolis zu errichten |
60 million Americans qualify for food stamps - Wirtschaftsfacts [DE]
| Lässt der französische Präsidentenpalast allzu neugierige Journalisten ausspionieren? Diesen schweren Vorwurf erheben mehrere Medien des Landes. Die Beschuldigten dementieren entschieden - aber nicht alle glauben ihnen. Staatspräsident Nicolas Sarkozy höchstpersönlich soll nach Berichten der Zeitschrift "Le Canard enchaîné" das Ausspionieren von Journalisten angeordnet haben, um Informanten aus dem eigenen Apparat zu enttarnen. |
| Workers at a nuclear power plant in north-central Japan are having trouble cooling the reactor and authorities have asked nearby residents to evacuate, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a news conference. |
| The first huge red flag was a picture by Reuter's photojournalist Asmaa Waguih with the caption: "Protester looks at the pictures of protesters who were killed during the last few days during the uprising against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Benghazi city, Libya, February 23, 2011." This photo is posted on several blogs across the internet with the caption and credits to Reuters. At first glance the photo looks convincing but looking at it for more than one second, a huge mistake sticks out. The date, 06/29/1996 with the number 1200 is printed right next to it. If this is a picture of "a protester looking at photos of protesters who were killed during the last few days", then what does the date mean?? |
| Anyone who tells you that they have a handle on the economic consequences of this event is wrong," writes High Frequency Economics chief economist Carl Weinberg in a note this morning about the economic effects of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan. |
| Berücksichtigt man zusätzlich zu den Staatsschulden die impliziten Zahlungsversprechen der Sozialsysteme der USA, dann klafft in dem Land eine fiskalische Lücke von rund 200 Billionen Dollar. Im Vergleich zum BIP ist diese grösser als in Griechenland. Laut Ökonomie-Professor Laurence Kotlikoff sind die USA faktisch bankrott. |
| Wolfgang Hetzer, seit 2002 Leiter der Abteilung "Intelligence: Strategic Assessment & Analysis" im Europäischen Amt für Betrugsbekämpfung (OLAF) in Brüssel, geht in seinem neuen Buch der Frage nach, "ob die internationalen Finanzmärkte zum Tummelplatz einer besonderen Art der Organisierten Kriminalität geworden sind, die es in einem Milieu höchster krimineller Energie, exquisiter fachlicher Qualifikation und korruptiver Verflechtung geschafft hat, die Zusammenhänge zwischen Arbeit, Leistung und Erfolg als Grundlage einer bürgerlichen Gesellschaft und einer rechtsstaatlichen Kultur in einer jahrelangen hemmungslosen und selbstsüchtigen Bereicherungsorgie zu zerstören". (S.12) Als Jurist und entsprechend seiner Profession als "Betrugsbekämpfer" beschäftigt er sich vor allem auch mit der strafrechtlichen Aufarbeitung der Finanzkrise. |
| Stock markets and insurance shares fall in response to a magnitude 8.9 earthquake in Japan and resulting 10m-high tsunami. |
| Nearly 450,000 people have fled their homes because of the crisis in Ivory Coast, the UN refugee agency says. |
| The US treatment of the man accused of leaking cables to Wikileaks, is "counterproductive and stupid", state department spokesman PJ Crowley says. |
| Protesters in Bahrain demanding that the ruling family step down say they are being targeted with death threats, reports the BBC's Bill Law. |
| A US judge rules the government may ask three associates of Julian Assange to hand over Twitter details in the criminal investigation into Wikileaks. |
| Lord Patten's appointment as the next chairman of the BBC Trust, after Sir Michael Lyons' term ends in April, is approved by a Commons committee. |
| With just a few paragraphs about the evils of aggregation and the rise of the Huffington Post, in which he talks about aggregators as "pirates," the executive editor of the New York Times manages to say volumes about how little he understands where media is now. |
| Whether it's in the emergence of social networking monopolies or the advancement of tracking systems, it seems more and more that Big Brother has got us covered - in more ways than one. |
Last night, as reported by former BBC America journalist Philippa Thomas, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley commented on Manning's treatment during an event organized by the Center for Future Civic Media. Crowley blasted the treatment of Manning by his "colleagues at the Department of Defense":
Around twenty of us were sitting around the table listening to his views on social media, the impact of the Twittersphere, the Arab uprisings, and so on, in a vast space-age conference room overlooking the Charles River and the Boston skyline. And then, inevitably, one young man said he wanted to address "the elephant in the room". What did Crowley think, he asked, about Wikileaks? About the United States, in his words, "torturing a prisoner in a military brig"? Crowley didn't stop to think. What's being done to Bradley Manning by my colleagues at the Department of Defense "is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." He paused. "None the less Bradley Manning is in the right place". And he went on lengthening his answer, explaining why in Washington's view, "there is sometimes a need for secrets… for diplomatic progress to be made". [..]
A few minutes later, I had a chance to ask a question. "Are you on the record?" I would not be writing this if he'd said no. There was an uncomfortable pause. "Sure." So there we are.
Crowley's response is the strongest condemnation yet by an American official of the treatment of Manning. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who was asked about the soldier last month, defended his treatment. "There are concerns about what is happening, but a strong argument is being made that they're trying to preserve his safety, they don't want him harming himself, and using his own clothing to hang himself, or do something like that," Kerry said.
| Governor Walker's union eradication/budget review bill was rammed through legislature quickly, including the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, so much so that no one could say exactly what was in it. So, the Democrat leader Peter Barca asked what was in the new version - State Senator GOP leader Scott Fitzgerald dismissed his question. The power plant provision wasn't in the document passed by the Senate on Wednesday. Miraculously, it was changed before the Assembly vote on Thursday to include it |
| All 29 million workers in the UK could be in for a financial shock at the beginning of next month. |
| Since 9/11, right-wing extremists including neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have been involved in 63 domestic terror plots |
| A spending plan being pushed by Republicans would slash funding for the agency that warned Hawaii and the West Coast about the devastating tsunami in Japan. |
