Solving Kyoto row said key to unlock Cancun deal

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Solving Kyoto row said key to unlock Cancun deal

Resolving a dispute between rich and poor nations over cuts in greenhouse gas emissions is key to unblocking progress on all issues at U.N.

Solving Kyoto row said key to unlock Cancun deal Environmental activists from different organizations demonstrate outside the Pitaya Cancun Messe, where climate talks are taking place in Cancun, December 7, 2010. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

By Gerard Wynn and Timothy Gardner CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Resolving a dispute between rich and poor nations over cuts in greenhouse gas emissions is key to unblocking progress on all issues at U.N. climate talks in Mexico, a senior official said on Tuesday. New draft texts at the November 29 to December 10 talks gave widely varying ways out of the deadlock pitting Japan, Canada and Russia against developing nations who accuse them of breaking promises of future cuts under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol. The issue of reining in emissions is "the big question that has to be answered in some way, shape or form," John Ashe, chair of the section of the U.N. talks on the future of the Kyoto Protocol, told Reuters. The issues are "not independent of each other," he said, adding that a deal on curbs could unlock a wider modest package. The Cancun talks are also seeking a deal on a new fund to help poor nations, ways to protect tropical forests and share clean technologies. The effort comes amid predictions that global warming will bring devastating droughts, heatwaves, floods, more powerful storms and rising sea levels. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the Caribbean beach resort to address an opening session for ministers from around the world on Tuesday. The talks are the first since the U.N. summit in Copenhagen fell short of a treaty last year. Japan, Russia and Canada have been adamant in Cancun that they will not approve an extension to Kyoto when a first period runs out in 2012 and want a new, broader treaty that will also bind emerging economies led by China and India to act. But developing states say rich nations have emitted most greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution and must extend Kyoto before poor countries can be expected to sign up. Kyoto binds almost 40 nations to cut emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels during the five-year period 2008-12. "We are putting great pressure on Japan to back down," said one developing country delegate. Ashe, who is from Antigua and Barbuda, said that one option, mentioned at previous talks, was simply to extend Kyoto beyond 2012 with the existing goals for cuts, rather than new ones. "The current commitment period could be extended while we sort out the question of the level of ambition," he said. The option had not been discussed yet in Cancun. One draft suggested ways to ensure that developing countries do more -- a key demand of rich nations. That might oblige emerging nations with more than 0.5 or 1 percent of world emissions, such as China and India, to report emissions levels every two years. Currently, only rich nations have to report emissions, annually. The talks are trying to restore confidence after Copenhagen soured relations between rich and poor in a world of shifting influences. Developed nations are suffering from anemic growth while growth in China and India is raising their power. The U.N. Environment Program reiterated on Tuesday that planned cuts in greenhouse gases were far too small to meet a non-binding goal set in Copenhagen of limiting a rise in world temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) above pre-industrial times. Small island states said that such a rise would be devastating, urging a far lower ceiling of 1.5 Celsius (2.7F). "This is vital to our survival," said Dessima Williams of Grenada, head of the Alliance of Small Island States. (Writing by Alister Doyle, editing by Cynthia Osterman) Read more at www.scientificamerican.com

 

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Researchers question the science behind last week's revelation of arsenic-based life.

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Microbe gets toxic response

Researchers question the science behind last week's revelation of arsenic-based life.

By Alla Katsnelson Days after an announcement that a strain of bacteria can apparently use arsenic in place of phosphorous to build its DNA and other biomolecules--an ability unknown in any other organism--some scientists are questioning the finding and taking issue with how it was communicated to non-specialists. Many readily agree that the bacterium, described last week in Science and dubbed GFAJ-1 (F. Wolfe-Simon et al. Science doi:10.1126/science.1197258; 2010), performs a remarkable feat by surviving high concentrations of arsenic in California's Mono Lake and in the laboratory. But data in the paper, they argue, suggest that it is just as likely that the microbe isn't using the arsenic, but instead is scavenging every possible phosphate molecule while fighting off arsenic toxicity. The claim at a NASA press briefing that the bacterium represents a new chemistry of life is at best premature, they say. "It's a great story about adaptation, but it's not ET," says Gerald Joyce, a biochemist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. At the press briefing, Steven Benner, a chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Fla., who was invited to the event to offer outside comment, used the analogy of a steel chain with a tinfoil link to illustrate that the arsenate ion said to replace phosphate in the bacterium's DNA forms bonds that are orders of magnitude less stable. Not only would the organism's DNA have to stay together in spite of the weaker bonds, says Benner, but so would all the molecules required to draw arsenate from the environment and build it into the genetic material. Co-authors of the paper, including Paul Davies, an astrobiologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, have countered that the arsenate bonds could be reinforced by specialized molecules, or that arsenic-based life simply has a higher turnover for molecular disintegration and assembly than does conventional life. The big problem, however, is that the authors have shown that the organism takes up arsenic, but they "haven't unambiguously identified any arsenic-containing organic compounds," says Roger Summons, a biogeochemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "And it's not difficult to do," he adds, noting that the team could have directly confirmed or disproved the presence of arsenic in the DNA or RNA using targeted mass spectrometry. Some researchers suggest that the authors' own data hint at an organism that is simply absorbing and isolating arsenate while making use of the trace phosphates in its environment. For one thing, says Joyce, the paper shows that the organisms appear bloated, and contain large, vacuole-like structures--often a sign of sequestered toxic material. The arsenate-grown cells were analyzed in their resting phase, which requires less phosphate for survival than does active growth, notes Joyce, and cells grown in high concentrations of arsenate did not seem to contain any RNA--possibly because RNA production had shut down to conserve phosphate. One calculation in the paper showed that the DNA in arsenate-grown cells actually contained 26 times more phosphorus than arsenic. "I fault the authors for not noticing these things and sorting them out," says Rosemary Redfield, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, whose summary of the paper's problems, posted on her blog on December 4, has already had more than 30,000 hits. "We shouldn't have to do the thinking for them." Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA astrobiology research fellow at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and the study's lead author, refused to address criticisms. "We are not going to engage in this sort of discussion," she wrote in an e-mail to Nature. "Any discourse will have to be peer-reviewed in the same manner as our paper was, and go through a vetting process so that all discussion is properly moderated." But Jonathan Eisen, a microbiologist at the University of California, Davis, calls this "ludicrous," after a NASA press release drew media attention with claims of an "astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life," a theme that Wolfe-Simon echoed at the briefing. "It is absurd for them to say that they are only going have the discussion in the scientific literature, when they started it," he says. Ginger Pinholster, a spokeswoman for Science's publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., noted that the journal regards significant responses to high-visibility articles, as well as efforts to replicate the work, as a "key goal of publication." Pinholster also pointed out that the journal's own press summary of the paper made no mention of the search for extraterrestrial life, nor did Science "organize any additional promotional events." Read more at www.scientificamerican.com

 

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Two stars become one, and trigger a rare type of nova.

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Dancing stars turn on the red light

Two stars become one, and trigger a rare type of nova.

By Ken Croswell For the first time, astronomers have watched the spiraling dance performed by two stars merging into a single star. The observations, taken between 2001 and 2008, suggest a solution to the vexed problem of how rare "red novae" form. Most novae are blue and occur when material on a white dwarf star explodes. But what causes red novae has been a mystery. The best-known red nova was spotted in January 2002 toward the edge of our Galaxy's disk. Named V838 Monocerotis, it was more luminous than normal novae--at peak brightness, it briefly rivaled the most powerful stars in the Galaxy. In September 2008, the red nova V1309 Scorpii appeared in the Milky Way. Fortunately, it was positioned in a part of the sky being watched by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE), a Polish-run program using data from a telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile to search for signs of dark matter and planets. As a result, the team had inadvertently captured the process that sparked the red nova. "The material is fantastic," says Romuald Tylenda, an astronomer at the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in ToruD, Poland. "I never expected to see so many observations before an eruption." From 2001 to 2008, the OGLE team had observed the pre-nova star a remarkable 1,340 times. In a paper submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tylenda and his colleagues say that the red nova was created by the merger of a double star system known as a contact binary. Glowing peanut A contact binary consists of two stars that circle each other so closely that they touch. If viewed from an orbiting planet, the stuck-together suns would resemble a glowing peanut-shaped object. Exotic though they seem, contact binaries are common: the nearest, named 44 Boötis B, is just 41 light years (13 parsecs) from Earth. Because they are so close together, the two stars continually eclipse each other, causing the brightness we see to vary. This allowed Tylenda and his team to deduce the nature of V1309 Scorpii, which is roughly 10,000 light years (3,000 parsecs) from Earth. Before the explosion, the two stars danced around each other every 1.4 days. As they spiraled together, this period shortened until the stars merged and exploded, upping their brightness by 10,000 times. Tylenda and his colleagues estimate that the larger star had about as much mass as the Sun. Current observations indicate that the system is now single. "It certainly is a very exciting discovery," says Howard Bond, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., who was not part of the discovery team. "This is clearly something that we've never seen before." However, Bond cautions that the same process may not explain other red novae. Tylenda disagrees: "I think that almost all of the red novae are mergers." In particular, he argues that the best-known red nova, V838 Monocerotis, resulted from such a merger. That explosion was more powerful than V1309 Scorpii, indicating a greater mass. The first observational sign that contact binaries merge came in 1981, when American astronomers Bernard Bopp and Robert Stencel said a fast-spinning giant star named FK Comae Berenices was a former contact binary that had merged and become single. This star and two other fast-spinning giants stood out because most giant stars spin slowly. But when a contact binary merges, the angular momentum of the orbiting stars spins up the single merged star. Shrinivas Kulkarni, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, describes the findings of Tylenda and colleagues as "amazing." Kulkarni notes that theories to explain red novae outnumber all the red novae known. "They've been so mysterious for so long. This discovery is a huge, huge step forward." Read more at www.scientificamerican.com

 

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Wisconsin woman accused of biting off husband's tongue

(Reuters) - A Wisconsin woman bit off half her husband's tongue during a kiss and has been arrested, authorities said on Tuesday. The bitten piece of the husband's tongue was recovered, and he was taken to a hospital following the incident late on Monday, Sheboygan, Wisconsin police said in a statement. The woman, 57, told emergency workers she had "bit her husband's tongue off," police said in a statement. She had blood on her clothing, they said. The 79-year-old victim said his wife bit his tongue while he was kissing her, police said. The woman was singing Christmas carols and blowing a New Year's horn when police arrested her on charges of felony mayhem. She was being held pending formal charges by the District Attorney's Office. The victim was transported to an area hospital where doctors were trying to reattach his tongue, police said. About half his tongue was bit off, they said. The victim said his wife had been acting strangely in recent days, said the police in Sheboygan, roughly 50 miles north of Milwaukee. (Reporting by John Rondy; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Greg McCune) Read more at www.reuters.com

 

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Bible Prophecy and the Destruction of the Cities of the earth…This will blow your mind

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Bible Prophecy and the Destruction of the Cities of the earth…This will blow your mind

I was blown away by what you area about to read. God is revealing things at a pace I have never seen in my life. Please let me know your response to the statements below: MR No. 1518 – Locate Sanitariums Away From the Cities (Written May 10, 1906, from Sanitarium, California, to the Doctors Kress. Selections from this manuscript have appeared in Manuscript Releases 435, 714, and 787.) We have your recent letter. I need not wait for reflection before saying that I believe the best plan is that of first strengthening the work in Adelaide. The climate is more healthful, and the spiritual atmosphere much more favorable than that of Melbourne. This is the way that the matter has been presented to me, but I hoped you would decide the matter from your own judgment. I believe that after placing the whole matter before the Lord, the brethren will come to a harmonious decision. The Lord understands all our necessities. {21MR 90.1} The outlook for establishing a sanitarium at Adelaide is much more favorable than the outlook for establishing one at Melbourne. The city of Melbourne is not the place to establish a sanitarium. It has been plainly presented to me that the sanitarium which you are planning to establish should be located in the most healthful place you can secure. But my warning is that of the angel who, standing in Melbourne, said in a clear, distinct voice, Establish not schools or sanitariums in the cities. In the future, cities will certainly feel the terrible results of earthquakes and fires. Cities will be destroyed by flood and by lightnings. Out of the cities, is my message at this time. {21MR 90.2} Be assured that the call is for our people to locate miles away from the large cities. One look at San Francisco as it is today would speak to your intelligent minds, showing you the necessity of getting out of the cities. Do not establish institutions in the cities, but seek a rural location. The call is, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” The very atmosphere of the city is polluted. Let your schools be established away from the cities, where agricultural and other industries can be carried on. {21MR 90.3} The Lord calls for His people to locate away from the cities, for in such an hour as ye think not, fire and brimstone will be rained from heaven upon these cities. Proportionate to their sins will be their visitation. When one city is destroyed, let not our people regard this matter as a light affair, and think that they may, if favorable opportunity offers, build themselves homes in that same destroyed city. {21MR 90.4} Great precautions were taken to make everything in San Francisco secure against earthquakes, floods, and fires, yet today that great city is lying a mass of debris. Where is there one who, seeing this, can fail to reason from cause to effect? {21MR 90.5} A few days ago we passed by the great costly Stanford University. Many of its buildings now lie in ruins. {21MR 91.1} Yesterday, on our way home from Mountain View, we stopped to take a view of the destruction in San Francisco. Notwithstanding some of the buildings were of the most stable kind and were supposed to be proof against disaster, the city is a ruin. In some places the buildings are sunken into the ground. This city presents a most powerful picture of the inefficiency of human devising and human skill to withstand the carrying out of the Lord’s mandate. {21MR 91.2} For our people to begin commercial enterprises in such a place will be to soothe the fears of those to whom they will come with the Bible message of truth. {21MR 91.3} Let all who would understand the meaning of these things read the eleventh chapter of Revelation. Read every verse, and learn the things that are yet to take place in the cities. Read also the scenes portrayed in the eighteenth chapter of the same book. {21MR 91.4} “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” It will not be to the credit of any who believe the word of the prophecies of this book to ignore the special indications of God, and show indifference in regard to this wonderful display of the power of God because of the sins of this city recently destroyed. The Lord forbid that those who have witnessed this great destruction shall make light of the matter and flatter themselves that in the future they will have buildings far in advance of any buildings they have yet had. For if those who have felt the rebuke of God shall set themselves defiantly to invest their means as they have done, God will exercise His power to counteract their efforts. This calamity calls for men who have abused their privileges and taken advantage of their fellow men, to make amends for the wrong they have done. The Lord has spoken. Will men hear His voice? {21MR 91.5} Let not a mammoth sanitarium be built in any place. If there are large buildings miles away from the cities, that in the providence of God are offered at a price much below their value, and if you see the evidence of God’s hand in this, work judiciously to obtain possession of these buildings. {21MR 91.6} Let your sanitariums be conducted by physicians and ministers who are in harmony with the light God has been giving to His people for the last half century. Place not men in positions of holy office who will not listen to God’s counsel concerning His way and His will. There are influences working mightily against the very work God requires to be done. The time has come when the Lord’s name is to be magnified in all your camp meetings. Every soul must now draw in even cords. Unbelief has taken possession of men who have been warned in regard to the seducing influence of Satan’s working and the methods of his work, yet who have taken no heed. They are of the party that will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Where is this party that will depart from the faith? Consider this. Do not place in charge of your important work or even of the less important enterprises, those who will lead minds away from the truth which is to decide the destiny of souls. {21MR 91.7} Our Lord has the power that must be recognized by our people. God calls for unity in conformity to His expressed will. The flock of God should be watched that they shall not be led into false paths. Unite with no human influence that is not in agreement with the truth of God which has stood the test for half a century. {21MR 92.1} In conclusion I would say, Let not Brethren James and Semmens wait for new developments in Melbourne. Take hold at Adelaide, and lay your plans wisely.–Letter 158, 1906. Ellen G. White Estate Silver Spring, Maryland September 13, 1990. Entire Letter.{21MR 92.2} Read more at www.presentruth.com

 

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ICE considering York County for more immigration detainees

The county prison board responded to a federal inquiry about housing illegal immigrants.

By TOM JOYCE Daily Record/Sunday News

York, PA - York County is one of at least three locations that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering as a potential site for housing more illegal immigration detainees, according to an ICE spokeswoman. County Commissioner Doug Hoke, who is head of the York County prison board, said the concept at this point hasn't gone beyond a brief mail exchange between the county and the federal agency. He said the board members would want more information before considering the proposal. "It's very preliminary," Hoke said. The ICE spokeswoman said that in addition to York County, the agency is also taking a look at two other counties that are currently housing immigration detainees - Pike County in northeastern Pennsylvania and Essex County in New Jersey. According to Hoke, York County received a letter from ICE over the summer containing a "statement of objectives." Basically, it said ICE was interested in establishing additional housing for detainees that might accommodate anywhere from a few hundred to more than 2,000. Hoke said the county wrote back requesting more information. In October, he said, ICE officials visited the county to look at the facilities in York County Prison where immigration detainees are currently housed. Hoke said county officials had not heard back from ICE since then, and he was unaware that the county was on a list of finalists. He said the county might consider adding to existing facilities at York County Prison or creating a new one altogether. The concept isn't even close to any planning stages, Hoke said. "We would certainly be interested in having the discussion," Hoke said. "We said if you want to send us a request, we'll send you some information." York County Prison warden Mary Sabol also said the ICE communication didn't have much in the way of definite information. "It was a very limited proposal," she said. "There was nothing specific. As with any federal project, you have to find out what we're looking for and how we would respond." Pike County, teamed with Tennessee-based private prison management firm Corrections Corporation of America, has submitted plans for a 2,256-bed center, Pike County Commissioner Harry Forbes told the Pocono Record. But Forbes said in an interview with the York Daily Record that his county is still awaiting word from the federal agency as well. "I have no idea where we're at," Forbes said. "Nobody does. ICE is looking at all of them and trying to make a determination." Currently York County Prison houses nearly 700 detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The county charges $63.35 per day per detainee. Who are they? Here's a look at the two other counties in contention with York County (Pop. 424,583) for a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. Both counties currently house ICE detainees in their county prisons, according to ICE. Pike County, Pennsylvania This northeastern Pennsylvania county is part of the greater New York metro area. With a population estimated at 59,664 by the U.S. Census Bureau, it is the smallest county under consideration. It is named for Zebulon Montgomery Pike, an explorer for whom Pike's Peak is named. It was also the home county of former Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot. Essex County, New Jersey Essex County is in northeastern New Jersey and is also part of the New York metro area. Its county seat is Newark, known for an airport that serves the New York City region. The HBO organized crime drama "The Sopranos" was set in the Essex County town of North Caldwell. With a population of 793,637, according to the Census, it is the third-most populous county in New Jersey, behind Bergen and Middlesex counties, and is mostly urban or suburban in nature. Read more at www.ydr.com

 

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Hey, Yorkers, the IRS might have a refund for you

JOHN WALK The York Dispatch

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for dozens of York County residents, but not to collect on taxes. The IRS sent refund checks via standard mail to nearly 90 York County residents earlier this year, only to have the refunds returned as "undeliverable," said Mark Hanson, IRS media relations director of Pennsylvania. To solve the problem, the IRS is asking people to make sure their address is updated because they want to return the refunds. The occurrence happens every year with thousands of taxpayers across the country, Hanson said. "The post office returns them to the IRS because there's either an error with the address or because a taxpayer has moved or because the taxpayer has put the wrong address on their tax return," Hanson said. York County isn't alone, Hanson said. Of the 34.4 million refund checks sent out by the IRS this year, nearly 115,000 refunds were sent back, or about 0.03 percent. Of that number, about 3,500 were sent back from Pennsylvania residents; the average refund from those returned checks is about $1,800. The refund checks do not expire, Hanson said, meaning the IRS will hold onto the refund until the faulty address is eventually updated. "If a taxpayer has an undelivered refund this year, but files taxes next year with an updated address, we can then send the refund from the previous year. Until then, the IRS just holds onto the refund," Hanson said. How to get it: For the people who believe they have not yet received a refund check, the IRS is encouraging them to update their address through the following methods: ---Online: Visit www.irs.gov and click on the "Where's My Refund?" tab and follow directions or search "88-22" to print out a change-of-address form and mail it to the IRS. ---Phone: Order a change-of-address form by calling the IRS at 1-800-829-3676. -- Reach John Walk at 505-5439 or jwalk@yorkdispatch.com or follow on Twitter @ydcity. Read more at www.ydr.com

 

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York County a finalist for detention center for illegal immigrants

CHRISTINA KAUFFMAN The York Dispatch

A Pike County commissioner says York County, Pike County and a site in New Jersey are being considered for a new federal detention center for illegal immigrants, but officials in York say they haven't been notified. Harry Forbes said the two Pennsylvania counties, along with Essex County, N.J., are finalists to host the proposed 2,256-bed center, telling the Pocono Record that Immigration and Customs Enforcement might announce the winning location within the next few weeks. York County Prison Warden Mary Sabol said York "simply responded to a statement of objectives released by (Immigrations Customs Enforcement)," to show interest, but details are scant. She could not confirm the size of the proposed facility or any other details because she has not received any information from ICE. "We didn't discuss a lot of particulars," she said. County commissioner Doug Hoke, who is president of the prison board, said officials received a letter from ICE over the summer, saying the agency was considering building a new facility. The county responded to express interest, but never provided a business plan or "numbers," and officials haven't heard anything since, he said. "I never got anything, as the president of the prison board," he said. "Until I get something in writing from them, I don't even consider this on the radar. If they're saying I'm a finalist, I was never notified about that." Detainees: York County currently holds contracts to house state prisoners and immigration detainees at the county prison, on Concord Road in Springettsbury Township. The federal government pays the county a daily rate for each detainee held at the prison. In June, Sabol said the prison was holding record numbers of state inmates and federal immigration detainees, averaging more than 900 because of beds freed by a decline in local prisoners. In Pike County, officials have teamed with Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison provider. Forbes said CCA and Pike officials presented plans to federal authorities on Oct. 22. -The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Christina Kauffman at 505-5436, ckauffman@yorkdispatch.com, or follow her on Twitter at @dispatchbizwiz. Read more at www.ydr.com

 

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Euro Crisis Escalates amid Defeat of Democracy

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Euro Crisis Escalates amid Defeat of Democracy · December 07, 2010

“The euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis escalated Friday,” said the Wall Street Journal, “as the market homed in on Spain as another potential weak spot, leaving officials scrambling to quell investors’ fears.” However, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister said there was “absolutely” no chance that Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, would ask for a financial rescue package from the European Union. But this did not calm the markets, as the Euro tumbled and Spanish and Portuguese sovereign bonds were sold off. “If we continue to see the recent trend in Spanish bond yields then the crisis is going to be taken to a completely new level…” said Gary Jenkins of Evolution Securities. As debate swirled around the idea of a bailout for Portugal and Spain both governments, the European Commission and Germany’s finance ministry denied that any pressure was being put on Spain or Portugal to ask for an infusion cash. European finance ministers were expected to complete a deal over the weekend for an €85 billion ($113.52 billion) rescue of Ireland by Monday. But that didn’t help the markets either. Meanwhile Famous euroskeptic Nigel Farage, in a speech before the European parliament openly accused EU leadership of destroying democracy. [The leaders of Europe are] beginning to understand that the game is up. And yet in their desperation to preserve their dream, they want to remove any remaining traces of democracy from the system. And it’s pretty clear that none of you have learned anything.” He’s wrong about that. The European leaders know exactly what they are doing. Farage assumes their motives are in the interest of preserving democracy and upholding the rights of the citizens of Europe. This is patently contrary to the purpose of the EU. Speaking of the European Union he said, “Your fanaticism is out in the open. You talk about the fact that it was a lie to believe that the nation state could exist in the 21st century globalized world. But… right across every member state in this union, increasingly people are saying, “We don’t want that flag, we don’t want the anthem, we don’t want this political class, we want the whole thing consigned to the dustbin of history.” That’s too bad. They are going to keep their flag and their anthem. European leaders aren’t interested in what the people want. “You are very, very dangerous people indeed,” Farage continued, “your obsession with creating this European state means that you are happy to destroy democracy, you appear to be happy with millions and millions of people to be unemployed and to be poor. Untold millions will suffer so that your euro dream can continue… If you rob people of their identity, if you rob them of their democracy, then all they are left with is nationalism and violence. I can only hope and pray that the euro project is destroyed by the markets before that.” As the Euro crisis escalates, keep in mind it is not about democracy and freedom, it is about control. The European Union isn’t likely to go away. As the Holy Roman Empire is being resurrected, watch for political, economic and finally a religious dictatorship described in Revelation 13:8 and Revelation 18:9-19. Wall Street Journal Article Nigel Farage speech Read more at www.ktfministry.org

 

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Investigative Journal » Hitler and Pope Pius XII Good Buddies

http://www.arcticbeacon.com/greg/headlines/hitler-and-pope-piu...

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Baywatch Star Claims She Was Singled Out For a TSA Full Body Scan Because of Her Looks

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Baywatch Star Claims She Was Singled Out For a TSA Full Body Scan Because of Her Looks

Donna D'Errico says she was pulled out of line and ordered to go through the naked body scanner: "After the search, I noticed that the male TSA agent who had pulled me out of line was smiling and whispering with two other TSA agents and glancing at me. I was outraged" dailymail.co.uk Former Baywatch beauty Donna D’Errico claimed she was singled out for a full body scan because of her looks. The actress and former Playboy Playmate says she was humiliated by a smirking airport security guard who picked her out of a line in Los Angeles and ordered her to go through the ‘naked’ scanner. ‘After the search, I noticed that the male TSA agent who had pulled me out of line was smiling and whispering with two other TSA agents and glancing at me. I was outraged,’ she said. Now 42, Miss D’Errico appeared in ‘Baywatch’ for three seasons at the height of its success and was a cover girl Playmate in 1995. ‘I’m not sure whether they had recognised me or not. However, it is my personal belief that they pulled me aside because they thought I was attractive. ‘My boyfriend looks much more like a terrorist than either I or my son do, and he went through security with no problems,’ she claimed Read more at www.hapblog.com

 

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Carl J. Shapiro and Others Agree to $625 Million Civil Forfeiture for Victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme

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Carl J. Shapiro and Others Agree to $625 Million Civil Forfeiture for Victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme Irving H. Picard to Serve as Department of Justice Special Master for Returning Forfeited Funds to Victims

NEW YORK—Carl J. Shapiro and various related people and entities have agreed to forfeit $625 million to the United States, all of which will be made available to the victims of the fraudulent investment advisory business which was owned and operated by Bernard L. Madoff. The distribution of funds to victims will be administered by Irving H. Picard in his dual capacities as the newly-appointed special master to assist the department in connection with the victim remission proceedings, and as the court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, under the Securities Investor Protection Act. The agreement was submitted to and approved by U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa today. The announcement was made by Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Orlan Johnson, Chairman of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC); Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the FBI; and Charles R. Pine, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation Division, announced today that According to the stipulation and order of settlement and accompanying civil forfeiture complaint filed in Manhattan federal court earlier today, the investment advisory business of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) was operated from at least as early as the 1980s as a massive Ponzi scheme, defrauding investors of billions of dollars. Rather than use client funds to invest in securities, as promised, BLMIS diverted those funds to (a) pay other clients’ redemption requests; (b) fund transactions to disguise BLMIS’s fraud; and (c) enrich Madoff, his family, and his associates. In order to support the lie that BLMIS was operating a legitimate investment advisory business, BLMIS created and disseminated fictitious account statements that, among other things, showed trades that never actually took place. During the course of the fraud, Madoff’s clients lost approximately $20 billion in funds they invested with BLMIS. Since at least the late 1960s, Carl J. Shapiro was an investor in BLMIS, holding an account in his own name and controlling accounts held by various related individuals and entities. Over the course of his approximately 40-year relationship with Madoff and BLMIS, Shapiro invested hundreds of millions of dollars into his BLMIS accounts, but withdrew hundreds of millions more. When Madoff was arrested in December 2008 and his fraud was revealed, it became clear that Shapiro—like all of BLMIS’s investors who withdrew more money than they invested—had profited at the expense of more recent BLMIS investors. In order to resolve any potential civil claims by the government against Shapiro and his family, the Shapiro family has agreed to forfeit $625 million to the government—an amount in excess of Carl J. Shapiro and his wife’s current net worth, as well as in excess of the fictitious profits that Shapiro and his wife took out of BLMIS. The settlement contains no finding or admission of fault against Shapiro or his family; the settlement does not, however, release any party from criminal liability. Simultaneously with the announcement of today’s historic settlement, U.S. Attorney Bharara announced that the department has appointed Irving H. Picard as special master to assist in identifying eligible victims, verifying their losses, and distributing the forfeited funds in accordance with department regulations governing remission or mitigation of forfeitures. For approximately two years, Picard has served as the court-appointed trustee for BLMIS under the Securities Investment Protection Act (SIPA). Under the terms of today’s settlement, and a related settlement submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Picard will administer $550 million of the funds being returned to investors by the Shapiro family through the SIPA liquidation proceedings, and the remaining $75 million through the department’s remission or mitigation process. “For almost 40 years, Carl Shapiro invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Bernie Madoff but withdrew far more,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “By requiring him to forfeit this money—more than he is currently worth—the government and the SIPA Trustee have sent an important message: those who profited as a result of Bernard Madoff’s fraud should disgorge those profits, which are rightfully other people's money. We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners from SIPC, the FBI, and the IRS, to track down any and all proceeds of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and return them to their rightful owners. And, to be clear, the criminal and civil forfeiture investigations relating to the Madoff fraud are very much ongoing.” “The trustee used the legal tools made available under the Bankruptcy Code and SIPA to benefit the victims here,” said SIPC Board Chairman Johnson. “The Madoff case is now entering a new phase. I hope this marks the beginning of a period that will see many such settlements.” “As we approach the two-year anniversary of the Bernard Madoff arrest, this settlement represents a significant step in the restitution of retirements, pensions, and university endowments that were robbed with blatant disregard for the law,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Fedarcyk. “It takes a special depravity to victimize so many people so severely. The investigation of prodigious fraud, like that of Madoff, remains one of the FBI's top priorities. From robbers to fraudsters, the FBI will continue to bring to justice crooks who steal.” “Investment fraud is never a victimless crime,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent-in-Charge Pine. “Financial distress left in the wake of a crumbling investment scheme leaves victims in financial ruins and feeling betrayed by individuals they trusted would help them make a better life. The victims in the case can know that IRS Criminal Investigation has resources devoted to assisting the U.S. Attorney to hold the perpetrators accountable, and to help re-coop some of their stolen money.” U.S. Attorney Bharara praised the work of SIPC, the SIPA Trustee, the FBI, the IRS, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration and Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, and the U.S. Marshals Service. U.S. Attorney Bharara also thanked the Securities and Exchange Commission for their assistance. This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which U.S. Attorney Bharara serves as a co-chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa A. Baroni, Julian J. Moore, Barbara A. Ward, and Matthew L. Schwartz are in charge of the case. Read more at newyork.fbi.gov

 

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Four Detroit-Area Residents Arrested in Connection with $14.5 Million Home Health Care Fraud Scheme

Amplify’d from detroit.fbi.gov

Four Detroit-Area Residents Arrested in Connection with $14.5 Million Home Health Care Fraud Scheme

WASHINGTON—Four Detroit-area residents were arrested today by federal agents from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the FBI as part of an ongoing investigation into a $14.5 million home health care fraud scheme, announced the Departments of Justice and HHS. In a two-count second superseding indictment returned on Dec. 2, 2010, and unsealed today, four additional individuals are alleged to have participated in a Medicare fraud scheme operated out of Patient Choice Home Healthcare (Patient Choice) and All American Home Care (All American), two Oakland County, Mich., home health agencies that purported to provide in-home health services. Maira Suleman, 30; John Thomas, 32; Sherry Prescott, 50; and Myra Jones, 50, were each charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Pramod Raval, M.D., 57, who was previously charged with conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, was also charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud in the indictment unsealed today. Twenty-one individuals, including the four arrested today, have now been charged for their alleged roles in this health care fraud scheme. The original indictment was returned on Jan. 12, 2010, with the first superseding indictment returned on July 13, 2010. To date, 10 defendants have pleaded guilty for their roles. According to the superseding indictment unsealed today, the defendants’ co-conspirators owned and operated Patient Choice and All American. These agencies purported to provide home health therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries that were unnecessary and/or were never performed. Suleman, Thomas, and Prescott are alleged to have falsified medical records used to justify and/or bill services to Medicare. In addition, the indictment alleges that Jones and several other individuals recruited Medicare beneficiaries for the owners of Patient Choice and All American, paying the beneficiaries kickbacks for their Medicare information and their signatures on documents that detailed physical therapy services that were either never rendered or not medically necessary. In addition, the indictment alleges that Dr. Raval and the owner and operator of Patient Choice, Muhammad Shahab, engaged in a conspiracy where Shahab would pay kickbacks to Raval in exchange for patient referrals and access to Medicare beneficiaries under Dr. Raval’s care. Shahab was charged in the original indictment and he pleaded guilty on Feb. 25, 2010, to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Sentencing in his case has been scheduled for Feb. 11, 2011. The indictment also alleges that Medicare paid Patient Choice and All American more than $14.5 million for services that were medically unnecessary and/or not provided between August 2007 and September 2009. The charge of health care fraud conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charge of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and a fine of up to $25,000. An indictment is merely a charge and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Today’s arrests were announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan; Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the HHS-OIG Chicago Regional Office. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief John K. Neal and Trial Attorney Gejaa T. Gobena of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG. The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in seven districts have obtained indictments of more than 825 individuals who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $2 billion. In addition, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers. To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to: www.stopmedicarefraud.gov. Read more at detroit.fbi.gov

 

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Amplify’d from news.adventist.org

In Peru, 'historic' religious liberty legislation passes

Law recognizes religious pluralism; all faiths to enjoy same 'rights, obligations and benefits'

ANN staff

Members of Peru's congress voted last week to approve legislation guaranteeing the religious liberty of all citizens, a freedom already recognized by the South American country's constitution. Peruvian legislators during the preliminary stages of drafting legislation passed last week to guarantee religious pluralism in the country. [photo courtesy PARL] The act comes a year after more than 40,000 Peruvians gathered in the country's capital, Lima, for a festival in support of burgeoning religious liberty there. The law guarantees free public and private exercise of religion, except where such expression infringes on the freedoms or fundamental rights of others, or where public order or welfare is threatened, religious liberty advocates said. Specifically, the act protects students' religious convictions and requires state educational institutions to respect those convictions, assuring that a student's practice of faith does not affect his or her academic grades, said Edgardo Muguerza Florián, who directs Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Peru. It also prohibits any "action or omission" discriminating against a person because of religious belief and recognizes religious pluralism, assuring that all faiths enjoy the same "rights, obligations and benefits," Florián said. Adventist Church representatives have worked for broader religious liberty protections in Peru for more than a decade, meeting with government officials and faith representatives in the country. "We are very pleased to see that our work may have played a role in the passage of this historic law," said John Graz, director of the world church's department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty. Graz said the legislation is a testament to the efforts of all defenders of religious freedom in Peru. The country's religious liberty movement has a long history, making the continued protection of religious freedom there an important investment, he said. ANN World News Bulletin is a review of news issued by the Communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. For reproduction requirements, click here. The opinions expressed by Commentary authors and sources in ANN news stories do not necessarily reflect those of Adventist News Network© and/or the Seventh-day Adventist© Church. Read more at news.adventist.org

 

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45 Protestant pastors become Adventist, along with many in congregations

In the Philippines, faith conversion offers spiritual reassurance, practical hope

Amplify’d from news.adventist.org

In the Philippines, faith conversion offers spiritual reassurance, practical hope

45 Protestant pastors become Adventist, along with many in congregations

Ansel Oliver/ANN Girls in the T'boli hillside region typically marry at ages 12 to 14 and soon begin having children. Adventist leaders hope newly converted members who have followed their pastor to the Adventist faith will push their daughters toward education instead of early marriage. [photos: Ansel Oliver] Girls get married and have children young in this rural hillside village. Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders here hope that tradition will change for some within a generation. Their expectation follows a two-year trend in which several ministers of other Protestant faiths in the lush, highland farming villages have converted to the Adventist Church. Members who joined with them could gain access to the denomination's schools if sponsors can be found. Soon, local families could push their 12 and 13-year-old daughters toward education instead of early marriage, Adventist leaders say. Though it has limited resources, the Adventist Church in the southern section of Mindanao island is trying to increase support of new Adventist congregations. Across the territory of the denomination's Southern Mindanao Mission, a remarkable 45 ministers have converted in the past few years through the work of Adventist missionaries and local Bible workers, as well as former classmates and professors, who have since converted. Most say church doctrines, such as the seventh-day Sabbath observance and an emphasis on healthful living, convinced them to switch. Many members of their former congregations have converted along with them -- nearly all in some congregations, about half in others. More could still convert, depending on how they view the intentions of their new denomination, Adventist Church leaders say. "Some switched immediately, some took their time, some are waiting to see if they get benefits or if the missionaries are trying to get benefits from them," said Romulo Tuballes, Communication director for the Southern Mindanao Mission, a region home to nearly 60,000 members. Other religious groups have previously come through the T'boli region making promises of support that never came, he said. "We aren't making big promises," Tuballes said. William Galagnara oversees 25 churches in the Lake Sebu district of the Adventist Church's Southern Mindanao Mission. He is one of 45 Protestant ministers there who have converted to the Adventist faith in recent years. Still, leaders have informed congregations here of a proposed Bible school for lay preachers they are determined to start next month. Leaders only told villagers, however, after a sponsor was found earlier this year. Most pastors here, like their members, are corn farmers. The denomination doesn't want to create dependency, but Tuballes says he also hopes to aid new pastors and members in more practical ways, such as providing some basic farming tools. "Their hope could get stronger because they know someone cares," Tuballes said during a 20-minute hike down a steep, narrow dirt path back to his vehicle along the main road one recent Saturday morning. He had just visited a thatch-roofed church for the third time since its roughly 30 members became Adventists in September. The trend of ministers finding the Adventist faith is also seen around Lake Sebu, about 20 miles away. A day earlier, several recently converted Adventist ministers met for ministerial training at a church in the district. One of those ministers was Arvin Dulay, who established 62 congregations for One Way Outreach, a church-planting movement Dulay, 35, said his friends were surprised when he became Adventist, asking "why?" He said told them he saw more biblical truth in the Adventist Church after having been visited by a missionary and studying the Bible with a local lay member afterward. Five other ministers became Adventist along with him, he said. Elizar L. Abas, a former Baptist minister, became an Adventist in August. For 20 years, he had read books written by Adventist Church co-founder Ellen White on health and family life. He is one of several new Adventist ministers serving in the nearby province of North Cotabato. The Lambuling church was a Pentecostal congregation until it became an Adventist church at the urging of its recently converted minister. Most churches in the rural hillsides of the T'boli region are made of bamboo thatch walls. Mission president Roger Caderma has implemented a goal of at least one baptism a month for each of the 46 pastors working for the mission. The biggest recent increases in membership, though, are the result of work done years previously, as members of other congregations follow their minister into the Adventist faith. "It's amazing, we're baptizing here by church, not just individually," Caderma said. The children of many new members could soon have the chance to attend Matatum View Academy in the town of Tupi. The boarding school is named after the nearby mountain, which looms above the surrounding pineapple fields and palm trees. Several hundred students from five tribes attend the school, and nearly half receive significant tuition assistance with a work/study program. That Friday night at a vespers service in the campus sanctuary, a 14-year-old freshman named Mariby sat in a chair on the sanctuary platform behind a singing group. She said she hoped to one day become an accountant. Seated next to her, a 16-year-old junior named Ernie said he wanted to become an electronic communication engineer. ANN World News Bulletin is a review of news issued by the Communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. For reproduction requirements, click here. The opinions expressed by Commentary authors and sources in ANN news stories do not necessarily reflect those of Adventist News Network© and/or the Seventh-day Adventist© Church. Read more at news.adventist.org

 

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Amplify’d from gawker.com

Richard Cohen: A Journalist's Job Is to Keep the Government's Secrets

Doddering cottonhead Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen has already stated that he doesn't know what "Wikileaks" is. Today, he adds: can't we just go back to the days when Richard Cohen could caress the testicles of the powerful, in peace?

We don't mean to sound disrespectful; Richard Cohen has already been awarded the titles "World's Worst Writer" and "America's #1 Hack;" he's come out in favor of freeing rapists but against insulting presidents; he's an allegedly liberal columnist at one of America's allegedly greatest institutions of investigative journalism, yet he consistently calls for obeisance to the powerful; he is, in other words, required reading. And today's column may be his most "You'd never guess I'm employed in journalism" one yet!

Whereas journalists have traditionally defined the exposure of important and newsworthy government secrets as "news," Cohen defines the work of Wikileaks' Julian Assange as "thoroughly contemptible." Even worse than the time everyone found out about Monica Lewinsky!

What the Clinton scandal and the WikiLeaks disclosures have in common is a sad collapse of the mainstream media's gatekeeper role. Newsweek presumably had good reasons to postpone publication of Isikoff's story - reasons that Drudge did not share. The Times had good cause to parse the WikiLeaks cache - lives could be in danger - but Assange launched them into cyberspace anyway, not caring if American interests were damaged. In fact, that might have been the whole point.

Two things outrage Richard Cohen more than anything else: when Richard Cohen and his closest friends are not allowed to be the sole arbiters of what Americans learn about the conduct of their elected officials; and when anti-secrecy crusading Australian computer hackers do not base each and every decision on whether or not that decision is good for "American interests." It just burns Richard Cohen up (as a journalist).

The natural reaction is to want to pop Assange in some way, possibly by indicting him for violating the totally impractical Espionage Act of 1917 or, in the superheated imaginations of some, by declaring him a terrorist and targeting him for something irrevocable. The trouble with any of this is that you inevitably get entangled with the Times and other newspapers such as The Post, which also has devoted considerable space and talent to the stories.

The desire to imprison or assassinate Julian Assange—who has not been convicted of any crime—for revealing diplomatic gossip? Perfectly natural! Richard Cohen had the same reaction—naturally! But the reason you don't want to assassinate this man is it might look bad for the Washington Post. That's the main problem with that otherwise natural course of action.

Governments, like married couples, are entitled to their secrets - from us, from the kids and from the neighbors...Now, everything sees the light of day and media organizations like Gawker, journalism's own little cesspool, pay for such scoops as pictures allegedly sent by Brett Favre to a young lady of his passing acquaintance. This is not what Jefferson had in mind when he championed freedom of the press.

Richard Cohen imagines the job of a journalist to be more like that of a government functionary who censors TOP SECRET documents—deciding what must be blacked out, lest average Americans like you who don't Understand How These Things Work be misled into believing that the government is not always and everywhere Doing The Right Thing, just because of a few misleading characterizations and unguarded moments in documents here and there—which is why, of course, journalists much help the government keep all these documents TOP SECRET. For the good of the little people, like you, who can't be trusted to analyze these things yourselves.

Also, Richard Cohen doesn't know much about Thomas Jefferson's tastes.

[WP]

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at Hamilton@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

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Only Targets of Extrajudicial Killings Can Sue Over Extrajudicial Killings

A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit over the government's targeting of American imam Anwar al-Awlaki for assassination because al-Awlaki's father, and not al-Awlaki himself, filed the suit. Courthouse is open 8 to 5, Anwar, so come on down!

Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and now lives in hiding in Yemen, is viewed by the U.S. government as a recruiter for Al Qaida because he has repeatedly called on Muslims to kill Americans. So they want to kill him, even though he's a U.S. citizen, and citizens—even really, really bad ones—are generally accorded such constitutional courtesies as not being summarily executed without a trial.

Al-Awlaki's father, with the help of the ACLU, filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the assassination of his son and demanding that the U.S. government reveal the criteria by which it decided to target the younger al-Awlaki. But today, U.S. District Judge John Bates threw the case out, according to the Associated Press, "because Anwar al-Awlaki did not bring the suit."

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "That's absurd! How could an American-Yemeni fugitive who is being actively hunted down by U.S. capture-or-kill teams possibly avail himself of the American legal system in order to stop his own assassination?" But before you do, just remember: The United States of America is the only country on the planet that will let you challenge the legality of its hit squads, so long as you do it yourself, in open court.

Send an email to the author of this post at john@gawker.com. Read more at gawker.com

 

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