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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Report: Sandusky talks about Paterno, case


NEW YORK (AP) – Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky said Joe Paterno never spoke to him about any suspected misconduct with minors, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years.

By Harry Cabluck, AP

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years and is free on bail while awaiting a preliminary hearing on Dec. 13 .

Penn State's board of trustees fired Paterno on Nov. 9 because it felt the football coach didn't go far enough in alerting authorities after an assistant coach said he told Paterno he saw Sandusky assaulting a young boy in the football building showers in March 2002.READ MORE

Walker intends to charge citizens fee to protest


Free speech is getting expensive in Wisconsin.

Following demonstrations earlier this year which drew up to 100,000 people to the Wisconsin Capitol, Republican Gov. Scott Walker has proposed new policies that would require future protesters to pay in advance to stage an event, at a cost of $50 per hour, per Capitol Police officer.

Police may also require a liability insurance or a bond, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.
READ MORE

Radiation From Cell Phones and WiFi Are Making People Sick -- Are We All at Risk?


We are now exposed to electromagnetic radio frequencies 24 hours a day. Welcome to the largest human experiment ever.
December 2, 2011

Consider this story: It's January 1990, during the pioneer build-out of mobile phone service. A cell tower goes up 800 feet from the house of Alison Rall, in Mansfield, Ohio, where she and her husband run a 160-acre dairy farm. The first thing the Rall family notices is that the ducks on their land lay eggs that don't hatch. That spring there are no ducklings. READ MORE

Friday, December 2, 2011

Senate Approves Indefinite Military Detention of US Citizens In America

The U.S. Senate on Thursday crossed a major constitutional line and authorized the American military to arrest and indefinitely detain U.S. citizens within the United States in the war on terror.

The 97-3 vote came after days of bitter debate, where hawkish proponents said the United States was part of a global battlefield where the military should be able to seize any citizen if they were part of a terrorist group attacking America. But opponents, who lost a series of attempts to limit the detention to overseas, said it would be a grave mistake of historic proportions to allow the military to arrest and hold American citizens on US soil without the right to a trial or access to civilian courts. Read more

Elizabeth Warren Surges Ahead of Scott Brown in New Poll


Jason Easley, PoliticusUSA
Easley begins: "A new UMass Amherst Poll released today found that Elizabeth Warren has opened up a four point lead on Scott Brown, 43%-39%. Warren's lead in the poll was within the margin of error, but the Democratic challenger leads Sen. Brown in several key areas."
READ MORE

Fundamentally: Newt Gingrich’s Favorite Word


By Dan Amira

By now, we've all become familiar with Newt Gingrich's habit of using a few choice adverbs to make the things he says sound just a bit more intelligent to his listeners. Profoundly. Deeply. Frankly. But none of them are as vital to the Gingrich lexicon as fundamentally (along with its cousin, the adjective fundamental). While this appears to be Gingrich's favorite word in the English language, you could also argue that he uses the word so often, and so reflexively, that it's become virtually meaningless to him. In a single 2008 address to the American Enterprise Institute, he used the words fundamentally or fundamental a total of eighteen times. READ MORE

Jon Corzine Called to Explain MF Global’s Failure to Congress


The House Agriculture Committee voted unanimously today to subpoena Jon Corzine, the former New Jersey governor, Goldman Sachs CEO, and "mini-Goldman" creator, about the bankruptcy of brokerage firm MF Global. The hearing isn't until Thursday, so maybe by then he'll have tracked down that missing $1.2 billion in customer funds.
READ MORE

Donald Trump and Newsmax to Host the Dumbest/Most Watchable Debate of the 2012 Campaign

Donald Trump and Newsmax to Host the Dumbest/Most Watchable Debate of the 2012 Campaign

By Dan Amira

In what seems like a plot dreamed up by the DNC to turn the GOP primary campaign into as much of a clownish spectacle as possible, national laughingstock Donald Trump and conservative website Newsmax have announced plans to moderate a debate on December 27 in Des Moines, Iowa, to air on ION, that broadcast network* you watched one time for two minutes by accident.READ MORE

Lawyers Reportedly Hiring Strippers to Pose as Paralegals in Miami Jailhouse Visits


Posted Dec 1, 2011 7:45 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Some lawyers with wealthy drug defendants housed inside Miami’s Federal Detention Center have reportedly found a way to spice up their clients' incarceration.

The lawyers are hiring South American pole dancers to pose as paralegals, according to a report in the Miami New Times blog Riptide.
The blog report is based on multiple interviews with lawyers.
READ MORE

Sex Scandal Forces Commander Of N.J. National Guard To Resign

Maj. Gen. Glenn Rieth Caught In 'Compromising Position' With Female Aide

TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — The long-time commander of the New Jersey National Guard is resigning in disgrace, after being caught with a female aide.
READ MORE

Gov. Andrew Cuomo likely to get support of Albany leadaers Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver for more casinos

Paul Buckowski/Albany Times Union

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, left, and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, right, are seen to be in favor of letting voters decide on expanding the number of state casinos.



Voters would get to decide on constitutional amendment under plan supported by Cuomo, Skelos and Silver

BY Kenneth Lovett
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, December 1 2011, 9:39 PM

Legislative leaders are prepared to join Gov. Cuomo in rolling the dice on casino gambling.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said the Nassau GOPer “is supportive of a constitutional amendment that will let the people decide whether to expand casino gambling in New York State.”

READ MORE

Thursday, December 1, 2011

China's manufacturing activity falls to a 32-month low


China's manufacturing activity fell to a 32-month low in November, hurt by a slowdown in the global economy.

China's official Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to 49.0 in November, the lowest level since March 2009.

The industry survey data comes amid concerns that a slowdown in the global economy may dent demand for Chinese goods and hurt its economy.

PMI is a key indicator of manufacturing activity and a reading below 50 shows contraction.

This is the first time in almost three years that the figure has fallen below the crucial 50 mark. READ MORE

Free museums: Visits more than double

BBC arts correspondent David Sillito looks at the other ways you may end up paying on your trip to a free museum

Government-sponsored museums that have stopped charging since 2001 have seen combined visitor rates more than double in the past decade, figures show.

Almost 18 million people visited the 13 attractions in 2010-11, compared with 7 million in 2000-01.

Thursday marks the 10th anniversary of the Labour government's decision to end charges at England's national museums.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said free museums and galleries "ensure that culture is for everyone". READ MORE

Bachmann suggests intelligent design is a ‘scientific fact’


By David Edwards
Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says schools should teach children about evolution and intelligent design because “the best thing to do is to allow all scientific facts on the table.”

During a question-and-answer session at the University of Northern Iowa Wednesday, Bachmann was asked if intelligent design should be taught as science in public schools.

“I think that all science should be on the table,” the candidate explained. “I think the one thing we do not want to have is censorship by government.”

“I do believe that God created the Earth,” she continued. “And I believe there are issues that need to be addressed — the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the issue of irreducible complexity, the dearth of fossil record.”
READ MORE

Cops, movers refuse to foreclose on 103-year-old woman

In a heart warming story just in time for the holiday season, a 103-year-old woman in Atlanta avoided foreclosure of her home Tuesday afternoon, thanks entirely to the kindness of strangers.

According to WSBTV Atlanta, movers hired by Deutsche Bank AG and police were ready to go through with the bank’s request to remove Vita Lee and her 83-year old daughter from their home.

However, when they first got sight of Lee, they had a change of heart and declined to go through with it. READ MORE


(if video doesn't play try here

Kentucky church bans interracial couples


A small church in Pike County, Kentucky has voted to ban interracial couples from most church activities “to promote greater unity among the church body.”

Melvin Thompson, former pastor of Gulnare Freewill Baptist church, proposed the ban after Stella Harville brought her fiance, Ticha Chikuni, to services in June. Harville, who goes by the name Suzie, played the piano while Chikuni sang.

Before stepping down as pastor in August, Thompson told Harville that her fiance could not sing at the church again. Harville is white and Chikuni, a native of Zimbabwe, is black.
READ MORE

Former GOP sheriff allegedly traded meth for sex

Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. was arrested in Colorado on Wednesday for allegedly trying to exchange methamphetamines for sex with a man. He was a widely respected law enforcement figure.

The former Republican sheriff is currently being held at the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility, which was named in his honor.

He was also named Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriffs’ Association in 2001 and named to the National Commission on Crime Prevention and Control by President Bill Clinton in 1995.

Sullivan was caught on hidden camera offering methamphetamines to an informant. He reportedly hung out at a home for recovering meth addicts, and traded meth for sex with the young men.

Sullivan served as sheriff from 1984 to 2002.

Watch video, courtesy of 9NEWS, below:

Stewart: Is Fox News ‘turning into The 700 Club?’

By Andrew Jones
Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Annoyed over Fox News attacking President Barack Obama for not saying “God” in his Thanksgiving Address, Jon Stewart asked Monday evening if the network was “turning into The 700 Club?”

The Daily Show host took the network to task once again for their latest, peculiar over-reaction in a segment titled “Much Ado About Stuffing.”

“Seriously, failing to mention God in you Thanksgiving address, not a huge Thanksgiving faux pas,” Stewart said. “I could understand if instead of pardoning two male turkeys, he had married them. Then I could understand Fox getting bent out of shape.”
READ MORE

9 Worst Recession Ghost Towns in America


By BLAIRE BRIODY, The Fiscal Times
August 3, 2011

merica has a new kind of ghost town, haunted by the spirits of the recession. Developers caught up in the runaway housing boom overbuilt and oversold lots, houses and condos, leaving neighborhoods barren with uninhabited model homes, eerily desolate luxury condos, and abandoned McMansions in the aftermath of the collapse.

Most of these recession ghost towns lie in heavily-hit regions of the housing crisis: South Florida, Arizona, California and Nevada. Some in metropolitan areas like Phoenix and Miami, have a better chance of surviving after the housing market recovers, but others are in remote desert developments where municipal services have long since left. “We saw a lot of overbuilding in areas where there isn’t going to be much buying activity,” says Rick Sharga of RealityTrac. “Those areas are going to take a long time to come back, if they ever do.” READ MORE

A Look at America's Geography Shows That the Tea Party Is Doomed

2010 Political Map

Even as the movement's grip tightens on the GOP, its influence is melting away across vast swaths of America, thanks to centuries-old regional traditions.
November 29, 2011

When 2011 began, the Tea Party movement had reason to think it had seized control of Maine. Their candidate, Paul LePage, the manager of a chain of scrappy surplus-and-salvage stores, had won the governor’s mansion on a promise to slash taxes, regulations, spending, and social services. Republicans had captured both houses of the state legislature for the first time in decades, to the surprise of the party’s leaders themselves. Tea Party sympathizers had taken over the GOP state convention, rewriting the party’s platform to demand the closure of the borders, the elimination of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Department of Education, a prohibition on stimulus spending, a “return to the principles of Austrian Economics,” and a prohibition on “any participation in efforts to create a one world government.” A land developer had been put in charge of environmental protection, a Tea Party activist was made economic development chief, and corporate lobbyists served as the governor’s key advisers. A northern New England state’s rather liberal Democrats and notoriously moderate Republican establishment had been vanquished.

Or so they thought. READ MORE

The Shocking Ways the Corporate Prison Industry Games the System


The private prison system has rebounded, growing dramatically, and making big bucks with huge help from the Feds, as large numbers of immigrants are incarcerated.
November 29, 2011

The United States, with just 5 percent of the world’s population, currently holds 25 percent of the world's prisoners, and for the last 30 years America’s business entrepreneurs have found a lucrative way to cash in on the incarceration surplus: private for-profit prisons.

While the implications of an industry that locks human beings in cages for profit is an old story, there is an important part of the history of private prisons that often goes untold.
READ MORE

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Krugman is Wrong: The Real Reason to Raise Taxes on the Rich

I always feel bad when I disagree with Paul Krugman, because he's one of the best spokesmen that the American left has right now. But today I must do that. He has the right conclusion- tax the rich- but he's arguing it for the wrong reasons, which unfortunately strengthen the conservative position. I agree, let's tax the rich, but let's do so for the right reasons.

Paul Krugman's new column today is supported by a blog post where he writes that:

So, what we learn from IRS data is that in 2007, before the Great Recession depressed everyone’s income, the top 0.1% had around $1 trillion in taxable income...

So let’s suppose that it was possible to collect an additional 10 percent of that super-elite’s income in taxes, to the tune of $100 billion a year. Read more

The Looming GOP Tax Hike

Following up on the last item, all six of the Republican members of the super-committee wrote a joint op-ed for the Washington Post today, trying to avoid blame for the panel’s failure. There’s a lot of nonsense in the piece, but the gist is about what you’d expect: Democrats wanted the GOP to accept some tax increases as part of a balanced compromise, and Republicans refused.

There was, however, one tidbit in the op-ed that stood out for me. From the piece: Read more

Pakistan tells NATO to leave air base

Pakistan tells NATO to leave air base
26 Nov 2011

The Pakistani government has given the US fifteen days to vacate an airfield in Balochistan province after an alleged cross-border attack which killed at least 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The attack on a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan also wounded at least a dozen soldiers. A spokesman for the NATO-led alliance in Afghanistan confirmed on Saturday that it was "highly likely" the alliance's aircraft killed Pakistani soldiers...

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The topic can be found here:

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Wow: Even David Frum Agrees that Republicans Have Lost It

If you haven't read this David Frum analysis of the Republican Party in New York magazine, you are missing out.



The Bush years cannot be repudiated, but the memory of them can be discarded to make way for a new and more radical ideology, assembled from bits of the old GOP platform that were once sublimated by the party elites but now roam the land freely: ultralibertarianism, crank monetary theories, populist fury, and paranoid visions of a Democratic Party controlled by ACORN and the New Black Panthers. For the past three years, the media have praised the enthusiasm and energy the tea party has brought to the GOP. Yet it’s telling that that movement has failed time and again to produce even a remotely credible candidate for president. Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich: The list of tea-party candidates reads like the early history of the U.S. space program, a series of humiliating fizzles and explosions that never achieved liftoff. A political movement that never took governing seriously was exploited by a succession of political entrepreneurs uninterested in governing—but all too interested in merchandising. Much as viewers tune in to American Idol to laugh at the inept, borderline dysfunctional early auditions, these tea-party champions provide a ghoulish type of news entertainment each time they reveal that they know nothing about public affairs and have never attempted to learn. But Cain’s gaffe on Libya or Perry’s brain freeze on the Department of Energy are not only indicators of bad leadership. They are indicators of a crisis of followership. The tea party never demanded knowledge or concern for governance, and so of course it never got them. Read more

Foreclosed Homeowners Re-Occupy Their Homes

Zaineb Mohammed, New America Media: "On Dec. 6, there will be a national day of action, 'Occupy Our Homes,' where people across the country facing predicaments similar to Gage and Richardson may follow their lead. Partly inspired by the Occupy movement, the day of action is supported by various community organizations like Take Back the Land and ACCE. The call to action is for people to move back into their foreclosed properties and to defend the properties of families facing eviction."
Read the Article

Naomi Wolf | The Shocking Truth About the Crackdown on Occupy



Naomi Wolf, Guardian UK
Wolf writes: "In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces - pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS - to make war on peaceful citizens."
READ MORE

Arctic sea ice loss unprecedented in 1,450 years

23 Nov 2011 The recent loss of sea ice in the Arctic is greater than any natural variation in the past 1½ millennia, a Canadian study shows. In September, Germany's University of Bremen reported that sea ice had hit a record low, based on data from a Japanese sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite. The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, using a different satellite data set, reported that the sea ice coverage in 2011 was the second-lowest on record, after the record set in 2007.
READ MORE

Pakistan blocks NATO supply route to Afghanistan after raid kills 28

--NATO helicopters attack military checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan; Pakistan calls the deadly raid a flagrant violation of its sovereignty. 26 Nov 2011 NATO helicopters attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing up to 28 troops and prompting Pakistan to shut vital supply routes for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said. Pakistan called that raid a flagrant violation of its sovereignty. The Foreign Office equally condemned Saturday's attack.
READ MORE

US: Senate To Vote On Legislation That Allows U.S. Military to Detain Americans Without Charge or Trial


Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:11 CST
Print
FEMA detention camp
© n/a
FEMA detention facility.
Remember that debate between Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, where Mr. Gingrich suggested we should expand and strengthen the Patriot Act in the name of protecting US citizens from terrorists? Mr. Gingrich indicated that there exists a line between criminal law and the war on terror, and that we need not worry the government will overstep its bounds.

While Americans enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend and join the annual running of the bulls celebration at malls and retail outlets, something sinister is taking place in Congress - and it should scare the hell out of you. If the President and Senate have their way, your front lawn will soon become a battlefield, and you'll be subjected to military, not criminal, law. READ MORE

David Brooks Heaps Praise on Mitt Romney for Wanting to Partially Privatize Medicare

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 03:30 PM PST



Who needs Fox News when we've got PBS out there spewing the same type of nonsense we hear nonstop there, and allowing David Brooks to come on the air opining the failure of the so-called "Super Committee" to reach a deal and praising Mitt Romney for embracing the advice of Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin, who were urging the committee to partially privatize Medicare. But that's exactly what we got this Monday on The Charlie Rose Show.
READ MORE

Lawrence O'Donnell Rewrites Mitt Romney's Dishonest Campaign Ad

Posted: 25 Nov 2011 05:00 PM PST



Lawrence O'Donnell took a shot at the Rick Perry and Mitt Romney campaigns for their recent, lying campaign ads and at the media for allowing them to get away with this sort of dishonest advertising due to their refusal for the most part, to use the word "lie."

Think Progress came up with a response to the Romney ad which Lawrence played at the end of this segment which is, as they noted, "*Accurate, according to the Romney standard of accuracy."
READ MORE

New Front-Runner Gingrich's History of Contempt for Poor Children


I'm so looking forward to this GOP primary with Newt Gingrich as the front runner. He's been around for so long, has said so many incredibly idiotic things and continues to do so, that for a political blogger it's the mother lode for material.

Here's one of my favorites from Mr Family Values back in the 90s:

In 1994, during the early days of the public debate on welfare reform, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich ignited a media firestorm by suggesting that orphanages are better for poor children than life with a mother on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Responding to blistering criticism, he first defended the proposal by invoking the idyllic orphanage life of the 1938 film "Boys Town," finally retreating, at least rhetorically, from the entire controversy. Orphanages became just another blip on the nation's radar screen, or so it seemed. Read more

Video: Former Drug Czar Gets Destroyed in Legalization Debate

This recent debate between former Drug Czar John Walters and blogger/author Glenn Greenwald is worth watching in its entirety.

Janus Forum - Should the US Legalize Drugs? from Brown University on Vimeo.


Janus Forum - Should the US Legalize Drugs? from Brown University on Vimeo.

Since 98% of Greenwald’s writing isn’t even about drug policy, it’s easy to forget what a powerful advocate for reform he really is. His opening statement is impressive and couldn’t easily be improved upon. Walters is terribly boring and dispassionate by comparison, aside from being completely wrong about everything. Read more

Walker Recall: Death Threats and Signatures

A protest against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, 03/12/11. (photo: Sue Peacock/flickr)

Channel 3000
Excerpt: "Opponents of Gov. Scott Walker said they have faced threats and thefts in the days since the recall effort began.... The threats involved phone calls from an area code in Minnesota.... 'They said, 'If you don't stop circulating recall petitions, we will kill you,' ... He said I had attracted the attention of some very bad people, and my life and the lives of my family were in danger'"
READ MORE

A $400 million twist: Huguette Clark signed two wills, one to her family

Huguette Clark with one of her prized dolls. She reached age 98 without declaring who should receive her copper-mining fortune, and then signed two contradictory wills back to back.


By Bill Dedman
Investigative Reporter, msnbc.com

NEW YORK — There is a new surprise in the mysterious story of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark. It turns out that she signed two wills, the first one benefitting her family, the second one cutting out her family altogether. And she signed them one after another, within six weeks.

Despite years of pleading from attorney after attorney, Clark reached age 98 without directing who should inherit one of America's great fortunes from the Gilded Age, estimated to be at least $400 million. She made no plan for her $100 million oceanfront estate in Santa Barbara, Calif.; her $20 million country house in New Canaan, Conn.; her three apartments on New York's Fifth Avenue, worth up to $100 million; her precious paintings by Renoir and Monet, or her doll collection worth millions.
READ MORE

Monday, November 28, 2011

Georgia Business Announces Refusal To Hire "Until Obama Is Gone"

Via ThinkProgress:



Bill Looman, who owns U.S. Cranes, LLC in Waco, Georgia, explained that while “I’ve got people that I want to hire now,” he didn’t think he would be able to foot the expense “unless some things change in D.C.”

Not content to simply implement the new policy internally, Looman decided to plaster it on all his company’s trucks. He did so, as 11Alive noted, “for all to see as the trucks roll up and down roads, highways and interstates.”
READ MORE

NASA launches Curiosity, nuclear- powered rover to Mars in search of life

Terry Renna/AP
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover lifts off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday.

It will take 8½ months for Curiosity to reach Mars following a journey of 354 million miles

BY Associated Press
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Saturday, November 26 2011, 11:01 AM

The world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer, NASA's Curiosity rover, rocketed toward Mars on Saturday on a search for evidence that the red planet might once have been home to itsy-bitsy life.

It will take 8½ months for Curiosity to reach Mars following a journey of 354 million miles.
READ MORE

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

New Payment System Sidesteps Credit Cards


By Alyson Shontell, THE BUSINESS INSIDER
November 11, 2011

here's a tiny 12-person startup churning out of Des Moines, Iowa.

Dwolla was founded by 28-year-old Ben Milne; it's an innovative online payment system that sidesteps credit cards completely.

Milne has no finance background yet his little operation is moving between $30 and $50 million per month; it's on track to move more than $350 million in the next year.

Unlike PayPal, Dwolla doesn't take a percentage of the transaction. It only asks for $0.25 whether it's moving $1 or $1,000.

We interviewed Milne about how he is building a credit card killer and Square rival from the middle of the nation where VCs and press are scarce.

BI: We hear you're making credit card companies angry. How are you doing that?
READ MORE

Courts freeze assets of Bernie Madoff associate Sonja Kohn

Ludwig Schedl/Bloomberg Sonja Kohn, 63, reportedly made at least $56 million introducing clients to Madoff.

Judge says Kohn made $56 million introducing clients to fraudster

BY Bloomberg News
Sunday, November 27 2011, 12:59 AM

A U.K. court froze the assets of Bernard Madoff associate Sonja Kohn, the former chairwoman of Bank Medici AG, who a judge said made at least $56 million introducing clients to the convicted fraudster.

Liquidators of Madoff’s estate are pursuing Kohn and the directors of Madoff Securities International Ltd., the company’s English unit, for the return of assets.
READ MORE

Six HIV patients die after church tells them to stop taking meds because they were healed by God: report


VIDEO: therapy involves screaming to purge the devil, in place of drugs designed to keep HIV patients alive

BY Amanda Mikelberg
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, November 27 2011, 2:58 AM

At least six HIV-positive people have died after evangelical churches in Britain reportedly told them to stop taking their medication because they had been healed by God.

Pastors at several churches in England and Scotland told undercover Sky News reporters that they could be healed through an exorcism-like process that involves shouting over the patients and spraying water in their faces.

READ MORE

Bernie Fine sex abuse scandal signs were at Syracuse, just like with Jerry Sandusky and Penn State


Paper had Bernie Fine sex abuse story years ago

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Originally Published: Sunday, November 27 2011, 10:24 PM
Updated: Monday, November 28 2011, 8:55 AM

His name is Matt Michael, and he used to be a reporter for The Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper, and he started working in the fall of 2002 on a story about a former Syracuse University ball boy accusing a Syracuse assistant coach, Bernie Fine, of molesting him as far back as 1984.
READ MORE

Some Great Cooking Tips You Can Use

At the end of the video you'll see a selection of related cooking tip videos, enjoy.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

This Thanksgiving, Beware the Sharia Turkey

Beware the Sharia Turkey! (photo: Chuck Kennedy/MCT/Shutterstock)

By Jillian Rayfield, TPMMuckraker

24 November 11

You may think that when you buy a Butterball turkey this Thanksgiving you're as American as apple pie. But, you'd be wrong. In fact, you're the victim of a "stealth halal" conspiracy.
READ MORE

Homeland Security Issues Turkey Fryer Warning

By Charlie Spiering, The Washington Examiner

23 November 11

The Department of Homeland Security is taking any threat seriously during the Thanksgiving holiday, including the ominous threat to our national security posed by turkey fryers.
READ MORE

Feelings of Guilt May Be Top Factor in PTSD

An anxious Marine waits to take psychological tests at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, CA, 09/29/09. (photo: Jae C. Hong/AP)

Gregg Zoroya, USA Today
Gregg Zoroya reports: "The idea of 'moral injury' as a cause of PTSD is new to psychiatry. The American Psychiatric Association is only now considering new diagnostic criteria for the disorder that would include feelings of shame and guilt, says David Spiegel, a member of the working group rewriting the PTSD section. Traditionally, PTSD symptoms such as nightmares or numbness to the world have been linked to combat violence, fear of being killed or loss of friends."
READ MORE

Bisphenol A Spikes 1,200% After Eating Canned Soup


Kerry Sheridan, Agence France-Presse
Sheridan reports: "People who ate canned soup for five days straight saw their urinary levels of the chemical bisphenol A spike 1,200 percent compared to those who ate fresh soup, US researchers said on Tuesday. The randomized study, described as 'one of the first to quantify BPA levels in humans after ingestion of canned foods,' was done by Harvard University researchers and appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association's November 23 issue."
READ MORE

America Has Become a Fascist Police State

A scene from director Michael Radford's version of Orwell's classic novel - 1984. (photo: MGM Studios Inc.)

By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News

26 November 11

George Orwell's "1984" wasn't meant to be an instruction manual.

One word that emerged from the novel was the word "doublespeak," where truth is deliberately obfuscated through clever wording. In some cases, the meaning of a word is reversed entirely. Oceania, the totalitarian regime in Orwell's book, used doublespeak as a matter of course. The Ministry of Truth specialized in propaganda. The Ministry of Love was a secretive torture complex.

In the early years of public school, or in public addresses by politicians, America is touted as the Land of the Free, or the Land of Opportunity, or the Greatest Country on Earth. We're taught from near-infancy that this country was founded on the right to say what you want, whenever, wherever, to whomever. We're told we have the freedom to assemble peacefully, to petition our leaders for a redress of grievances. We're taught that if you're apprehended by the law, you have the right to a fair trial and legal representation.
READ MORE

Everything You Want to Know About What OWS Is Up To Now (And Why It Just Had Its Biggest Media Week Ever)



"Screw us and we multiply," protesters declared last week after a series of crackdowns. The pithy slogan resonates: after the NYPD's cruel Zuccotti raid stunned onlookers, the number of events attended, endorsed, or created by the New York Occupy protesters has kept on expanding.

Indeed, thanks to those raids and rebunds, Pew reports that OWS had its biggest press week yet.

New actions, campaigns and ideas are being hatched at a rapid rate--and new occupations are already occurring.
READ MORE

Norquist: GOP Won't Be 'Fooled' Into Raising Taxes

Posted: 21 Nov 2011 05:00 PM PST

As a Congressional "super committee" tasked with cutting the deficit on the verge of failure, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist insisted in a series of interviews Monday that it wasn't his fault.

Norquist told CNN's Carol Costello that Republicans were willing to "compromise" with Democrats as long as additional tax revenues were off the table.

At least 279 Republican members of the current Congress have signed Norquist's pledge to never raise taxes.
READ MORE

SNL's Seth Meyers Mocks Congress for Saying Pizza is a Vegetable


By Heather

Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers had a bit of fun this weekend by mocking the Republicans in Congress for wanting to classify pizza as a vegetable in an attempt to fight the Obama administration's attempt to make federally-subsidized school lunches more healthy -- House Republicans Say Pizza Is a Vegetable.
READ MORE

Taibbi Highlights Hypocrisy of Punishment of Wall Street vs. Main Street

In an article at Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi contrasts the story of a woman who committed food stamp fraud and recieved a harsh penalty with the fraudsters of Wall Street, who, at worst, got slaps on the wrist for their crimes. Taibbi explains:

Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi sentenced a mother of two named Anita McLemore to three years in federal prison for lying on a government application in order to obtain food stamps.

Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was ineligible to receive food stamps, so she lied about her past in order to feed her two children.

The total "cost" of her fraud was $4,367. She has paid the money back. But paying the money back was not enough for federal Judge Henry Wingate.
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The how, what and where of Nato supply trucks


KABUL: Nato helicopters attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing up to 28 troops and prompting Pakistan to shut the vital supply route for Nato troops fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.

Nato supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan were halted at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near Peshawar hours after the raid, officials said.

Following are some facts about the Pakistani supply routes for Nato forces fighting in Afghanistan and the alternatives:
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Mitt Romney Implies He Destroyed Hard Drives To Block Access From Political Opposition



In the midst of everything going on, this story has fallen by the wayside, but it's an important one, especially if you think Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination for 2012. At the end of Romney's term as governor, Romney's staffers destroyed emails, sold publicly-owned hard drives to staffers, and made sure no digital tracks were left behind. This action flies in the face of public records laws in Massachusetts, which require that electronic records be preserved for state archives. (Bush administration, anyone?)
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Right-Wing End-Times Theology and the Politics of the Antichrist Smear


Alleged would-be presidential assassin Ortega-Hernandez reportedly called Obama 'the Antichrist.' So who put that idea in his head?
November 20, 2011

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a 21-year-old from Idaho Falls, Idaho, was charged this week with attempting to assassinate Barack Obama by firing rifle shots at the presidential residence at the White House. The president, Ortega-Hernandez reportedly maintained, is the Antichrist.
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