ONTD_Political

DOD civilians use 'strength in numbers' to fight LQA loss

Fri, 24 May 2013 16:49:57 GMT

STUTTGART, Germany — Soon after Pete McCollaum received word that the government was going to cut off his housing allowance and seek repayment for all past subsidies it says it paid him in error, he wanted to know how many others were in the same bank-busting boat.

“Do you know how to start a Facebook account,” McCollaum, a retired Special Forces officer, asked fellow Army civilian Rik Thibodeau, who received word last month that he too was losing the allowance due to government error.

Now, just two weeks after launching their Facebook page, the Vicenza, Italy-based civilians have more than 300 members on the social media site, which is proving to be a rallying point for Defense Department civilian workers stretching from Germany to Japan as they try to figure out their next move.

“People are finding out about it by word of mouth,” Thibodeau said. “We’re finding strength in numbers.”

Nearly 700 DOD civilians, almost all of whom are based in Europe and the Pacific, were flagged during a Defense Department’s audit of overseas housing allowance allotments. As a result, those who were erroneously receiving the benefit are now in debt to the government for all past housing allowance payments, which can be as much as $50,000 annually.

DOD has said it intends to forgive the debt if workers, who received the allowance through no fault of their own, apply for waivers. But there is a hitch: First those workers must sign a document that states they accept responsibility for the debt.

“Here’s the problem we have with the waiver — you first have to sign a form accepting the debt. But what happens if they don’t approve the waiver? What’s your recourse?” Thibodeau said. “There’s a lot of angst and anger.”

Instead, those affected say they should not be penalized for the government’s mistakes and that an exception to policy or grandfather clause should be established to allow employees to continue receiving their housing benefits.

“Allow us to finish our overseas tours under the terms of our contracts,” Thibodeau said. “Through attrition, the problem is solved. Nobody’s lives are hurt or ruined. It should be simple. It should be easy.”

Those affected run the professional gamut — DOD cybersecurity specialists, Combatant Command desk officers, communications specialists.

The DOD has not released how much money has been erroneously paid to workers through the years.

On the Facebook page, many say they feel a sense of betrayal. And they have supporters in high places.

Gen. James Thurman, commander of U.S. Forces in Korea, said DOD’s decision is disrupting the military’s work on the Korean Peninsula at a critical time for national security.

“The problem was created by a misinterpretation of existing regulations. The net result of what is essentially a clerical error will be a significant loss of expertise and experience at a time Korea can least afford to have this impact,” Thurman wrote in an April 30 memorandum to Jessica L. Wright, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

Thurman added that the action also will cost DOD more money in the long term as the military sustains added relocation costs to bring in new LQA-eligible workers. Thurman said DOD should seek legislative relief to allow current workers to continue their jobs with the benefits they were first promised.

Meanwhile, the employees are calling on lawmakers to intervene on their behalf by pressuring the DOD to institute the grandfather clause.

“I fail to understand how so many HR professionals working in Europe, Korea & Japan misinterpreted the same regulations with respect to the LQA entitlement,” wrote one member of the Facebook group. “And if so, why are they not being held accountable for their actions? This action by my beloved (DOD) government, will ruin me financially!”

Added another member: “I grew up on the streets of Watts, California, not far from Crenshaw Blvd. Hard life. Hard people. I’m not easily moved. Things don’t normally faze me deep down. I can’t remember the last time I cried. The other night, when my oldest daughter asked me ‘Daddy, are we going to be OK? Will we be poor?’ I couldn’t look her in the eye.”

The Defense Department said that the best course of action for employees is to file waivers.

Regarding the employees’ quest for a grandfather clause, DOD officials said that since the department regards the original payments in violation of existing regulations, there is no way to institute such a clause.

“Grandfathering is a practice that allows a practice that is no longer ‘legal’ to continue even after a law or rule changes that makes the practice not ‘legal’ anymore. An example would be allowing buildings built prior to a fire code change to not comply with the new fire code,” said Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a DOD spokeswoman, in statement. “In this case, the payment of LQA was in error.”

DOD has granted one-year LQA extensions to all employees, a measure intended to provide some relief as give them time to find other work or living arrangements, Hull-Ryde said. (which just adds more to their debt)

While DOD says those affected are to receive the extension, some workers say they’ve already had their allowances cut off. “It says right in my notification paperwork that I would continue getting LQA for 12 more months ... but I think we’ve all learned that ‘in writing’ means nothing anymore,” said one Facebook group member whose housing allowance already is missing in his paycheck.

Military officials in Europe said corrective measures have been taken to restore those housing payments to workers originally granted the year extension. Meanwhile, the Defense Department on Wednesday formally extended the one-year grace period to all 659 employees affected. Initially some of those workers had been determined ineligible for the one-year extension, however, DOD reversed course and decided to grant extensions to everyone.

It’s still unclear when the payments will restart for those workers, which in the case of Europe total about 140.

However, the grace period does little to resolve the larger problems, workers said.

“The extension of LQA for 12 months is not the whole story. Huge financial commitments (mortgages, college choices, auto purchases, negotiated salaries, amount of child support payments, credit ratings etc) were made based on the authorization of LQA,” said one affected worker on a Facebook posting.

Some workers say they also have been told they have lost their right to have their household goods shipped back to the U.S. since that benefit is connected to their housing allowance. With insufficient income to pay the rent in costly locales such as Germany and Japan, and not enough to move back to the U.S. — relocation can cost up to $15,000 (lbr it's more like $50,000-$75,000) — some workers have described themselves as “stranded.”

“The department is concerned about the effect cessation of LQA payments will have on morale and retention and understands that employees who have been receiving LQA have made life choices based upon their continued payment of it,” Hull-Ryde said.

Prior to notifying the affected workers, most of whom were informed by May 1, military officials had prepared a set of talking points for supervisors as they briefed those affected. The internal document, obtained by members of the Facebook group, cautioned that some workers could become suicidal.

“Should an employee appear that he/she may pose a threat to himself/herself/others, immediately alert your chain of command and designated emergency responders,” the document stated.

Bruce Anderson, a spokesman for USAREUR, said the internal document was meant to help guide supervisors working with affected employees and wasn’t meant for public consumption “because of the extremely personal nature of the contents.”

“It was intended to help prepare supervisors understand the potentially devastating effects of this news, and prepare the supervisor to help the employee through the initial shock,” Anderson said.

Meanwhile, many members of the Facebook group have fired off letters to members of Congress. They say they plan to keep the pressure on as they seek to get their benefits reinstated.

Some of the 659 affected workers were deemed ineligible for the benefit because they took a temporary nonappropriated fund job overseas while waiting to be hired for a regular government service position. According to DOD, workers hired under such conditions can be deemed ineligible. Others who worked for more than one employer overseas, such as two contractors, before accepting a government service post also are ineligible, according to DOD.

But if the rules regulating who is eligible for housing allowances are so convoluted and widely misunderstood by military commands, rank-and-file workers shouldn’t be the ones to suffer the consequences, members of the Facebook group contend.

“They should have focused more on getting a clear regulation,” said Benjamin Everson, a Stuttgart-based civilian who lost his housing allowance. “They’re trying to bandage the wound without fixing the problem.”

Many of those affected have spent careers navigating through the complex world of military regulations and have begun to do some digging. McCollaum, for example, unearthed a DOD regulation — Section 2773a of Title 10 of the United States Code — that states those who made the error can be held “pecuniarily liable” for accounting mistakes. DOD did not respond to a question about that regulation and whether it could shift the debt burden away from the 659 workers.

McCollaum is one the workers who is planning to fight to get his benefits restored, with the help of his new Facebook comrades, whom he likened to a military headquarters.

“We’re getting organized,” he said. “It’s hard to crack this nut all by yourself.”

source

My mother is actually affected by this mess and it is making me so angry! It is written in her (and everybody else's) contract with the government that she is entitled to LQA! Apparently, contracts mean nothing anymore and the government can just say say "oops, our bad but you're going to have to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars because of a mistake WE made".

If you are confused about what exactly is going on or you just want more information, here are some helpful links.

LQA (Living Quarters Allowance): FAQ

http://www.stripes.com/news/error-could-force-civilian-employees-in-europe-to-repay-housing-allowances-1.193274

http://www.stripes.com/news/annual-housing-allowance-survey-for-germany-to-begin-friday-1.209825

http://www.stripes.com/news/dod-civilians-notified-about-housing-benefit-error-1.219246

http://www.stripes.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/must-keep-housing-allowance-1.220040

http://www.stripes.com/news/some-dod-civilian-employees-to-get-waivers-on-lqa-repayments-1.203201

And PLEASE sign the whitehouse.gov petition!

Okinawans angry with Hashimoto say sex services don't curb crime

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:04:19 GMT

Okinawans angry with Hashimoto say sex services don't curb crime

Citing the failure of similar attempts decades earlier, Okinawan residents have criticized Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's recent suggestion that U.S. military members use legal sex services to curb sexual assaults.

According to public documents, the number of rapes did not decline after "special entertainment districts" were set up for the U.S. military 63 years ago, and local activists say the only solution is to move the bases off Okinawa.

In 1949, Koshin Shikiya, who was then the head of the civilian government in Okinawa that was still under U.S. control, asked U.S. military authorities to create facilities where soldiers and sailors could buy sexual services. Shikiya made the request because of the frequent sexual crimes committed by U.S. military personnel.

Arguing that such facilities were "a realistic social need," the request followed the reasoning that, "If consideration had been given by the military authorities for facilities where young military personnel could satisfy their sexual urges, it might have been possible to prevent these crimes."

In 1950, the civilian government played a leading role in setting up four special entertainment districts, and civilians were allowed to operate brothels aimed at the U.S. military.

In a published history of Ginowan city, local residents described what the situation was like.

"It was very dangerous because there were many foreigners who came to steal women," one man commented. "Special entertainment districts were set up away from residential areas, and we had nothing to do with those districts."

According to Harumi Miyagi, 63, an Okinawan researcher on women's history, however, such districts also failed in their primary purpose.

"There was no decrease in sex crimes even after the districts were established," she said.

In 1995, after U.S. military personnel raped a schoolgirl in Okinawa, Miyagi and others established a group called Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence. Going through old public documents and personal testimonies, the group compiled annual statistics on sex crimes committed by U.S. military personnel.

According to the latest report, after the special entertainment districts were established in 1950, there was an increase in cases of women working at sex businesses or restaurants being taken away from the districts and raped. Cases of teenagers becoming victims of sex crimes continued.

Violent attacks and sex crimes became more prevalent when Okinawa served as the launching ground for the U.S. military during the Korean War in the early 1950s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s.

Until 1972, when Okinawa was returned to Japan, about 500 cases of sex crimes were reported. However, that figure is considered to be only the tip of the iceberg as women continue to come forward about crimes committed decades ago.

With such crimes continuing even after Okinawa was returned to Japan, there have been repeated calls to revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, which prevents U.S. military personnel from being detained until an indictment is handed down if they evade police and can return to their base. However, so far no such revision has occurred.

"The structural violence that is contained in the military is always directed at those in weak positions, such as women and children," Miyagi said. "In order to fundamentally protect the women of Okinawa, the only argument to be made is that the military and bases are not needed here."

Although Hashimoto has said that the United States should squarely face the issue of the human rights of Okinawans, there are those who feel he does not understand the true plight of the people of Okinawa.

Among them is 73-year-old Suzuyo Takazato, co-leader of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence and a former Naha municipal assembly member.

"I don't like him acting as though he is the protector of Okinawa," she said. "I wonder how much he understands the history of pain and suffering involving the military and sex. Because one of the major preconditions for Hashimoto is the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty structure that forces U.S. military bases on Okinawa, all he is doing is discriminating against Okinawa."

LOCAL COMMUNITIES CLEAN UP DIRTY PAST

Hashimoto's comments also come at a time when Okinawa is making strenuous efforts to distance itself from its past links to the sex industry.

About 700 meters from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan lies an area known as Maehara Shinmachi. In 1950, it became one of the special entertainment districts. Three years later, however, the U.S. military enforced stricter regulations on military personnel about using the district in order to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

After Okinawa was returned to Japan and the anti-prostitution law was enforced, Maehara Shinmachi became a shady sex industry area catering to tourists.

About 100 "establishments" lined both sides of narrow alleys and illegal prostitution was conducted in small rooms set up in each outlet. Police fought a seemingly unending battle against the operators of such businesses, with new shops opening up soon after a police raid shut down others.

However, about four years ago, the Ginowan municipal government began a campaign to clean up the image of the area. Patrols set up with the police and local women's organizations led to a decline in business, which forced many establishments to close.

By last year, the area was rid of all signs of the dirty linen that had tarnished its image.

A 62-year-old woman who operated a bar in the area until a few years ago and who still lives in Maehara Shinmachi, said, "There were many women who worked here because they had debts or children and had to work because they needed the money. They likely have continued to work in the sex industry either in Naha or outside of Okinawa."

Yoichi Iha, 61, was Ginowan mayor when the campaign began.

"Maehara Shinmachi is the negative legacy of the period when Okinawa was under U.S. military rule," he said. "With an eye toward developing a new district after Futenma is relocated, the times did not permit that area to continue to exist."

--

This seemed like a really interesting article, looking how the people of Okinawa felt about what Hashimoto said, and a bit of history.

The thing with Hashimoto is still unfolding; just today two former comfort women who were supposed to meet with him today cancelled, saying they basically didn't want to be Hashimoto's insincere photo-op apology (Hashimoto said this was "regrettable"), Hashimoto backpedaled some more and said he wanted to apologize to Americans and American troops for suggesting the US military people in Japan use sex services to curb their appetites so they wouldn't go around raping people, and a group of lawyers in Osaka called for him to be recalled as mayor. Yesterday, a member of his party withdrew their candidacy for an election they were running in, citing what Hashimoto said, and one of the parties the Ishin no Kai had an alliance dissolved their partnership and said they would not help the Ishin no Kai, or accept help from them, in the upcoming elections.

Basically, Hashimoto screwed himself and his party BIG TIME with this.

On a scale of Billygate to Iran-Contra, how bad are the Obama scandals? Let this chart help you!

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:45:59 GMT

Worse than Watergate. That's the refrain coming from the Obama administration's critics as it scrambles to tamp down a growing pile of scandals. "The Obama administration's cover-up of the September 11, 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack surpasses Watergate," states Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). The IRS-tea party scandal "is far worse than Watergate," according to Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). And Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu maintains that Fast and Furious "is a much larger scandal than Watergate." And of course there is a hashtag: #WorseThanWatergate.

Comparing the scandal du jour to Watergate is an easy way to score political points. (Conservatives aren't the only guilty ones here.) But if you're interested in making a more subtle and perhaps accurate comparison, you need only refer to the United States' long history of White House scandals, starting in the first days of the republic.

To help you keep track of them, we've plotted more than 25 on this matrix, organized by their relative seriousness and their place in our current collective memory. (The current crop of Obama scandals aren't on there since it's not yet clear where they fall on the continuum between, say, Billygate and Iran-Contra. See a missing scandal? Suggest it in the comments.)

THE SCANDALS

Watergate: The mother of all White House Scandals. It had everything but sex: A burglary, spying on political opponents, secret tapes, an enemies list, obstruction of justice, campaign-finance shenanigans, onimous-sounding acronyms (CREEP), memorable denials ("I am not a crook"), congressional investigations, crusading journalists, articles of impeachment, and the first resignation of a sitting president. Beat that, Benghazi.

Spiro Agnew: Before Richard Nixon stepped down, he was preceded by his alliteration-prone vice president, who had been charged with taking bribes and evading taxes. Agnew insisted until the very end that the "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history" had gotten it all wrong.

Iran-Contra: High-ranking officials in the Reagan Administration made an end-run around federal law by secretly selling missiles to Iran in order to help free American hostages in Lebanon and fund the Nicaraguan contra rebels. What could go wrong?

Missing Iraqi WMD: President George W. Bush and top members of his cabinet insist that Saddam Hussein is definitely almost nearly developing and or amassing weapons of mass destruction which he might probably absolutely use against us. The United States launches a preemptive invasion of Iraq. Ten years, tens of thousands of deaths, and billions of dollars later, the search for the elusive WMDs continues.

Plamegate: After former ambassador Joe Wilson blew the whistle on the Bush White House's claims of Saddam's pursuit of nuclear materials, his wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a CIA agent. The subsequent investigation leads to the conviction (and pardon) of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, "Scooter" Libby.

Abu Ghraib, torture memos: Prisoner abuse at American military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan and the CIA's extradition and torture program were authorized by Bush and top administration officials. But that's all behind us now.

NSA spying on US citizens: After 9/11, Bush authorized the National Security Agency to covertly surveil Americans' email and phone calls—in violation of federal law.

Pentagon Papers: A secret Pentagon history of the Vietnam War leaked by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg revealed that the Johnson administration had been lying about the true scope and of the war. The Nixon White House tried to prevent their publication

Teapot Dome: Before Watergate, there was Teapot Dome, the early 1920s scandal that led to President Warren G. Harding's secretary of the interior being convicted for accepting bribes from oil companies to lease Navy petroleum reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming.

DNC campaign finance scandals: In 1996, Vice President Al Gore attended an event at a California Buddhist temple that illegally funneled $65,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Eventually, the party had to return nearly $3 million in forbidden gifts, some from foreign donors such as James Riady, an Indonesian businessman who was fined $8.6 million.

Johnson impeachment: Disputes between President Andrew Johnson and Radical Republicans in Congress spun into a constitutional crisis when the House voted to impeach him in 1868. He survived in the Senate—by one vote.

Teddy Roosevelt's corporate cash: After winning election as a trust-buster in 1904, Roosevelt and the Republican Party are revealed to have quietly courted big corporate donors.

The Grant administration: President Ulysses S. Grant's terms were marred by a succession of high-level scandals, including the Whiskey Ring, Belknap affair, the Delano Affair, the salary grab, and the Cattelism scandal. The administration's endemic corruption became known as "Grantism."

LBJ's mystery money: In 1963, Life magazine was preparing a bombshell exposé on how Vice President Lyndon Johnson had amassed a fortune through his connections to Texas oil barons. The article, which biographer Robert Caro says would have linked LBJ to the Bobby Brown Scandal, was set to drop in late November. Kennedy's assassination killed the story and a planned Senate investigation.

XYZ Affair: A diplomatic kerfuffle led to an undeclared "Quasi War" between the United States and France in the late 1790s. Back home, it led to passage of the draconian Alien and Sedition Acts and fueled the growing split between President John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Hamilton's affair and insider trading: In 1797, former treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton revealed that he had carried on an affair with a married woman—while bribing her husband to let it to continue. He also defended himself against accusations of having used his position to engage in insider trading.

US attorney firings: In 2007, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned amid an investigation into whether the firing of nine US attorneys in 2006 was politically motivated.

Pardongate: As he left the White House in January, 2001, President Bill Clinton hastily pardoned Susan McDougal (for contempt of court during the Whitewater case), his brother Roger (for old drug charges), and Marc Rich, a fugitive tax cheat whose wife had been a major Clinton donor.

Lincoln Bedroom: The Clinton White House provided perks to big donors including stays in the Lincoln Bedroom as well as coffees, golf outings, or morning jogs with the president.

Whitewater: Failed Arkansas land deals involving Bill and Hilary Clinton spawns a wide-ranging investigation into several -gates: Filegate, Travelgate, and Troopergate (and eventually Ken Starr's probe of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair).

"Ma, ma, where's my pa?": "Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!" This catchy slogan followed Grover Cleveland after he won election in spite of reports that he had fathered an illegitimate child.

Clinton-Lewinksy affair and impeachment: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," the hug, the blue dress, Ken Starr, "it depends on what the meaning of is is." Good times.

Fast and Furious: A botched ATF operation birthed a conspiracy theory that the Obama administration was coming for Americans' guns.

Jefferson-Hemings affair: Thomas Jefferson was dogged by rumors that he had fathered children with a slave who served as his "concubine." Jefferson never addressed the allegations, but it is now known that Sally Hemings had six of Jefferson's children.

Petticoat Affair, a.k.a. the Eaton Affair: Ridiculous by modern standards, this scandal rocked Washington when Andrew Jackson's secretary of war married a widow too soon after the death of her husband. It led to the resignation of most of the cabinet and was immortalized in the 1936 film, The Gorgeous Hussy, starring Joan Crawford.

Skeetgate: After President Obama says that "at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time," skeptics demand proof. A photo of the president shooting is produced; the skeptics insist it's faked.

Andrew Jackson adultery scandal: Forty years after he wed his wife Rachel, presidential candidate Jackson was attacked for marrying her before her divorce from her first husband was finalized, making Old Hickory an adulterer and the First Lady a bigamist. He blamed the smear campaign for causing her death shortly after he took office.

Solyndra: The federal government gave more than $500 million to a solar firm that went belly up. Even congressional inquisitor Rep. Darryl Issa (R-Calif.) eventually had to concede there was no there there.

Billygate: President Jimmy Carter took major heat when it was revealed that his ne'er-do-well brother Billy had received payments from the Libyan government.

Mary Todd Lincoln's price "flub-dubs": When Abraham Lincoln assumed the presidency, the first lady set about remodeling the White House, but went over budget by $7,000. As complaints of her profligacy spread, the president wrote, "It would stink in the nostrils of the American people to have it said that the President of the United States had approved a bill overrunning an appropriation of $20,000 for flub-dubs for this damned old house when the soldiers cannot have blankets."

Source has links to all the various scandals

Boy Scouts to allow gay youths to join, but not gay scout leaders

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:15:31 GMT

(Photo: Tony Gutierrez, AP)

(CNN) -- Openly gay youths will be allowed to join scouting, a historic decision the Boy Scouts of America says will keep it unclouded by "a single, divisive, and unresolved societal issue."

More than 60% of the group's 1,400-member national council voted Thursday at an annual meeting in Grapevine, Texas, for the change, which takes effect Jan. 1.

"No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone," says the resolution.

The BSA, however, will maintain its ban on gay adult leaders.

"The resolution also reinforces that Scouting is a youth program, and any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting," the 103-year-old organization said in a statement after the vote.

The BSA said there are no plans for further review of the issue.

BSA President Wayne Perry said the vote came after "an extensive dialogue within the scouting family (that) was exhaustive and ... very respectful."

"No matter how you feel about this issue, kids are better off in scouting," Perry told reporters. "Our mission is to serve every kid."

Reaction from interest groups to Thursday's vote was swift.

The Human Rights Campaign said the BSA took a "historic step forward."

"Unfortunately, the new policy does not go far enough, leaving adult Eagle Scouts, scout leaders, and parents behind," the group said.

Scouts for Equality and GLAAD lauded the BSA's "commitment to creating a more inclusive organization."

Jennifer Tyrrell, an Ohio mother who was ousted as a den leader in April 2012 because she's lesbian, called Thursday's vote "incredible."

"They've never been raised to discriminate against anyone regardless of sex or color or anything, so they can't understand why people care so much," she said of her children. "... Definitely, one day, I hope they look back and think that we're part of something amazing."

Tyrrell, in an interview with CNN affiliate KTVT, said that the vote energized her for her next push -- to change Boy Scout policy so that gays and lesbian adults, like herself, can serve as leaders.

"When we used to exclude women from things, when we used to exclude black people from things, and that never has ever worked, but we continue to do it," she said. "I'm going to be around to make sure that that's not the case. We're definitely not going to go away."

Conservative groups and some religious organizations argued against making any change in the membership policy, saying it would dilute the Boy Scout message of morality and potentially destroy the organization.

John Stemberger, founder of OnMyHonor.net, which opposed the resolution, called the vote a "sad day for Scouting."
Stemberger claimed that Boy Scout officials didn't foster a "robust discussion," didn't provide "honest information" and "hid information from the delegates."

He claimed that scouting groups now have two options: to "segregate" gay scouts from heterosexual ones by putting them in separate tents, or "put homosexual boys with other boys and put them at risk."

"We wouldn't put boys and girls sleeping together. Why? Because they're attracted to each other," Stemberger told reporters.

The conservative Family Research Council tweeted: "Sadly, the @boyscouts' legacy of producing great leaders has become yet another casualty of moral compromise."

The vote followed months of intense debate among interest groups and within the ranks of Scouting itself.
In February, the Boy Scouts' national executive board postponed a vote on the issue and ordered a survey of its members.

That survey showed an organization divided by age and, in some cases, by region.
"While a majority of adults in the Scouting community support the BSA's current policy of excluding open and avowed homosexuals, young parents and teens tend to oppose the policy," the survey said.

A BSA spokesman at the time called the issue "among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today."

"The Boy Scouts of America will not sacrifice its mission, or the youth served by the movement, by allowing the organization to be consumed by a single, divisive, and unresolved societal issue," the group said after Thursday's decision.

Chief Scout Executive Wayne Brock said, "Our goal through all of this was to put kids first ... It allows us to serve youth who want to be part of scouting."

The BSA for years has been at the center of the debate over gay rights.
A recent Washington Post-ABC News Poll showed that 63% of Americans said they would support allowing gay youths to join the Boy Scouts.

The vote comes more than a decade after the Supreme Court ruled that the organization has the right to keep out gays but also at a time of declining participation in the organization.

Membership in Boy Scouts has declined by about a third since 1999. About 2.7 million people now participate nationwide.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after the vote, said it will continue to work with the BSA.
"Sexual orientation has not previously been -- and is not now -- a disqualifying factor for boys who want to join Latter-day Saint Scout troops," it said in a statement.

It was too early to tell what impact the decision might have on scout troops, and whether some families may join other organizations.

The impending vote did spur action by a new organization called Faith Based Boys. Thomas Dillingham, an official from that group, said applications will be accepted starting in August for youth members and group leaders.

"Christian churches and organizations will use this program to continue serving God by training young men to have good character through service to their communities," Dillingham said Thursday. "The profound need for a nationwide program like this has now been realized and the relevance of such a program will only become more important as time goes on."

Tico Perez, the BSA's national commissioner, said there have been ongoing talks with churches and others opposed to the inclusion of gay scouts.

That said, he echoed other Boy Scout officials in saying they believe that Thursday's vote ultimately helps advance the cause.

"We're accepting youth," Perez said, "and we're excited about where we are."
Source
So at what age do they take away a boy scout's merit badges?

Samsung 'Evolutionary Husband?' Ad Outrages Fox News, Men's Rights Activists

Fri, 24 May 2013 07:01:04 GMT

http://youtu.be/u9HMhSvnbmk

An ad for Samsung's Smart TV is creating quite a furor on the Internet.

The video, "Evolutionary Husband?", which was uploaded to the brand's YouTube page on May 14th, shows a woman fantasizing about what would happen if she could upgrade her husband as easily as she can upgrade her television.

According to Fox News, the commercial portrays men as dirty slobs, just a half step up from cavemen." Reddit users discussing the ad in the "Men's Rights" subreddit described it as "pure filth" and "absolutely appalling."

YouTube commenter SolApathy wrote: "I can't see myself buying another Samsung unless they offer a formal apology. If they ran a video like this showing a woman that was "too stupid" to plug in this kit there would be a firestorm on the news."

Men's rights groups are particularly vocal about discrimination against men, so their outrage isn't surprising, but this ad may not be particularly fair to women, either. Who really wants to be married to a robot?

This is not the first time Samsung has been called out for overplaying gender stereotypes in their marketing. In March, the company was criticized for how they portrayed women during the launch for the GS4 phone. CNET's Molly Wood called the event "tone-deaf and shockingly sexist." Nilay Patel at the Verge remarked, "it wasn't supposed to be this way."

Redditor fishing-for-downvote posted a message he claims to have sent to Samsung's Facebook page: "You guys have already gotten in hot water for being sexist towards women in your S4 launch, maybe instead of humiliating men and saying we are good for nothing until we reach Version 2.0 you should adopt some gender neutral, fair marketing."

source
Links to reddit/youtbue stuff is at the source. NHFT shit so I didn't link it. Also here is an argument on my facebook because I posted a male tears gif along with the video. It continued long after that... such an agonizing discussion.

UPDATE Florida Honor Student Arrested For Science Experiment Cleared of Charges, Going To Space Camp

Fri, 24 May 2013 07:00:57 GMT

By Andrea Peterson

A Florida honor student who was expelled and faced possible felony charges for a science experiment gone awry has not only been cleared of charges, she’s heading to space campthanks to a former NASA employee.

Sixteen-year-old Kiera Wilmot combined household cleaner and aluminum foil in an eight-ounce water bottle on school grounds on April 22, curious to see what would happen. The chemical reaction “created a pop that sounds like a firecracker and smoke,” but no students were injured nor does there appear to have been property damage. At the suggestion of Florida Assistant State Attorney Tammy Glotfelty and after her science teacher said she had not sanctioned the experiment, the responding officer arrested Wilmot and charged her with possessing or discharging weapons or firearms at a school sponsored event or on school property and possessing any destructive devices — both felonies she would have been tried for as an adult. Pursuant to her school’s zero tolerance policy, Wilmot was also expelled at the time of the incident.

But last week the criminal charges against Wilmot were dropped following significant media coverage and an online petition that attracted nearly 200,000 signatures, upset that the arrest was the equivalent of criminalizing curiosity. She remains banned from her school, but her family is in discussions with the administration about a possible reinstatement.

Wilmot’s story caught the eye of Homer Hickman, an 18-year NASA veteran and author of the memoir “Rocket Boys,” later adapted into the film “October Sky.” Hickman had his own brush with law enforcement during his teens. Hickman and several friends were led away from his high school in handcuffs for allegedly starting a forest fire, but his physics teacher and principal cleared him of wrongdoing.

Hickman said he “couldn’t let this go without doing something,” and while he’s not a lawyer, he could at least “give her something that would encourage her” and settled on purchasing her a scholarship to the United States Space Academy, a five-day college accredited course offered through the University of Alabama-Huntsville. After learning Wilmot has a twin sister, he raised additional funds so they could attend together in July.

While Hickman attended school long before the advent of zero tolerance policies, since then kids who make mistakes have increasingly faced criminal charges for what amount to disciplinary violations, particularly minority students like Wilmot.

SOURCE

BREAKING: I-5 bridge over Skagit River collapses [UPDATED]

Fri, 24 May 2013 04:19:52 GMT

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. -- An Interstate 5 bridge over a river north of Seattle collapsed Thursday evening, dumping vehicles and people into the water, the Washington State Patrol said.

The four-lane bridge over the Skagit River collapsed about 7 p.m., Trooper Mark Francis said. There was no confirmation how many people were in the water, but Skagit County Sheriff's Department said three people have been rescued from the water and were being transported to hospitals. Two were transported to Skagit Valley Hospital and were reportedly in stable condition.

State authorities tell the Associated Press there were no fatalities.

While the cause of the collapse is still unknown, witnesses reported seeing a semitruck with an oversized load crossing the bridge and striking a girder before the bridge collapsed.

"I saw it. I was less than 50 feet away from the truck when it hit," witness Dale Ogden told KING 5. "I had just passed it in the fast lane southbound and it had an oversized load. It was approximately 12 feet wide and over 14 feet tall. It was in the slow lane when I came by...I was behind the flag car and in front of the truck in the other lane and I saw the whip - normally tells you how high they can clear - start hitting the bridge. I looked in my rearview mirror knowing this was not going to turn out well."

"I saw the truck strike the right corner of the bridge. It almost tipped the truck over but it came back down. It tipped it up to about a 30 degree angle to the left and it came back down on its wheels and almost instantaneously behind that I saw girders falling in my rearview mirror."

Xavier Grospe, who lives near the river, said he could see three cars with what appeared to be one person per vehicle. The vehicles were sitting still in the water, partially submerged and partly above the waterline, and the apparent drivers were sitting either on top of the vehicles or on the edge of open windows.

Helicopter footage showed several rescue boats at the scene with several ambulances waiting on the shore. One rescue boat left the scene with one person strapped into a stretcher.

A damaged red car and a damaged pickup truck were visible in the water, which appeared so shallow it barely reached the top of the car's hood.

Crowds of people lined the river to watch the scene unfold.

The bridge is not considered structurally deficient but is listed as being "functionally obsolete" - a category meaning that their design is outdated, such as having narrow shoulders are low clearance underneath, according to a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.

The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. That is well below the statewide average rating of 80, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data, but 759 bridges in the state have a lower sufficiency score.

According to a 2012 Skagit County Public Works Department, 42 of the county's 108 bridges that are 50 years or older. The document says eight of the bridges are more than 70 years old and two are over 80.

Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state's bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington's 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient of functionally obsolete.

The collapse has halted traffic in both direction on I-5, and southbound traffic was reportedly backed up as far as the Canadian border at Blaine. In Mount Vernon, southbound traffic was being diverted to SR 20 while northbound traffic was being diverted to the East College Way Exit.

source

station's Facebook page (up to the minute photos are being posted)

Oh, well then he obviously deserved it.

Fri, 24 May 2013 04:19:37 GMT

Gun, drug texts feature in new Trayvon Martin shooting evidence
By Michael Pearson and David Mattingly, CNN

(CNN) -- Items taken from Trayvon Martin's cell phone -- including a text-message discussion of drug use and pictures of a gun and marijuana plants -- are among new details released Thursday by attorneys for the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of killing him without provocation 14 months ago.

The evidence, George Zimmerman's attorneys say, paints a different picture of the 17-year-old than the one portrayed by his family and supporters. Lead defense attorney Mark O'Mara says he will try to use the evidence if prosecutors attempt to attack Zimmerman's character during his trial on second-degree murder charges, set to begin next month.

Also Thursday, O'Mara filed motions in court. One asks for sanctions against the state for withholding evidence and for saying it didn't have more evidence when asked. The second requests that his client's trial be delayed.

Much of the new evidence disclosed Thursday in filings by Zimmerman's attorneys comes from Martin's cell phone, including photos showing a semiautomatic pistol and ammunition and small marijuana plants growing in pots.

In other pictures, Martin is pictured making obscene gestures in an apparent self-portrait, as well pictures showing him with friends and in other settings.

The text messages include a conversation from November 2011 in which he appears to say his mother has kicked him out of the house after "da police caught me outta skool."

"So you just turning into a lil hoodlum," the person with whom he is texting says.

"Naw, I'm a gangsta," the text message read.

In other messages, text message exchanges appear to be discussing guns.

"U wanna share a .380 w/ (blacked out)," one text message sent from Martin's phone reads.

The text messaging logs are also peppered with references to marijuana use.

"I got weed nd I get money Friday," a message sent from his phone reads.

"I hid m weed," another text sent from Martin's phone reads. "its wrapped."

The attorney for Martin's family, Benjamin Crump, says the evidence is "irrelevant" and predicted it would never be used at Zimmerman's trial.

"Is the defense trying to prove Trayvon deserved to be killed by George Zimmerman because (of) the way he looked?" Crump said in a statement released Thursday.

"If so, this stereotypical and closed-minded thinking is the same mindset that caused George Zimmerman to get out of his car and pursue Trayvon, an unarmed kid who he didn't know. The pretrial release of these irrelevant red herrings is a desperate and pathetic attempt by the defense to pollute and sway the jury pool."

Instead, he said, jurors will focus on Zimmerman's arrest for battery on a police officer, a domestic violence injunction and other issues he said demonstrate a "propensity for violence."

Zimmerman's defense also released Thursday a handwritten note that was allegedly written by someone who was on the phone with Martin when the confrontation with Zimmerman took place.

The note, dated March 19, 2012, is not addressed to anyone in particular and it's not clear why the person wrote it.

It reads: "He started walking then noticed someone was following him. Then he decided to find a shortcut cause the man wouldn't follow him. Then he said the man didn't follow him again. Then he looked back and saw the man again. The man started getting closer. Then Trevon turned around and said why are you following me!!

"Then I heard him fall, then the phone hung up. I called back and (not legible) no response. In my mind I thought it was just a fight. Then I found out this tragic story."

Zimmerman recently waived his right to a pretrial hearing under Florida's "stand your ground" law, which allows people to use deadly force when threatened regardless of where they are.

His attorneys will claim self-defense at trial.

A representative of the special prosecutor handling the case did not immediately return an e-mail message seeking comment on the evidence.

Prosecutors renewed their motion for a gag order in the case Thursday because, they say, they're concerned about finding an impartial jury given the "inordinate amount of media coverage."

Two previous gag order requests by the prosecution have been denied.

Source

Ugh. I thought that smoking weed was cool and that people who carried guns were real American patriots? Oh wait, that's only white people.

Oklahoma Senate Votes To Defund Planned Parenthood Two Days After Tornado

Fri, 24 May 2013 04:18:09 GMT

In the wake of one of the most destructive tornadoes in history, Oklahoma state senators passed a bill on Wednesday that would effectively defund Planned Parenthood.

Senate Bill 900, which re-allocates family planning funds to public providers and hospitals instead of private providers like Planned Parenthood, passed by a vote of 33 to 8. The state Senate was able to pass the bill somewhat under the radar because it was not posted on Wednesday's legislative agenda.

Planned Parenthood operates five clinics in Oklahoma and serves about 8,400 men and women there a year. The family planning provider has faced scrutiny from Republicans in recent years because it provides abortions, even though it cannot use public family planning funding to pay for abortion services.

State Rep. Doug Cox (R), a family physician, said he will vote against the legislation when the House takes it up on Thursday. "To defund a program like Planned Parenthood would be a mistake," he told The Huffington Post in a phone interview. "They perform a valuable service as far as breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, parenting classes, many things that benefit our state that we're sorely in need of."

Cox said he believes that some of his Republican colleagues in the House also support Planned Parenthood, but they still feel pressured to vote for bills that would defund it. "I have people who tell me they feel the way I do, but are afraid to vote the way I do," he said.

Penny Dickey, chief operating officer of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said the Oklahoma state legislature's priorities are off.

“This is not what Oklahomans want the Legislature to be focusing on as session winds down," she said in a statement. "This bill does nothing to provide Oklahoma women with health care. Instead, it shifts family planning money away from specialists in reproductive health care to other agencies that don’t have the capacity or the expertise to serve the women who come to us."

Source. The source has a link for the text of Senate Bill 900, but I couldn't get the link to copy into this.

Mississippi Could Soon Jail Women for Stillbirths, Miscarriages

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:30:40 GMT

The state's manslaughter laws weren't supposed to apply to women who lose pregnancies. Prosecutors don't seem to care.

On March 14, 2009, 31 weeks into her pregnancy, Nina Buckhalter gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. She named the child Hayley Jade. Two months later, a grand jury in Lamar County, Mississippi, indicted Buckhalter for manslaughter, claiming that the then-29-year-old woman "did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, kill Hayley Jade Buckhalter, a human being, by culpable negligence."

The district attorney argued that methamphetamine detected in Buckhalter's system caused Hayley Jade's death. The state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the case on April 2, is expected to rule soon on whether the prosecution can move forward.

If prosecutors prevail in this case, the state would be setting a "dangerous precedent" that "unintentional pregnancy loss can be treated as a form of homicide," says Farah Diaz-Tello, a staff attorney with National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a nonprofit legal organization that has joined with Robert McDuff, a Mississippi civil rights lawyer, to defend Buckhalter. If Buckhalter's case goes forward, NAPW fears it could spur a wave of similar prosecutions in Mississippi and other states.

Mississippi's manslaughter laws were not intended to apply in cases of stillbirths and miscarriages. Four times between 1998 through 2002, Mississippi lawmakers rejected proposals that would have set specific penalties for damaging a fetus by using illegal drugs during pregnancy. But Mississippi prosecutors say that two other state laws allow them to charge Buckhalter. One defines of manslaughter as the "killing of a human being, by the act, procurement, or culpable negligence of another"; another includes "an unborn child at every stage of gestation from conception until live birth" in the state's definition of human beings.

The cause of any given miscarriage or stillbirth is difficult to determine, and many experts believe there is no conclusive evidence that exposure to drugs in utero can cause a miscarriage or stillbirth. Because of this, prosecuting Buckhalter opens the door to investigating and prosecuting women for any number of other potential causes of a miscarriage or stillbirth, her lawyers argued in a filing to the state Supreme Court—"smoking, drinking alcohol, using drugs, exercising against doctor's orders, or failing to follow advice regarding conditions such as obesity or hypertension." Supreme Court Justice Leslie D. King also raised this question in the oral arguments last month: "Doctors say women should avoid herbal tea, things like unpasteurized cheese, lunch meats. Exactly what are the boundaries?"

Laws that criminalize hurting or killing fetuses are pitched as ways to protect pregnant women from abuse but are often used to prosecute those same women, NAPW says. The group has documented more than 400 cases across the country in which these laws have been used to detain or jail pregnant women. Earlier this year, Mississippi's neighbor to the east, Alabama, set its own precedent for prosecuting pregnant women for drug use. In January, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld convictions against two women—Amanda Kimbrough and Hope Ankrom—for "chemical endangerment" of a child, under a 2006 law that was written to punish people who expose children—not fetuses—to illegal drugs. Kimbrough gave birth prematurely to a baby boy who died shortly thereafter; she was charged after testing positive for meth. Ankrom gave birth to a healthy baby boy, but she was charged after he was found to have marijuana and cocaine in his system.

In Mississippi, Diaz-Tello says, "we're trying to avoid another ruling like Alabama." The decision in Buckhalter's case is expected to influence a second pending case in the state against Rennie Gibbs, a young woman charged with "depraved heart murder" after a experiencing a stillbirth in 2006, at age 16. A medical examiner claimed a small amount of cocaine, found during the autopsy, caused the death. Gibbs' case is supposed to go before a trial court later this year.

Buckhalter's lawyers contend that both Buckhalter and Gibbs are collateral damage in the abortion wars in Mississippi, one of the most anti-abortion states in the country. A 2011 state ballot measure there would have granted full rights to fertilized eggs, making all abortions illegal all the time. That measure failed, but abortion foes have pledged to try again in 2015, and lawmakers are working hard to close the state's last remaining abortion clinic. Charging a woman with manslaughter for using drugs while pregnant is just a backdoor way of establishing legal "personhood" for fetuses, says Diaz-Tello.

But as McDuff pointed out in oral arguments before the Supreme Court last month, even the state's law defining homicide as including the killing of a child at "every stage of gestation" includes a specific exemption for women seeking a legal abortion. If a woman can legally terminate an unwanted pregnancy, he argued, how can she be jailed for unintentionally ending a wanted one?

Perhaps the most perverse impact of prosecuting Buckhalter, her lawyers say, is that it could lead to more abortions. Fear of prosecution "may cause a mother to seek an abortion that she might not have otherwise have sought," particularly if she is dealing with drug or alcohol addiction, Buckhalter's lawyers argued in a court filing.

A dozen medical and public health groups—including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists—made the same argument in a friend-of-the-court brief submitted in the Buckhalter case. And even for women who want to continue their pregnancy, the medical groups contended, the threat of prosecution could actually deter them from seeking prenatal care or drug addiction treatment, or from sharing important information with their doctors, for fear they may be reported.

As for Buckhalter, her lawyers say she's gotten the help she needed since losing Hayley Jade. She became pregnant again, completed a residential drug treatment program, and gave birth to a healthy baby. She also finished an associate's degree at Hinds Community College, where she was inducted into the honor society. She's a testament to the fact that women in her situation need help, McDuff says, not jail time.

"Obviously, you shouldn't be taking drugs while you're pregnant," McDuff says. "But the notion of prosecuting somebody for murder or manslaughter, trying to send them to prison, is just crazy."

Source

This makes me sick. I live in Mississippi and I'm starting to think that lawmakers here are batshit crazy, because the general public doesn't want these types of laws. They proved that when they voted down the personhood amendment in 2011. Where do these assholes get off thinking they're doing what their constituency wants when it obviously isn't? Do we have to beat them over the heads to make it sink in that we don't want these laws? This entire article and the comments at the source are pissing me off.

Japanese women trash 'notebook' idea for having babies

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:24:48 GMT

Japanese women trash 'notebook' idea for having babies

With Japan's birth rate stuck in low gear, the Abe administration has come up with a new idea to make babies: convince the women to have a child earlier rather than later.

It plans to give out notebooks to all young women - and perhaps also to young men - to get that message across.

The notebooks, to be available from next April, will indicate the most appropriate timeframes for pregnancy and childbirth.

Japan's low birth rate is said to be partly due to women opting for late marriage and delayed childbirth in recent years. In 2011, it stood at 1.39, far short of the 2.07 needed to stop the population from shrinking.

The "Women's Notebook", as it has been dubbed by the media, is the brainchild of a government task force which feels that young Japanese women need to be informed about the importance of not putting off childbirth.

Announcing the proposal earlier this month, Ms Masako Mori, the minister in charge of birth issues, said: "As (a woman) grows older, it becomes harder to become pregnant. The risk to mother and unborn child also increases. We must spread this knowledge among teenage girls and upwards to enable women to make choices and plan their lives."

But the proposed notebook created an uproar among women, who saw it as the government attempting to blame only the female gender for the low birth rate. They also resented the government's interference in their private lives.

"It's none of the government's business," said marketing officer Natsuki Sasaya, 31.

"They seem to have concluded that women alone have no knowledge or awareness of those things. I have friends who want to have children but cannot do so and are on fertility treatment."

Ms Mori was severely reproached in Parliament by opposition lawmaker Renho, who had briefly held the same portfolio from September 2011. "It is up to the individual to decide when to get married or to have children," Ms Renho said.

In an article on the Nikkei Business website, Ms Kaoru Kawai, who has a PhD in health sciences, wrote: "I don't remember being told that one can have a baby by oneself."

Added the 47-year-old part- time lecturer and weather forecaster: "If the government brings out a women's notebook, there should be one for men too."

Some newspaper editorials echoed her sentiment. Last week, Ms Mori said the task force was contemplating having a similar notebook for men as well.

The notebook is part of a set of measures to raise the birth rate that is expected to be included in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic package to be announced next month.

Others include subsidising dating events, providing low-rental housing for newlyweds, and making it easier to set up creches by, for example, cutting red tape.

Man dead in suspected Woolwich terror attack

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:17:37 GMT

A man has been killed in a machete attack and two suspects shot by police in Woolwich, south-east London.

Prime Minister David Cameron said there were "strong indications that it is a terrorist incident" and the UK would "never buckle" in the face of such attacks.

Footage has emerged showing a man wielding a bloodied meat cleaver and making political statements.

There are unconfirmed reports that the dead man was a soldier.

Both French President Francois Hollande and MP Nick Raynsford said the dead man had been a soldier at Woolwich barracks.

The footage shown on the ITV website shows a man, speaking to the camera, saying: "We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

He added: "I apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don't care about you."

In developments since the attack, in John Wilson Street, the A205, at 14:20 BST:

Downing Street said Mr Cameron, who had been planning to stay in Paris overnight after meeting the French president, would be returning to the UK later on Wednesday
At a meeting of the government's emergency response committee, Cobra, it was decided to tighten security at Woolwich and other barracks in London
Both shot men were taken to hospital, one by air ambulance
One of the men is in a serious condition, the other is also being treated for injuries
In a joint press conference, Mr Hollande said he wanted to express his solidarity with the UK after the "murder of a British soldier", but Mr Cameron did not confirm the victim had been a serviceman
The Ministry of Defence said it was urgently looking into reports the incident had involved a soldier
Another Cobra meeting will be held on Thursday morning, chaired by Mr Cameron
Home Secretary Theresa May said she had been briefed by the director general of Security Service MI5, Andrew Parker, and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe on the "sickening and barbaric" attack.

Mr Cameron said Britain had faced "these sort of attacks", adding: "We will never buckle in the face of them.

"People across Britain, people in every community, I believe, will utterly condemn this attack."

He expressed sympathy for the victim and his family, saying: "It is the most appalling crime. We are obviously seeking, and the police are urgently seeking, the full facts about this case."

One witness, identified only as James, said two men had attacked another man, aged about 20, who was wearing a T-shirt of military charity Help for Heroes.

"These two guys were crazed. They were just animals. They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there," he told LBC radio.

He said after the "horrendous" attack, the two men, who were also in their 20s, stood around, waving knives and a gun, and asked people to take pictures of them "as if they wanted to be on TV or something".

"They were oblivious to anything, they were more worried about having their photo taken, running up and down the road," he said.

Witness Graham Wilders told the BBC he had arrived on the scene to find a car crashed into a wall and a man on the ground.

"Two people were lying over him and I thought they were trying to resuscitate him," he said.

But Mr Wilders said he had driven on to park his car, and when he had returned another witness had told him the two men had been stabbing the man on the ground.

Thomas, another witness who contacted the BBC, said: "I got there minutes after it happened because you could hear gunshots from Woolwich High Street.

"Basically two men carried out an axe attack on a young army cadet walking along the street, by the looks of things the police responded and then shot them in front of the public, at the same time I couldn't really tell if the cadet was fatally or not hurt as police were crowded around him."

According to senior Whitehall sources the people carrying out the attack were heard to say: "Allahu Akbar [God is Great]", BBC political editor Nick Robinson reported.

On Twitter, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson described the attack as a "sickening deluded and unforgivable act of violence".

Buckingham Palace says the Queen is concerned at the news of the attack and is being kept informed.

Help for Heroes said the charity was "appalled to hear that a man, believed to be a serving soldier, has been brutally murdered in Woolwich today".

The Muslim Council of Britain said in a statement: "This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly. Our thoughts are with the victim and his family."

School lock-down

Mr Raynsford, the Woolwich and Greenwich MP, said he had spoken to local police and understood a number of weapons had been seized at the scene including a gun, knives, and a machete.

Metropolitan Police Commander Simon Letchford said two alleged attackers had been shot by officers.

He said: "Police were called to reports of an assault... where one man was being assaulted by two other men. A number of weapons were reportedly being used in the attack, and this included reports of a firearm.

"Officers including local Greenwich officers arrived at the scene, and shortly after firearms officers arrived on the scene.

"On their arrival at the scene they found a man, who was later pronounced dead.

"Two men, who we believe from early reports to have been carrying weapons, were shot by police. They have both been taken to separate London hospitals. They are receiving treatment for their injuries.

"I can understand that this incident will cause community concerns and I would like to reiterate that we are investigating the circumstances."

Meanwhile, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) confirmed it had been informed.

David Dixon, a local head teacher, told the BBC News Channel he walked out of the school gates and saw a body lying in the road a short distance away.

He then heard gunshots and instructed staff to lock all the gates of his school.

An air ambulance landed in the playground and the children were sent home.

Source

Sekret Maoist Marxist Mooslim Uses Weather Dominator to Crush Oklahoma.

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:40:54 GMT

Climate Change still a Myth. Still No Evidence of Climate Shift Change to be Manmade.

Alex Jones Explains How Government "Weather Weapon" Could Have Been Behind Oklahoma Tornado
The Government "Can Create And Steer Groups Of Tornadoes," But Jones Isn't Sure That Happened In Oklahoma

Conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones explained to his audience today how the government could have been behind the devastating May 20 tornado in Oklahoma.

On the May 21 edition of The Alex Jones Show, a caller asked Jones whether he was planning to cover how government technology may be behind a recent spate of sinkholes. After laying out how insurance companies use weather modification to avoid having to pay ski resorts for lack of snow, Jones said that "of course there's weather weapon stuff going on -- we had floods in Texas like fifteen years ago, killed thirty-something people in one night. Turned out it was the Air Force."

Following a long tangent, Jones returned to the caller's subject. While he explained that "natural tornadoes" do exist and that he's not sure if a government "weather weapon" was involved in the Oklahoma disaster, Jones warned nonetheless that the government "can create and steer groups of tornadoes."

According to Jones, this possibility hinges on whether people spotted helicopters and small aircraft "in and around the clouds, spraying and doing things." He added, "if you saw that, you better bet your bottom dollar they did this, but who knows if they did. You know, that's the thing, we don't know."

In April, Jones garnered attention for labeling the Boston Marathon bombings a "false flag" event staged by the U.S. government. Over the years, Jones has endorsed a wide array of paranoid conspiracies, including alleging that the U.S. government carried out or was somehow involved in the 9-11 attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing, and recent mass shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary school and the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

Despite his well-publicized career of pushing conspiracies, Jones is regularly validated by media figures and conservative politicians. Jones' biggest ally has been Matt Drudge, whose heavily trafficked Drudge Report website has linked to at least 244 different articles at Jones' Infowars website since April 2011.

In the midst of the controversy over Jones' comments about the Boston bombings, Drudge announced that he had "privately told friends" that 2013 would be the "year of Alex Jones."

Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaire Koch Brothers

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:26:33 GMT

A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene.

Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption.

The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party's anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke.

Published in the peer-reviewed academic journal, Tobacco Control, the study titled, 'To quarterback behind the scenes, third party efforts: the tobacco industry and the Tea Party,' is not just an historical account of activities in a bygone era. As senior author, Stanton Glantz, a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) professor of medicine, writes:

"Nonprofit organizations associated with the Tea Party have longstanding ties to tobacco companies, and continue to advocate on behalf of the tobacco industry's anti-tax, anti-regulation agenda."

The two main organizations identified in the UCSF Quarterback study are Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks. Both groups are now "supporting the tobacco companies' political agenda by mobilizing local Tea Party opposition to tobacco taxes and smoke-free laws." Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity were once a single organization called Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). CSE was founded in 1984 by the infamous Koch Brothers, David and Charles Koch, and received over $5.3 million from tobacco companies, mainly Philip Morris, between 1991 and 2004.

In 1990, Tim Hyde, RJR Tobacco's head of national field operations, in an eerily similar description of the Tea Party today, explained why groups like CSE were important to the tobacco industry's fight against government regulation. Hyde wrote:

"... coalition building should proceed along two tracks: a) a grassroots organizational and largely local track,; b) and a national, intellectual track within the DC-New York corridor. Ultimately, we are talking about a "movement," a national effort to change the way people think about government's (and big business) role in our lives. Any such effort requires an intellectual foundation - a set of theoretical and ideological arguments on its behalf."

The common public understanding of the origins of the Tea Party is that it is a popular grassroots uprising that began with anti-tax protests in 2009.

However, the Quarterback study reveals that in 2002, the Kochs and tobacco-backed CSE designed and made public the first Tea Party Movement website under the web address www.usteaparty.com.

CSE describes the U.S. Tea Party site, "In 2002, our U.S. Tea Party is a national event, hosted continuously online, and open to all Americans who feel our taxes are too high and the tax code is too complicated." The site features a "Patriot Guest book" where supporters can write a message of support for CSE and the U.S. Tea Party movement.

Sometime around September 2011, the U.S. Tea Party site was taken offline. According to the DNS registry, the web address www.usteaparty.com is currently owned by Freedomworks.

The implications of the UCSF Quarterback report are widespread. The main concern expressed by the authors lies in what they see happening overseas as the Tea Party movement expands internationally, training activists in 30 countries including Israel, Georgia, Japan and Serbia.

As the authors explain:

"This international expansion makes it likely that Tea Party organizations will be mounting opposition to tobacco control (and other health) policies as they have done in the USA."

Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity are both multi-issue organizations that have expanded their battles to include other policies they see as threats to the free market principles they claim to defend, namely fighting health care reform and regulations on global warming pollution. The report's warning about overseas expansion efforts by Freedomworks should therefore also be heeded by groups in the health and environment arenas.

Finally, this report might serve as a wake-up call to some people in the Tea Party itself, who would find it a little disturbing that the "grassroots" movement they are so emotionally attached to, is in fact a pawn created by billionaires and large corporations with little interest in fighting for the rights of the common person, but instead using the common person to fight for their own unfettered profits.

Source article.

Abstract for the paper, and the paper itself in html or pdf.

This is back from February but it's still interesting. I didn't know the tea party was expanding internationally.

Edited to remove privacy lock on post.

Garden gnomes allowed at Chelsea Garden Show after 100 year ban

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:06:12 GMT

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of London's prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, the august members of the Royal Horticultural Society have decided this year to relax their century-old ban and for the first time allow the "little people" into the show—garden gnomes, that is, those tacky little statues of short bearded men with pointy hats.

Ever since the Chelsea Flower Show began, in 1913, organizers have rigorously excluded garden gnomes—and any and all such "brightly colored mythical creatures," from the exhibits. But in a break with tradition, as well as to raise money for the society's nationwide Campaign for School Gardening, gnomes will be made welcome.

A hundred of them, painted and decorated by celebrities such as Dame Helen Mirren, Joanna Lumley, and Elton John, will be making appearances among the greenery. Afterward they will be auctioned off on eBay, with the money going toward the RHS's programs to teach gardening in more than 16,000 schools around the country.

"I think it is a wonderful idea," says English garden historian Twigs Way, author of Garden Gnomes: A History. "Word that garden gnomes were going to be allowed in this year's Chelsea Flower Show has opened up a marvelous debate about what gardening is really supposed to be about. After all, we are a nation of gardeners, and for many of us, garden gnomes epitomize the great social divide on garden design. And now the social barrier has been broken, even if it is only for just this one season."

Tacky or Treasure?

Indeed, in class-conscious Britain garden gnomes are seen as strictly for the masses, nothing an upper-crust gardener would dream of having on his or her turf. In this nation of gardeners, radio talk shows have been sounding out their listeners on the subject, and countless column inches have appeared in the newspapers.

Although garden gnomes may be perceived as tacky in some of today's snobbier gardening circles, Way says, this wasn't always the case. "Back in the 19th century they were expensive pieces of garden art that only wealthier people could afford. They were made of porcelain or terra-cotta, hand painted and imported from Germany, which was where most of them were made, at considerable expense."

Gnomish History

The idea of garden statuary goes back to Roman times, and various gnome-like statues appeared in Renaissance gardens in Italy, but the classic garden gnome as we know him today hails from Germany, and is drawn from folkloric dwarves that supposedly toiled in the mines. Statues of these folk were popular in gardens, and by the 1840s a thriving gnome-making industry had sprung up around Dresden and, later, around the town of Gräfenroda in Thuringa.

The earliest gnomes in English gardens are believed to have been a set of 21 imported from Nuremburg, Germany, in 1847 by Sir Charles Isham, 10th Baronet, a wealthy garden designer who used the figures to people his new alpine rockery on his Lamport Hall estate in Northamptonshire. Eccentric though he may have been, his gardens were widely praised, and it wasn't long before gnomes became the latest must-have for Victorian gardeners.

Only one of Sir Charles's original gnomes survives, a cheeky little fellow named "Lampy," who had been hidden away in the shrubbery and therefore missed the censorious eyes of the baronet's daughters, who disliked the statues and got rid of them. Today Lampy is insured for one million pounds when he goes traveling to garden shows around the world.

After World War I garden gnomes fell badly out of favor in England, thanks to their association with Germany. It fell to Walt Disney to bring them back in the 1930s, with his Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. "Everyone wanted one for their gardens," says Way. "They were immensely popular."

After World War II, Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey, et al. were being made cheaply out of cast concrete, and later even plastic, and quickly became the hallmark of the suburban garden. Among the many postwar gnome makers was Tom Major-Ball, father of former British prime minister John Major.

But popular though they are, never in a hundred years did one of these little fellows make it into Chelsea—until now. And it may be another hundred years before their return—the reversal of the ban is one year, and then the show goes back to being a gnome-free zone.

source: National Geographic

Fitness-for-work tests unfair on people with mental health problems, court says

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:03:14 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/22/fitness-work-tests-mental-health-unfair

The fitness-for-work test used to determine whether hundreds of thousands of people are eligible to claim sickness benefits substantially disadvantages people with mental health conditions, a court has ruled, in a decision hailed as a victory by mental health charities.

A tribunal judge ruled that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had breached its duties to make "reasonable adjustments" under the Equality Act to ensure that people with mental health problems are treated fairly by the system.

This failure meant that claimants with mental health problems were placed at a substantial disadvantage, the judgment concluded.

Directors of three mental health charities that backed the case welcomed the judgment, and called on the government to stop assessing people's fitness for work under the current system until the issue was resolved.

The ruling came as part of a judicial review launched by two individuals with mental health problems, who argued that the work capability assessment (WCA) was unfair to them because it required them to understand and be able to explain the nature of their condition to the people conducting the assessment, when they had insufficient awareness of their difficulties to do so.

The discussion focused on whether it was reasonable to expect people with mental health problems to seek additional medical evidence in support of their claims from their GPs, or whether the DWP needed to do more on their behalf to ensure that this sort of evidence was collected and taken into account.

Paul Jenkins, CEO of Rethink Mental Illness, said: "This ruling proves once and for all that this cruel and unfair process is unlawful. The judges have independently confirmed what our members have been saying for years – the system is discriminating against some of the most ill and vulnerable people in our society, the very people it is meant to support.

"The work capability assessment process is deeply unfair for people with a mental illness – it's like asking someone in a wheelchair to walk to the assessment centre."

He said the government should "halt the mass reassessment of people receiving incapacity benefit immediately, until the process is fixed".

Mark Lever, the chief executive of the National Autistic Society, also called on the government to stop the assessments until the system was fixed.

"Now that the tribunal has ruled that the work capability assessment process disadvantages people with autism, the government must stop putting them through it until a more equitable system is in place," he said.

"Those who devised this process failed to understand the complexities of conditions like autism. By the nature of their condition, people with autism can struggle to understand and articulate how their disability affects them – which is just what this current system requires them to do, by placing the burden on them to collect their own evidence.

"Making people with autism jump through these hoops was only ever setting them up to fail."

Paul Farmer, the chief executive of Mind, said: "The judgment is a victory, not only for the two individuals involved in this case, but for thousands of people who have experienced additional distress and anxiety because they have struggled through an assessment process which does not adequately consider the needs of people with mental health problems."

There was no decision on how the DWP should rectify the situation, and there will be further hearings. Lawyers for the DWP were planning to appeal.

Medical Lawsuit: Stop Wrecking Babies' Genitals

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:24:23 GMT

A landmark legal case may finally put a stop to almost half a century of bizarre medical procedures in the United States, where children's genitals have been surgically altered to fit a standardized definition of the proper sizes for penises and clitorises.

South Carolina couple Mark and Pam Crawford adopted their son M.C. when he was 19 months old, after he had been the ward of the state for a few months. Before his adoption, M.C.'s doctors and social workers decided that the infant's penis was too small or ambiguous, and determined that the best course of action was plastic surgery that would make his genitals look female. There was absolutely no medical cause for the surgery. It was purely cosmetic. Now, M.C. is 8 years old and has told his parents that he wants to be a boy. But before he was able to make this decision, doctors had surgically altered him in a way that has already caused him grief and confusion.

The Crawfords are suing the South Carolina Department of Social Services, Greenville Hospital, and Medical University of South Carolina for gross negligence and medical malpractice. According to CNN:

The suit says the surgery violated the 14th Amendment, which says that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."

The thing that's truly appalling about this case is that M.C.'s experiences are all too common.

According to many doctors during the twentieth century, a medically acceptable clitoris at birth measures .02 to .09 cm, while a medically acceptable penis at birth is 2.5 to 4.5 cm. But there are as many as 1 in 2,000 babies born every year whose genitals exist in that 1.0 to 2.4 cm gray area, or who have ambiguous testicles and labia. These babies are called intersexed. Their ambiguous genitals often result from the fact that clitorises and penises develop from the same tissues in the womb, as do labia and testicles. Plus, there is a lot of natural variation in size and shape anyway.

A note on terminology: Humans cannot be hermaphrodites, which are defined scientifically as animals that are capable of both impregnating and being impregnated.

When intersex babies are born, or when babies' genitals are injured, it has been common medical practice to treat these children as if they have a medical problem that needs fixing. But only a small number of intersex children have medical problems. Most are just slightly outside the range of the typical, no different from kids born with big noses or really short fingers. But in the mid-twentieth century, it became medical "common sense" that children would be traumatized by growing up with genitals that don't match the norm. As a result, girls with large clitorises were given clitoridectomies, and boys with small penises were given reconstructive surgery and raised as girls.

These days, the common sense is changing fast. Now, many doctors would tell parents of intersex children that the child will naturally choose a gender as they grow up (M.C., for example, seems to have chosen his before reaching the age of 8). Parents may choose a temporary gender for the child until he or she is old enough to choose. But mostly, the parents have to be patient and let the kid just be a kid without assigning them a "boy or girl" status — and certainly before giving them life-altering surgery. The Crawfords' lawsuit, if successful, will likely cement this treatment into standard medical practice.

These surgeries are an issue that intersex people have been dealing with for a long time. It has taken decades of activism to reach a point where parents were willing to sue medical professionals for altering their infants' genitals without any medical reason.

On Autostraddle, Claudia writes about why this case is important to intersex people:

Intersex isn't a medical condition . . . It's about bodies that have a combination of sex traits traditionally considered "male" or "female" in the same body. The clinical procedures in question are not those that track health or provide any sort of medical benefit for the child; the genital surgeries, (vaginal) dilation procedures, and other treatments that parents and clinicians give proxy consent to are cosmetic. They're performed to make their child's external genitals look "normal" (as though there is one way genitals should naturally look), to remove internal gonads kids assigned M/F "shouldn't" have, to sculpt intersex bodies into something that more closely approximates societal beauty standards as to what our most private of parts should look like.

This case is really important because it clearly argues that parents and doctors shouldn't get consent proxy to decide whether intersex children should have these cosmetic procedures. Since they're not medically relevant, only intersex persons themselves should decide what we want to do with our bodies.

You can read the tragic story of one boy who was given a sex-reassignment surgery at birth in the incredible book As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about the lawsuit, you can go to the Advocates for Informed Choice website. They are a legal organization that advocates for intersex children.

Source.

Venezuela's new labour law: The best Mother's Day gift

Wed, 22 May 2013 02:22:21 GMT

Here is some news that the conservative critics of Venezuela's leftist government will not publicize. The Chavistas announced that a new labour law, part of which will grant recognition to non-salaried work traditionally done by women, will come into effect this week. Full-time mothers will now be able to collect a pension.

While there are a number of criticisms to be made of the Venezuelan government, the genius of the Bolivarian process is that it combines numerous forms of struggle against inequality. The most obvious lies in its commitment to economic redistribution, and measured by the Gini co-efficient, Venezuela has the lowest rate of inequality in Latin America. An equally significant form of struggle against inequality, however, lies in its pursuit of gender equity.

One of the major theoretical criticisms of the economic redistribution model in more general terms, often advanced by post-modern and post-developmental theorists, has been from the vantage point of questions of identity. Theorists like the anthropologist Arturo Escobar have noted that economic growth does not necessarily transform status relations such as those oriented around gender, race, ethnicity, or sexuality; therefore some have contended that attempts at social change should place primacy, or at least equal emphasis, on the politics of difference. The question of difference: how can everyone in society be able to intervene with equal capacity when there is such significant variation in the recognition that we allot to diverse identities in society? Critics of traditional development have argued that the emphasis on economic redistribution, by either advocates of the market or the state, has ignored the crucial role that identity and diversity play in society. Economic re-allocation does not end the identity hierarchies that place women at a lower rung of the status ladder than men throughout Latin America.

The political philosopher Nancy Fraser has contended that advocates of cultural diversity implicitly start with the proposition that our identity is developed in interaction with others. Our self-esteem is constructed in relation to receiving acknowledgement from others and providing recognition to them; if a group is regularly presented with negative images of themselves, their self-esteem suffers. Non-recognition produces psychological injury: one's self-perception becomes distorted. Therefore in order for groups to achieve full recognition from others, civil society actors maintain that there is a need to establish a system in which all actors can be full partners in social life. Feminists, both inside and outside the Bolivarian process, have advocated for social policies that encourage equal participation in all social institutions.

The Venezuelan government has made many progressive gains, with the most prominent example being the explicitly anti-sexist 1999 Constitution. This set of principles was the result of co-operation amongst members of the constitutional assembly's Committee on Family and Women, the National Women's Council and women's civil society organizations. The constitutional assembly's committee consulted women from every type of political campaign: legal rights, international agencies, academics, labour unions and small business leaders. The Constitution guaranteed women's right to work, to health services, to social security and pensions. Most innovatively it recognized the monetary value of housework by, in principle, supporting housewives' right to pensions. This week that principle has become a reality. Progressives around the world looking for ways to advance gender rights still have much to learn from Venezuela's continuing social revolution.

Thomas Ponniah is an Affiliate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin America Studies and an Associate of the Department of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University.

Source

OP: Wow. What does everyone think about this? I'll just comment with my thoughts, since I have a lot of them.

[trigger warning: suicide]

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:58:20 GMT

Far-right French historian, 78-year-old Dominique Venner, commits suicide in Notre Dame in protest against gay marriage

A far-right French historian shot himself in the head beside the altar of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris today apparently in protest against the legalisation of gay marriage in France.

Dominique Venner, 78, a former member of the nationalist terrorist movement, OAS, placed a pistol in his mouth and shot himself dead in front of scores of tourists inside the most visited building in France.

Mr Venner, a presenter on a Catholic-traditionalust radio station and controversial historian and essayist, posted an essay on his website earlier in the day calling for "new, spectacular and symbolic actions to shake us out of our sleep, to jolt anaesthetised minds and to reawaken memory of our origins".

His long essay was a tirade against gay marriage but also a warning that the "population of France and Europe" was going to be "replaced" and brought under "Islamist control" and "sharia law".

Mr Venner placed a sealed letter on the altar of the cathedral before shooting himself. His choice of the altar - associated with religious marriage ceremonies -appeared to be a symbolic gesture of protest against the law permitting civil gay marriages in France which took effect last weekend.

The cathedral, which is celebrating its 850th anniversary this year, was immediately evacuated and closed to the public for four hours. Efforts were made by a cathedral security guard to revive Mr Venner as he lay beside the altar for almost 20 minutes.

The rector of Notre Dame, Monsigneur Patrick Jacquin, said that, as far as he was aware, this was the first suicide within the cathedral since it was founded in the 12th century. "We will pray for this man as we pray for so many others who are at their wits' end," he said.

Notre Dame is the most visited monument in France with over 13,000,000 visiors a year. The building was, as usual, packed with tourists at the time of Mr Venner's suicide.

Legislation permitting same-sex couples to marry in French town halls was approved by the parliament last month and signed into law by President Francois(cedilla on c) Hollande last weekend after approval by France's constitutional watchdog.

The "marriage for all" law has provoked a powerful movement of middle class, conservative, religious and right-wing protest in the last four months. Another large demonstration is planned in Paris on Sunday.

The leaders of the protest movement, including most but not all leading centre-right politicians, have pilloried the law as politically-motivated attack on family and religious values and the imposition of a "new civilisation".

Mr Venner, a prolific author of books and tracts on extreme nationalist themes, has been one of many vociferous critics of the law. Some of his work as a historian has been well-received, incuding a 1981 book on the Red Army which won a prize from the Academie(acute on first e) Francaise(cedilla on c). Much of his work has been steeped in the racist ideology of the far-right, apologising for the pro-Hitler regime in Vichy in the Second World war and warning of conspiracies to destroy European civilisation and to swamp the white race.

Mr Venner was also an expert, and the author of several books, on hunting and fire-arms. In the 1960s, he was a member of the Organisation de l'Armee(acute on first e) Secrete(grave on second e) - the extreme nationalist terrorist movement which opposed the French withdrawal from Algeria and attempted several times to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle.

Source

Texas Passes 'Merry Christmas Bill' to Fight War On Christmas

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:56:17 GMT

Christmas may be seven months away, but Texas is ready for it.

State lawmakers there waged their own battle against the so-called War on Christmas on Friday, passing legislation, House Bill 308, that allows public school teachers to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" and display Christmas trees, nativity scenes or menorahs. Winter displays must represent more than one religion or include secular symbols.

But while the legislation specifies that schools may not constitutionally favor one religion over another, the bill is named for only one religion -- Christmas.

"Teachers have enough on their plate to worry about [whether] the school district's going to be sued or if they can call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree," said state Rep. Dwayne Bohac (R), who sponsored the legislation.

He told KTBC in Austin that he came up with the idea when his six-year-old son told him about how he had "decorated the holiday tree with holiday ornaments."

"I was a little bit flabbergasted and a little bit upset that we've become so politically correct that we can't call a federal holiday by its name," said Bohac.

State Sen. Robert Nichols (R), who introduced the companion bill in the Senate, said he feared it was "becoming less culturally acceptable to openly celebrate these holidays in the ways past generations have."

Backers of the bill even set up a website and petition to drum up support:

(Source contains an image of the website here)

Since the bill has now passed both the House and Senate, it heads to Gov. Rick Perry's (R) desk for his signature. Asked for comment on whether the governor would sign the bill,Perry spokesman Josh Havens told The Huffington Post, "This bill is about the freedom of religion, not freedom from religion, and Gov. Perry supports it."

For years, Fox News has been warning viewers of a War on Christmas, with host Bill O'Reilly covering it more than the actual wars going on.

Linda Bridges, president of the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers, told KTBC that she believed there were more important issues for the legislature to be working on.

"I think I can honestly say I've never had a question from a teacher about what they can and can't do around holidays," said Bridges. "I think we really have to say, does this help education when we are caught up in discussions that have become pure partisan discussions? That is not the way we should be looking at education."

This article was updated with comment from a spokesman for Rick Perry.

Source. Personally, I think someone probably should explain to these idiots that most 'Christmas traditions' were co-opted from pagan festivals and traditions..

Financial System Now Run by Toilet Cleaners.

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:31:17 GMT

Bankers advised to seek ‘toilet cleaner job descriptions’

If you work for an investment bank, you may feel that a grandiose job description is your due – particularly now that pay is being restricted by the likes of the European Union. However, bankers are being warned against seeking overly important job descriptions. If you’re a banker, it’s far better for your job to be described in menial terms, said one lawyer. That way, you can’t be held accountable for too much.

“Before you accept a new job in banking, it’s a very good idea to look hard at your job description,” said Charles Ferguson, founder of London-based Ferguson Solicitors, which specialises in representing traders in employment law cases. Limited or menial job descriptions are best. ”If you’re running a trading floor and your job description simply says you’re the cleaner for the gentleman’s toilets, the financial services regulator will be forced to prove you’re really responsible for the entire floor before including you in an investigation,” Ferguson advised.

Other lawyers are dispensing similar advice. One senior banker who recently left Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), said a group of lawyers visited the bank’s offices to recommend that jobs should as closely defined as possible to avoid people being caught up in regulatory investigations. The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) – recently reborn as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has substantially increased the number of investigations it carries out into individuals in the past few years. “It’s a huge risk,” said the ex-RBS banker. “All it takes is for them to start investigating you and your career is pretty much over – or you have to spend fortunes on lawyers to clear your name.”

Harvey Knight, a partner at law firm Withers Worldwide and a former leading authorisations and approvals lawyer at the FSA, said job descriptions are one of the things the FCA looks at in so-called ‘enforcement cases.’ ”They will dig out the job descriptions and look at structure charts and reporting lines and work out who was responsible for what,” Knight said.

In February 2013, John Hourican, previously chief executive of the investment banking arm of RBS, left the bank after it was fined £87.5m for manipulating LIBOR. Hourican wasn’t directly involved in LIBOR setting and resigned voluntarily rather than being forced out by the FSA. Nevertheless, Hourican forewent around £4m in bonuses to help pay RBS’s LIBOR fines.

Ferguson said a far higher proportion of his work nowadays involves representing traders who are being investigated for misconduct by the FCA: “We’ve had four or five of these cases recently, which is a lot for a small firm like ours.” One headhunter, who declined to be named, estimated that there are as many as 100 traders sitting out of the market while the FCA investigates them for LIBOR setting and other misdemeanours. “These investigations can go on for years and in the meantime, people usually can’t work. It’s outrageous really,” he said.

The FCA declined to comment on the advisability of restricted or so-called ‘toilet cleaner job descriptions.’ However, a spokesman said enforcement investigations take a long time because they are “very complicated exercises.”

Ferguson said there have been cases in the past where the FSA has spent three years investigating an individual for insider trading, before dropping the matter without charges.

If you’re a banker, limited ‘toilet cleaner job descriptions’ are one method of restricting the regulator’s ability to accuse you of a broad range of misdemeanours. However, they are unlikely to be effective at senior levels. When senior bankers are being hired into significant influence functions in the City of London, the regulator will typically summon them for an interview to establish their suitability for role. During this interview, Knight said bankers are typically pushed to responsibility for broader aspects of the job. “If the job description says you’re responsible for a,b and c, the regulator will push you to admit responsibility for e,f, and g,” he said. “That way, they can bring enforcement proceedings against you for a broader range of issues.”

Oklahoma Senator Won’t Support Tornado Relief Without Budget Cuts

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:35:31 GMT

Oklahoma Senator Won’t Support Tornado Relief Without Budget Cuts

The tornado that hit Oklahoma on Monday resulted in more than 20 deaths and is expected to cost the federal government untold billions of dollars in aid and recovery. But Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who has long objected to federal funds being spent on everything from veterans benefits to relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, is already insisting that any additional appropriations should be paid for with cuts elsewhere. “That’s always been his position [to offset disaster aid],” Coburn spokesman John Hart said. “He supported offsets to the bill funding the OKC bombing recovery effort.”

Indeed, during his time in Congress, Coburn has portrayed his efforts to rein in federal spending as a principled stance against accumulating larger deficits and passing debt to future generations. But Coburn hasn’t always opposed government spending that is not offset by budget cuts. The senator known as “Doctor No” has voted to fund the war in Iraq, the 2008 bank bail out, and even relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

– 2005: The “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act” (H.R. 1268) provided $82 billion to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Coburn voted for the measure.

– 2006: The Defense Appropriations Bill (H.R.2863) provided approximately $40 billion for the war in Iraq. Coburn voted for the measure.

– 2006: “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act,” (H.R. 4939 ) provided $72 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Coburn voted for the measure.

– 2005: After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Congress passed two relief bills, allocating more than $50 billion and allowing the National Flood Insurance Program to borrow more money. One of the measures was adopted by unanimous consent and Coburn voted for the other.

– 2006: Congress approved a Department of Defense appropriations bill (H.R. 5631), including approximately $70 billion for the war in Iraq. Coburn voted for the measure.

– 2008: In October 2008, the Bush Administration and Congress enacted a rescue package to stabilize the financial system by creating the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Coburn voted in favor of the measure.

By insisting that funding for tornado relief be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget, Coburn representing his ideological purity rather than the needs of his Oklahoma constituents.

Source

OP: Good thing he doesn't let a little think like humanity get in the way of his politics.

Land of the Free Rent- Apple and Tax Avoidance

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:23:24 GMT

WASHINGTON — Even as Apple became the nation's most profitable technology company, it avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of subsidiaries so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen, Congressional investigators disclosed on Monday.

The investigation is expected to set up a potentially explosive confrontation between a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, at a public hearing on Tuesday.

Congressional investigators found that some of Apple’s subsidiaries had no employees and were largely run by top officials from the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. But by officially locating them in places like Ireland, Apple was able to, in effect, make them stateless — exempt from taxes, record-keeping laws and the need for the subsidiaries to even file tax returns anywhere in the world.

“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven,” said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that is holding the public hearing Tuesday into Apple’s use of tax havens. “Apple successfully sought the holy grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars while claiming to be tax resident nowhere.”

Thanks to what lawmakers called “gimmicks” and “schemes,” Apple was able to largely sidestep taxes on tens of billions of dollars it earned outside the United States in recent years. Last year, international operations accounted for 61 percent of Apple’s total revenue.

Investigators have not accused Apple of breaking any laws and the company is hardly the only American multinational to face scrutiny for using complex corporate structures and tax havens to sidestep taxes. In recent months, revelations from European authorities about the tax avoidance strategies used by Google, Starbucks and Amazon have all stirred public anger and spurred several European governments, as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based research organization for the world’s richest countries, to discuss measures to close the loopholes.

Still, the findings about Apple were remarkable both for the enormous amount of money involved and the audaciousness of the company’s assertion that its subsidiaries are beyond the reach of any taxing authority.

“There is a technical term economists like to use for behavior like this,” said Edward Kleinbard, a law professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a former staff director at the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. “Unbelievable chutzpah.”

More Chutzpah ahead...

While Apple’s strategy is unusual in its scope and effectiveness, it underscores how riddled with loopholes the American corporate tax code has become, critics say. At the same time, it shows how difficult it will be for Washington to overhaul the tax system.

Over all, Apple’s tax avoidance efforts shifted at least $74 billion from the reach of the Internal Revenue Service between 2009 and 2012, the investigators said. That cash remains offshore, but Apple, which paid more than $6 billion in taxes in the United States last year on its American operations, could still have to pay federal taxes on it if the company were to return the money to its coffers in the United States.

John McCain of Arizona, who is the panel’s senior Republican, said: “Apple claims to be the largest U.S. corporate taxpayer, but by sheer size and scale, it is also among America’s largest tax avoiders.”

In prepared testimony expected to be delivered to the Senate committee by Mr. Cook and other Apple executives on Tuesday, the company said it “welcomes an objective examination of the U.S. corporate tax system, which has not kept pace with the advent of the digital age and the rapidly changing global economy.”

The executives plan to tell the lawmakers that Apple does not use tax gimmicks, according to the prepared testimony.

Mr. Cook is also expected to argue that some of Apple’s largest subsidiaries do not reduce Apple’s tax liability, and to press for a sweeping overhaul of the United States corporate tax code — in particular, by lowering rates on companies moving foreign overseas earnings back to the United States. Apple currently assigns more than $100 billion to offshore subsidiaries.

Atop Apple’s offshore network is a subsidiary named Apple Operations International, which is incorporated in Ireland — where Apple had negotiated a special corporate tax rate of 2 percent or less in recent years — but keeps its bank accounts and records in the United States and holds board meetings in California.

Because the United States bases residency on where companies are incorporated, while Ireland focuses on where they are managed and controlled, Apple Operations International was able to fall neatly between the cracks of the two countries’ jurisdictions.

Apple Operations International has not filed a tax return in Ireland, the United States or any other country over the last five years. It had income of $30 billion between 2009 and 2012. By shuttling revenue between international subsidiaries, Apple was able largely to sidestep paying taxes, Congressional investigators said.

In the prepared testimony, Apple executives disputed the characterization of Apple Operations International. “A.O.I. performs important business functions that facilitate and enhance Apple’s success in international markets,” the testimony states. “It is not a shell company.”

The Senate investigators also found evidence that the company turned over substantially less money to the government than its public filings indicated.

While the company cited an effective rate of 24 to 32 percent in its disclosures, its effective tax rate was 20.1 percent, based on the committee’s findings. And for a company of Apple’s size, the resulting difference was substantial — more than $8 billion in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Because of these strategies, tax experts say, Washington is forced to rely more and heavily on payroll taxes and individual income taxes to finance the government’s operations. For example, in 2011, individual income taxes contributed $1.1 trillion to federal coffers, while corporate taxes added up to $181 billion.

As companies’ earnings have accumulated offshore, many executives have been pushing more aggressively for a tax holiday that would allow them to bring back funds at lower tax rates. Apple has recently announced that it will return $100 billion to shareholders over three years through a combination of dividends and purchases of its own shares. Though Apple has enough cash on hand to pay for those initiatives, the company recently announced it would take on $17 billion in debt, rather than bring overseas money back to the United States to avoid paying repatriation taxes on those returning funds.

“If Apple had used its overseas cash to fund this return of capital, the funds would have been diminished by the very high corporate U.S. tax rate of 35 percent,” Mr. Cook is planning to testify, according to the prepared text. Apple “believes the current system, which applies industrial era concepts to a digital economy, actually undermines U.S. competitiveness.”

Critics, however, say these so-called repatriation holidays, which bring back funds at lower tax rates, do virtually nothing to stimulate the economy and benefit only corporations, their executives and shareholders. Congress enacted a repatriation holiday in 2004, allowing corporations to bring back about $300 billion from overseas and pay just 5.25 percent rather than the regular 35 percent corporate rate.

But a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 92 percent of the repatriated cash was used to pay for dividends, share buybacks or executive bonuses.

“Repatriations did not lead to an increase in domestic investment, employment or R.&D., even for the firms that lobbied for the tax holiday stating these intentions,” concluded the study, which was conducted by a team of three economists that included a former Bush administration official. Tuesday’s hearing on Capitol Hill, along with the disclosures about Apple’s tax policies, are likely to make lowering repatriation taxes a more difficult proposition for lawmakers to stomach, Congressional staff members said.

On Capitol Hill Monday, legislators made plain their fury over what they called Apple’s “egregious” and “outrageous” conduct.

While other companies have taken advantage of loopholes, Mr. Levin said, “I’ve never seen anything like this and we don’t know anybody who’s seen anything like this.”

Video at the Source.

What is it with Republicans and giving everything away for nothing? This is the equivalent of letting a hugely profitable business rent space, use your power and water and security and pay nothing, all the while cheering them on for making money.

One more reason I won't touch iCrap. For all indebted students/ former students: if the student loan interest rate doubles, it's largely in part to the shady activities of these bastards and the lawmakers who enable them.

No Apple tag, eh?

Democratic Senator uses Okla. tornado for anti-GOP rant over global warming

Tue, 21 May 2013 03:36:13 GMT

(Idt I'd call this a ~rant, but okay)

While many Americans were tuned into news coverage of the massive damage from tornadoes ravaging the state of Oklahoma, Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse took to the Senate floor to rail against his Republican colleagues for denying the theory of anthropogenic global warming.

Whitehouse spent 15 minutes chastising GOP senators and justified his remarks by alluding to states that seek federal assistance in the wake of natural disasters.

“So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate cliff like a bunch of proverbial lemmings and disgrace ourselves? I’ll tell you why. We’re stuck in this together. We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together.”

Whitehouse went on to condemn the current Republican position on global warming, citing economic, environmental and diplomatic damages.

“You drag America with you to your fate,” he continued. “So, I want this future: I want a Republican Party that has returned to its senses and is strong and a worthy adversary in a strong America that has done right by its people and the world. That’s what I want. I don’t want this future. I don’t want a Republican Party disgraced, that let its extremists run off the cliff, and an America suffering from grave economic and environmental and diplomatic damage because we failed, because we didn’t wake up and do our duty to our people, and because we didn’t lead the world. I do not want that future. But that’s where we’re headed. So I will keep reaching out and calling out, ever hopeful that you will wake up before it is too late.”

(Video doesn't want to embed, but can be viewed at the Source)

When the IRS Targeted Liberals

Tue, 21 May 2013 03:35:49 GMT

While few are defending the Internal Revenue Service for targeting some 300 conservative groups, there are two critical pieces of context missing from the conventional wisdom on the “scandal.” First, at least from what we know so far, the groups were not targeted in a political vendetta — but rather were executing a makeshift enforcement test (an ugly one, mind you) for IRS employees tasked with separating political groups not allowed to claim tax-exempt status, from bona fide social welfare organizations. Employees are given almost zero official guidance on how to do that, so they went after Tea Party groups because those seemed like they might be political. </b>Keep in mind, the commissioner of the IRS at the time was a Bush appointee.

The second is that while this is the first time this kind of thing has become a national scandal, it’s not the first time such activity has occurred.

“I wish there was more GOP interest when I raised the same issue during the Bush administration, where they audited a progressive church in my district in what look liked a very selective way,” California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said on MSNBC Monday. “I found only one Republican, [North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones], that would join me in calling for an investigation during the Bush administration. I’m glad now that the GOP has found interest in this issue and it ought to be a bipartisan concern.”</b>

The well-known church, All Saints Episcopal in Pasadena, became a bit of a cause célèbre on the left after the IRS threatened to revoke the church’s tax-exempt status over an anti-Iraq War sermon the Sunday before the 2004 election. “Jesus [would say], ‘Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine,’” rector George Regas said from the dais.

The church, which said progressive activism was in its “DNA,” hired a powerful Washington lawyer and enlisted the help of Schiff, who met with the commissioner of the IRS twice and called for a Government Accountability Office investigation, saying the IRS audit violated the First Amendment and was unduly targeting a political opponent of the Bush administration. “My client is very concerned that the close coordination undertaken by the IRS allowed partisan political concerns to direct the course of the All Saints examination,” church attorney Marcus Owens, who is widely considered one of the country’s leading experts on this area of the law, said at the time. In 2007, the IRS closed the case, decreeing that the church violated rules preventing political intervention, but it did not revoke its nonprofit status.

And while All Saints came under the gun, conservative churches across the country were helping to mobilize voters for Bush with little oversight. In 2006, citing the precedent of All Saints, “a group of religious leaders accused the Internal Revenue Service yesterday of playing politics by ignoring its complaint that two large churches in Ohio are engaging in what it says are political activities, in violation of the tax code,” the New York Times reported at the time. The churches essentially campaigned for a Republican gubernatorial candidate, they alleged, and even flew him on one of their planes.

Meanwhile, Citizens for Ethics in Washington filed two ethics complaints against a church in Minnesota. “You know we can’t publicly endorse as a church and would not for any candidate, but I can tell you personally that I’m going to vote for Michele Bachmann,” pastor Mac Hammond of the Living Word Christian Center in Minnesota said in 2006 before welcoming her to the church. The IRS opened an audit into the church, but it went nowhere after the church appealed the audit on a technicality.

And it wasn’t just churches. In 2004, the IRS went after the NAACP, auditing the nation’s oldest civil rights group after its chairman criticized President Bush for being the first sitting president since Herbert Hoover not to address the organization. “They are saying if you criticize the president we are going to take your tax exemption away from you,” then-chairman Julian Bond said. “It’s pretty obvious that the complainant was someone who doesn’t believe George Bush should be criticized, and it’s obvious of their response that the IRS believes this, too.”

In a letter to the IRS, Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel, Pete Stark and John Conyers wrote: “It is obvious that the timing of this IRS examination is nothing more than an effort to intimidate the members of the NAACP, and the communities the organization represents, in their get-out-the-vote effort nationwide.”

Then, in 2006, the Wall Street Journal broke the story of a how a little-known pressure group called Public Interest Watch — which received 97 percent of its funds from Exxon Mobile one year — managed to get the IRS to open an investigation into Greenpeace. Greenpeace had labeled Exxon Mobil the “No. 1 climate criminal.” The IRS acknowledged its audit was initiated by Public Interest Watch and threatened to revoke Greenpeace’s tax-exempt status, but closed the investigation three months later.

As the Journal reporter, Steve Stecklow, later said in an interview, “This comes against a backdrop where a number of conservative groups have been attacking nonprofits and NGOs over their tax-exempt status. There have been hearings on Capitol Hill. There have been a number of conservative groups in Washington who have been quite critical.”

Indeed, the year before that, the Senate held a hearing on nonprofits’ political activity. Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, the then-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the IRS needed better enforcement, but also “legislative changes” to better define the lines between politics and social welfare, since they had not been updated in “a generation.” Unfortunately, neither Congress nor the IRS has defined 501(c)4′s sufficiently to this day, leaving the door open for IRS auditors to make up their own, discriminatory rules.

Those cases mostly involved 501(c)3 organizations, which live in a different section of the tax code for real charities like hospitals and schools. The rules are much stronger and better developed for (c)3′s, in part because they’ve been around longer. But with “social welfare” (c)4 groups, the kind of political activity we saw in 2010 and 2012 is so unprecedented that you get cases like Emerge America, a progressive nonprofit that trains Democratic female candidates for public office. The group has chapters across the country, but in 2011, chapters in Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada were denied 501(c)4 tax-exempt status. Leaders called the situation “bizarre” because in the five years Nevada had waited for approval, the Kentucky chapter was approved, only for the other three to be denied.

A former IRS official told the New York Times that probably meant the applications were sent to different offices, which use slightly different standards. Different offices within the same organization that are supposed to impose the exact same rules in a consistent manner have such uneven conceptions of where to draw the line at a political group, that they can approve one organization and then deny its twin in a different state.

All of these stories suggest that while concern with the IRS posture toward conservative groups now may be merited, to fully understand the situation requires a bit of context and history.

Source is getting a little tired of the false equivalencies.