The Transportation Scurity Admionistration has been taking a lot of flak lately, but at least they busted a Baltimore man who tried to get through airport security with 12 switchblades and a butterfly knife in his carry-on bag, MSNBC reports. The passenger, an Egyptian citizen who has been in the…
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Lights Out: As you watch this video keep this thought well in mind: The things in it are actually happening. (NSFL, School of French Kissing for Dogs.) [ thanks payman! ] Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Daily What Discovery Date : 13/07/2011 22:15 Number of articles : 4
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UN applauds move to deal with dramatic increase in refugees fleeing drought and conflict in Somalia since the beginning of the year The Kenyan government has announced it will open a fourth refugee camp at Dadaab to accommodate the thousands of people fleeing drought and conflict in Somalia. According to reports on Thursday, Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga, who visited Dadaab this week, said Ifo II camp would be opened on humanitarian grounds . The UN high commissioner for refugees, Antonio Guterres, has written to both Odinga and Mwai Kibaki, the president of Kenya, applauding the decision and promising the agency’s full support. Since Dadaab opened in 1991 to accommodate refugees escaping civil war in Somalia, a steady stream of people have been arriving there. However, severe food shortages and continued violence in Somalia have resulted in a dramatic increase in numbers since the beginning of the year, putting additional strain on already beleaguered resources. Dadaab, one of the world’s largest, most congested refugee camps, was declared full in 2008, but the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, said about 1,300 Somali refugees had recently been arriving daily. Up to five families are sharing plots designed for one family. Thousands of people are currently living in makeshift shelter outside the complex. NGOs have been pressing the Kenyan government to open the extension camp, which is expected to be operational within the next 10 days. The UNHCR said on Friday it expected its first delivery of tents for the new camp to arrive in Nairobi on Sunday. Six subsequent flights carrying equipment are expected over the next two weeks. According to the UN, as of Wednesday the total number of refugees in and around Dadaab was 439,000 – 380,000 registered and another 59,000 new arrivals living on the outskirts of the three existing camps, Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley. A UNHCR official at Dadaab, Fafa Attidzah, told AP the agency was “thankful” Ifo II has been given the go-ahead to open. “We are just happy and again we are thankful and we are grateful to the Kenyan government and to the Kenyan people for having allowed these refugees who are suffering to have a little bit of dignity by having somewhere where they could be accommodated,” Attidzah reportedly said. The NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, which has been working in Dadaab for 14 years, reported this week that extreme heat, lack of water and sanitation, delays in the registration of new arrivals and provision of food rations had resulted in difficult living conditions for new arrivals. There are particular concerns over the number of children suffering from malnutrition. MSF said on Thursday that last month’s three-day rapid nutritional assessment, during which 500 children between the ages of six months and five years were measured and weighed, found 37% were suffering from global acute malnutrition; of these, 17% were severely affected, with a high risk of death. Children up to the age of 10 were also showing elevated rates of malnutrition. “There is a high level of malnutrition. We are extremely concerned,” said Monica Rull, head of MSF projects in Kenya and Somalia. “I expected to find a difficult situation but not a catastrophic one,” explained Anita Sackl, the co-ordinator of the nutritional assessment. “The majority of new arrivals actually fled because they had nothing to eat, not just because their country has been at war for decades,” she added. Thousands of Somali refugees have also been crossing the border into Ethiopia and Djibouti. As of 30 June, more than 54,000 refugees had arrived in the Dolo Ado region of Ethiopia since the beginning of the year, bringing the total number of Somali refugees in Ethiopia to more than 135,000. A third refugee camp was opened in Dolo Ado last month. The UN estimates that at least 10 million people in east Africa will be in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of severe food shortages, failed harvest, rising food prices and conflict in the region. The UN and the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee have launched appeals for funds to address the crisis. On Thursday, Kenya’s government pledged 9bn Kenyan shillings ($100m) to provide supplies to those hit by the drought. Malnutrition Kenya Somalia Africa Refugees Aid Ethiopia Famine Liz Ford guardian.co.uk
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US defence department wants to go on offensive after revealing hackers obtained 24,000 key files in March The Pentagon may have to redesign some of its weapons system after a foreign intelligence service hacked into systems at a corporate contractor and obtained 24,000 key files in March. The incursion was one of the worst single incidents the US defence department has seen. Though it did not name the contractor nor the country suspected of carrying out the attack, Lockheed Martin said in May that it had come under attack. China and Russia have frequently been suspected of carrying out internet espionage, with China the most prominent in recent years. US defence chiefs now think they need to have a means of response against such incursions. “We’re on a path that is too predictable, way too predictable,” General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said on Thursday. “It’s purely defensive. There is no penalty for attacking us now. We have to figure out a way to change that.” Hours later, the deputy defence secretary, William Lynn, presented a strategy whose thrust, he said, is defensive and focused on “denying the benefit of an attack”. Lynn revealed that over the year key files including plans for missile-tracking systems, satellite navigation, surveillance drones and even jet fighters have been stolen from systems. “A great deal of it concerns our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems and network security protocols,” he said. Attacks on defence-related contractors and systems are growing increasingly sophisticated. The hackers who broke into Lockheed Martin’s systems had first raided the systems of EMC’s security subsidiary RSA Security which provides cryptographic “keys” used to scramble and decode files, in order to gain remote access to staff computers. Cartwright said US military commanders were now devoting 90% of attention to building better firewalls and only 10% to ways of deterring hackers from attacking. He said a better strategy would be the reverse, focusing almost entirely on attack. The defence department’s new strategy relies on deploying sensors, software and code to detect and stop intrusions before they affect operations. “If an attack will not have its intended effect, those who wish us harm will have less reason to target us through cyberspace in the first place,” Lynn said. “Current countermeasures have not stopped this outflow of sensitive information. We need to do more to guard our digital storehouses of design innovation.” Cartwright suggested that stronger deterrents would be needed. “We are supposed to be offshore convincing people if they attack, it won’t be free,” he said, adding that adversaries should know that the US has “the capability and capacity to do something about it”. James Lewis, an expert on computer network warfare at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the New York Times the Pentagon’s computer networks were vulnerable to security gaps in the systems of allies with whom the military cooperates. America’s allies are “all over the map” on cybersecurity issues, Lewis said. “Some are very, very capable and some are clueless.” Lynn said most major efforts to penetrate crucial military computer networks were still undertaken by large rival nations. “US military power offers a strong deterrent against overtly destructive attacks,” he said. “Although attribution in cyberspace can be difficult, the risk of discovery and response for a major nation is still too great to risk launching destructive attacks against the United States.” He warned that the technical expertise needed to carry out harmful internet raids was certain to migrate to smaller rogue states and to non-state actors, in particular terrorists. If a terrorist group obtains “disruptive or destructive cybertools, we have to assume they will strike with little hesitation,” Lynn said. The Democrat congressman, Jim Langevin, co-founder of the congressional cyber security caucus, told the Washington Post the plan was a good start but that key areas were missing. “What are acceptable red lines for actions in cyberspace?” Langevin asked. “Does data theft or disruption rise to the level of warfare, or do we have to see a physical event, such as an attack on our power grid, before we respond militarily?”. Lynn said the US has not yet been hit by an act of cyberwar and that there was deterrent value in remaining ambiguous about what would constitute one. But ultimately, he said, it is the president and the Congress that would decide that the human or economic damage is severe enough to consider a cyber event an act of war. Hacking Data and computer security Internet Computing United States US national security Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Beyonce’s father denies stealing from her; ‘Harry Potter’ works new charms with $43M overseas; Lady Gaga’s YouTube account is suspended. (July 15)
Continue reading …Grover Norquist tries put all blame on Obama for the economic mess. Grade: FAIL. CNN’s Morgan: ‘It’s complete hogwash’
July 15, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media CNN’s Piers Morgan likes to cast himself as an outsider, but he is in many ways a classic Villager, since he shares the Beltway’s relentless fetish with “bipartisanship” and “centrism”. Of course, this has for many years just been a cover for allowing right-wingers to lie, distort, smear and bully relentlessly, all in the name of “bipartisanship”, while demanding that liberals apologize abjectly for any pushback deemed too uncivil. It’s allowed GOP operatives like Grover Norquist to manipulate the media narrative so that anything other than right-wing orthodoxy is derided and dismissed — even when right-wing orthodoxy is just certifiably insane . Thus we had Norquist on Morgan’s CNN show the other day, playing the same game — but this time, it became clear that right-wing insanity on the debt ceiling is becoming too much even for Villagers to handle. This time, Morgan — in a rare display of principle — actually tried to call Norquist out on the right’s ongoing and egregious violations of the Village’s standards for fairness and bipartisanship in this debate, particularly their insistence on blaming Obama and Democrats for an economic mess created by conservative misgovernance. Morgan tried to get Norquist to say just how much responsibility Republicans might have for our current economic miseries, and couldn’t get an honest answer. Instead, Norquist veered into a classic piece of misdirection from the guy who once was quoted saying that “bipartisanship is a form of date rape”: NORQUIST: We need to get away from partisan politics. MORGAN: Why don’t we — let’s put it all in the mix. NORQUIST: And solve the problem. MORGAN: Let’s put it all in the mix. All in the mix, everything taken into account, percentage of the current crisis down to Republican decisions versus Democrat. Give me a percentage. NORQUIST: Well, OK, the Republicans have put forward a budget under Ryan cut $6 trillion out of the Obama budget. Obama has accepted none of that so he’s 100 percent responsible. MORGAN: So President Obama is 100 percent responsible for our current financial crisis. NORQUIST: For the failure — for the failure to get our — get out spending down. MORGAN: Isn’t your answer exactly what the problem is? For you to sit there and just look me straight in the eye down this camera and say President Obama is 100 percent responsible for the financial crisis in America, it’s obviously complete hogwash. And that kind of partisan opinion is what is preventing any kind of sensible deal, a strategy being achieved, isn’t it? All Norquist could answer was to say that, yeah, Bush spent too much, but Obama has just put the pedal to the metal, blah blah blah. Never any acknowledgment that the meltdown occurred on Bush’s watch, and as a result of Bush’s policies, which were in fact broadly supported by conservative Republicans like Norquist throughout his tenure and which were never opposed by any conservative faction with any pull. Policies which, in fact, Republicans now propose as the solution to the same economic disaster they actually created. It was a classic display of right-wing insanity. And it’s only going to get worse.
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“You know, in Journalism 101, if you're going to ask a question of someone like the president, what you do is, you take, respectfully, you take the opposition's best argument and you play devil's advocate,” NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell argued on the July 14 edition of “Hannity.” But instead of taking that approach — which, Bozell noted, the famous liberal reporter Sam Donaldson took both with Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton — the media have been actively working with Obama to forward the Democratic narrative regarding the debt ceiling negotiations. [Video follows page break]
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Isn’t it great when the thugs get caught in illegal gun activities? The Bible says that we will reap what we sow, and the corrupt Obama has much reaping in store. But for now, we will concentration on the Fast and Furious scandal which is brewing in DC. Ladies and gentlemen, the federal government is coming after our guns. Fast and Furious is about one thing, and one thing alone — the Obama regime… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Exposing Liberal Lies Discovery Date : 14/07/2011 13:16 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …Isn’t it great when the thugs get caught in illegal gun activities? The Bible says that we will reap what we sow, and the corrupt Obama has much reaping in store. But for now, we will concentration on the Fast and Furious scandal which is brewing in DC. Ladies and gentlemen, the federal government is coming after our guns. Fast and Furious is about one thing, and one thing alone — the Obama regime… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Exposing Liberal Lies Discovery Date : 14/07/2011 13:16 Number of articles : 4
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Friday’s strike sees Robert Peston and Laura Kuenssberg missing from TV and radio news, as Newsnight goes off air The strike by BBC journalists on Friday leaves the corporation’s TV and radio services without star reporters including Nick Robinson, Robert Peston and Laura Kuenssberg on one of the biggest days so far in the phone-hacking story following the resignation of Rebekah Brooks. BBC2′s Newsnight, which has enjoyed a ratings boost in the past two weeks as viewers have tuned in to catch up with comment and analysis of the latest twists and turns in the phone-hacking saga, is also off air on Friday night because of the 24-hour strike by members of the National Union of Journalists. The current affairs show, which was to have been presented by Gavin Esler, is being replaced by a 2010 repeat of Have I Got News For You. However, BBC1′s main news bulletin at 1pm went out as normal and the 6pm and 10pm bulletins are due to go ahead as planned. Robinson, the BBC political editor, and Kuenssberg, the chief political correspondent about to join ITV News as business editor, have been regular fixtures on TV and radio bulletins and the BBC News channel as key elements in coverage of the News International scandal played out at Westminster. Peston has also delivered several scoops about the unfolding story, leading rival media organisations to accuse News International of leaking stories to the BBC journalist. Viewers and listeners tuning in to BBC News programmes on Friday morning found disruption to the breakfast shows on BBC1 and Radio 5 Live and Radio 4′s Today . BBC1′s Breakfast was off air, replaced by a BBC News channel simulcast, while the regular 5 Live Breakfast hosts Nicky Campbell and Rachel Burden were replaced by Ian Payne and Julia Bradbury. Listeners to Radio 4′s Today were treated to a repeated documentary about the Russian communist revolution in the runup to 7am. However, from 7am the BBC’s flagship radio news programme ran pretty much as normal with regular presenters Sarah Montague and Justin Webb, who is in Japan reporting on the aftermath of the tsunami that struck earlier this year. The World at One and PM, Radio 4′s flagship evening news programme at 5pm, are also off air. The 1pm World at One news programme was replaced by a 15-minute bulletin, with the rest of the hour-long show taken up by a repeat of an edition of The Prime Ministers on 19th-century statesman Robert Peel. In place of PM will be a repeated of the contemporary history show Document, about the Polaris missile, with an edition of Soul Music at 5.30pm. Radio 4′s 8pm political discussion show Any Questions has also been taken off air. Replacing the scheduled broadcast of the panel programme which usually hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby will be an omnibus edition of Radio 4′s series exploring Winston’s Churchill’s life outside politics, Churchill’s Other Lives. Saturday’s edition of the follow-up call-in programme Any Answers will be replaced by an edition of My Teenage Diary, according to the BBC. The late night Radio 4 news programme The World Tonight is giving way to an edition of Meeting Myself Coming Back just after the 10pm news bulletin. Radio 5 Live is running a slightly slimmed-down news service with short news bulletins on the hour and half hour, with 15-minute bulletins planned for 1pm, 5pm and 6pm. The BBC World Service’s English-language service will be running five-minute news at the top of the hour and two minutes on the half hour. Picket lines were mounted from midnight on Friday outside BBC premises across the country, with the NUJ predicting a “solid response” to the walkout. The BBC admitted it expected widespread disruption to services and said it was disappointed by the industrial action and apologised to viewers and listeners. Negotiations with the NUJ over compulsory redundancies at BBC World Service and BBC Monitoring continued until the eve of the strike, but no agreement was reached. The NUJ general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, accused the BBC of “provoking” a strike over a handful of job losses, but the corporation said there were 100 posts for which compulsory redundancy was “regrettably unavoidable”. Stanistreet said the union offered a number of solutions to the dispute, adding that an offer from the conciliation service Acas for peace talks had not been taken up by BBC management. “There are so many people who want to leave the BBC that this could be resolved through negotiations. The NUJ has a longstanding policy of no compulsory redundancies, and it is clear that our members at the BBC are fully prepared to stand up for their colleagues under threat,” she said. “Jobs are being saved and created at management level, but journalists are losing theirs. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that BBC management wants thousands of its journalists to go on strike rather than settle the dispute.” A BBC spokesman said: “We are disappointed that the NUJ is intending to strike and apologise to our audience for any disruption to services this may cause. “We have had to reduce the number of posts in World Service and BBC Monitoring by 387, following significant cuts to the central government grants that support these services. In a significant majority of cases we have been able to reach this through voluntary redundancy or redeployment. “However, there are in excess of 100 BBC posts for which compulsory redundancy is regrettably unavoidable, and this is our focus, regardless of whether staff are members of unions.” A further 24-hour strike is due to take place on 29 July. •
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