Crisis Begets Opportunity

Leaked documents show massive expansion of CIA budget

"The CIA has mushroomed into the largest US spy agency with a nearly $15 billion budget as it expands intelligence, cyber sabotage and overseas covert operations, secret leaked documents showed Thursday. It shows a dramatic resurgence of the Central Intelligence Agency, once thought to be on the decline after it acknowledged intelligence failures prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It now is the dominant colossus within the national intelligence community, expanding its workforce by more than 25 percent from a decade ago, to 21,575 this year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLeaked documents show massive expansion of CIA budget

Ron Paul: Middle of the Road in Healthcare Leads to Socialism

"Beginning in the 1940s, government policies distorted the health care market, causing prices to rise and denying many Americans access to quality care. Congress reacted to the problems caused by their prior interventions with new interventions, such as the HMO Act, ERISA, EMTLA, and various federal entitlement programs. Each new federal intervention not only failed to fix the problems it was supposedly created to solve, it created new problems, leading to calls for even more new federal interventions. This process culminated in 2010. Contrary to the claims of some of its opponents, Obamacare is not socialized medicine. It is corporatized medicine." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: Middle of the Road in Healthcare Leads to Socialism

All-seeing eyes focus on the sea

"The center, operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, can track as many as 50,000 aircraft at any moment. Officials say the center has reduced illegal cross-border flights from thousands per year in the mid-1980s to a handful. Initially, the focus was on drug trafficking, but has expanded over the years to include human trafficking, the smuggling of counterfeit products, and terrorist activities. The center now is testing software that will allow similar scrutiny of maritime traffic. The system would provide a comprehensive view of marine vessels within 100 miles of the U.S. coastlines. The omniscient view allows for greater coordination of agencies that might respond to a potential emergency." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAll-seeing eyes focus on the sea

Pentagon requests more funding for Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’

"The Pentagon has requested $220.3 million in 2014 to bolster Israel’s 'Iron Dome' missile defense system despite broader cuts to US military spending, according to budget documents. The US Missile Defense Agency also is asking for an additional $175.9 million in fiscal year 2015 for Israel’s homegrown missile defense network, according to the agency’s budget proposal posted online. The Pentagon already invested $204 million on the system in 2011 and $70 million in 2012. US military assistance to Israel comes to about three billion dollars a year to ensure the country’s 'qualitative military edge' in the region, as mandated by Congress." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPentagon requests more funding for Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’

Another Lying Rice in the White House

[May 2013] "She happily spread the lies and war propaganda to coerce support for an invasion, and she had her own 'mushroom cloud' moment when she peddled the lie to fellow diplomats behind closed doors that Gaddafi was issuing Viagra to his troops so that they may carry out mass rape. What is it about lying officials named 'Rice'? The stated purpose of the Libya force authorization was to protect the insurgents in Benghazi, who it was said Libyan army was about to engage. We all know how that came out: the insurgents were saved by US intervention and they shortly therafter went on to express their appreciation by killing the US ambassador and three others." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnother Lying Rice in the White House

Making the World the ‘Enemy’

"After 9/11, President George W. Bush turned to Civil War precedents to create military tribunals for trying alleged 'terrorists.' But in applying those draconian rules to a worldwide battlefield, he created the nightmarish potential for a global totalitarianism, as retired U.S. Army JAG officer Todd E. Pierce explains." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMaking the World the ‘Enemy’

NJ: Text Recipients Can Be Held Liable In Texting-And-Driving Accidents

"Drivers in New Jersey were left stunned, after state Appeals Court judges found that when a driver is texting and causes an accident, the recipient of the texts can also be held liable for negligence. As CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez reported Tuesday night, the decision stemmed from a 2009 accident where a 17-year-old girl texted a friend just before that friend crashed his pickup truck into a Morris County couple on a motorcycle. A state Appeals Court ruled 'that a person sending text messages has a duty not to text someone who is driving if the texter knows, or has special reason to know, the recipient will view the text while driving.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNJ: Text Recipients Can Be Held Liable In Texting-And-Driving Accidents

Obama promises mayors unilateral action on guns

"Stymied by Congress in his gun control efforts, President Obama told a group of big-city mayors Tuesday that he would take more executive actions to reduce gun violence. The closed-door meeting at the White House included Attorney GeneralEric H. Holder Jr., who discussed 'strategies to reduce youth violence,' the White House said in a statement. Mr. Obama 'vowed to continue doing everything in his power to combat gun violence through executive action and to press Congress to pass common-sense reforms like expanding the background check system and cracking down on gun trafficking,' the White House said in a statement." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama promises mayors unilateral action on guns

New York Times says outage ‘most likely result of malicious external attack’

"The New York Times said its website went down Tuesday after what appeared to be a 'malicious external attack.' A security researcher said there were indications that the Syrian Electronic Army, which has attacked several media organizations, was the culprit. Matt Johansen of WhiteHat Security said in a tweet that the technical aspects of the website during the outage were 'pointing to Syrian Electronic Army.' The Washington Post website was hacked this month in an attack blamed on the Syrian Electronic Army, a group that backs embattled strongman Bashar al-Assad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNew York Times says outage ‘most likely result of malicious external attack’

France: A Proud Nation Ponders How to Halt Its Slow Decline

"Can the Socialist government of President François Hollande pull France out of its slow decline and prevent it from slipping permanently into Europe’s second tier? At stake is whether a social democratic system that for decades prided itself on being the model for providing a stable and high standard of living for its citizens can survive the combination of globalization, an aging population and the acute fiscal shocks of recent years. Changing any country is difficult. But the challenge in France seems especially hard, in part because of the nation’s amour-propre and self-image as a European leader and global power." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrance: A Proud Nation Ponders How to Halt Its Slow Decline