Winning Hearts & Minds

Bankrupt Detroit Receives Less U.S. Aid Than Colombia

"President Barack Obama proposed giving Colombia about $323 million in aid next year, mostly to combat drug trafficking and violence. Detroit, with an 81 percent higher homicide rate, will get $108.2 million. Detroit’s implosion has rekindled debate over how and whether a federal government that managed to provide more than $700 billion in aid to banks and automakers in 2008 and 2009 should help cities with unsustainable retirement debt, hollowed-out tax bases and diminished services that endanger the public. From 1990 to 2010, the percentage of the U.S. population that lives in urban areas grew to 81 percent from 75 percent." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBankrupt Detroit Receives Less U.S. Aid Than Colombia

TD Waterhouse Bank begins FATCA Hunt and embraces role as IRS deputy

"Its compliance department seized upon my Canadian Passport showing a US place of Birth…That it turn triggered them to FREEZE my accounts until I signed a 'W9' and a 'Limitations of Benefits' form. I immediately told them I had no SSN and wasn’t a US Citizen and they had no right to provide any information on my accounts to the US as this would be a breach of the client confidentiality act…(besides it would include my CANADIAN born wife’s affairs as well). They explained to me that the TD Waterhouse was required to do this as they were REGISTERED in the US and were subject to substantial US penalties under FATCA." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTD Waterhouse Bank begins FATCA Hunt and embraces role as IRS deputy

Unions: Obamacare Will ‘Destroy The Very Health and Wellbeing’ of Workers

"The Affordable Care Act has a new, high profile set of dissenters: Unions. The leaders of three major U.S. unions, including the highly influential Teamsters, have sent a scathing letter to Democratic leaders in Congress, warning that unless changes are made, President Obama’s health care reform plan will 'destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.' If that’s not bad enough, the Affordable Care Act, if not modified, will 'destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans,' the letter says." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUnions: Obamacare Will ‘Destroy The Very Health and Wellbeing’ of Workers

US Wants Its Police in Canada and Exempt from Canadian Law

"The United States wants its police officers to be exempt from Canadian law if they agree to take part in a highly touted cross-border policing initiative, an internal RCMP memo says. … The debate over whose laws would apply to U.S. officers working in Canada raises important questions of sovereignty and police accountability, says the briefing note prepared for RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson. Does this have implications for anyone who winds up in trouble/penalties over tax issues? Is Canada a sovereign country or the 51st State?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Wants Its Police in Canada and Exempt from Canadian Law

Guilty of Aiding the American People

"The 'aiding the enemy' accusation presumed that Manning’s distribution of classified material assisted al Qaeda. Actually, the information helps Americans by exposing U.S. war criminality. War criminality ranks among the most important types of government wrongdoing warranting transparency. We cannot debate foreign policy without knowing about its indecencies. What U.S. forces do abroad can endanger Americans at home. Some see the leaks, not the crimes, as the true scandal, but the Muslim and Arab world already know of these atrocities. The American people need to understand what U.S. occupations are like." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGuilty of Aiding the American People

Jacob Hornberger: The Real Criminals Under Our National-Security State System

"People Who Are Considered Heroes by the National-Security State: 1. The officials who devised the scheme that plunged America into the illegal world of torture. 2. The officials who actually committed the crime of torture. 3. The officials who induced private telecommunication firms to engage in illegal monitoring of their customer’s telephone calls. 4. The officials who devised the scheme that plunged America into the illegal world of assassination. 5. The officials who have actually committed the assassinations. 6. The officials who devised the scheme to establish a Constitution-free torture and indefinite-incarceration zone at Guantanamo Bay. [...]" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJacob Hornberger: The Real Criminals Under Our National-Security State System

Snowden Is No Traitor: 55% to 34%

"In a massive shift in attitudes, voters say 45 – 40 percent of the government’s anti-terrorism efforts go too far in restricting civil liberties, a reversal from a January 14, 2010 survey, when voters said 63 – 25 percent that such activities didn’t go far enough. Almost every party, gender, income, education, age and income group regards Snowden as a whistle-blower rather than a traitor. The lone exception is black voters, with 43 percent calling him a traitor and 42 percent calling him a whistle-blower. There is a gender gap on counter-terrorism efforts as men say 54 – 34 percent they have gone too far and women say 47 – 36 percent they have not gone far enough." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnowden Is No Traitor: 55% to 34%

5,000 Chinese factory workers strike over Indian takeover of American firm

"Cooper Tire and Rubber announced last month that it would be taken over by Apollo Tyres of India, making the combined group the seventh-largest such firm in the world. But thousands of staff at Cooper Chengshan, a joint venture in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, have walked out in protest, the Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday. It is the latest incident to hit a foreign joint venture after Chinese workers held an American factory executive hostage for nearly a week in late June over a plan by his US-based medical supply company to lay off 30 workers." Continue reading →

Continue Reading5,000 Chinese factory workers strike over Indian takeover of American firm

What we know thanks to Bradley Mannning’s leaks to WikiLeaks

"Bradley Manning, a 25-year-old US private, downloaded more than 700,000 classified documents from US military servers and passed them to WikiLeaks. The Guardian was one of several news organisations to publish a series of stories based on the contents of the files. Below are 10 of the most revelatory." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat we know thanks to Bradley Mannning’s leaks to WikiLeaks

Reevaluating Drug Courts: No Mother Should Have to Go Through What I Did

"July, 4 2013 was the first anniversary of my son's death. My son was a vibrant, well-educated, working professional in New York City. We know that he was in a crisis situation. We know that he could not present himself to the emergency room without breaking his probation. We know that the state's 911 Good Samaritan Law wouldn't have protected him because he was already involved with the criminal justice system. On the day he died, he didn't go to the hospital for a relapse as we practiced time and time again; he did not call 911 as he had before. He passed away in his home in Manhattan, even though he lived one block from Lenox Hill Hospital." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReevaluating Drug Courts: No Mother Should Have to Go Through What I Did