Thursday, August 23, 2012

Republican US Senate Candidate Baumgartner: 'Go F_ck Yourself' !

Republican US Senate Candidate Baumgartner: 'Go F_ck Yourself' By Josh Feit 21 Aug 2012 State Sen. Michael Baumgartner (R-6, Spokane), who's running for US Senate against two-term Democratic incumbent US Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), appears to have sent me a bizarre email late last night. The email, which came from Baumgartner's personal account, included the photo I've posted. The email in its entirety said: Josh, this is Pat Feeks, a Navy SEAL killed last week in Afghanistan. Take a good look and then go f_ck yourself. [Note: CLG censored actual word, so filters would not trap this newsletter.]


Racial Comment by Republican Official in Ohio Rekindles Battle Over Early Voting 23 Aug 2012 A battle over early voting hours in Ohio is flaring again after a top adviser to Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, this week made remarks that Democrats cast as racist, and the Republican secretary of state suspended two local election officials who voted to extend balloting hours in one county. The friction detonated this week when Doug Preisse, the influential Republican Party chairman of Franklin County, which includes the state capital, Columbus, was quoted in The Columbus Dispatch newspaper as saying, "I guess I really actually feel we shouldn't contort the voting process to accommodate the urban -- read African-American -- voter turnout machine."


Record radiation found off Japan 23 Aug 2012 Record levels of radioactive caesium were detected in fish caught within 20km of Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, news reports said yesterday. The operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said Tuesday it had found 25,800 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive caesium in greenling, 258 times higher than the government safety standard. Fishing in waters off the plant has been voluntarily restricted since the nuclear disaster at the plant, which went into meltdown after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.


Tepco Finds Extreme Levels of Radioactivity in Fukushima Fish 22 Aug 2012 Tokyo Electric Power Co. found record high levels of radioactive cesium in fish it caught for tests within 20 kilometers of the coast from the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. The utility detected a combined 25,800 becquerels per kilogram of cesium 134 and cesium 137 in a greenling caught on Aug. 1, it said yesterday in a statement. That beat the previous high of 18,700 becquerels per kilogram found in cherry salmon and is 258 times the level of cesium Japan's government considers safe for consumption, Kyodo News reported.


Japan nuclear protesters meet premier 22 Aug 2012 For the first time since antinuclear rallies began months ago outside Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's office, a dozen protesters were allowed inside Wednesday for a half-hour meeting that the fledgling movement hailed as a victory. The meeting comes at a time of growing antinuclear sentiment in Japan, and with elections expected this year. Noda, who

angered demonstrators by dismissing their weekly rallies as "loud noise,"
had been under public pressure to meet with them face to face. The demonstrators are calling for a shutdown of the reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in western Japan - the first reactors to be restarted since the nuclear accident at Fukushima in March 2011 - and for Japan to decommission its 54 other reactors. [No, Noda. 'Loud noise' would have been the case if protesters stormed the building and opened fire. (Well, some might think: If you're gettin' blamed for making 'loud noise' -- you might as well make some! <g>) ]


Japan's PM meets leaders of anti-nuke protests but rejects demand that plants stay shuttered 22 Aug 2012 Japan’s prime minister met for the first time with leaders of weekly anti-nuclear protests Wednesday but rejected their demand that two recently restarted nuclear plants should be shut again. Tens of thousands of people have been gathering every Friday night outside Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's office compound to protest against nuclear power because of safety concerns set off by

last year's
the ongoing Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear crisis. The 11 protest leaders were allowed into the complex for the first time since they started chanting anti-nuclear slogans outside the tightly guarded building in April.


Netanyahu 'determined to attack Iran' before US elections, claims Israel's Channel 10 --TV reporter adds: 'I doubt Obama could say anything that would convince PM to delay a possible attack' 20 Aug 2012 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is determined to attack Iran before the US elections," Israel's Channel 10 News claimed on Monday night, and Israel is now "closer than ever" to a strike designed to thwart Iran's [alleged] nuclear drive. The TV station's military reporter Alon Ben-David, who earlier this year was given extensive access to the Israel Air Force as it trained for a possible attack, reported that, since upgraded sanctions against Iran have failed to force a suspension of the Iranian nuclear program in the past two months, "from the prime minister's point of view, the time for action is getting ever closer."


US Scholars: Israeli Extremists Should be Designated Terrorists 22 Aug 2012 Amid a rising spate of Jewish extremist violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank, two prominent US Middle East scholars are urging the United States to officially designate as terrorists those Israeli extremists who perpetrate terrorist violence against Palestinian civilians, Israeli citizens and even moderate elements of the settler movement. The US, "much like Israel... should consider designating individuals involved in acts of violence against Palestinians as terrorists," Daniel Byman and Natan Sachs, researchers at the Brookings Institution Saban Center, wrote in the current issue of Foreign Afffairs.


Rocket attack damages top US general's plane in Afghanistan 21 Aug 2012 A rocket attack on the US-run Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan has inflicted damage on the aircraft used by Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. According to authorities, two rockets were fired at the airfield early Tuesday, with shrapnel from one of the rockets striking the door of Dempsey's C-17 aircraft. Two US maintenance staff members sustained minor injuries in the attack.


US assassination drone strike kills three in northwestern Pakistan 21 Aug 2012 A US assassination drone strike has killed at least three people in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region. The unmanned aircraft reportedly fired four missiles at a house in North Waziristan on Tuesday. Since Saturday, at least 24 people have been killed by US drone strikes in the same region.


US drone strikes target rescuers in Pakistan - and the west stays silent --Attacking rescuers - a tactic long deemed by the US a hallmark of terrorism - is now routinely used by the Obama administration By Glenn Greenwald 20 Aug 2012 The US government has long maintained, reasonably enough, that a defining tactic of terrorism is to launch a follow-up attack aimed at those who go to the scene of the original attack to rescue the wounded and remove the dead. Morally, such methods have also been widely condemned by the west as a hallmark of savagery. Yet, as was demonstrated yet again this weekend in Pakistan, this has become one of the favorite tactics of the very same US government.


At Guantanamo tribunals, don't mention the 'T' word 20 Aug 2012 CIA agents have written books about it. Former President [sic] George W. Bush has explained why he thought it was necessary and legal. Yet the 'al Qaeda' suspects who were subjected to so-called harsh interrogation techniques, and the lawyers charged with defending them at the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals, are not allowed to talk about the treatment they consider torture. Defense attorneys say that and other Kafkaesque legal restrictions on what they can discuss with their clients and raise in the courtroom undermine their ability to mount a proper defense on charges that could lead to the death penalty.


Armed Wash. man arrested for alleged Obama threat 22 Aug 2012 The Secret Service on Tuesday arrested a Washington state man accused of making an email threat against President Obama and brandishing a shotgun at officers who came to his door. Anton Caluori, 31, was arrested at an apartment in this south Seattle suburb for investigation of making threats against the president and assault on a federal officer, said Brian Leary, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington, D.C. Caluori is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. Wednesday in federal court, Leary said.


Texas Judge Preparing for 'Civil War' If Obama Is Re-Elected 22 Aug 2012 A Texas leader is warning of what he calls a 'civil war' and possible invasion of United Nations troops if President Barack Obama is re-elected. Lubbock County Judge Tom Head is convinced that Mr. Obama winning a second term would lead to a revolt by the American people, and he is pushing a tax increase for the District Attorney's Office and the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office. He says the money is needed to 'beef up' its resources in case President Obama wins the November election.


Agencies warn of possible anarchist activity at conventions 22 Aug 2012 Law enforcement officials are concerned about possible violence by anarchist extremists at the upcoming Republican and Democratic national conventions, according to an intelligence bulletin prepared by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. The bulletin, which was obtained by CNN, says that anarchists could try to use improvised explosive devices. It also says that, as of March, the FBI had intelligence [TrapWire?] indicating individuals from New York "planned to travel to Tampa and attempt to close" all of the Tampa Bay-area bridges during the Republican National Convention next week.


W.Va. man armed near school faces terrorism charge 20 Aug 2012 A West Virginia man wearing body armor and armed with a training rifle, two knives and ammunition was charged Monday with committing a terrorist act after police found him running near two schools in the state's Eastern Panhandle. William Everett Alemar, 23, was arrested after several callers reported to police that he was running in full desert camouflage and a ballistic vest with what appeared to be an AR-15 assault rifle, Detective Lt. G.B. Swartwood said. Authorities later discovered the training rifle fires pellets, not live rounds.


Secretive Police Unit Sought to Map Terrorist Havens in City, Official Testifies 22 Aug 2012 Despite being dispatched to hundreds of places across New York City where would-be terrorists might congregate, an eight-member Police Department unit that eavesdropped on countless conversations has not generated a lead or an investigation in at least six years, a police chief testified in a deposition unsealed Monday... The plaintiffs' lawyers [in a civil rights lawsuit that has been going on for decades] are asking a federal judge to find that the Police Department's counterterrorism investigation violated the longstanding Handschu Consent Decree, which resulted in guidelines for police investigations of political groups and the monitoring of public events.


Surveillance unit produced no terrorism leads, NYPD says --The NYPD's Demographics Unit was put together with the CIA's help. 22 Aug 2012 A controversial NYPD surveillance unit that cataloged information on Muslim communities never produced a lead that linked to a potential terrorist plot during years of investigating, according to the head of the city's police intelligence division. The NYPD's Demographics Unit -- or Zone Assessment Unit -- was put together with the CIA's help following the September 11, 2001, attacks. The unit has acknowledged that it engaged in monitoring that included Muslim-owned business and mosques across the New York region.


Despite Assange claims, U.S. has no current case against him --U.S. investigating, but has not issued indictment 22 Aug 2012 Despite claims by Julian Assange that Washington is plotting to extradite and execute him, U.S. and European government sources say the United States has issued no criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder and has launched no attempt to extradite him. Moreover, Obama administration officials remain divided over the wisdom of prosecuting Assange, the sources said, and the likelihood of U.S. criminal charges against him is probably receding rather than growing. The Obama administration has said Assange's immediate fate is in the hands of Britain, Sweden and Ecuador.


Sabu Gets 6-Month Sentencing Delay for Continuing to Help Feds 21 Aug 2012 Sabu, the hacker who turned informant on the rampaging Anonymous offshoots Antisec and LulzSec, is getting a six-month reprieve from being sentenced on 12 counts of violating federal law, due to his continued cooperation with the feds, prosecutors told a court Tuesday. Hector Xavier Monsegur, a 28-year-old New Yorker who used the online name "Sabu," has been working undercover for the feds since the FBI arrested him without fanfare last June. [Traitor] Monsegur provided agents with information that helped them arrest several suspected members of LulzSec and Antisec, including two men from Great Britain, two from Ireland and an American in Chicago.


Isaac churns in the Caribbean, threatens Republican Convention 23 Aug 2012 Tropical Storm Isaac spun over the Caribbean Sea and could become a hurricane on Thursday as it moves on a track that would put it off the coast of Florida on Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa. As the center of Isaac moved away from the Leeward Islands, the storm prompted hurricane warnings in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Isaac was centered about 270 miles southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, late Wednesday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

No comments: