White Flight

President Obama’s path to a second term may rely on states shaped by the same social forces he embodies.

By Ronald Brownstein

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Right turn: Sen. Marco Rubio’s supporters in Florida included many whites who voted for Obama in 2008.

Factbox: Details on incidents involving Egypt’s Christians

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Sat Jan 1, 2011 8:29am EST

(Reuters) – A suspected suicide bomber attacked a church in Egypt’s northern city of Alexandria, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens more as Christians in the Muslim-majority country marked the New Year. Although sectarian tensions often flare, analysts said this incident was on a much bigger scale than the kind of communal violence that can erupt over issues such as building churches or relationships between men and women of the two communities.

Below is list of recent developments related to violence involving Christians in Egypt:

January 1, 2011 — A suspected suicide bomber hits a church in Alexandria, killing at least 17 and prompting Christians to take to the streets in protest. Some Christians and Muslims pelt each other with stones. Police fire tear gas to disperse protesters.

Nov 24, 2010 — Clashes between riot police and hundreds of Christians protesting after construction of a church is halted in Cairo takes a sectarian turn as dozens of Muslims join the violence. Two Christians are killed by the violence, and more than 150 people are detained.

November 1, 2010 — The Islamic State of Iraq, the al Qaeda-affiliated group which claimed responsibility for an attack on a Baghdad church, threatens attacks on the Christian church in Egypt over its treatment of women the group said the church was holding after they had converted to Islam.

April 11, 2010 — Egyptian group the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights issues a report saying the number of cases of sectarian violence rose between 2008 and 2009 and calls for the prosecution of offenders to prevent a further escalation.

January 6, 2010 — Six Christians and a Muslim policeman are killed in a drive-by shooting on the eve of the Orthodox Coptic Christmas outside a church in the southern town of Nagaa Hamady. The shooting leads to protests. Some Christian and Muslim homes and shops are set a blaze in the violence.

May 10, 2009 — A small homemade bomb explodes near a church in Cairo but no one is hurt, security sources say. The device damages a car and a second one is found and detonated by police in the same area in the northeast of the capital, sources say.

(Compiled by Edmund Blair in Cairo; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

World

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Google:  The BIGGEST Big Brother of All!
A Stunning Act of Censorship by Google

I’ve had a queasy feeling about Google for awhile.  The realization that THEY know EVERYTHING about me in a way government could never hope to!  Google knows what I buy, what I read, what I’m interested in.  Google knows who my friends are.  Google knows what my home address is and what my credit card numbers are.  GOOGLE KNOWS EVERYTHING!  Couple that with the fact that its founders are big supporters of Barack Obama and are deeply involved with GEORGE SOROS on various projects – and you have a scary combination. 

Last year Google came out with a new product called Google Docs.  It’s a service whereby you can upload your word documents and spreadsheet documents to their servers where they will provide you with free software for creating and editing your documents.  As a person who runs a several online businesses I’ve always been opposed to this because while they’re starting it off as a free service, you know that eventually they’re going to charge.  And it’s not going to be the “one-payment” and you’re done, it’s going to be a “pay-as-you-go” month-to-month model – where you will inevitably end up paying far more for the software than you would under the current system.  Currently, you purchase your software once and that’s it.  You don’t ever have to pay another dime, until you decide to upgrade.  Under the Google system, you will eventually have to pay every single month for the rest of your life.

My other concern was that ALL your documents would reside on Google’s servers – giving them the ability should they ever wish to use it – to access your documents anytime.  I’ve kept quiet about all this up until now because I never thought or saw any evidence that they would actually ever do this.  However, all that changed today. 

In August 2009, I decided to test out Google’s new service called Google Docs. They touted it as a way to work on and share documents online. I had written a document about the “prayer practices” my church, (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City, Tim Keller pastor), was teaching and how similar they were to new-age meditation practices.  I wanted to share this document with several people, so I thought this would be a good way to test out Google Docs.  So I uploaded it and after much confusion among the people I wanted to share it with – I decided to just email it to them instead!  But the document remained on Google’s servers.

Today, I went back to Google Docs for the first time in more than a year and discovered that this document had been FLAGGED AS INAPPROPRIATE and they had terminated by ability to share it!  Take a look at the image to the left (click on it for larger version).  This is GOOGLE CENSORSHIP.  They determined this document was INAPPROPRIATE! 

But that didn’t stop me from opening the document and trying to share it again!  But when I did that, I got the following message (see screenshot – click for larger version):

I clicked Request a Review and was taken to this page:

Notice the Yellow Warning at the top saying this document cannot be shared until Google finds the “CONTENT IS APPROPRIATE.”  THAT’S CALLED CENSORSHIP!

Google has censored the sharing of this document for no reason that I can discern.  Clicking on their “Learn More” link takes you to this page:

So, I’m just trying to figure out which one of these they thought my little document on meditation in the church violated.  (In case you might like to see the document in question, it’s here)

Most people use web services such as this without ever reading the Terms of Service.  And if they do read, they figure it won’t affect them anyway.  However, please note the Term of Service below and know that when Google says they “reserve the right to pre-screen, review, flat, filter and modify…” YOUR DOCUMENTS, they really mean it!  They will really do it.

http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS?hl=en

8.3 Google reserves the right (but shall have no obligation) to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, modify, refuse or remove any or all Content from any Service. For some of the Services, Google may provide tools to filter out explicit sexual content. These tools include the SafeSearch preference settings (see http://www.google.com/help/customize.html#safe). In addition, there are commercially available services and software to limit access to material that you may find objectionable.

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=41742“>View Comments

Non-Surprise: Assange’s Accuser Linked To CIA

Posted by voxmagi on December 6, 2010

Anna Ardin

An interesting ‘coincidence’ in the still unfolding honey pot trap that has ensnared Julian Assange. From Kirk Murphy at Firedoglake.com:

Yesterday Alexander Cockburn reminded us of the news Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett broke at Counterpunch in September. Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up.

Anna Ardin (the official complainant) is often described by the media as a “leftist”. She has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. She published her anti-Castro diatribes (see here and here) in the Swedish-language publication Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas put out by Misceláneas de Cuba. From Oslo, Professor Michael Seltzer points out that this periodical is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. He further notes that the group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties were exposed here.

Quelle surprise, no? Shamir and Bennett went on to write about Ardin’s history in Cuba with a US funded group openly supported by a real terrorist: Luis Posada Carriles.

In Cuba she interacted with the feminist anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. Wikipedia quotes Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo as saying that “the so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States.”

Who is Luis Posada Carriles? He’s a mass murderer, and former CIA agent…

[continues at at Firedoglake.com]

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(NaturalNews) As part of a new expansion of government power over information, the Department of Homeland Security has begun seizing and shutting down internet websites (web domains) without due process or a proper trial. DHS simply seizes web domains that it wants to and posts an ominous “Department of Justice” logo on the web site. See an example at http://torrent-finder.com

Over 75 websites were seized and shut down last week, and there is no indication that the government will stop such efforts. Right now, their focus is websites that they claim “violate copyrights,” yet the torrent-finder.com website that was seized by DHS contained no copyrighted content whatsoever. It was merely a search engine website that linked to destinations where people could access copyrighted content. Google also links to copyrighted content — does that mean the feds will soon seize Google, too?

These seizures were conducted on the basis of language in the DMCA law, which is vastly overreaching in its powers (it was passed to appease the music recording industry and the RIAA). Even so, the U.S. Senate is right now considering passing yet another law — COICA — the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/…), a new law that would give the federal government even more power to shut down websites it opposed.

Read more about COICA here: http://www.usa-anti-communist.com/w…

And here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris…

Here’s the list of 19 US Senators who voted to censor the internet via the COICA bill: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20…

Government could shut down alternative health websites

Where is all this going? Today the U.S. government is targeting websites focused on copyright violations, but if the public tolerates this government-sponsored censorship of the web, it’s only a matter of time before these government powers are expanded to control the content of the internet.

Over the last few years, several U.S. Senators have already attempted to outlaw vitamins and nutritional supplements. One lawmaker even suggested that “alternative health” information should be outlawed on the internet in order to “protect” people from information that isn’t aligned with the drugs-and-surgery approach to sick care. It’s only a matter of time, it seems, before the U.S. government uses its new power of seizing internet websites as an information warfare weapon to silence anyone who opposes FDA and the Big Pharma agenda.

In fact, under these new laws, there’s no limit to what websites the U.S. government could choose to seize and shut down. This is the beginning of the federal takeover of the internet, where all websites that don’t fall in line with “official” government-approved information are now potential targets of DHS seizures.

One music website seized by DHS — RapGodFather.com — was seized merely because its users posted comments linking to file-sharing websites (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/…). The site had 150,000 members, but as of today, it is the property of “Homeland Security Investigations.” (http://rapgodfathers.com/)

See the TorrentFreak.com news report on this important story here: http://torrentfreak.com/music-linki…

All websites using the word “Face” could soon be seized

The reach of tyrants knows no limits. As widely reported throughout the popular press last week, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has assigned Facebook a trademark monopoly over the word “Face.” (http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/23/pa…) This means that any website using the word “face” could theoretically be seized by the DHS under the DMCA.

Lest you think this is some impossible exaggeration of the law, keep in mind that governments always misuse laws to go far beyond their original intended purpose. The RICO Act, for example, which was originally passed in 1970 to combat the mafia, is now used nearly every day against individuals and small businesses (http://www.ricoact.com).

Similarly, the Patriot Act signed into law by President Bush after the 9/11 attacks was originally intended to be applied to international terrorists. But now in the United States, it is routinely used against animal rights activists and environmental protection groups (http://www.aclu.org/national-securi…).

These rogue abuses of federal law create a pattern of expanding government powers that increasingly threaten the Constitutional rights of American citizens. To seize a person’s website without due process is both a violation of that person’s First Amendment rights (Free Speech) as well as their Fifth Amendment rights.

The Fifth Amendment states:

No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

And yet this seizure of websites by the DHS is doing precisely that — depriving people of property without due process of law.

The U.S. federal government, as we have increasingly seen through the actions of the TSA, DEA and DHS, does not recognize nor honor the Bill of Rights. Nor does it believe the U.S. Constitution has any authority whatsoever. The upshot of this is that all Americans citizens are now living under a system of government tyranny, where government agents may molest you at the airports or seize your website if they don’t like what you’re saying online.

Take action: Sign the petition

Help stop the government takeover of the internet. Sign this petition:
http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/

In order to protect your access to NaturalNews.com and stay in contact with us in case the DHS ever attempts to seize our web domain, be sure to join our email list by entering your email address at http://www.naturalnews.com/ReaderRe…

That way, we will be able to reach you by email with any important updates or announcements.

Articles Related to This Article: • Big Brother U.S. Government Subpoenaed Amazon.com to Obtain Book Purchasing Records of Customers • Government collusion in human medical experiments no longer just a conspiracy theory • Resolutions to Affirm State Sovereignty may be Prelude to Secession • Bribery in medicine: How drug authorities, Big Pharma pushers and other medical racket operators forfeit ethics for power and profits • What’s Really in Obama’s Health Care Reform Bill – A Plain English Translation • Be a fiscal patriot: die early and save your government from bankruptcy

Related video from NaturalNews.TV Your NaturalNews.TV video could be here. Upload your own videos at NaturalNews.TV (FREE)

About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He’s also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. Known as the ‘Health Ranger,’ Adams’ personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org

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Related Articles: • Big Brother U.S. Government Subpoenaed Amazon.com to Obtain Book Purchasing Records of Customers • Government collusion in human medical experiments no longer just a conspiracy theory • Resolutions to Affirm State Sovereignty may be Prelude to Secession • Bribery in medicine: How drug authorities, Big Pharma pushers and other medical racket operators forfeit ethics for power and profits • What’s Really in Obama’s Health Care Reform Bill – A Plain English Translation • Be a fiscal patriot: die early and save your government from bankruptcy	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com http://www.NaturalNews.com/030542_censorship_internet.html It’s really interesting!” title=”Email this article to a friend”> Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): US Government seizure of the internet has begun; DHS takes over 76 websites

09-27-2010  •  prisonplanet.com 

The Obama administration is drafting legislation that will see all internet providers and other online communication services, including email clients and social networks, be forced to allow the intelligence agencies unfettered backdoor access.

“Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order.” The New York Times reports.

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Never let a good crisis go to waste. The international bankers are taking advantage of the “food crisis” by driving up food prices in what is shaping up to be a classic case of a manufactured bubble.  It is also looking like a clear model of Problem-Reaction-Solution methodology. Create the food inflation problem (of course profiting all the way up), force an enraged reaction among the public, and take more sovereignty away with the solution of global food regulation.

Take a look at the commodity price charts for wheat and corn. Pay particularly close attention to what has happened since July 1st:

Wheat Prices – Source: Commodity Charts

Corn Prices – Source: Commodity Charts

These charts look like a technical trader’s dream, almost as if a computer program was set to incrementally increase the prices as to not make too many headlines on the way up.  The recent market speculation has now driven food commodity prices for corn and soybean to their 2-year highs. An emergency meeting Friday by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome to address the urgent shortages and sudden surge in prices had this to say:

In the past few weeks, global cereal markets experienced a sudden surge in international wheat prices on concerns over wheat shortages prompted by the drought in the Russian Federation. These unexpected events raise important questions not only about the stability of markets but, even more importantly, about the accuracy of production forecasts and ultimately the overall supply and demand prospects. However, with an increasing proportion of world grain supplies originating from the Black Sea region, an area known for large variations in yields, unexpected production shortfalls are likely to emerge more as a common feature rather than an exception in the years to come.

The Guardian reported on the meeting that, “Environmental disasters and speculative investors are to blame for volatile food commodities markets, says U.N.’s special adviser.” The article went on to quote from a research paper by the U.N.’s “special rapporteur” on food, Olivier De Schutter, which summarizes how speculation is inflating a food bubble:

‘[Beginning in ]2001, food commodities derivatives markets, and commodities indexes began to see an influx of non-traditional investors,; De Schutter writes. ‘The reason for this was because other markets dried up one by one: the dotcoms vanished at the end of 2001, the stock market soon after, and the US housing market in August 2007. As each bubble burst, these large institutional investors moved into other markets, each traditionally considered more stable than the last. Strong similarities can be seen between the price behaviour of food commodities and other refuge values, such as gold.’

He continues: ‘A significant contributory cause of the price spike [has been] speculation by institutional investors who did not have any expertise or interest in agricultural commodities, and who invested in commodities index funds or in order to hedge speculative bets.’

Certainly, the flurry of reports about the growing concerns over global food production, extreme weather, and a record-weak dollar have offered sufficient excuses for the speculation.  While at the same time, the human ramifications of these events are immeasurably awful.  Here’s just a few headlines from this week alone:

• Global food risk from China-Russia pincer

• USDA reduces grain-production estimates

• Australian prime wheat in demand, supply outlook tight

• Canadian farmers hit by rain face latest foe — frost

• Brazil Crops Shrivel as Amazon Dries Up to Lowest in 47 Years

• Gold Climbs to $1,300 on Dollar Concern; Silver at 30-Year High

These are very real concerns for feeding the human population.  And indeed, they are urgent matters to be solved.  However, it seems too convenient to see the banksters profit, the public suffering turn to outrage, and the bank-owned government agencies to scramble for a “solution.” Haven’t we seen this Three-card Monte game enough by now?  It’s a scam.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
• 

Almost right on cue, here comes the reaction from the food aid groups desperately calling for “swift action.”  An ActionAid‘s hunger campaigner, Alex Wijeratna, was quoted in the Guardian article: ”The emergency U.N. meeting in Rome is a clear warning sign that we could be on the brink of another food price crisis unless swift action is taken. Already, nearly a billion people go to bed hungry every night — another food crisis would be catastrophic for millions of poor people.”
If we believe Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, we can expect to be offered the solution of global food regulation.  In June of 2009, in response to the 2008 food crisis, he called for “bolstered global governance system for world food security” under the cover of feeding the hungry.  He said, “We have to build a more coherent and effective system of governance for world food security; we have to correct the policies and international trade system that have resulted in more hunger and poverty.”

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Incidentally, the organization’s plans for increased global governance seem to mainly focus on divvying up the elite’s table scraps to the poor hungry nations. Under this governance, we will likely see food continue to be used as an economic weapon.  It is also likely that more “free trade” agreements will be forced for food.  And, finally, we can expect more focus on increasing crop yields — no doubt with the help of big agribusiness. The one thing that we are most likely NOT to see is the prosecution or regulation of the banking speculators who hold the real power to starve the poor.

And the moment we’ve all been waiting for…

WASHINGTON – Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations of the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters such as BlackBerry, social networking websites such as Facebook and software that allows direct “peer-to-peer” messaging such as Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

The legislation, which the Obama administration plans to submit to Congress next year, raises fresh questions about how to balance security needs with protecting privacy and fostering technological innovation. And because security services around the world face the same problem, it could set an example that is copied globally.

James Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, said the proposal had “huge implications” and challenged “fundamental elements of the Internet revolution” — including its decentralized design.

“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” he said. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”

But law enforcement officials contend that imposing such a mandate is reasonable and necessary to prevent the erosion of their investigative powers.

News Link  •  Law Enforcers or Peace Officers

Federal court cases alleging police abuse increased 25 percent since 9/11

09-26-2010  •  Photography Is Not a Crime 

Since the 9/11 terrorists attacks, we’ve seen a sharp increase in First Amendment violations against photographers, usually in the name of keeping us “safe.”

Now it is evident that one of the reasons for this increase is the lowering of police hiring standards in the recruitment frenzy following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

 

 
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