Police State, Brutality, Bad Cops, NYPD, Recordings, Guns, Law and Disorder, True or False, Righting Injustice, LawBook

Police State

• NYPD Unveils Crime- And Terror-Fighting 'Domain Awareness System'
• No place in Berkeley for police armored car
• It's legal: cops seize cell phone, impersonate owner
• Something is Happening in Anaheim: Why the Media Blackout?
• Australia: Right to remain silent at risk under O'Farrell's legal crackdown--"The foundations of criminal justice - the right to remain silent and the presumption of innocence - are under threat in NSW from proposed new laws, legal experts have warned."

Brutality

• Judge awards $1 million in brutality lawsuit against troopers--"New York state must pay a Syracuse area man more than $1 million because a state trooper assaulted him without justification during a traffic stop 11 years ago...."
• In Police-Stop Data, Pockets Where Force Is Used More Often NYT
• Police used 'unsuitable force' on mentally ill man Sean Rigg who died in custody, jury finds
• LAPD commander removed in probe of rough arrest--There's an investigation "into a videotaped beating in which officers tackled a handcuffed registered nurse to the ground...."
• St. Paul: Arrested man says cop kicked him as he choked on Mace

Bad Cops

• How Did 21-Year-Old Chavis Carter Get Shot In The Head While Handcuffed In A Police Car?
• Toronto police sued for $1.4M over G20 'hairy legs' profiling
• Mirkarimi engaged in misconduct--"The San Francisco Ethics Commission set the stage for suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's potential removal from office when it voted 4-1 Thursday to find he engaged in official misconduct stemming from a Dec. 31 argument where he bruised his wife's arm."
• Drunken driving case involving U.P. police official dismissed--"[T]he judge decided that a test of Smith's blood-alcohol level couldn't be used as evidence...."
• Brothers Upset After Off-Duty Officer Pepper-Sprays Their Pit Bull--"Pretty much he said that if he feels threatened, he can do whatever he wants to protect himself."

NYPD

• Empire State Building shooting victim says NYPD fired 'randomly' into street--A former NYPD officer spins the story, claims that they exhibited a "model of restraint."
• Times Photographer Is Arrested on Assignment--"Mr. Stolarik said he asked for the officers' badge numbers, and the officers then took his cameras and dragged him to the ground; he said that he was kicked in the back and that he received scrapes and bruises to his arms, legs and face." NYT
• Kidnapping victim found tied up in NYPD detective's garage, sources say
• Harlem teen says she was cuffed, held in MetroCard flap--"Cops detained her for 90 minutes after wrongly believing she had misused a student transit pass."
• Judge Thomas Raffaele's Alleged NYPD Attacker Won't Face Criminal Charges

Recordings

• Photographing Police: What Happens When the Police Think Your Phone Holds Evidence of a Crime?
• DC police chief announces shockingly reasonable cell camera policy--Unfortunately this policy didn't seem to last too long.
• Blast from the Past: False Rape Allegation Thwarted By Police Camera--The recordings work both ways by protecting the innocent policemen.

Guns

• The Secret History of Guns--"In the battle over gun rights in America, both sides have distorted history and the law, and there's no resolution in sight."
• Welcome to Hell: Philadelphia Has a Serious Case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder--"As a result of our gun crisis, tens of thousands of Philadelphians mights be suffering the same psychological trauma as people in Afghanistan and Rwanda. In a world like that, do two young boys stand a chance?"
• Gun Control? Dream On.

Law and Disorder

• Publican adamant; No protection money--"Jane Birgitte Pedersen, who owns the Café Viking in Copenhagen said 'No!' last week to demands from a local gang to pay protection money for running a business on 'their patch'."
• Defendant in Texas rape case vanishes during trial
• Court Says Impersonating a Cop to Beat Traffic Tickets Is Not Protected Speech

True or False

• $60k damages awarded against blogger who reported truth
• All lies? Scientists threatened with legal action over lie detector article
• False confessions: Silence is golden--"People have a strange and worrying tendency to admit to things they have not, in fact, done.

Righting Injustice

• 'Legally innocent' inmates ordered freed in N.C.--Some of these were in legal limbo, and to make things worse, "lawyers had urged courts to keep them in prison even though they conceded that they had not committed a federal crime."
• Texas Man Freed After DNA Clears Him Of 1988 Rape--"A man who spent more than two decades behind bars was freed Friday after DNA evidence cleared him in the rape of a 14-year-old Fort Worth girl."
• Allentown man imprisoned after being mistaken for illegal immigrant gets $25,000 court settlement

LawBook

• Ga. jailer fired after Facebook friend request to inmate
• Facebook posts help Detroit brothers Thomas and Raymond Highers get new trial after 25 years in prison for murder
• Boy (15) on trial in Netherlands over Facebook contract killing

Marriage Equality, International, Discrimination, Religion, Politics and Media, Hate, It's a Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay World, Hide Yo Kids, Parenting

Marriage Equality

• Undercover At NOM's Anti-Gay Student Conference--"According to NOM, the conference is meant to prepare college students to defend 'natural marriage' on their campuses...."
• 'Republicans United for Marriage' Seeks to Change GOP Views on Gay Marriage in Maine
• Republicans are scared of gay marriage--"Well, some of them are -- or at least they're scared that opposing it will cost them votes." Salon
• What’s next for gay marriage?--"On Election Day, three states are slated to consider allowing same-sex nuptials." Salon
• Amazon's Founder Pledges $2.5 Million in Support of Same-Sex Marriage
• Straight talk on Bezos $2.5 million same-sex marriage donation-
• Mr. Deity & The Marriage

International

• Spurred by Obama, New Zealand lawmakers expected to cast 1st vote favoring gay marriage law--"The vote is the first of three Parliament must take before the bill can become law...." and now it's 1 down, 2 to go.
• Gay marriage to be introduced in Scotland
• France to introduce same-sex marriage bill--"French lawmakers are set to introduce legislation in October that would allow gay marriage, fulfilling a campaign promise of President Francois Hollande. "
• Top German court demands tax benefit for same-sex couples
• Three-person civil union sparks controversy in Brazil

Discrimination

• Nevada Same-Sex Couple Denied Hospital Visitation Despite Domestic Partnership
• Colorado Cakeshop Refuses To Bake A Wedding Cake For Gay Couple
• Lesbian Couple Wins Suit Against Discriminating Vermont Inn
• The Daily Show: Gaywatch - Holdouts Edition--"The Boy Scouts of America reaffirms its ban on openly gay boys and adult leaders, and Chick-fil-A's exclusionary policy incurs the wrath of the Muppets."
• Eagle Scouts return medals over organization’s anti-gay stance--And there's more than a few, despite what the BSA claims.
• Firing of gay staffer leads 10 to quit in support
• Colbert on Chick-fil-A's business strategy

Religion

• Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases
• French Catholic Church prayer against gay marriage, euthanasia--Obviously that's bound to get a reaction.
• US evangelical Christians accused of promoting homophobia in Africa
• Why I outed a Christian star Salon
• The Onion: Evangelical Hospital Holds 5th Annual Gayness Cure Walk

Politics and Media

• Jury orders lawyer to pay $4.5 million to gay University of Michigan alumnus
• Jennifer Carroll Apology: Florida's Lieutenant Governor Says Sorry For Lesbian Comments--She said that, "Black women that look like me don't engage in relationships like that."
• TPM Obtains Mugshot Of Floyd Lee Corkins, Alleged FRC Shooter--"Corkins, who allegedly carried out the shooting because he was upset with the FRC's opposition to gay rights, was indicted by a grand jury."
• Gay Republicans say they are optimistic despite rebuffs from party--Speaking of buff, check out scenes from 'Homocon'. [Thanks Hector!]
• Jeff Sheng's Don't Ask Don't Tell Photos, Now a Historical Relic
• Oxford University rewrites gender dress code
• Toyota's gender-bending win Salon

Hate

• Masked men carve 'dyke' into lesbian woman, then set house on fire
• Gay Oklahoma City Man Escapes with Life After Vandals Target His Car with Firebomb, Slurs
• Appeals Court Upholds Law Banning Anti-Gay Hate Crimes

It's a Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay World

• Germany's Gay Rights Debate Becomes Heated--"Katherina Reiche may have thought she was just reiterating her party's traditional pro-nuclear family stance. But remarks she made earlier this week on gay marriage have triggered an outpouring of protest. Indeed, the Internet fury has reached such dimensions that Reiche has taken her own Facebook page offline."
• Madonna sued for outspoken support of gay rights in Russia
• Outraged Lebanese demand end to anal exams on gay men
• Anti-gay bill in Ukraine calls for banning rallies, movies, TV shows depicting gay people
• Turing fight goes to Lords--His life is getting a bit more exposure.

Hide Yo Kids

• Grant Storms, Anti-Gay Louisiana Pastor, Convicted Of Obscenity For Masturbating In Public
• Anti-Gay Activist and Prop 8 Donor Charged With Sexually Assaulting Young Boys
• Lawmaker who thinks gays a threat to children crashes boat into children--Drukenly, at that.

Parenting

• What's So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress? NYT
• Father of the Year Helps Dress-Wearing Son Feel Comfortable By Putting on a Skirt Himself
• Controversial Gay-Parenting Study Is Severely Flawed, Journal's Audit Finds
• California Set To Pass First Bill Banning Gay Conversion Therapy For Minors
• Little Boy Asks Tennis Star To Marry Him, Gets A Free Lesson

TrapWire, Surveillance State, Privacy, Car Chase, Your Rights Online, Tech Tracking, Facebook, Censorship, Obscenity

TrapWire

• Mainstream media whitewashes the facts behind TrapWire scandal
• Trapwire surveillance system exposed in document leak--"Papers released by WikiLeaks show US department of homeland security paid $832,000 to deploy system in two cities."
• Cubic Exec Lies to Anonymous on Trapwire

Surveillance State

• The Program--"The filmmaker Laura Poitras profiles William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency who helped design a top-secret program he says is broadly collecting Americans' personal data." NYT
• Giving In to the Surveillance State--"The National Security Agency is mining our data like never before. It needs more oversight." NYT
• Pushing back the surveillance state: we must get behind these two bills
• The new totalitarianism of surveillance technology--"If you think that 24/7 tracking of citizens by biometric recognition systems is paranoid fantasy, just read the industry newsletters."
• FBI To Give Facial Recognition Software to Law-Enforcement Agencies
• Lansing Surveillance Cameras Are Costly, Ineffective and Invasive, ACLU Report Warns
• U.K. Govt. Employee Arrested for Downloading Surveillance Footage of Couple Having Sex

Privacy

• California state legislature approves Location Privacy Act
• How Privacy in America Went Virtually Extinct in Just a Decade
• Don't Build a Database of Ruin--"Many businesses today find themselves locked in an arms race with competitors to see who can convert customer secrets into the most pennies. To try to win, they are building perfect digital dossiers, to use a phrase coined by Daniel Solove, massive data stores containing hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands, of facts about every member of our society." The "Database of Ruin" comes when these companies "combine their data stores, which will give rise to a single, massive database."

Car Chase

• Your car, tracked: the rapid rise of license plate readers
• Detailed Parking Tickets Breach Personal Privacy, Appeals Court Says
• New Documents Show That Feds Share License Plate Scanning Data With Insurance Firms

Your Rights Online

• Twitter Fights Back to Protect 'Occupy Wall Street' Protester
• SKorean judges block law requiring real names online, ruling it restricts freedom of speech
• Keeping Your Site Alive--"Denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are increasingly common phenomena, used by a variety of actors—from activists to governments—to temporarily or indefinitely prevent a site from functioning efficiently."

Tech Tracking

• Big Brother on a budget: How Internet surveillance got so cheap--"Deep packet inspection, petabyte-scale analytics create a 'CCTV for networks.'"
• In a Blow to Hulu, Judge Rules Video Privacy Law Applies Online
• Web Sites Accused of Collecting Data on Children--"The sites cited by the advocacy groups include McDonald's HappyMeal.com; Nick.com, the Nickelodeon site owned by Viacom; General Mills' ReesesPuffs.com; SubwayKids.com; another General Mills site, TrixWorld.com; and Turner's CartoonNetwork.com." NYT
• The Very Real Perils Of Rich Kids On Social Networks
• Google Building Privacy Red Team
• Google Analytics Could Be Banned In Norway
• Australia: Authorities gain power to collect Australians' internet records--However, there is "opposition o the Government's 'unjustified' and 'incoherent' proposals to increase cyber-surveillance of citizens."

Facebook

• How Facebook design tricks people into trading away privacy
• In the Facebook Era, Students Tell You Everything
• Three years later, deleting your photos on Facebook now actually works
• Judge rejects Facebook's 'Sponsored Stories' settlement
• Facebook threatened by German consumer group over App Center privacy info

Censorship

• Abuse of Youtube's copyright infringement claim process for doxxing purposes
• Heavy dose of hyperlinks gets defamation lawsuit against Gizmodo tossed
• UK 'too heavy-handed' with Twitter and online trolls
• India blocks more than 250 Web sites for inciting hate, panic
• Jordanian Online News Portals and Websites to Blackout in Protest of New Press Law

Blast from the Past: Obscenity

• Pakistan shelves 'obscene' SMS ban--The Pakistan Telecom Authority wanted to ban dirty texting.
• Obscenity Trial Suspended After Judge Posts Sex Images Online
• Couple gets prison time for Internet obscenity

War on Sex, Conservatism, Elections 2012, Obama, Will the Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up?, Rmoney, Voter Suppression

War on Sex

• Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith: Sex out of wedlock 'similar to' rape
• Akin Unmasks the Pro-Life Movement
• New law in Arizona states 'pregnancy begins two weeks before conception'--Thou shalt not think about sex.
• All the Single Ladies--"After listening to Republican politicians and their proxies on TV and radio, I'm left wondering why any women vote for Republicans." NYT
• Sexual Freedom by Hugh Hefner--"Today, in every instance of sexual rights falling under attack, you’ll find legislation forced into place by people who practice discrimination disguised as religious freedom."

Conservatism

• Joe Klein: Why Akin Matters--"[M]any of the smartest, most erudite, most creative policy thinkers I've encountered over the past 40 years are Republicans or conservatives. [...] But the Republican Party that produced such thinkers is, as we all know, gone now. And what we have is a party that too often acquiesces–with rolled eyes and grimaces, to be sure–in the know-nothing idiocy of a plurality of its base."
• Kevin Drum: The Backlash to the Todd Akin Backlash Starts to Take Form--"The backlash from the social conservative base has already begun, and I suspect that eventually the mainstream of the GOP will cave in. They'll cave in quietly, but cave in they will." And that Akin will ultimately prevail over McCaskill.
• Paul Auster: "I think of the right-wing Republicans as jihadists" Salon
• How Conservatism Lost Its Mind
• The Surprisingly Progressive Republican Party Platform... of 1956

Elections 2012

• Texas Judge Warns Of 'Civil War, Maybe' If Obama Wins
• "That's what happened when I was president"--"If Clinton's new ad for Obama works, Republicans will have only themselves to blame." Salon
• George W. Bush: GOP's persona non grata--"Four years after Bush vacated office, Romney is still desperate to put him out of voters' minds." Salon
• Delegate deal snuffs Texas rebellion--"Under a compromise reached late Monday, Romney supporters and GOP leaders agreed to back down from a proposed rule change that effectively would have allowed presidential nominees to choose which delegates represent them at national conventions."
• Misleading Atlantic Wire Piece Accuses Boehner Of Saying 'Out Loud He Hopes' Blacks, Latinos Don't Vote
• Chris Matthews destroys RNC chairman on live TV for playing race card
• Penny Arcade: Campaign Mode

Obama

• Fear of a Black President
• Forbes' Shameful Piece on Obama as the "Other"
• Former Gov. Charlie Crist: Here's why I'm backing Barack Obama

Will the Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up?

• So, Mitt, what do you really believe?--"Too much about the Republican candidate for the presidency is far too mysterious."
• Romney's Biggest Problem: He's a Republican
• Reich: Romney's Lying Machine--" I've been directly involved in seven presidential campaigns, and I don't recall a presidential candidate lying with such audacity, over and over again."
  
• Mitt Romney team of "Mad Men" creates ads to sell nation on candidate
• Mitt Romney Flip-Flops

Rmoney

• Romney says his Mormon tithing shouldn't be public
• FORTUNE: Gawker's worthless 'Bain files'--Well, so far they show that Mitt is worth a lot of money (Salon).
• David Simon Explains Why So Many Jaws Dropped When Mitt Romney Said He Had Never Paid Less Than A 13% Tax Rate
• Mitt Romney's tax bill under Paul Ryan's budget? 0.82% (Your taxes will probably go up, though)
• Tax Credits Shed Light on Romney--"Some experts are looking at a corner of the tax code involving foreign tax credits, and pointing to intriguing clues buried in the returns Mitt Romney has released." NYT

Voter Suppression

• GOP'S Voter Fraud Fairy Tale--It's all about disenfrancisement.
• GOP adds war on voting to party platform--Looks like Florida governor Rick Scott doesn't want black people to vote.
• Going Undercover at the GOP's Voter Vigilante Project to Disrupt the Nov. Election--"The Republican True the Vote project is a well-funded scheme with training sessions for activists across the country. Will it work?"
• Why South Carolina Wants To Ban Student IDs At The Polls But Is Just Fine With Military IDs
• Philadelphia mayor is 'geared up' to combat effects of voter ID law--"Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is waging a campaign both inside and outside City Hall to combat voter disenfranchisement in Pennsylvania...."
• Exposing the Inherent Racism in the Republican Myth of Voter Fraud

Apple vs. Samsung, Patents, Twitter, Facebook, Windows 8, Open Source, Tech Death

Apple vs. Samsung

• Jury awards Apple $1.049 billion in Samsung patent dispute ruling
• Legal analysts suggest Apple-Samsung verdict may not be safe
• Why The Apple vs Samsung Verdict Is A Big Mistake
• Apple vs. Samsung verdict: It doesn't matter
• Counterintuitive: Did Samsung emerge a winner?--"Observers like Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang said Samsung may not be a loser in its patent fight with Apple despite a $1 billion verdict to the contrary, Samsung may have come out ahead even with the court loss."

Patents

• Bill would force patent trolls to pay defendants' legal bills
• Can You Get A Patent On Being A Patent Troll?
• Malaria is no excuse for patent trolling, Mr. Myhrvold--"The CEO of Intellectual Ventures says his company's philanthropy means he is doing more good for the world than GigaOM. The claim fails to account for the harm to innovation he is causing through ruinous patent suits." Are they the the most hated company in tech?

Twitter

• Twitter sets max user caps for 3rd party clients, tightens API rules to direct users to official apps
• What Twitter's API Announcement Could Have Said--Certainly didn't need this cockamamie graph.
• Twitter app makers trying to figure out the future
• Black Widow
• Twitter cuts off "find friends" access to Tumblr, too
• How Twitter Became a Tyrant
• The Twitter Tragedy--"To become a successful company, it'll have to kill the openness that makes it great."

Facebook

• Startup Claims 80% Of Its Facebook Ad Clicks Are Coming From Bots
• Facebook has more than 83 million illegitimate accounts
• With Three Key Exits, Facebook’s Top Talent Departures Continue
• Facebook stock slides 6% as insiders get chance to sell
• How Instagram Could Have Cut a Better Deal--"When negotiating a sale, Instagram's founders could have protected themselves from a decline in Faceook's share value if they had used some common merger tools." NYT
• "No, Mark Zuckerberg, you can't buy my startup."
• Facebook accused of deceiving developers over security

Windows 8

• Windows 8 Pro to be priced at $199 following $69.99 promotional pricing--Guess I'll stick to XP for a little longer before upgrading to Windows 7.
• Microsoft Eliminates 30-Day Activation Grace Period with Windows 8
• Why I’m uninstalling Windows 8

Open Source

• Disney anti-open-source propaganda--What a load of mouse shit, and that's just the show.
• Pixar open sources production animation code, patents--Glad to see Disney hasn't infected them.
• Microsoft Blocks FSF Donation Website as a 'Gambling Site'
• Oracle gives up on OpenOffice after community forks the project
• Blast from the Past: VLC App Pulled From The App Store In Response To Nokia Employee's GPL Crusade

Tech Death

• The Coming Civil War over General Purpose Computing
• HTC criticism 2012: Apple, Samsung competition has HTC in Hell--The CEO blames "long pointless meetings."
• The fall of Angry Birds--"Angry birds is slowly slipping from the charts and there is a new style of game firmly in place, so what's next?"
• Best Buy founder: C'mon, folks, my takeover plan will work
• Flash for Android dies today, long live the 'full web experience'
• Our favorite "forgotten tech"—from BeOS to Zip Drives--"Our ride-or-die gadgets of yesteryear didn't all achieve market success."
• Blast from the Past: IE6's long farewell: What does it say about us?

RIP Neil Armstrong; Catholic, Politics and Religion, Religiose, Atheism, Bible Studies, Unintelligent Design; Wikileaks

Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dead at 82--Read Buzz Aldrin's parting words for his friend.

Catholic

• Pope's butler leaked papers to shock 'corrupt' Church, prosecutor says
• Vatican win: Judge says priests aren't employees--"The Vatican won a major victory... in an Oregon federal courtroom, where a judge ruled that the Holy See is not the employer of molester priests."
• Pussy Riot copycats could see church charges--"The Catholic Church has pressed charges against a trio of Pussy Riot copycats who disrupted a service in Cologne Cathedral on Sunday – if charged and convicted they could be jailed for longer than their heroines."
• Bishop's Extravagant Behavior Triggers Uproar--"He extols the virtues of poverty and humility, but the German bishop of Limburg enjoys first-class flights and a luxurious new living complex. As the truth comes out about their secretive shepherd, local Catholics are threatening to abandon the fold en masse."
• Earthly concerns--"The Catholic church is as big as any company in America. Bankruptcy cases have shed some light on its finances and their mismanagement."

Politics and Religion

• Five people who fought the Christian takeover of America Salon
• Bishops: God votes Republican--"Cardinal Dolan's benediction at the GOP Convention makes clear the Catholic bishops have taken sides." Salon
• Religious Laws Long Recognized By U.S. Courts
• Amanpour: God's Warriors--"Christiane Amanpour travels to six countries on four continents to examine the intersection between religion and politics."
• Genuine Christian Scholars Smack Down an Unruly Colleague--Revisionist historian David Barton gets his book pulled by the publisher after they "received a number of complaints that the book is inaccurate."
• Criminal charges filed against German rabbi for performing circumcision
• Germany seeks to clarify euthanasia laws

Religiose

• Islamist Mind Games: How Young German Men Are Lured into Jihad
• Christian boy tortured and killed in Pakistan--"The tortured body of an 11 year old Christian boy has been found in a town in Punjab, Pakistan, days after a young Christian girl was arrested on blasphemy charges."
• Egypt arrests man after nail bomb attack on German embassy--"The man acted out of anger after reading an Egyptian newspaper report on Friday which described a protest by German right-wing activists who had paraded caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in front of a German mosque, they said."
• Offensive Cartoon Has German Christians Fuming
• Mexico cult eyes 'evil' secular schools--"Authorities are negotiating with a religious cult in southwestern Mexico, trying to persuade leaders to allow public schools to operate in the isolated community...."
• Jesus Wept--"A skeptic faces possible charges for debunking Mumbai’s miracle statue."
• Google vs. God--"What's causing all these Hasidic Jews to flee their community? Smartphones."

Atheism

• From Bible-Belt Pastor to Atheist Leader--"The new heroes within the secular movement are coming from unlikely places — like the pulpit." NYT
• Republic of Ireland abandoning religion faster than almost every other country
• Survey finds 19% without religious affiliation
• FFRF awards 12-year-old freethinker for student activism
• High School Teacher Brags About How His School Stopped an Atheist Group from Forming, but He's in for a Surprise

Bible Studies

• People Who Have Actually Read the Entire Bible
• The Bible's book of Revelation explained
• Hebrew Bible: Plagiarized Mythology and Defaced Monotheism

Unintelligent Design

• God won't rescue world from 'stupidity,' says top Anglican
• Balloon priest wins Darwin Award for stupidity
• Striking proof that lightning conductors work--In 1769, "church authorities had turned down the chance of fitting the newly invented lightning conductor on the ground that it was heretical to interfere with divine will." Then God decided to smite 230 people in one day.

Wikileaks

• Britain withdraws threat to raid Ecuador’s embassy
• Why WikiLeaks is worth defending, despite all of its flaws
• Is this the photo that could clear Assange? Grinning for the camera, WikiLeaks boss and woman who says he sexually assaulted her 48 hours earlier

Food Insecurity, Battle for the Ages, Wall Street Waffling, Banks, Knight Capital, Class War, Global Economy, Wikileaks

Food Insecurity

• How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis--"Don't blame American appetites, rising oil prices, or genetically modified crops for rising food prices. Wall Street's at fault for the spiraling cost of food."
• We'll make a killing out of food crisis, Glencore trading boss Chris Mahoney boasts--"Drought is good for business, says world's largest commodities trading company."
• Warming-Driven Drought Pushes Crop Prices To Record Levels, As We Burn 40% Of Corn Crop In Our Engines

Battle for the Ages

• Generational Warfare: Old-age entitlements vs. the safety net
• Opinion: Greedy geezers? That's a myth
• Bye-Bye, Boomers: This Is the Age of the Baby Busters
• How those spoiled millennials will make the workplace better for everyone
• The Cheapest Generation--"Why Millennials aren’t buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy."

Wall Street Waffling

• Crazy: Stealing Pizza Is Worse Than Stealing $1B Dollars--Cenk Ugyur discusses the DOJ's decision not to prosecute the big banks.
• Goldman Non-Prosecution: AG Eric Holder Has No Balls
• Are some banks too big to prosecute?

Banks

• Former Barclays CEO 'held back evidence'--"Parliamentary committee claims Bob Diamond held back evidence during hearings on the Libor rate-rigging scandal."
• Opinion: Iceland Was Right, We Were Wrong: The IMF
• Bank Of America Fails To Hold Up Its End Of Foreclosure Fraud Settlement
• Britain's richest 5% gained most from quantitative easing – Bank of England--"The richest 10% of households in Britain have seen the value of their assets increase by up to £322,000 as a result of the Bank of England's attempts to use electronic money creation to lift the economy out of its deepest post-war slump."
• Adam Davidson on setting up an offshore bank account

Knight Capital

• Company's software trading glitch cost it $10 million per minute
• Knight Upgrade Triggered Old Trading System, Big Losses
• Errant Code? It’s Not Just a Bug --"As a former software engineer, I laughed when I read what the Securities and Exchange Commission might be considering in response to the debacle of Knight Capital’s runaway computerized stock trades: forcing companies to fully test their computer systems before deploying coding changes." NYT

Class War

• How Americans view wealth and inequality
• In China, less than 1% of households control more than 70% of private financial wealth WSJ
• Wrong number call rings social boycott of 50 dalit families--Despite being illegal, the caste system remains in place in India.

Global Economy

• Odds of Global Recession Are 100%: Marc Faber
• German economy: Europe's tired engine--"As the euro zone goes into another recession, Germany is slowing down." But the government somehow managed to get a surplus in tax revenues for the first half of 2012.
• Russia completes a long, strange trip to the World Trade Organization
• Why People Are Going Nuts Over The New George Soros Speech On Europe
• China Confronts Mounting Piles of Unsold Goods NYT
• How to beat Africa’s water crisis--"Recent discoveries of water reserves under some of Africa’s mightiest deserts raise hopes for quenching African thirst. But the reality is much more grim."
• The World is losing faith in hard work--"Add faith in the work ethic and in capitalism to the lengthening list of casualties from the Great Recession. Four years after the Lehman Brothers’ fiasco and the ensuing global economic downturn, the idea that effort in a competitive economy can lead to success is seriously questioned in a number of major economies, including Japan, Russia and Greece, especially among those who have suffered the most."

Wikileaks

• Julian Assange: Secret Police Documents Reveal WikiLeaks Founder To Be Arrested In Any Attempt To Leave
• Latin America, Caribbean unite to support Ecuador over Assange--"All the members of the Organization of American States, except for the US and Canada, have stated their solidarity and support of Ecuador’s decision to grant asylum to Julian Assange at a meeting of 35-member bloc in Washington."
• Sex, lies and Wikileaks--"As once friendly news outlets report the Julian Assange story more critically, we ask if the media has lost the plot."
• Greenwald: The New Statesman must correct its error over Assange and extradition--"The claim that Swedish courts, not government, have final say on extradition is a crucial mistake that distorts the Assange case."
• Oliver Stone and Michael Moore Support Julian Assange in Op-Ed--"Filmmakers say extraditing WikiLeaks founder to U.S. could have global repercussions."

Things Get Heir-y, Euthanasia, Wikileaks, Norway, World News, Politicians, "Ecco Mono"

Things Get Heir-y

• Nude Harry photos: How UK tabloids lost their sting--The Internet had already disseminated the pics for the world to see while they were dealing with royal pressure not to publish them.
• Prince Harry naked Vegas photos published by Sun--"In a front page editorial, the Sun made the case for the 'public interest' of the pictures, in an attempt to meet the standards that guide decisions on the flow of certain information in the British press."
• I Shouldn't Have Looked at Those Naked Photos of Prince Harry

Euthanasia

• Locked-in syndrome victims lose 'right to die' case--Tony Nicklinson, who wanted to die with dignity instead of living a life he "described as 'pure torture'", died from refusing food less than week after the case.
• Judge says religious couple's brain-damaged baby can be allowed to die
• Analysis: Britain's options for legalising euthanasia

Wikileaks

• Ecuador says Julian Assange can stay at embassy indefinitely--While the UK refuses to guarantee Assange safe passage to Ecuador.
• Ecuador warning over possible Assange arrest attempt--Earlier in the week, President Correa said "removing the WikiLeaks founder from the embassy would set a dangerous precedent."
• Greenwald: The bizarre, unhealthy, blinding media contempt for Julian Assange--"It is possible to protect the rights of the complainants in Sweden and Assange's rights against political persecution, but a vindictive thirst for vengeance is preventing that."
• 'Operation Free Assange': Anonymous take down UK government websites
• Legal myths about the Assange extradition--"A brief critical and source-based guide to some common misconceptions."

Norway

• Anders Behring Breivik: Norway court finds him sane--And faces 21 years in prison.
• The Breivik Verdict and Europe's Far Right--"The smirk on Anders Behring Breivik's face was an indication that the Norwegian mass murderer got the verdict he wanted." NYT
• Breivik report forces Norway police chief to quit--"Norway's police chief resigned... days after an independent commission found that police could have prevented all or part of a bombing and shooting spree by far-right militant Anders Behring Breivik that killed 77 people."

World News

• Gambia to execute all death row prisoners next month--"Gambian President Yahya Jammeh pledged to have all of the country's death-row prisoners executed by mid-September in a stern Eid address aired on Sunday which targeted "heinous acts" including homosexuality and drug use."
• Chinese Government Institutionalizes People Against Their Will: Chinese Human-Rights Defenders
• UK: George Orwell is 'too Left-wing' for a statue, BBC tells Joan Bakewell
• Australian Government Will Issue Overdue Apology to 1968 Olympic Hero Peter Norman
• Burma Abolishes Media Censorship

Polticians

• Wildlife camera catches Austrian politician having sex in forest
• Thai MP Boonsong Kowawisarat 'accidentally kills secretary'--With an uzi.
• Gu Kailai and the body double debate--There's speculation the Chinese politician's wife who murdered a British businessman and received a suspended death sentence for it used a body double during the trial. The Chinese government is having none of it.

"Ecco Mono"

• Elderly woman destroys 19th-century fresco with DIY restoration--"The result was a botched repair where the intricate brush strokes of Martinez were replaced with a haphazard splattering of the octogenarian's paint."
• Woman who ruined Spanish fresco 'had permission' from priest--"The once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic...."
• Beast-Jesus Restoration Society--Let her legacy live on... forever.

Curiosity; Ratings, Jersey Shore, Simpsons did it, Harry Potter, Movies, Entertainment

Curiosity

• Curiosity Descent in HD
• Mars rover Curiosity has first successful drive on Mars; Ray Bradbury honored
• Wind sensor damaged on Nasa's Curiosity
• NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Team Reveals Mac And Android Use, Mission Details On Reddit
• We're NASA and We Know It (Mars Curiosity)

Ratings

• India: Nielsen Sued For Billions; TV Network Claims It Manipulated Ratings--And government politicians are involved.
• Now NBC Execs Are Just Trolling: Claim They Regret Not Tape Delaying More Of The Olympics
• Less on TV, more on social media--"The major TV networks have announced their plans for coverage of the impending national political conventions. Coverage is pared down. Way down."

Jersey Shore

• Apocalypse now: 'Jersey Shore' cast to go--They've said their goodbyes.
• 'Jersey Shore' comes to Japan as 'Macaroni Rascals'
• Jersey Shore Politics--"The cast of the Jersey Shore have a very serious fight that may lead to the end of the house as we know it."

Simpsons did it

• At 500 Episodes, How Does 'The Simpsons' Say Something New?
• The Simpsons Is Returning, But Will The Cast Return With It When Forced To Live On Less Than $6,000,000 A Year?
• The Simpsons--Minamalist to the max.

Harry Potter

• Do you know what today is in 'Harry Potter' world?
• 10 Unsolved Mysteries of the 'Harry Potter' Universe
• How Christians Warmed to Harry Potter
• Hundreds of pet owls abandoned after Harry Potter craze fades
• Auror's Tale Teaser--An upcoming web series that's reminiscent of last year's IGN's amazing April Fool's trailer.
• Harry Potter "Spoiler Alert" troll billboard.
• The Onion: Last Harry Potter Book Released, Fans Eagerly Flip To Last Page To See If Harry And Voldemort Finally Fuck

Movies

• Here's the Twist: Good Films Are Good Even If They've Been 'Spoiled'
• 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes in Films
• Movie Showdown Paintings
• The Short Film Charlie Kaufman Didn't Know He Was Making
• Observations on film art : Nolan vs. Nolan
• #DirtyLaundry--Fan film that brings back Thomas Jane as The Punisher.
• College Humor: Tim Burton's Secret Formula

Entertainment

• Has the 3-D hype bubble finally burst?--Tell that to the advertisers.
• Pop Icons In A Different Light
• Who is Cinderella?: A fairy tale investigation Salon
• Elmo is a pretty cool black dude
• The Lighter Side of the Dark Side: 5 Villains Who Were Good

Rape-ublicans, GOP, Elections 2012, Voting, Ohio, Soledad O'Brien, Journalism

Rape-ublicans

• Wake up: It's not just Akin
• Missouri Republican official: 'God chose to bless' women with pregnancies from rape--Is that what they call what happened to Mary?
• Rep. Steve King: I've Never Heard Of A Girl Getting Pregnant From Statutory Rape Or Incest
• Four Reasons the GOP desperately Wants Todd Akin to Drop Out--He said he won't.
• GOP prepares tough anti-abortion platform

GOP

• What the G.O.P. Platform Represents--"The Republican Party has moved so far to the right that the extreme is now the mainstream. The mean-spirited and intolerant platform represents the face of Republican politics in 2012. And unless he makes changes, it is the current face of the shape-shifting Mitt Romney." NYT
• Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against'
• Paul Ryan Insists He Didn’t Take Stimulus Money, Then Realizes He Totally Did
• Virginia Republicans Call for Armed Revolution if Obama Wins in November
• The Koch Brothers Tangle With Zach Galifianakis

Elections 2012

• Obama to Media: Romney's Whole Campaign is Based on Lies
• Pro-Pot, Pro-Gay Marriage, Pro-Pit Bull Webcartoonist Gets Elected Democrat Candidate
• Paul Begala on the Swing Voters Who Will Pick the President
• NBC/WSJ Poll: Obama Leads Romney w/ African-Americans 94% - 0%--The GOP wants to suppress the 'black vote' as much as they can.
• GOP trying to keep focus on economy rather than abortion

Voting

• Long Distance Voter--"Need help voting by absentee ballot? Long Distance Voter will guide you through every step of the process. Forms, deadlines, and detailed directions for all 50 states."
• Florida, Texas and Alabama Challenge 1965 Voting Rights Act
• Wisconsin official tells DMV employees to 'refrain from offering' information on free voter IDs
• Pa. drops plans for 2 online initiatives to boost voting--"On the same day a judge cleared the way for the state's new voter identification law to take effect, the Corbett administration abandoned plans to allow voters to apply online for absentee ballots for the November election and to register online to vote."
• GOP Voter ID Campaign Based On Bunk, Data Shows
• Not Voting? The Koch Brothers Thank You
• Daily Show: Democalypse 2012 - Cockblock the Vote

Ohio

• Ohio Secretary Of State Sets Uniform Voting Hours For Counties--"The Ohio Democratic Party had complained that hours for early in-person voting by absentee ballot before the Nov. 6 election were being expanded in counties that lean Republican and not in Democratic ones, to help presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney."
• Husted suspends Democrats on election board--A politically vindictive dick move.
• Fight over poll hours isn't just political--"I guess I really actually feel we shouldn't contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine," said Doug Preisse, chairman of the county Republican Party and elections board member who voted against weekend hours.

Soledad O'Brien

• Soledad O'Brien's Amazing John Sununu Interview Should Be Taught in Journalism School
• Soledad O'Brien Schools Republican Rep. Claiming Ryan Medicare Plan 'Not Vouchers'
• Pawlenty suggests that Soledad O’Brien doesn’t understand English
• Soledad O'Brien tries to get Christine O'Donnell to define the word 'Marxist'
• CNN's O'Brien Scoffs at Democrat Spin Of Biden's 'Chains' Comment

Journalism

• What to Do With Political Lies
• Fareed Zakaria accused of plagiarism in TIME article on gun control
• Jon Stewart Rips Fox News' Judith Miller's Hypocrisy On Leaks

'Legitimate Rape', The Onion, Abortion and Birth Control, Planned Parenthood, "Honour" Killings

'Legitimate Rape'

• Republican Senate Nominee: Victims Of 'Legitimate Rape' Don't Get Pregnant--"Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of 'legitimate rape' have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy." What do you think? (The Onion)
• Missouri Rep. Todd Akin says he 'misspoke' on rape and pregnancy--He claims he meant to say "forcible rape."
• Obama On Todd Akin: 'Rape Is Rape'--"And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about doesn't make sense to the American people and certainly doesn't make sense to me. So what I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn't have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women."
• CNN Host Makes Most of Akin’s No-Show--"When Representative Todd Akin abruptly cancelled an interview with Piers Morgan on Monday night, Mr. Morgan trotted out an empty chair instead." Piers also called Akin a "gutless little twerp" for not keeping his promise to appear on the show. NYT
• Thank you, Todd Akin--"The candidate exposed his party's misogyny, and the swift backlash is reason for defenders of women to celebrate." Salon

The Onion

• Republicans Condemn Akin's Comments As Blemish On Party's Otherwise Spotless Women's Rights Record
• Pregnant Woman Relieved To Learn Her Rape Was Illegitimate
• Akin: I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is 'I Am Dumb As Dog Shit And I Am A Terrible Human Being'

Abortion and Birth Control

• Pregnant teen dies after abortion ban delays her chemo treatment for leukemia--Pro-life kills. The Dominican Republic's constitutional amendment declares 'life begins at conception', but this just ended up killing the mother.
• Louisiana Department Of Education Orders School To Drop Ban On Pregnant Students--A public school planned to force pregnancy tests on its students.
• Health Care Reform Leaves Out Young Pregnant Women
• Komen president resigning, founder shifting roles
• Millions Lost: Rush Limbaugh Continues To Be Bad For Business
• Philippines: Catholic bishop goes after Ateneo professors for heresy--They warned other schools they'd be stripped of their status if they supported the Reproductive Health bill. 
• I Wish My Mother Had Aborted Me--"Lynn Beisner explains the difference between the two phrases 'The best choice for both my mother and me would have been abortion' and 'I wish I had never been born.'"

Planned Parenthood

• Actress Elizabeth Banks: Romney won't help women with 'a heavy flow'
• Texas Loses Entire Women's Health Program Over Planned Parenthood Law
• Kansas: All charges dropped against Planned Parenthood

"Honour" Killings

• Pakistani wife in disputed marriage gunned down in court by her brother
• UK court jails parents for life over honor killing of teen daughter
• Punjab girl hires contract killers to eliminate parents for opposing her marriage--"The girl, Manpreet Kaur, wanted to kill her parents and brother as they objected to her decesion of marrying her beau, who was already married." That's a new twist.

Wikileaks; 420, War on Drugs, War on War on Drugs, Mexico

Wikileaks

• Assange Urges US To End Wikileaks 'Witch Hunt'--The war on whistleblowers must end.
• John-Michael Howson taunts Julian Assange's Mum with Nazi slogan--She tells the media, "You journalists should do your jobs."
• Timeline: sexual allegations against Assange in Sweden

420

• Video: "Let's talk about a new approach."
• In 'Marijuana Legalization,' Hard Truths For All Sides of the Debate
• Medical Marijuana Crackdown: Rep. Barbara Lee Tells Feds to Back Off
• L.A. City Council votes 14-0 to ban medical marijuana shops
• Penny Arcade: Green Business

War on Drugs

• Issa Sues Holder Over Fast And Furious Documents
• I Was A Teenage Narc
• Drug Enforcement Administration only has 40 TB of electronic storage worldwide--"You may have seen the headlines going around: 'Drug charges dropped because of too much evidence' or 'Charges dropped against fugitive doctor, because evidence is using too much space on federal servers.' It may sound incredible, but it's—at least partially—true. "

War on the War on Drugs

• Brazil drug dealers: 'Stop buying crack'--"Traffickers say they have stopped selling crack cocaine in two slums, citing destructive behaviour of users."
• Judge Rules That Advocating Jury Nullification Is Not a Crime
• Jurors voice thoughts on Texas drug law in court--"They said they weren't going to make somebody a felon and ruin their lives over less than a gram of cocaine...."

Mexico

• Mexican official: CIA 'manages' drug trade--"It's like pest control companies, they only control. If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."
• Mexico charges generals over suspected drug gang ties
• Mexican mayor-elect shot dead

Islamists, Mali, Pakistan, Tunisia, War on History

Islamists

• Somali comedian who mocked Islamists is shot dead
• Four hurt as Egypt’s troops take on Islamists
• Azerbaijan 'arrested 40 and seized assault rifles and grenades as it thwarted planned terror attacks on Eurovision'
• Russian Journalist Stabbed 20 Times, Apparently for Insulting Islam
• Islamist sect found living underground near Russian city for nearly 10 years--"Fayzarahmanist sect with 70 members – including 20 children – discovered in bunker near Kazan without heat or light."

Mali

• Mali: Students Flee Sharia in Northern Schools
• Mali unwed couple stoned to death by Islamists--"A couple who had sex outside marriage have been stoned to death by Islamists in the town of Aguelhok in northern Mali, officials say."
• Islamists in Northern Mali Amputate Man's Hand NYT
• Mali Islamist group wants to reunite nation as Islamic state
• Saying Mali 'Is Our Country,' Militias Train to Oust Islamists NYT

Pakistan

• Police: Thousands of Pakistanis kill man, burn corpse after accusing him of desecrating Quran
• 'Blasphemer' dragged from police station and beaten to death: senior officer
• Mentally challenged child jailed for 'blasphemy'

Tunisia

• Tunisian Olympians targeted by Islamist radicals for behavior and dress deemed un-Islamic
• Salafist block Tunisia comedy show that 'offends Islam'
• Tunisia: Women challenge Islamists over equality

War on History

• 1,600-year-old mosaic at Israeli synagogue damaged
• Timbuktu world heritage site attacked by Islamists
• Calls to Destroy Egypt's Great Pyramids Begin