You Can Call Me Al

This is Al Sharpton:

This is Al Sharpton on drugs: Please click on Mp3 thumbnail and click on the play arrow. MP3 courtesy of the NO AGENDA podcast.

CNN When debris rained from the sky in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001, the first responders to the terrorist attack did not turn away. They rushed to the World Trade Center buildings while the world around them crumbled. Yet now, after all the wreckage has been cleared and the rebuilding has begun, their path is again blocked -- not by flying chunks of smoldering rubble, but by space constraints. The first responders are not invited to this year's September 11 memorial ceremony at ground zero, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office confirmed Monday.
In a statement, Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent said the commemoration ceremony is for the victims' families. "While we are again focused on accommodating victims' family members, given the space constraints, we're working to find ways to recognize and honor first responders, and other groups, at different places and times," Brent said. In addition to the victims' families, several politicians, including two presidents, are expected to be in attendance.
Bloomberg's office would not provide specifics on the ceremony's arrangements, but did note that the first responders have not been invited to the preceding nine memorial services, either.

The Media Fiddled While Rome Burned

If you don't know by now why we are sliding into the abyss, look at part of this and tell me if Walter Kronkite (yeah I know, big globalist) or Ed Murrow would act like this. Now back to Libya where children are being killed by Obama's roving death squads.

The Washington Times. For the second time in a year a California business was raided, it's owner jailed and his inventory destroyed. What was his crime? Drug dealer? Chop shop? No he operates a private, members only, food co-op. That's right he had the nerve to offer the people of Venice the ability to safely purchase organic, non-GMO milk, cheese, and other farm goods. Authorities conducted the raid with weapons drawn and disabled security cameras to seemingly hide infractions during the raid. No health issues nor complaints have ever been filed against the club, and raw milk is legal in California. The issue stems from members of the club entering into a “herdshare arrangement” in which they paid a local farmer to board and milk their dairy goats. California authorities deny the legal legitimacy of herdshare arrangements, stating that such herdshares are unlicensed dairies. STEP BY STEP, INCH BY INCH WE ARE TURNING INTO A CORRUPT POLICE STATE. Our scarce resources are being wasted turning local law enforcement into jack booted thugs who deem it necessary to SWAT team a group of Amish farmers (google it) or hippy organic food fanatics. When will we say NO-STOP this is AMERICA not Russia?

Demand Justice For Those That Defend America

L.A. Times.

By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

August 16, 2011
Reporting from Washington—
The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of a controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico.

All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and two at the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.

McMahon was promoted Sunday to deputy assistant director of the ATF's Office of Professional Responsibility and Security Operations — the division that investigates misconduct by employees and other problems.

McMahon and his cohorts are accessorites to multiple murders.  To Promote these heinous criminals makes a travesty of the U.S. Legal system.   We must demand the trial and punishment of all those involved including Obama, Holder, and every ATF agent that went along with this obviious illegal activity.

Happy Birthday America

Eric Gay / Associated Press / August 13, 2009

By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

June 24, 2011
Reporting from Washington—

The acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is strongly resisting pressure to step down because of growing controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns to flow unchecked into Mexico, according to several federal sources in Washington.

Kenneth E. Melson, who has run the bureau for two years, is reportedly eager to testify to Congress about the extent of his and other officials' involvement in the operation, code-named Fast and Furious.

Melson does not want to be "the fall guy" for the program, under which ATF agents allowed straw purchasers to acquire more than 1,700 AK-47s and other high-powered rifles from Arizona gun dealers, the sources said. The idea was to track the guns to drug cartel leaders. But that goal proved elusive, and the guns turned up at shootings in Mexico, as well as at the slaying in Arizona of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in December.

How long before this guy has an "accident"?

It's Not Easy Being Green

By Joe Eaton:
Limousines, the very symbol of wealth and excess, are usually the domain of corporate executives and the rich. But the number of limos owned by Uncle Sam increased by 73 percent during the first two years of the Obama administration, according to an analysis of records by iWatch News.

Most of the increase was recorded in Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

Obama administration officials said most of the increase reflects an enhanced effort to protect diplomats and other government officials in a dangerous world. But a watchdog group says the abundance of limos sends the wrong message in the midst of a budget crisis. The increase in limos comes to light on the heels of an executive order from President Obama last week that charges agencies to increase the fuel efficiency of their fleets.

According to General Services Administration data , the number of limousines in the federal fleet increased from 238 in fiscal 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, to 412 in 2010. Much of the 73 percent increase—111 of the 174 additional limos—took place in fiscal 2009, more than eight months of which corresponded with Obama’s first year in office. However, some of those purchases could reflect requests made by the Bush administration during an appropriations process that would have begun in the spring of 2008.

The department said it defines a limo as a vehicle that carries a VIP or “other protectee,” rather than by the type of car, but said most of its limos are Cadillac DTSs, which cost the taxpayer more than $60,000 for a 2011 base model and support the additional weight of armoring. The department said it also purchased a limited number of 7-Series BMWs for ambassadors in countries where vehicles are right-hand drive.

LET THEN EAT CAKE

Keep An Eye On Senate Bill 978

From Techdirt.

Senators Want To Put People In Jail For Embedding YouTube Videos
from the not-understanding-the-technology dept

Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. A few weeks back, we noted that Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons had proposed a new bill that was designed to make "streaming" infringing material a felony. At the time, the actual text of the bill wasn't available, but we assumed, naturally, that it would just extend "public performance" rights to section 506a of the Copyright Act.

Supporters of this bill claim that all it's really doing is harmonizing US copyright law's civil and criminal sections. After all, the rights afforded under copyright law in civil cases cover a list of rights: reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works or perform the work. The rules for criminal infringement only cover reproducing and distributing -- but not performing. So, supporters claim, all this does is "harmonize" copyright law and bring the criminal side into line with the civil side by adding "performance rights" to the list of things.

And it gets worse. Because rather than just (pointlessly) adding "performance" to the list, the bill tries to also define what constitutes a potential felony crime in these circumstances:

the offense consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works

So yeah. If you embed a YouTube video that turns out to be infringing, and more than 10 people view it because of your link... you could be facing five years in jail. This is, of course, ridiculous, and suggests (yet again) politicians who are regulating a technology they simply do not understand. Should it really be a criminal act to embed a YouTube video, even if you don't know it was infringing...? This could create a massive chilling effect to the very useful service YouTube provides in letting people embed videos.

Happy Birthday IBM

IBM celebrates 100 years.
This video is very interesting, but more interesting are the negative comments on the video. Worth a look.