No matter how (or if) you all spend the holidays, just be safe and happy.
- Steve, Editor.
WikiLeaks Will Release a Million Files
'Abomination': Rand Paul slams NDAA as bill passes US Senate
The Libertarian Republican voiced his concerns to a conference committee following the decision to give the present version of National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) the go-ahead. Paul cited the committee’s decision to scrap an amendment that would have prohibited the indefinite detention of US citizens suspected of terrorist activities.
US Senate approves $211 million for Israel in new $633 billion war bill
The Senate overwhelmingly backed a $633 billion defense bill for next year that would tighten penalties on Iran to thwart its nuclear ambitions and bulk up security at diplomatic missions worldwide after the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya. The vote Friday was 81-14 for the sweeping policy measure that covers the cost of ships, aircraft, weapons and military personnel. The White House has threatened a veto, but it remains unclear whether President Barack Obama will reject the solidly bipartisan legislation.
The massacre of children Obama prefers you not know about
13 Resolutions to Improve the World's Food Supply in 2013
s we start 2013, many people will be thinking about plans and promises to improve their diet and health. But we think a broader collection of farmers, policymakers, and eaters need new, bigger resolutions for fixing the food system - real changes with long-term impacts in fields, boardrooms, and on plates all over the world. Here are13 resolutions that the world can't afford to break with nearly 1 billion people still hungry and more than 1 billion others suffering from the effects of being overweight and obese. We have the tools - let's use them in 2013!http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/448-farm-and-food-policy/15175-13-resolutions-to-improve-the-worlds-food-supply-in-2013
Five White House Petitions You Should Know About
Since the White House launched the “We the People” petition website in September 2011, it has been steadily growing in terms of submissions and users. In its first year, a total of 50,348 petitions were created, attracting over 3.4 million signatures.
Israel does not respect Intl. law: Poll
According to the survey, which was conducted on 12,844 people on December 10-22, 62 percent of the participants said Israel refuses to open its nuclear facilities to international inspectors because it does not have the habit of respecting international law.
http://rebel-institute.org/politics/mideast/302803-israel-does-not-respect-intl-law-poll
Israel suffers growing Int’l isolation
The Iranian diplomat emphasized that the overwhelming majority vote of most countries against the Israeli regime conveyed a serious message to the few states, which support Tel Aviv, that “they must revise [their] Middle Eastern policies, particularly on the Palestinian issue.”
http://rebel-institute.org/politics/mideast/129-iran/299438-israel-suffers-growing-int-l-isolation
Americans cut back on holiday spending
The Torture Chronicle
If there is one word missing from the United States government’s post-9/11 lexicon it is “accountability.” While perfectly legal though illicit sexual encounters apparently continue to rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, leading to resignations, no one has been punished for malfeasance, torture, secret prisons, or extraordinary renditions. Indeed, the Obama administration stated in 2009 that it would not punish CIA torturers because it prefers to “look forward and not back,” a decision not to prosecute that was recently
confirmed by Attorney General Eric Holder in two cases involving the deaths of detainees after particularly brutal Agency interrogations. What the White House decision almost certainly means is that the president would prefer to avoid a tussle with the Republicans in congress over national security that would inevitably reveal a great deal of dirty laundry belonging to both parties.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33410.htm
"Americans Kill People": Michael Moore
Gun Violence, Massacres, and "Other Developed Countries"
One evening in the spring of 1993 I took a bus across San Francisco, leaving the troubled, largely impoverished neighborhood of the Western Addition, populated mostly by the descendants of African slaves, in which I lived (representing, I suppose, the artistic hippie beginnings of the gentrification process which has since pushed most of San Francisco's Black population across the bay). My closest friend at the time was someone I met because we were housemates in a big apartment. He was a tall man with a long, thick red mane and beaming eyes named Eric Mark. A brilliant engineer with a promising career as such who quit his job and became a cab driver in the interest of experiencing life more fully. Eric and I, along with one friend and two of his acquaintances, were headed to the Mission District, another troubled, impoverished neighborhood, this one populated mostly by the refugees from the wars in Guatemala and El Salvador, generally known as "immigrants."
The coming drone attack on America
In February of this year, Congress passed the FAA Reauthorization Act, with its provision to deploy fleets of drones domestically. Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that this followed a major lobbying effort, "a huge push by [...] the defense sector" to promote the use of drones in American skies: 30,000 of them are expected to be in use by 2020, some as small as hummingbirds -- meaning that you won't necessarily see them, tracking your meeting with your fellow-activists, with your accountant or your congressman, or filming your cruising the bars or your assignation with your lover, as its video-gathering whirs.
The Right's Second Amendment Lies
Right-wing resistance to meaningful gun control is driven, in part, by a false notion that America's Founders adopted the Second Amendment because they wanted an armed population that could battle the U.S. government. The opposite is the truth, but many Americans seem to have embraced this absurd, anti-historical narrative.
UN, EU, Russia Condemn Israeli Settlements
All members of the U.N. Security Council, with the lone exception of the United States, have publicly condemned Israel's recent settlement expansion activities and called for them to end. In a rare move, 14 of the council's 15 members read public statements of their views instead of seeking formal action by the council, since that likely would have been opposed by the United States.
Obama Preempts NRA News Conference With Video on Gun Control
Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry on Science and Religion
"We have the answers... but they're being censored"
The state of medical science today - If you want to be healthy, invest the time here
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