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  • 01/08/12--07:43: Homeland Security monitors journalists (chan 1146671)



    • Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what.

    Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms.

    Specifically, the DHS announced the NCO and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”

    According to the Department of Homeland Security’s own definition of personal identifiable information, or PII, such data could consist of any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or linkable to that individual.” Previously established guidelines within the administration say that data could only be collected under authorization set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency.

    Also included in the roster of those subjected to the spying are government officials, domestic or not, who make public statements, private sector employees that do the same and “persons known to have been involved in major crimes of Homeland Security interest,” which to itself opens up the possibilities even wider.

    The department says that they will only scour publically-made info available while retaining data, but it doesn’t help but raise suspicion as to why the government is going out of their way to spend time, money and resources on watching over those that helped bring news to the masses.

    The development out of the DHS comes at the same time that U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady denied pleas from supporters of WikiLeaks who had tried to prevent account information pertaining to their Twitter accounts from being provided to federal prosecutors. Jacob Applebaum and others advocates of Julian Assange’s whistleblower site were fighting to keep the government from subpoenaing information on their personal accounts that were collected from Twitter.

    Last month the Boston Police Department and the Suffolk Massachusetts District Attorney subpoenaed Twitter over details pertaining to recent tweets involving the Occupy Boston protests.

    The website Fast Company reports that the intel collected by the Department of Homeland Security under the NOC Monitoring Initiative has been happening since as early as 2010 and the data is being shared with both private sector businesses and international third parties.
    http://rt.com/usa/news/homeland-security-journalists-monitoring-321/


  • 01/11/12--08:37: Car explosion kills yet another nuclear scientist in Tehran (chan 1146671)



    • A motorcyclist stuck a bomb on the side of the car in northern Tehran, say reports

    A university lecturer and nuclear scientist has been killed in a car explosion in north Tehran, reports say.

    Iranian media sources named the casualty as Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an academic who also worked at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility.

    The blast happened when a motorcyclist stuck a magnetic bomb on the car, said Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.

    Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years, with Iran blaming Israel and the US.

    Both countries deny the accusations.

    Local sources said Wednesday's blast took place at a faculty of Iran's Allameh Tabatai university.

    Two others were reportedly also injured in the blast, which took place near Gol Nabi Street, in the north of the capital.

    'Magnetic bomb'

    Mr Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, was a graduate of oil industry university and supervised a department at Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province, Fars reported.

    "The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists Israelis," deputy Tehran governor Safarali Baratloo said.

    Witnesses said they had seen two people on the motorbike fix the bomb to the car. Another person in the car was reported to have been seriously injured.

    The latest attack comes almost two years to the day since Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a 50-year-old university lecturer at Tehran University, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb as he left his home in Tehran on 12 January 2010.


  • 01/11/12--16:06: US Denies Role in Iranian Nuclear Scientist's Assassination (chan 1146671)



    • In the face of Iranian accusations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the American government is not to blame for the bombing assassination today of a man the Iranian media called a top nuclear scientist.

    "I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran," Clinton told reporters today. "We believe that there has to be an understanding between Iran, its neighbors and the international community that finds a way forward for [Iran] to end its provocative behavior, end its search for nuclear weapons and rejoin the international community and be a productive member of it."

    Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, was killed today after a magnetic explosive device was slipped under his car by a motorcyclist and then detonated, according to Iranian news reports. It's a tactic one Iranian semi-official outlet, Fars News, noted was similar to the failed assassination of university professor Fereidoun Abbassi Davani in 2010. Davani is now the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization. Another nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, was killed almost exactly two years ago by a remote-controlled bomb attached to his car.

    Roshan is the fourth scientist linked to Iran's nuclear program killed in the past two years. He was a chemistry engineer, serving as professor at a Tehran university as well as a deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, Fars News reported. Roshan's driver was wounded in the blast and later died.

    Hours after the attack, Iranian officials accused the U.S. and Israel of being behind the assassination, the latest in a string of incidents apparently aimed at disrupting Iran's nuclear program that Israeli and western intelligence agencies are suspected of spearheading.

    "America and Israel's heinous act will not change the course of the Iranian nation," the Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said in a statement, referring to the bombing.

    "The terrorist action was carried out by the hirelings of the Zionist [Israeli] regime and those who claim to be fighting terrorism," Iranian First Vice President Mohammed Reza Rahimi told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

    After Iranian officials leveled their accusations, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, wrote on Facebook, "I don't know who settled a score with the Iranian scientist, but I am certainly not shedding a tear."

    The attack comes a day after the head of Israel's military told parliament that 2012 "will be a critical year in the connection between Iran gaining nuclear power, changes in leadership, continuing pressure from the international community and events that happen unnaturally."

    It follows other similarly cagey comments from top Israeli officials in recent months as well as comments from former officials who say foreign intelligence agencies are responsible for the deadly attacks.

    "There are countries who impose economic sanctions and there are countries who act in other ways," Israel's Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor said late last year.

    Israeli analyst Yoel Guzansky, who was in charge of the Iran desk at Israel's National Security Council and now works for the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said he believes it is part of an international plot though was likely executed by recruited Iranian operatives on the ground.

    "Covert activity may weaken Iran's determination, exact a high price from it, and signal that it better moderate its positions," Guzansky said in an email to ABC News. "This course of action increases the pressure on Iran in comparison with the sanctions approved so far, while avoiding the price that a military attack on the nuclear facilities may incur…

    "Beyond the delay in the program, causing direct failures by an 'invisible hand' has a psychological effect, contribute significantly to Iranian 'paranoia'," he added. "It sends a message to Iran that its plan is breached and accessible."

    Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

    American officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing of scientists.
    http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/iranian-nuclear-scientist-killed-amid-heightened-t....Tw4jeKU9mz4


  • 01/12/12--07:29: On January 18 Reddit to shut-down in protest of SOPA - What will Current do? (chan 1146671)



    • The passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, could very well scrub the Internet clean of any content that the US government considers questionable.

    The massively popularly website Reddit is well aware of these implications and is ready to show the world just what harm SOPA could do to the Internet.

    On January 18, Reddit, a user-generated aggregator of content contributed by all corners of the Internet, will black out their own site in protest of SOPA. For an online hub that snags up around 2 billion hits every month, a lot of traffic and ad revenue stands to be lost during the 12-hour span. For the administrators of the site, though, they are running short on finding ways to fight the legislation.

    Advocates against SOPA have rallied in Washington and across the country and Internet since a congressional committee began drafting the Act. Under the legislation, websites and people that post or share third-party content could be crushed with heavy fines and imprisoned for the distribution of knowledge. While opposition has existed ever since the terrifying realities of SOPA made its way to the Web, the ban by way of Reddit stands to be the biggest and only protest of its kind so far.

    On January 18, Reddit announced that “Instead of the normal glorious, user-curated chaos,” the site will suspend its content and instead post a message about the dangers of both SOPA and the Protect IP Act, a sister legislator of sorts about to go before the US Senate. The site will also post a live stream of the House hearing that will discuss SOPA, which Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian will be testifying at.

    “The freedom, innovation, and economic opportunity that the Internet enables is in jeopardy,” reads an official post published by Reddit administrators on their site. “Congress is considering legislation that will dramatically change your Internet experience and put an end to Reddit and many other sites you use every day. Internet experts, organizations, companies, entrepreneurs, legal experts, journalists and individuals have repeatedly expressed how dangerous this bill is. If we do nothing, Congress will likely pass the Protect IP Act (in the Senate) or the Stop Online Piracy Act (in the House), and then the president will probably sign it into law. There are powerful forces trying to censor the Internet, and a few months ago many people thought this legislation would surely pass. However, there’s a new hope that we can defeat this dangerous legislation.”

    Reddit users have rallied for other causes online as of late, attracting thousands of comments over such issues as the National Defense Authorization Act. Shutting down their own sight for the sake of protest, though, is a rare move for Reddit.

    “Blacking out Reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community,” add site administrators. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at ZDNet agrees, and acknowledges that Reddit already is the leading social network opposed to SOPA and calls the site a “hotbed” for organizing protests. Many users of the site supported a recent campaign against domain registrar GoDaddy after the company offered their support for SOPA. Though the registrar later rescinded their support for SOPA, a campaign largely amplified by Reddit yielded thousands of account cancellations on GoDaddy.

    Other major sites that have rallied against supporters of SOPA include WikiLeaks, which cancelled all of its GoDaddy domains in opposition to their initial alignment with the legislation. Some fear though that it will take much more than just a handful of major sites to make a stink bad enough for Congress to second-guess SOPA.

    “Chances are if you’re a regular Reddit user, you’re either tech savvy enough to know the dangers of SOPA, or if not, you’ve at least been reading about it on the site’s front page for months,” writes Paul Tassi on Forbes. “Rather, even though Reddit is a massive site, the industry needs a nuclear option to truly decimate SOPA once and for all. Titans like Google and Facebook need to have a similar blackout, which would reach an audience far, far wider than Reddit’s.”

    Tassi adds that Reddit’s maneuver is a good first step, but others must fall in line if they want to ensure a success.

    “A blackout of the internet’s biggest sites would seal the deal automatically, and we could be free of this nonsense for good,” writes Tassi.
    http://rt.com/usa/news/reddit-shut-down-sopa-557/


  • 01/13/12--06:22: The TSA is in money making business. (chan 1146671)



    • The TSA Makes $400,000 a Year Finding Loose Change.
    Airport travelers left $409,085.56 at security checkpoints across the country in 2010, simply by emptying the change in their pockets into those plastic bins and not picking it up again. The Transportation Security Administration says they collect all the unclaimed money in a jar that gets counted and sent to the finance office where it's added to the general operations fund. (John F. Kennedy Airport in New York collected the most money; about $47,000, including some foreign currency.) Republican House member Jeff Miller of Florida has proposed that they donate that money to the USO, implying that spending any more money on the TSA is a gigantic waste of taxpayer expense. Or maybe they could donate it to the airlines to cover checked bag fees.

    http://news.yahoo.com/tsa-makes-400-000-finding-loose-change-124940957.html


  • 01/13/12--06:34: Billionaire Belarusian president offered US pension? (chan 1146671)



    • Among other things, during the meeting that lasted for about four hours, Aleksandr Lukashenko claimed that the US tried to tempt him by promises of carefree existence in his old age in exchange for adhering to a number of conditions.
    Last week, he said, “one of our people, who supposedly has access to me, was invited and asked to tell me the following: ‘We will give everything to your president from the American side, including [a carefree] old age, as [we did] to the [former] President of Ukraine," Interfax cites. According to Lukashenko, the person picked to be a negotiator refused even to discuss the topic.
    The conditions, writes naviny.by website, were quite clear: Lukashenko would have to step down.


  • 01/13/12--11:21: Why is it open season on Palestinians in US presidential race? (chan 1146671)



    • Palestinians, like everyone else in the world, are not angels. Some among them have undoubtedly committed mistakes — for which collectively Palestinians have suffered and paid a price. Still, it is hard to think of an example of a people today who has been singled out as fair game for demonization and abuse for political gain like the Palestinians.

    Nowhere is this more the case than in the United States, where the race for the Republican nomination for the November 2012 presidential election is in full swing. The US has big problems and there is no shortage of issues for the candidates to debate, from dealing with the economic crisis to extricating the country from the expanding wars that have drained its assets and potential.

    Yet, it seems that the Palestinians, or more precisely bashing and demonizing them, preoccupy a disproportionate amount of the candidates’ attention. Even more extraordinary is the fact that the Palestinians never sought to make Americans or the US their enemy nor did they do anything to harm the US.

    This Palestinophobia exists within a general trend in the US political debate where it is commonly accepted that the Palestinians are terrorists and unreasonable people who stand in the way of peace and stability in the Middle East. These hateful comments come within a broader atmosphere where hostility to Muslims is increasingly widespread and acceptable and few voices of objection are heard against this growing and alarming incitement.

    Republicans make these extreme comments, but rarely does one hear President Barack Obama or any other senior official repudiate them.


  • 01/17/12--16:26: Did US radar down Russian Mars probe? (chan 1146671)



    • An electromagnetic pulse from a US radar station in the Pacific is being investigated as a possible cause in the malfunctioning of the Russian Phobos-Grunt martian probe.
    What began as an ambitious space mission to bring back samples from one of Mars’ moons, Phobos, has instead turned into an earthly detective story to determine the culprit behind the failed launch.

    A government commission inquiring into the performance of the probe, which returned to earth on Sunday, will test whether it was affected by US radars on its second orbit around Earth.

    Led by Yuri Koptev – a former head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos – the commission announced on Tuesday that it would stage an experiment, where a model Phobos will be subjected to radiation similar to that from US radars.

    Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin has said that that the malfunction of the spacecraft could have been caused by “interference from a foreign technical facility.”
    “Experts do not dismiss the possibility that the probe could have accidentally come under the impact of emissions [from a US radar stationed on the Marshall Islands], whose megawatt impulse triggered the malfunctioning of on-board electronics,” Kommersant, the business daily, said on Tuesday, citing an unnamed source in the Russian space industry.
    The source also explained Roscosmos was examining other possible explanations, including the trajectory of an asteroid at the time of the Phobos-Grunt launch.
    The failed mission was more likely due to an accident than to a determined act of sabotage, the Kommersant source added.

    Did HAARP play a part?

    Although not specifically mentioned by the Russian investigation team, any investigation into radar bringing down a space probe would have to include the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) observatory, established in 1993.

    The HAARP research station, located in Gakona, Alaska, is a hotbed of conspiracy theorizing. On this US Air Force-owned piece of real estate researchers periodically conduct high-energy experiments on the ionosphere, a layer of charged particles that extends up to 1,000 kilometers above the Earth.

    “Whereas similar radar facilities exist in Norway, Russia, Peru and other locations, HAARP is one of the most powerful,” according to a recent report in Scientific American. “Its Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI) puts out a maximum of 3.6 megawatts sending signals at 2.8 to 10 MHz – powerful enough heat up a small (on a global scale) but measurable part of the ionosphere.”

    The conspiracy theorists, however, say the facility is up to pure mischief.
    Former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, for example, questioned whether the government is using the site to play havoc with the weather or to bombard people with "mind-controlling radio waves."

    Located in a remote, forested area of Alaska, HAARP consists of 180 antennas that occupy a rectangle of about 33 acres (13 hectares).

    Investigators are also considering a short circuit, as well as “external impact” with an asteroid as possible other explanations for the failed mission. They are expected to inform the Roscosmos head of the preliminary results on January 20
    The official conclusion is to be announced on January 26, Kommersant says.
    “The results of the experiment will allow us to prove or dismiss the possibility of the radar’s impact,” Koptev says.

    The mystery over the fall of the Phobos-Grunt has sparked the curiosity of not only the Russian space community, but also that of the country’s leading politicians.

    Reset or relaunch?

    The mystery over the fall of the Phobos-Grunt has sparked the curiosity of not only the Russian space community, but also that of the country’s leading politicians. Indeed, the crash of the Phobos-Grunt probe appears to be the latest irritant in Russia-US efforts at a political reset.

    Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin does not rule out the possibility that the launch of the Martian probe could have failed as a result of US radar impact.
    “This theory has a right to exist," he told reporters on Tuesday.

    Earlier, Rogozin vowed he would personally oversee the enquiry.

    “I am taking the investigation into the reasons for the Phobos-Grunt failure under personal control,” said Rogozin, who had been Russia’s envoy to NATO prior to his appointment to the current post last December.

    Some Russian observers are quietly leaning towards the conclusion that the United States, in a desperate attempt to cling to its superpower status – both on earth and in outer space – is willing to conduct acts of sabotage to do so.

    This opinion is reinforced by the fact that the US space industry, which witnessed its final space shuttle mission in July, 2011, is now forced to rely on Russian launches to maintain its presence on the International Space Station. This is certainly a blow to Washington's pride and prestige at a time when the condition of the US economy, combined with the astronomical cost of military adventures abroad, preclude further investment in space exploration.

    In light of these factors, it is reasonable that to expect that some individuals in Russia should suspect US involvement in the failed Mars mission, at least until proven otherwise.

    There had been high expectations from Russia’s space community that Phobos-Grunt, launched on November 9, would bring back rock and soil samples from the Martian moon Phobos. However, the probe’s rocket engines failed to put it on course for Mars, and it fell into the Pacific on Sunday.
    Russian efforts to reach the elusive Red Planet have been riddled with failure. In 1996, Russia lost its Mars-96 orbiter during launch.
    http://rt.com/politics/russia-mars-probe-accident-us-radar-967/


  • 01/18/12--05:44: SOPA, PIPA: What you need to know (chan 1146671)



    • Having trouble using Wikipedia today? That's because the popular crowd-sourced online encyclopedia is participating in an "Internet blackout" in protest of two controversial anti-piracy bills: The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate companion, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

    The bills are intended to strengthen protections against copyright infringement and intellectual property theft, but Internet advocates say they would stifle expression the World Wide Web. In essence, the legislation has pitted content providers -- like the music and film industries -- against Silicon Valley.

    "It's not a battle of left versus right," said progressive activist Adam Green, whose organization Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Tuesday hosted a press conference with opponents of the bills. "Frankly, it's a battle of old versus new."

    Here's a basic look at the actions taking place today and the legislation causing all the fuss.

    What's going on today?

    The popular link-sharing site Reddit got the ball rolling for today's 24-hour Internet blackout. In addition to Reddit and Wikipedia, other sites participating include BoingBoing, Mozilla, WordPress, TwitPic, MoveOn.org and the ICanHasCheezBurger network. Search giant Google is showing its solidarity with a protest doodle and message: "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web," but the site planned no complete blackout.

    Other sites -- like Facebook and Twitter -- oppose the legislation in question but aren't participating in today's blackout.

    In addition to the Internet-based protests, some opponents are physically protesting on Wednesday outside of their congressional representatives' offices. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said in Tuesday's press conference it will "probably be the geekiest, most rational protest ever."

    What does the legislation do?

    There are already laws that protect copyrighted material, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). But while the DMCA focuses on removing specific, unauthorized content from the Internet, SOPA and PIPA instead target the platform -- that is, the site hosting the unauthorized content.

    The bills would give the Justice Department the power to go after foreign websites willfully committing or facilitating intellectual property theft -- "rogue" sites like The Pirate Bay. The government would be able to force U.S.-based companies, like Internet service providers, credit card companies and online advertisers, to cut off ties with those sites.

    Why content providers want SOPA and PIPA

    Content groups like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and business representatives like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argue that innovation and jobs in content-creating industries are threatened by growing Internet piracy. Overseas websites, they argue, are a safe haven for Internet pirates profiting off their content.

    According to the Global Intellectual Property Center, which is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, intellectual property-intensive sectors employ more than 19 million people in the U.S. and create $7.7 trillion in gross output. Foreign website operators currently outside the bounds of U.S. law; SOPA and PIPA would help quell illegitimate Internet activity.

    In a statement, former Sen. Chris Dodd, who is now chairman and CEO of the MPAA, called the blackout day a "gimmick."

    "It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests," Dodd said.

    CBS Corporation, which owns CBSNews.com, is a member of the Copyright Alliance -- an industry group representing content producers that supports SOPA and PIPA.

    Why Internet companies oppose SOPA and PIPA

    Internet companies and their investors would readily say that they're holding the "blackout" to protect their corporate interests -- and the entire burgeoning Internet-based economy.

    "The success of Reddit... is one of the smaller examples of the success that has happened in our industry -- and will continue to unless bills like SOPA or PIPA become law," Ohanian said Tuesday.

    Under the rules SOPA or PIPA would impose, Ohanian and others argue, start ups wouldn't be able to handle the costs that come with defending their sites against possible violations. Such sites would not be able to pay the large teams of lawyers that established sites like Google or Facebook can afford.

    The legislation in question targets foreign companies whose primary purpose is to sell stolen or counterfeit goods -- but opponents say domestic companies could still be held liable for linking to their content. While sites like Reddit wouldn't have a legal duty to monitor their sites all the time, "you might have your pants sued off of you" if you don't, said Jayme White, staff director for the Senate Finance Subcommittee on international trade.

    Brad Burnham, managing partner at the venture capital fund Union Square Ventures, said his company has avoided investing in companies related to the music industry because of the copyright risks -- but under the proposed legislation, that risk would hit just about any Internet company. SOPA and PIPA, he said, "takes the risk of frivolous litigation... to the entire Internet."

    That should be a concern, Burnham said, when the Internet accounts for 21 percent of economic growth among developed nations, according to one study.

    The impacts could go beyond the economy, some argue. Rebecca MacKinnon, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan New America Foundation, argues that if blogging platforms are motivated to monitor their content, that could have "a tremendous chilling effect on people tyring to conduct political discourse and trying to use content in a fair use context."

    Where does the legislation stand?

    Opponents of SOPA and PIPA celebrated when, earlier this month, authors of both bills decided to set aside the most controversial aspect of them -- language that would have let the Justice Department force Internet Service Providers to block the domains of suspected foreign "rogue" sites. Also, over the weekend, the White House suggested it wants to see modifications to the legislation.

    The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on PIPA on January 24.

    House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who sponsored SOPA, said Tuesday he expects the committee to continue work on the House bill in February.

    Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., meanwhile, is opposed to the legislation and will today officially introduce an alternative -- the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act. Issa said Tuesday he expects his bill to have more co-sponsors than SOPA has in the House and that "once members of Congress see a viable alternative... I think we can get to a consensus."

    The OPEN Act would make the International Trade Commission, rather than the Justice Department, responsible for policing U.S. connections to foreign rogue sites. Placing that responsibility in the hands of one entity, rather than the whole court system, would make the process more transparent, Issa argues.
    ------------------
    Video at link.


  • 01/18/12--05:49: Wikipedia - Stop Online Piracy Act - (chan 1146671)



    • Stop Online Piracy Act

    The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.[2] Presented to the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.[3]
    The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.[4]
    Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites.[5] They cite examples such as Google's $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to illegally import prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.[6]
    Opponents say that it violates the First Amendment,[7] is Internet censorship,[8] will cripple the Internet,[9] and will threaten whistle-blowing and other free speech actions.[7][10] Opponents have initiated a number of protest actions, including petition drives, boycotts of companies that support the legislation, and planned service blackouts by English Wikipedia and major Internet companies scheduled to coincide with the next Congressional hearing on the matter.
    The House Judiciary Committee held hearings on November 16 and December 15, 2011. The Committee was scheduled to continue debate in January 2012,[11] but on January 17 Chairman Smith said that "[d]ue to the Republican and Democratic retreats taking place over the next two weeks, markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act is expected to resume in February."[12]


  • 01/18/12--16:09: Voice in the Wilderness: Does CNN/Major Media Ever Read or Follow the Constitution? (chan 1146671)



    • Should the U.S. government censor the Internet?
    caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com

    Does the US Constitution say anything about freedom of speech or expression?

    http://charliebigfeet.blogspot.com/2012/01/does-cnnmajor-media-ever-read-or-foll...


  • 01/18/12--17:22: NYPD and Pentagon to place mobile scanners on the streets on NYC (chan 1146671)



    • NYPD and Pentagon place mobile scanners on the streets on NYC

    New York City’s war on freedom could be adding a new weapon to its arsenal, especially if NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has his say.

    The head of the New York Police Department is working with the Pentagon to secure body scanners to be used throughout the Big Apple.

    If Kelly gets his wish, the city will be receiving a whole slew of Terahertz Imagining Detection scanners, a high-tech radiation detector that measures the energy that is emitted from a persons’ body. As CBS News reports, “It measures the energy radiating from a body up to 16 feet away, and can detect anything blocking it, like a gun.”

    What it can also do, however, is allow the NYPD to conduct illegal searches by means of scanning anyone walking the streets of New York. Any object on your person could be privy to the eyes of the detector, and any suspicious screens can prompt police officers to search someone on suspicion of having a gun, or anything else under their clothes.

    According to Commissioner Kelly, the scanners would only be used in “reasonably suspicious circumstances,” but what constitutes “suspicious” in the eyes of the NYPD could greatly differ from what the 8 million residents of the five boroughs have in mind.
    The American Civil Liberties Union has already questioned the NYPD over what they say is an unnecessary precaution that raises more issues than it solves.

    “It’s worrisome. It implicates privacy, the right to walk down the street without being subjected to a virtual pat-down by the Police Department when you’re doing nothing wrong,” Donna Lieberman of the NYCLU says to CBS.

    The scanners also raise the question of whether such searches would even be legal under the US Constitution. Under the Fourth Amendment, Americans are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. Does scoping out what’s on someone’s person fall under the same category as a hands-on frisk, though?

    To the NYPD, it might not matter. In the first quarter of 2011, more than 161,000 innocent New Yorkers were stopped and interrogated on the streets of the city. Figures released by the NYPD in May of last year revealed that of the over 180,000 stop-and-frisk encounters reported by the police department, 88 percent of them ended in neither an arrest nor a summons, leading many to assume that New York cops are already going above and beyond the law by searching seemingly anyone they chose. Additionally, of those 161,000-plus victims, around 84 percent were either black or Latino. At the time, the ACLU’s Lieberman wrote, “The NYPD is turning black and brown neighborhoods across New York City into Constitution-free zones.”

    Given the alarming statistics, many already feel that officers within the ranks of the NYPD are overzealous with their monitoring of New Yorkers, regularly stopping them for unknown suspicions that nearly nine-out-of-ten times prove false. With the installation of the Terahertz Imagining Detection scanners though, those invasive physical searches wouldn’t just be replaced with a touchless, more intrusive monitoring, but will only allow New Yorkers one more reason to fear walking the streets.

    “If they search you, you’re not giving consent, so they can do what they want, meaning they can use that as an excuse to search you for other means. I don’t think that’s constitutional at all,” New Yorker Devan Thomas tells CBS.

    “There are a lot of cameras already here, so as people walk they’re being filmed. And most of the time they don’t know it,” adds Jennifer Bailly.

    A lot is somewhat of an understatement. In Manhattan alone there are over 2,000 surveillance cameras, public and private, aimed at every passerby. That number is the same as the tally of both McDonalds and Starbucks on the island, combined, multiplied by a factor of eight.

    CBS News adds that the plan puts the NYPD in direct cooperation with the Department of Defense, who is working on testing the scanners to find a way to bring them to the streets. Such a joint effort opens up questions about other endeavors the Pentagon could have planned out with the NYPD in the past, and certainly doesn’t mark the first time that New York’s boys in blue have worked hand-in-hand with federal agencies. Last year a report surfaced linking the NYPD to the CIA, as documents became available showing a connection between the local police department and government spies installing secret agents into Muslim majority communities in New York.

    By using scanners such as the Terahertz Imagining detectors, however, New Yorkers will be forced to endure more than just an unknown number of eyes prying under their clothes. The consequences could be biologically catastrophic, with the scanning technique tied to problems with the human body’s ability to operate. According to MIT’s Technology Review, the THz waves used by the scanners “unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication.”
    http://rt.com/usa/news/nypd-scanners-new-york-115/


  • 01/19/12--09:06: Israel may have taken a step back from bombing Iran – but for how long? (chan 1146671)



    • Notice the headline: Israel plans to attack Iran with bombs, not Iran plans to attack Israel with the one nuke that they don't even have.

    Some key points to remember whenever you read somewhere that someone needs to "stop Iran:"

    Iran is allowed to posses nuclear technology based on internationally agreed upon treaties

    Dozens of intelligence agencies concluded in 2007 that there was no evidence that Iran had an active nuclear weapons program

    Under the The Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the US and other nations who have signed on to the treaty are under obligation to assist other nations who are also part of the international treaty, including Iran, with developing their nuclear program

    Israel has chosen not to participate in the The Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

    Israel has an unofficially declared nuclear, chemical and biological weapons stockpile

    Israel wants to bomb Iran, or have the US do it for them

    Powerful interests are already invested in a war with Iran and they just need the right excuse to sell it to the public

    There have been numerous unsuccessful plots over the years to stage fake terror events or provacatuer Iran into attacking US or British war ships

    ***

    When Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, said this week that his country was "very far off" from taking a decision about whether to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, may have allowed himself a moment of relief before boarding his flight to Tel Aviv on Thursday.

    Iran's claim on 8 January that it planned to start nuclear enrichment at its underground Fordow plant, near Qom, "in the near future" was seen as coming perilously close to one of Israel's "red lines". It was followed a few days later by the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist, an operation widely attributed to the Mossad, Israel's fabled intelligence agency. Israel has maintained its usual omertà on the hit, with only Peres saying that "to the best of my knowledge" the country was not involved. Meanwhile, Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz has exacerbated tensions.

    This latest round of escalation comes only two months after intense speculation that Israel was gearing up for an imminent strike, with reports that Netanyahu was striving to persuade his divided cabinet to back such action. Some suggested that public sabre rattling was an attempt to persuade the international community to impose stiffer sanctions on Iran.

    And, indeed, Netanyahu gave an interview last weekend in which he suggested sanctions were working. "For the first time, I see Iran wobble," he told the Australian. Three days later, he said the opposite: sanctions were ineffective, he told an Israeli parliamentary committee. US officials are uncertain how to read Israel's intentions given such contradictory statements.

    But there does appear to be a real debate within Israel's political and defence establishment over the merits of military action, and one that does not necessarily run along left-right, dove-hawk lines.


  • 01/19/12--09:08: 10 year old child charged with murder in San Diego-area death (chan 1146671)



    • EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) — A child was charged with murder and felony assault in the fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old boy, authorities said Wednesday.
    San Diego County district attorney's office spokesman Steve Walker declined to say if the defendant was the victim's 10-year-old neighbor who was taken into custody shortly after the stabbing. The neighbor is the only person who has been identified by homicide investigators as a suspect.

    A detention hearing was scheduled for Thursday in juvenile court.

    The 12-year-old died Monday, a little more than an hour after he was stabbed in the 10-year-old's driveway in a quiet, kid-friendly neighborhood in El Cajon, east of San Diego.

    The victim slept at the boy's home for two nights before he was attacked at the end of the holiday weekend, said Cody Vales, a close friend of both boys. He said they were "like best buddies."

    Vales, 16, said the 10-year-old appeared calmer since he began taking a new medication about three weeks ago, becoming "a new kid." He said the younger boy wasn't one to pick a fight but exploded when he felt provoked.

    Vales said the boy once punched him in the face for accidentally bumping his pelvis when they were jumping on a trampoline. The boy threw a tantrum when he spilled a cup of water inside his house and was asked to clean up.

    "If you pushed his buttons and cussed him out, he'd just lose it on you," Vales said.
    The 10-year-old liked to play football and practice Muay Thai boxing and jujitsu, Vales said. He was muscular and a little short for his age.

    The 10-year-old's adoptive mother, who lived with the boy and her father, was the only person who knew how to calm him, Vales said. She hugged him and reassured him that everything would be all right.

    "The nicest woman you'd ever meet," Vales said. "If it was anybody else, they wouldn't be able to put up with (him)."

    The victim's mother told U-T San Diego that she knew the 10-year-old and his mother well.

    "Please don't make it out that he was this terrible human being," Lisa Carter told the newspaper. "He's not some monster."

    The neighborhood in San Diego's foothills is one of modest, aging one-story homes on narrow, winding roads. The two boys played often with others at a playground clubhouse in the mobile home park where the victim lived. They sometimes pretended to be pirates.

    It is unusual for children so young to kill. Law enforcement agencies reported 11 homicides nationwide by children 12 and younger in 2010 — the same number as in 2009 and 2008, according to FBI data.

    James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston, said that 1976 through 2010, 242 homicides were committed in the United States by children 10 and younger, according to his analysis of FBI statistics. Of those, 48 percent of victims were family, 20 percent were acquaintances and 8 percent were friends.

    Fox said there are typically no telltale signs to predict such acts of violence.
    "Overwhelmingly the most common element is just an argument," he said. "It's the same motivation why kids fight."

    California requires that children be at least 14 to be charged as adults, said Shaun Martin, a University of San Diego law professor. State law allows children to be detained until they turn 25 if tried and convicted as juveniles.

    http://news.yahoo.com/child-charged-murder-san-diego-area-death-005500719.html


  • 01/19/12--09:35: Ron Paul fights indefinite detention of Americans (chan 1146671)



    • Ron Paul took a day off from the campaign trail on Wednesday, not to pause from politics, but to urge his colleagues on Capitol Hill to overturn the provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that allows indefinite detention for Americans.

    The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or the NDAA, was inked by President Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve, despite immense opposition from Americans who were concerned by vague language that could allow the commander-in-chief to use military forces to domestically police the United States. Under Section 1021 of the NDAA, any person, US citizen or not, can be held without trial by American armed forces if they are suspected of being engaged in hostilities against the country by al-Qaeda or associated forces.

    Opponents of the act — and there are many — have questioned the language of the specific section, as it could be written to allow the president to enforce the law to imprison anyone suspected of any crime that could be considered by the right person in office to be an act of terror. President Obama said that he would not abide by this rule, but despite a signing statement that his administration won’t act in that manner, it does not mean that the promise will be upheld.

    ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero called Obama’s approval of the legislation is "a blight on his legacy," insisting that “he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” and the Council on American-Islamic Relations called the bill an “ill-conceived and un-American legislation” that will “forever be seen as a stain on our nation’s history — one that will ultimately be viewed with embarrassment and shame.” Additionally, this week RT reported that noted journalist Chris Hedges has filed a lawsuit against the White House over the legislation, questioning the legality of the authorization and calling it “a catastrophic blow to civil liberties.”

    On Wednesday this week, however, Ron Paul spoke from Capitol Hill, not South Carolina where the rest of his Republican Party rivals were campaigning before the state’s primary scheduled for this weekend. While in Washington to vote against raising the debt ceiling, Congressman Ron Paul also used the opportunity to go after Obama for signing the NDAA and offered a proposal that, if passed, would strike Section 1031 off the Act.

    The move makes Paul not just the first frontrunner in the race for the GOP nomination to speak out against the act, but the first congressman to openly offer a solution to the legislation since it was authorized into law.

    Paul began his address on Wednesday by noting that the National Defense Authorization Act was “quietly signed into law by the president on New Year’s Day,” sarcastically saluting it by adding, “and what a way to usher in a New Year.”
    “Section 1021 provides for the possibility of the US military acting as a kind of police force on US soil, apprehending terror suspects – including Americans — and whisking them off to an undisclosed location indefinitely,” said Paul.

    “No right to attorney, no right to trial, no day in court.”

    While GOP contender Mitt Romney said during a debate from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina last week that he would have also authorized such legislation, Congressman Paul went over his time limit on stage in urging Americans to pay attention to the dangerous provisions included in the Act. In front of the debate crowd, Paul told the US not to lose faith in the country’s judicial system. From Washington only a week later, Congressman Paul asked his peers to think about America’s past once more, asking, “Have we not tried in civilian court and won convictions of hundreds of individuals for terrorist or related activities?” He added to his fellow legislature that this transformation away from a country founded on the ideals of the Constitution would soon lead America on the road to a place no one would wish it goes.

    “This is precisely the kind of egregious distortion of justice that Americans have always ridiculed in so many dictatorships overseas,” said Paul, comparing it to the gulag system of the Soviet Union.

    “Is this really the kind of United States we want to create in the name of fighting terrorism?” asked the congressman from Texas.

    While Hedges attacked Obama in drafting his explanation of the lawsuit, Paul spoke from the Capitol that his own peers in Congress are just as responsible for crafting the NDAA and corrupting others lawmakers into signing it, even as they themselves openly acknowledged the dangers of the act.

    “Sadly, too many of my colleagues are too willing to undermine our Constitution to support such outrageous legislation,” said Paul. “One senator even said about American citizens picked up under this section of the NDAA, ‘When they say, “I want my lawyer,” you tell them, “Shut up. You don't get a lawyer.”’ Is this acceptable in someone one who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution?” he asked. The congressman in question was Senator Lindsay Graham, who did indeed have such vile words in encouraging others to sign the Act. “For those American citizens thinking about helping al-Qaeda, please know what will come your way: death; detention; prosecution,” explained Senator Graham while the Act was originally up for discussion.

    Sadly, prosecution could very well be the last step in an instance where an American is imprisoned under the NDAA. In Section 1031, citizens can indeed be held indefinitely, and as we’ve learned with the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that term of detainment could easily extend a decade, if not longer, without a trial ever being ordered. Over 170 prisoners are still held at Gitmo, including some that have been there without charge since the US began installing suspected war criminals there more than ten years ago. Under Section 1031, your neighbor, uncle or yourself could be the next person to don an orange jumpsuit and Ron Paul recognized how detrimental this is to American liberty.

    In his closing remarks Wednesday, Paul explained that he was without a doubt opposed to acts of terrorism. “I recognize how critical it is that we identify and apprehend those who are suspected of plotting attacks against Americans. But why do we have so little faith in our justice system?” he asked.

    Paul added that he wished to continue going after terrorists, but said, “let us not abandon what is so unique and special about our system of government in the process.”

    “I hope my colleagues will join my effort to overturn the shameful Section 1021,” concluded the congressman.
    http://rt.com/usa/news/ron-paul-ndaa-detention-209/


  • 01/19/12--16:31: The Chinese view of SOPA - "[Chinese] are ahead of the whole world, and the ‘American imperialists’ are racing to catch up.” (chan 1146671)



    • As members of Congress edge away from the Stop Online Piracy Act, leaders of the opposition can count among their most frequently used rhetorical tools a metaphor that has come to define this debate: SOPA = China.

    The legislation would impose a “chilling internet censorship regime here in the U.S. comparable in some ways to China’s ‘Great Firewall,’” Wired wrote. Sergey Brin—who led G-Day, Google’s withdrawal from mainland China—said that the bills would “put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world.” Rebecca MacKinnon, an Internet-freedom expert who used to be journalist in Beijing, says they would impose a “censorship mechanism that is almost identical, technically, to the mechanism the Chinese use to censor their Internet.”

    So, how does it all look to the people who actually live with it? In China, the reaction to American protests has ranged from sympathy to gentle Schadenfreude, as Chinese Web users try to sort out whether they are being held up as victims or patsies or pirates. After several years in which American diplomats have inveighed against Internet censorship in China, the proposals have inspired a bit of snickering. “The Great Firewall turns out to be a visionary product; the American government is trying to copy us,” one commentator wrote. A Chinese message making the rounds on Thursday said: “At last, the planet is becoming unified: We are ahead of the whole world, and the ‘American imperialists’ are racing to catch up.”

    Fittingly, perhaps, the discussion has unfolded on Weibo, the Twitter-like micro-blogging site that has a team of censors on staff to trim posts with sensitive political content. That is the arrangement that opponents of the bill have suggested would be required of American sites if they are compelled to police their users’ content for copyright violations. On Weibo, joking about SOPA’s similarities to Chinese censorship was sensitive enough that some posts on the subject were almost certainly deleted (though it can be hard to know). But among those that survived, a commentator known as Dr. Zhang wrote: “I’ve come up with a perfect solution: You can come to China to download all your pirated media, and we’ll go to America to discuss politically sensitive subjects.”

    There are, needless to say, differences of degree. While Chinese sites censor references to Tiananmen Square, Falun Gong, the Dalai Lama and other third-rail political issues, the force comes not in the act of censorship, but in the instances when prosecutions follow: the Chinese woman sentenced to a year of reform through labor for retweeting a joke, or the student detained for forwarding what authorities called a “rumor” about the murder of eight village officials. (h/t Isaac Stone Fish at Foreign Policy.)

    After Chinese Web users got over the strangeness of hearing Americans debate the merits of screening the Web for objectionable content, they marvelled at the American response. Commentator Liu Qingyan wrote:
    We should learn something from the way these American Internet companies protested against SOPA and PIPA. A free and democratic society depends on every one of us caring about politics and fighting for our rights. We will not achieve it by avoiding talk about politics.

    There was little expectation that Chinese Web sites would ever band together to express their opposition to censorship: “Baidu, would you dare do something like this?” one asked.

    The most eloquent response to the controversy, perhaps, was one that nobody saw at all. Commentator Shi Han wrote about trying to post a comment to Tencent, the giant Chinese portal. “I’ve written a short article about SOPA. But when I tried to put it up, Tencent replied with a message: ‘Your content has not passed review.’”
    http://news.yahoo.com/the-chinese-view-of-sopa.html


  • 01/20/12--11:14: US army chief: Won't let Holocaust happen again (chan 1146671)



    • Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey visited Sunday the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem, accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro.

    During his visit, Dempsey lit the memorial "Eternal Flame" torch and laid a wreath at the Yizkor tent. The US general stated that the US will work together with Israel to make sure that such atrocities never happen again.

    Dempsey also signed the Yad Vashem guest book, writing that his country is committed to the protection of Israel and will do everything to prevent such a human tragedy from reoccurring.

    Earlier, the general visited the IDF's headquarters in Tel Aviv, where he met with Gantz and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

    Later on Sunday, Dempsey met with President Shimon Peres and told him that the United States is honored to have Israel as a partner. Peres noted that the struggle against Iran's nuclear program is not only Israel's and the United States' struggle – but an international struggle for the safety of all nations."


  • 01/22/12--11:10: American Dietetic Association Speeds up its Race for Monopoly (chan 1146671)



    • The ADA is starting 2012 on the attack by introducing bills in four states and preparing for more—trying to sew up a legally enforced national monopoly before opposition can mount. Action Alerts!

    As the Really Eat Right campaign notes, internal ADA documents reveal that the ADA is chiefly concerned not with consumer and patient interests, but with eliminating competition in the field of nutrition to allow RDs to operate more profitable and successful businesses. We recognize the ADA’s interest in promoting the profession of dietetics for its members. But the best way to help RDs is not to create a legally enforced monopoly. It is to provide them with the latest and best information in nutritional science. For instance, instead of providing a platform for Coca-Cola to instruct RDs that sugar is perfectly fine for children, they might invite esteemed medical professionals like Dr. Robert Lustig to instruct RDs in the serious health concerns over the consumption of sugar.

    The ADA receives about $1 million a year in payments from pharmaceutical companies, and allows pharmaceutical companies to market their controversial products at ADA events. At the 2007 ADA Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, GlaxoSmithKline was allowed to promote their first over-the-counter diet pill, Alli, even though the drug’s weight loss effectiveness is minimal and side effects such as hard-to-control bowel movements and anal discharge are common. The FDA has since issued warnings to Alli, noting the possibly of severe liver damage, and consumer groups are asking the FDA to remove Alli from the market.

    ADA also receives payments from Coca-Cola, Hershey, the National Dairy Council, Mars, PepsiCo, and others, though the organization won’t say exactly how much they receive from these candy and soft drink companies and industry associations. We have deep concerns about any organization having a monopoly on nutrition, but a junk-food-sponsored organization is even worse! The ADA already has a monopoly in many states and in many fields. Have you wondered why the food in hospitals is so poor and even a threat to people’s health? Yes, that is the result of ADA monopoly.

    Not only that, but the ADA encourages a conventional medical approach, which does nothing for chronic health problems. Nutritionists, on the other hand, and some excellent independent-thinking RDs (many of whom go on to get graduate degrees in nutrition) tend to take an integrative approach and concentrate on genuine prevention.

    Below we’ll outline the basics involved in each state bill. If you are a citizen of those states, please respond to the Action Alert for your state, or forward the alert to friends or family members who live in that state.

    Please take action today!

    http://www.anh-usa.org/american-dietetic-association-speeds-up-its-race-for-mono...


  • 01/24/12--06:45: 20 percent of Americans are mentally disturbed (chan 1146671)



    • Are there a lot of mentally ill Americans, or am I just crazy?

    If you find yourself asking that question, odds might be more in your favor that you’re suffering from some sort of mental illness than you might think. According to the results of a new government report, 46 million Americans — or about one-in-five — have been diagnosed with such a disorder during the last year.

    Taking into account all American adults, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) puts the tally of Americans having a mental illness at around 20 percent, with young adults aged 18 through 25 even more likely to be diagnosed at a rate of 30 percent.

    "We all know people who have had a depression or an anxiety disorder, maybe something more serious like a bipolar disorder, but this is a pretty big number," Peter Delany, director of SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies, says of the study.

    If you’ve been linked to a mental, behavioral or emotional problem based on the guidelines in the last publishing of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, you’ve made the cut of nearly 50 million other Americans in similar standing. The study adds that around 11.4 million adults are victims of “serious” mental illnesses — that is conditions that affect a person’s ability to normally function.

    Just because you haven't swallowed a pill or gone other routes doesn’t mean you’ve escaped the list, either. While 46 million Americans are diagnosed sufferers of mental illness, only around 38 percent have received proper treatment for their condition.
    "We know with the appropriate use of medication and with good treatment people can recover and go on to lead very healthy and productive lives," Delany adds, but for many, that route is one marred by obstacles. For much of America, treatment is simply not in the budget. Of those that say they have an “unmet need” for mental healthcare, two-out-of-five Americans say they couldn’t afford help.

    Such conditions could turn dire, adds the study, as 8.7 million Americans had suicidal thoughts during the last year. Of them, 2.5 million made plans to follow through and 1.1 million actually attempted the act.

    "There is a gap between the need and how many people reach treatment," Dr. Ihsan Salloum, director of the Addiction Psychiatry and Psychiatric Comorbidity Programs at the University of Miami School of Medicine, adds to US News & World Report. "Mental illness is a treatable problem, and the outcome is as good as any chronic medical problem."

    Unfortunately, it seems as if those that don’t get authorized treatment often try to take things into their own hands. Around one-fourth of those that suffer from mental illness are also abusers of narcotics. A separate study released last year by SAMHSA revealed that prescription opiod abuse increased by 111 percent between 2004 and 2008, with almost 2 million Americans admitting to abusing the class of drug ever year, which includes codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone and others.
    http://rt.com/usa/news/disturbed-mental-illness-study-225/


  • 01/25/12--18:29: Man who was never convicted spent two years in solitary confinement and was forced to pull his own tooth was awarded $22 million. (chan 1146671)



    • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded $22 million to a New Mexico man who was kept in solitary confinement for two years and forced to pull his own tooth after being arrested for drunken driving in Dona Ana County.

    Civil rights attorney Matt Coyte said the jury awarded Stephen Slevin, 58, the damages Tuesday after a six-day trial in Santa Fe.

    Jess Williams, spokesman for Dona Ana County, declined comment other than to say the county plans to appeal.

    "We have believe we have strong legal issues to raise with the appeal," he said.
    Slevin was arrested while driving through the southern New Mexico county in August 2005. He ended up in solitary confinement because he was suffering from depression and someone checked a box on a form indicating he was suicidal, Coyte said.

    Slevin was given some drugs for depression but never saw a mental health professional, Coyte said. He said his client wrote letters for months seeking help, but they were ignored.

    "By January 2006, his last letter goes out looking for help. Then he falls into this delirium. He was there for the next 20 months," Coyte said.

    Coyte said that in May 2007, Slevin was sent to a mental health facility in Las Vegas, N.M., for two weeks but then was returned to the Dona Ana County jail and solitary confinement.

    "He immediately decompensates," Coyte said. "He sends off another letter at this point asking for medical care. ... He is forced to pull his own tooth. He rocked it back and forth over a period of eight hours before he was able to pull it out of his mouth."
    Slevin was finally released in June 2007, Coyte said. He was never convicted.

    "He entered this facility with overt symptoms of mental depression," Coyte said. "But that's not the issue. ... He was stuck in a 6-foot-by-11-foot cell with a concrete bench for a bed. And he sat in that cell. We had documentary evidence that he didn't get out for anything — for recreation, a shower — for months at a time."
    http://news.yahoo.com/nm-man-pulled-own-tooth-jail-awarded-22m-224826036.html