Bovine Excrement Meter Explodes! Sept. 11 families: Keep Guantanamo Bay open

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/17/gitmo.families/index.html
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (CNN) — Families of September 11 victims visiting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday urged the Obama administration to drop plans to close the facility and to restart terror trials there. “I am opposed to the closing of this facility because of political reasons,” said Gordon Haberman whose daughter, Andrea, was killed when terrorist planes struck the World Trade Center. “I believe that the current administration spoke too quickly on this.” Haberman said he thinks President Obama should not insist on carrying out his campaign pledge to shutter the detention facility. Haberman was one of nine people visiting Guantanamo this week who lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks. He and the others had the opportunity to observe pre-trial hearings for some suspects on Wednesday and Thursday. Several were critical of Obama’s decision to suspend military commissions at Guantanamo Bay while the administration reviews what to do with each detainee.

Experts: Cyberstrikes originated from Britain, not North Korea

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/15/hacking-usa
A recent wave of cyber attacks that crippled thousands of computers and websites in the United States and South Korea could have originated from inside Britain, experts have warned. According to security researchers in Vietnam, the source of last week’s string of attacks by the Mydoom virus – which overwhelmed systems belonging to the US Treasury and the office of the South Korean president Lee Myung-Bak – can be traced to the UK. “We have analysed the malware pattern that we received” said Nguyen Minh Duc, a director of Vietnamese security company BKIS, in a post on the company’s blog. “We found a master server located in the UK.” Investigators said they had discovered new details on how the strikes took place by investigating and tracing back the attacks. According to BKIS, infected computers had tried to contact one of eight so-called command and control servers every three minutes. These machines then gave instructions to the hacked PC – generally ordering them to direct traffic straight at victim websites, in attempt to overload them and force them to crash. But these eight servers were themselves being controlled by a single source, which evidence indicated was located somewhere in Britain. “Having located the attacking source in UK, we believe that it is completely possible to find out the hacker,” wrote Nguyen. “This of course depends on the US and South Korean governments.”

Senior KKK Member Arrested in Tel Aviv, Israel

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1246443798661
33-year-old Micky Louis Mayon, one of America’s 100 most wanted criminals, and a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was arrested in a Florentine apartment by the National Immigration Authority’s newly formed Oz enforcement unit. Mayon is wanted in the US on charges of racist assaults, setting fire to vehicles belonging to federal agents, and a host of violent incidents. The Oz unit was acting on intelligence relayed by Interpol, which informed authorities in Israel that Mayon had entered Israel illegally. He is said to have often moved apartments in order to evade police, but his efforts proved fruitless on Monday when a delicate operation by the Oz unit saw officers break into his hideout and arrest him. Oz unit members have the powers of a police officer but can only use them in cases of illegal entry into the country. Mayon was the subject of an American arrest operation in November 2007, but officers soon realized he had flown to Israel on a one-way ticket. Earlier that year, he reportedly fired his gun in the air repeatedly after being involved in an argument with an African-American. US authorities have described him as a dangerous fugitive. Oz Unit head Tziki Sela said Mayon was surprised to be arrested, but cooperated with the officers. He has been transferred to a Holon jail facility, where he underwent an immigration hearing. He was then taken to an Israel Prisons Service jail facility.

Ebola Reston Found in Phillipines Swine, Virus Contains Ability to Cross Species to Humans

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=swine-ebola-discovered
Since the discovery of the Marburg and Ebola species of filovirus, seemingly random, sporadic fatal outbreaks of disease in humans and nonhuman primates have given impetus to identification of host tropisms and potential reservoirs. Domestic swine in the Philippines, experiencing unusually severe outbreaks of porcine reproductive and respiratory disease syndrome, have now been discovered to host Reston ebolavirus (REBOV). Although REBOV is the only member of Filoviridae that has not been associated with disease in humans, its emergence in the human food chain is of concern. REBOV isolates were found to be more divergent from each other than from the original virus isolated in 1989, indicating polyphyletic origins and that REBOV has been circulating since, and possibly before, the initial discovery of REBOV in monkeys.

Naomi Wolf on Russia Today: “Obama has the right to lock any US citizen up forever without trial”

http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-07-13/_Obama_has_the_right_to_lock_any_US_citizen_up_forever_without_trial_.html

New Live Poll Allows Pundits to Pander to Viewers in Real Time

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/new_live_poll_allows_pundits_to?utm_source=a-section

New Mexico Teen Girl Gored in Head with Taser

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/08/new-mexico-teen-girl-tase_n_228280.html
The use of tasers by law enforcement is becoming increasingly controversial as more examples emerge of them being used improperly and causing victims serious harm. This New Mexico teen was arguing with her mother, so her mother brought her to a police station to get help (it’s unclear what kind of argument they could have been having that would warrant police intervention). The girl ran off and the police chief chased her and ordered her to stop. When she didn’t, he tasered her in the head. The giant scar and stitches in the teen’s head show the tasering was terribly brutal, and it’s difficult to see how this could in any way be justified.

The Big Whorehouse on the Potomac

http://counterpunch.org/roberts07032009.html
As Americans celebrate July 4, they can contemplate that the union of “free and independent states,” like the former British colonial power, has evolved into its final manifestation–a complete whore house.  While Members of Parliament in London charge their expense accounts with every personal expenditure, including the rental of adult xxx-rated films, an American newspaper put the reporting of public policy out to bids until politico.com blew the whistle. In Washington, everything is for sale, including journalistic integrity.  The Washington Post, which abandoned investigative reporting eons ago, decided to boost its sagging revenues by spreading her legs.  The Post’s business division put out a flier offering lobbyists access at the Post’s CEO’s gracious home to “those powerful few” in the Obama administration, Congress, and among the Post’s editors and reporters who decide the nation’s policies, such as health care. The Washington Post’s flyer offered a Wal-Mart low cost of a mere $25,000 for one “salon” to interact with decision makers and $250,000 for eleven interactions. Alas, people with an old fashioned sense of integrity impugned the Washington Post’s new business model, and the Post’s boss, Katharine Weymouth, had to rescind the offer that would have rescued the newspaper by turning it into a “facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters.” I say damn the old fashioned moralists.  America would be much better served if the Washington Post was selling access to lobbyists instead of selling the US government’s PSYOPS operations in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia, Venezeula, Honduras, and everywhere else, for which the paper receives a pittance: the reporter can tell his editor that he has a deep source within the government, hardly an adequate  recompense for wars that cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars at a time when Americans cannot pay the mortgages on their homes. America would be better off if the Washington Post whored for lobbyists than for the US Imperial State, which has failed to adjust its imperial ambitions to its bankruptcy.  As an example of its whoring for US Imperialism, on July 2, the Washington Post reported President Obama’s claim that Russian Prime Minister Putin is a person who lives partly in the past, with “one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.” If Putin has “one foot in the new,” he is ahead of Obama who has both feet in the past.

Stewart blasts former CIA analyst for rooting for bin Laden attack

http://www.infowars.com/stewart-blasts-former-cia-analyst-for-rooting-for-bin-laden-attack/
Perhaps it’s a form of Stockholm Syndrome. The same person who spent nearly a decade fruitlessly leading the CIA unit charged with finding Osama bin Laden now seems to be rooting for him. Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer told Fox News’ Glenn Beck Tuesday night, “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.” According to his bio, “From 1996 to 1999, [Scheuer] served as the Chief of the bin Laden unit (aka Alec Station), the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorism Center. He then worked as Special Adviser to the Chief of the bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004.” On Wednesday’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart found himself outraged at Beck’s guest. “What the f*ck is that? And by the way, here’s the fascinating thing about our culture. My guess is that you didn’t hear me say ‘f*ck.’ Because the Federal government is protecting you and your children’s ears from that type of profanity.” Stewart mocked Scheurer’s beard: “While, Santa’s evil twin gets to, uhh…gets to nonchalantly propose the needless slaughter of Americans to further his national security plan. But, obviously, in this country, everyone’s entitled to their dope-pinion.” Stewart added at the end, “Hey, is there any way you can yell loud enough into your TV at home for the people inside it to hear you?” This video is from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, broadcast July 1, 2009.

Nicholas Kristof on the Colbert Report: Discusses endocrine disruptors in water causing genital malformations in fish and humans

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/232640/july-01-2009/nicholas-kristof