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POPSObama: Nothing More Than a Shrewd and Opportunistic Partisan
He could have joined the bipartisan “Gang of 14” that negotiated a halt to divisive judicial nominations, but didn't. He could have been a leader for bipartisan compromises on immigration, terrorist surveillance and energy, but wasn't. According to a Washington Post database, Obama votes with his party 96 percent of the time, which makes him tied for the eleventh most partisan member of the Senate. At 96.6 percent, his running mate Joe Biden is the eighth most partisan senator. In his next political act, he dispensed with centrism and the great middle ground of American politics and espoused the politics of “change” — change in pastors, change in churches and calculated changes in his positions on NAFTA, gun control and much else. But all those convention antics pale in comparison to the change in the man who, four years ago, briefly fired the imaginations of Americans tired of the extremes of partisan politics. That Obama has left and gone away, if he ever really existed.
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POPSLook Closely, Doctor: See the Camera? Psychiatrists say that other movies whose characters are living in a unreal world or being watched by malevolent forces, including “The Matrix,” “Edtv” and even the film based on George Orwell’s “1984,” have come up in conversations with psychotic patients. But the premise of “The Truman Show” (“What if you were watched every moment of your life?” according to a promotional blurb) is strikingly similar to what patients describe as their own experiences. Reinforcing their beliefs is the fact that in the movie, Truman is right about being watched and recorded at all times. Every other character is part of the conspiracy.
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POPSUK: Safe in our cages? "As surely as night follows day, the new surveillance society will do more harm than good." Says it all, I guess
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POPSSeven Paths To Sensible Privacy "I am not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk and tread the paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction." —George Washington, letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, 1784 That is one view of privacy. Here is another: "We must all watch one another." —Rev. Robert Browne, guiding principles, 1582
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POPSPrivacy and Internet- At the beginning was the phone tap. Now with new technologies, we are ill prepared for the new invasions into our privacy and how to protect each one of us and the security we need as societies. We need more Geeks on our side, not just the governments.
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POPSEpidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response (EPR) What you should know. The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network focuses technical and operational resources from scientific institutions in Member States, medical and surveillance initiatives, regional technical networks, networks of laboratories, United Nations organizations (e.g. UNICEF, UNHCR), the Red Cross (International Committee of the Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and national societies) and international humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (e.g. Médecins sans Frontières, International Rescue Committee, Merlin and Epicentre). Participation is open to technical institutions, networks and organizations that have the capacity to contribute to international outbreak alert and response.
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POPS'Justice' Dept. Wants to Erase 4th Amendment, FBI to Have Gestapo Power
Attorney General Mukasey (neocon) wants to give broad powers to the FBI as if the 4th amendment is nothing at all instead of supreme law. The Justice Department said Wednesday that in light of requests from members of Congress for more information, Mr. Mukasey would agree not to sign the new guidelines before a Sept. 17 Congressional hearing. Can you believe this absolute corruption and blatant attempt to usurp power for federal policing? There will actually be a hearing in America's Congress to determine whether the 4th amendment will still stand--which forbids searches without probable cause! This right after the annual Sept. 11th propaganda campaign to justify ANY NEW POWERS the government wants, the Constitution notwithstanding. Mukasey has no Constitutional authority to sign or authorize this (the Constitution is above Mukasey, as well as Bush and Congress), but he wants to, after a good propaganda campaign to justify it as "necessary".
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POPSDeath in the Waiting Room The report said Sabock sat, unattended, in the room for four work shifts. The report also found that Sabock, formerly of Roanoke Rapids, ate nothing the day he died and had little food in the three days preceding his death. The 47-page report also said workers were supposed to be closely monitoring Sabock's condition and may have forged documents that said they had. A patient in New York died in June after she waited in a hospital's mental ward waiting area for nearly 24 hours. Security video showed her writhing on the floor. It was nearly an hour before someone else flagged down a staff member who got help for the unresponsive woman.
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POPSAfghan Militants Butcher American Soldiers
I didn't say anything about it here or elsewhere because a.) I didn't know what the families knew, and b.) I couldn't confirm it with anyone else. As for the soldiers being alive when captured, I still don't know with certainty whether or not that's true or just battlefield rumor. But everything else my source told me has turned out to be correct. The New York Times explains in more detail: The three were identified as Sgt. First Class Matthew L. Hilton, 37, of Livonia, Mich., of the Michigan Army National Guard; and Sgt. First Class Joseph A. McKay, 51, of Brooklyn; and Specialist Mark C. Palmateer, 38, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., both of them part of a reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition unit of the New York Army National Guard, according to a Pentagon news release. Their Afghan interpreter was 21-year-old Muhammad Fahim from Kabul, who had been working with the Americans for the last three years. His body was burned beyond recognition, his family said.
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POPSColorado 'fusion center' gathers intelligence Intelligence analysts with the Colorado State Patrol, Colorado National Guard and Federal Bureau of Investigation take local reports of suspicious criminal activity and determine what merits further investigation. This is just one of 'Big Brothers' spy fortresses.