Source: Bloomberg

By Nathan Crooks & Jose Orozco - Dec 9, 2012 4:40 PM ET

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, preparing to travel to Cuba for further cancer surgery, yesterday named Vice President Nicolas Maduro to carry out his legacy if he is unable to remain in office.

Chavez, who spoke in a national television and radio address, said he requires more surgery after malignant cells were detected in the same area as his previous cancer during health exams held over the past month in Cuba. The National Assembly today approved his request to be absent from the country for more than five days as he travels to the Caribbean island.

“There is risk in this process that you can’t deny,” said Chavez, who won re-election to a third six-year term on Oct. 7. “If something happens that disables me some way, my irrevocable opinion is that you should elect Nicolas Maduro as the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

Under Venezuelan law, if Chavez is too ill to carry out his duties, the vice president would take over until the beginning of the new presidential term on Jan. 10. If Chavez is unable to attend the inauguration scheduled on that date, the president of the National Assembly would assume power while elections are arranged within 30 days. If he does take office and then becomes too ill within the first four years of the term, the vice president takes over the presidency for 30 days while elections are held.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-09/venezuela-s-chavez-says-he-needs-more-cancer-surgery-in-cuba-1-.html

A union activist in Michigan has filed a lawsuit targeting a so-called right-to-work bill being pushed through the state’s legislature by Republicans, according to The Detroit Free Press.

Robert Davis filed the legal complaint in Ingham County Circuit Court, alleging that the Open Meetings Act was violated when police forced protesters out of the state Capitol building.

Michigan State Police used pepper spray last week to clear out the Capitol after Republican Speaker Jase Bolger and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville closed the building.

Bolgetr spokesman Ari Adler said the lawsuit appeared to be “baseless and frivolous.”

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/09/michigan-labor-activist-files-lawsuit-over-right-to-work-bill/

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT12/08/2012 20:16Human

Right Watch leader refuses to label calls to erase Israel; compares mullah's remarks to those of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

WASHINGTON – The head of New York-based Human Rights Watch refused to label as genocidal Iranian calls to obliterate the Jewish state and compared Iran’s mullah leadership to the Shas party.

The Wall Street Journal’s David Feith, as assistant editorial features editor with the paper, obtained internal HRW emails and published last week a report, headlined “Dancing around genocide,” about alleged HRW bias against Israel and an internecine conflict within HRW’s top leadership about the group’s head, Kenneth Roth, and his failure to take Iran’s calls to destroy Israel seriously.

The Journal reported that Sid Sheinberg, HRW’s vice chairman, wrote in an email, “Sitting still while Iran claims a ‘justification to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel’ is...a position unworthy of our great organization.”

According to the newspaper, Roth wrote in one email, “Many of [Iran’s] statements are certainly reprehensible, but they are not incitement to genocide. No one has acted on them.”

MORE...

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=295129

WASHINGTON (AP) — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: It's "becoming less and less relevant," he says.

A month after an election that Democrats won even as rural parts of the country voted overwhelmingly Republican, the former Democratic governor of Iowa told farm belt leaders this past week that he's frustrated with their internecine squabbles and says they need to be more strategic in picking their political fights.

"It's time for us to have an adult conversation with folks in rural America," Vilsack said in a speech at a forum sponsored by the Farm Journal. "It's time for a different thought process here, in my view."

He said rural America's biggest assets — the food supply, recreational areas and energy, for example — can be overlooked by people elsewhere as the U.S. population shifts more to cities, their suburbs and exurbs.

"Why is it that we don't have a farm bill?" said Vilsack. "It isn't just the differences of policy. It's the fact that rural America with a shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country, and we had better recognize that and we better begin to reverse it."

MORE...

http://news.yahoo.com/usda-chief-rural-america-becoming-less-relevant-132242974--finance.html;_ylt=AjrYv9aNk5_rhCQjd82XoeG3scB_;_ylu=X3oDMTQ2YWx2YmdhBG1pdANMYXRlc3ROZXdzIExpc3RpbmcEcGtnA2I2MzY5OGRiLWU1ZjgtMzdlOS1hMDhiLTFkNGQ0OTk1NDg5OQRwb3MDNTIEc2VjA01lZGlhU3RvcnlMaXN0VGVtcAR2ZXIDY2ViNmYwMTEtNDE1NC0xMWUyLWE3ZmQtYWQ3NjVjMDgwZGM0;_ylg=X3oDMTFlamZvM2ZlBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

ABC’s “This Week” — Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Reps. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.

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NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

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CBS’ ”Face the Nation” — Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, leaders of President Barack Obama’s now-defunct deficit commission; Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, N.J.

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CNN’s “State of the Union” — Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund; Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Tom Cole, R-Okla.

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“Fox News Sunday” — Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.

The state House is expected to pass the final Right to Work bill when it's back in session Tuesday.

Unions are planning an even bigger protest for their last chance to keep it from going to the Governor's desk, but for now, there's a brief calm before the next storm at the Capitol.

"Did it go the way we wanted? No. But if they told us no, am I supposed to say, 'Let me gather my stuff up and get out of your way,'? We're not going away," Local UAW 652 President Mike Green said.

Thousands of protestors are expected at the Capitol for what will probably be the biggest protest yet.

"It's going to look like wall to wall people," Green said. "We're calling everybody we can call and telling them, 'Bring a friend.' If you're concerned, it's time to show up and let them know."

MORE...

http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/Unions-Police-Prepare-for-Tuesdays-Protest-182629221.html

DENVER (AP) -- Pot may be legal, but workers may want to check with their boss first before they grab the pipe or joint during off hours.

Businesses in Washington state, where the drug is legal, and Colorado, where it will be by January, are trying to figure out how to deal with employees who use it on their own time and then fail a drug test.

It is another uncertainty that has come with pot legalization as many ask how the laws will affect them.

"There's just an incredible amount of gray right now" about how marijuana legalization affects employers, said Sandra Hagen Solin of the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance, a coalition of chambers of commerce.

MORE...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MARIJUANA_WORKPLACE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-12-07-17-31-43

By Karen McVeigh, The Guardian
Friday, December 7, 2012 14:22 EST

The US military is facing fresh questions over its targeting policy in Afghanistan after a senior army officer suggested that troops were on the lookout for “children with potential hostile intent”.

In comments which legal experts and campaigners described as “deeply troubling”, army Lt Col Marion Carrington told the Marine Corp Times that children, as well as “military-age males”, had been identified as a potential threat because some were being used by the Taliban to assist in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.

“It kind of opens our aperture,” said Carrington, whose unit, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was assisting the Afghan police. “In addition to looking for military-age males, it’s looking for children with potential hostile intent.”

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/07/military-faces-though-questions-about-targeting-hostile-children-in-afghanistan/

Source: Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Kentucky — U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul are urging Gov. Steve Beshear to seek a federal disaster declaration because of the potential economic consequences of a drought that has led to low water levels on the Mississippi River.

Beshear said Friday he appreciates their concern and that he's closely monitoring the situation.

McConnell and Paul said in a letter to Beshear on Thursday that commercial traffic on the river could "come to a complete halt in coming days" unless the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers takes action to increase the water flow.

"We are informed that shipment of over $7 billion in goods on the Mississippi River could be blocked over the coming months due to this entirely avoidable event," they wrote.

Read more: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/e67caeb26ea14374b0a235e7969ea789/KY--Kentucky-River-Shipping

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Send these 'small and limited gov't' hypocrites a box of shovels and tell them to 'start dredging'...

The Fox News morning show Fox & Friends on Friday declared that a law in Michigan that weakens unions was a “Victory for Capitalism!”

On Thursday, the Republican-controlled state legislature in Michigan had quickly pushed through a new measure that would make the birthplace of the country’s labor movement a right-to-work state, crippling unions by prohibiting requirements that employees join or pay dues.

“Yesterday, the legislature of both of houses passed a law making Michigan the 24th right to work state, bans mandatory union dues,” Fox News co-host Steve Doocy reported while a graphic on the screen read, “Victory for Capitalism!”

“If you work for the UAW, you work for Chrysler, Ford, places like that — there are a lot of people who are upset,” Doocy noted.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/07/fox-news-celebrates-michigan-union-busting-as-victory-for-capitalism/