Hissyspit
Hissyspit's JournalU.S. Soldier Manning Could Break Silence as WikiLeaks Trial Nears End
Source: Reuters
U.S. soldier Manning could break silence as WikiLeaks trial nears end
By Ian Simpson
Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:02am EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, convicted of providing secret files to WikiLeaks in the biggest data breach in U.S. history, could break a long silence on Wednesday as the sentencing phase of his court-martial wraps up.
Manning, 25, faces up to 90 years in prison for providing more than 700,000 files, battle videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, a pro-transparency website.
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The former junior intelligence analyst could end that silence on Wednesday when his attorneys read a statement to the court, a military spokesman said.
Its content is unknown. It would be the first time Manning has spoken publicly at length since late February, when he read a 10,000-word statement in a pre-trial hearing.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/14/us-usa-wikileaks-manning-idUSBRE97D0C220130814
Exclusive: Video of 'Lame' Cattle Stirs New Concern Over Growth Drugs
Source: Reuters
Exclusive: Video of 'lame' cattle stirs new concern over growth drugs
By P.J. Huffstutter and Lisa Baertlein
Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:09am EDT
(Reuters) - At a beef industry conference in Denver last week, the animal health auditor for meat producer JBS USA presented a video showing short clips of cows struggling to walk and displaying other signs of distress. The animals appeared to step gingerly, as if on hot metal, and showed signs of lameness, according to four people who saw the video.
The people in attendance said the video was presented by Dr Lily Edwards-Callaway, the head of animal welfare at JBS USA, as part of a panel discussion on the pros and cons of using a class of drugs known as beta-agonists - the additives fed to cattle in the weeks before slaughter to add up to 30 pounds to bodyweight and reduce fat content in the meat.
Edwards-Callaway told the audience the cattle had been fed a beta-agonist, but did not identify which brand. She also said various factors - including heat, transportation, and animal health - may have contributed to the behavior seen on the video, according to JBS spokesman Cameron Bruett. He said the video showed cattle were "reluctant to move," and told Reuters JBS wanted feedback from animal welfare experts, who were among those attending, on what JBS's own staff had been seeing.
Reuters was unable to determine what feedback was received. Edwards-Callaway did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The video was shown on the same day the nation's largest meat producer, Tyson Foods Inc, declared it would no longer accept cattle that had been fed the most popular brand of the feed additive, called Zilmax, a powerful and fast-selling product from pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Tyson, in a letter to its cattle suppliers, said the decision resulted not from food-safety questions but its concerns over the behavior of animals that animal health experts said could be connected to the use of Zilmax.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE97C02M20130813
Tom Tomorrow: Republicanado!
DAILY KOS LINK: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/12/1229820/-REPUBLICANADO
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Breaking: Stop-and-Frisk Practice Violated Rights, Judge Rules
Source: New York Times
@BreakingNews: Judge rules stop-and-frisk policy in New York City violated rights - @nytimes
@AP: BREAKING: Federal judge appoints outside monitor to oversee changes to NYPD stop-and-frisk policy. -MM
Stop-and-Frisk Practice Violated Rights, Judge Rules
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
Published: August 12, 2013
In a repudiation of a major element in the Bloomberg administration’s crime-fighting legacy, a federal judge has found that the stop-and-frisk tactics of the New York Police Department violated the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of New Yorkers, and called for a federal monitor to oversee broad reforms.
In a decision issued on Monday, the judge, Shira A. Scheindlin, ruled that police officers have for years been systematically stopping innocent people in the street without any objective reason to suspect them of wrongdoing. Officers often frisked these people, usually young minority men, for weapons or searched their pockets for contraband, like drugs, before letting them go, according to the 195-page decision.
These stop-and-frisk episodes, which soared in number over the last decade as crime continued to decline, demonstrated a widespread disregard for the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government, according to the ruling. It also found violations with the 14th Amendment.
To fix the constitutional violations, Judge Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan said she intended to designate an outside lawyer, Peter L. Zimroth, to monitor the Police Department’s compliance with the Constitution.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/13/nyregion/stop-and-frisk-practice-violated-rights-judge-rules.html
Glenn Greenwald Offered Brazilian Protection From U.S.
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/08/glenn_greenwald_offered_brazilian_protection_from_u_s_will_not_acceptTHURSDAY, AUG 8, 2013 03:03 PM EDT
Glenn Greenwald offered Brazilian protection from U.S.
Greenwald tells Salon he intends to visit the U.S. soon -- but says the risk of prosecution against him is real
BY BRIAN BEUTLER
A Brazilian official has taken the unusual step of publicly announcing that the Brazilian government will offer Guardian writer Glenn Greenwald protection from the U.S. government after determining he risks facing legal action if he returns to the U.S.
To receive protection from Brazil, Greenwald would have to officially request it. But though he takes the risk of prosecution seriously, Greenwald tells me he has no intention of taking the Brazilian government up on the offer — and that he plans to return to the U.S. sooner than later, come what may.
“I haven’t requested any protection from the Brazilian government or any other government because, rather obviously, I’ve committed no crime — unless investigative journalism is now a felony in the U.S.,” Greenwald said via email. “But the fact that Brazilian authorities believe there is a real possibility that the U.S. would unjustly prosecute journalists for the ‘crime’ of reporting what the U.S. government is doing is a powerful indictment of the U.S.’s current image in the world — just as was the requirement that the U.S. promise it will not torture or kill Snowden if he’s returned. It’s an equally potent reflection of the massive gap in opinion between the U.S. Government and the rest of the world when it comes to how the NSA disclosures, my reporting, and Snowden are perceived.”
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Greenwald — who once wrote for Salon — has published several articles based on classified surveillance documents he received from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. Prominent elected officials in the United States have accused Greenwald of being complicit in the crimes they accuse Snowden of committing, which feeds suspicions, both domestically and abroad, that Greenwald might face legal action if he returns to the U.S. That’s part of the reason why Greenwald himself — a former appellate lawyer — isn’t shrugging off the possibility.
MORE
Karen Black, "Five Easy Pieces" Star, Dead at 74
Source: CBS News
@CBSNews: RT @CBSShowbiz: Karen Black, "Five Easy Pieces" star, dead at 74. http://t.co/pikZIoB9Ra
Karen Black, "Five Easy Pieces" star, dead at 74
August 08, 2013
Karen Black, who appeared in more than 100 movies and was featured in such counterculture favorites as "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces" and "Nashville," has died.
Black's husband, Stephen Eckelberry, says the actress died Wednesday from complications from cancer. She was 74.
"It is with great sadness that I have to report that my wife and best friend, Karen Black has just passed away, only a few minutes ago," he wrote on Facebook. "Thank you all for all your prayers and love, they meant so much to her as they did to me."
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57597691/karen-black-five-easy-pieces-star-dead-at-74
NYT: Broader Sifting of Data Abroad Is Seen by NSA (Vast Dragnet of Americans' Int'l Emails/Texts)
Source: New York Times
Broader Sifting of Data Abroad Is Seen by N.S.A.
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: August 8, 2013
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans’ e-mail and text communications into and out of the country, hunting for people who mention information about foreigners under surveillance, according to intelligence officials.
The N.S.A. is not just intercepting the communications of Americans who are in direct contact with foreigners targeted overseas, a practice that government officials have openly acknowledged. It is also casting a far wider net for people who cite information linked to those foreigners, like a little used e-mail address, according to a senior intelligence official.
While it has long been known that the agency conducts extensive computer searches of data it vacuums up overseas, that it is systematically searching — without warrants — through the contents of Americans’ communications that cross the border reveals more about the scale of its secret operations.
It also adds another element to the unfolding debate, provoked by the disclosures of Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, about whether the agency has infringed on Americans’ privacy as it scoops up e-mails and phone data in its quest to ferret out foreign intelligence.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/us/broader-sifting-of-data-abroad-is-seen-by-nsa.html
"Sorry, It's Not a 'Law of Capitalism' That You Pay Your Employees as Little as Possible. It's..."
"a choice."
http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-need-to-pay-people-more-2013-8
Sorry, It's Not A 'Law Of Capitalism' That You Pay Your Employees As Little As Possible
Henry Blodget
AUG. 7, 2013, 10:51 AM 107,347 219
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But, unfortunately, over the past three decades, what began as a healthy and necessary effort to make our companies more efficient has evolved into a warped consensus that the only value that companies create is financial (cash) and that the only thing managers and owners should ever worry about is making more of it.
This view is an insult to anyone who has ever dreamed of having a job that is about more than money. And it is a short-sighted and destructive view of capitalism, an economic system that sustains not just this country but most countries in the world.
This view has become deeply entrenched, though.
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This view, unfortunately, is not just selfish and demeaning. It's also economically stupid. Those "costs" you are minimizing (employees) are also current and prospective customers for your company and other companies. And the less money they have, the fewer products and services they are going to buy.
Obviously, the folks who own and run America's big corporations want to do as well as they can for themselves. But the key point is this:
It is not a law that they pay their employees as little as possible.
It is a choice.
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It is a choice that reveals that, regardless of what they say about how much they value their employees, regardless of what euphemism they use to describe their employees ("associate," "partner," "representative," "team-member"
, they, in fact, don't give a damn about their employees.
These senior managers and owners, after all, are earning record profits while choosing to pay their employees so little in many cases that the employees have to live in poverty.
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CHART ONE: Corporate profits and profit margins are at an all-time high. American companies are making more money and more per dollar of sales than they ever have before. Full stop. This means that the companies have oceans of cash to invest. But they're not investing it. Because they're too risk averse, profit-obsessed, and short-term greedy.
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CHART TWO: Wages as a percent of the economy are at an all-time low. Why are corporate profits so high? One reason is that companies are paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. And that, in turn, is another reason the economy is so weak. Those "wages" represent spending power for American consumers. American consumer spending is revenue for other companies. So the profit maximization obsession of American corporations is actually starving the rest of the economy of revenue growth.
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CHART FOUR: The share of our national income that American corporations are sharing with the people who do the work ("labor" is at an all-time low. The rest of our national income, naturally, is going to owners and senior managers ("capital" , who have it better today than they have ever had it before.
MORE AT LINK
Exclusive: IRS Manual Detailed DEA's Use of Hidden Intel Evidence
Source: Reuters
Exclusive: IRS manual detailed DEA's use of hidden intel evidence
By John Shiffman and David Ingram
WASHINGTON | Wed Aug 7, 2013 6:23pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Details of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for two years.
The practice of recreating the investigative trail, highly criticized by former prosecutors and defense lawyers after Reuters reported it this week, is now under review by the Justice Department. Two high-profile Republicans have also raised questions about the procedure.
A 350-word entry in the Internal Revenue Manual instructed agents of the U.S. tax agency to omit any reference to tips supplied by the DEA's Special Operations Division, especially from affidavits, court proceedings or investigative files. The entry was published and posted online in 2005 and 2006, and was removed in early 2007. The IRS is among two dozen arms of the government working with the Special Operations Division, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.
An IRS spokesman had no comment on the entry or on why it was removed from the manual. Reuters recovered the previous editions from the archives of the Westlaw legal database, which is owned by Thomson Reuters Corp, the parent of this news agency.
As Reuters reported Monday, the Special Operations Division of the DEA funnels information from overseas NSA intercepts, domestic wiretaps, informants and a large DEA database of telephone records to authorities nationwide to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. The DEA phone database is distinct from a NSA database disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9761AZ20130807
Obama Cancels Meeting with Putin in Moscow Amid Tensions Over NSA leaker Snowden
Source: Associated Press
@AP: BREAKING: Obama cancels meeting with Putin in Moscow amid tensions over NSA leaker Snowden.
Aug 7, 9:09 AM EDT
OBAMA CANCELS MEETINGS WITH PUTIN AMID TENSIONS
BY JULIE PACE
AP WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In a rare diplomatic rebuke, President Barack Obama on Wednesday canceled his Moscow summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The decision reflected both U.S. anger over Russia's harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and growing frustration within the Obama administration over what it sees as Moscow's stubbornness on other key issues, including missile defense and human rights.
Obama will still attend the Group of 20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, but a top White House official said the president had no plans to hold one-on-one talks with Putin while there. Instead of visiting Putin in Moscow, the president will add a stop in Sweden to his early September travel itinerary.
White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Russia's decision last week to defy the U.S. and grant Snowden temporary asylum only exacerbated an already troubled relationship. And with few signs that progress would be made during the Moscow summit on other agenda items, Rhodes said the president decided to cancel the talks.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_RUSSIA
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