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unhappycamper
unhappycamper's Journal
unhappycamper's Journal
February 28, 2014
House Republicans Voted Against Environmental Interests 95 Percent Of The Time In 2013
2 weeks ago by Climate Progress
House Republicans voted in line with environmental interests on key environmental legislation an average of just 5 percent of the time in 2013, according to a new scorecard.
The scorecard, released each year from the League of Conservation Voters, tallied 13 Senate and 28 House votes on key energy, conservation and other environmental measures during the first session of the 113th Congress. It found that environmental voting scores for House Republicans have dropped from 17 percent in 2008 to 10 percent in 2012, and down again to 5 percent last year — a decline the LCV attributes to the influence of the Tea Party. The House GOP caucus’ score this year was the lowest they had ever received from the LCV, which has been publishing scorecards since 1970.
“The issue is that the tea party has been such a drag on the Republican party writ large,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at LCV, said on a press call Tuesday.
Senate Republicans scored an average of 17 percent, with Senate Democrats scoring a 92 percent and House Democrats scoring 87 percent on average. The report found that, in particular, freshmen Democrats were “overwhelmingly pro-environment,” with 44 out of 50 of them voting to oppose a bill that would have legislatively approved the Keystone XL pipeline, and scoring an overall average of 88 percent.
House Republicans Voted Against Environmental Interests 95 Percent Of The Time In 2013
http://sierraactivist.org/2014/02/11/house-republicans-voted-against-environmental-interests-95-percent-of-the-time-in-2013/House Republicans Voted Against Environmental Interests 95 Percent Of The Time In 2013
2 weeks ago by Climate Progress
House Republicans voted in line with environmental interests on key environmental legislation an average of just 5 percent of the time in 2013, according to a new scorecard.
The scorecard, released each year from the League of Conservation Voters, tallied 13 Senate and 28 House votes on key energy, conservation and other environmental measures during the first session of the 113th Congress. It found that environmental voting scores for House Republicans have dropped from 17 percent in 2008 to 10 percent in 2012, and down again to 5 percent last year — a decline the LCV attributes to the influence of the Tea Party. The House GOP caucus’ score this year was the lowest they had ever received from the LCV, which has been publishing scorecards since 1970.
“The issue is that the tea party has been such a drag on the Republican party writ large,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at LCV, said on a press call Tuesday.
Senate Republicans scored an average of 17 percent, with Senate Democrats scoring a 92 percent and House Democrats scoring 87 percent on average. The report found that, in particular, freshmen Democrats were “overwhelmingly pro-environment,” with 44 out of 50 of them voting to oppose a bill that would have legislatively approved the Keystone XL pipeline, and scoring an overall average of 88 percent.
February 28, 2014
The GCHQ program saved one image every five minutes from the users' feeds.
'Truly Shocking': Govt Spies Hacked into Live Webcam Chats of Millions
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Published on Thursday, February 27, 2014 by Common Dreams
The latest documents leaked to journalists by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and published Thursday in the Guardian newspaper reveal that the British GCHQ spy agency—with possible assistance from its U.S. counterpart—built and maintained a program that allowed it to tap the live webcam chats of millions of internet users with no connection to criminal or national security investigations.
With a program codenamed "Optic Nerve," the documents reveal how the agency hacked into the camera feeds of those using Yahoo! webchats, capturing both snapshots of conversations and metadata associated with the communication. As its name indicates, at least part of the program was aimed at improving the government's ability to use digital eye-recognition technology to detect and catalog online users that may or may be not be part of a criminal investigation.
"Truly shocking," were the words used by Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project, to describe the latest details about the dragnet surveillance programs of the GCHQ and the NSA, which seemed to have some knowledge of the program and may have had an active role in executing certain aspects of it.
“In a world in which there is no technological barrier to pervasive surveillance, the scope of the government’s surveillance activities must be decided by the public, not secretive spy agencies interpreting secret legal authorities," said Abdo in a statement. "This report also raises troubling questions about the NSA’s complicity in what is a massive and unprecedented violation of privacy. We need to know more about what the NSA knew, and what role it played.”
'Truly Shocking': Govt Spies Hacked into Live Webcam Chats of Millions
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/27-2The GCHQ program saved one image every five minutes from the users' feeds.
'Truly Shocking': Govt Spies Hacked into Live Webcam Chats of Millions
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Published on Thursday, February 27, 2014 by Common Dreams
The latest documents leaked to journalists by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and published Thursday in the Guardian newspaper reveal that the British GCHQ spy agency—with possible assistance from its U.S. counterpart—built and maintained a program that allowed it to tap the live webcam chats of millions of internet users with no connection to criminal or national security investigations.
With a program codenamed "Optic Nerve," the documents reveal how the agency hacked into the camera feeds of those using Yahoo! webchats, capturing both snapshots of conversations and metadata associated with the communication. As its name indicates, at least part of the program was aimed at improving the government's ability to use digital eye-recognition technology to detect and catalog online users that may or may be not be part of a criminal investigation.
"Truly shocking," were the words used by Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project, to describe the latest details about the dragnet surveillance programs of the GCHQ and the NSA, which seemed to have some knowledge of the program and may have had an active role in executing certain aspects of it.
“In a world in which there is no technological barrier to pervasive surveillance, the scope of the government’s surveillance activities must be decided by the public, not secretive spy agencies interpreting secret legal authorities," said Abdo in a statement. "This report also raises troubling questions about the NSA’s complicity in what is a massive and unprecedented violation of privacy. We need to know more about what the NSA knew, and what role it played.”
February 28, 2014
We are Hungry in Three Languages: Prelude to World War
Foreign Policy
by John Stanton | February 27, 2014 - 9:25am
On 24 February 2014 US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel held a press conference to announce some of the details of Pentagon’s 2015 budget. Beyond the news of cuts in war fighting machinery and personnel — and the pox of “irresponsible” sequestration on the federal government — Hagel made a point of indicating that the world is becoming an increasingly volatile place. He also seemed to express a bit of disgust for nation building of the type attempted by the USA in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those sentiments are directly at odds with the core element of US national and global security strategy in operation since the late 19th Century. Those strategies employ the USA’s considerable instruments of national power to: 1) actively destabilize “elected” governments (Ukraine, Venezuela) through the use of NGO’s, intelligence agencies and proxy groups; 2) prop up brutal regimes (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) through a US congressionally approved program, executed by the US military, called Foreign Internal Defense; 3) information operations conducted via the printed press, social media, radio, television and film that seek to shape the cognitive local to global environment in favor of US national interests.; and 4) existentially destroy foreign governments through direct military action in conjunction with the weaponry of finance capitalism to create new markets.
All of this is codified in one form or another in US political and military doctrine. Every American president from George Washington to Barack Obama has trumpeted in some fashion what President Obama and President Bush George W, Bush both proclaimed. The former indicated that the US will pursue its own interests no matter what any other nation on the planet thinks, even invoking God’s plan to put the care of the global environment in America’s hands. The latter put it more simply, “You are either with us or against us.” The heads of foreign governments—and their opponents– are well aware of US strategy, tactics and operations.
What Civilian Leadership?
In the middle of this sits the US Department of Defense and the military branches of the US government. While they certainly advocate for their budgetary interests, have their share of drunks, overstep the civil-military divide, and engage is occasional battlefield atrocities, the fact is that they take their guidance and instructions from American civilians who are elected and appointed to provide the guiding strategy—and funding — to which the military designs its own strategy, tactics and operations.
We are Hungry in Three Languages: Prelude to World War
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/john-stanton/54487/we-are-hungry-in-three-languages-prelude-to-world-warWe are Hungry in Three Languages: Prelude to World War
Foreign Policy
by John Stanton | February 27, 2014 - 9:25am
On 24 February 2014 US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel held a press conference to announce some of the details of Pentagon’s 2015 budget. Beyond the news of cuts in war fighting machinery and personnel — and the pox of “irresponsible” sequestration on the federal government — Hagel made a point of indicating that the world is becoming an increasingly volatile place. He also seemed to express a bit of disgust for nation building of the type attempted by the USA in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those sentiments are directly at odds with the core element of US national and global security strategy in operation since the late 19th Century. Those strategies employ the USA’s considerable instruments of national power to: 1) actively destabilize “elected” governments (Ukraine, Venezuela) through the use of NGO’s, intelligence agencies and proxy groups; 2) prop up brutal regimes (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) through a US congressionally approved program, executed by the US military, called Foreign Internal Defense; 3) information operations conducted via the printed press, social media, radio, television and film that seek to shape the cognitive local to global environment in favor of US national interests.; and 4) existentially destroy foreign governments through direct military action in conjunction with the weaponry of finance capitalism to create new markets.
All of this is codified in one form or another in US political and military doctrine. Every American president from George Washington to Barack Obama has trumpeted in some fashion what President Obama and President Bush George W, Bush both proclaimed. The former indicated that the US will pursue its own interests no matter what any other nation on the planet thinks, even invoking God’s plan to put the care of the global environment in America’s hands. The latter put it more simply, “You are either with us or against us.” The heads of foreign governments—and their opponents– are well aware of US strategy, tactics and operations.
What Civilian Leadership?
In the middle of this sits the US Department of Defense and the military branches of the US government. While they certainly advocate for their budgetary interests, have their share of drunks, overstep the civil-military divide, and engage is occasional battlefield atrocities, the fact is that they take their guidance and instructions from American civilians who are elected and appointed to provide the guiding strategy—and funding — to which the military designs its own strategy, tactics and operations.
February 28, 2014
Obama Nominates SOPA Lobbyist for TPP Trade Post
February 27, 2014
Posted at 4:30 pm by Lee Fang
This morning, President Obama nominated Robert Holleyman as deputy U.S. trade representative. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Holleyman will help lead the effort to pass the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Notably, Holleyman is a former lobbyist who led efforts to pass the Stop Online Piracy Act legislation, better known as SOPA, when he was leader of the Business Software Alliance. The SOPA debate (along with its sister legislation, PROTECT-IP, in the Senate) brought a spotlight on industry efforts to undermine Internet freedom through what many considered to be draconian intellectual property policy.
Critics have pointed out, the leaked TPP documents relating to TPP negotiations reveal that the U.S. is seeking to resurrect portions of the SOPA bill through the TPP, namely, holding Internet Service Providers liable for hosting copyright infringement and extending the copyright life of certain corporate-owned copyrights. As Washington Post blogger Henry Farrell noted, the proposed TPP provisions suggest the deal will advance intellectual property rules that “could not [be] achieved through an open democratic process.”
During the SOPA debate, Holleyman was chief executive of the Business Software Alliance, a trade group for software companies including IBM. Holleyman commended then-Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith for his work in sponsoring SOPA and for pushing for its passage. In 2012, as the bill worked its way through Congress, the BSA spent over $1.6 million on lobbying. After widespread outrage against the bill, which eventually failed, BSA withdrew official support and sought similar policy changes through other legislation.
Obama Nominates SOPA Lobbyist for TPP Trade Post
http://www.republicreport.org/2014/bsa-tpp/Obama Nominates SOPA Lobbyist for TPP Trade Post
February 27, 2014
Posted at 4:30 pm by Lee Fang
This morning, President Obama nominated Robert Holleyman as deputy U.S. trade representative. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Holleyman will help lead the effort to pass the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Notably, Holleyman is a former lobbyist who led efforts to pass the Stop Online Piracy Act legislation, better known as SOPA, when he was leader of the Business Software Alliance. The SOPA debate (along with its sister legislation, PROTECT-IP, in the Senate) brought a spotlight on industry efforts to undermine Internet freedom through what many considered to be draconian intellectual property policy.
Critics have pointed out, the leaked TPP documents relating to TPP negotiations reveal that the U.S. is seeking to resurrect portions of the SOPA bill through the TPP, namely, holding Internet Service Providers liable for hosting copyright infringement and extending the copyright life of certain corporate-owned copyrights. As Washington Post blogger Henry Farrell noted, the proposed TPP provisions suggest the deal will advance intellectual property rules that “could not [be] achieved through an open democratic process.”
During the SOPA debate, Holleyman was chief executive of the Business Software Alliance, a trade group for software companies including IBM. Holleyman commended then-Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith for his work in sponsoring SOPA and for pushing for its passage. In 2012, as the bill worked its way through Congress, the BSA spent over $1.6 million on lobbying. After widespread outrage against the bill, which eventually failed, BSA withdrew official support and sought similar policy changes through other legislation.
February 28, 2014
BREAKING: Federal Consumer Agency Sues For-Profit College ITT Tech
February 26, 2014
Posted at 12:30 pm by David Halperin
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this morning filed a civil lawsuit against for-profit college company ITT Educational Services, seeking restitution to students allegedly harmed by ITT’s private loan programs, a civil fine, and an injunction against the company. The CFPB filed its complaint in federal court in Indianapolis, near ITT’s headquarters.
UPDATE (1:15 pm): The CFPB just held a press conference to discuss the case. CFPB director Richard Cordray charged that ITT “misled students by overstating their salaries and job prospects upon graduation” and then pushed them into predatory high-interest private student loans.
Cordray called the abuse of students by the overall for-profit college industry “truly an American tragedy.” He was joined at the event by the attorneys general of Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, and New Mexico, all of whom are conducting investigations of major for-profit colleges.
Illinois AG Lisa Madigan called for-profit college business practices “indefensible.” Kentucky AG Jack Conway discussed the new investigation that thirteen state AGs have launched against Education Management Corporation, Career Education Corporation, and Corinthian Colleges, as well as ITT. He said many for-profit colleges were “more interested in getting student loan dollars than in educating students.”
BREAKING: Federal Consumer Agency Sues For-Profit College ITT Tech
http://www.republicreport.org/2014/cfpb-sues-itt/BREAKING: Federal Consumer Agency Sues For-Profit College ITT Tech
February 26, 2014
Posted at 12:30 pm by David Halperin
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this morning filed a civil lawsuit against for-profit college company ITT Educational Services, seeking restitution to students allegedly harmed by ITT’s private loan programs, a civil fine, and an injunction against the company. The CFPB filed its complaint in federal court in Indianapolis, near ITT’s headquarters.
UPDATE (1:15 pm): The CFPB just held a press conference to discuss the case. CFPB director Richard Cordray charged that ITT “misled students by overstating their salaries and job prospects upon graduation” and then pushed them into predatory high-interest private student loans.
Cordray called the abuse of students by the overall for-profit college industry “truly an American tragedy.” He was joined at the event by the attorneys general of Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, and New Mexico, all of whom are conducting investigations of major for-profit colleges.
Illinois AG Lisa Madigan called for-profit college business practices “indefensible.” Kentucky AG Jack Conway discussed the new investigation that thirteen state AGs have launched against Education Management Corporation, Career Education Corporation, and Corinthian Colleges, as well as ITT. He said many for-profit colleges were “more interested in getting student loan dollars than in educating students.”
February 28, 2014
DOJ Asks To Hang Onto Bulk Collections Longer, Citing Need To 'Preserve' Evidence It Has No Intention Of Presenting In Court
from the deck-stacking-at-its-finest dept
by Tim Cushing
Thu, Feb 27th 2014 1:36pm
The DOJ is asking the courts to extend the amount of time it can hold onto bulk metadata records. The use-by date is normally five years, but the DOJ wants more time. It's stated reason for the request is to prevent spoliation of evidence that might be needed in the several lawsuits filed against the government since the exposure of the NSA's bulk collection programs.
Some things to note: the DOJ is asking for the first FISA order of 2014 to be amended to remove the 5-year expiration date, which seems to indicate that the amendment won't affect anything previously collected. The storage limit has been five years since at least 2006, so what the DOJ is asking for is for data to be held indefinitely, for an indefinite period going forward.
Obviously, this carves a rather large hole in the NSA's (already minimal) minimization procedures. The DOJ claims the retained data will be reserved for "non-analytic" purposes, but I don't really see how the it can make that assertion, considering the NSA, at this point, still collects and stores it. Searches could be limited to five years from date of search, but this presumes a lot of an agency run by people who routinely "explore the edges of the box." (Granted, historical data tends to become less useful the older it gets, but there are hardly any limits placed on the NSA's collection abilities, so it's really not a good idea to let the government start stripping these few stipulations away.)
What's absolutely disgusting about this request is the fact that the DOJ has no interest in allowing these records to be admitted as evidence. In fact, the DOJ has already withheld this information from several defendants, effectively preventing them from discovering where the government obtained the evidence being used against them. The DOJ is talking a good game about due process, etc., but its track record shows it's willing to keep this information hidden for as long as possible.
DOJ Asks To Hang Onto Bulk Collections Longer, Citing Need To 'Preserve' Evidence It Has No Intentio
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140227/08464126374/doj-asks-to-hang-onto-bulk-collections-longer-citing-need-to-preserve-evidence-it-has-no-intention-presenting-court.shtmlDOJ Asks To Hang Onto Bulk Collections Longer, Citing Need To 'Preserve' Evidence It Has No Intention Of Presenting In Court
from the deck-stacking-at-its-finest dept
by Tim Cushing
Thu, Feb 27th 2014 1:36pm
The DOJ is asking the courts to extend the amount of time it can hold onto bulk metadata records. The use-by date is normally five years, but the DOJ wants more time. It's stated reason for the request is to prevent spoliation of evidence that might be needed in the several lawsuits filed against the government since the exposure of the NSA's bulk collection programs.
Some things to note: the DOJ is asking for the first FISA order of 2014 to be amended to remove the 5-year expiration date, which seems to indicate that the amendment won't affect anything previously collected. The storage limit has been five years since at least 2006, so what the DOJ is asking for is for data to be held indefinitely, for an indefinite period going forward.
Obviously, this carves a rather large hole in the NSA's (already minimal) minimization procedures. The DOJ claims the retained data will be reserved for "non-analytic" purposes, but I don't really see how the it can make that assertion, considering the NSA, at this point, still collects and stores it. Searches could be limited to five years from date of search, but this presumes a lot of an agency run by people who routinely "explore the edges of the box." (Granted, historical data tends to become less useful the older it gets, but there are hardly any limits placed on the NSA's collection abilities, so it's really not a good idea to let the government start stripping these few stipulations away.)
What's absolutely disgusting about this request is the fact that the DOJ has no interest in allowing these records to be admitted as evidence. In fact, the DOJ has already withheld this information from several defendants, effectively preventing them from discovering where the government obtained the evidence being used against them. The DOJ is talking a good game about due process, etc., but its track record shows it's willing to keep this information hidden for as long as possible.
February 28, 2014
Brazilian farmers struggle in fight against invasive Asian caterpillar
By Reuters
Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:09 EST
By Caroline Stauffer
SAO DESIDERIO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian farmers are battling a voracious caterpillar that likely arrived from Asia, challenging the agricultural superpower’s widely touted mastery of tropical farming just as it is on the verge of becoming the world’s top soybean producer.
The caterpillar, a variety known as helicoverpa armigera that thrives in dry heat, was spotted for the first time in the Americas on cotton farms in drought-prone western Bahia in early 2012, fuelling panic among farmers who had no idea what it was.
The caterpillar was soon in soybean fields thousands of kilometers away thanks to the long-distance flying power of its moths, consuming everything from tomatoes to sorghum.
While crop losses have thus far been limited, Brazil is now on red alert over the nation’s third major pest outbreak in 30 years. Officials have stepped up port controls, farmers are rethinking planting patterns and the hardest hit are blaming the government’s cumbersome bureaucracy for not allowing the import of pesticides that have helped control the bug in other nations.
Brazilian farmers struggle in fight against invasive Asian caterpillar
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/27/brazilian-farmers-struggle-in-fight-against-invasive-asian-caterpillar/Brazilian farmers struggle in fight against invasive Asian caterpillar
By Reuters
Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:09 EST
By Caroline Stauffer
SAO DESIDERIO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian farmers are battling a voracious caterpillar that likely arrived from Asia, challenging the agricultural superpower’s widely touted mastery of tropical farming just as it is on the verge of becoming the world’s top soybean producer.
The caterpillar, a variety known as helicoverpa armigera that thrives in dry heat, was spotted for the first time in the Americas on cotton farms in drought-prone western Bahia in early 2012, fuelling panic among farmers who had no idea what it was.
The caterpillar was soon in soybean fields thousands of kilometers away thanks to the long-distance flying power of its moths, consuming everything from tomatoes to sorghum.
While crop losses have thus far been limited, Brazil is now on red alert over the nation’s third major pest outbreak in 30 years. Officials have stepped up port controls, farmers are rethinking planting patterns and the hardest hit are blaming the government’s cumbersome bureaucracy for not allowing the import of pesticides that have helped control the bug in other nations.
February 28, 2014
Ugandan government shrugs off aid cuts over anti-LGBT law
By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, February 27, 2014 21:52 EST
Uganda has shrugged off foreign aid cuts and international criticism of its tough new anti-gay law, saying it could do without Western aid.
“The West can keep their ‘aid’ to Uganda over homos, we shall still develop without it,” government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a message on Twitter.
Hours later the World Bank stalled a $90 million loan planned to help Uganda strengthen its health care system.
“We have postponed the project for further review to ensure that the development objectives would not be adversely affected by the enactment of this new law,” a spokesman for the global poverty lender said.
Ugandan government shrugs off aid cuts over anti-LGBT law
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/27/ugandan-government-shrugs-off-aid-cuts-over-anti-lgbt-law/Ugandan government shrugs off aid cuts over anti-LGBT law
By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, February 27, 2014 21:52 EST
Uganda has shrugged off foreign aid cuts and international criticism of its tough new anti-gay law, saying it could do without Western aid.
“The West can keep their ‘aid’ to Uganda over homos, we shall still develop without it,” government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a message on Twitter.
Hours later the World Bank stalled a $90 million loan planned to help Uganda strengthen its health care system.
“We have postponed the project for further review to ensure that the development objectives would not be adversely affected by the enactment of this new law,” a spokesman for the global poverty lender said.
February 28, 2014
Indianapolis cops must allow themselves to be filmed in public after $200,000 settlement
By Arturo Garcia
Thursday, February 27, 2014 18:43 EST
Police in Indianapolis will now be required to allow members of the public to film them while they are performing their duties, as part of a settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit against them, the Indiana Lawyer reported on Thursday.
The settlement also awards $200,000 to Willie King, who accused police of false arrest and malicious prosecution after forcefully arresting him during a February 2011 encounter. At the time, King was filming police with his phone from a neighbor’s front porch after spotting them handcuffing another man.
An officer then ordered King to hand the phone over. When King refused, the officer tackled him to the ground and confiscated his phone. King was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public intoxication.
“Willie King was wronged when the officers stopped his videotaping and took away his cellphone,” King’s attorney, Richard Waples, was quoted as saying. “We want to make sure that in the future police officers understand that people have the right to video record their actions.”
Indianapolis cops must allow themselves to be filmed in public after $200,000 settlement
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/27/indianapolis-cops-must-allow-themselves-to-be-filmed-in-public-after-200000-settlement/Indianapolis cops must allow themselves to be filmed in public after $200,000 settlement
By Arturo Garcia
Thursday, February 27, 2014 18:43 EST
Police in Indianapolis will now be required to allow members of the public to film them while they are performing their duties, as part of a settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit against them, the Indiana Lawyer reported on Thursday.
The settlement also awards $200,000 to Willie King, who accused police of false arrest and malicious prosecution after forcefully arresting him during a February 2011 encounter. At the time, King was filming police with his phone from a neighbor’s front porch after spotting them handcuffing another man.
An officer then ordered King to hand the phone over. When King refused, the officer tackled him to the ground and confiscated his phone. King was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public intoxication.
“Willie King was wronged when the officers stopped his videotaping and took away his cellphone,” King’s attorney, Richard Waples, was quoted as saying. “We want to make sure that in the future police officers understand that people have the right to video record their actions.”
February 27, 2014
HASC Seapower chairman Randy Forbes (R-VA).
Forbes Begins Push For HASC Chair; Calls For New ‘Leadership’
By Colin Clark
on February 27, 2014 at 8:32 AM
WASHINGTON: Rep. Randy Forbes will, for now, deny that he is positioning himself for the coming battle for chairman of the biggest committee in Congress, House Armed Services, fondly known as the HASC.
But Forbes, one of three committee members regularly mentioned as having a good shot at the job, is clearly beginning to position himself for the November or December meetings of the House leadership where the chairmanship will be decided. He may deny it, but it certainly looked like Forbes began his pitch Tuesday, calling for new congressional “leadership” on defense and national security issues.
“We are going to have to have a new future congressional leadership,” he declared at yesterday’s Credit Suisse defense conference organized by Jim McAleese. When I asked him if he was quietly declaring himself for the position of HASC chairman, he artfully stepped right (where else could he go?), declared the current chairman would agree with most of his policy points and took a few shots at Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat any GOP member of the House can agree to dislike.
Pointing to the dysfunctional, gridlocked, almost useless state of Congress (my words, not his), he said: “We used to have people on the left who didn’t want to pay for defense. Now, I’ve got people on the right who don’t want to spend anything on defense.” To a vigorous defender of defense spending and America’s global presence that is not good. What really worried him wasn’t so much those policy positions as that “the debate doesn’t occur” any more over how much to spend, let alone what to spend it on.
Forbes Begins Push For HASC Chair; Calls For New ‘Leadership’
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/02/forbes-begins-push-for-hasc-chair-calls-for-new-leadership/HASC Seapower chairman Randy Forbes (R-VA).
Forbes Begins Push For HASC Chair; Calls For New ‘Leadership’
By Colin Clark
on February 27, 2014 at 8:32 AM
WASHINGTON: Rep. Randy Forbes will, for now, deny that he is positioning himself for the coming battle for chairman of the biggest committee in Congress, House Armed Services, fondly known as the HASC.
But Forbes, one of three committee members regularly mentioned as having a good shot at the job, is clearly beginning to position himself for the November or December meetings of the House leadership where the chairmanship will be decided. He may deny it, but it certainly looked like Forbes began his pitch Tuesday, calling for new congressional “leadership” on defense and national security issues.
“We are going to have to have a new future congressional leadership,” he declared at yesterday’s Credit Suisse defense conference organized by Jim McAleese. When I asked him if he was quietly declaring himself for the position of HASC chairman, he artfully stepped right (where else could he go?), declared the current chairman would agree with most of his policy points and took a few shots at Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat any GOP member of the House can agree to dislike.
Pointing to the dysfunctional, gridlocked, almost useless state of Congress (my words, not his), he said: “We used to have people on the left who didn’t want to pay for defense. Now, I’ve got people on the right who don’t want to spend anything on defense.” To a vigorous defender of defense spending and America’s global presence that is not good. What really worried him wasn’t so much those policy positions as that “the debate doesn’t occur” any more over how much to spend, let alone what to spend it on.
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