Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Anti-Gun Protestors Target Starbucks for Upholding the Second Amendment

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 04:03 PM PST

By John Haughey, Outdoorlife.com

A nationwide boycott of Starbucks stores and its products will be launched on Valentine’s Day to eliminate “the risk of guns in public places and ultimately to bring sane gun laws to the U.S.”

This boycott is being called by the National Gun Victim’s Action Council (NGAC), a network of 14 million gun victims, and is targeting Starbucks because it allows guns and assault weapons to be openly carried in its stores in 43 states, and concealed and carried in its stores in 49 states.

“Starbucks has the legal right to ban guns but despite having been petitioned by thousands, asked at a shareholder meeting, and a direct appeal made to their Board, Starbucks clings to this policy that puts millions of Americans at risk every day and encourages the spread of guns being carried in public,” said NGAC CEO Elliot Fineman in a Jan. 23 press release circulated by the group.

Of course, such reasoning is sheer idiocy, said Seattle Guns Rights Examiner Dave Workman in a Jan. 23 Examiner.com column.

“Starbucks' sin is that the coffee giant caters to everybody, including legally-armed citizens, whether they carry openly or concealed,” Workman wrote. “Starbucks made it plain in 2010 when the Brady Campaign, assisted locally by Washington CeaseFire, that it abides by local state laws and does not discriminate against a certain class of customers. Starbucks has the legal right to serve any customer it pleases, including someone exercising his or her right to bear arms. Fineman evidently doesn't grasp that.”

To read more, visit:  http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gun-shots/2012/01/anti-gun-protestors-target-starbucks-allowing-guns

Term ‘states’ rights’ heard anew in election cycle

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:57 PM PST

From: FOXNews.com

Pop singer Kelly Clarkson wasn’t expecting such a harsh response when she tweeted her endorsement in the Republican presidential race.

“I love Ron Paul,” she wrote late last month. Later, in a radio interview, she elaborated, “He believes in states having their rights, and I think that that’s very important.”

Clarkson received hundreds of replies, some lambasting Paul and at least one suggesting that the “American Idol” winner choose her words more carefully.

In particular, two words: “states” and “rights” — which for some stir memories, even when unintended, of an era of racial injustice.

As the Republican presidential campaign has turned south, into the region that seceded from the Union 150 years ago, old debates about state and federal authority echo anew in phrases used by candidates, their supporters and the news media.

Even before the Civil War, “states’ rights” had become a byword for the protection of black slavery. And since the late Sen. Strom Thurmond ran for president in 1948 as a States’ Rights Democrat, or “Dixiecrat,” the phrase has sometimes been labeled a “dog whistle” for racist elements in the electorate.

None of that was on Clarkson’s mind. After a barrage of responses to her Dec. 29 tweet, the 29-year-old Texan told fans, “My eyes have been opened to so much hate.” And she emphasized, “I do not support racism.”

Sociologist and author John Shelton Reed, a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was not surprised that someone of Clarkson’s youth would fail to recognize the “baggage that ‘states’ rights’ carries.”

To read more, visit:  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/26/term-states-rights-heard-anew-in-election-cycle-735208469/

Critics fear Twitter’s new policy will hinder free speech

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:53 PM PST

By Jessica Guynn, stltoday.com

SAN FRANCISCO • Twitter has promoted itself as a beacon of free speech, and that image was burnished when revolutionaries used the social media service to organize protests during last year’s Arab Spring uprising.

But in what many view as an about-face, Twitter now says it has the power to block tweets in a specific country if the government legally requires it to do so, triggering outrage around the world, especially in Arab countries.

Dissidents and activists there fear the new policy will stifle free speech and thousands of users are threatening to boycott Twitter.

“Is it safe to say that Twitter is selling us out?” asked Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem.

The flood of criticism was unusual for Twitter, which drapes itself in the First Amendment. Its chief executive, Dick Costolo, refers to it as “the free speech wing of the free speech party.”

St. Louis native Jack Dorsey, who created Twitter, even named one of the conference rooms at his San Francisco company “Tahrir Square” in recognition of the pivotal role that Twitter played in the uprising in Cairo.

But Twitter, like other major Internet companies, is struggling to reconcile its philosophical opposition to censorship with the economic desire to fan out around the globe.

To read more, visit:  http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/critics-fear-twitter-s-new-policy-will-hinder-free-speech/article_73886658-a6ca-5b77-bcf0-5f1cbd176ff1.html

Boston’s simple message to GE – “Pay your ******* taxes”

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:50 PM PST

By: Chris Faraone, InfoWars.com

Everyone who met in Dewey Square this afternoon had one thing in common – whether they're an activist with MassUniting, a member of Occupy Boston, or one of the police officers assigned to chaperone today's protest. They all paid a lot more taxes than General Electric last year.

And so the group of roughly 100 pissed off people poured across Atlantic Avenue, and marched one block from Dewey to GE's Boston offices on Summer Street. Their message was simple: "Pay your fucking taxes!" They even brought an invoice for the company.

While picketers gathered outside of GE, an undercover team of six operatives – already positioned inside the building – made their way up to the executive offices. As was expected, representatives refused to speak with them – that despite MassUniting's clear argument and Mr. Monopoly tax collector top hats.

This all comes at a ripe time. MassUniting planned this and other actions against corporate tax dodgers around tax season. But it's also an interesting discussion point as Republican presidential candidates continue to talk about things like "values" and "responsibility."

Watching the worker rats walk by today's protest in their black pea coats – shaking their heads at activists, snapping cell phone pics like they're at a zoo – I got to wondering if it's okay with them that GE received more than $3 billion in tax refunds for Fiscal Year 2010.

These aren't conspiracy theories. GE employs several former U.S. Treasury officials. They lobby relentlessly for tax breaks. And unlike everyone from unemployment beneficiaries to Wesley Snipes, they're exempt from paying a dime. This should outrage everyone.

To read more, visit:  http://www.infowars.com/bostons-simple-message-to-ge-pay-your-taxes/

Treasury ups auto bailout loss estimate

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:48 PM PST

BY DAVID SHEPARDSON, DETROIT NEWS

Washington -The U.S. Treasury Department boosted its estimate of government losses in the $85 billion auto bailout by $170 million.

In the government’s latest report to Congress this month, the Treasury upped its estimate to $23.77 billion, up from $23.6 billion.

Last fall, the government dramatically boosted its forecast of losses on the rescues of General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC and their finance units from $14 billion to $23.6 billion.

Much of the increase in losses is due to the sharp decline of GM’s stock price over the last six months.

GM was trading at noon today at $24.24. It’s down 35 percent over its 52-week-high of $37.23, but the Detroit automaker has rebounded from a low set last year of $19.05.

The Treasury, which initially held a 61 percent majority stake in GM, now holds a 26.5 percent share, or 500 million shares in GM. To break even, the government would need to average $53 per share for its remaining stake.

At current prices, the government would lose more than $14 billion on its GM bailout.

To read more, visit:  http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120130/AUTO01/201300393/Treasury-ups-auto-bailout-loss-estimate?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

Government School: Six Year Old Guilty of Sexual Assault After Playing Tag

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:45 PM PST

By: Kurt Nimmo, Infowars.com

In politically correct San Francisco, a six year old boy was charged with sexual assault after playing a game of tag on the playground.

The child was accused of brushing his best friend's leg or groin while the two were playing on the playground at Lupine Hills Elementary in Hercules two months ago, according to CBS in San Francisco.

The parent of the child said his son was held in the principal's office and interrogated. The school coerced a confession from the child. He was suspended and a sexual battery charge was placed on his permanent school record, even though there is no such thing as sexual assault for a six year-old in California.

Only after the boy's parents hired a lawyer and threatened to sue did the school back down.

The case is another example of control freak public school administrators treating students like prison inmates. So-called "zero tolerance" for "sexual abuse" – from students who are too young to even know what sex or sexual abuse are – provides an excuse to lord over impressionable children and acclimate them behaviorally for years spent in the education-prison system that is public school.

School are Constitution-free zones writ large. Students around the country are subjected to searches of lockers, cars and personal possessions in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

To read more, visit:  http://www.infowars.com/government-school-six-year-old-guilty-of-sexual-assault-after-playing-tag/

Obama campaign rolls out Square mobile fundraising platform

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:42 PM PST

By BYRON TAU, Politico.com

The Obama reelection campaign is providing headquarters staff, field organizers and volunteers the ability to take campaign donations with their mobile phones.

Campaign personnel are being issued Square mobile credit card readers, allowing them to process donations with their iPhone or Android phones, a campaign official tells POLITICO. The rollout will happen nationwide, and involve staff at all levels.

The technology is a boon for canvassers and other field staff — potentially saving the campaign hundreds of hours of time processing donations, and giving field staff enormous flexibility. Moreover, it’s another good example of the power of mobile technology to streamline and automate otherwise mundane — but nevertheless important — campaign tasks.

Square has been used by a handful of local political campaigns, but the Obama campaign’s adoption is the first national political adoption of the technology.

To read more, visit:  http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/obama-campaign-rolls-out-square-mobile-fundraising-112798.html

Children’s medicines coated with brain-damaging aluminum

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:39 PM PST

By: S. D. Wells, Infowars.com

Aluminum Lake food coloring, used to heavily coat liquid medicines for children, contains dangerous amounts of aluminum and harmful synthetic petrochemicals. These "petrochemicals" are carcinogens containing petroleum, antifreeze and ammonia, which cause a long list of adverse reactions. Aluminum poisoning can lead to short and long term central nervous system (CNS) damage, such asmemory impairments, autism, epilepsy, mental retardation, and dementia.

Research shows that just 4ppm of aluminum can cause the blood to coagulate. This is what causes Alzheimer's Disease and has been documented to inhibit learning. Aluminum consumption can also be associated with the development of bone disorders, including stress fractures.

Also known as tartrazine, FD&C Yellow Aluminum Lake is a chemical concoction derived from coal tar. It is known to be a reproductive toxin. All artificial colors contain Aluminum Lake, so when your child gets to pick between red, blue or green medicine, they're really choosing which poison they get to consume. Several chemically enhanced food colorings contain ammonia and therefore produce compounds proven to cause various cancers in animal studies, according to CSPI, the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Most widely used food colors and their damaging actions:

•Blue #1: Research shows it causes kidney tumors in mice.

•Blue #2: Research shows even higher incidence of tumors, specifically gliomas in male rates (a type of tumor that starts in the brain or spine).

•Red #2: Toxic to rodents, even at modest levels, and causes tumors of the bladder.

To read more, visit  http://www.infowars.com/childrens-medicines-coated-with-brain-damaging-aluminum/

FDA staffers sue agency over surveillance of personal e-mail

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:36 PM PST

By Ellen Nakashima and Lisa Rein, The Washington Post

The Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress that the agency was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable risks to patients, government documents show.

The surveillance — detailed in e-mails and memos unearthed by six of the scientists and doctors, who filed a lawsuit against the FDA in U.S. District Court in Washington last week — took place over two years as the plaintiffs accessed their personal Gmail accounts from government computers.

Information garnered this way eventually contributed to the harassment or dismissal of all six of the FDA employees, the suit alleges. All had worked in an office responsible for reviewing devices for cancer screening and other purposes.

Copies of the e-mails show that, starting in January 2009, the FDA intercepted communications with congressional staffers and draft versions of whistleblower complaints complete with editing notes in the margins. The agency also took electronic snapshots of the computer desktops of the FDA employees and reviewed documents they saved on the hard drives of their government computers.

FDA computers post a warning, visible when users log on, that they should have "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in any data passing through or stored on the system, and that the government may intercept any such data at any time for any lawful government purpose.

But in the suit, the doctors and scientists say the government violated their constitutional privacy rights by gazing into personal e-mail accounts for the purpose of monitoring activity that they say was lawful.

To read more, visit:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fda-staffers-sue-agency-over-surveillance-of-personal-e-mail/2012/01/23/gIQAj34DbQ_story.html

Newt Gingrich the tea party favorite? Not necessarily in Florida.

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:33 PM PST

By Linda Feldmann, The Christian Science Monitor

Amid a sea of Romney supporters, there it flies: a bright yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flag, the banner of the tea party movement – at a rally Sunday in downtown Naples, Fla., for the former governor of Massachusetts.

"I know that's a contradiction," says Cheryl Blackburn, the flag-waver. "But in the last few weeks I've decided [Mitt Romney] is the one to follow. He has the integrity, and when all is said and done, he's the most electable."

No major tea party leaders are backing Mr. Romney, who is seen as too willing to compromise on conservative principles. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the candidate boasting the largest roster of tea party leaders in his camp. But the low-tax, small-government movement is highly decentralized, and among rank-and-file tea partyers, it's anything goes.

A straw poll of Florida tea party supporters taken Sunday night, following a tele-forum hosted by the Tea Party Patriots with three GOP presidential candidates, showed Mr. Gingrich ahead with 35 percent of the vote. Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania came in second with 31 percent, and Romney was third with 18 percent. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who is not campaigning in Florida and did not take part in the tele-forum, got 11 percent.

But more-scientific polls of likely Florida GOP primary voters show a different picture. A Quinnipiac poll released Monday shows Romney beating Gingrich among self-described tea party supporters, 40 percent to 35 percent (and winning among all Florida Republicans 43 percent to 29 percent). Although an NBC/Marist poll released over the weekend shows Gingrich slightly ahead of Romney among Florida tea party supporters, 36 percent to 34 percent, it also found Romney winning in Florida overall 42 percent to 27 percent.

To read more, visit:  http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Tea-Party-Tally/2012/0130/Newt-Gingrich-the-tea-party-favorite-Not-necessarily-in-Florida.-video
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