Tuesday, 16th March 2010

Osama bin Laden will never face US trial

Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, War Coverage

Osama bin Laden will never face US trial

Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress on Tuesday that Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive.
In testy exchanges with House Republicans, the attorney general compared terrorists to mass murderer Charles Manson and predicted that events would ensure “we will be reading Miranda rights to [...]

Israeli settlement action ‘an insult’

Posted on 14. Mar, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Israel & Jewish Issues, Politics, Rob Belatucadros

Israel’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem was not only an “insult” to the United States but “destructive” of the Middle East peace process, a top White House official said Sunday.
“This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace [...]

Global Health Initiative: Abortion a Non-Issue

Posted on 13. Mar, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Health, Politics, Rob Belatucadros

Global Health Initiative: Abortion a Non-Issue

UNITED NATIONS – A U.N. meeting to assess progress in advancing the fight for women’s equality that ended Friday had a dramatically different slant than a similar session held five years ago: This time, the United States was not trying to make an anti-abortion declaration a crucial theme.
Much of the 2005 meeting to take stock [...]

Evil Instrument of Control

Posted on 12. Mar, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Immigration, Politics, Rob Belatucadros

First, here’s Ron Paul to explain the card.
 
Once a card is instituted into the system, card creep will begin. It will begin to be used for other purposes. First, what they will do is mark the easy ones, sex offenders and those found guilty of domestic violence. Then they’ll do those who have a DUI [...]

Accounting Sleight of Hand

Posted on 12. Mar, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Business & Finance, Economy, Politics, Rob Belatucadros

It is the Wall Street equivalent of a coroner’s report — a 2,200-page document that lays out, in new and startling detail, how Lehman Brothers used accounting sleight of hand to conceal the bad investments that led to its undoing.
The report, compiled by an examiner for the bank, now bankrupt, hit Wall Street with a [...]

Wyoming Legislature Passes the Firearms Freedom Act

Posted on 05. Mar, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Gun Control, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Wyoming Legislature Passes the Firearms Freedom Act

Today, on its 3rd reading, the Wyoming Senate passed HB95, the Firearms Freedom Act, by a vote of 30–0. (h/t Kristy Tyrney, Wyoming10A.org)
The bill states:
A personal firearm, a firearm action or receiver, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in the state to be used or sold within the state is [...]

Voluntary, Involuntary is the choice really yours?

Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Commentary, Health, Rob Belatucadros, Science and Technology

Voluntary, Involuntary is the choice really yours?

London, England (LifeNews.com) — A British “ethicist” says doctors in England are already killing patients even though the British House of Lords [...]

Ancient Greenland Gene Map Has a Surprise

Posted on 11. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Rob Belatucadros, Science and Technology, Top Stories

Ancient Greenland Gene Map Has a Surprise

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have sequenced the DNA from four frozen hairs of a Greenlander who died 4,000 years ago in a study they say takes genetic technology into several new realms.
Surprisingly, the long-dead man appears to have originated in Siberia and is unrelated to modern Greenlanders, Morten Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen and [...]

Former Texas Rep. Charlie Wilson dies at 76

Posted on 10. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Politics, Real History, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Former Texas Rep. Charlie Wilson dies at 76

DALLAS – Charlie Wilson, the former congressman from Texas whose funding of Afghanistan’s resistance to the Soviet Union was chronicled in the movie and book “Charlie Wilson’s War,” died Wednesday. He was 76.
Wilson died at Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin after he started having difficulty breathing while attending a meeting in the eastern Texas town where he [...]

New Credit Card Fees Coming

Posted on 10. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Economy, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

With new regulations starting in less than a month, you may need to take stock of your credit card portfolio to determine which cards’ terms are changing to your benefit and which feature changes that can hit you in the wallet.
The most important thing to do, says Lauren Bowne, staff attorney at San Francisco-based Consumers [...]

Least-Trusted Banks in America

Posted on 10. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Economy, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Least-Trusted Banks in America

The bottom seven of this year’s rankings, first to last, are Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, TD/Commerce, Fifth Third, Citibank, and in last place, HSBC.
Among Bank of America customers, 33 percent agreed with the statement above, while 31 percent of Chase customers agreed, 29 percent of Capital One customers agreed, 28 percent of TD/Commerce [...]

“They Just Want the Aid”

Posted on 10. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

“They Just Want the Aid”

“I personally think that a lot of information being given to the public by the government is estimates,” said Haiti’s chief epidemiologist, Dr. Roc Magloire.
Many citizens are even more cynical, accusing the government of inflating the numbers to attract foreign aid and to take the spotlight off its own lackluster response to the disaster.
“Nobody knows [...]

Rebuilding a Nation of Independent Riflemen

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Gun Control, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Rebuilding a Nation of Independent Riflemen

I’ve been hearing for years from friends I respect about the Appleseed Project, which is a two-day weekend program (though you can get a lot out of just one day) that teaches dual lessons of American History and riflery. The history focuses on April 19, 1775 and the events that surrounded “the shot heard ’round [...]

Will Germany Secede From the Euro

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Europe News, Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Will Germany Secede From the Euro

Germany faces a terrible dilemma. Either Europe’s paymaster agrees to underwrite a Greek bail-out and drops its vehement opposition to a de facto EU economic government, treasury, and debt union, or the euro will start to unravel, and with it Germany’s strategic investment in the post-war order.
The spike in yields on 10-year Greek bonds [...]

Scientist convicted of trying to kill Americans

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Israel & Jewish Issues, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Scientist convicted of trying to kill Americans

“This is a verdict coming from Israel, not America.” Well one would  have to wonder if she is right.
NEW YORK – A U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist was convicted Wednesday of charges that she tried to kill Americans while detained in Afghanistan in 2008, shouting with raised arm as jurors left the courtroom: “This is a [...]

Breaking Down Obama’s Budget

Posted on 02. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Economy, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Perhaps the most obvious of financial truisms is that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all national budget. And with the economic forecast looking more incoherent than ever, it’s also the most problematic of truisms for President Barack Obama and his $3.8 trillion spending plan for 2011.
On the one hand, the economy is stumbling back [...]

Appalachia Drilling Risks

Posted on 02. Feb, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Business & Finance, Health, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Appalachia Drilling Risks

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A drilling technique that is beginning to unlock staggering quantities of natural gas underneath Appalachia also yields a troubling byproduct: powerfully briny wastewater that can kill fish and give tap water a foul taste and odor.
With fortunes, water quality and cheap energy hanging in the balance, exploration companies, scientists and entrepreneurs are [...]

Banks Shut in Fla., Mo., NM, Ore., Wash.

Posted on 24. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Economy, Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Banks Shut in Fla., Mo., NM, Ore., Wash.

  WASHINGTON (AP) – Regulators shut down banks Friday in Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, bringing to nine the number of bank failures so far in 2010, following 140 closures last year in the toughest economic environment since the Great Depression.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the five banks: Charter Bank, based [...]

There Is No Freedom of Choice in America

Posted on 23. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

We have no freedom of choice in America; it’s an illusion. The federal and state governments regulate every single market in this country which means that everything any American thinks he is freely choosing is something that in fact has been “approved” by the state for American consumption and Americans may only “choose” from that [...]

Offend Obama?

Posted on 23. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Free Speech, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

One of the most intense controversies of the Bush years was the administration’s indefinite imprisoning of “War on Terror” detainees without charges of any kind.  So absolute was the consensus among progressives and Democrats against this policy that a well-worn slogan was invented to object:  a “legal black hole.”  Liberal editorial pages routinely cited the refusal to charge [...]

After ‘CIA Coup,’ Agency ‘Runs Military’

Posted on 23. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Audio-Video, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

The murdering, lying, drug-dealing, secret spending, war-starting agency must go.
US House Rep. Ron Paul says the CIA has in effect carried out a “coup” against the US government, and the intelligence agency needs to be “taken out.”
Speaking to an audience of like-minded libertarians at a Campaign for Liberty regional conference in Atlanta this past weekend, [...]

Biden: US to appeal dismissal of Blackwater case

Posted on 23. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories, War Coverage

BAGHDAD – The U.S. will appeal a court decision dismissing manslaughter charges against five Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday.
Biden’s announcement after a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows just how diplomatically sensitive the incident remains nearly three years later. A lawyer for [...]

Racist Camera Explained

Posted on 22. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Race, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Racist Camera Explained

This is just to funny.
When Joz Wang and her brother bought their mom a Nikon Coolpix S630 digital camera for Mother’s Day last year, they discovered what seemed to be a malfunction. Every time they took a portrait of each other smiling, a message flashed across the screen asking, “Did someone blink?” No one had. [...]

Obama Wants Record $708 Billion For Wars

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Audio-Video, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories, War Coverage

Wasn’t really surprised when I seen the headline, thought it hypocritical but wasn’t surprised. I remembered him, during his campaign saying how when he got in office, he was going to end the wars. Now here he is asking for more money to keep them going. This again is not my issue with this article. [...]

States’ Rights Protesters Rally for Change at Capitol

Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

States’ Rights Protesters Rally for Change at Capitol

Al Hays said he was a longtime Republican Party precinct chair in the Houston area, cheerleading for Gov. Rick Perry and the state’s GOP leadership.
No more.
On Saturday, Hays drove to Austin to join more than 600 fellow Texans at a grass-roots State’s Rights Rally on the Capitol grounds that roused more than two hours of [...]

Customs Wants Your Laptop, Too…

Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

U.S. customs authorities have assigned themselves the authority to copy all data on your laptop or other electronic device when you cross a U.S. border. I wrote about this policy last year.
Now, customs authorities in Canada (and other countries, especially the U.K.) are getting into the act. I’ve received reports from several sources (among [...]

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe – “That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that [...]

Ex-housekeeper alleges abuse by Israeli PM’s wife

Posted on 17. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Hidden Crimes, Israel & Jewish Issues, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

Ex-housekeeper alleges abuse by Israeli PM’s wife

Sara Netanyahu, a former flight attendant who is now a practicing psychologist, also stirred during her husband’s first term as prime minister from 1996 to 1999. She came under fire several times for squabbling with her staff, flaunting her young children in public and meddling in state affairs. Among the scandals, she was accused of [...]

The Need to Strengthen Catholic-Jewish Relations.

Posted on 17. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Religion, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

The Need to Strengthen Catholic-Jewish Relations.

Several prominent Jews had said they would boycott, but Benedict received warm applause throughout the 90-minute visit. The temple sits in the Old Jewish Ghetto, the Rome neighborhood near the Tiber where for hundreds of years Jews were confined under the orders of a 16th century pope.
Relations between Jews and the Vatican have at times [...]

Wall Street to Pay Record $145B in Bonuses

Posted on 16. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Business & Finance, Economy, Rob Belatucadros

Wall Street to Pay Record $145B in Bonuses

To be sure, the banks are on track to post a year of record revenue — $449.6 billion, according to The Journal – but critics say that’s thanks largely to the Federal Reserve’s easy money policies and other government programs designed to support the banking system after the near collapse and bailouts of 2008.
2009 “was [...]

Credit-card firms profit from Haiti donations

Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Economy, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

As a massive human tragedy unfolds in Haiti, relief organizations are soliciting credit-card donations through their hotlines and websites. About 97 percent of these donations will actually make it to the designated organizations — but the other 3 percent will be skimmed off by banks and credit card companies to cover their “transaction costs.”
Thanks to [...]

Obama: ‘We want our money back’

Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Economy, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama told banks Thursday they should pay a new tax to recoup the cost of bailing out foundering firms at the height of the financial crisis. “We want our money back,” he said.
In a brief appearance with advisers at the White House, Obama branded the latest round of bank bonuses [...]

The Coming Food Shortage

Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Economy, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

The Coming Food Shortage

Global food prices are rising again with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food price index hitting 168 points in November, the fourth consecutive month of increase and the highest since September 2008.
While this is still about 21 per cent lower than the most recent peak in June 2008 when the index hit [...]

CO2 Emissions Irrelevant in Earth’s Climate

Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Science and Technology, Top Stories

CO2 Emissions Irrelevant in Earth’s Climate

For years now, we have been told that science is dedicatedly attempting to find out how the Earth’s Climate works. With all possible seriousness, the most publically vocal of these scientists, those working for the UN’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), have for the last several years blamed the warming they “found” on Carbon [...]

CIA Drives Reporter to ‘Suicide’

Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories

CIA Drives Reporter to ‘Suicide’

Five years ago, a tragedy occurred in American journalism: Investigative reporter Gary Webb – who had been ostracized by his own colleagues for forcing a spotlight back onto an ugly government scandal they wanted to ignore – was driven to commit suicide. But the tragedy had a deeper meaning.
Webb’s death on the night of Dec. [...]