Your Morning News, Views And Conversations At The Café… 6/20/2012

Your Morning News, Views And Conversations At The Café… 6/20/2012: Al Jazerra, Citizens For Legitimate Government, Media Matters, CNN, AlterNet, OpEd. News, Dissident Voice: Democracy or Police State?, Pogo-all-investigations, The Existentialist Cowboy, Want To Know Info. http://www.wanttoknow.info/newsstories Drones Over America. Are They Spying On You? 2012-06-16, Christian Science Monitor Posted: 2012-06-19 10:59:11 http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0616/Drones-over-America.-Are-they-spying-o... Most Americans have gotten used to regular news reports about military and CIA drones attacking terrorist suspects – including US citizens – in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere abroad. But picture thousands of drone aircraft buzzing around the United States. By some government estimates, as many as 30,000 drones could be part of intelligence gathering and law enforcement here in the United States within the next ten years. Operated by agencies down to the local level, this would be in addition to the 110 current and planned drone activity sites run by the military services in 39 states, reported this week by the Federation of American Scientists, a non-government research project. Civil libertarians warn that “unmanned aircraft carrying cameras raise the prospect of a significant new avenue for the surveillance of American life,” as the American Civil Liberties Union put it in a report last December. “The technology is quickly becoming cheaper and more powerful, interest in deploying drones among police departments is increasing, and our privacy laws are not strong enough to ensure that the new technology will be used responsibly and consistently with democratic values,” reported the ACLU. “In short, all the pieces appear to be lining up for the eventual introduction of routine aerial surveillance in American life.” Note: For deeper analysis of the threats posed to American citizens by military and police drones in the skies, click here. For information on a federal recent law compelling the Federal Aviation Administration to allow drones to fly in US skies, click here. For more information on the use of drones by police in the US, click here. For lots more from reliable sources on surveillance in the US, click here. http://www.wanttoknow.info/privacynewsarticles

Do You Need A Little Humor And A Lot Of Political Laughs?

Do You Need A Little Humor And A Lot Of Political Laughs?

Your Morning News, Views And Conversations At The Cafe

Your Morning News, Views And Conversations At The Cafe The Loch Ness Monster Is Real; The KKK Is Good: The Shocking Content of Publicly Paid for Christian School Textbooks Thousands of Louisiana students will receive state voucher money, transferred from public school funding, to attend private religious schools. What will they learn there? READ MORE WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - A Senate committee chairman called on Sunday for a special counsel to investigate suspected leaks of U.S. classified information following allegations that the White House made the disclosures to boost President Barack Obama's election chances. Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's appointment on June 8 of two federal prosecutors to investigate the suspected leaks did not go far enough. "We need a special counsel because a special counsel avoids any appearance of conflict of interest," Lieberman said on "Fox News Sunday." "Special counsels - independent counsels before them - were created for situations exactly like this where people might reach a conclusion that investigators, U.S. attorneys even, working for the attorney general - who was appointed by the president - cannot independently and without bias investigate high officials of their own government." The secrets, revealed in media stories, have included reports on U.S. cyber warfare against Iran, procedures for targeting militants with drones and the existence of a double agent who penetrated a militant group in Yemen. Republicans have already demanded an outside special counsel to investigate the leaks. Lieberman is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate and usually votes with them. Holder said the investigation would be headed by U.S. Attorneys Ronald Machen Jr. of Washington and Rod Rosenstein of Maryland, who would be "fully authorized to prosecute criminal violations discovered as a result of their investigation." Senior White House adviser David Plouffe defended the Obama administration's approach in the leaks investigation. "This ought to be investigated as thoroughly as anything can and we ought to wait for the results of that investigation," Plouffe said on the same program. "There's going to be a very thorough investigation," he added. Plouffe was asked if Obama would sit down with the investigators but declined to answer. Asked if Obama had declassified the information that ended up in published reports, Plouffe said, "No, of course he didn't." The investigation by the two federal prosecutors is likely to include scrutiny of White House officials, sources have told Reuters. The issue has spilled into the presidential campaign, with some Republicans charging the leaks appear calculated to boost the Democratic president's re-election prospects on Nov. 6. Obama has said he has "zero tolerance" for these kinds of leaks. Lieberman said the leaks were "the worst in a long time" and called for stronger U.S. laws to prevent future leaks. "In my opinion, an enormous amount of damage has been done to our national security," Lieberman said. "In the case of the cyber attack on Iran ... this is the first confirmation of that. Some methods of how it was carried it out were telegraphed to the Iranians. I think there's a danger that it may legitimize an Iranian or terrorist counter-cyber attack on us." Lieberman said the leaks had also angered the operative who infiltrated Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "This will discourage people and foreign intelligence services from cooperating with us in the future," Lieberman said. (Reporting by Will Dunham, Bill Trott, David Brunnstrom and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

People Are Beginning To Ask; Has America gone mad?

People Are Beginning To Ask; Has America gone mad?

Extreme right-wingers who, ordinarily, would not get elected to the PTA are winning as the country goes into one of its periodic fits of political insanity!

Just Check Out The News In Political Pig Pen…

Let’s Raise Our Voices In Song Above The Fascist MainScream Media

 

Let’s Raise Our Voices In Song Above The Fascist  MainScream Media

"FOLLOW THE MONEY"

Massachusetts is having an election
For head of state in Massachusetts land
And the corporate powers here want no inspection
Of the money that is flowing hand to hand.
Now when Tim, Deval, & Chuck think of casinos
Their hearts go pitter, pitter, pitter, pat
And their legs take off like palominos
For casino lobby money's where it's at.

Just follow the money & you'll find your money where
Your money is like honey in the corporation lair
But if business as usual you want to redefine
Put your check on the ballot for Purcell, Fortune, and Stein.

Now if you want to burn up our trees
And give our taxes to the timber industries
Or go out on a limb for our solar and wind
Paying millions to the big utilities...

Or would you rather have real health care for all
You won't get it by voting for Deval.
A vote for Cahill, Baker, Patrick is a crime
When you can check on the ballot for Purcell, Fortune, and Stein.

Just follow the money & you'll find your money where
Your money is like honey in the corporation lair
But if Beacon Hill you want to redefine
Put your check on the ballot for Purcell, Fortune, and Stein.

They're spending 2 million bucks renting an empty building
And there's no one there working for some pay.
If we had that money in our county
Why that's 50 jobs at 40K
Why 2 million more for coca cola?
200 mil for film and insurance industries
That's 330,000 homes with solar panels
And local jobs & money for our communities.

Just follow the money & you'll find your money where
Your money is like honey in the corporation lair
But if Beacon Hill you want to redefine
Put your check on the ballot for Purcell, Fortune, and Stein.

Now Raytheon & Fidelity get tax cuts
300 million dollars every year
While all they gave us were job cuts
8,000 jobs that we could have right here.
200 million for office parks & malls

That's 5,000 teachers walkin in our halls
And why propose 9 million for that billionaire Kraft
When all we people get is the Beacon Hill shaft.

Now we're the only ones with clean elections
And we're ready for that TV debate
But we need to ask you all for small collections
So we can make the matching money date
We won't outspend the others in the race
But our money's coming from an honest place
So please show us a friendly dollar sign
And put a check in the basket for Purcell, Fortune, and Stein.

Just follow the money & you'll find your money where
Your money is like honey in the corporation lair
But if business as usual you want to redefine
Put a check in the basket for Purcell, Fortune, and Stein.
Then put a check on the ballot for Purcell, Fortune, and Stein.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZkXjhG1_BQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cgkNrtgzY8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTnVMulDTYA&feature=related