Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Neighbors Spying on You? New Program Spreading Across the US Takes Neighborhood Watch to Scary New Level

Suspicious Activity Reporting asks citizens to keep an eye out on their neighbors -- but the results could be terrible.

March 31, 2012

Crime in Los Angeles is a gritty enterprise, and donning an LAPD badge has historically involved getting your hands dirty. Long before the New York Police Department was spying on Muslim students, the LAPD was running a large-scale domestic spy operation in the 1970s and ’80s, snooping on and infiltrating more than 200 political, labor and civic organizations including the office of then Mayor Tom Bradley. Today, the LAPD isn’t quite so aggressive, but it still employs a directive titled Special Order 1, which permits police officers to deem what is “suspicious” and then act on it.


Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Everett Collection

SO 1 enables LAPD officers to file Suspicious Activity Reports on observed behaviors or activities. Where things get murky, however, is how SAR guidelines categorize constitutionally protected, non-criminal and commonplace activities such as using binoculars, snapping photographs and taking notes as indicators of terrorism-related activity. The SARs are coupled with the LAPD’s iWatch program, a campaign the police pioneered to encourage regular citizens to report “suspicious” activity, including “a person wearing clothes that are too big or too hot for the weather,” or things that just plain old don’t “look right.”

Far from being merely a local phenomenon, the standardized program that the LAPD developed in 2008 served as the lead model for a National Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative. “Success” stories from the LAPD’s program are used in national training material, and the LAPD touts it as “the first program in the U.S. to create a national standard” for terrorism-related procedures.

According to the Information Sharing Environment, the nationwide SAR initiative “establishes a standardized process whereby SAR information can be shared among agencies to help detect and prevent terrorism-related criminal activity.” Personal data that is collected on these individuals is treated as criminal intelligence. The rapidly expanding and dangerously intrusive network houses personal data on thousands of Americans. “The level and the rate at which local law enforcement is expanding its intelligence-gathering activity is very alarming,” said Ameena Mirza Qazi, deputy executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-LA. “We as community advocacy groups hope to continue to work with law enforcement and encourage them to maintain their community policing models working with communities to identify criminal behavior.”

The SAR program’s broad reach extends into every level of the security hierarchy, from citizen policing to federal intelligence agencies. The Minnesota Joint Analysis Center, one of the nation’s 72 “fusion” centers — information-sharing centers created by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security — is where the SAR report on Najam Qureshi, as well as thousands of others, found its final destination. Qureshi was a kiosk owner at the Mall of America, where security guards stop and question, on average, up to 1,200 people each year. He was questioned by guards and later visited by the FBI at home after his 70-year-old father negligently left his cellphone at a table in the mall’s food court in 2007. The FBI prodded Qureshi and his family, asking “how many people they knew in Afghanistan” and if “they knew anyone who might want to hurt the United States.”

“The problem with this program is that the behavior range of what can be reported is so broad that it just lends itself to discriminatory application,” said Jumana Musa, deputy director of Rights Working Group, an advocacy group based in Washington. “When it comes to these innocuous activities, what people are reporting on is not necessarily the activity, but who is doing the activity.”

As a counter-terrorism initiative, the SAR program is already in place in major cities like Boston, Miami and Seattle, and is in the process of being rolled out across the nation by September of this year. The Los Angeles model gives citizens in other places an idea of what they can expect. Between 2008 and 2010, the LAPD shared 2,668 SARs with the local fusion center, which only uploaded 2 percent of them to the database — meaning that the majority of the reports did not have a reasonable indication of criminal activity. Though only a fraction were used by the fusion center, the LAPD retained the remaining 98 percent of its SARs in intelligence files, even though they did not serve as evidence of crime.

This is in stark contrast to former LAPD policy, which mandated that any intel amassed to follow a lead had to be destroyed if reasonable suspicion of criminal activity hadn’t been established. “This is such a drain of resources when there are real crime threats out there where these resources could much better be utilized,” said Michael German, a former FBI agent and currently the policy counsel on national security, immigration and privacy at ACLU National. “The real problem with these systems is that they encourage and cause waste and drive resources away from legitimate investigations.”

According to an independent analysis conducted by the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions in April 2011, analysts “also expressed a desire to obtain feedback on SARs reported to federal agencies on whether the SARs did, in fact, constitute genuine threats; such feedback reportedly occurs rarely, if ever.” The report also found that the majority of thwarted terrorism plots came from investigations into criminal activity as opposed to intelligence gathering. “They’ve created this expensive, and resource-intensive system that has a huge impact on innocent people’s privacy,” said German. “And yet there is no science showing that this is an effective way of going about law enforcement or intelligence gathering.”

The most alarming feature of LAPD’s Special Order 1 is the vague language that lowers the threshold for what can be considered “suspicious,” and does not even meet the already soft federal standards that require “articulable facts and circumstances that [are] … indicative of criminal activity associated with terrorism.” Special Order 1 only requires “articulable facts and circumstances that [are] … reasonably indicative of suspicious activity associated with terrorism.” That single word removes a citizen’s safeguards from harassment, eliminates the requirement of probable cause, and encourages officers to investigate non-criminal activity.

“In using different language, it opens the door to somebody saying this is a lower standard,” said German. “What we’re seeing is a lot of people being stopped, harassed, even arrested for doing no more than taking a photograph.” In some cases, police counter-terrorism training has been proven to be blatantly Islamophobic or hyperbolic at the least, which can color an officer’s perception of a “suspicious” threat.

Take, for example, an incident that transpired in December 2009 in Henderson, Nev. An observant bystander called the police to notify them of a suspicious scene — seven Muslim men were praying in a gas-station parking lot. Praying in a public space is a constitutionally protected activity, and though no illegal conduct was described in the tip, the Henderson Police officers detained the seven Muslims for approximately 40 minutes and searched their vehicle. In a recording of the incident, a police officer expresses that he doesn’t know what they could be praying about and suggests that they could be chanting, “I want to kill a police officer today.” The officers later said that “they were not trained well enough to know how to appropriately respond to Muslim religious behavior.”

With recent revelations about the NYPD’s actions, civil liberties groups are concerned that vague criteria provided in SAR policies puts a bull’s-eye on the Muslim American community. “The program absolutely targets the Muslim community,” said Musa. “But I think the issue is that it could really target any community, it depends on what the threat is that people decide they are looking at.”

Uzma Kolsy is an activist and freelance writer based in Southern California. She is the former Managing Editor of InFocus News, the largest newspaper in California serving the Muslim American community.




Tornadoes reported near Dallas-Fort Worth area

April 3, 2012 02:33 PM EST |

BURLESON, Texas — The National Weather Service says tornadoes have touched down in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and there is at least one report of damage.

Weather service advisories issued Tuesday said storm spotters and radar revealed separate tornadoes south of Dallas and Fort Worth. The weather service says the tornado south of Fort Worth caused "considerable damage" near Cleburne.

Local television footage shows a large funnel cloud on the ground near Interstate 35 south of Dallas. The weather service says the "large and extremely dangerous" tornado was near Lancaster about 20 miles south of Dallas and moving north.

The weather service is also reporting other developing tornadoes as a band of severe storms moves through the area.

A tornado watch is in effect for most of the counties in north Texas.






Hague 'court of last resort,' SNAP chief says

Published: 4/3/2012

Filing is topic at UT panel discussion
BY DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR



Barbara Blaine, founder of SNAP, speaks at the panel discussion as David Beckwith, left, Benjamin Davis, and Pam Spees listen. Ms. Blaine said her group expects a finding that the Pope and three other high-ranking Vatican officials were responsible for crimes committed by their subordinates. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT

It was only after two decades of frustration battling the Catholic Church on behalf of victims of clerical sexual abuse, Barbara Blaine said, that she and SNAP decided to take their case to "a court of last resort": the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands.

Ms. Blaine, a Toledo native and lawyer who is founder and president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, explained the reasoning behind the filing in a panel discussion Monday at the University of Toledo College of Law.

Ultimately, the filing's goals are to prevent more children from being sexually abused by priests and to encourage victims of abuse to step forward and be counted, Ms. Blaine said. After SNAP filed with the court in September, more than 600 people from 65 nations have contacted the victims-advocacy group saying they were abused by priests, she said.

Also participating in Monday's panel discussion, sponsored by the law school and its International Law Society, were Pam Spees, senior staff attorney of the International Human Rights Program, Center for Constitutional Rights, and David Beckwith, executive director of the Needmor Fund. Benjamin Davis, who teaches international law at UT, was moderator.

The International Criminal Court treaty was adopted in 1998 and took effect in 2002, with more than 120 nations now party to it, Ms. Spees said. Although the court's jurisdiction dates to 2002, evidence from prior cases was included in the 22,000 pages of documents filed in support of SNAP's 85-page complaint, seeking to prove that sexual abuse of minors by priests was "systematic and widespread," she said.

A key component of the court treaty is that it "removed immunities for officials or heads of state that normally blocked their prosecution in domestic jurisdictions," Ms. Spees said.

If the evidence warrants, the court has the authority to arrest Pope Benedict XVI and charge him with crimes against humanity, Ms. Spees said. But none of the panelists said he or she expects the Pontiff to be led out of the Vatican in handcuffs, which would require not only legal proof but also political will.

They do expect their complaint to result in proof that the Pope and three other high-ranking Vatican officials -- Cardinals Angelo Sodano, Tarcisio Bertone, and William Levada -- were responsible for crimes committed by people who were under their authority and control and within the court's jurisdiction.

Mr. Beckwith, a community organizer for 40 years, said church officials will be held accountable "only if we tell, and we persist, and we hold them accountable."

The court has jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, including rape and sexual violence.

The court's Article 28 states: "The superior either knew, or consciously disregarded information which clearly indicated that the subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes," and that "the superior failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution."

SNAP's complaint contends that Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger prior to his 2005 election to the papacy, "had direct involvement in cases which directly placed other children at risk," Ms. Spees said.

The complaint claims that bishops did not respond on their own to allegations of clerical sexual abuse of minors but followed Vatican policy by shifting abusive priests to other parishes, obstructing justice, destroying evidence, and refusing to cooperate with civil authorities.

Those actions happened "everywhere the church has a presence," Ms. Spees said.

Ms. Blaine said the abuse crisis is far from over, citing a trial now under way in Philadelphia in which a Catholic monsignor is charged with failure to protect children from abuse.

SNAP spent two years preparing its complaint, Ms. Blaine said. There is no timeline for the court to act, and the Vatican is not required to file a response. The court's next significant step is to decide whether to pursue an investigation.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, based in New York, is representing SNAP in the International Criminal Court for no charge, Ms. Blaine said.

Contact David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154 .




Monday, April 02, 2012

I'm Marrying a Preacher Man!


4/2/2012 1:03 PM PDT BY TMZ STAFF
'CALIFORNICATION' HOTTIE
I'm Marrying a Preacher Man!

Lingerie-wearing "Californication" actress Meagan Good has decided to take on a more heavenly role -- TMZ has learned ... she's now engaged to her preacher BF.

Meagan's rep tells TMZ, 30-year-old Good recently got engaged to DeVon Franklin -- an exec at Sony Pictures Entertainment who leads a double life as a 7th Day Adventist preacher.

A little rundown on your typical 7th Day Adventist -- he takes the Bible pretty literally, practices Sabbath on Saturday, doesn’t eat pork and frowns upon alcohol ... not that there's anything wrong with that.

According to Meagan's rep, the preacher proposed last month in L.A, but the couple has known each other for years. They began dating just after production wrapped on "Jumping the Broom" ... which Meagan starred in, and DeVon produced.

No date yet for the wedding ... but an open bar is probably out.


Source


6.3 magnitude quake strikes southern Mexico

Apr 02, 2012


By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY
Updated 1h 50m ago

A magnitude-6.3 earthquake struck southern Mexico today in an area hard hit by a quake two weeks ago.

The jolt was felt in Mexico City, but there were no reports of injuries or major damage.

Update at 2:13 p.m. ET: Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said via Twitter that no major damage had been reported by a helicopter flight of the city, the AP reports.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the epicenter was in southern Mexico near the border of Guerrero and Oaxaca states, very close to the epicenter of a strong quake nearly two weeks ago. At least two people died in the earlier quake.

Update at 1:55 p.m. ET: The U.S. Geological Service says the quake struck in the Oaxaca region, 111 miles east southeast of Acapulco at a depth of 12 miles.




Five dead in shooting at Oakland university; suspect arrested in Alameda

By Harry Harris, Oakland Tribune
Posted: 04/02/2012 11:09:03 AM PDT
Updated: 04/02/2012 01:40:34 PM PDT

This image taken with a cell phone shows the early moments of the scene outside of Oikos University in Oakland, Calif., Monday, April 2, 2012. Police surrounded the Christian university in search of a gunman who reportedly opened fire Monday morning, killing at least five people, authorities said. (AP Photo/San Francisco Chronicle, Demian Bulwa) (Demian Bulwa / AP Photo / San Francisco Chronicle)


OAKLAND -- Five people have been killed and several hurt in a shooting this morning at a Christian university in East Oakland, authorities said.

Police would not confirm the total number of casualties from the shooting at Oikos University on Edgewater Drive, but said that a suspect had been arrested at Alameda's South Shore Center.

People were evacuated by armored vehicles from the building at 7850 Edgewater Drive, some taken away by ambulance. More were being triaged outside the building and Oakland's Highland Hospital reports that four victims the the shooting were treated there.

The shooting happened about 10:23 a.m. in a classroom at Oikos University, when the suspect came in and fired multiple shots, police said.

The school offers degrees in religious, musical and nursing fields, according to its website.
Pastor Jong Kim, who founded the school about 10 years ago, said the shooter had previously been a nursing student at Oikos but was no longer enrolled. He was unsure whether the shooter had been expelled or dropped out voluntarily.

Kim did not see the shooting but heard about 30 gunshots. "I stayed in my office," he said, imitating the sound of rapid shots.

Students panicked and ran from the building when the shooting started, said Nam Gong Kyun, a 52-year-old English student from Korea.

Some witnesses outside the school when it happened said that a victim who had fled the building told them the shooter was in the classroom, stood up and shot another student in the chest, and then opened fire on the rest of the classroom.

Students and teachers throughout the building heard the shots, said Lucas Garcia, who has taught English at Oikos for three years.

"We heard many gunshots," he said. "Everybody was scared, obviously."
Check back for updates.




Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.



Revelation 18

1And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

2And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

4And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

5For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

7How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

8Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

9And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

10Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

11And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

12The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

13And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

14And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

15The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

16And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

17For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

18And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

19And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

20Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

21And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

22And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

3And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

24And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
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UK Government wants access to emails, texts and web use

Snooping bill proposed

By Dave Neal
Mon Apr 02 2012, 10:17


THE AUTHORITARIAN UK Government wants access to all emails, text messages and internet use and will propose sweeping snooping powers in legislation to give it that soon.

The bill will be announced during the Queen's speech and will give crime busting agencies like GCHQ, the government's central intelligence *cough* spying agency, MI5, the police and who knows else access to all of the emails, text messages and internet histories of everyone in the UK.

The Home Office claims that the legislation is necessary to "obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public."

"We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes," said a spokesperson.

Accessible data will include the "time, duration and dialling numbers of a phone call, or an email address, but not the content of the phone call or email," it added. The spokesman said that the Government does not plan to make changes to the existing legal basis for the interception of communications.

"As set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review we will legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows to ensure that the use of communications data is compatible with the Government's approach to civil liberties," it said.

Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties organisation, has already condemned the proposals and sniffed at their timing,

"This is an unprecedented step that will see Britain adopt the same kind of surveillance seen in China and Iran. This is an absolute attack on privacy online and it is far from clear this will actually improve public safety, while adding significant costs to internet businesses," said Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch.

He asked, "If this was such a serious security issue why has the Home Office not ensured these powers were in place before the Olympics?"

The Pirate Party is also concerned about the powers, which it said would lead to more insecurity.
"This story looked for all the world like an April Fool's joke: Labour's plan for a massive surveillance programme that would dwarf anything dreamed up by the KGB, brought back to life by its opponents?," said Andrew Robinson, the founder of the Pirate Party UK.

Robinson said that the powers would be circumvented by those that the government would seek to detect, while opening up everyone else to unnecessary inspection.

"We're bound to hear the sinister justification that 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear'. Well, the exact opposite is true in this case. If you do have something to hide, it's inevitably going to be trivially easy to avoid this surveillance system, through privacy systems like Tor, or simply by using foreign web servers," he added.

"If you're just an honest member of the public you have to fear not just the phenomenal multi-billion pound cost of the system, or the massive logistical and economic burdens that UK companies will have to cope with, but something far worse: The absolute certainty of leaks."

This is the sort of thing that came up during the riots last year, when intrusive police access to Twitter and Blackberry's BBM messaging tool was considered but not implemented. µ


Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/18FmE)





Barack Obama hosts Canada and Mexico leaders for talks


2 April 2012 Last updated at 13:22 ET



The three leaders are to discuss energy issues amid a backdrop of high gas prices and unemployment




US President Barack Obama is hosting three-way talks at the White House with the leaders of Canada and Mexico.

Talks usually centre on border issues and the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).

This year the summit could also touch on a disputed US-Canada oil pipeline.

President Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are meeting weeks before a broader regional summit to be held in Colombia.

The Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, is to be held in two weeks' time.

No major agreements are expected to be signed at Monday's summit, which will see the three leaders hold a joint news conference.

The meeting was originally planned to take place in Hawaii in November, but had to be rescheduled after a top Mexican official was killed in a helicopter crash.

Thorny issues
The three leaders are expected to address ways in which to boost the economic recovery, as well as energy - with Mexico a major oil exporter and Canada unhappy over the fate of the stalled Keystone XL pipeline.

The pipeline would transport crude oil from the tar sands of western Alberta to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The White House refused to approve the project, amid concerns that the route passed through the environmentally sensitive Sandhills region of the US state of Nebraska.

Mr Harper has previously said he was disappointed by the White House decision, and indicated that Canada would consider selling oil to China, as an alternative.

Mr Obama has said exports would be a key component of the US recovery. Canada represents the biggest market for US exports, followed by Mexico. The US, though, is the biggest consumer of both Canadian and Mexican goods.

But trade between the US and Mexico has been overshadowed by violence from drug cartels struggling to control smuggling routes into the US market, and Mexico's complaints of weapons bought in the US moving south.

The leaders also face differing political climates at home. Mexico is holding elections on 1 July, and Mr Calderon is not eligible for re-election; meanwhile, Mr Obama faces re-election in November.

Mr Harper, who has been in office since 2006, won a new term in office in May 2011.




Sunday, April 01, 2012

Who’s Behind The Leaked Letters Roiling The Vatican?

Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Feb. 23

Alberto Pizzoli - AFP-Getty Images


Some Vatican pundits have suggested that by exposing the alleged corruption,
those who can then fix the problem by offering greater transparency
may ultimately benefit when it comes time to vote for the next pope.


Read more

.



What is Genetically Modified Food?




Uploaded by on Dec 16, 2009

For a transcript of this video along with resources and other information please visit http://www.MEDIAROOTS.org

Take Action:

http://www.nongmoproject.org/
http://truefoodnow.org/
http://www.organicconsumers.org/action.cfm
http://www.saynotogmos.org/

.

"Do Not Track" Has It Backwards


Google is doing its part for Internet privacy by adding a Do Not Track feature to its Chrome Web browser. The move is admirable, and Do Not Track may be better than nothing, but why should users have to opt out of having their online actions monitored?

The move from Google comes in the wake of allegations that it has been circumventing privacy controls in the Safari Web browser on iOS devices, and in Internet Explorer to track online activity. However, it is not a reaction to that controversy. A Google spokesperson told me: “We've been evaluating our [Do Not Track] options for a long time and have also been closely involved with standards bodies.”

Google privacy

Google is jumping on the "Do Not Track" bandwagon by adding the feature to the Chrome browser.

It also comes on the heels of increased pressure from Washington DC in the form of President Obama’s blueprint for a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. Susan Wojcicki, Google Senior Vice President for Advertising, praised that initiative. “We’re pleased to join a broad industry agreement to respect the ‘Do Not Track’ header in a consistent and meaningful way that offers users choice and clearly explained browser controls.”

Tracking isn’t a truly black and white issue, though. Wojcicki pointed out in a recent blog post that gathering information about online behavior enables Google to tailor the Web experience. By tracking activity, Google can target relevant content more likely to be of interest to you.

Even if the issue was truly that simple, though, the Do Not Track solution leaves a lot to be desired. The Wall Street Journal points out that the very concept of the Do Not Track feature has holes because it is dependent on companies agreeing to play by those rules--it is a voluntary system. It also points out that the Do Not Track initiative limits the ways data can be collected or used, but it can still be used for certain purposes like “market research”, or “product development.”

Assume for a minute, though, that Do Not Track actually meant what it says, and that every online company agreed to play along. There is still something inherently wrong with a system that automatically assumes you want to be spied on until or unless you figure out where the Do Not Track button is for your browser and make the effort to enable it.

The Internet operates on some sort of reverse moral code that says if you don’t make it implicitly clear that you don’t want something to happen, then--ipso facto--you have given implied consent for that something to occur.

What if other areas of life worked that way? Most people expect others not to randomly walk up and kick them without having to wear a sign that says “Do Not Kick.” They assume that nobody will throw rocks through their windows without the need for a sign that says “Do Not Stone.” They are confident that strangers won’t come up and start screaming in their face without having to display a “Do Not Yell” sign.

Why is it, then, that when we go online it becomes OK for companies to do things they know cross the line simply because they choose to pretend the line doesn’t exist unless you explicitly remind them? It doesn’t make any sense.

All tracking should be specifically opt-in. Companies should state up front what types of information they want to track, and what benefits that tracking will potentially provide for the online experience, and request consent before monitoring online activity and user behavior.


Source


The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center

By VC | March 20th, 2012


For the NSA, overflowing with tens of billions of dollars in post-9/11 budget awards, the cryptanalysis breakthrough came at a time of explosive growth, in size as well as in power. Established as an arm of the Department of Defense following Pearl Harbor, with the primary purpose of preventing another surprise assault, the NSA suffered a series of humiliations in the post-Cold War years. Caught offguard by an escalating series of terrorist attacks—the first World Trade Center bombing, the blowing up of US embassies in East Africa, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and finally the devastation of 9/11—some began questioning the agency’s very reason for being. In response, the NSA has quietly been reborn. And while there is little indication that its actual effectiveness has improved—after all, despite numerous pieces of evidence and intelligence-gathering opportunities, it missed the near-disastrous attempted attacks by the underwear bomber on a flight to Detroit in 2009 and by the car bomber in Times Square in 2010—there is no doubt that it has transformed itself into the largest, most covert, and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created.




Saturday, March 31, 2012

Night march held to protest against escalating violence

Participants pledge action

BY NAOMI MARTIN
Advocate staff writer
March 31, 2012



Hearing the chants of “justice” in the streets, neighbors streamed out of their houses Friday night to join a group of about 150 Baton Rouge residents holding candles and marching along Fairfields Avenue to call attention to the city’s high murder rate, as well as the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

“The violence here is crazy,” said Brenton Scott, 16, who knows five boys who have been shot and killed from his Park Forest neighborhood. “I came tonight because I wanted to show everybody that we’re doing something about it.”

The march, organized by the Working Interfaith Network of Baton Rouge, began at the Berean Seventh Day Adventist Church about 6:30 p.m. with speeches and prayers. The organizers urged participants to sign their “next day pledge,” a commitment to take part in efforts to reduce youth violence and mass incarceration in East Baton Rouge Parish.

The speakers decried black-on-black violence.

The Rev. Robert Davis, pastor of Berean Seventh Day Adventist Church, said that a public outrage similar to that being expressed over Trayvon Martin’s killing should have happened earlier in the black community, considering the country’s 58,500 black-on-black murders over the past 10 years.

“Enough is enough,” Davis said. “We’ve already shed too much blood.”

Davis said the community needs to take action and partner with law enforcement to quell the violence.

“But if we don’t have a partner in law enforcement, we’re going to stand over your shoulder and you’re going to get sick and tired of seeing our faces,” Davis said. “We are not going to stand idly by any longer.”

The Rev. Jennifer Jones-Bridgett, of Shiloh Baptist Church, said she hoped the outrage sparked by Trayvon Martin’s killing would call attention to the injustices of Baton Rouge’s own murder problem.

“Everybody in here knows somebody who been killed, questions never really got answered, and we got silent and went back in the house,” she said. The audience answered, “Amen.”

Kerrick Alexander, 23, said the march was an outlet for black people to voice their frustrations with both crime and racism.

“To see people come together and actually show we care, the young people care — that’s really cool to see,” he said.

Alexander said he coaches teenagers in basketball because he wants to keep them off the streets to avoid the kind of violence that took the life of his best friend when he was 14 years old.

“It’s really making me consider it as a career because I’m able to make a change in a kid’s life and keep them from being dead or on the path to being dead or in jail,” he said.

Margaret Evans, 50, said she wanted to march to draw attention to the racism she and her family still experience today. She said one of her sons had recently been harassed by police in Mississippi who had told him: “You can’t do anything about it.”

“This is our opportunity to say, ‘Yes we can,’” she said.
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Mounted police pay a visit to Mountain View Adventist College in Doonside

EDUCATION 29 MAR 12 @ 12:00AM BY BEN MCCLELLAN



Rommel and Dollar Mick were big hits at Mt View Adventist, Doonside. Picture: BEN McCLELLAN

ROMMEL and Dollar Mick were big hits at Mountain View Adventist College in Doonside this month.

The two horses, from the NSW Police’s mounted unit, made the trip from their base at Redfern with their human counterparts Melinda Duncan and Rob Hyde for a high visibility patrol of Doonside with some of Blacktown’s bicycle unit.

The entire school, from kindergarten to year 12 students, came out to see the horses and there were plenty of shrieks and big smiles as short arms were nervously held out to touch the giant horses.


Mountain View Adventist principal Jenny Gibbons said it was the first time the mounted unit had visited the school but bicycle police had been there before.

“The horses were amazing. Some kids have never seen a horse up close before,” she said.

“That was just wonderful for them. It’s an experience they won’t forget.”

She said the visit helped foster good relations between the students and police. “It’s wonderful for the kids to understand the police are here to understand and support them and not just to arrest them when they’re naughty.”




Earth Hour 2012 Official Video



Uploaded by earthhour on May 1, 2011

This Earth Hour 2012: 8.30pm, Saturday 31 March, celebrate your action for the planet with the people of world by switching off your lights for an hour, then go beyond the hour.

From its inception as a single-city initiative -- Sydney, Australia - in 2007, Earth Hour has grown into a global symbol of hope and movement for change. Earth Hour 2011 created history as the world's largest ever voluntary action with people, businesses and governments in 135 countries across every continent coming together to celebrate an unambiguous commitment to the one thing that unites us all -- the planet.
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The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them


Psalm 89

1I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

2For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

3I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,

4Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

5And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.

6For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?

7God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

8O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?

9Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.

10Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.

11The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.

12The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.

13Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.

14Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

15Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.

16In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

17For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.

18For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.

19Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

20I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:

21With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.

22The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.

23And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.

24But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

25I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.

26He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

27Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.

28My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.

29His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

30If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;

31If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;

32Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

33Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

34My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

35Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.

36His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.

37It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

38But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.

39Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.

40Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.

41All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours.

42Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.

43Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle.

44Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.

45The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.

46How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?

47Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?

48What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.

49Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?

50Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;

51Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

52Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

ADVENTISTS OFFER CONDOLENCES FOR COPTIC POPE

Photo Source: CTV News


21 Mar, 2012By ANN staff

Leaders from the Seventh-day Adventist world church’s department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty offered condolences to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria on the passing of Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Apostolic See of Saint Mark the Evangelist of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.


Military police and mourners surround the ambulance carrying the coffin of Pope Shenouda iii, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, upon its arrival for burial at St Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Al Natrun.
Photo courtesy: Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany


Shenouda died on Saturday at age 88 after serving four decades as patriarch.

"The Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department offers its condolences to the Coptic Christians of Egypt, and to the people of Egypt for the passing away of Pope Shenouda III,” said John Graz, the Adventist Church’s PARL director.


John Graz, the Adventist Church’s Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director.


“Seventh-day Adventists hope the new leader of the Coptic Christian Church, the recognized Christian Church in Egypt, will favor good relations with the entire Christian family in Egypt in its diversity and be an instrument for peace and religious freedom,” Graz said.

Graz called Shenouda a “strong leader,” recognizing his love of Egypt and devotion to national unity. Graz also noted Shenouda’s courage. He fell out of favor with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who in 1981 banished Shenouda to a desert monastery. He was reinstated four years later by Egypt’s then new President Hosni Mubarak.

Relations between Shenouda and the Adventist Church were sometimes tense. In 2003 he publically attacked Seventh-day Adventists for “disrupting unity.”

Still, Graz commended Shenouda for maintaining positive relations with Muslims. Christians and other religious minorities have increasingly suffered attacks since the overthrow of the Mubarak administration.


Source: http://record.net.au/items/adventist-leaders-offer-condolences-on-death-of-coptic-pope
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Even in the Adventist Church


We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church itself than from the world. Unbelievers have a right to expect that those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will do more than any other class to promote and honor, by their consistent lives, by their godly example and their active influence, the cause which they represent. But how often have the professed advocates of the truth proved the greatest obstacle to its advancement! The unbelief indulged, the doubts expressed, the darkness cherished, encourage the presence of evil angels, and open the way for the accomplishment of Satan’s devices.

Selected Messages 1, pp.122 (1887).

{LDE 156.2}


Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Blogger Blog takedown notificati​on

I came home this evening and this was in my eMAIL inbox:



Blogger Blog takedown notificati​on

support@blogger.com 3:00 PM (4 hours ago)
to me, blogger-dmca-n.

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to \"draft\" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in question will be visible to your readers again.

A bit of background: the DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. If you believe you have the rights to post the content at issue here, you can file a counter-claim. In order to file a counter-claim, please see http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=lr_counternotice&product=blogger.

The notice that we received, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org/. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). You can search for the DMCA notice associated with the removal of your content by going to the Chilling Effects search page at http://www.chillingeffects.org/search.cgi, and entering in the URL of the blog post that was removed.

If it is brought to our attention that you have republished the post without removing the content/link in question, then we will delete your post and count it as a violation on your account. Repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account including deleting your blog and/or terminating your account. DMCA notices concerning content on your blog may also result in action taken against any associated AdSense accounts. If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain your own legal counsel.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Affected URLs:
[{http://endrtimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/generation-change-ignite-church.html]


P.S.
Regarding the article censored: Who do you think it belonged to?



The Florida General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Thanks brethren!
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Passenger on US Airways flight from North Carolina to Florida arrested after allegedly attacking crew

Published March 28, 2012
| Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – A passenger aboard a US Airways flight from North Carolina to Florida has been arrested after witnesses say she attacked crew members before being wrestled to the floor.

A spokeswoman for the airport authority in Fort Myers, Florida, said Wednesday police arrested a US Airways passenger. Spokeswoman Victoria Moreland would not provide details until an arrest report is released. US Airways did not return calls.

WNCN-TV in Raleigh reports a passenger from Charlotte to Fort Myers kicked, scratched and spit on crew members. The TV station said one of its reporters was in the Fort Myers terminal and spoke to crew members.

The incident came hours after passengers aboard a JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas had to restrain that plane's agitated pilot.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/28/passenger-on-us-airways-flight-from-north-carolina-to-florida-arrested-after/#ixzz1qQrNTc00

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JetBlue passengers describe pilot's mid-air 'breakdown'

Pilot Clayton Osbon, 49, had to be restrained on flight from Las Vegas after claiming there was a bomb on the plane


Staff and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 March 2012 11.41 EDT



JetBlue passengers claim pilot Clayton Osbon walked out of the cockpit and attempted to force his way into an occupied bathroom. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty



Passengers aboard a flight from New York to Las Vegas have described the moment when a pilot suffered an apparent breakdown which led to him being pinned to the floor while another pilot made an emergency landing.

Holidaymakers on the JetBlue flight on Tuesday realised something was wrong when the pilot, Clayton Osbon, 49, walked out of the cockpit and attempted to force his way into an occupied bathroom.

Osbon's colleagues tried to calm him down as he became more jittery, coaxing the pilot to the back of the plane while ensuring he did not get near the plane's controls. But he broke free and sprinted up the aisle, claiming there was a bomb. Passengers said Olson urged them to pray and shouted, "They're going to take us down."

"Nobody knew what to do because he is the captain of the plane," said Don Davis, who was aboard the plane at the time. "You're not just going to jump up and attack the captain."

Four men managed to restrain Osbon, using seatbelt extenders and zip-tie handcuffs to pin him to the floor for more than 20 minutes while the co-captain and an off-duty pilot landed the plane in Amarillo, Texas.

Tony Antolino, who sat in the 10th row and tackled Osbon when he attempted to re-enter the cockpit, said: "Clearly the pilot had an emotional or mental type of breakdown. He became almost delusional."

Fellow passenger Josh Redick said Osbon seemed "irate" and was "spouting off about Afghanistan and souls and al-Qaida".

The chief executive of JetBlue, Dave Barger, told NBC Osbon was a "consummate professional" he had known for years. There was nothing in the pilot's record to indicate he would be a risk, Barger added.

The airline described the incident as a "medical situation involving the captain of JetBlue airways flight 191 from New York's John F Kennedy airport". The pilot was later taken to a hospital, it added.

Gabriel Schonzeit, who was sitting in the third row, said the pilot had said there could be a bomb on board the flight. "He started screaming about al-Qaida and possibly a bomb on the plane and Iraq and Iran and about how we were all going down," he told Amarillo Globe-News. "A group of us … grabbed him and put him to the ground."

An off-duty airline captain who was on the plane entered the flight deck and took over the duties of the ill captain before landing in Amarillo, the airline said.

Airline authorities and police officers interviewed passengers on arrival. Grant Heppes, who was on the flight, said: "I had no idea [Olson] was an employee … I just assumed he was a passenger who flipped out."

An FBI spokeswoman, Lydia Maese, said it was co-ordinating an investigation with airport police, Amarillo police, the FAA and the Transportation Safety Administration. She declined to comment on any arrests.

John Cox, an aviation safety consultant and former airline pilot, said such incidents were rare. He recalled two or three similar examples in some 40 years.

Airlines and the FAA encouraged pilots to assert themselves if they thought flight safety was at risk, even if it meant contradicting the captain's orders, Cox said.

All pilots working for scheduled airlines must have a first-class medical certificate, which must be renewed by the FAA every six months to a year, depending on the pilot's age. To receive the certificate, pilots must be examined by an FAA-designated doctor, who asks questions about the interviewee's psychological condition. Pilots are required to disclose any ailments and list any medication they may be taking.

The incident aboard the JetBlue flight comes weeks after an American Airlines flight attendant was removed from a plane after making references to 9/11 and voicing concerns that the plane would crash.

In 2008, an Air Canada co-pilot was removed from flight from Toronto to London then later restrained and sedated after having a mental breakdown.


Source

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Egypt Designates Israel Its Top Enemy — Obama Restores Military Aid


Posted by Bio ↓ on Mar 21st, 2012



Egypt’s parliament, which is dominated by two pro-Sharia Islamic supremacist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists,voted unanimously last Monday to expel Israel’s ambassador to Egypt, and signaled that the Camp David Accords would soon be a thing of the past: Egypt, the parliamentarians declared, would “never” be Israel’s ally. In fact, Israel was Egypt’s “number one enemy.” And how did Barack Obama respond to this egregious trampling upon the agreement that has kept an uneasy peace between Israel and Egypt for thirty years? By announcing a resumption of military aid to Egypt.


Read more

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NCTC aimed at usurping powers of state govts: Badal

PTI | 07:03 PM,Mar 27,2012

Chandigarh, Mar 27 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today alleged the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) is aimed at usurping the powers of state governments, contrary to the spirit of federalism. He said this was "a planned and deliberate attempt of the Centre to dilute the federal character of our country to make it unitary, which would be ever opposed by our government tooth and nail". Badal was replying to the Assembly debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address.




Source

New counterterrorism guidelines permit data on U.S. citizens to be held longer

The new guidelines, which were approved Thursday by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., have been in the works for more than a year, officials said.

The guidelines have prompted concern from civil liberties advocates.

Those advocates have repeatedly clashed with the administration over a host of national security issues, including its military detention without trial of individuals in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, its authorization of the killing of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen, and its prosecution of an unprecedented number of suspects in the leaking of classified information.