A Domestic 'Sky Net?' I don't think so.

Is this somebody's idea of a joke?  It isn't a good one.  This isn't a camera in a convenience store, it isn't ordinary surveillance.  The drones are weapons, they have been designed as weapons for the purpose of war and there is absolutely no use for them in the USA.  Damn the Mexican Border if that is the justification.  There is absolutely no reason for weapons to be patrolling the skies over citizen's heads.  


The record of these machines outside the USA is horrible and we are suppose to trust them within our borders.  


AIN'T NO WAY!!!!!!!!!


Get over it!

By Sylvia Wood, msnbc.com

The Federal Aviation Administration (CLICK TITLE TO ENTRY - THANK YOU) is preparing new rules that could make it easier for law enforcement agencies to use drone aircraft in the U.S., raising concerns about privacy at a time when the aircraft are already conducting surveillance missions in some parts of the country.


The American Civil Liberties Union released a report Thursday demanding better protections against a surveillance society, “in which our every move is monitored, tracked, recorded and scrutinized by the authorities.”...


WALL STREET IS HUNGRY!!!


If this mess continues we need to rethink swat teams.  This is militarization of the police force.  This is not IRAQ!

It is odd the manner in which some PROFESSIONS are classified in the USA.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on new minimum wage/overtime protections for in-home care workers at a “We Can’t Wait” event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House, Dec. 15, 2011. Among the workers joining the President was Pauline Beck, right, a home care worker from California who, in 2007, was shadowed by then Senator Obama as part of an event called “Walk a Day in My Shoes.” (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)


President Obama is doing wonderful work by insuring a fair wage to homecare workers.  They are definitely underpaid and under appreciated.  This isn't the only profession wrongly categorized.  I haven't checked recently, but, the nursing profession was classified under housekeeping.  So much for being appreciated as a professional.


This will bring better quality of life to those that care for the homebound.  Home care has increased in recent years as more states are paying homecare workers to care for the elderly and disabled in their own homes rather than in nursing homes.  


This will also return monies to the US Economy rather than leaving it in the pockets of Wall Street.  I applaud President Obama for taking on the good fight and bringing sincere justice to the people that deserve it most.  I thank you and the homecare worker for their dedication to selfless service.

The only codified APPLICATION of previous statute was implemented after the attacks of September 11, 2001..

In some instances people were literally rounded up and placed in jail and prison cells.  A Pakistani man died while jailed from a heart attack.  He was refused most of the rights afforded citizens even then.  Then there is Gitmo, but, that is a military installation and not a civilian prison.  It would seem as though if Congress has its way the facility will remain open and include citizens of the USA.  


The entire expansion of the President's powers is unnecessary because Marshall Law can be invoked to limit the rights of everyone.  I am sure President Obama included or plans to include a signing statement, however, it seems like a redundant law, unnecessary and dangerous.  It is these occasional brushes with citizen's rights that bring a great deal of skepticism as to what the heck is going on with the military and the elected officials of the Congress.  


I am sure this provision will end up in a lawsuit nothing short of when the ink dries on the paper.  The entire concept should have been addressed separately and without the appearance of sneaking through on National Defense Authorization Act of 2012.  

AG Holder has talked before in Texas when discussing the border security and the drug cartels.

The Houston Chronicle considers his speech to be 'a challenge.'  I am not surprised as Texas finds HONEST, FAIR AND LEGAL voter's rights as a challenge as it could not get its redistricting correct. 


AUSTIN - The nation's (click title to entry - thank you) top law enforcement official drew attention to two of the state's hot-button political issues - redistricting and voter ID laws - telling a Texas audience Tuesday night that making it harder to vote "goes against the arc of history."...


Voter Fraud has never been a problem that required laws to ensure the legal outcome of the ballot box.  Quite the contrary, Cornyn should know from the illegal election in the year 2000; that DISENFRANCHING voters is the problem.  The elections of 2000 threw the election into the Supreme Court and Bush was appointed by three justices.  The 2000 elections were stolen from the electorate of the USA.  


..."Voter identification laws are constitutional and necessary to prevent fraud at the ballot box," Cornyn said. "Facing an election challenge next year, this administration has chosen to target efforts by the states to protect the democratic process."...


I have yet to witness a single legislation within these states insuring there will be no disenfranchisement of the voter.  When is that going to happen?

Christine O'Donnell is you and now she is Mitt Romney as well.

It would seem as though Mitt Romney can identify with Christine, especially when it comes to speaking clearly to the electorate. Recently, Romney stated how wealthy Newt Gingrick was in that he had a half a million dollar purchase from STIFFANY'S.

I am still trying to discern weather his Freudian Slip was slander of Newt or his own hubris.

It would seem as though the heir apparent to the Murdoch empire is as corrupt as it comes.

...But in a more fundamental sense, James' luck has finally run out. The publication of the newly discovered emails between him and the then editor of the News of the World documents not only the mechanism of a big cover-up but also, crucially, the way that James has repeatedly shifted his story and sought to blame others. It is not a good look for the would-be captain of a mighty international corporation.

The News of the World's then editor, Colin Myler, and lawyer Tom Crone have always testified that James was in on the cover-up, which involved paying more than £700,000 to hacking victim Gordon Taylor as the price of his silence. Back in July 2009, Myler told the media committee: ''Myself and Mr Crone … went to see James Murdoch and told him where we were with the situation … James Murdoch was advised of the situation.''

But two years later, after the collapse of the cover-up, James was still pleading ignorance. ''The company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so.'' To the committee, he claimed that Crone and Myler had concealed from him the smoking gun - an email transcribed by News of the World reporter Ross Hindley and marked ''for Neville'', i.e. Neville Thurlbeck, the paper's chief reporter. MP Tom Watson asked James: ''Did you see or were you made aware of the 'for Neville' email, the transcript of the hacked voicemail messages?'' He replied: ''No, I was not aware of that at the time.''

Myler and Crone then openly contradicted him, saying: ''James Murdoch's recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken.'' James fought back: ''They did not show me the email, nor did they refer to Neville Thurlbeck … Neither Mr Myler nor Mr Crone told me that wrongdoing extended beyond Mr Goodman or Mr Mulcaire.''...

His pathetic defense is that everything was done by Mrs. Peacock in the Kitchen with a knife.

Carrot and Stick

How is the House going to pay for it by destroying Social Security?

House Republicans Push Toward Vote on $1 Trillion Spending Bill (click title to entry - thank you)

December 15, 2011, 8:15 AM EST

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- House Republicans unveiled a $1 trillion spending bill setting budgets for hundreds of government programs in a bid to force U.S. lawmakers to wrap up their work for the year.

Republicans aim to put the more than 1,200-page spending measure to a vote tomorrow, a move designed to give them an advantage in a separate battle with Democrats over extending an expiring payroll tax cut.

Passing the spending bill would let Republicans leave for their Christmas holiday, increasing pressure on the Democratic-controlled Senate to accept it as well as Republicans’ version of the payroll tax cut. Democrats have been holding up the legislation on concerns that approval would ensure the House recess, forcing them to accept both measures.

A short-term bill funding federal agencies expires tomorrow and without action by Congress, the government will partially shut down. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, said his colleagues want to break the payroll-tax stalemate.

“Hopefully, the Senate will act,” he told reporters yesterday. “But you know how they are. We’re not going to sit around here and wait two weeks, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the Senate.”...

It would seem as though the current budget before the Senate continues to defund the government and this is the House's answer.

...House Republicans (click here) officially unveiled the massive, bipartisan spending bill late Wednesday to fulfill transparency rules, but Senate Democrats had yet to officially sign on. However, the measure wasn't expected to change much, if at all, before a vote Friday, despite White House protests and an explicit veto threat regarding provisions placing limits on the ability of Cuban immigrants to visit families on the island or send money back to them....

As the USA officially leaves Iraq and returns home there will be a variety of criticisms.

It is what both the Iraqi and USA people wanted.  NATO will complain they have been left in the lerch to defend themselves, but, NATO is never satisfied unless there is a USA presence nearby.  NATO chronically feels vulnerable by their geographic location on the planet and to that end there has to be other means of security and not simply wars unending.

Wall Street has many, many plans for Iraq.  Hopefully, the people will see the benefit of developing their economy, but, if it means low wage employment such as China and India their future is not necessarily bright.  The USA is not going to be the security force for Wall Street.  If contractors want to enforce Wall Street sovereignty then Wall Street needs to pay for it themselves.

Last updated: Dec 15, 2011

World's big firms target Gulf region for growth (click title to entry - thank you)

Foreign investors are putting more than $1 billion into the region, investing in the Middle East's young and growing population despite a difficult global economy....

So, why exactly has Wall Street been sitting on its bailout?  Another China and India perhaps?

Shell plans venture to expand presence in Iraq (click here)

Dec 14, 2011

...The company is now looking to add to a string of new petrochemical projects by capitalising on the emerging feedstock source, and is undertaking a study to access the feasibility of an Iraqi venture....

This is where the Republican Tax Cuts for the wealthy are going.  This is where the Bush Tax Cuts are going, not the domestic economy of the USA.  That has to be addressed by local business ventures and a return of the independant business owner including building refrigerators, washers and dryers.

Local USA economies need to be the focus of all legislation addressing the economic problems of the USA.  An entire generation is unemployed, Wall Street is NEVER going to solve it!

"TIME's Person of the Year" : The Protester (click title to entry - thank you)

..."Massive(click here) and effective street protest" was a global oxymoron until — suddenly, shockingly — starting exactly a year ago, it became the defining trope of our times. And the protester once again became a maker of history....

If there is a congratulations in this annual recognition then let me offer it.

TIME magazine celebrates the one person that influenced the history of our time.  There was no second place that could even come close to "The Protester."  2011 has been a remarkable year for people of the world.  They have moved mountains this year.

In a larger sense I hesitate to speak to the sincere meaning of this note in history.  There were a variety of reasons people protested depending on the country, but, there was a common thread and it was oppression.  The Protester was the person that acted against oppression.  It is remarkable to realize in the year 2011 that protesting was still necessary.  I am hoping this will be the end to such oppression for all peoples.  Considering the Egyptians are being vigilant to their established freedoms to date speaks eons to the degree oppression in the world is still insidious.

Of "The Protester," the demographics would outline a uncharacteristically poor person.  One so removed from the power within their own country, they had no voice otherwise.  The challenge of the protester will be to maintain their voice into the future and reshape their world to eliminate this reoccurring to those taking their place in the future.  The greatest testament to this year's protester would be for their protests to never be necessary again.  Will that happen?  Probably not. 

The systems of society is scared of autonomy.  Governments want to have control, especially when it comes to war.  The trend in most cases is to recognize a leader, a hierarchy, if you will.  The pinnacle of that hierarchy inevitably leads to temptation of corruption and exploitation.  It has been the case since human existence began, from tribes to empires to democracies, there has always been a pinnacle of hierarchy that lends itself authority over others.  Can that behavior change?  The Roman Senate tried to change it, somewhat successfully.  The Thirteen Original Colonies of the USA when forming their own government chose the same 'pattern' as so many civilizations before them.

Some of the notion that there has to be a single leader to a mass of people has a religious basis and is why women are oppressed in many aspects.  The one quandary any study of women reveal is the idea that paternalism is the pinnacle achievement of any society.  Supposedly, in the scholars opinion, the organizational authority is paternalism.  For as long as I can remember I opposed that notion.  I believe societies have practiced paternalism in their government structures for far too long and have warred and oppressed for millennium.  Power does not interpret well when a single authority speaks for the masses of people.  The people's voice always gets lost.  And it gets lost to ideology because a single leader cannot and will not speak for the diversity and multiple needs of an entire society.

The ability of a peoples to be their own resolve is somewhat of a question when entering into complex relationships with other cultures, other societies.  The question as to the ability of the populous to understand their relationship to others unlike themselves is the issue.  Paternalism wins out because there is a 'Brain Trust' where complex societies find themselves facing each other in their differences.  Whom makes the decision to war or to peace?  Whom controls the system that controls all others?  It is a question that will have answers only in the way of the masses protesting. 

The Romans called the populous "The Mob."  But, it was always the Roman Emperor's fear to lose control of the mob as there would be no defense against it.  So, the philosophical question as to "How did the protester reach this recognition on the cover of TIME magazine?" is more than interesting and will be debated in places leadership will have little interest.

I congratulate every protester that has stood for their values in ways that have toppled hierarchies around the world.  There has been much sacrifice, including bloodshed.  There have been significant numbers of deaths to those that found ending the oppression for themselves, their children and the future of their countries and this planet more important than their longevity.  It is an amazing moment for the world.  Let's hope the old ways pass away and the new MOB finds the best way to the future.