President Rousseff’s Decades-Old Torture Detailed

Her nom de guerre was Estela. Part of a shadowy urban guerrilla group at the time of her capture in 1970, she spent three years behind bars, where interrogators repeatedly tortured her with electric shocks to her feet and ears, and forced her into the pau de arara, or parrot’s perch, in which victims are suspended upside down naked, from a stick, with bound wrists and ankles.

That former guerrilla is now Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff. As a truth commission begins examining the military’s crackdown on the population during a dictatorship that lasted two decades, Brazilians are riveted by chilling details emerging about the painful pasts of both their country and their president.

NYTimes.com

Tussen Stasies (ft. Die Heuwels Fantasties)

Jack Parow (ft. Die Heuwels Fantasties)

Stephen Fry on American Prisons Facts

Stephen Fry on American Prisons, from the TV show QI.

Umshini Wam

Directed by Harmony Korine, 2011. Starring Ninja and Yo Landi, Die Antwoord. Also see watkykjy.co.za

Christopher Hitchens on Islam

Does God Exist?

Mitchell and Webb

“Trespassing” on Australian Civil Liberties

Following the police crack down on a BDS protest in Australia last year, a court has found pro-Palestinian activists innocent of a series of charges laid against them, including “trespass in a public place.”

The Real News – Max Brenner on Wikipedia - Golani Brigade

We Like War/ Hell Broke Luce

George Carlin / Tom Waits

Shoot shoot

Batmobile (1993)

The Murder of Mary Magdalene: Genocide of the Holy Bloodline

Was Mary Magdalene murdered? Did the Catholic Church conspire to eradicate the Holy Bloodline from existence?
To some Mary Magdalene was the wife or consort of Jesus Christ. The infamous Da Vinci Code has firmly placed this idea into the popular arena along with the idea of a Holy Bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary.
In this unique film we journey to places never before researched in connection with this story. We venture into the heart of ancient Lincoln, England, and uncover a tale so mysterious, so at odds with the accepted norm, that we are forced to question everything we previously held to be true. We track down unknown texts, journey on a treasure hunt across Lincoln county and discover the final resting place of Mary Magdalene herself.

Illuminati exposed at the U.S. Senate

Monkey Business

The Marx Brothers

Blacks can only go to heaven as slaves to their white masters

Statements about race in the Book of Mormon:

the Book of Mormon teaches that African Americans are inferior and loathsome, -- uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind it does state that they may eventually be saved. However, even in Heaven, they will be servants to others

in 2 Nephi 30:6, the the Book of Mormon as originally translated by Joseph Smith said that if Lamanites accepted the true gospel,
3 Nephi 2:15 reads:
"And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites
"...their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people."
Ham is described in Genesis 9 as a son of Noah who had seen his father naked. Ham himself was not punished. But Ham's son, Canaan, was cursed.

Genesis 9:25-27:
Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japeth live in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his slave'."
This became known as the Curse of Ham.

God of the week

Richard Dawkins destroys muslim on morality

Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

Millions of Brits were in germ war tests

The UK Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public. A government report just released provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979.

Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swaths of the population without the public being told. While details of some secret trials have emerged in recent years, the 60-page report reveals new information about more than 100 covert experiments. The report reveals that military personnel were briefed to tell any 'inquisitive inquirer' the trials were part of research projects into weather and air pollution.

The tests, carried out by government scientists at Porton Down, were designed to help the MoD assess Britain's vulnerability if the Russians were to have released clouds of deadly germs over the country. In most cases, the trials did not use biological weapons but alternatives which scientists believed would mimic germ warfare and which the MoD claimed were harmless. But families in certain areas of the country who have children with birth defects are demanding a public inquiry.

One chapter of the report, 'The Fluorescent Particle Trials', reveals how between 1955 and 1963 planes flew from north-east England to the tip of Cornwall along the south and west coasts, dropping huge amounts of zinc cadmium sulphide on the population. The chemical drifted miles inland, its fluorescence allowing the spread to be monitored. In another trial using zinc cadmium sulphide, a generator was towed along a road near Frome in Somerset where it spewed the chemical for an hour.

The Observer - PECAN

Why I'm Not a Christian

Bertrand Russell 1872-1970
British philosopher, logican, mathematician, historian, and social critic.

High radiation detected in fish off Fukushima

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it has detected radiation 380 times the government safety limit in a fish caught off Fukushima Prefecture.

NHK World News

Photoplayer Style 20

Joe playes his Photoplayer Style 20 produced by the American Photo Player Company

Civilian Deaths from US Drone Attacks Much Higher than Reported

New investigative work shows that civilian deaths in Pakistan, including from second wave attacks, higher than Pentagon reports.

US Doctors Using Dangerous Steroids On Fetuses In Experiment To Reduce Lesbianism, Tomboyism, Intersexuality

U.S. doctors have injected at least a thousand pregnant women with hazardous, non-FDA-approved synthetic steroids (without warning them of the risks) in a bizarre experimental effort to reduce future “tomboyism, lesbianism and bisexuality” in fetuses that may be genetically prone to those traits. The Northwestern University News Center unravels the disturbing medical news:

A new paper just published in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry uses extensive Freedom of Information Act findings to detail an extremely troubling off-label medical intervention employed in the U.S. on pregnant women to intentionally engineer the development of their fetuses for sex normalization purposes.

Disinformation

Pussy Riot release new single - Putin Lights Up the Fires

Pussy Riot have released a new single called "Putin Lights Up the Fires".

This state may be stronger than time in jail.

The more arrests, the happier it is.
Every arrest is carried out with love for the sexist

Who botoxed his cheeks and pumped his chest and abs.

But you can't nail us in the coffin.
Throw off the yoke of former KGB!

Putin is lighting the fires of revolution
He's bored and scared of sharing silence with the people
With every execution: the stench of rotten ash
With every long sentence: a wet dream

The country is going,
the country is going into the streets boldly
The country is going,
the country is going to bid farewell to the regime
The country is going,
the country is going, like a feminist wedge
And Putin is going,
Putin is going to say goodbye like a sheep

Arrest the whole city for May 6th
Seven years isn't enough, give us 18!
Forbid us to scream, walk and curse!
Go and marry Father Lukashenko

Ecuador's Correa Calls UK's Plan to Arrest Assange 'Suicide'

The Ecuadorian president said British embassies around the world would be at risk if the UK entered Ecuador's embassy to arrest Julian Assange.

Can nasal spray help prevent U.S. military suicides?

Could the solution to increasing suicide and depression rates among members of the U.S. military lie in a nasal spray? The Army hopes so.

In the midst of a crisis that saw its highest rate of suicide in July, the Army has greenlighted a grant for Dr. Michael Kubek, an Indiana University of Medicine professor, to dig deeper into whether a nasal spray could be a safe and effective way to administer a specific antidepressive neurochemical to the brain and help calm suicidal thoughts.

The Army counted 38 confirmed or suspected suicides in July, a tally that took into account both active- and non-active-duty members of the Army National Guard or Reserve. Three of those active-duty soldiers were deployed at the time of their deaths. Before July, the highest monthly level suicide rate for soldiers was 33 in June 2010 and July 2011, according to statistics released by the Army.

CNN.com Blogs

Israel deports Sudanese asylum seekers as South Sudanese nationals

Sudanese citizens seeking asylum in Israel are being issued with South Sudanese documents in order to deport them, according to a report published on Saturday.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that “the breach of our borders by infiltrators could threaten the Jewish and democratic state […] we will begin by removing the infiltrators from South Sudan and move on to others.”Also, Israel’s interior minister, Eli Yishai, has said “Muslims that arrive here do not even believe that this country belongs to us, to the white man.”

Amid violent, 1,00-strong anti-immigrant protests in May in which African residents were attacked, Miri Regev, a legislator and member of Knesset (the legislative arm of the Israeli government), said that Sudanese refugees are a “cancer in our body.”

Sudan Tribune

The Boys Are Back In Heaven

Thin Lizzy vs Pixies as imagined by Phil RetroSpector

The Enemy Within

Watch live video from enemy_within on www.justin.tv

The Enemy Within on Justin.tv and on Facebook

Slaves of Dubai

Pakistani girl (11) accused of Qur'an burning could face death penalty

An 11-year-old Christian Pakistani girl could face the death penalty under the country's notorious blasphemy laws, after she was accused by her neighbours of deliberately burning sacred Islamic texts. Rifta Masih was arrested on Thursday, after complaints against her prompted angry demonstrations. Asif Ali Zardari, the president, has ordered the interior ministry to investigate the case.

As communal tensions continued to rise, about 900 Christians living on the outskirts of Islamabad have been ordered to leave a neighbourhood where they have lived for almost two decades.

Relations between the communities had been simmering for months after complaints were made about the noise coming from three churches in the area during religious services. Two of the landlords who owned the buildings had already ordered an end to worship and some services were forcibly broken up. But there was no indication that all the Christians would be forced out so suddenly until Rifta was accused of the provocative act of burning the sacred words of Islam.

The Guardian

No pregnancy from 'legitimate rape'

If there is something everyone can agree on, it would seem that the idea that rape can result in unwanted pregnancy would be right up there at the top of the list.

Not so in Missouri, where the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Rep. Todd Akin, a tea party candidate, on Sunday advanced the theory that the female reproductive system shuts down when a woman is being raped, thus preventing conception.  

"It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare,” Akin said, referring to conception following a rape. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child."

More on latimes.com

Why in the World are They Spraying?

People around the world are noticing that our planet's weather is dramatically changing. They are also beginning to notice the long lingering trails left behind airplanes that have lead millions to accept the reality of chemtrail/geoengineering programs. Could there be a connection between the trails and our severe weather? While there are many agendas associated with these damaging programs, evidence is now abundant which proves that geoengineering can be used to control weather. In this documentary you will learn how the aerosols being sprayed into our sky are used in conjunction with other technologies to control our weather. While geoengineers maintain that their models are only for the mitigation of global warming, it is now clear that they can be used as a way to consolidate an enormous amount of both monetary and political power into the hands of a few by the leverage that weather control gives certain corporations over the Earth's natural systems. This of course, is being done at the expense of every living thing on the planet.

Protest

Royal Babylon

British Royalty by Heathcote Williams - Narration and Montage by Alan Cox - royalbabylon.com

Pussy Riot jailed for two years

The judge has said they are sane and should be punished in accordance with the law. She has listed attenuating circumstances including children (of two defendants), a lack of previous crime and positive character profiles.

The court concludes that it is not possible to change the charges and make them less grave, "there are no exclusive circumstances to do that". And at the same time the motives of the crime and the attitude, the court deems that to restore social justices if they serve a real jail sentence.

And... they will serve jail sentence in prison, the judge has said.

SENTENCE: Each band member receives two years, to begin from the day of their arrest. They will serve this time in prison.

The Guardian

Punk-Prayer "Virgin Mary, Put Putin Away"

(choir)
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away
Рut Putin away, put Putin away
(end chorus) ...

Black robe, golden epaulettes
All parishioners crawl to bow
The phantom of liberty is in heaven
Gay-pride sent to Siberia in chains
The head of the KGB, their chief saint,
Leads protesters to prison under escort
In order not to offend His Holiness
Women must give birth and love
Shit, shit, the Lord's shit!
Shit, shit, the Lord's shit!

(Chorus)
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist
Become a feminist, become a feminist
(end chorus)

The Church’s praise of rotten dictators
The cross-bearer procession of black limousines
A teacher-preacher will meet you at school
Go to class - bring him money!
Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin
Bitch, better believe in God instead
The belt of the Virgin can’t replace mass-meetings
Mary, Mother of God, is with us in protest!

(Chorus)
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away
Рut Putin away, put Putin away
(end chorus)

freepussyriot.org

We ♥♥♥ Russia

Gay parades banned in Moscow for 100 years

Moscow's top court has upheld a ban on gay pride marches in the Russian capital for the next 100 years. Earlier Russia's best-known gay rights campaigner, Nikolay Alexeyev, had gone to court hoping to overturn the city council's ban on gay parades. He had asked for the right to stage such parades for the next 100 years.

He also opposes St Petersburg's ban on spreading "homosexual propaganda". The European Court of Human Rights has told Russia to pay him damages. On Friday he said he would go back to the European Court in Strasbourg to push for a recognition that Moscow's ban on gay pride marches - past, present and future - was unjust.

The Moscow city government argues that the gay parade would risk causing public disorder and that most Muscovites do not support such an event.

BBC News

The New York all-seeing surveillance system

New York Mayor Bloomberg is eager to see the project succeed and be implemented across the country, especially since New York City will be getting a kickback on revenue from future sales: “I hope Microsoft sells a lot of copies of this system…because 30 percent of the profits will go to us…I think we can recoup all of our expenses, and maybe even make a few bucks.”
The new technology is reminiscent of the Minority Report-style ‘Intellistreets’ talking surveillance camera system being implemented in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh; a system that records your conversations and barks orders at you.
Rest assured the rush to deploy the technology is more profit-driven than “for the good of the people,” as defended.
Under the guise of public safety, the creation of this technology represents the frantic determination of the upper-crust megalomaniacs to micro-manage and control every aspect of our lives…the public is the enemy.
Learn more on InfoWars

South African police shoot dead striking miners

Up to 18 people killed at Lonmin platinum mine where strike over pay has escalated into alleged turf war between unions.

Police have been accused of a massacre after opening fire on mine workers in one of the deadliest days of protest in South Africa since the end of apartheid.

In scenes that evoked memories of some of the country's darkest days, national television showed pictures of police in helmets and body armour shooting at workers on Thursday amid shouting, panic and clouds of dust at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine. After three minutes of gunfire, bodies littered the ground in pools of blood. It was claimed as many as 18 people may have been killed.

Newspaper reporter Poloko Tau tweeted from the scene: "Auto guns creacking [sic] and cocked like 100 at a time, scary … warzone down here, 1st shot fired … journalist running, diving and hiding amid shots, water canon spewing water at the strikers … my contact has just been shot dead …"

The deaths came after a week of turmoil at the Marikana mine that had already seen 10 people killed, including two police officers and two security guards. Lonmin, the world's third biggest platinum producer, was forced to suspend production at the mine, about 60 miles north-west of Johannesburg, after what it called an illegal strike escalated into an alleged turf war between rival unions.

The Guardian - Mining Weekly

Unnecessary Censorship

Jimmy Kimmel Live - This Week in Unnecessary Censorship

Britain warns Ecuador it could enter embassy to get Assange

Britain on Wednesday warned Ecuador that it could raid its London embassy if Quito does not hand over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been taking refuge at the mission since mid-June. In Quito, the Ecuadorean government said that any such action would be considered a violation of its sovereignty a "hostile and intolerable act."

"Under British law we can give them a weeks' notice before entering the premises and the embassy will no longer have diplomatic protection," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "But that decision has not yet been taken. We are not going to do this overnight. We want to stress that we want a diplomatically agreeable solution." In Quito, the government bristled at the threat and said it would announce its decision on Assange's asylum request on Thursday at 7 a.m. (1200 GMT).

"We want to be very clear, we're not a British colony. The colonial times are over," Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said in an angry statement after a meeting with President Rafael Correa. "The move announced in the official British statement, if it happens, would be interpreted by Ecuador as an unfriendly, hostile and intolerable act, as well as an attack on our sovereignty, which would force us to respond in the strongest diplomatic way," Patino told reporters.

Reuters

What We Do

Devo - Watch the full INTERACTIVE version of this video

Thousands of UK Workers 'Blacklisted' Over Political Views

Corporations in the UK who used a secret "blacklisting" database to screen out ‘left wing trouble-makers’ and union sympathizers as potential job recruits are facing renewed scrutiny after the UK-activist group Liberty called for a fresh investigation Monday night.

A demonstration outside the Olympic site on March 1, 2011 was called in solidarity with the whistleblower who was fired for standing up for an illegally blacklisted workmate. The blacklist scandal first broke in 2008, when the UK media revealed that more than 40 leading employers had subscribed to the vetting service provided by The Consulting Association, which had surveillance files on more than 3,200 workers, including political activists, shop stewards and health and safety representatives.

Police seized the database three years ago and Ian Kerr, the founder of The Consulting Association, was fined only about $7,500. Invoices were discovered showing that 44 companies had paid to access the names on the list.

Common Dreams - Blacklist Blog

Julian Assange will be granted asylum in Ecuador

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, has agreed to grant Julian Assange asylum, officials within Ecuador's government have said. The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up at Ecuador's London embassy since 19 June, when he officially requested political asylum. "Ecuador will grant asylum to Julian Assange," said an official in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito, who is familiar with the government discussions.

At the moment he faces arrest as soon as he leaves the embassy for breaching his bail conditions. "For Mr Assange to leave England, he should have a safe pass from the British [government]. Will that be possible? That's an issue we have to take into account," said Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño.

Government sources in Quito confirmed that despite the outstanding legal issues, Correa would grant Assange asylum – a move that would annoy Britain, the US and Sweden. They added that the offer was made to Assange several months ago, well before he sought refuge in the embassy, and following confidential negotiations with senior London embassy staff.

The Guardian

Militarized Police in America

When we hear terms like militarized police - this is what comes to mind. Officers decked out in full military gear as though they're about to be deployed to Afghanistan.

Lebanese protest anal exams on suspected homosexuals

Dozens of people demonstrated outside the law courts in the Lebanese capital on Saturday to protest the use of anal "tests" on men suspected of homosexuality, which is a criminal offence in the Arab country. The rally followed a July 28 police raid on a gay venue in a working class district of Beirut when 36 men were taken into custody and forced to undergo the examinations, reportedly to determine their sexual orientation.

Lebanon-based HELEM, considered the Arab world's leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights group, called for the rally under the slogan: "Stand up against the tests of shame, vaginal or anal." It also voiced solidarity with women subjected to so-called "virginity tests."

"We’re here because we want a clear statement from the ministry of justice that these kind of tests should be completely abolished and punished by the law," said participant George Azzi. "The syndicate of doctors has declared these tests are irrelevant scientifically and it’s illegal for doctors to do these tests, but that doesn't mean police can't still request it," he said.

Ynetnews

7 Scandals That Reveal the Real Mitt Romney

People who start new businesses are always hungry for investors. But as Huffington Post reporters Ryan Grim and Cole Stangler found in their report, “ Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital With Money From Families Tied To Death Squads ,” there was no possible way that anybody in 1984 could "check out" these families and be convinced this money was clean, as Grim told Democracy Now.  

“After initially struggling to find investors, Romney traveled to Miami in 1983 to win pledges of $9 million, 40 percent of Bain’s start-up money,” Democracy Now’s report began. “Some investors had extensive ties to the death squads responsible for the vast majority of the tens of thousands of deaths in El Salvador during the 1980s.”

6 other Scandals That Reveal the Real Mitt Romney on Alternet

Israel sniper to get 45 days over shooting women carrying a white flag

An Israeli soldier implicated in the killing of two Gaza women carrying a white flag faces a 45-day jail term under a plea bargain approved by a military court on Sunday, local media said. The sniper, identified by Israeli media as "staff sergeant S," was charged with manslaughter in 2010 over the fatal shooting of an unnamed individual, which Palestinian witnesses linked to the killing of 64-year-old Riyeh Abu Hajaj and her daughter Majda Abu Hajaj, 37, during Israel's "Cast Lead" Gaza offensive.

But the Israeli military said the charge had on Sunday been reduced from manslaughter to using a weapon illegally. "Following a mediation process and upon examination of the evidence with the recommendation of the military court, both sides have reached a plea bargain in which the indictment will be adjusted, and he will be convicted of using a weapon illegally," a military statement said. Under the deal, "S" would be jailed for 45 days, media reports said.

Yahoo! News

Trapwire: Big Brother Now Monitors Your Every Move

The latest Wikileaks data-dump reveals that the government now has the ability to grab video from far-flung surveillance cameras located in stores, casinos and other businesses around the country. It uses sophisticated facial recognition software to identify people of interest captured by the ubiquitous cameras numbering in the millions.

The software, Trapwire, is a significant breakthrough for the surveillance state. It was uncovered by security researcher Justin Ferguson. He delved into the massive pile of emails hacked from Stratfor – regarded as a shadow CIA – on Christmas of 2011. In response to Ferguson’s discovery and the Trapwire revelation, Wikileaks was recently hit with a large scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

“Trapwire would make something like disclosure of UFO contact or imminent failure of a major U.S. bank fairly boring news by comparison,” writes David Seaman.

“Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot, then encrypted and instantaneously delivered to a fortified central database center at an undisclosed location to be aggregated with other intelligence,” RT reported last week. “It’s part of a program called TrapWire and it’s the brainchild of the Abraxas, a Northern Virginia company staffed with elite from America’s intelligence community. The employee roster at Arbaxas reads like a who’s who of agents once with the Pentagon, CIA and other government entities according to their public LinkedIn profiles, and the corporation’s ties are assumed to go deeper than even documented.”

Infowars

TrapWire: The Truth Behind The Hype

New emails released by WikiLeaks indicate that TrapWire, a defense contractor owned and operated by ex-CIA operatives, plays a key and troubling role in coordinating government and corporate surveillance. Many activists have gotten carried away, however, vastly overstating the scope of TrapWire. More on storify.com

Cut the World

Antony and the Johnsons

Israel vs Iran: An Israeli Media Report

Israeli media spike coverage of potential attack on Iran "in the coming 12 weeks". More at The Real News

Vladimir Putin: Russia Military To Get Hundreds Of New Warplanes and Helicopters

Russia's military will get 1,600 new warplanes and helicopters by 2020, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, as part of efforts to strengthen the country's armed forces.

Putin has worked hard to restore pride in the Cold War-era superpower's military since his first election in 2000.
The planned addition of 600 military planes and 1,000 helicopters is part of a 23 trillion rouble ($720 billion)programme to re-equip a military still weakened by spending cuts prompted by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
"We are talking primarily about providing our forces with state-of-the-art modern technology," Putin said at an air show on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the country's air force.

Huffington Post

This Too Shall Pass

OK Go - feat. the Notre Dame marching band

Hollow

Björk

Bradley Manning’s lawyer accuses U.S. Army of ‘flagrant violation’ of military code

The harsh conditions forced upon Bradley Manning in military detention have been laid out in detail as part of a court filing in which the US army is accused of a “flagrant violation” of his right not to be punished prior to trial.

The Article 13 motion, published Friday by Manning’s civilian lawyer David Coombs on his website, claims that Manning, who is accused of leaking state secrets to WikiLeaks, was held in a 6×8 ft cell for 23 to 24 hours a day. In addition, when not sleeping, Manning was banned from lying down, or even using a wall to support him.

The motion also claims that Manning was punished through “degradation and humiliation”, notably by forcing him to stand outside his cell naked during a morning inspection. This, his Coombs claims, was “retaliatory punishment” for speaking out over his treatment.

Manning, 24, is accused of being behind the biggest leak of state secrets in US history. Hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world, as well as war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, were published by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The Raw Story - Bradley Manning Support Network

Wat kyk jy

Taxijam by Die Antwoord

Atomic Bomb Test on human subjects

Don't Come Around Here No More

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers 1985

French Riot police smash camps and hundreds rounded up for deportation as Socialists take on gipsies

French police were yesterday breaking up gipsy camps and deporting illegal immigrants found in them. Dozens of officers in riot gear descended on a settlement near Lille shortly after dawn to oversee the evacuation of some 200 Roma living in mobile homes.

One hundred people were evicted from a site in Lyon, with similar round-ups happening in other major cities including Marseille. Caravans and huts were destroyed in the Belleville area of central Paris on Wednesday, making another 100 people homeless. The policy being pursued by France’s socialist government was formulated by former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was frequently accused of pandering to the far right.

Mail Online

US Drops Probe Into Goldman Sachs Mortgage Scam

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped an investigation into Goldman Sachs Group Inc's role in selling $1.3 billion worth of subprime mortgage securities, the investment bank said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

In February, Goldman received a so-called Wells notice from SEC staff related to disclosures in the deal's offering documents. Such notices typically indicate the agency plans to take some kind of enforcement action, and gives firms a chance to respond.
On Monday, the SEC notified Goldman that the investigation had been closed and that it did not intend to recommend any enforcement action against the bank related to the offering, Goldman said in its quarterly 10-Q filing with the SEC.

Huffington Post

Hell Broke Luce

Tom Waits

Curiosity's mysterious Mars photo stirs speculation

A photo of Mars taken by Curiosity shows what might be the NASA rover's spacecraft crash-landing in the distance. If so, it 'would be an insane coincidence,' one engineer says.

Did Curiosity capture the galactic equivalent of the Zapruder film when it landed on Mars?

Seconds after the NASA robot's landing Sunday night, Curiosity managed to squeeze off a handful of fuzzy, black-and-white photographs. One, taken with a device on its rear known as a Hazcam, captured the pebble-strewn ground beneath the rover and one of its wheels — and a blotch, faint but distinctive, on the horizon.

The images were relayed by a passing satellite. Two hours later, the satellite passed overhead again. This time, Curiosity sent home a new batch of higher-resolution photos. They showed the same horizon. The blotch was gone.

latimes.com

Israel defence chief brings U.S. worries over Iran in line with Israel's

Israel's defence chief claimed Thursday that President Obama has new intelligence which changes the U.S. assessment of the imminent danger represented by Iran's clandestine nuclear work, bringing the White House's views closer to those held by the Jewish state.

An article published Thursday by the Haaretz newspaper said Defense Minister Ehud Barak had "confirmed" the paper's earlier report that Mr. Obama had received a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) "which shares Israel's view that Iran has made surprising, significant progress toward military nuclear capability."

Speaking later to Israeli Radio, Barak confirmed that, as he understood it, a new U.S. intelligence report "being passed around senior offices" in Washington did make the American government's concerns more urgent. He did not explicitly say the new intelligence report was in the form of an official NIE provided to Mr. Obama.

CBS News

US starts Agent Orange clean-up in Vietnam

The US has begun a project to help clean up Agent Orange contamination at one area in Vietnam - the first such move since the war ended in 1975. The work is taking place at the airport in the central city of Danang.

The US sprayed millions of gallons of the toxic defoliant over jungle areas to destroy enemy cover. Vietnam says several million people have been affected by Agent Orange, including 150,000 children born with severe birth defects.

BBC News – Pictures of the effects on Google

Pussy Riot trial: Punk band's members claim they are freer than those carrying out their prosecution

Three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot said Vladimir Putin's Russia was the one on trial as they delivered closing arguments on Wednesday in a case seen as a key test of the powerful president's desire to crackdown on dissent.

"This is a trial of the whole government system of Russia, which so likes to show its harshness toward the individual, its indifference to his honour and dignity," Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, one of the trio on trial said in an impassioned statement. "If this political system throws itself against three girls … it shows this political system is afraid of truth."

The judge set 17 August as the day she would deliver a verdict against the women, charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred following an anti-Putin performance in a Moscow cathedral.

The Guardian

Death Penalty

George Carlin

US Gun (lobby) Safety

Hooray, assault weapons! Shoot-em-up Charlie is back, this time working with the NRA to get their message out about the Aurora theater shooting in this gun (lobby) safety video. Learn all about the perfect solution to the tragic problem of mass shootings in the USA.

Texas executes 'mentally impaired' inmate

US Supreme Court rejected arguments that Marvin Wilson was too mentally challenged to qualify for death penalty.

A Texas man convicted of killing a police informant has been executed after the US Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for the death penalty. Marvin Wilson, 54, was pronounced dead late on Tuesday, 14 minutes after his lethal injection began at the state prison in Huntsville. He was convicted of fatally shooting a police drug informant nearly 20 years ago in Beaumont.

Wilson's attorneys had argued that he should have been ineligible for capital punishment because of his low IQ. They cited the US Supreme Court ruling that banned capital punishment for the mentally impaired. In their appeal to the high court, his attorneys pointed to a psychological test conducted in 2004 that pegged Wilson's IQ at 61, below the generally accepted minimum competency standard of 70.

Al Jazeera - Huffington Post

Kill The Poor

Mitchell and Webb

Sikh temple massacre because ‘atheists hate God’

Televangelist Pat Robertson on Monday reviewed the case of a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that left at least seven dead and came to the conclusion that places of worship were being attacked because “people who are atheists, they hate God.”

Robertson opened Monday’s 700 Club broadcast with the news that there had been a mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek.

“What is it?” the TV preacher wondered. “Is it satanic? Is it some spiritual thing, people who are atheists, they hate God, they hate the expression of God? And they are angry with the world, angry with themselves, angry with society and they take it out on innocent people who are worshiping God.”

“And whether it’s a Sikh temple or a Baptist church or a Catholic church or a Muslim mosque, whatever it is, I just abhor this kind of violence, and it’s the the kind of thing that we should do something about,” he added. “But what do you do? Well, you talk about the love of God and hope it has some impact.”

The Raw Story

Femme de la Rue sexism on the streets of Brussels

Multiple shooters at Sikh Temple

Yet another 'lone gunman' incident is contradicted by several witnesses that claim there were 'multiple' shooters.
One witness, relaying information from his father in the hospital, told CNN that, "It was a very coordinated thing. It wasn't haphazard."
And another witness said the shooting was committed by "four white males, who were dressed darkly, dressed in all black clothing, came in and opened fire on our congregation."
Now, I understand that in situations like this there is confusion and chaos, and sometimes reports by witnesses can be unreliable, however, how many times can these 'lone gunman' incidents be contradicted by witnesses claiming that there were multiple shooters and considered coincidence?

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Navalny Finds Bug in His Office

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he found an eavesdropping device behind a wall panel in the office of his Anti-Corruption Fund. Navalny alerted the police upon finding the bug, which is featured in two photos that he posted on Twitter. The photos show a wooden panel pulled away from the wall near the floor, exposing a bundle of wires that lead to a rectangular-shaped piece of black plastic, presumably the listening device.

Officers arrived at Navalny's downtown Moscow office at 26 Nikolo-Yamskaya Ulitsa around 2 p.m. and "conducted checks" of the area, a police representative told Interfax. Navalny, arguably the most prominent figure in the opposition movement, was charged last week with costing the state budget $500,000 by organizing the theft of timber goods from a state company in 2009. He has called the charge "absurd" and likened it to stealing an "entire forest." If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison.

The Moscow Times

The Cat Piano on Vimeo

A short film by The People's Republic of Animation. Narrated by Nick Cave

Racist Sikh murderer was in US Army

Wade Michael Page, the man suspected of killing six people at a Sikh temple in suburban Wisconsin, was a member of a racist skinhead band, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Soon after Page was identified as the suspect Monday morning, the SPLC reported that he founded the band End Apathy, which the organization described as a "racist white power" trio.

According to police, Page enlisted in the U.S. Army in April 1992 and was serving in the psychological operations unit out of Fort Bragg, N.C. He was discharged in October 1998, though the specific circumstances of his discharge are not immediately clear. Page does not mention his military career in the Label 56 interview, but he does refer to his life since leaving the Army.

Huffington Post

The Plan To Collapse Iran's Central Bank

Almost a billion go hungry worldwide

An unparalleled number of severe food shortages has added 43 million to the number of people going hungry worldwide this year. And millions of children are now at risk of acute malnutrition, charities are warning. One week ahead of David Cameron's "hunger summit", they say that unless action is taken urgently, many more could fall victim.

For the first time in recent history, humanitarian organisations have had to respond to three serious food crises – in West Africa, Yemen and East Africa – in the past 12 months, according to Oxfam. Almost a billion people are now hungry – one in seven of the global population – and the number of acutely malnourished children has risen for the first time this decade.

The Independent

China slams US over South China Sea criticism

China has summoned a US diplomat to protest his government's criticism of a new military garrison in the South China Sea.

Zhang Kunsheng, the Chinese assistant foreign minister, summoned Robert S Wang, the deputy chief of the US embassy in Beijing, on Saturday to express displeasure with earlier US comments. The US State Department said on Friday that China's formal establishment of Sansha City, a garrison on a remote island about 350km from the country's southern-most province, was risking an escalation in regional tensions.

The garrison, created two weeks ago, is intended to administer hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of water where China wants to strengthen its control over potentially oil-rich islands that are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam and other Asian countries. The Philippines, a US treaty ally, has described the move as unacceptable, while Vietnam has termed it a violation of international law.

In Beijing, Zhang told Wang: "The [US State Department's] statement showed total disregard of facts, confounded right and wrong, and sent a seriously wrong message. It is not conducive to efforts by the parties concerned to uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea and the Asia-Pacific region at large."

Al Jazeera English