FEDS WANT MAJOR EXPANSION OF SECRET WIRETAP POWERS OVER WEB-BASED SERVICES. Facebook, Google, Skype and other brand names behind your favorite internet sites and programs are chafing at proposed new rules from the Obama administration that would force companies to comply with sweeping wiretaps and information requests from the FBI and Justice Department. While companies [...]
Deep and arbitrary spending cuts, part of the austerity measures hatched by Congress two years ago and known as sequestration, are beginning to take a severe toll on vulnerable Americans dependent on crucial government programs. President Obama has described the sequester as a “self-inflicted wound” on the economy that could lead to another recession. Uneducated [...]
COLLEGE STUDENTS: FORGET ABOUT THAT DUMB PROFESSOR WHO GRADES YOUR ESSAY EXAMS; ED-EX OFFERS YOU AN “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” TO DO THAT JOB FOR YOU. ” EdEx” is a creation of Harvard and MIT which machine-grades essay exams as “objective” tests have long been graded. Proponents praise the system for the “instant feedback” offered students [...]
THAT’S ONE GIANT STEP FOR WORLD LEUKEMIA SUFFERERS. An Indian court rules that a “copycat” (generic) version of a brand name drug cannot be prohibited by the patent claimed by the brand name company. This decision could have “ripple” effects on the availability of generics for people throughout the world. Prohibition of copycat [...]
“MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT” BRINGS IMMUNITY TO REGULATION OF FOOD TO YOUR DINNER TABLE. It was done quietly last week, an obscure provision slipped into a congressional spending bill, the passage and presidential signing of which averted a government shutdown. The so-named provision allows Monsanto and other corporate food processors exemption from federal regulation by [...]
“ANTIQUE COLD WARRIORS IN THE SERVICE OF PIRATE CAPITALISTS.” This is Rob Urie’s tag-line for his scathing denunciation of the Iraqi war: the authorities who perpetrated it, and the 75% of Americans who “supported” it until the action came to be seen as too costly and futile. Bush administration officials come under major charges [...]
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: U.S., ISRAEL AND IRAN IS STARTING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE U.S., ISRAEL AND IRAQ IN 2002. At least it looks this way to the “Roving Eye” reporter for Asia Times, Pepe Escobar. Benjamin Netanyahu, now PM, was not in power in ’02 but helped to lead the war [...]
PLAN TO GET SICK AFTER 2014? BETTER PLAN TO MOVE TO MASSACHUSETTS IF YOU WANT HEALTH CARE COVERAGE. This is a reasonable interpretation of a finding that the great majority (up to 98%) of health care services will be unavailable to Americans after the “Affordable” (Obamacare) health insurance system kicks in that year. The [...]
CUBA IN A TIME OF CHOLERA. The Raul Castro government tends to deny the scope of the outbreak of the disease and resist some of the public health measures required to deal with it. This denial seems to be based on a desire not to hurt Cuba’s “reputation” as a desirable tourist destination, but [...]
L.A. UNDRESSED BY RUTH FOWLER. British journalist and screen-writer who wrote “Girl, Undressed,” based on her experience in the New York City sex trade, deconstructs the public outrage concerning Christopher Dorner, the deranged former LAPD officer turned cop killer. As usual, public notice focuses on the derangement and not what was in the mind [...]
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