622: Operation Chokepoint

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:45

For more than six years, media assassins Crackpot (Adam Curry) and Buzzkill (John C. Dvorak) have performed the twice weekly Podcast, No Agenda Show, a discussion of current events or whatever they feel like talking about, from wine to chemtrails. In this fictional account, they are recruited by the CIA to help foil an evil plot to create turmoil in the American population by taking down the Internet's most popular site. The story has adventure, intrigue, foreign travel, spies and assassins. So shut up slaves and buy this book. If not today, in the morning.

NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]

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Sun, 21 Sep 2014 15:00

Propaganda in the United States is propaganda spread by government and media entities within the United States. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to influence opinions. Propaganda is not only in advertising; it is also in radio, newspaper, posters, books, and anything else that might be sent out to the widespread public.

Domestic[edit]World War I[edit]The first large-scale use of propaganda by the U.S. government came during World War I. The government enlisted the help of citizens and children to help promote war bonds and stamps to help stimulate the economy. To keep the prices of war supplies down, the U.S. government produced posters that encouraged people to reduce waste and grow their own vegetables in "victory gardens." The public skepticism that was generated by the heavy-handed tactics of the Committee on Public Information would lead the postwar government to officially abandon the use of propaganda.[1]

World War II[edit]During World War II the U.S. officially had no propaganda, but the Roosevelt government used means to circumvent this official line. One such propaganda tool was the publicly owned but government funded Writers' War Board (WWB). The activities of the WWB were so extensive that it has been called the "greatest propaganda machine in history".[1]Why We Fight is a famous series of US government propaganda films made to justify US involvement in World War II.

In 1944 (lasting until 1948) prominent US policy makers launched a domestic propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to agree to a harsh peace for the German people, for example by removing the common view of the German people and the Nazi party as separate entities.[2] The core in this campaign was the Writers' War Board which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.[2]

Another means was the United States Office of War Information that Roosevelt established in June 1942, whose mandate was to promote understanding of the war policies under the director Elmer Davies. It dealt with posters, press, movies, exhibitions, and produced often slanted material conforming to US wartime purposes. Other large and influential non-governmental organizations during the war and immediate post war period were the Society for the Prevention of World War III and the Council on Books in Wartime.

Cold War[edit]During the Cold War, the U.S. government produced vast amounts of propaganda against communism and the Soviet bloc. Much of this propaganda was directed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover, who himself wrote the anti-communist tract Masters of Deceit. The FBI's COINTELPRO arm solicited journalists to produce fake news items discrediting communists and affiliated groups, such as H. Bruce Franklin and the Venceremos Organization.

War on Drugs[edit]The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, originally established by the National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988,[3][4] but now conducted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998,[5] is a domestic propaganda campaign designed to "influence the attitudes of the public and the news media with respect to drug abuse" and for "reducing and preventing drug abuse among young people in the United States".[6][7] The Media Campaign cooperates with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other government and non-government organizations.[8]

Iraq War[edit]In early 2002, the U.S. Department of Defense launched an information operation, colloquially referred to as the Pentagon military analyst program.[9] The goal of the operation is "to spread the administrations's talking points on Iraq by briefing ... retired commanders for network and cable television appearances," where they have been presented as independent analysts.[10] On 22 May 2008, after this program was revealed in the New York Times, the House passed an amendment that would make permanent a domestic propaganda ban that until now has been enacted annually in the military authorization bill.[11]

The Shared values initiative was a public relations campaign that was intended to sell a "new" America to Muslims around the world by showing that American Muslims were living happily and freely, without persecution, in post-9/11 America.[12] Funded by the United States Department of State, the campaign created a public relations front group known as Council of American Muslims for Understanding (CAMU). The campaign was divided in phases; the first of which consisted of five mini-documentaries for television, radio, and print with shared values messages for key Muslim countries.[13]

NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act[edit]The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]

Ad Council[edit]The Ad Council, an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various private and federal government agency sponsors, has been labeled as "little more than a domestic propaganda arm of the federal government" given the Ad Council's historically close collaboration with the President of the United States and the federal government.[17]

International[edit]Through several international broadcasting operations, the US disseminates American cultural information, official positions on international affairs, and daily summaries of international news. These operations fall under the International Broadcasting Bureau, the successor of the United States Information Agency, established in 1953. IBB's operations include Voice of America, Radio Liberty, Alhurra and other programs. They broadcast mainly to countries where the United States finds that information about international events is limited, either due to poor infrastructure or government censorship. The Smith-Mundt Act prohibits the Voice of America from disseminating information to US citizens that was produced specifically for a foreign audience.

During the Cold War the US ran covert propaganda campaigns in countries that appeared likely to become Soviet satellites, such as Italy, Afghanistan, and Chile.

Recently The Pentagon announced the creation of a new unit aimed at spreading propaganda about supposedly "inaccurate" stories being spread about the Iraq War. These "inaccuracies" have been blamed on the enemy trying to decrease support for the war. Donald Rumsfeld has been quoted as saying these stories are something that keeps him up at night.[18]

Psychological operations[edit]The US military defines psychological operations, or PSYOP, as:

planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.[19]

The Smith-Mundt Act, adopted in 1948, explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at the US public.[20][21][22] Nevertheless, the current easy access to news and information from around the globe, makes it difficult to guarantee PSYOP programs do not reach the US public. Or, in the words of Army Col. James A. Treadwell, who commanded the U.S. military psyops unit in Iraq in 2003, in the Washington Post:

There's always going to be a certain amount of bleed-over with the global information environment.[23]

Agence France Presse reported on U.S. propaganda campaigns that:

The Pentagon acknowledged in a newly declassified document that the US public is increasingly exposed to propaganda disseminated overseas in psychological operations.[24]

Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the document referred to, which is titled "Information Operations Roadmap." [22][24] The document acknowledges the Smith-Mundt Act, but fails to offer any way of limiting the effect PSYOP programs have on domestic audiences.[20][21][25]

Several incidents in 2003 were documented by Sam Gardiner, a retired Air Force colonel, which he saw as information-warfare campaigns that were intended for "foreign populations and the American public." Truth from These Podia,[26] as the treatise was called, reported that the way the Iraq war was fought resembled a political campaign, stressing the message instead of the truth.[22]

See also[edit]References[edit]^ abThomas Howell, The Writers' War Board: U.S. Domestic Propaganda in World War II, Historian, Volume 59 Issue 4, Pages 795 - 813^ abSteven Casey, (2005), The Campaign to sell a harsh peace for Germany to the American public, 1944 - 1948, [online]. London: LSE Research Online. [Available online at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000736] Originally published in History, 90 (297). pp. 62-92 (2005) Blackwell Publishing^National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988 of the Anti''Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Pub.L. 100''690, 102 Stat. 4181, enacted November 18, 1988^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, footnote 6, page 3 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 (Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999), Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, pp. 9''10 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006, Pub.L. 109''469, 120 Stat. 3501, enacted December 29, 2006, codified at 21 U.S.C. § 1708^Barstow, David (2008-04-20). "Message Machine: Behind Analysts, the Pentagon's Hidden Hand". New York Times. ^Sessions, David (2008-04-20). "Onward T.V. Soldiers: The New York Times exposes a multi-armed Pentagon message machine". Slate. ^Barstow, David (2008-05-24). "2 Inquiries Set on Pentagon Publicity Effort". New York Times. ^Rampton, Sheldon (October 17, 2007). "Shared Values Revisited". Center for Media and Democracy. ^"U.S. Reaches Out to Muslim World with Shared Values Initiative". America.gov. January 16, 2003.

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:04

Editors note - This is not the editors opinion but the original author. The idea behind sharing this is to create a dialogue on activities of Red Cross in Africa & Missionary groups. It is not the first time the Christian movements claimed that US led powers are trying to control population in Africa for various reasons. Specially, Gates foundation was accused for carrying out various programmes to vaccinate African babies.

It may look like a conspiracy theory and in truth both Red Cross and Gates foundation may have a noble vision to create a better Africa. We know United States and Cuba are the two countries who have risked the most by sending health workers. Editor would like to hear your opinion on this piece which is going viral right now. Pleas note once more, sole purpose of sharing this is to create a dialogue and to hear our reader's perspective on same.

Other than the original facebook post, this web site is the first one to carry this and it needs to be spread, the future may be riding on this one, ARCHIVE, POST POST AND RE-POST!

People in the Western World need to know what's happening here in West Africa. THEY ARE LYING!!! ''Ebola'' as a virus does NOT Exist and is NOT ''Spread''. The Red Cross has brought a disease to 4 specificcountries for 4 specific reasons and it is only contracted by those who receive treatments and injections from the Red Cross. That is why Liberians and Nigerians have begun kicking the Red Cross out of their countries and reporting in the news the truth. Now bear with me:REASONS:

Most people jump to ''depopulation'' which is no doubt always on the mind of the West when it comes to Africa. But I assure you Africa can NEVER be depopulated by killing 160 people a day when thousands are born per day. So the real reasons are much more tangible.

Reason 1:

This vaccine implemented sickness being ''called'' Ebola was introduced into West Africa for the end goal of getting troops on the ground in Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. If you remember America was just trying to get into Nigeria for ''Boko Haram'' #BULLSHIT but that fell apart when Nigerians started telling the truth. There ARE NO GIRLS MISSING. Global support fell through the floor, and a new reason was needed to get troops into Nigeria and steal the new oil reserves they have discovered.

Reason 2:

Sierra Leone is the World's Largest Supplier of Diamonds. For the past 4 months they have been on strike, refusing to provide diamonds due to horrible working conditions and slave pay. The West will not pay a fair wage for the resources because the idea is to keep these people surviving on rice bags and foreign aid so that they remain a source of cheap slave labor forever. A reason was also needed to get troops on the ground in Sierra Leone to force an end to the diamond miners strikes. This is not the first time this has been done. When miners refuse to work troops are sent in and even if they have to kill and replace them all, the only desire is to get diamonds back flowing out of the country.

Of course to launch multiple campaigns to invade these countries separately would be way too fishy. But something like ''Ebola'' allows access to an entire area simultaneously'...

Reason 3:

In addition to stealing Nigerian oil, and forcing Sierra Leone back to mining, troops have also been sent in to FORCE vaccinations (Deadly ''Ebola'' Poison) onto those Africans who are not foolish enough to take them willingly.3000 troops are being sent in to make sure that this ''poison'' continues to spread, because again it is only spread through vaccination. As more and more news articles are released as they have been in Liberia, informing the populous of the US lies and manipulation, more and more Africans are refusing to visit the Red Cross. Troops will force these vaccinations upon the people to ensure the visible appearance of an Ebola pandemic. In addition to this they will protect the Red Cross from the Liberians and Nigerians who have been rightfully ejecting them from their countries.Reason 4:

Last but not least, the APPEARANCE of this Ebola ''pandemic'' (should Americans not catch on) will be used to scare the countless millions into taking an ''Ebola vaccine'' which in reality is the pandemic. Already they have started with stories of how it has been brought to the U.S. and has appeared in Dallas, how white doctors were cured but black infected are not being allowed to be treated, etc.ALL that will do is make blacks STRIVE to get the vaccine, because it appears that the ''cure'' is being held back from blacks. They will run out in droves to get it and then there will be serious problems. With all we have seen revealed about vaccines this year you would think we learned our lesson. All I can do is hope so, Because they rely on our ignorance to complete their agendas.Ask yourself:

If Ebola really was spread from person to person, instead of controlled spread through vaccination '' then WHY would the CDC and the US Government continue to allow flights in and out of these countries with absolutely no regulation, Or At All? We have got to start thinking and sharing information globally because they do not give the true perspective of the people who live here in West Africa. They are lying for their own benefit and there aren't enough voices out there with a platform to help share our reality. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, paralyzed and disabled by these and other ''new'' vaccines all over the world and we are finally becoming aware of it. Now what will we do with all this information?

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 20:01

Speaking from the White House Friday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said new Ebola Czar Ron Klain will report to former U.N. ambassador and current National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

"Mr. Klain will ultimately however report to Ms. Monoco [Homeland Security] and to National Security Advisor Susan Rice in this effort," Earnest said.

As a reminder, Susan Rice is the woman who went on five Sunday talk shows to lie about a YouTube video being responsible for the 9/11 attack in Benghazi. She is also the same person who said alleged Army deserter and Taliban sympathizer Bowe Bergdahl served with honor and distinction.

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 20:16

Earlier today, President Barack Obama announced that he would be appointing Ron Klain as an additional Ebola czar (he already had one before today). If Ron Klain sounds familiar to you, it's because he has a long political pedigree. He has no medical, scientific, or federal agency administrative expertise, but he has a whole lot of political experience.

In January of 2011, Klain stepped down as chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden. Before that, Ron Klain was a well-connected Washington lobbyist. According to Senate lobbying disclosure records, Klain's clients included Fannie Mae, U.S. Airways, Time Warner, CIGNA, and Imclone.

Klain also worked as chief of staff for former Vice President Al Gore, Janet Reno, the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee. But that's not all! Ron Klain did debate prep for both Obama and former president Bill Clinton. And if that weren't enough, Klain was also general counsel of Al Gore's election recount committee in 2000.

Ron Klain has a lot of experience. Unfortunately, absolutely none of it is related to public health, epidemiology, or cross-agency administration.

That Obama would appoint a long-time Democratic operative with zero public health or federal administrative experience tells us everything we need to know about how Obama views the Ebola panic: Ebola is a political problem for the White House, not a public health problem for the nation.

You don't pick a former White House staffer to run a massive public health effort if you think you have a public health problem. You pick a former White House staffer if you view this as a political problem to be managed for the remaining weeks heading into the election.

We should actually be somewhat thankful for this move from the White House, because it tells us everything we need to know about how the Obama White House views the current landscape. Obama apparently believes that Ebola is a political problem to be swept under the rug, not a public health epidemic that needs to be eradicated as quickly as possible.

UPDATE: The White House has responded to criticisms of its choice of a long-time Democratic political operative to head its Ebola response efforts:

Seriously. The White House spokesman literally said of the qualifications of its newest Ebola czar, ''What we were looking for was not an Ebola expert.'' The White House didn't want somebody who knew anything about Ebola to head up its anti-Ebola effort. It wanted an ''implementation expert.'' A White House spokesman said those things out loud.

If Klain has experience implementing anything other than Democratic political ploys, we'd love to hear about it.

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 20:12

As the Ebola situation in West Africa continues to deteriorate, some U.S. officials are claiming that they would have been able to better deal with the public health threat if only they had more money.

Dr. Francis Collins, who heads the National Institutes of Health (NIH), told The Huffington Post, ''Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready.'' Hillary Clinton also claimed that funding restrictions were to blame for inability to combat Ebola.

Other limited government types point to the Progressive utopian foolishness seen in opposing political factions, both sides of which seem to agree humanity could somehow escape calamity if only we had a properly functioning government. People who don't want an all-powerful government shouldn't blame it for not having competence when crisis strikes.

What's particularly interesting about this discussion, then, is that nobody has even discussed the fact that the federal government not ten years ago created and funded a brand new office in the Health and Human Services Department specifically to coordinate preparation for and response to public health threats like Ebola. The woman who heads that office, and reports directly to the HHS secretary, has been mysteriously invisible from the public handling of this threat. And she's still on the job even though three years ago she was embroiled in a huge scandal of funneling a major stream of funding to a company with ties to a Democratic donor'--and away from a company that was developing a treatment now being used on Ebola patients.

Before the media swallow implausible claims of funding problems, perhaps they could be more skeptical of the idea that government is responsible for solving all of humanity's problems. Barring that, perhaps the media could at least look at the roles that waste, fraud, mismanagement, and general incompetence play in the repeated failures to solve the problems the feds unrealistically claim they will address. In a world where a $12.5 billion slush fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is used to fight the privatization of liquor stores, perhaps we should complain more about mission creep and Progressive faith in the habitually unrealized magic of increased government funding.

Lay of the LandCollins' NIH is part of the Health and Human Services Department. Real spending at that agency has increased nine-fold since 1970 and now tops $900 billion. Oh, if we could all endure such ''funding slides,'' eh?

Whether or not Dr. Collins' effort to get more funding for NIH will be successful'--if the past is prologue, we'll throw more money at him'--the fact is that Congress passed legislation with billions of dollars in funding specifically to coordinate preparation for public health threats like Ebola not 10 years ago. And yet the results of such funding have been hard to evaluate.

See, in 2004, Congress passed The Project Bioshield Act. The text of that legislation authorized up to $5,593,000,000 in new spending by NIH for the purpose of purchasing vaccines that would be used in the event of a bioterrorist attack. A major part of the plan was to allow stockpiling and distribution of vaccines.

If you look at any of the information about these pieces of legislation or the office and authorities that were created, this brand new expansion of the federal government was sold to us specifically as a means to fight public health threats like Ebola. That was the entire point of why the office and authorities were created.

In fact, when Sen. Bob Casey was asked if he agreed the U.S. needed an Ebola czar, which some legislators are demanding, he responded: ''I don't, because under the bill we have such a person in HHS already.''

The Invisible Dr. LurieSo, we have an office for public health threat preparedness and response. And one of HHS' eight assistant secretaries is the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, whose job it is to ''lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters, ranging from hurricanes to bioterrorism.''

In the video below, the woman who heads that office, Dr. Nicole Lurie, explains that the responsibilities of her office are ''to help our country prepare for, respond to and recover from public health threats.'' She says her major priority is to help the country prepare for emergencies and to ''have the countermeasures'--the medicines or vaccines that people might need to use in a public health emergency. So a large part of my office also is responsible for developing those countermeasures.''

Or, as National Journal rather glowingly puts it, ''Lurie's job is to plan for the unthinkable. A global flu pandemic? She has a plan. A bioterror attack? She's on it. Massive earthquake? Yep. Her responsibilities as assistant secretary span public health, global health, and homeland security.'' A profile of Lurie quoted her as saying, ''I have responsibility for getting the nation prepared for public health emergencies'--whether naturally occurring disasters or man-made, as well as for helping it respond and recover. It's a pretty significant undertaking.'' Still another refers to her as ''the highest-ranking federal official in charge of preparing the nation to face such health crises as earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, and pandemic influenza.''

Now, you might be wondering why the person in charge of all this is a name you're not familiar with. Apart from a discussion of Casey's comments on how we don't need an Ebola czar because we already have one, a Google News search for Lurie's name at the time of writing brings up nothing in the last hour, the last 24 hours, not even the last week! You have to get back to mid-September for a few brief mentions of her name in minor publications. Not a single one of those links is confidence building.

So why has the top official for public health threats been sidelined in the midst of the Ebola crisis? Only the not-known-for-transparency Obama administration knows for sure. But maybe taxpayers and voters should force Congress to do a better job with its oversight rather than get away with the far easier passing of legislation that grants additional funds before finding out what we got for all that money we allocated to this task over the last decade. And then maybe taxpayers should begin to puzzle out whether their really bad return on tax investment dollars is related to some sort of inherent problem with the administrative state.

The Ron Perelman ScandalThere are a few interesting things about the scandal Lurie was embroiled in years ago. You can'--and should'--read all about it in the Los Angeles Times' excellent front-page expose from November 2011, headlined: ''Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal: A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.'' This Forbes piece is also interesting.

The donor is billionaire Ron Perelman, who was controlling shareholder of Siga. He's a huge Democratic donor but he also gets Republicans to play for his team, of course. Siga was under scrutiny even back in October 2010 when The Huffington Post reported that it had named labor leader Andy Stern to its board and ''compensated him with stock options that would become dramatically more valuable if the company managed to win the contract it sought with HHS'--an agency where Stern has deep connections, having helped lead the year-plus fight for health care reform as then head of the Service Employees International Union.''

The award was controversial from almost every angle'--including disputes about need, efficacy, and extremely high costs. There were also complaints about awarding a company of its size and structure a small business award as well as the negotiations involved in granting the award. It was so controversial that even Democrats in tight election races were calling for investigations.

Last month, Siga filed for bankruptcy after it was found liable for breaching a licensing contract. The drug it's been trying to develop, which was projected to have limited utility, has not really panned out'--yet the feds have continued to give valuable funds to the company even though the law would permit them to recoup some of their costs or to simply stop any further funding.

The Los Angeles Times revealed that, during the fight over the grant, Lurie wrote to Siga's chief executive, Dr. Eric A. Rose, to tell him that someone new would be taking over the negotiations with the company. She wrote, ''I trust this will be satisfactory to you.'' Later she denied that she'd had any contact with Rose regarding the contract, saying such contact would have been inappropriate.

The company that most fought the peculiar sole-source contract award to Siga was Chimerix, which argued that its drug had far more promise than Siga's. And, in fact, Chimerix's Brincidofovir is an antiviral medication being developed for treatment of smallpox but also Ebola and adenovirus. In animal trials, it's shown some success against adenoviruses, smallpox, and herpes'--and preliminary tests show some promise against Ebola. On Oct. 6, the FDA authorized its use for some Ebola patients.

It was given to Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died, and Ashoka Mukpo, who doctors said had improved. Mukpo even tweeted that he was on the road to recovery.

Money, or rather the lack of it, is a big part of the problem. NIH's purchasing power is down 23 percent from what it was a decade ago, and its budget has remained almost static. In fiscal year 2004, the agency's budget was $28.03 billion. In FY 2013, it was $29.31 billion'--barely a change, even before adjusting for inflation.

a $702,558 grant for the study of the impact of televisions and gas generators on villages in Vietnam.$175,587 to the University of Kentucky to study the impact of cocaine on the sex drive of Japanese quail.$55,382 to study hookah smoking in Jordan.$592,527 to study why chimpanzees throw objects.Last year there were news reports about a $509,840 grant from NIH to pay for a study that will send text messages in ''gay lingo'' to meth-heads. There are many other shake-your-head examples of misguided spending that are easy to find.

Indeed. The Progressive belief that a powerful government can stop all calamity is misguided. In the last 10 years we passed multiple pieces of legislation to create funding streams, offices, and management authorities precisely for this moment. That we have nothing to show for it is not good reason to put even more faith in government without learning anything from our repeated mistakes. Responding to the missing Ebola Czar and her office's corruption by throwing still more money, more management changes, and more bureaucratic complexity in her general direction is madness.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:17

The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. The Surgeon General's office and staff are known as the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG).

The U.S. Surgeon General is nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate. The Surgeon General serves a four-year term of office and, depending on whether the current Assistant Secretary for Health is a PHSCC commissioned officer or not, is the senior or second-highest ranking uniformed officer of the PHSCC, holding the rank of a vice admiral.[1] The current Acting Surgeon General is Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak, who was named to the position following Regina Benjamin's resignation on July 16, 2013.[2]

Responsibilities[edit]The Surgeon General reports to the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), who may be a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps (PHSCC), and who serves as the principal adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on public health and scientific issues. The Surgeon General is the overall head of the Commissioned Corps, a 6,500-member cadre of health professionals who are on call 24 hours a day, and can be dispatched by the Secretary of HHS or the Assistant Secretary for Health in the event of a public health emergency.

The Surgeon General is also the ultimate award authority for several public health awards and decorations, the highest of which that can be directly awarded is the Surgeon General's Medallion (the highest award bestowed by board action is the Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal). The Surgeon General also has many informal duties, such as educating the American public about health issues and advocating healthy lifestyle choices.

The office also periodically issues health warnings. Perhaps the best known example of this is the "Surgeon General's Warning" labels that can be found on all packages of American tobacco cigarettes for 47 years. A similar health warning appears on alcoholic beverages labels, since 1988.

History[edit]In 1798, Congress established the Marine Hospital Service'--predecessor to today's United States Public Health Service'--to provide health care to sick and injured merchant seamen. In 1870, the Marine Hospital Service was reorganized as a national hospital system with centralized administration under a medical officer, the Supervising Surgeon, who was later given the title of Surgeon General.[3]

The U.S. Public Health Service was under the direction of the Office of the Surgeon General and was an independent government agency until 1953 at which point it was integrated into the newly established United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, (HEW), and later in 1979/1980 into the reorganized United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Some Surgeons General are notable for being outspoken and advocating controversial proposals on how to reform the U.S. health system.[citation needed] The office is not a particularly powerful one, and has little direct statutary impact on policy-making, but Surgeons General are often vocal advocates (with 26th President Theodore Roosevelt's practice of "The Bully Pulpit" in the early 20th Century) of precedent-setting, far-sighted, unconventional or even unpopular health policies. With the advance of modern media, and an advanced medical establishment in America, the example of former Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, during the administration of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s or the attention paid to the controversial drive to confirm certain S.G. nominees by the U.S. Senate during the administration of Bill Clinton in the 1990s, shows just how truly powerful and influential an activist Surgeon General can be. Just like in comparison to the incumbent and office of the Vice President of the United States, the character, drive and reach of the office-holder makes the office itself, far more powerful or influential as they may be'--"the man makes the job"!

On January 11, 1964, Rear Admiral Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., published a landmark report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health,[4] sparking nationwide anti-smoking efforts. Terry and his committee defined cigarette smoking of nicotine as not an addiction. (The committee itself consisted largely of physicians who themselves smoked.) This error went uncorrected for 24 years.[5]In 1986, Vice Admiral Dr. C. Everett Koop's report on AIDS called for some form of AIDS education in the early grades of elementary school, and gave full support for using condoms for disease prevention.[6]In 1994, Vice Admiral Dr. Joycelyn Elders had spoken at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She was asked whether it would be appropriate to promote masturbation as a means of preventing young people from engaging in riskier forms of sexual activity, and she replied, "I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught."[7]The U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force also have officers overseeing medical matters in their respective services who hold the title Surgeon General.

The insignia of the Surgeon General, and the USPHS, use the caduceus as opposed to the Rod of Asclepius

Service rank[edit]The Surgeon General is a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps, one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and by law holds the rank of vice admiral.[1] Officers of the Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps are classified as non-combatants, but can be subjected to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Conventions when designated by the Commander-in-Chief as a military force or if they are detailed or assigned to work with the armed forces. Officer members of these services wear uniforms that are similar to those worn by the United States Navy, except that the commissioning devices, buttons, and insignia are unique. Officers in the U.S. Public Health Service wear unique devices that are similar to U.S. Navy, Staff Corps Officers (e.g., Navy Medical Service Corps, Supply Corps, etc.).

The only Surgeon General to actually hold the rank of a four-star admiral was David Satcher,(b. 1941), (term: 1998-2002). This was because he served simultaneously in the positions of Surgeon General (three-star) and Assistant Secretary for Health (which is a four-star office).[8]John Maynard Woodworth, (1837-1879), the first holder of the office as "Supervising Surgeon" (term: 1871-1879), is the only Surgeon General to not hold a rank.

Surgeons General of the United States[edit]#NamePhotoTerm of OfficeAppointed byStart Of TermEnd Of Term1John M. WoodworthMarch 29, 1871March 14, 1879Ulysses S. Grant2RADMJohn B. HamiltonApril 3, 1879June 1, 1891Rutherford B. Hayes3RADM Walter WymanJune 1, 1891November 21, 1911Benjamin Harrison4RADM Rupert BlueJanuary 13, 1912March 3, 1920William Taft5RADM Hugh S. CummingMarch 3, 1920January 31, 1936Woodrow Wilson6RADM Thomas Parran, Jr.April 6, 1936April 6, 1948Franklin D. Roosevelt7RADM Leonard A. ScheeleApril 6, 1948August 8, 1956Harry S Truman8RADM Leroy Edgar BurneyAugust 8, 1956January 29, 1961Dwight Eisenhower9RADM Luther TerryMarch 2, 1961October 1, 1965John F. Kennedy10VADMWilliam H. StewartOctober 1, 1965August 1, 1969Lyndon Johnson11RADM Jesse Leonard SteinfeldDecember 18, 1969January 30, 1973 [9]Richard Nixon(acting)RADM S. Paul Ehrlich, Jr.January 31, 1973 [10]July 13, 197712VADM Julius B. RichmondJuly 13, 1977January 20, 1981 [11]Jimmy Carter(acting)Edward Brandt, Jr.May 14, 1981January 21, 1982Ronald Reagan13VADM C. Everett KoopJanuary 21, 1982October 1, 1989(acting)ADMJames O. MasonOctober 1, 1989March 9, 1990George H. W. Bush14VADM Antonia C. NovelloMarch 9, 1990June 30, 1993(acting)RADM Robert A. WhitneyJuly 1, 1993September 8, 1993Bill Clinton15VADM Joycelyn EldersSeptember 8, 1993December 31, 1994(acting)RADM Audrey F. ManleyJanuary 1, 1995July 1, 199716ADM[8] / VADM David SatcherFebruary 13, 1998February 12, 2002(acting)RADM Kenneth P. MoritsuguFebruary 13, 2002August 4, 2002George W. Bush17VADM Richard CarmonaAugust 5, 2002July 31, 2006(acting)RADM Kenneth P. MoritsuguAugust 1, 2006September 30, 2007RADM Steven K. GalsonOctober 1, 2007October 1, 2009RADM Donald L. WeaverOctober 1, 2009November 3, 2009Barack Obama18VADM Regina Benjamin[12]November 3, 2009[13]July 16, 2013(acting)RADM Boris D. LushniakJuly 17, 2013OngoingSee also[edit]References[edit]^ abPublic Health, Commissioned Corps Uniforms and Ranks^David (June 12, 2013). "Surgeon General Regina Benjamin announces resignation". Public Health Newswire. American Public Health Association. Retrieved July 27, 2013. ^HHS '' Office of the Surgeon General '' About the Office^Julie M. Fenster "Hazardous to Your Health" American Heritage, Oct. 2006.^Joel Spitzer. The Surgeon General says .... WhyQuit.com. Retrieved May 22, 2010. ^Winn, Mari (October 9, 1988). "The Legacy of Dr. Koop". The New York Times. ^Leon Dash, "Joycelyn Elders: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America", Washington Monthly, January''February 1997^ ab"Office of the Surgeon General, David Satcher, (1998''2002] url=http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/previous/biosatcher.htm". U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. January 4, 2007. ^"Jesse Leonard Steinfeld (1969-1973)". SurgeonGeneral.gov. 2007-01-04. Retrieved 2014-04-29. ^http://gao.gov/products/094195^"HHS Secretaries - National Institutes of Health (NIH)". Nih.gov. Retrieved 2014-04-29. ^"Obama picks Regina Benjamin as surgeon general". Reuters. July 13, 2009. ^Stobbe, Mike (December 3, 2009). "Surgeon general: More minority doctors needed". WTOP. Retrieved December 5, 2009. External links[edit]

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Archived Version

Fri, 17 Oct 2014 20:07

President Obama has asked Ron Klain, who served as chief of staff to both Vice President Biden and former vice president Al Gore, as his Ebola response coordinator, according to a White House official.

"He will report directly to the president's homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, and the president's national security adviser, Susan Rice, as he ensures that efforts to protect the American people by detecting, isolating and treating Ebola patients in this country are properly integrated but don't distract from the aggressive commitment to stopping Ebola at the source in West Africa," a White House official wrote in an e-mail.

Klain, 53, is a longtime Democratic operative who served as Biden's chief of staff from 2009 to 2011 and as Gore's from 1995 to 1999. He helped oversee the Democratic side in the 2000 presidential election recount as its lead lawyer, a role that Kevin Spacey portrayed in the HBO film "Recount."

CNN first reported the news Friday morning.

Obama has been under pressure from Republicans for weeks to appoint an "Ebola czar" to oversee the federal government's overall effort to contain the disease. Thursday night, the president told reporters: "It may make sense for us to have one person, in part just so that after this initial surge of activity, we can have a more regular process, just to make sure that we're crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's going forward. "

"Klain's role is consistent with the view the president articulated in the Oval Office last night that Monaco, Rice and others have done outstanding work in confronting this challenge so far '-- but given their management of other national and homeland security priorities, additional bandwidth will further enhance the government's Ebola response," the White House official added in the e-mailed statement.

The move did not satisfy conservatives such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who said the staff change fell short of what is needed to contain the spread of the lethal virus on U.S. soil.

''We don't need another so-called 'czar'; we need presidential leadership. This is a public health crisis, and the answer isn't another White House political operative," Cruz said in a statement. "The answer is a commander in chief who stands up and leads, banning flights from Ebola-afflicted nations and acting decisively to secure our southern border."

At Friday's news briefing, White House press secretary Josh Earnest praised Ebola czar Ron Klain's experience in the public and private sector, saying he is "the right person for the job." (AP)

But Klain's Democratic colleagues said he was well-suited for the assignment. Robert Bauer, who served as White House counsel under Obama and worked on the 2008 recount, said Klain has developed a reputation of having "taken on highly charged assignments where there were significant complexities, and managed them very well."

Klain is not known for his health-care expertise, though he would get briefings on those policies in his capacity as a campaign strategist for Gore and the Democrats' 2004 presidential candidate, John F. Kerry.

"I wouldn't call him a policy wonk by any means, but he was someone who got [that] you couldn't formulate good strategy without understanding the policy," said Chris Jennings, who served as a top White House health policy adviser under President Bill Clinton and Obama.

Klain navigated the legal and political worlds with ease, Jennings added. "He wasn't just an analyst. He was a strategist."

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward R. Royce (R-Calif.) questioned Klain's lack of medical credentials, saying in a statement: ''Given the mounting failings in the Obama administration's response to the Ebola outbreak, it is right that the President has sought to task a single individual to coordinate its response. But I have to ask why the President didn't pick an individual with a noteworthy infectious disease or public health background?"

Known for a mordant sense of humor, Klain is also an enthusiastic Facebook user who frequently posts about his family. He is married to Monica Medina, who served as a top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official during Obama's first term and is now the National Geographic Society's senior director for international ocean policy.

Klain became close with Biden while serving as a staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee when Biden served as chairman. He helped advise Biden during the 2008 campaign, and his bona fides inside the West Wing date back to shortly after Obama won that historic election.

During the transition, the newly elected president wanted to find a role for Klain in the West Wing, and his name was mentioned as a potential White House communications director, according to a person familiar with the internal deliberations. But Biden also wanted him and convinced Klain to join the vice president's office as chief of staff, a role he had also served for Vice President Gore in the late 1990s.

Mark Gitenstein, a former Obama administration ambassador to Romania, said Klain developed a strong relationship with Obama while helping prepare the then-senator from Illinois for the presidential debates against Republican nominee John McCain in 2008. Klain had served in a similar role for Kerry's 2004 campaign.

''Debate prep requires getting in someone's face and saying, 'No, you're not doing this right,' '' said Gitenstein, who had personally recommended that Klain replace him as general counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1989, when Klain was 28 and then serving as a clerk on the Supreme Court.

Gitenstein said Klain's management of the economic stimulus push in the first year of the Obama administration helped him prepare for the challenges that he'll face managing the Ebola response. ''It was a very difficult job -- a management problem and a problem of getting the money to the right places, which required coordination with other Cabinet secretaries.... Ron really got his arms around the problem as fast as anyone I've seen.''

Former senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), who was a longtime political adviser to Biden, called Klain well-suited for the role based on his varied experience dealing with Congress, the White House and the media.

''He's like your Renaissance man; the more difficult the problem, the better he is,'' Kaufman said.

Jon Wolfsthal, who served on Biden's national security staff, said Klain managed both Biden's domestic operations and the national security division.

''I would not say he's a light touch. You know he's in the room,'' Wolfsthal said. ''But he's not trying to push anybody around or boss them around. He's very serious, and he makes sure the work gets done.... Even though he doesn't have a background in disease, it doesn't matter -- he will master anything.''

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) immediately praised the news.

"I've known Ron Klain for over twenty years," Schumer said in a statement. "He is smart, aggressive, and levelheaded; exactly the qualities we need in a czar to steer our response to Ebola. He is an excellent choice."

Klain left the White House in 2011 to become president of Case Holdings, the holding company for the business and philanthropic interests of former AOL chairman Steve Case, and general counsel of Revolution LLC, a Washington-based venture capital firm founded by Case.

Ed O'Keefe contributed to this report.

President Obama conceded Thursday it "may be appropriate for me to appoint an additional person" to head the administration's response against the Ebola virus. (AP)

This post has been updated.

Related: CDC director on the defensive as Ebola spreads

Juliet Eilperin is a White House correspondent for The Washington Post, covering domestic and foreign policy as well as the culture of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. She is the author of two books'--one on sharks, and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other'--and has worked for the Post since 1998.

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Archived Version

Fri, 17 Oct 2014 20:02

Ronald A. "Ron" Klain is an American lawyer and political operative best known for serving as Chief of Staff to two Vice Presidents - Al Gore (1995''1999) and Joseph Biden (2009''2011).[1][2] He is an influential Democratic Party insider. Earlier in his career, he was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White during the Court's 1987 and 1988 Terms and worked on Capitol Hill, where he was Chief Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination. He was portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the HBO film Recount depicting the tumult of the 2000 presidential election. On October 17, 2014, President Obama named Klain the newly created "Ebola response coordinator" (or, less officially, Ebola "czar").[3][4][5]

Early life[edit]Klain was born on August 8, 1961 in Indianapolis, He is a member of the DayBreak Boys Band and grew up in a Jewish home.[6] He graduated from North Central High School[7] in 1979 and was on the school's Brain Game team, which finished as season runner-up.[citation needed] He graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University in 1983. In 1987, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School,[7] where he was one of several to win the Sears Prize for the highest grade point average in 1984''85. While at Harvard Law School, Klain was also an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Capitol Hill career[edit]Klain's early experience on Capitol Hill included serving as Legislative Director for U.S. RepresentativeEd Markey. From 1989 to 1992, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, overseeing the legal staff's work on matters of constitutional law, criminal law, antitrust law, and Supreme Court nominations. In 1995, Senator Tom Daschle appointed him the Staff Director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee.

Clinton administration[edit]Klain joined the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992. He ultimately was involved in both of Bill Clinton's campaigns, oversaw Clinton's judicial nominations, and was General Counsel to Al Gore's recount committee in the 2000 election aftermath. Some published reports have given him credit for Clinton's "100,000 cops" proposal during the 1992 campaign; at a minimum, he worked closely with Clinton aide Bruce Reed in formulating it. In the White House, he was Associate Counsel to the President, directing judicial selection efforts, and led the team that won confirmation of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Klain left the judicial selection role in 1994 to become Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno. In 1995, he became Assistant to the President, and Chief of Staff and Counselor to Al Gore.

Gore campaign[edit]During Klain's tenure as Gore's Chief of Staff, Gore consolidated his position as the likely Democratic nominee in 2000. Still, Klain was seen as too loyal to Clinton by some longtime Gore advisors. Feuding broke out between Clinton and Gore loyalists in the White House in 1999, and Klain was ousted by Gore campaign chairman Tony Coelho in August of that year. In October 1999, he joined the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. A year later, Klain returned to the Gore campaign, once Coelho was replaced by William M. Daley. Daley hired Klain for a senior position in the Gore campaign and then named him General Counsel of Gore's Recount Committee.

Legal career[edit]In 1994, Time named Klain one of the "50 most promising leaders in America" under the age of 40. In 1999, Washingtonian magazine named him the top lawyer in Washington under the age of 40, and the American Bar Association's Barrister magazine named him one of the top 20 young lawyers nationwide. The National Law Journal named him one of its Lawyers of the Year for 2000.

Lobbying[edit]Klain helped Fannie Mae overcome "regulatory issues".[8]

2004-2008[edit]During the 2004 Presidential campaign, Klain worked as an adviser to Wesley Clark in the early primaries. Later, during the General Election, Klain was heavily involved behind the scenes in John Kerry's campaign and is widely credited for his role in preparing Senator Kerry for a strong performance in the debates against President George W. Bush, which gave Kerry a significant boost in the polls.[9] He then acted as an informal adviser to Evan Bayh, who is from Klain's home state of Indiana. Klain has also commented on matters of law and policy on televised programs such as the Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, Capital Report, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and Crossfire.

In 2005, Klain left his partnership at O'Melveny & Myers to serve as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of a new investment firm, Revolution LLC, launched by AOL co-founder Steve Case.[citation needed]

Obama administration[edit]On November 12, 2008, Roll Call announced that Klain had been chosen to serve as Chief of Staff to Vice PresidentJoe Biden, the same role he served for Gore.[10] Klain had worked with Biden previously, having served as counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary while Biden chaired that committee and assisted Biden's speechwriting team during the 1988 presidential campaign.[11]

Klain was mentioned as a possible replacement for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel,[12] but opted to leave the White House for a position in the private sector in January 2011.[2]

Klain apparently signed off on President Obama's support of a $535 million loan guarantee for now-defunct solar-panel company Solyndra. Despite concerns about whether the company was viable, Klain approved an Obama visit, stating, "The reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by election day 2012."[13]

On October 17, 2014, Klain was appointed the "Ebola response coordinator" (or, less officially, Ebola "czar")[3] by President Obama, to help coordinate the nation's response to the Ebola virus.[4][5][14]

Personal life[edit]Klain and his wife, Monica Medina, an environmental activist, and special assistant to the Secretary of Defense live with their children, Hannah, Michael and Daniel in Chevy Chase, Maryland.[15][16]

References[edit]^Allen, Mike (November 13, 2008). "Klain accepts job as Biden chief of staff". Politico.^ abCooper, Helene C. (January 4, 2011). "Ron Klain Leaving Vice President's Staff". The New York Times. ^ abKuhnhenn, Jim (October 17, 2014). "President Obama appoints Ebola 'czar'". AP News. Retrieved October 2014. ^ abDavis, Julie Hirschfeld; Shear, Michael D. (October 17, 2014). "Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to 2 Vice Presidents, Is Named Ebola Czar". New York Times. Retrieved October 17, 2014. ^ abLavender, Paige (October 17, 2014). "Obama To Appoint Ron Klain As Ebola Czar". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 17, 2014. ^Scelfo, Julie (December 6, 2007). "A Holiday Medley, Off Key". The New York Times.^ abGroppe, Maureen (November 14, 2008). "Indy native may serve as Biden's chief of staff". The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved 2009-01-05. [dead link]^Mosk, Matthew (November 15, 2008). "Some Former Lobbyists Have Key Roles in Obama Transition". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2010. ^Martin Kasendorf and Richard Benedetto (September 27, 2004). "Kerry, Bush Curtail Schedules as They Prepare for Duel". USA Today. Retrieved May 11, 2012. ^Koffler, Keith (November 12, 2008). "Sources: Biden Picks Klain to Be Chief of Staff". Roll Call.^Cramer, Richard Ben (1992). What It Takes: The Way to the White House. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-74649-8. pp. 482.^Henry, Ed (September 8, 2010). "Who might replace Rahm Emanuel?". CNN. Retrieved 9 September 2010. ^Madhani, Aamer (October 3, 2011). "E-mails show White House worried about Solyndra deal". USA Today. Retrieved September 28, 2012. ^http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/ebola-czar-ron-klain/^"NOAA Leadership: Monica Medina". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved August 14, 2013.^Medina, Monica (July 21, 1999). "STATEMENT OF MONICA MEDINA, GENERAL COUNSEL, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE ON HABITAT CONSERVATION PLAN SCIENCE BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES, WILDLIFE AND DRINKING WATER". U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works. Retrieved August 14, 2013.External links[edit]PersondataNameKlain, RonAlternative namesShort descriptionChief of Staff of the Vice President of the United StatesDate of birthAugust 8, 1961Place of birthIndianapolis, IndianaDate of deathPlace of death

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 16:07

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:50

Steve Case's revolution would seem to be on track.

Three years ago, the co-founder and former CEO of AOL used $500 million of his own money to start a private holding company called Revolution LLC. In the process, he put together a corporate board that included several people who were, like himself, fashioning new lives after career setbacks.

''We don't just aim for a return, we seek to make history,'' Case said of the company that had several goals, including helping people manage their own health.

Revolution quickly began acquiring health-related enterprises.

And a year ago, the company, now called Revolution Health Group, started the online RevolutionHealth.com, a blend of health information, advice, social networking and blogs.

As of March, the site had 11.5 million monthly visitors and was the Internet's fourth-ranked health site.

''Profitability is on the horizon, but we haven't put a timetable on it yet,'' Case told the online site MediaPostPublications.

The rise of RevolutionHealth.com represents a triumph of sorts for Case, who made millions at AOL but suffered setbacks after the ill-fated merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001.

Just as Revolution provided a chance for Case to regroup, service on its board also has provided a soft landing of sorts for others.

Indeed, given the number of corporate battle-scarred survivors on the board, one tech blogger referred to it as ''Steve Case's League of Extraordinary Banished Executives.'' Chief among the exiles may be board member Franklin D. Raines, the former CEO of Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored lender.

Raines, who was the White House budget director in the Clinton administration, left Fannie Mae in 2004 after the agency was rocked by controversies over accounting procedures and executive salaries.

Last month, he reached a $25 million settlement with federal regulators over the irregularities.

Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and no stranger to controversy, is also on Revolution's board. She pulled off the Hewlett-Packard merger with Compaq in 2001, only to lose her job in 2005 after she lost the favor of her board.

Revolution board member Stephen F. Wiggins had to give up his as CEO of Oxford Health Plans in 1998 after the company suffered significant losses.

Raines, Fiorina and Wiggins are joined on the board by government insiders, venture capitalists, high-tech veterans.

Chief amongst equals is former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, whose resume also includes stints as national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

No stranger to criticism for his role in the lead-up to the war in Irag, Powell joined Revolution as a board member and investor soon after he left government in 2005.

That same year, Powell and Raines joined Jeff Zients, another member of Revolution's board, in an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the Washington Nationals baseball team.

Zients is the former CEO of the Advisory Board Company, a consulting services company that made him a millionaire many times over.

He's also teamed with Revolution board member John K. Delaney, the co-founder and CEO of CapitalSource, in several investments.

James L. Barksdale, the former head of Netscape, serves on Revolution's board as do AOL veterans Donn Davis, Revolution's president, and Miles R. Gilburne and former JP Morgan executive David Golden, Revolution's chief financial officer.

Ron Klain, who is also Revolution's vice president and general counsel, rounds off the board. A consummate Democratic insider, Klain led the team picking judges in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1994. He was chief of staff first for Attorney General Janet Reno and then for Vice President Al Gore.

This presidential election season, he's been blogging for The New York Times.

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Antitrust expert Sanford Litvack to examine Google-Yahoo deal - September 11, 2008Klain departing White House to rejoin Case - January 6, 2011Carly Fiorina: possible candidate for GOP veep - April 29, 2008Howell Raines, media critic - January 16, 2008Muck tracker - Meg Whitman new CEO at Hewlett-Packard - September 22, 2011Google's top execs get $6 million in bonuses - March 4, 2009Wozniak has a new role at a new company - February 9, 2009The rapid rise of well-connected offspring - August 15, 2013Obama to nominate two to Fed Board - December 27, 2011Arison gives up CEO post at Carnival - June 25, 2013This post is tagged with:Business, Carly Fiorina, Colin L. Powell, David Golden, Donn Davis, Franklin D. Raines, James L. Barksdale, Jeff Zients, John K. Delaney, Miles R. Gilburne, Revolution Health Group, Ron Klain, Stephen F. Wiggins, Steve Case

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 20:02

Amidst growing pressure, President Obama is set to announce Ron Klain as his Ebola 'czar.' Klain has worked with Vice President Joe Biden, former presidential candidate John Kerry and former Vice President Al Gore.

Video TranscriptAutomatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)

00:01 -- pressure mounts for the White House to take a00:04 stronger stance in the fight against a bola. Ron -- will00:08 be appointed as President Obama as Ebola czar. We have and00:11 has surgeon general for a year and that's a job that00:14 would have. Traditionally done a lot of these this role so00:17 now they need somebody come in -- step in and pull00:20 out of the various pieces together. Claim has served as a00:23 top aide to Al Gore during the 2000 election. He also00:27 served as an advisor for John Kerry's presidential campaign and as00:32 chief of staff to vice president Joseph Biden. In 2011 he00:36 left the White House to serve in the private sector. What00:39 he knows so many people inside Washington inside government inside the00:43 policy community. He knows how to make things work and that's00:46 one of the things that the president needs right now. Claims00:49 role as General Counsel to Al Gore's 2000 recount committee was00:53 the focus of the 2008 film recount. Oscar winning actor Kevin00:58 Spacey played claim in the HBO movie. -- -- -- --01:03 -- So the best man win them. -- -- -- --01:10 -- As the bullet czar a White House official says claim01:14 will be responsible for coordinating the administration's whole of government response.01:20 -- --

Ron Klain, left, was portrayed by actor Kevin Spacey in the HBO film "Recount."(Photo: Andrew H. Walker, Getty Images)

WASHINGTON '-- President Obama tapped veteran government insider Ron Klain to coordinate his administration's efforts to contain the Ebola virus Friday.

Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, is well-known by Obama and White House aides. He was selected for his management experience and contacts throughout the government, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

"He is the right person for the job," Earnest said, particularly the challenge of "integrating the interagency response."

Klain's appointment marks a swift turnabout for Obama, who until Thursday had resisted calls to appoint a single official to run the government's response to Ebola.

Asked Thursday about the prospect of an "Ebola czar," Obama said, "It may make sense for us to have one person, in part just so that after this initial surge of activity, we can have a more regular process just to make sure that we're crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's going forward."

USA TODAY

From recounts to stimulus to Ebola: Ron Klain's resume

Obama did not mention Klain's appointment during a speech Friday to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but he said his administration is taking an "all-hands-on-deck" approach to fighting Ebola.

The administration has come under increased pressure to name an anti-Ebola coordinator in the wake of news that two nurses in Dallas contracted the deadly virus. Both had treated a man who died of Ebola.

Klain played a high-profile file in Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey portrayed him in an HBO movie on that year's Florida recount.

The Ebola response includes efforts to screen travelers from West African nations where Ebola has reached epidemic proportions and killed more than 4,500 people. Klain will help coordinate the assistance the U.S. military provides in West Africa.

Some Republican lawmakers criticized Obama for entrusting the job to a former government manager rather than a professional.

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., tweeted, "Worst ebola epidemic in world history and Pres. Obama puts a government bureaucrat with no healthcare experience in charge. Is he serious?"

Members of the public health community expressed surprise.

"When are they going to stop making mistakes?" said Robert Murphy, the director of the Center for Global Health at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "We need a czar, but optimally a strong public health expert. I am so disappointed. This is not what we need."

Physician Amesh Adalja, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said, "It's clear that there's a desperate desire for an organized approach to dealing with this outbreak. I don't necessarily think we need a disease-specific czar '-- we have one for HIV '-- but more of an emerging infectious diseases/biosecurity coordinator who reports to the president."

The Ebola position is designed to be more managerial in nature, involving an array of government agencies ranging from the Pentagon to Health and Human Services.

"This is much broader than a medical response," Earnest said.

As for Republican criticism, Earnest joked, "That's a shocking development." He noted that national elections are less than three weeks away.

Klain may weigh in on another question facing the administration: the prospect of a U.S. travel ban from West African nations where there have been Ebola outbreaks.

Obama and aides have disputed the need for a travel ban, questioning whether it would work and arguing that it might create unintended problems.

Thursday, Obama said experts in infectious diseases have told him "a travel ban is less effective than the measures that we are currently instituting that involve screening passengers who are coming from West Africa."

Klain is likely to take a low key role publicly.

Earnest said Obama wasn't looking for an Ebola expert but "an implementation expert."

He confirmed Klain's title: "Ebola response coordinator."

Klain will report to two officials involved in the anti-Ebola effort: homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and national security adviser Susan Rice.

Obama is pleased with the work of Monaco and Rice, but "given their management of other national and homeland security priorities, additional bandwidth will further enhance the government's Ebola response," a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The president has long known Klain, who helped prepare him for debates with Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential campaign.

Klain has been out of government since leaving Biden's staff during Obama's first term.

Contributing: Liz Szabo

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:49

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:57

U.S. requests production plans for Ebola drug ZMappTop News

U.S. requests production plans for Ebola drug ZMapp

Fri, Oct 17 17:47 PM EDT

By Sharon Begley

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. officials have asked three advanced biology laboratories to submit plans for producing the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp, which ran out after it was given to a handful of medical workers who contracted the disease in West Africa, government and lab officials said on Friday.

The "task order" issued on Thursday by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) asks that detailed plans, including budgets and timetables, be submitted by Nov. 10.

Separately, Amgen Inc said on Friday that it will help create production lines for ZMapp using mammalian cells, a more traditional technique than the tobacco plants used to produce previous doses of ZMapp.

Amgen will assign 12 to 14 employees to the effort, said spokeswoman Kristen Davis, and they will work on the project through the end of 2014.

ZMapp was given to American medical workers Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who recovered after contracting Ebola in Liberia, and to at least one Spanish priest, who died. It is impossible to know whether ZMapp helped because it has not been studied in a rigorous clinical trial, but the drug has been held out as a promising therapy during the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

The U.S. government "is working with partners around the world as quickly as possible to advance the development of multiple vaccine and therapeutic candidates for clinical evaluation and future use in preventing or treating Ebola," BARDA Director Robin Robinson said in a statement.

The three advanced labs, called Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, were established by the U.S. government in 2012 with $440 million in seed money. They are required to develop flexible manufacturing capabilities to allow them to produce countermeasures against chemical, biological, and other threats.

One of the three, run by Texas A&M Health Science Center in partnership with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline Plc, "is swiftly responding" to the government request, Dr. Brett Giroir, chief executive officer of the health science center, said in a statement, and will submit detailed proposals for scaling up production of ZMapp.

The other two centers are a facility led by Emergent Biosolutions in Baltimore and another in Holly Springs, North Carolina, led by Swiss drug company Novartis AG.

Adam Havey, president of Emergent's biodefense division, said the company has been in discussions with plant-based manufacturers to develop a response to the task order.

"We look forward to leveraging our manufacturing capabilities to expand production of this experimental therapeutic and to find other ways to support the U.S. government's fight against Ebola," Havey said in a statement.

Novartis said it was evaluating the request from BARDA. Elizabeth Power, a company spokeswoman, said the company is "unable to provide any additional details at this time."

Once proposals are submitted, BARDA will select one or more labs to produce ZMapp, which is currently manufactured in tobacco plants by Kentucky Bioprocessing, a unit of Reynolds American Inc.

"We believe there are substantial opportunities to increase the yield of ZMapp" in plants while keeping the product the same, Giroir said in an interview. The compound needs to be identical to what Mapp has already vetted in animals "or you would have to go back to the beginning for safety testing," he said.

Giroir said the Texas center "is very familiar" with plant-based antibody production. If it wins a government contract for ZMapp production, it would likely tap Caliber Biotherapeutics, which specializes in tobacco-plant-based drug production and shares the Texas campus, as a subcontractor.

It is not yet clear how many doses of ZMapp Texas could produce in what amount of time, Giroir said.

San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical has said it ran out of its limited supply of ZMapp in August. Mapp officials were not available for comment.

(Additional reporting by Toni Clarke and Deena Beasley; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Jonathan Oatis)

U.S. requests production plans for Ebola drug ZMappTop News

U.S. requests production plans for Ebola drug ZMapp

Fri, Oct 17 17:47 PM EDT

By Sharon Begley

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. officials have asked three advanced biology laboratories to submit plans for producing the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp, which ran out after it was given to a handful of medical workers who contracted the disease in West Africa, government and lab officials said on Friday.

The "task order" issued on Thursday by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) asks that detailed plans, including budgets and timetables, be submitted by Nov. 10.

Separately, Amgen Inc said on Friday that it will help create production lines for ZMapp using mammalian cells, a more traditional technique than the tobacco plants used to produce previous doses of ZMapp.

Amgen will assign 12 to 14 employees to the effort, said spokeswoman Kristen Davis, and they will work on the project through the end of 2014.

ZMapp was given to American medical workers Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who recovered after contracting Ebola in Liberia, and to at least one Spanish priest, who died. It is impossible to know whether ZMapp helped because it has not been studied in a rigorous clinical trial, but the drug has been held out as a promising therapy during the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

The U.S. government "is working with partners around the world as quickly as possible to advance the development of multiple vaccine and therapeutic candidates for clinical evaluation and future use in preventing or treating Ebola," BARDA Director Robin Robinson said in a statement.

The three advanced labs, called Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, were established by the U.S. government in 2012 with $440 million in seed money. They are required to develop flexible manufacturing capabilities to allow them to produce countermeasures against chemical, biological, and other threats.

One of the three, run by Texas A&M Health Science Center in partnership with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline Plc, "is swiftly responding" to the government request, Dr. Brett Giroir, chief executive officer of the health science center, said in a statement, and will submit detailed proposals for scaling up production of ZMapp.

The other two centers are a facility led by Emergent Biosolutions in Baltimore and another in Holly Springs, North Carolina, led by Swiss drug company Novartis AG.

Adam Havey, president of Emergent's biodefense division, said the company has been in discussions with plant-based manufacturers to develop a response to the task order.

"We look forward to leveraging our manufacturing capabilities to expand production of this experimental therapeutic and to find other ways to support the U.S. government's fight against Ebola," Havey said in a statement.

Novartis said it was evaluating the request from BARDA. Elizabeth Power, a company spokeswoman, said the company is "unable to provide any additional details at this time."

Once proposals are submitted, BARDA will select one or more labs to produce ZMapp, which is currently manufactured in tobacco plants by Kentucky Bioprocessing, a unit of Reynolds American Inc.

"We believe there are substantial opportunities to increase the yield of ZMapp" in plants while keeping the product the same, Giroir said in an interview. The compound needs to be identical to what Mapp has already vetted in animals "or you would have to go back to the beginning for safety testing," he said.

Giroir said the Texas center "is very familiar" with plant-based antibody production. If it wins a government contract for ZMapp production, it would likely tap Caliber Biotherapeutics, which specializes in tobacco-plant-based drug production and shares the Texas campus, as a subcontractor.

It is not yet clear how many doses of ZMapp Texas could produce in what amount of time, Giroir said.

San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical has said it ran out of its limited supply of ZMapp in August. Mapp officials were not available for comment.

(Additional reporting by Toni Clarke and Deena Beasley; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Jonathan Oatis)

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:45

Thu Oct 16, 2014 10:54am IST

(Repeats to reformat paragraph 12)

By Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI Oct 16 (Reuters) - A Chinese drugmaker with military ties has sent an experimental Ebola drug to Africa for use by Chinese aid workers and is planning clinical trials there to combat a deadly outbreak of the disease, executives at the firm told Reuters on Thursday.

Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd has supplied several thousand doses of its drug JK-05 to the region, Chief Operating Officer Jia Zhongxin said. More doses could be sent if needed, Jia said.

An Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the worst on record, has killed more than 4,000 people.

Governments and drugmakers around the globe have been racing to find a treatment for the outbreak, which has spread as far as the United States and Europe. U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to get more "aggressive" against the disease.

"Aid workers have already taken the drug with them, and if a case breaks out (amongst the aid workers), then the drug may be used," added Huo Caixia, Sihuan's assistant general manager.

Sihuan, part-owned by U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley , is hoping to get the drug fast-tracked for civilian use in China. It has signed an agreement with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), a research unit, to seek approval for the drug's use in China and push it to market.

The drug, approved in China for emergency military use only, was initially developed by AMMS.

If it proves to be an effective cure it would be a big prize for China's medical sector and a boost to the country's soft power in Africa, an increasingly important partner for the world's No.2 economy.

CLINICAL TRIALS

Sihuan says it is China's third-largest prescription drugmaker. It was originally a military scientific unit, which was spun off into its current form in 2001.

The company is preparing for clinical trials in Africa and could test the drug on African Ebola patients, said Huo. So far no Chinese nationals have been infected.

"Right now we're formulating a plan for clinical trials, and don't rule out the possibility of using African patients," she said, adding that any outbreak of Ebola in Asia or China would speed up the drug's timetable to market.

There are around a million Chinese nationals living in Africa, with some 10,000 in the countries most affected by Ebola, which are Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

China has sent hundreds of aid workers to Africa to help in the fight against the Ebola outbreak and more than $35 million in medical aid to the worst affected countries.

China's military has also given Sihuan the green-light to produce emergency supplies of the drug.

JK-05 has not been used on humans, although Sihuan says it has proven effective during animal testing on mice.

Its development lags some way behind U.S.-developed ZMapp and TKM-Ebola, which have been tested on monkeys and used on Ebola patients. However, analysts said the drug's similarities to Japanese influenza drug Favipiravir is an encouraging sign.

Japanese firm Fujifilm Holdings Corp last week said the French and Guinean governments were considering clinical trials of Favipiravir, developed by group firm Toyama Chemical Co, to treat patients infected with Ebola. (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Neil Fullick)

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Source: Motherboard RSS Feed

Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:44

On Friday, the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a mandatory moratorium on so-called gain-of-function research. This includes work that creates new "enhanced" pathogens, agents that are more readily transmissible or infectious or otherwise better than their counterparts in the non-laboratory world.

The moratorium includes the complete withdrawal of funding for such research, as well as strong words encouraging scientists, federally funded or otherwise, "to voluntarily pause their research while risks and benefits are being reassessed." The White House so far doesn't have the power to just straight-up shutter research it doesn't like.

The ban on gain-of-function studies, a much more wide-reaching and rigid version of a ban enacted in 2012, is being presented as temporary, as policymakers and hopefully a few actual scientists attempt to craft a unified federal policy on GOF research. Said research, as defined by NIH director Francis Collins, is anything "that increases the ability of any of these infectious agents to cause disease by enhancing its pathogenicity or by increasing its transmissibility among mammals by respiratory droplets."

In particular, the ban will affect GOF studies on influenza, MERS, and SARS. "NIH has funded such studies because they help define the fundamental nature of human-pathogen interactions, enable the assessment of the pandemic potential of emerging infectious agents, and inform public health and preparedness efforts," Collins said.

"These studies, however, also entail biosafety and biosecurity risks, which need to be understood better," she continued, echoing a statement from the US Department of Health and Human Services's Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response:

Gain-of-function studies, or research that improves the ability of a pathogen to cause disease, help define the fundamental nature of human-pathogen interactions, thereby enabling assessment of the pandemic potential of emerging infectious agents, informing public health and preparedness efforts, and furthering medical countermeasure development. Gain-of-function studies may entail biosafety and biosecurity risks; therefore, the risks and benefits of gain-of-function research must be evaluated, both in the context of recent U.S. biosafety incidents ...

Said incidents were indeed some pretty severe fuckups, one involving the the sloppy handling of anthrax by workers at the CDC, and another not long after in which a dangerous strain of avian influenza was shipped to a Department of Agriculture poultry lab on accident. Both lapses occurred within the CDC's high-containment facilities.

The 2012 moratorium, prompted by a widespread outcry following the release of two papers describing the creation of an influenza superstrain, was eventually relaxed after the WHO introduced new guidelines for GOF research. So, there is some reason to hope that this is indeed temporary and researchers at the CDC and elsewhere can get back to work helping us avoid the sorts of plagues that might make the current Ebola outbreak look like a rougher than usual flu season.

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Source: White House.gov Video Feed

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 20:33

October 16, 2014 | 14:41 | Public Domain

On October 16, 2014, President Obama meet with members of his team coordinating the government's response to the Ebola outbreak.

Download mp4 (540MB) | mp3 (14MB)

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Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 20:31

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 16, 2014

EXECUTIVE ORDER

- - - - - - -

ORDERING THE SELECTED RESERVE AND CERTAIN INDIVIDUAL READY RESERVE MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES TO ACTIVE DUTY

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation United Assistance, which is providing support to civilian-led humanitarian assistance and consequence management support related to the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa. In furtherance of this operation, under the stated authority, I hereby authorize the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, under their respective jurisdictions, to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential under regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned, and to terminate the service of those units and members ordered to active duty.

This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,October 16, 2014.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 03:52

An ill-advised Ebola joke has landed an Ohio man behind bars on a felony charge, records show.

Emanuel Smith, 60, was gambling Wednesday at the Horseshoe Casino in Cleveland when he allegedly told a dealer that he was there as a way to avoid his ex-wife, who was stricken with Ebola.

Smith, a retired municipal employee, claimed that his former spouse had recently returned to Cleveland from West Africa.

According to a Municipal Court filing, Smith's comment ''caused panic'' in the downtown casino, a portion of which was shut down as a result of Smith's claim. The closure, investigators allege, caused the business to suffer ''a large financial loss.''

Several hours after his Ebola comment, Smith was arrested at his Cleveland home and charged with inducing panic, a felony, and criminal trespass. He was booked into the Cuyahoga County jail, where he is being held in lieu of $10,000 bond.

A judge has ordered Smith, seen at left, to stay away from the casino, which opened in 2012.

Smith made his Ebola crack on the day that it was first reported that a Texas nurse who tested positive for the disease had recently flown to Cleveland to visit family and try on wedding dresses.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:17

As a Saudi court sentenced one person to death and 21 others to various jail sentences after they were convicted of a range of militant crimes, including setting up training camps and identifying oil locations to hit, a recent report looked at where in the world those flying to Syria to help fight alongside ISIL have come from.

In February, King Abdullah decreed long prison terms for those who travel abroad to fight or who give material or moral support to groups deemed "extremist", including Al Qaeda, Syria's Nusra Front and IS.

This is not surprising when the data showed that the majority of militants joining the fight came from within the kingdom.

The conservative Islamic kingdom, a regional ally of the United States, has detained thousands of its own citizens and sentenced hundreds to jail after a campaign of bombings and attacks in the last decade by militants.

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in the kingdom, has described Al Qaeda and IS and the ideology they represent as the biggest enemy of Islam.

A report in the Washington Post revealed the figures below and were compiled by the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ISCR):

Afghanistan: 23

Albania: 148

Algeria: 250

Australia: 250

Austria: 60

Bahrain: 12

Belgium: 296

Bosnia: 60

Canada: 70

China: 100

Denmark: 84

Egypt: 358

Finland: 20

France: 412

Germany 240

Indonesia: 60

Iraq: 247

Ireland: 26

Israel: 20

Italy: 50

Jordan: 2,089

Kuwait: 71

Kyrgyzstan: 30

Lebanon: 890

Libya: 556

Morocco: 1,500

Norway: 40

Pakistan: 330

Qatar: 15

Russia: 800

Saudi Arabia: 2,500

Somalia: 68

Spain: 95

Sudan: 96

Sweden: 80

The Netherlands: 152

Tunisia: 3,000

Turkey: 400

UAE: 14

Ukraine

United Kingdom: 488

United States: 130

Yemen: 110

Small numbers also came from: Bangladesh, Chile, Ivory Coast, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, New Zealand, Philippines, Senegal, Singapore and Trinidad and Tobago.

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JSOC producer here - as usual there is a tiny bit of truth to the "5,000

Chemical "Weapons"" story being propagated by the left wing war mongers.

As "evil contractor boots on the ground" in 2004, I was present at such

a site located in the Tikrit area.

First, everyone who hasn't been under a rock since the 70's, KNEW he

had... and this is important here - SHORT RANGE TACTICAL CHEM WARHEADS.

He got most of them from US, as State Department Export Licenses for

weapons grade, or dual-use materials show. There were 700+ such permits

issued.

He also gassed the crap out of the Iranians in 1988 while we were there

watching, and high-fiving him.

What he DIDN'T HAVE in 2003, were any of the BS items/quantities that

Bush mentioned in his 2003 State of the Union address. 5000 mortar

rounds could fit into a large walk-in closet, so finding some forgotten

stockpile in a country the size of Iraq, is not earth shattering news -

and in no way, justification for the Iraq War.

Now about these sites: The one I was at was a NIGHTMARE. It took a

direct hit from a JDAM and you weren't allowed too close to it without

protection (this one was underground, with just a small portion of the

roof area just above ground). I was told by the EOD/Chemical guys on

site, that anyone going in there without protection, would die very

fast. I believe the Muthana site was in the same shape, and really, does

anyone think we left a perfectly clean, able to just walk in and grab,

chemical weapons bunker lying around after we left? They are all suicide

traps.

Now, will ISIL try to go in? Maybe - but this sure as hell isn't going

to be them loading crates and crates onto Toyota's.

What's even sadder, is that some right wingers are using this story to

try to justify the Iraq War - sorry, we knew he had it, and we gave it

to him - I believe the part about trying to cover it up.

Take care,

I was an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne during the initial invasion of Iraq. This Thursday's show was ringing my bells left and right with the Iraq and ISIS discussion.

First off I can verify 100% that we found chemical weapons. My company found and secured hundreds of 40mm, 60mm and 80mm mortar rounds some of them with chemical warheads. All had U.S. Markings. We destroyed the conventional ones and I am fairly sure the spooks picked up the Chemical ones though I didn't witness them load them up. They just happened to vanish around the same time the spooks paid our AO a visit.

As for the ISIS training being like Army training you are as usual 100% correct. Movement to contact or battle drill #1 is the basis for almost all infantry maneuvers in the U.S. Army. What was described was right out of the FM 7-8 (Infantry Bible). I am not exactly sure why the "Bat Boys" (Rangers) get all the credit for having perfected it, guess it sounds better on T.V. that way.

As for why they sent the 101st to west Africa I can answer that one too. From a certain perspective the whole goal of our modern military is logistics. They want to move a whole bunch of shit into someone else's country. Combat troops like Those sent to west Africa are there in case the locals don't like the idea of us putting all that shit in their country.

Hope this in some way broadens your understanding.

Thanks for the show, my 14 hour long days fly by on Monday and Friday.

Tyler

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 16:09

Islamic State flying three jets in Syria: monitorTop News

Islamic State flying three jets in Syria: monitor

Fri, Oct 17 17:24 PM EDT

By Sylvia Westall

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time the militant group had taken to the air.

The group, which has seized swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, has been flying the planes over the captured al-Jarrah military airport east of Aleppo, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report and U.S. Central Command said it was not aware of Islamic State flying jets in Syria.

U.S-led forces are bombing Islamic State bases in Syria and Iraq. The group has regularly used weaponry captured from the Syrian and Iraqi armies and has overrun several military bases but, if the report is confirmed, this would be the first time it has been able to pilot warplanes.

"They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein," Abdulrahman said.

"People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back," he said, citing witnesses in northern Aleppo province near the base, which is 70 km (45 miles) south of the Turkish border.

Witnesses reported the flights were at a low altitude and only lasted five to 10 minutes before landing, the Observatory said. It was not possible to reach the Syrian government for comment and state media did not mention the report.

It was not clear whether the jets were equipped with weaponry or whether the pilots could fly longer distances in the planes, which witnesses said appeared to be MiG 21 or MiG 23 models captured from the Syrian military.

U.S. MILITARY KEEPING "CLOSE EYE"

"We're not aware of ISIL conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere," U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said, using a former name for Islamic State.

"We continue to keep a close eye on (Islamic State) activity in Syria and Iraq and will continue to conduct strikes against their equipment, facilities, fighters and centers of gravity, wherever they may be."

General Lloyd Austin, head of the U.S. military's Central Command, said he could not confirm that Iraqi pilots had joined Islamic State.

"We don't have any operational reporting of ISIL flying jets in support of ISIL activity on the ground and so I cannot confirm that. And to the degree that pilots may have defected and joined the ranks of ISIL, I don't have any information on that either," he told a Pentagon news briefing.

Pro-Islamic State Twitter accounts have previously posted pictures of captured jets in other parts of Syria but the aircraft appeared unusable, according to political analysts and diplomats.

The countryside east of Aleppo city is one of the main bases of Islamic State in Syria. The al Qaeda offshoot controls up to a third of the territory of Syria, whose civil war pitting various rebel groups against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has raged for more than three years.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Phil Stewart and David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Islamic State flying three jets in Syria: monitorTop News

Islamic State flying three jets in Syria: monitor

Fri, Oct 17 17:24 PM EDT

By Sylvia Westall

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time the militant group had taken to the air.

The group, which has seized swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, has been flying the planes over the captured al-Jarrah military airport east of Aleppo, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report and U.S. Central Command said it was not aware of Islamic State flying jets in Syria.

U.S-led forces are bombing Islamic State bases in Syria and Iraq. The group has regularly used weaponry captured from the Syrian and Iraqi armies and has overrun several military bases but, if the report is confirmed, this would be the first time it has been able to pilot warplanes.

"They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein," Abdulrahman said.

"People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back," he said, citing witnesses in northern Aleppo province near the base, which is 70 km (45 miles) south of the Turkish border.

Witnesses reported the flights were at a low altitude and only lasted five to 10 minutes before landing, the Observatory said. It was not possible to reach the Syrian government for comment and state media did not mention the report.

It was not clear whether the jets were equipped with weaponry or whether the pilots could fly longer distances in the planes, which witnesses said appeared to be MiG 21 or MiG 23 models captured from the Syrian military.

U.S. MILITARY KEEPING "CLOSE EYE"

"We're not aware of ISIL conducting any flight operations in Syria or elsewhere," U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said, using a former name for Islamic State.

"We continue to keep a close eye on (Islamic State) activity in Syria and Iraq and will continue to conduct strikes against their equipment, facilities, fighters and centers of gravity, wherever they may be."

General Lloyd Austin, head of the U.S. military's Central Command, said he could not confirm that Iraqi pilots had joined Islamic State.

"We don't have any operational reporting of ISIL flying jets in support of ISIL activity on the ground and so I cannot confirm that. And to the degree that pilots may have defected and joined the ranks of ISIL, I don't have any information on that either," he told a Pentagon news briefing.

Pro-Islamic State Twitter accounts have previously posted pictures of captured jets in other parts of Syria but the aircraft appeared unusable, according to political analysts and diplomats.

The countryside east of Aleppo city is one of the main bases of Islamic State in Syria. The al Qaeda offshoot controls up to a third of the territory of Syria, whose civil war pitting various rebel groups against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has raged for more than three years.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut and Phil Stewart and David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:50

Submitted by Paddy Harris on 17th October 2014''The Shewashan discovery establishes GPK as a production operator in the KRG's expanding oil and gas industry and has demonstrated the potential for significant quantities of light oil to complement the country's growing reserves base,'' said Steve Lowden, director of GPK.

Shewashan-1 produced light oil (45API) on test from reservoir zones in the Cretaceous Shiranish, Kometan and Qamchuga formations. The Shewashan-1 well will now be put on production to gather data ahead of the final field development plan approval.

''We are pleased with this new light oil discovery which will contribute to our stated target of 1 million barrels of oil per day by the end of 2015 / early in 2016,'' said Ashti Hawrami, Kurdistan Regional Government minister for natural resources.

Shewashan was the second exploration prospect drilled by GPK on the Khalakan Block situated between the TaqTaq and Miran fields. The field is now delineated with a 122 square kilometre production area.

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Source: EconomicPolicyJournal.com

Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:50

Steve Hanke writes:If oil prices stay below $90 per barrel for any length of time, we will witness massive fiscal squeezes and regime changes in one or more of the following countries: Iran, Bahrain, Ecuador, Venezuela, Algeria, Nigeria, Iraq, or Libya.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:44

AMERICA leads the world in many categories: shale-gas production, defence spending, incarceration rates and, alas, payment-card fraud. In December Target, an American retailer, said that hackers had breached its network and stolen payment-card details of about 40m of its customers. A few months before the Target breach, roughly 152m customers had their information stolen in a hack of Adobe Systems. Last month Neiman-Marcus, a department store, reported a similar breach.

For crooks, there are rich pickings in such data. Total global payment-card fraud losses were $11.3 billion in 2012, up nearly 15% from the prior year. The United States'--the only country in which counterfeit-card fraud is consistently growing'--accounted for 47% of that amount, according to the Nilson Report: card issuers lost $3.4 billion and merchants another $1.9 billion.

A survey released in 2012 by the Aite Group and ACI Worldwide, a research and a payment-software firm respectively, found that 42% of Americans had experienced some form of payment-card fraud in the preceding five years. Nor is it just Americans who are affected: foreigners whose card data is stolen often find the thieves have little trouble waltzing into stores and making purchases with ersatz cards. Europeans rack up more losses in this way in America than in any other country.

In part, fraudsters target the United States because that's where the cards are. At the end of 2013 there were 1.2 billion debit, credit and pre-paid cards in circulation in America'--more than in any other region. That is nearly five cards per adult.

But America also makes things easy for fraudsters: alone among developed countries, it still relies exclusively on cards with magnetic strips, which are far less secure than the chip-and-PIN technology used elsewhere. This combines a personal code with a microchip from which it is harder to extract data than a magnetic strip.

As of 2012, 45% of the world's payment cards and 76% of terminals were equipped to use chip-and-PIN. By 2011 this technology had brought some forms of card fraud in Britain to their lowest level in two decades. The spread of chipped cards in Canada brought losses from skimming'--stealing data from credit cards'--from C$142m ($129m) in 2009 to C$38.5m in 2012.

At a series of Senate hearings earlier this month, Target's CFO said it would spend $100m to roll out chip-and-PIN store-issued credit cards and payment devices that accept them. A consumer advocate urged other card issuers to do the same. Though the switch may cost issuers and merchants as much as $8 billion, interest at long last appears to be growing.

Many of those costs may be recoverable over time through lower fraud losses. Chip-and-PIN would also harmonise American and global standards, making it easier for Americans to use their cards abroad and foreigners to use theirs in America. It will make mobile payments easier. And because recent banking regulations have reduced the amount of money banks make from interchange fees on debit cards, issuers are looking to trim costs elsewhere. Fraud losses no longer seem as manageable as they once did.

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 16:10

While signing an executive order on Friday mandating chip-and-pin technology on all federal government credit and debit cards, the president revealed that his card was declined at a restaurant in New York City last month. | BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images

President Obama hasmanyimpersonators. So you can't blame his credit card company for being a bit skittish about identity theft.

While signing an executive order on Friday mandating chip-and-pin technology on all federal government credit and debit cards, the president revealed that his card was declined at a restaurant in New York City last month.

''It turned out I guess I don't use it enough, so they thought there was some fraud going on,'' Obama said, adding that, thankfully, First Lady Michelle Obama picked up the check. ''I was trying to explain to the waitress, 'No really, I think that I've, uh, been paying my bills.' So even I'm affected by this.''

The Huffington Post couldn't confirm where the president's credit card was declined, but it was previously reported that the Obamas and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett dined at Estela last month. A woman who answered the phone at the posh restaurant in downtown Manhattan Friday told HuffPost that no one was available to talk about the president's visit.

On Friday, President Obama signed an executive order outlining several steps the government will take to better protect Americans from financial fraud and identity theft, which is the country's fastest-growing crime.

The order requires, among other things, that federal law enforcement send compromised credentials they find to a nationwide "Internet Fraud Alert System" and requires that government agencies that make personal data available online use two-factor authentication, or log-in by typing in both a password and a PIN code sent to a user's phone.

The order also mandates that government agencies begin introducing machines that read a new type of credit card that uses an embedded microchip and a PIN code to authorize transactions. Such cards -- known as "chip and pin" cards -- are supposed to make it much more difficult for hackers to make counterfeit credit cards from stolen card information, and are supposed be widely introduced by credit card companies by October of next year.

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 16:11

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 17, 2014

EXECUTIVE ORDER

- - - - - - -

IMPROVING THE SECURITY OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

Given that identity crimes, including credit, debit, and other payment card fraud, continue to be a risk to U.S. economic activity, and given the economic consequences of data breaches, the United States must take further action to enhance the security of data in the financial marketplace. While the U.S. Government's credit, debit, and other payment card programs already include protections against fraud, the Government must further strengthen the security of consumer data and encourage the adoption of enhanced safeguards nationwide in a manner that protects privacy and confidentiality while maintaining an efficient and innovative financial system.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve the security of consumer financial transactions in both the private and public sectors, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Secure Government Payments. In order to strengthen data security and thereby better protect citizens doing business with the Government, executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall, as soon as possible, transition payment processing terminals and credit, debit, and other payment cards to employ enhanced security features, including chip-and-PIN technology. In determining enhanced security features to employ, agencies shall consider relevant voluntary consensus standards and specifications, as appropriate, consistent with the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget Circular A-119.

(a) The Secretary of the Treasury shall take necessary steps to ensure that payment processing terminals acquired by agencies through the Department of the Treasury or through alternative means authorized by the Department of the Treasury have enhanced security features. No later than January 1, 2015, all new payment processing terminals acquired in these ways shall include hardware necessary to support such enhanced security features. By January 1, 2015, the Department of the Treasury shall develop a plan for agencies to install enabling software that supports enhanced security features.

(b) The Administrator of General Services shall take necessary steps to ensure that credit, debit, and other payment cards provided through General Services Administration (GSA) contracts have enhanced security features, and shall begin replacing credit, debit, and other payment cards without enhanced security features no later than January 1, 2015.

(c) The Secretary of the Treasury shall take necessary steps to ensure that Direct Express prepaid debit cards for administering Government benefits have enhanced security features, and by January 1, 2015, the Department of the Treasury shall develop a plan for the replacement of Direct Express prepaid debit cards without enhanced security features.

(d) By January 1, 2015, other agencies with credit, debit, and other payment card programs shall provide to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans for ensuring that their credit, debit, and other payment cards have enhanced security features.

(e) Nothing in this order shall be construed to preclude agencies from adopting additional standards or upgrading to more effective technology and standards to improve the security of consumer financial transactions as technologies and threats evolve.

Sec. 2. Improved Identity Theft Remediation. To reduce the burden on consumers who have been victims of identity theft, including by substantially reducing the amount of time necessary for a consumer to remediate typical incidents:

(a) by February 15, 2015, the Attorney General, in coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall issue guidance to promote regular submissions, as appropriate and permitted by law, by Federal law enforcement agencies of compromised credentials to the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance's Internet Fraud Alert System;

(b) the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce, and the Social Security Administration shall identify all publicly available agency resources for victims of identity theft, and shall provide to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) information about such resources no later than March 15, 2015, with updates thereafter as necessary. These agencies shall work in consultation with the FTC to streamline these resources and consolidate them wherever possible at the FTC's public website, IdentityTheft.gov; and

(c) OMB and GSA shall assist the FTC in enhancing the functionality of IdentityTheft.gov, including by coordinating with the credit bureaus to streamline the reporting and remediation process with credit bureaus' systems to the extent feasible, and in making the enhanced site available to the public by May 15, 2015.

Sec. 3.Securing Federal Transactions Online. To help ensure that sensitive data are shared only with the appropriate person or people, within 90 days of the date of this order, the National Security Council staff, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and OMB shall present to the President a plan, consistent with the guidance set forth in the 2011 National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, to ensure that all agencies making personal data accessible to citizens through digital applications require the use of multiple factors of authentication and an effective identity proofing process, as appropriate. Within 18 months of the date of this order, relevant agencies shall complete any required implementation steps set forth in the plan prepared pursuant to this section.

Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of OMB relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,October 17, 2014.

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Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 20:45

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 17, 2014

Today, the President is signing a new Executive Order directing the government to lead by example in securing transactions and sensitive data. The new BuySecure Initiative will provide consumers with more tools to secure their financial future by assisting victims of identity theft, improving the Government's payment security as a customer and a provider, and accelerating the transition to stronger security technologies and the development of next-generation payment security tools.

During remarks at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the President will highlight steps by his Administration and the private sector to improve security. With over 100 million Americans falling victim to data breaches over the last year, and millions suffering from credit card fraud and identity crimes, there is a need to act '-- and to move our economy toward stronger, more secure technologies that better secure transactions and safeguard sensitive data.

While there is no silver bullet to guarantee data security, the President is signing an Executive Order to implement enhanced security measures, including securing credit, debit, and other payment cards with microchips in lieu of basic magnetic strips, and PINs, such as those standard on consumer ATM cards. He is calling on all stakeholders to join the Administration and a number of major corporations in driving the economy toward more secure standards to safeguard consumer finances and reduce their chances of becoming victims of identity theft '-- America's fastest-growing crime.

Finally today, the President will announce the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection later this year to promote partnership and innovation. The Summit will bring together major stakeholders on consumer financial protection issues to discuss how all members of our financial system can work together to further protect American consumers and their financial data, now and in the future.

The President will also renew his call to Congress to enact overdue cybersecurity legislation that will help protect Americans '-- particularly by clarifying companies' obligations when sensitive data is breached.

KEY ACTIONS ANNOUNCED TODAY

Moving to more secure payment systems:

As part of the President's BuySecure Initiative, he is issuing a new Executive Order that '-- combined with new efforts from the private sector '-- will help the drive the market towards more secure payment systems.

Making Federal payments more secure to help drive the market forward: The President's Executive Order (EO) lays out a new policy to secure payments to and from the Federal government by applying chip and PIN technology to newly issued and existing government credit cards, as well as debit cards like Direct Express, and upgrading retail payment card terminals at Federal agency facilities to accept chip and PIN-enabled cards.Companies join national effort to improve transaction security: Home Depot, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart will be rolling out secure chip and PIN-compatible card terminals in all their stores '-- most by January 2015. Also in January, American Express will start a new program to support small businesses upgrading their point of sale terminals to more secure standards. Finally, Visa will launch a new program to educate consumers and merchants on chip and other secure technologies, sending experts to 20 cities in a national public service campaign.Preventing identity theft:

The President is also announcing new steps by the government to assist victims of identity theft, and commending actions by the private sector to help Americans stay on top of their financial health and security, through:

Victim resources: The President's EO will support the Federal Trade Commission in their development of a new one-stop resource for victims, at IdentityTheft.gov, to streamline the reporting and remediation process with credit bureaus. Information sharing: The President's EO further directs expanded information sharing, ensuring Federal investigators' ability to regularly report evidence of stolen financial and other information to companies whose customers are directly affected.Company assistance: MasterCard will also be providing its customers with free identity theft monitoring and resolution support.Supporting credit score transparency:

Helping consumers catch one of the best early indicators of identity theft, Citi, in partnership with FICO, will begin making credit scores available for free to its consumer card customers updated monthly online '-- joining the over 70 million Americans who already have access to this feature at other nationwide banks and card issuers.

The White House Announces the Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection Summit:

Later this year, the White House will host, in collaboration with the President's Cabinet, a summit bringing together key stakeholders in the consumer financial space to share best practices, promote adherence to stronger security standards, and discuss next generation technologies.

Leading by Example: Securing Payments Across the Economy

Federal Efforts to Transition to More Secure Payment Systems: Today, the Federal Government is making an enterprise-wide transition to more secure credit, debit, and other payment cards, as well as the retail payment terminals at government locations like the passport office, VA canteens, and national parks. These new systems will, at a minimum, meet the global security standard of more secure microchips to store card numbers instead of unencrypted magnetic strips, and secure PIN functionality, like the kind featured on most ATM cards. The goal is not just to ensure the security of doing retail business with the government, but also, through this increased demand, to help drive the market towards swifter adoption of stronger security standards. Institutions like the United States Postal Service have already made this transition across tens of thousands of retail facilities across the country.

Making Chip and PIN Cards the Standard for the Federal Government: These ''chip and PIN'' cards, which have cut down on payment fraud considerably in other countries, will become the standard for Federal Government programs like SmartPay® and Direct Express®. We are working with these programs to ensure that we begin a replacement program on January 1, 2015, and will, within the calendar year, issue over one million new, more secure government payment cards.Updating to Chip and PIN Card Terminals in Federal Agencies Processing Consumer Sales: Every Federal agency processing consumer sales will actively replace any prior-generation card retail payment card terminals to those with new chip and PIN security features under a plan issued by Department of the Treasury, which establishes requirements that federal agencies must follow when receiving credit and debit card payments when using Treasury's collection system.Building Public-Private Awareness About More Secure Authentication: In the next eighteen months, government agencies will ensure personal data digitally released by the government to citizens goes through multiple tests for authentication so that every citizen's personal information is protected by the most secure methods possible, consistent with a plan the National Security Council Staff, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Office of Management and Budget will present to the President.

Helping Americans Secure Their Good Name: Improving Resources to Identify and Remediate Identity Theft: Today, the President is also announcing new steps by the government to assist victims of identity theft, and commending actions by the private sector to help Americans stay on top of their financial health and security, through:

Credit Score Transparency. Under the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a number of leaders in the financial services industry will be making credit scores more readily available to all Americans '-- improving consumers' awareness of credit health, and helping them identify major shifts in their credit score, a key first sign of identity theft.Beginning in January Citi, in partnership with FICO, will be making free credit scores available online to consumers with Citi branded credit cards '--this score will be updated monthly and is the same score Citi Cards uses in lending decisions.This announcement builds on work done by institutions like Discover, Barclaycard, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, and First National Bank of Omaha who, since implementing similar systems, have provided over 70 million Americans with access to their scores to track their credit health.Improving Identity Theft Resources. The Department of Justice, Department of Commerce, and Social Security Administration are also working to make the fraud reporting process as easy as possible for Americans who have experienced credit card fraud. Their goal is to, within two years, reduce by half the amount of time it takes consumers to remediate the average case of identity theft. To do that, they will:Streamline all necessary sources of information so that visitors to IdentityTheft.gov will be equipped with the resources they need to combat fraud, all in one place, and can more quickly resolve and remediate incidents of identity theft.Build upon the IdentityTheft.gov platform, in partnership with credit bureaus, to develop a more user-friendly and accessible portal that helps digitally submit reports of fraud to multiple credit bureaus.Company Assistance. Before year's end, MasterCard will offer all its credit, debit, prepaid and small business card holders free, 24/7 identity theft resolution support and online identity monitoring services.Enhanced Information Sharing: Finally, to enhance companies' and consumers' ability to respond quickly to incidents of fraud, as they occur, the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation will improve and coordinate efforts to regularly submit information about compromised accounts and other information to the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance's Internet Fraud Alert System.

Private Sector Action to Transition to More Secure Payment Technologies: The President has also called on industry to ensure that consumers know the security of their information is being taken seriously, and to empower citizens with more tools to help safeguard the data that matters most. Some of the nation's largest retailers, card issuers, payment networks, and banks are coming together to secure their own systems, and offer more secure options for their customers. That's why today, the President is commending private sector steps taken in that direction, including:

American Express: In January 2015, American Express will launch a $10 million program to assist small business customers in upgrading their point of sale terminals.Home Depot: In addition to transitioning 85,000 point of sale terminals to support chip and PIN in stores, Home Depot has completed a major new payment security project that provides enhanced encryption of payment data at point of sale in the company's U.S. stores. Target: As of this month, Target has completed installation of chip and PIN readers in all its 1,801 stores. Starting in early 2015, stores will begin accepting all chip-enabled cards and reissuing more than 20 million Target-brand chip and PIN enabled credit and debit cards. Visa: Visa will invest more than $20 million to educate consumers and merchants on chip and other secure technologies, while also sending experts to 20 cities in a national public service campaign.Walgreens: As of today, Walgreens has chip and PIN readers in all its 8,200 stores, and starting in early 2015, stores will begin accepting cards with these upgraded features.Walmart: By November 1, 2014, all of the nearly 5,000 Walmart and Sam's Club U.S. stores will have activated chip and PIN readers.The Continued Need for Congress to Act on Data Breach and Cybersecurity Legislation: While President Obama and his Administration continue to take every possible step to secure our transactions and information, it remains clear that American businesses and consumers demand Congressional action.

As the President outlined in his Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal and as was reiterated in the recent report to the President on Big Data, the current patchwork of laws governing a company's obligations in the event of a data breach is unsustainable, and helps no one.

Data Breach Legislation: Today we are calling on Congress to act with urgency on data breach legislation, to bring clarity to the expectations consumers should have when their data has been breached, and to steps companies must take to notify their customers of risks after such security breaches.Cybersecurity Legislation: We are also calling on Congress to pass meaningful cybersecurity legislation that will help the Government better protect Federal networks and legislation that appropriately balances the need for greater information sharing and strong protection for privacy and civil liberties '-- respecting the longstanding responsibilities of civilian and military agencies.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 06:50

The casing around the ruined nuclear reactor at Chernobyl is crumbling, causing a renewed radioactive contamination risk. A new cover for the site is under construction - but the project is running out of funding.

"There's no precedent for this anywhere in the world," Jochen Flasbarth said. "Of course there is uncertainty."

The German Ministry of the Environment's senior civil servant was talking about the New Safe Confinement - a new protective cover that is to be built over the stricken reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine: 100 meters high, 165 meters long, built at a safe distance from the still radioactive ruin.

The cover will slide over the reactor on rails. It will be three times as large as St. Peter's Basilica in Rome - if it is finished. But at the moment there is no money - that's the "uncertainty" Flasbarth was talking about.

There will be a shortfall of 600 million euros by the end of the year. Construction is proving to be more expensive than expected, and funding more difficult to obtain. A Ukrainian government construction freeze now threatens the project.

New containment, new money

Flasbarth, who is responsible for energy issues at his ministry, intends to speak with his counterparts from the G7 Group on Nuclear Issues in Bonn in mid-October. The G8 - as it was known before Russia was ejected from the group earlier in 2014 - had promised years ago to help Ukraine build the containment system. Now new money is required.

The protective cap that will cover the Chernobyl reactor

Over 28 years ago, on April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered a meltdown after a safety test went wrong. Around 4000 people have since died as a result, according to estimates by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Other estimates put the number at more than 100,000 dead.

The total damage has been estimated at 180 billion dollars. The area around the stricken reactor is still highly contaminated, and the concrete sarcophagus poured over the reactor in a rush after the accident has become unstable.

Years of effort

That's why a French consortium has spent the last few years building the new protective cover. One part is finished, and a second is still being worked on. Meanwhile, Reactor 4 is crumbling - and threatening to expose 200 tons of highly radioactive material to the environment, including the destroyed fuel rods.

The removal of these materials can begin only when the New Safe Confinement is finished, which means over 30 years will have passed since the accident. No one now expects the construction to be finished next year as planned.

"But we are now sure the relevant contracts are in such a form that will ensure we can complete the work over the next four to five years," Flasbarth said.

Solidarity with Ukraine

"It cannot be that lack of money means important work is not done," German Green Party atomic expert Sylvia Kotting-Uhl said. In the G7, the USA, Germany, Canada and Italy appear willing to spend more money, but Britain, Japan and France are holding back.

Germany has approved 80 million euros for the protective cover, with 7.65 million euros in the budget for this and next year. Everyone involved is aware this is not enough. The G7 countries will have to go without Russian help, a knock-on consequence of the on-going Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Environmentalists say this means western states must step in. "These countries can and must make progress. In the current difficult political situation, it is especially important to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine," Tobias M¼nch Meier, nuclear expert at Greenpeace, told DW.

But at the moment, it is difficult to get the G7 governments to concentrate on Chernobyl, in the face of new major crises such as the Ebola epidemic in Africa and the wars in Syria and Ukraine.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:07

The Chinese and Russian governments have signed an intergovernmental agreement at a Beijing conference to further develop the existing arrangement to supply natural gas to China via the Eastern Route transmission network.

The two nations have also furthered negations and timetabled a firm schedule for inking a trade agreements that will see another mega gas transportation system deliver energy to the world's largest consumer. Over the past six years, bilateral trade has more than doubled from USD 40bn to USD 90bn.

Talks also took place between the heads of the countries' state oil and gas enterprises Gazprom and CNPC.

''The top priority of the current talks is the western route,'' said Alexei Miller, Gazprom chairman of the management committee. ''The supply contract for 30 billion cubic metres of gas a year is being prepared. The Altai project is fully ready to initiate the construction. Later on, the second and third gas pipeline strings might be constructed to reach the potential output of up to 100 billion cubic metres a year.''

The discussions took place as part of the 19th Regular Meeting of the Heads of Government of Russia and China in Beijing.

Three main documents are due to be inked; an intergovernmental agreement, a commercial contract and a technical agreement

''The talks in China were held in the atmosphere of warmth, friendliness and confidence. Their results are highly important. At the meetings we outlined the new levels for interaction in the gas sector, with regard to supply volumes, long-term cooperation and new businesssegments.''

Gazprom also held talk with CNOOC.

''The new areas of cooperation include joint projects in Russian and Chinese offshore oil fields, power generation projects in China as well as joint activities in third countries. Gazprom is ready to consider the possibility of pipeline gas export to China as an alternative to the Vladivostok LNG project.''

CNPC is China's largest petroleum company wholly-owned by the state and is one of the world's leading integrated oil and gas production companies, focused on hydrocarbon production and transmission as well as providing engineering and petroleum services.

On May 21, 2014 Gazprom and CNPC signed the Purchase and Sale Agreement for the Russian gas supply via the Eastern Route. The 30-year contract provides for gas supplies in the amount of 38 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

The Eastern Route stipulates the delivery of Russian natural gas from the Irkutsk and Yakutia gas production centres to China via the Power of Siberia gas trunkline.

The western route stipulates gas supplies from West Siberian fields to China.

CNOOC is the oldest out of the three major petroleum companies in China, holding an exclusive right for prospecting and exploration as well as for oil and gas production offshore China. CNOOC is the biggest oil and gas producer on China's offshore shelf. The company is focused on field exploration and development as well as oil and gas production and sales in China.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:18

The following individuals have been added to OFAC's SDN List:

AL-ZEYDI, Issa (a.k.a. AL-ZAYDI, Issa); DOB 07 Feb 1939; POB Russia; nationality Russia; Passport 63N9437545 (Russia) (individual) [SYRIA].

DAGHER, Jad (a.k.a. DAGHER, Jade Adel), Dagher Building, 3rd Floor, Bikfaya, Metn, Lebanon; DOB 1976; nationality Lebanon; General Manager at DK Middle-East & Africa Regional Office (individual) [SYRIA] (Linked To: DK GROUP SARL).

IOANNOU, Ioannis; DOB 29 Nov 1954; POB Cyprus; nationality Cyprus; Passport E386670 (Cyprus); Identification Number 502128 (Cyprus) (individual) [SYRIA].

MIHOUB, Qusay (a.k.a. MAHYUB, Qusay); DOB 1960; Brigadier General (individual) [SYRIA].

ORFALI, Khodr (a.k.a. ORPHALI, Khedr; a.k.a. ORPHALY, Khodr; a.k.a. ORPHALY, Khudr; a.k.a. URFALI, Khudr); DOB 1956; POB Deir Ezzor, Syria; Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade (individual) [SYRIA].

TU'MA, Kamal Eddin (a.k.a. TOUMA, Kamal Eddin; a.k.a. TU'MA, Kamal Al-Din); DOB 1959; POB Damascus, Syria; Minister of Industry (individual) [SYRIA].

The following entities have been added to OFAC's SDN List:

AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE BANK (a.k.a. AL MASRAF AL ZERAEI AL TAWENI; a.k.a. "ACB"), Al Naanaa Garden, Damascus, Syria; Postal Box 4325, Damascus, Syria; Tall, Damascus, Syria; Doma, Doma, Syria; Zabadani, Damascus, Syria; Katana, Damascus, Syria; Al Qatifa, Damascus, Syria; Nabek, Damascus, Syria; Yabrood, Damascus, Syria; Daria, Damascus, Syria; Alksoaa, Damascus, Syria; Al Qounaitra, Syria; Deraa, Syria; Azraa, Syria; Alsnmin, Syria; Gazallah, Syria; Nawa, Syria; Sweida, Syria; Shahba, Sweida, Syria; Salkhad, Sweida, Syria; Algaria, Sweida, Syria; Homs, Syria; Talkah, Homs, Syria; Tadmer, Homs, Syria; Al Rastan, Homs, Syria; Al Qasser, Homs, Syria; Shin, Homs, Syria; Agricultural Cooperative Bank Building, Damascus Tajhez, 4325, Damascus, Syria; Website www.agrobank.gov.sy [SYRIA].

DK GROUP SARL (a.k.a. DK GROUP; a.k.a. DK MIDDLE-EAST & AFRICA REGIONAL OFFICE), Peres Lazaristes Center, No 3, 5th Floor, Emir Bachir Street, Beirut Central District, Bachoura Sector, Beirut, Lebanon; Azarieh Building - Block 03, 5th Floor, Azarieh Street - Solidere - Downtown, P.O. Box 11-503, Beirut, Lebanon; Website http://www.dk-group.biz; Registration ID 2004405 (Lebanon) [SYRIA].

FRUMINETI INVESTMENTS LTD., Logothetou, 1, Germasogeia, Limassol 4043, Cyprus; Registration ID HE 291043 [SYRIA].

INDUSTRIAL BANK, Dar Al Muhanisen Building, 7th Floor, Maysaloun Street, P.O. Box 7572, Damascus, Syria; P.O. Box 7578, 29 Maysaloun Street, Damascus, Syria; Jamal Abd Al Nasser Street, Al Hasaka, Syria; P.O. Box 50, Masarif Building, Sweida, Syria; Near the Big Mosque, Aleppo, Syria; Hama, Syria; Ibn Kholdoun Street, Homs, Syria; P.O. Box 8, Jules Jamal Street, Deraa, Syria; P.O. Box 2359, 29 Ayaar Street, Damascus, Syria; P.O. Box 25069, Harbaka, Damascus, Syria; P.O. Box 10, Rif Dimashq, Daraya, Damascus, Syria; P.O. Box 82, Rif Dimashq, Yabrood, Damascus, Syria; Website www.industrialbank.gov.sy [SYRIA].

PIRUSETI ENTERPRISES LTD, 1 Logothetou Street, Nicosia 4034, Cyprus; 118 Anexartisias Street, Suite 202, Limassol 3040, Cyprus; Logothetou 1, Germasogeia, Limassol, Cyprus; Registration ID C290894; alt. Registration ID HE 290894 [SYRIA].

POPULAR CREDIT BANK (a.k.a. "PCB"), Dar El-Mohandeseen- Mysaloun St., P.O. Box: 2841, Damascus, Syria; P.O. Box 2841, Maysaloun Street, Damascus, Syria; Dar Al Mouhandseen Building, 6th Floor, Maysaloun Street, Dar Al Mohandessin Area, Damascus 2841, Syria [SYRIA].

SAVING BANK (a.k.a. SAVINGS BANK; f.k.a. THE GENERAL ESTABLISHMENT OF MAIL SAVING FUND; f.k.a. THE POST SAVING FUND), Amous Square, Damascus, Syria; P.O. Box: 5467, Al-Furat St., Merjeh, Damascus, Syria [SYRIA].

The following deletions have been made to OFAC's SDN List:

DF DEUTSCHE FORFAIT AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT (a.k.a. DEUTSCHE FORFAIT), Kattenbug 18 - 24, Koln, Nordrhein-Westfalen 50667, Germany; Additional Sanctions Information - Subject to Secondary Sanctions [NPWMD] [IFSR].

DEUTSCHE FORFAIT (a.k.a. DF DEUTSCHE FORFAIT AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT), Kattenbug 18 - 24, Koln, Nordrhein-Westfalen 50667, Germany; Additional Sanctions Information - Subject to Secondary Sanctions [NPWMD] [IFSR].

DF DEUTSCHE FORFAIT AMERICAS INC., Miami, FL; Additional Sanctions Information - Subject to Secondary Sanctions [NPWMD] [IFSR].

The following changes have been made to OFAC's SDN List:

WIPPERMANN, Ulrich; DOB 02 May 1956; Additional Sanctions Information - Subject to Secondary Sanctions; Member of the Board of Directors, DF Deutsche Forfait Aktiengesellschaft (individual) [NPWMD] [IFSR] (Linked To: DF DEUTSCHE FORFAIT AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT). -to- WIPPERMANN, Ulrich|; DOB 02 May 1956; Additional Sanctions Information - Subject to Secondary Sanctions| (individual) [NPWMD] [IFSR] (||).'‹

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:18

When doing business with emerging markets, exporters frequently have to offer extended payment terms in order to secure orders against international competition. The resulting trade receivables reduce liquidity and entail operational and financial risks. This is where DF Group's financing solutions come in.

By purchasing import and export receivables on a non-recourse basis or hedging them, we provide enterprises with a quick inflow of liquidity as well as effective risk transfer and payment protection.

In this context, our clients benefit from our long-standing expertise in dealing with trading partners from emerging markets. At the same time, we sell individual receivables to banks or to investors through our trade finance fund solutions.

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Tue, 14 Oct 2014 15:04

Longtime reporters who cover the NSA know that any time we ask the obstinate spy agency for information, we're probably going to hit a brick wall. But who would have thought that trying to obtain information about information the agency has already given us would lead to the same wall?

That's what happened when the Federation of American Scientists filed a FOIA request with the Defense Department (of which the NSA is a part) earlier this year seeking information about any authorized leaks of intelligence made to the media during the previous 12 months.

The response they got (.pdf) from the National Security Agency might well have come from Winston Smith's Ministry of Truth.

''The document responsive to your request has been reviewed by this Agency as required by the FOIA and has been found to be currently and properly classified in accordance with Executive Order 13526,'' the letter read. ''The document is classified because its disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.''

Last year, Congress amended the Intelligence Authorization Act to require government officials to notify lawmakers whenever they disclose national security secrets to the media as part of an ''authorized'' leak. Under Section 504 of the statute (.pdf), the government official responsible for authorizing the disclosure has to submit to congressional intelligence committees a timely report about the disclosure, if the information is classified at the time of the leak or was declassified for the purpose of making the leak, and if the information being disclosed was ''made with the intent or knowledge that such information will be made publicly available.''

There have been numerous authorized leaks over the years, including the controversial White House leaks about the killing of Osama bin Laden. There have been even more unauthorized leaks, however'--by government officials and workers. It makes sense for Congress to want to know when classified information has been leaked or declassified in order to distinguish official leaks from unauthorized ones. Lawmakers on the intelligence committees look silly when they tell reporters they can't talk about something, while government officials are freely yapping about the same topic behind their backs. They also look silly when they publicly call for a criminal investigation into a leak that turns out to have been authorized. And, of course, members of both parties in Congress want to know when the party in power in the White House might be authorizing leaks for political gain.

But once those leaks are made to the media and published, why shouldn't the public also be able to know when the information came from an authorized source or an unauthorized one?

Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, noted in his letter to the NSA appealing its response (.pdf) that ''It is well established that information, including classified information, that has been publicly disclosed on an authorized basis loses its exemption from disclosure under FOIA.''

He has a theory, however, about why the NSA might not want to disclose what it has disclosed. He says that even though the statute refers to information that the leaker expects will be made public, the NSA might not want the public to know which information was part of an authorized leak because some might have been provided off the record.

''I think it's more likely that these disclosures were part of a negotiation with news organizations,'' he told WIRED. In that case, ''the disclosures in question were not actually published, rather they were part of a dialogue with a reporter perhaps in an effort to dissuade her or him from publication.''

The very notion of an authorized disclosure of classified information is, of course, a bit of an oxymoron, Aftergood notes in a blog post about the issue. ''If something is classified, how can its disclosure be authorized (without declassification)?,'' he writes. ''And if something is disclosed by an official who is authorized to do so, how can it still be classified?''

Only Winston Smith knows.

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Wed, 15 Oct 2014 16:22

There is one version of the bill.

Shown Here:Introduced in Senate (09/16/2014)Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this legislative text may be shown by tags (e.g., or ) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF or HTML/XML.

[Congressional Bills 113th Congress][From the U.S. Government Printing Office][S. 2826 Introduced in Senate (IS)]113th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2826 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for a percentage of student loan forgiveness for public service employment, and for other purposes._______________________________________________________________________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 16, 2014 Mr. Blumenthal (for himself and Ms. Warren) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions_______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for a percentage of student loan forgiveness for public service employment, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Strengthening Forgiveness for Public Servants Act''.SEC. 2. PUBLIC SERVICE LOAN FORGIVENESS PROGRAM. Section 455(m) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(m)) is amended-- (1) in paragraph (1), in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by inserting ``, except as provided in paragraph (5),'' after ``on any eligible Federal Direct Loan not in default''; and (2) by adding at the end the following: ``(5) Loan cancellation for new loans.-- ``(A) In general.--Beginning after the date of enactment of the Strengthening Forgiveness for Public Servants Act, after the conclusion of each employment period in a public service job, as described in subparagraph (B), the Secretary shall cancel the percent specified in such subparagraph of the total amount due on any eligible Federal Direct Loan made after the date of enactment of the Strengthening Forgiveness for Public Servants Act for a borrower who is employed in such public service job and submits an employment certification form described in subparagraph (C). ``(B) Percent amount.--The percent of a loan that shall be canceled under subparagraph (A) is as follows: ``(i) In the case of a borrower who completes 2 years of employment in a public service job, 15 percent of the total amount due on the eligible Federal Direct Loan on the date the borrower commenced employment in such public service job. ``(ii) In the case of a borrower who completes 4 years of employment in a public service job, 15 percent of the total amount due on the eligible Federal Direct Loan on the date the borrower commenced employment in such public service job. ``(iii) In the case of a borrower who completes 6 years of employment in a public service job, 20 percent of the total amount due on the eligible Federal Direct Loan on the date the borrower commenced employment in such public service job. ``(iv) In the case of a borrower who completes 8 years of employment in a public service job, 20 percent of the total amount due on the eligible Federal Direct Loan on the date the borrower commenced employment in such public service job. ``(v) In the case of a borrower who completes 10 years of employment in a public service job, 30 percent of the total amount due on the eligible Federal Direct Loan on the date the borrower commenced employment in such public service job. ``(C) Employment certification form.-- ``(i) In general.--In order to receive loan cancellation under this paragraph, a borrower shall submit to the Secretary an employment certification form that is developed by the Secretary and includes self-certification of employment and a separate part for employer certification that indicates the dates of employment. ``(ii) Deferment.--If a borrower submits to the Secretary the employment certification form described in clause (i), during the period in which the borrower is employed in a public service job for which loan cancellation is eligible under this paragraph, the borrower's eligible Federal Direct Loan shall be placed in deferment. ``(D) Interest cancelled.--If a portion of a loan is canceled under this paragraph for any year, the entire amount of interest on such loan that accrues for such year shall be canceled.''.

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Wed, 15 Oct 2014 20:54

I once thought that I was alone in my dream of a restaurant that served nothing but grilled cheese sandwiches, but I was wrong. The Melt opened in 2011 and continues to thrive and expand. Surely, though, there aren't enough cheese-obsessed Americans to also support a restaurant specializing in macaroni and cheese, right? I'm probably alone in that dream. I am not. mac-O-licious began as a specialty food truck, and is now a real restaurant, where you can sit down and eat ten different varieties of mac and cheese, along with sides like soup, salad, and vegetables. Toppings for your mac and cheese are also available, including two different kinds of bacon and black truffles.

UPDATE: One of my colleagues has pointed out to me that there is also an all mac and cheese restaurant in New York City, which has been open for some time and serves even more varieties of the dish. The world is a beautiful place.

Creamy Dream: The All Mac 'N Cheese Restaurant [NBC Los Angeles]

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:34

A picture is worth a thousand words. This picture is worth about a million words on how governments, especially the United States Federal Government at the direction of the unelected President's Wife should stay out of Americans' lives.

From EAGNews.org:

CHICKASHA, Okla. '' Lunch meat, a couple of crackers, a slice of cheese and two pieces of cauliflower qualified as lunch in Chickasha Public Schools Monday.

Student Kaytlin Shelton took a photo of the skimpy lunch and showed it to her parents.

''It makes me want to take that and take it to the Superintendent and tell him to eat it for lunch,'' the girl tellsFox 25.

''I can go pay a dollar for a Lunchable and get more food in it,'' her father, Vince Holton, says.

Shelton is pregnant and eating for two, complicating the problem.

Chickasha superintendent David Cash agrees the skimpy lunches need to be addressed.

''You've got in some cases little kids that their only two meals are breakfast and lunch at school and they're getting you know a grand total of 1100 calories. That's not enough,'' Cash says.

The new lunch complies with lunch regulations championed by First Lady Michelle Obama and implemented by the USDA.

''We have a meat-meat alternate, we have a bread grain, we have vegetable,'' Asst. State Superintendent for Child Nutrition Joanie Hildenbrand tells the news station after looking at the photo.

Click here to read more.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 03:05

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) '-- There's no dancing in the streets, but people in the hometown of more than 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls are cautiously optimistic about news of a cease-fire with the Islamic extremists who abducted their daughters six months ago.

"We don't know how true it is until we prove it," Bana Lawan, chairman of the Chibok Local Government Area, said Saturday. "We will know the negotiations were successful when we see the girls physically. And then we will know it is true. And then we will celebrate."

Community leader Pogu Bitrus said "people rejoiced, but with caution" after the military announced the cease-fire with the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram on Friday. Even as the community leaders were speaking by telephone to The Associated Press, Boko Haram fighters were attacking another town in Borno state about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Chibok.

The militants struck the town of Shaffa first on Friday, the day the military announced the cease-fire, killing at least eight residents, wounding several more and putting hundreds of people to flight, according to residents who escaped.

On Saturday morning, as members of a civilian self-defense group were collecting the bodies of victims, the insurgents struck again. Many were killed, including at least one extremist, residents said.

Several villagers were beheaded in another Boko Haram attack Friday on Abadam, an isolated town on the border with Niger. Among the victims was the septuagenarian father of a local politician, resident Aminu Abdullahi said by telephone.

"Boko Haram have taken over Abadam. They ... hoisted their flags on Friday after killing many prominent people and forcing others to cross over to Niger," he said. There has been no official announcement from Boko Haram of a cease-fire, and it could take days to get word out to fighters in the field split into different groups under various commanders. Communications in Nigeria are poor at the best of times. There are no landline telephones and often patchy cellphone service frequently is cut by the military in areas of operation.

In Chibok, the community leaders said people are skeptical of the government's cease-fire announcement because they have been disappointed too many times in the past by reports of progress by Nigeria's government and military.

Some reports said the truce includes an agreement to free the girls abducted from Chibok But government spokesman Mike Omeri would say only that authorities are "inching closer to the release of the Chibok girls." He said talks are to resume in Chad next week.

On Friday, French President Francois Hollande welcomed the "good news" and told a news conference in Paris that the girls' release "could happen in the coming hours and days." France has been involved in negotiations that led to the release of several of its citizens kidnapped by Boko Haram in Cameroon.

Neither Hollande nor Nigerian government officials gave any details. Chibok community leader Bitrus said, "We are waiting, hoping that it is really true and that the people who negotiated on Boko Haram's side, that they are the genuine leaders."

Boko Haram '-- the group's nickname means "education is sinful" '-- drew international condemnation with the April kidnapping of 276 girls and young women from a boarding school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok. Dozens escaped in the first couple of days, but 219 remain missing.

Boko Haram had been demanding the release of detained extremists but Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan originally said he could not countenance a prisoner swap. On Saturday, an official at the presidency said the current negotiations are about releasing Boko Haram members in exchange for the girls. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive.

"Sometimes these people, they will say something and they will not act," said Lawan. "We just pray that this is true."

Associated Press writers Michelle Faul in York, England, and Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report. Oduah reported from Abuja.

Share article: Cautious optimism over Nigeria's kidnapped girls

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Thu, 16 Oct 2014 03:47

Pacific Pathways Increases Readiness Through PartnershipBy Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2014 '' The ''Pacific Pathways'' concept is an innovative and experimental approach to increasing Army readiness through partnership, the commander of U.S. Army Pacific said here yesterday.

Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks explained the concept during a panel discussion at the annual Association of the United States Army symposium at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

''This is an innovation in large measure,'' Brooks said. ''It's a new way of doing something we have been doing already. We have already been participating in exercises around the region.''

The Pacific Pathways concept

The Pacific Pathways concept involves joining multinational partners to conduct a three-part series of military exercises intended to increase Army readiness through additional training and strengthened partner-force relationships. Brooks said that as a senior officer he views exercises differently now than he has previously.

''Exercises are really an agreement between countries for foreign troops to be on sovereign soil,'' he said. ''So if you begin to think about it that way, we've used '... these agreements for U.S. troops as foreign troops to be present in a sovereign country, as the basis upon which we designed the Pacific Pathways.''

The first iteration or proof of concept for Pacific Pathways -- which involves Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan -- is just ending, the general said, with command and control and support provided by U.S. Army Pacific elements 1st Corps, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, and Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division.

Innovation of Pacific Pathways

The innovation of this concept, Brooks said, is how the Army goes to those designated places, and how it organizes itself for it.

''We're doing what the Army has always done,'' he added. ''We're going to move units and equipment -- we've put them on ships, just as we did in 1898, and we move into the place we're going to go.''

Now, a century later, ''we've started using aircraft to join the troops themselves with the equipment,'' Brooks said. Projecting from home bases to participate in not just one of the exercises, but rather in a series of exercises, is new, the general said.

As a result of doing that, Brooks said, engagement with others, such as the State Department and the Defense Department, has come in a different way.

''We engage with regional partners where the exercise is going to occur in a different way,'' he said, ''because configuration might be different than the previous year's exercise. And it has to be tailored to what that country can accept. It is different in that it brings together an enterprise approach to projecting ourselves from home stations abroad over the great expanses of the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.''

It also has been transformative in many ways, he said, based on how the Army projects itself in a tailored structure around the region while building readiness into the deployed force.

''There's experimentation that happens here, also,'' Brooks said. ''We find that as we're doing this we can experiment with different operating concepts.''

It also allows experimentation with different technologies, he said, as industry and others find opportunities to shake something out in a tremendous battle lab that's on the move.

Key points

The general shared three key points of emphasis on Pacific Pathways. First, he said, it is an operational deployment -- everything that goes into operational deployments anywhere goes into this operation. The planning, preparation, execution, ordering of craft to move troops, and planning for security all are included, he added.

''There are some additional dimensions, too, like passport planning [and] visa planning, that aren't like our traditional deployments,'' Brooks said. ''But it is a deployment, nevertheless, and an operation.''

Brooks' second point was Pacific Pathways is ''part of our engagement structure and strategy.''

''This is not the limit of what we're doing,'' he said. ''It is a part -- a very important part -- because of its innovation, transformation [and] experimentation characteristics.''

Additionally, Brooks noted, it is economical, as he anticipated it would be.

''It really requires an enterprise approach to do this, and that is an enterprise that organizes from top to bottom from department level to executing unit,'' he said. It's also an enterprise approach in terms of contributing capabilities that make it possible to employ the concept, Brooks said, lauding supporting elements such as Military Sealift Command, Army Materiel Command and all of the U.S. Army's components.

''The enterprise approach, from top to bottom, and horizontally as well, is essential to this,'' he added.

Brooks' final point was that Pacific Pathways is shaped by the countries involved in the exercises in conjunction with the State Department.

(Follow Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone Marshall on Twitter: @MarshallDoDNews)

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:11

TOKYO, October 15. /TASS/. Russia proposed to Japan to discuss an idea of building a gas pipeline from Russia's Far Eastern island Sakhalin to the northernmost Japanese city of Wakkanai on Hokkaido Island and further to the main territory of the country, the leading Japanese business newspaper Nikkei said on Wednesday.

Russian government was reported to offer Japan to build a gas pipeline which would connect Sakhalin and Hokkaido Island. If the project is implemented, this will be a first gas pipeline linking Japan with another country, Nikkei reported. The news report was not confirmed officially.

The idea to build a gas pipeline from Russia to Japan has already been debated at the level of experts for many years, but did not reach the level of practical talks. However, the Japanese parliament has a group of lawmakers who call for support to this undertaking.

''A project of laying a gas pipeline from Sakhalin to Tokyo on the seabed along Japanese coast has been raised in the previous years,'' general secretary of this parliamentary group and lawmaker of the lower house from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party Naokazu Takemoto told TASS earlier. ''However, many problems arose over fishing rights and protection of marine bioresources," he noted.

''Our current project implies a gas pipeline to the Tokyo city zone on the ground from a district of the city of Wakkanai. From this Japanese city to Sakhalin, this pipeline will be built on the bottom of La Perouse Strait in a non-fishing area. This pipe will be also laid through the Tsugaru Strait between islands Hokkaido and Honshu. We do not find any ecological problems in this issue, as everything will be planned according to governmental ecological safety rules,'' Naokazu said.

Japanese experts estimated that a gas pipeline from Sakhalin Island to the Ibaraki Prefecture next to the Greater Tokyo will stretch for a total 1,350km. Spending for its construction is evaluated at 600 billion yens (slightly less than $6 billion). Twenty billion cubic meters can be delivered through this gas pipeline from Sakhalin annually.

Dear Adam

Thank you for your courage...

While listening to ABC Local Melbourne radio this morning, I heard the presenter chatting to "social etiquette coach".

She mentioned something about inappropriate mobile phone use that I thought you might also appreciate...

Her advice re Mobile phone Etiquette?

"Mobile phones are like Penises... You should NEVER take it out while at the dinner table and start playing with it...!"

(Don't be a fapper during dinner! LOL)

In the morning you!!

Darcy from Melbourne, Australia

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Wed, 15 Oct 2014 21:29

Google Glass has a habit of changing people. Not only does it turn wearers into hysterical assholes, American doctors say Glass caused one man to become an addict.

According to The Guardian, scientists believe a navy serviceman is the first-ever patient to suffer from Glass-triggered internet addiction disorder:

The man had been using the technology for around 18 hours a day '' removing it only to sleep and wash '' and complained of feeling irritable and argumentative without the device. In the two months since he bought the device, he had also begun experiencing his dreams as if viewed through the device's small grey window.

The 31-year-old serviceman originally checked himself in for alcohol abuse. But doctors found that his face computing habit was harder to break.

Doctors noticed the patient repeatedly tapped his right temple with his index finger. He said the movement was an involuntary mimic of the motion regularly used to switch on the heads-up display on his Google Glass.

He said he was "going through withdrawal from his Google Glass", Doan explained, adding: "He said the Google Glass withdrawal was greater than the alcohol withdrawal he was experiencing."

His doctors say the "rush" Glass gives users is to blame. It turns out that strapping a screen right in front of your eyeball can be risky if you have a "predisposition for addiction."

Tocontactthe author of this post, please emailkevin@valleywag.com.

Photo: AP

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:20

FBI Mobile SiteYour search did not match any documents.

The FBI does not investigate all kinds of criminal activity. To see the categories of federal laws that the FBI does investigate, see our What We Investigate webpage.If you are looking for information about yourself or a case you are involved in, you must submit a Privacy Act request.The FBI does not comment on all current, ongoing cases. See our field press releases for public information on our investigations.The FBI is limited in the amount of information and photos it can provide on wanted fugitives and missing persons. We also do not investigate all fugitives or missing persons in the United States; many cases are handled by local authorities or other federal agenices.To find crime statistics in your area, please see our Crime Statistics webpage.The FBI does not have a national e-mail address for public questions or comments. Some of our local FBI offices, however, do have their own e-mail addresses. See our Contact Us page for more contact information.To find high resolution photos, go to our Photo Gallery.If you are looking for an FBI job application or open vacancies, go to the FBI Jobs website.If you wish to talk directly to an FBI representative, please call (202) 324-3000.

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Wed, 15 Oct 2014 21:47

The 38 Gayest Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Run For PresidentYour Post Has Been Launched!

Fabulous! Don't forget to share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.1. She will personally find ''Jen'' from Appleton.Getty Images Joe Raedle

2. She bought this coat because she thought it was cool and funky, wore it once, and then decided she looked like an idiot and never wore it again.Getty Images Paul Zimmerman

3. She believes Becky G is the Mexican Katy Perry.Getty Images Mark Wilson

4. This was her reaction when someone asked her to use a shovel.Getty Images Chip Somodevilla

5. She watches American Ninja Warrior solely for the shirtless DILFs.Getty Images Justin Sullivan

6. She didn't see Ben Affleck's penis in Gone Girl and was fucking pissed about it.AFP / Getty Images SAUL LOEB

7. Sometimes she can't even.Getty Images Brendan Hoffman

8. On her first day in office, she will make an executive order to ban the use of ''#instagay.''Getty Images Mark Wilson

9. ''Iggy Azalea is the best rapper of the past decade!!''Getty Images Win McNamee

10. ''Ariana Grande is the new Britney Spears!!!''AFP / Getty Images NICHOLAS KAMM

11. ''ARTPOP IS THE ALBUM OF THE MILLENNIUM!!!!!!!!!!!!''Getty Images Mark Wilson

12. She relishes in your sweet hot goss.Getty Images Pool

13. She bought Britney Jean on iTunes'....AFP / Getty Images PAUL J. RICHARDS

14. '...thought it completely disrespects Britney Spears' flawless discography'...Getty Images Alex Wong

15. '...but she totally blames Will.i.am. She will ban him too.Getty Images Andrew Burton

16. She believes and is passionate about other worldly and just causes.Getty Images Chip Somodevilla

17. She has more Grammys than Katy Perry.AFP / Getty Images JON LEVY

18. ''Jessie J'...''AFP / Getty Images TIMOTHY A. CLARY

19. ''Masc only.''AFP / Getty Images MANDEL NGAN

20. She understands the real, true value of good lighting.AFP / Getty Images CHRIS WILKINS

21. She's always on the lookout for your man.Getty Images Marty Melville

22. There is a picture of her on Meryl Streep's iPhone.Getty Images Pool

23. She is always working on and tweaking her skinniest pose.AFP / Getty Images AFP

24. She appreciates boobs even though she feels absolutely no physical or sexual attraction toward them.AFP / Getty Images PAUL J. RICHARDS

25. She likes big things.AFP / Getty Images NICHOLAS KAMM

26. She pretends to have an opinion about types of wine'...AFP / Getty Images SAUL LOEB

27. '...but really doesn't give a fuck and just likes getting drunk off it.AFP / Getty Images AFP

28. She always travels in style praying and hoping that someday there will be a super-hot guy sitting next to her on the plane and they'll fall in love like a goddamn romantic comedy.AFP / Getty Images MARIO TAMA

29. Lol sports.Getty Images Handout

30. She's totally vers.Getty Images Chip Somodevilla

31. She's always praying for your faves'...AFP / Getty Images LIONEL BONAVENTURE

32. '...and on the lookout for all you basic bitches.AFP / Getty Images NICHOLAS KAMM

33. She's not really into twinks but would totally do it to it with Zac Efron.AFP / Getty Images PAUL J. RICHARDS

LASTLY, you can commonly hear her say the following'...

34. ''Ha ha. Stop, bottom.''Getty Images WPA Pool

35. ''Lol I'm grilling.''Getty Images Steve Pope

36. ''Yaaaaas, Gaga. Slay, mama. You look sooo good.''Getty Images Spencer Platt

37. ''I love all my gay fans.''AFP / Getty Images NICHOLAS KAMM

38. ''Now #COMETOBRAZIL!!!''Getty Images Peter Macdiarmid

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Link to Article

Archived Version

Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed

Wed, 15 Oct 2014 21:31

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 14, 2014

October 14, 2014

Dear Mr. Speaker:

Consistent with section 5 of the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act (15 U.S.C. 714c) and the Government Corporation Control Act (31 U.S.C. Chapter 91), I hereby notify the Congress of a budget program revision for the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. The revisions total up to $300 million and reflect the payments that the United States is making, pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Brazil of October 1, 2014, in connection with termination of the World Trade Organization (WTO) "Cotton dispute" (WT/DS267) brought by Brazil with respect to which the WTO made adverse rulings regarding certain United States cotton programs and export credit guarantees (GSM-102).

For FY 2015, the budget estimates for CCC, as amended by the Mid-Session Review, of $6.074 billion in net outlays would be increased by $300 million, to $6.374 billion.

The details of this action are set forth in the enclosed letter from the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. I concur with the Director's comments and observations.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 15 Oct 2014 21:32

This summary has been prepared by the Secretariat under its own responsibility. The summary is for general information only and is not intended to affect the rights and obligations of Members.

See also:> One-page summary of key findings of this dispute> The basics: how disputes are settled in WTO> Computer based training on dispute settlement> Text of the Dispute Settlement Understanding

Current status back to top

Key facts back to top

Summary of the dispute to date back to top

The summary below was up-to-date at See also:One-page summary of key findings of this dispute

Consultations

Complaint by Brazil.

On 27 September 2002 Brazil requested consultations with the United States regarding prohibited and actionable subsidies provided to US producers, users and/or exporters of upland cotton, as well as legislation, regulations, statutory instruments and amendments thereto providing such subsidies (including export credits), grants, and any other assistance to the US producers, users and exporters of upland cotton (''US upland cotton industry'').

Brazil contended that these measures were inconsistent with the obligations of the United States under the following provisions: Articles 5(c), 6.3(b), (c) and (d), 3.1(a) (including item (j) of the Illustrative List of Export Subsidies in Annex I), 3.1(b), and 3.2 of the SCM Agreement; Articles 3.3, 7.1, 8, 9.1 and 10.1 of the Agreement on Agriculture; and Article III:4 of GATT 1994. Brazil was of the view that the US statutes, regulations, and administrative procedures listed above were inconsistent with these provisions as such and as applied.

On 9 October and 11 October 2002, Zimbabwe and India, respectively, requested to join the consultations. On 14 October 2002, Argentina and Canada requested to join the consultations. The United States informed the DSB that it had accepted the requests of Argentina and India to join the consultations.

On 6 February 2003, Brazil requested the establishment of a panel. At its meeting on 19 February 2003, the DSB deferred the establishment of a panel.

Panel and Appellate Body proceedings

Further to a second request by Brazil, the DSB established a Panel at its meeting on 18 March 2003. Argentina, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, the European Communities, India, Pakistan and Venezuela reserved their third-party rights to participate in the Panel's proceedings.

At that meeting, the Chairman of the DSB announced that he continued to consult with Brazil and the United States on the issue of appointing a DSB representative to facilitate the information-gathering process, pursuant to the Annex V procedures under the SCM Agreement, which had been invoked by Brazil in its panel request. Following a communication from the United States, on 20 March 2003, Brazil indicated, in conformity with paragraph 1 of Annex V, that it considered the following third-county markets as relevant: Argentina, Bangladesh, Colombia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Portugal, Philippines, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand and Turkey.

On 24 March 2003, Benin reserved its third-party rights. On 25 March 2003, Australia reserved its third-party rights. On 26 March 2003, Paraguay reserved its third-party rights. On 28 March 2003, New Zealand reserved its third-party rights. On 4 April 2003, Chad reserved its third-party rights. On 9 May 2003, Brazil requested the Director-General to compose the panel. On 19 May 2003, the Director-General composed the panel.

On 17 November 2003, the Chairman of the panel informed the DSB that it would not be able to complete its work in six months due to the complexity of the matter and that the panel expected to issue its final report to the parties in May 2004.

On 8 September 2004, the panel report was circulated to Members. The panel found that:

agricultural export credit guarantees are subject to WTO export subsidy disciplines and three United States export credit guarantee programmes are prohibited export subsidies which have no Peace Clause protection and are in violation of those disciplines; the United States also grants several other prohibited subsidies in respect of cotton; United States' domestic support programmes in respect of cotton are not protected by the Peace Clause, and certain of these programmes result in serious prejudice to Brazil's interests in the form of price suppression in the world market.On 18 October 2004, the United States notified its intention to appeal certain issues of law and legal interpretations developed by the panel. On 16 December 2004, the Chairman of the Appellate Body informed the DSB that in light of the numerous and complex issues raised in this dispute, the increased burden on the Appellate Body as well as the translation services, the intervening holiday period, and the fact that the Appellate Body expects to be considering two or three other appeals in the coming weeks, the Appellate Body would not be able to circulate its Report by, 17 December 2004. The Chairman stated that the Appellate Body estimated that the Appellate Body report would be circulated no later than 3 March 2005.

On 3 March 2005, the Appellate Body report was circulated to Members. The Appellate Body found inter alia as follows:

A. As regards the applicability of the Peace Clause to this dispute, the Appellate Body:

upheld the panel's finding that two challenged measures (production flexibility contract and direct payments) are related to the type of production undertaken after the base period and thus are not green box measures conforming fully to paragraph 6(b) of Annex 2 to the Agreement on Agriculture; and, therefore, are not exempt, by virtue of Article 13(a)(ii), from actions under Article XVI of GATT 1994 and Part III of the SCM Agreement; modified the panel's interpretation of the phrase ''support to a specific commodity'' in Article 13(b)(ii), but upheld the Panel's conclusion that the challenged domestic support measures granted support to upland cotton; and upheld the panel's finding that the challenged domestic support measures granted, between 1999 and 2002, support to upland cotton in excess of that decided during the 1992 benchmark period and, therefore, that these measures are not exempt, by virtue of Article 13(b)(ii), from actions under Article XVI:1 of the GATT 1994 and Part III of the SCM Agreement; B. As regards serious prejudice, the Appellate Body:

upheld the panel's finding that the effect of the challenged price-contingent subsidies (marketing loan program payments, user marketing (Step 2) payments, market loss assistance payments, and counter-cyclical payments) are significant price suppression within the meaning of Article 6.3(c) of the SCM Agreement, by in turn upholding the panel's findings that: (i) the ''same market'' in Article 6.3(c) may be a ''world market'', a ''world market'' for upland cotton exists, and ''the A-Index can be taken to reflect a world price in the world market for upland cotton''; (ii) ''a causal link exists'' between the price-contingent subsidies and significant price suppression, and that this link is not attenuated by other factors raised by the United States; (iii) it was not required to quantify precisely the benefit conferred on upland cotton by the price-contingent subsidies; and (iv) the effect of the price-contingent subsidies for marketing years 1999 to 2002 is significant price suppression in the same period; found that the panel set out the findings of fact, the applicability of relevant provisions, and the basic rationale behind this finding, as required by Article 12.7 of the DSU; and found it unnecessary to rule on the interpretation of the term ''world market share'' in Article 6.3(d) of the SCM Agreement and neither upholds nor reverses the panel's finding that this term means world supply share;C. As regards user marketing (Step 2) payments, the Appellate Body:

upheld the panel's findings that Step 2 payments to domestic users of United States upland cotton, under Section 1207(a) of the FSRI Act of 2002, are subsidies contingent on the use of domestic over imported goods that are inconsistent with Articles 3.1(b) and 3.2 of the SCM Agreement; and uphelds the Panel's findings that Step 2 payments to exporters of United States upland cotton, pursuant to Section 1207(a) of the FSRI Act of 2002, are subsidies contingent upon export performance within the meaning of Article 9.1(a) of the Agreement on Agriculture that are inconsistent with Articles 3.3 and 8 of that Agreement and Articles 3.1(a) and 3.2 of the SCM Agreement;D. As regards export credit guarantee programs, the Appellate Body:

in a majority opinion, upheld the panel's finding that Article 10.2 of the Agreement on Agriculture does not exempt export credit guarantees from the export subsidy disciplines in Article 10.1 of that Agreement; one Member of the Division, in a separate opinion, expressed the contrary view that Article 10.2 of the Agreement on Agriculture exempts export credit guarantees from the disciplines of Article 10.1 of that Agreement until international disciplines are agreed upon; found that the panel did not improperly apply the burden of proof in finding that the United States' export credit guarantee programs are prohibited export subsidies under Article 3.1(a) of the SCM Agreement and are consequently inconsistent with Article 3.2 of that Agreement; upheld the panel's finding that ''the United States export credit guarantee programmes at issue-GSM 102, GSM 103 and SCGP-constitute a per se export subsidy within the meaning of item (j) of the Illustrative List of Export Subsidies in Annex I of the SCM Agreement'', and upheld the panel's findings that these export credit guarantee programs are export subsidies for purposes of Article 3.1(a) of the SCM Agreement and are inconsistent with Articles 3.1(a) and 3.2 of that Agreement; and found that the panel did not err in exercising judicial economy in respect of Brazil's allegation that the United States' export credit guarantee programs are prohibited export subsidies, under Article 3.1(a) of the SCM Agreement, because they confer a ''benefit'' within the meaning of Article 1.1 of that Agreement;At its meeting on 21 March 2005, the DSB adopted the Appellate Body report and the Panel report, as modified by the Appellate Body report. The resulting DSB recommendations and rulings include the recommendation that the United States withdraw, by at the latest within six months of the date of adoption of the Panel report by the DSB or 1 July 2005 (whichever is earlier), the following prohibited subsidies: (i) the export credit guarantees under the GSM 102, GSM 103 and SCGP export credit guarantee programmes in respect of exports of upland cotton and other unscheduled agricultural products supported under the programmes, and in respect of one scheduled product (rice); (ii) Section 1207(a) of the Farm Security and Rural Investment (FSRI) Act of 2002 providing for user marketing (STEP2) payments to exporters of upland cotton; and (iii) Section 1207(a) of the FSRI Act of 2002 providing for user marketing (STEP2) payments to domestic users of upland cotton. As for the actionable subsidies the recommendation is that the United States takes appropriate steps to remove the adverse effects of certain subsidies or withdraw these subsidies within six months from the date of adoption of the Panel and Appellate Body reports, i.e. the compliance period expired on 21 September 2005.

Compliance proceedings

Following the suspension of the arbitration proceedings under Article 22.6 triggered by Brazil's request to take countermeasures with respect to the prohibited and actionable subsidies (see below), on 18 August 2006, Brazil requested the establishment of a compliance panel. At its meeting on 1 September 2006, the DSB deferred the establishment of a compliance panel. Further to a second request, at its meeting on 28 September 2006, the DSB agreed, if possible, to refer the matter raised by Brazil to the original panel. Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, the European Communities, India, Japan and New Zealand reserved their third party rights. Subsequently, Chad and Thailand reserved their third party rights. On 18 and 20 October 2006, Brazil and the United States respectively requested the Director-General to compose the compliance panel. On 25 October 2006, the Director-General composed the panel.

On 9 January 2007, the Chairman of the panel informed the DSB that given the particular circumstances of this case and the schedule adopted after consultations with parties to this dispute, it had not been possible for the panel to complete its work within the 90-day period as foreseen in Article 21.5. The panel expected to complete its work in July 2007.

On 18 December 2007, the compliance panel report was circulated to Members. The Panel found that with respect to the measure taken by the United States to comply with the DSB recommendations and rulings relating to the original panel's finding of inconsistency with Articles 5 and 6 of the SCM Agreement:

The United States acted inconsistently with its obligations under Articles 5(c) and 6.3(c) of the SCM Agreement in that the effect of marketing loan and counter-cyclical payments provided to US upland cotton producers pursuant to the FSRI Act of 2002 is significant price suppression within the meaning of Article 6.3(c) of the SCM Agreement in the world market for upland cotton constituting ''present'' serious prejudice to the interests of Brazil within the meaning of Article 5(c) of the SCM Agreement. By acting inconsistently with Articles 5(c) and 6.3(c) of the SCM Agreement the United States had failed to comply with the DSB recommendations and rulings. Specifically, the United States had failed to comply with its obligation under Article 7.8 of the SCM Agreement ''to take appropriate steps to remove the adverse effects or ... withdraw the subsidy''. Brazil had not made a prima facie case that the effect of marketing loan and counter-cyclical payments provided to US upland cotton producers pursuant to the FSRI Act of 2002 is an increase in the US world market share in upland cotton as compared to the average US world market share during the previous period of three years and that this increase follows a consistent trend over a period when subsidies have been granted. Therefore, it had not been established that the United States acted inconsistently with Articles 5(c) and 6.3(d) of the SCM Agreement.With respect to the measure taken by the United States to comply with the DSB recommendations and rulings relating to the original panel's findings of inconsistency with Articles 10.1 and 8 of the Agreement on Agriculture and Articles 3.1(a) and 3.2 of the SCM Agreement, the panel found:

Regarding GSM 102 export credit guarantees issued after 1 July 2005 the United States acted inconsistently with Article 10.1 of the Agreement on Agriculture by applying export subsidies in a manner which results in the circumvention of US export subsidy commitments with respect to certain unscheduled products and certain scheduled products, and as a result acted inconsistently with Article 8 of the Agreement on Agriculture. Regarding GSM 102 export credit guarantees issued after 1 July 2005, the United States also acted inconsistently with Articles 3.1(a) and 3.2 of the SCM Agreement by providing export subsidies to unscheduled products and by providing export subsidies to scheduled products in excess of the commitments of the United States under the Agreement on Agriculture. By acting inconsistently with Articles 10.1 and 8 of the Agreement on Agriculture and Articles 3.1(a) and 3.2 of the SCM Agreement, the United States had failed to comply with the DSB recommendations and rulings. Specifically, the United States had failed to bring its measures into conformity with the Agreement on Agriculture and had failed ''to withdraw the subsidy without delay''. With respect to certain export credits guarantees issued prior to 1 July 2005, Brazil had not established that the United States had failed to ''withdraw the subsidy without delay''.The panel also considered that to the extent that the measures taken by the United States to comply with the recommendations and rulings adopted by the DSB in the original proceeding were inconsistent with the objections of the United States under the covered agreements, these recommendations and rulings remain operative.

On 12 February 2008, the United States notified its decision to appeal to the Appellate Body certain issues of law covered in the compliance panel report and certain legal interpretations developed by the panel. On 25 February 2008, Brazil notified its decision to appeal to the Appellate Body certain issues of law and legal interpretations in the compliance panel report. On 11 April 2008, the Chairman of the Appellate Body informed the DSB that it would not be possible to circulate its report within 60 days in light of the numerous and complex issues raised in this appeal, and the increased burden on translation services. It estimated that the Appellate Body report would be issued no later than 2 June 2008.

On 2 June 2008, the Appellate Body report was circulated to Members.

As regards the scope of the Article 21.5 proceedings, the Appellate Body upheld the Panel's finding that Brazil's claims relating to export credit guarantees for pig meat and poultry meat are properly within the scope of these Article 21.5 proceedings. Because the condition on which it was predicated had not been fulfilled, the Appellate Body did not find it necessary to consider Brazil's other appeal that the Panel erred when it found that the measure that is the subject of Brazil's claims is not the revised GSM 102 programme itself.

The Appellate Body also upheld the Panel's finding that Brazil's claims against marketing loan and counter-cyclical payments made by the United States after 21 September 2005 were properly within the scope of these Article 21.5 proceedings. Because the condition on which it was predicated has not been fulfilled, the Appellate Body did not find it necessary to consider Brazil's other appeal that the Panel erred in finding that the original panel's conclusions and recommendations addressed only the payments made under the marketing loan and counter-cyclical payments programmes, and not the programmes themselves.

As regards the revised GSM 102 export credit guarantee programme, the Appellate Body found that the Panel failed to make an objective assessment of the matter, under Article 11 of the DSU, because it dismissed the import of the re-estimates data submitted by the United States on the basis of internally inconsistent reasoning. Consequently, the Appellate Body reversed the Panel's intermediate finding that ''the initial subsidy estimates provide a strong indication that GSM 102 export credit guarantees are provided against premia which are inadequate to cover the long-term operating costs and losses of the GSM 102 programme''.

The Appellate Body upheld the Panel's finding that ''the GSM 102 programme is not designed to cover its long term operating costs and losses'' and, albeit for reasons that differ from those of the Panel, the Panel's conclusion that ''the GSM 102 export credit guarantee programme constitutes an 'export subsidy' because it is provided against premiums which are inadequate to cover its long term operating costs and losses under the terms of item (j) of the Illustrative List''.

Consequently, the Appellate Body upheld the Panel's finding that GSM 102 export credit guarantees issued after 1 July 2005 are export subsidies within the meaning of Article 3.1(a) of the SCM Agreement and Article 10.1 of the Agreement on Agriculture; and that regarding export credit guarantees issued under the revised GSM 102 programme after 1 July 2005 the United States acts inconsistently with Article 10.1 of the Agreement on Agriculture by applying export subsidies in a manner which results in the circumvention of United States' export subsidy commitments with respect to certain unscheduled products and certain scheduled products, and as a result acts inconsistently with Article 8 of the Agreement on Agriculture. Regarding export credit guarantees issued under the revised GSM 102 programme after 1 July 2005, the Appellate Body also found that the United States also acts inconsistently with Articles 3.1(a) and 3.2 of the SCM Agreement by providing export subsidies to unscheduled products and by providing export subsidies to scheduled products in excess of the commitments of the United States under the Agreement on Agriculture.

The Appellate Body further found that, by acting inconsistently with Articles 10.1 and 8 of the Agreement on Agriculture and Articles 3.1(a) and 3.2 of the SCM Agreement, the United States had failed to comply with the DSB recommendations and rulings and specifically, had failed to bring its measures into conformity with the Agreement on Agriculture and ''to withdraw the subsidy without delay''.

As regards whether the effect of marketing loan and counter-cyclical payments is significant price suppression, the Appellate Body upheld the panel's findings that the United States acted inconsistently with its obligations under Articles 5(c) and 6.3(c) of the SCM Agreement in that the effect of marketing loan and counter-cyclical payments provided to United States upland cotton producers pursuant to the FSRI Act of 2002 is significant price suppression, within the meaning of Article 6.3(c) of the SCM Agreement, in the world market for upland cotton, constituting ''present'' serious prejudice to the interests of Brazil within the meaning of Article 5(c) of the SCM Agreement. The Appellate Body also found that, by acting inconsistently with Articles 5(c) and 6.3(c) of the SCM Agreement, the United States had failed to comply with the DSB's recommendations and rulings and, specifically, failed to comply with its obligation under Article 7.8 of the SCM Agreement ''to take appropriate steps to remove the adverse effects or ... withdraw the subsidy''.

The Appellate Body further found that the Panel did not fail to make an objective assessment of the matter before it, as required by Article 11 of the DSU, in its analysis of Brazil's claim that the effect of the marketing loan and counter-cyclical payments is significant price suppression.

The Appellate Body recommended that the DSB request the United States to bring its measures, found to be inconsistent with the Agreement on Agriculture and the SCM Agreement, into conformity with its obligations under those Agreements.

At its meeting on 20 June 2008, the DSB adopted the Appellate Body report and the Panel report, as modified by the Appellate Body report.

Proceedings under Article 22 of the DSU (remedies)

On 4 July 2005, prior to the initiation of the compliance proceedings (see above), and in respect of the ''prohibited subsidies'', Brazil requested, the DSB for authorization to take appropriate countermeasures pursuant to Article 4.10 of the SCM Agreement and to suspend concessions or other obligations pursuant to Article 22.2 of the DSU. Brazil asserted that the reasonable period of time had expired on 1 July 2005. Brazil stated it intended to take appropriate countermeasures in the form of the suspension of tariff concessions and related obligations under the GATT 1994 by imposing additional customs duties on a list of products imported from the United States, to be defined by Brazil. In addition, given that it considered that it was not practicable or effective to exclusively apply additional import duties and that it considered that the circumstances were serious enough, Brazil stated it may resort, to the extent necessary, to countermeasures in the form of suspension of certain obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

With regard to the prohibited subsidies, on 5 July 2005 the parties to the dispute jointly notified the DSB of ''Agreed Procedures under Articles 21 and 22 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding and Article 4 of the SCM Agreement''. On 14 July 2005, the United States submitted its objections to the request for authorization by Brazil pursuant to Article 22.6 of the DSU and Article 4.11 of the SCM Agreement challenging the appropriateness of the countermeasures, the proposed level of suspension and asserting that the principles and procedures set forth in Article 22.3 of the DSU had not been followed. At its meeting on 15 July 2005, the DSB referred the matter raised by the United States to arbitration. On 17 August 2005, the parties to the dispute jointly requested the Chairman of the Arbitrator to suspend the Article 22.6 arbitration proceedings in accordance with the Agreed Procedures under Articles 21 and 22 of the DSU, and the Arbitrator suspended the proceedings accordingly.

On 6 October 2005, in respect of the ''actionable subsidies'' Brazil requested the DSB for authorization to suspend concessions or other obligations under Article 7.9 of the SCM Agreement and Article 22.2 of the DSU. Brazil asserted that the reasonable period of time had expired on 21 September 2005. Brazil stated that in principle, these countermeasures would take the form of suspension of tariff concessions and related obligations under the GATT 1994 by means of the imposition of additional import duties on a list of products imported from the United States, to be defined by Brazil. In addition, Brazil contended that it was not practicable or effective to suspend concessions or other obligations exclusively with respect to the same sector/agreement as that in which the Panel and the Appellate Body have found the violations and that the circumstances are serious enough to justify the suspension of concessions or obligations under other covered agreements. Therefore it affirmed it may, to the extent necessary, resort to countermeasures in the form of suspension of certain obligations under the TRIPS Agreement and the GATS.

On 17 October 2005, the United States submitted its objections to the request for authorization by Brazil pursuant to Article 22.6 of the DSU and Article 7.10 of the SCM Agreement arguing that the countermeasures proposed are not commensurate with the degree and nature of the adverse effects determined to exist within the meaning of Article 7.9 of the SCM Agreement and that the level of suspension proposed is not equivalent to the level of nullification or impairment within the meaning of Article 22.7 of the DSU. With respect to Brazil's request for ''cross-retaliation'', the United States claimed that the principles and procedures set forth in Article 22.3 of the DSU have not been followed. At its meeting on 18 October 2005, the DSB referred the matter raised by the United States to arbitration. On 21 November 2005, the parties to the dispute jointly requested the Chairman of the Arbitrator to suspend the Article 22.6 arbitration proceedings in accordance with the Agreed Procedures under Articles 21 and 22 of the DSU, and the Arbitrator suspended the proceedings accordingly.

On 25 August 2008, and following the completion of the compliance proceedings (see above), Brazil requested that the two arbitration proceedings be resumed. At the time that Brazil requested the resumption of the arbitration proceedings, two of the arbitrators had become unavailable to serve in these proceedings. On 1 October 2008, the parties agreed to the replacement arbitrators. On 31 August 2009, the two Decisions by the Arbitrator were circulated to Members.

With respect to the ''prohibited subsidies'' at issue, the Arbitrator determined that Brazil may request authorization from the DSB to suspend concessions or other obligations under the Agreements on trade in goods in Annex 1A, at a level not to exceed the value of USD 147.4 million for FY 2006, or, for subsequent years, an annual amount to be determined by applying a methodology described in the Decision of the Arbitrator. The Arbitrator also determined that, in the event that the total level of countermeasures that Brazil would be entitled to in a given year should increase to a level that would exceed a threshold described in the decisions, updated to account for the change in Brazil's total imports from the United States, then, Brazil would also be entitled to seek to suspend certain obligations under the TRIPS Agreement and/or the GATS with respect to any amount of permissible countermeasures applied in excess of that figure.

With respect to the ''actionable subsidies'' at issue, the Arbitrator determined that Brazil may request authorization from the DSB to suspend concessions or other obligations under the Agreements on trade in goods in Annex 1A, at a level not to exceed the value of USD 147.3 million annually. The Arbitrator also determined that, in the event that the total level of countermeasures that Brazil would be entitled to in a given year should increase to a level that would exceed a threshold described in the decisions, updated to account for the change in Brazil's total imports from the United States, then, Brazil would also be entitled to seek to suspend certain obligations under the TRIPS Agreement and/or the GATS with respect to any amount of permissible countermeasures applied in excess of that figure.

With respect to the ''prohibited subsidies'', on 6 November 2009, Brazil requested authorization from the DSB to suspend the application to the United States of concessions or other obligations in conformity with the Arbitrators' Decision pursuant to Article 22.7 of the DSU and Article 4.10 of the SCM Agreement. At its meeting on 19 November 2009, the DSB authorized Brazil to suspend the application to the United States of concessions or other obligations.

With respect to the ''actionable subsidies'', on 6 November 2009, Brazil requested authorization from the DSB to suspend the application to the United States of concessions or other obligations in conformity with the Arbitrators' Decision pursuant to Article 22.7 of the DSU and Article 7.9 of the SCM agreement. At its meeting on 19 November 2009, the DSB authorized Brazil to suspend the application to the United States of concessions or other obligations.

On 8 March 2010, Brazil notified the DSB that, starting on 7 April 2010, it would suspend the application to the United States of concessions or other obligations under the GATT 1994 in the form of increased import duties on certain products when they are imported from the United States. However on 30 April 2010, Brazil notified the DSB that it had decided to postpone the imposition of countermeasures vis- -vis the United States indicating that no countermeasures would enter into force before 21 June 2010, since Brazil and the United States were engaged in a dialogue with a view to reaching a mutually satisfactory solution to the dispute.

Implementation of adopted reports

On 25 August 2010, Brazil and the United States notified the DSB they had concluded a Framework for a Mutually Agreed Solution to the Cotton Dispute (Framework) which in itself does not constitute a mutually agreed solution to the dispute but sets out parameters for discussions on a solution with respect to domestic support programs for upland cotton in the United States, as well as a process of joint operation reviews as regards export credit guarantees under the program GSM-102. Brazil and the United States also agreed to hold consultations not less than four times a year, unless they agree otherwise, with the aim of obtaining convergence of views in respect of a solution to the Cotton dispute. The Framework also provides that, upon enactment of successor legislation to the US Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, Brazil and the United States will consult with a view to determining whether a mutually agreed solution to the Cotton dispute has been reached. The joint communication also specified that as long as the Framework is in effect, Brazil will not impose the countermeasures authorized by the DSB.

At the DSB meeting on 23 October 2012, Brazil said that on 30 September 2012, the 2008 US Farm Bill had expired without the enactment of a successor legislation. However, taking into account that the current US agricultural support programs remained unchanged, Brazil had decided not to terminate the Memorandum of Understanding and the Framework Agreement and would thus not impose any countermeasures at this time.

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Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 20:44

Ludovic Toinel

Earlier this year, we published a series of posts featuring instant messages written by Facebook CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg.

Today, the New Yorker quoted two of them in a profile of Zuckerberg. Jose Antonio Vargas, who wrote the profile, says he's also "obtained and confirmed" the IMs.

In Vargas's story, Zuckerberg admits he wrote the IMs and says he "absolutely" regrets them.

We give Mark tons of credit for going on the record and talking about his youthful foibles.

Here's the part of the story where Vargas quotes the IMs:

The technology site Silicon Alley Insider got hold of some of the messages and, this past spring, posted the transcript of a conversation between Zuckerberg and a friend, outlining how he was planning to deal with Harvard Connect:

FRIEND: so have you decided what you are going to do about the websites?ZUCK: yea i'm going to fuck themZUCK: probably in the yearZUCK: *ear

In another exchange leaked to Silicon Alley Insider, Zuckerberg explained to a friend that his control of Facebook gave him access to any information he wanted on any Harvard student:

ZUCK: yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvardZUCK: just askZUCK: i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, snsFRIEND: what!? how'd you manage that one?ZUCK: people just submitted itZUCK: i don't know whyZUCK: they ''trust me''ZUCK: dumb fucks

According to two knowledgeable sources, there are more unpublished IMs that are just as embarrassing and damaging to Zuckerberg. But, in an interview, Breyer told me, ''Based on everything I saw in 2006, and after having a great deal of time with Mark, my confidence in him as C.E.O. of Facebook was in no way shaken.'' Breyer, who sits on Facebook's board, added, ''He is a brilliant individual who, like all of us, has made mistakes.'' When I asked Zuckerberg about the IMs that have already been published online, and that I have also obtained and confirmed, he said that he ''absolutely'' regretted them. ''If you're going to go on to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, then you need to be mature, right?'' he said. ''I think I've grown and learned a lot.''

Zuckerberg's sophomoric former self, he insists, shouldn't define who he is now. But he knows that it does, and that, because of the upcoming release of ''The Social Network,'' it will surely continue to do so. The movie is a scathing portrait, and the image of an unsmiling, insecure, and sexed-up young man will be hard to overcome. Zuckerberg said, ''I think a lot people will look at that stuff, you know, when I was nineteen, and say, 'Oh, well, he was like that. . . . He must still be like that, right?' ''

Don't miss our original stories on the IMs:

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Archived Version

Source: Krebs on Security

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:37

Nationwide fast-food chain Dairy Queen on Thursday confirmed that malware installed on cash registers at some 395 stores resulted in the theft of customer credit and debit card information. The acknowledgement comes nearly six weeks after this publication first broke the news that multiple banks were reporting indications of a card breach at Dairy Queen locations across the country.

In a statement issued Oct. 9, Dairy Queen listed nearly 400 DQ locations and one Orange Julius location that were found to be infected with the widely-reported Backoff malware that is targeting retailers across the country.

Curiously, Dairy Queen said that it learned about the incident in late August from law enforcement officials. However, when I first reached out to Dairy Queen on Aug. 22 about reports from banking sources that the company was likely the victim of a breach, the company said it had no indication of a card breach at any of its 4,500+ locations. Asked about the apparent discrepancy, Dairy Queen spokesman Dean Peters said that by the time I called the company and inquired about the breach, Dairy Queen's legal team had indeed already been notified by law enforcement.

''When I told you we had no knowledge, I was being truthful,'' Peters said. ''However, I didn't know at that time that someone [from law enforcement] had already contacted Dairy Queen.''

In answer to inquiries from this publication, Dairy Queen said its investigation revealed that the same third-party point-of-sale vendor was used at all of the breached locations, although it declined to name the affected vendor. However, multiple sources contacted by this reporter said the point-of-sale vendor in question was Panasonic Retail Information Systems.

In response to questions from KrebsOnSecurity, Panasonic issued the following non-denial statement:

''Panasonic is proud that we can count Dairy Queen as a point-of-sale hardware customer. We have seen the media reports this morning about the data breaches in a number of Dairy Queen outlets. To the best of our knowledge, these types of malware breaches are generally associated with network security vulnerabilities and are not related to the point-of-sale hardware we provide. Panasonic stands ready to provide whatever assistance we can to our customers in resolving the issue.''

The Backoff malware that was found on compromised Dairy Queen point-of-sale terminals is typically installed after attackers compromise remote access tools that allow users to connect to the systems over the Internet. All too often, the user accounts for these remote access tools are protected by weak or easy-to-guess username and password pairs.

The incident at DQ fits a pattern of breaches involving retail chains that rely heavily on franchisees and poorly-secured point-of-sale products which allow remote access over the Internet. On Sept. 24, nationwide sandwich chain Jimmy John's confirmed reports first published in this blog about a likely point-of-sale breach at the company's stores. While there are more than 1,900 franchised Jimmy John's locations, only 216 were hit, and they were all running the same point-of-sale software from Newtown, Pa. based Signature Systems. On Sept. 26, Signature disclosed that at least 100 other mom-and-pop restaurants that it serves were compromised through its point-of-sale systems.

Earlier in September, KrebsOnSecurity reported that a different hacked point-of-sale provider was the driver behind a breach that impacted more than 330 Goodwill locations nationwide. That breach, which targeted payment vendor C&K Systems Inc., persisted for 18 months, and involved two other as-yet unnamed C&K customers.

Dairy Queen said that it will be offering free credit monitoring services to affected customers. This has become the standard response for companies trying to burnish their public image in the wake of a card breach, even though credit monitoring services do nothing to help consumers detect or prevent fraud on existing accounts '-- such as credit and debit cards.

There is no substitute for monitoring your monthly bank and credit card statements for unauthorized or suspicious transactions. If you're looking for information about how to protect yourself or loved ones from identity thieves, check out the tips in the latter half of this article.

Tags: Backoff malware, Dairy Queen breach, Dairy Queen credit card breach, Dean Peters, Panasonic, Panasonic Retail Information Systems

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2014 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Data Breaches. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Source: LIVE@LEEDS

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:51

Richard Morgan NY POST.com 10/12/14

The No. 1 music publisher has decided to go it alone in the battle to boost digital royalties paid to songwriters.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing '-- whose catalog includes Beatles classics along with Taylor Swift's current chart toppers '-- plans to dump the industry's oldest and biggest performance-rights organizations by the end of the year, The Post has learned.

Bypassing BMI and ASCAP, which collect royalties for songwriters when their tunes are played on the radio, streamed online or piped into a store, would allow Sony/ATV to negotiate directly with services such as Pandora, Spotify and YouTube.

Songwriters complain that BMI and ASCAP are bound by outdated government rules that result in paltry royalties from digital outlets. The pain is especially acute as CD sales and digital downloads are in decline, while streaming services are the only area of growth.

In July, Sony/ATV Chief Executive Martin Bandier, in a letter to his songwriters, warned that he might withdraw from ASCAP and BMI so he could better fight for higher streaming royalties.

Sony/ATV already tried a partial pullout from the professional-rights organizations, forcing companies like Pandora to negotiate directly for a license to stream music.

Pandora sued, arguing that music publishers couldn't make partial withdrawals from BMI and ASCAP, which are bound by decades-old consent decrees with the Department of Justice that determine royalty rates.

The federal courts agreed: Either the publisher's entire catalog of licensable songs remained with the licensing groups or none did.

Sony/ATV has appealed the courts' all-or-nothing rule and is imploring the DOJ to review consent decrees it considers antiquated.

As a result of the court rulings, the royalty rate Pandora pays Sony/ATV reverted to the 1.85 percent by decree from the 5 percent that Sony/ATV exacted through direct negotiations.

No. 2 publisher Universal Music Publishing Group is also anxious to enter into direct negotiations over digital rights. But sources close to the company say it's more willing to wait out both of Sony/ATV's appeals.

Sony/ATV, however, isn't nearly as patient.

In his July letter, Bandier cautioned that ''because the DOJ and legal process is not fully within our control, we may have no alternative but to take all of our rights out of ASCAP and BMI.''

A withdrawal would saddle Sony/ATV with significant administrative responsibilities historically handled by BMI and ASCAP. It would likely cripple the licensing groups as well.

But a source claims the $230 million BMI and ASCAP kept for themselves last year '-- after distributing $1.7 billion to songwriters, composers and publishers '-- suggests plenty of room for cost-cutting.

Sony/ATV could replace them with a much leaner operation, the source said, saving tens of millions a year. And at least half of those savings could also be repatriated to the Sony/ATV songwriters that BMI and ASCAP once served.

While Sony/ATV wouldn't confirm that it is pulling out of the licensing groups, it acknowledged the option is on the table.

Calling it a done deal ''would be very premature,'' a Sony/ATV spokesman said.

This entry was posted on October 13, 2014 at 10:26 pm and is filed under Publishing, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Source: Valleywag

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:50

LinkedIn's business practices have been the subject of lawsuits before. This time, LinkedIn is accused of allowing paid subscribers to "anonymously dig into the employment history" of its members, violating federal consumer protection laws.

Via The Recorder:

According to the suit, LinkedIn can mine the information provided by users of its professional networking website to find potential references for job applicants without the applicants' knowledge. Searches yield a list of the names and current job titles for potential references, along with the common employer they share with the applicant and time worked together.

The complaint claims that these reference lists amount to a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and that LinkedIn fails to abide by safeguards required under the law.

"In essence, LinkedIn has created a marketplace in consumer employment information, where it sells employment information, that may or may not be accurate, and that it has obtained in part from unwitting members, and without complying with the FCRA," write the plaintiffs lawyers at Greenwald Davidson in Boca Raton, Fla., and the Law Offices Todd M. Friedman in Beverly Hills. Plaintiffs are asking for statutory damages for willful violation of the FCRA, which run from $100 to $1,000 per violation.

The suit claims that LinkedIn's reference report feature allows employers to "make hiring and firing decisions based upon the information they gather, without the knowledge of the member, and without any safeguards in place as to the accuracy of the information."

Lawyers further claim that the business network "directly contradicts" the FCRA, which they say "was enacted to promote accuracy, fairness, and the privacy of personal information."

Photo: AP

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:34

October 16 is World Dictionary Day, marking the birthday of the great American lexicographer Noah Webster. Born in Connecticut in 1758, Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, in 1806, but it was his two-volume American Dictionary of the English Language published in 1828 (when he was 70 years old) that earned him his place in history as the foremost lexicographer of American English.

The statistics alone speak for themselves: Webster's American Dictionary took him 28 years to complete. In preparation he learned 26 languages, including Old English, Ancient Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. The final draft listed and defined 70,000 words, more than any other dictionary in history (and 30,000 more than Samuel Johnson's dictionary had almost a century earlier). 1 in every 6 of Webster's words had never been listed in a dictionary before; as a dictionary of American English, he radically chose to include a whole new vocabulary of emerging Americanisms like squash, skunk, hickory, chowder and applesauce for the very first time. And he famously took the opportunity to push through his ideas on English spelling reform - some of which took (center, color, honor, ax), and some of which didn't (dawter, wimmen, cloke, tung).

Despite all of his efforts, Webster's dictionary sold just 2,500 copies on its publication and he was compelled to mortgage his home in New Haven to fund a second edition in 1840. Three years later, having never quite gained the recognition his work deserved in his lifetime, he died at the age of 84. Today however, as both a literary and scholarly achievement Webster's 1828 dictionary is widely regarded as both the first truly comprehensive dictionary of American English, and as one of the most important dictionaries in the history of our language. So to mark World Dictionary Day - and to celebrate what would be Webster's 256th birthday - here are 26 of some of the most curious, most surprising and most obscure words from Webster's Dictionary in one handy A to Z.

AFTER-WISE (adj.)Defined by Webster as "wise afterwards or too late" -- or in other words, the perfect term for describing that feeling of knowing exactly what you should have said (or done) after the opportunity to say it (or do it) has passed you by. Other useful after- words on Webster's list were after-game (a subsequent scheme or plan), after-supper (the time between supper and going to bed), and after-tossing (the rolling of the sea after a storm has passed).

BABBLEMENT (n.)"Senseless prattle" or "unmeaning words," according to Webster. To twattle, incidentally, is to gossip or chatter.

CYCOPEDECycopede is all but unique to Webster, who defined it as both a variation of cyclopedia (as in encyclopedia), and as a term for the entire "circle of human knowledge."

DAGGLE-TAIL (adj.)As a verb, to daggle is "to befoul" or "dirty", or more specifically, "to trail in mud or wet grass". The adjective daggle-tail ultimately describes someone "having the lower ends of garments defiled with mud."

EAR-ERECTING (adj.)Another of Webster's clever compound adjectives, this time describing any sound that "sets up the ears".

FOPDOODLE (n.)The perfect name for "an insignificant fellow" -- Webster described this word as "vulgar and not used."

GASTRILOQUIST (n.)An old-fashioned word for a ventriloquist, or as Webster explains, "one who so modified his voice that it seems to come from another person or place."

HUGGER-MUGGER (n.)On the rare occasions when hugger-mugger appears in modern English, it's typically used to describe a state of noisy confusion or uproar. According to Webster, however, it was a "low cant word" synonymous with privacy or clandestineness -- doing something in hugger-mugger, he explained, meant doing it in absolute secrecy.

ILLAQUEATION (n.)A formal word for "the act of ensnaring; a catching or entrapping."

JACKPUDDING (n.)A jackpudding is a "merry-andrew" or "a zany" according to Webster -- in other words, a joker who acts the fool to make other people laugh.

KISSING-CRUST (n.)As loaves of bread expand in the oven as they're cooked, a kissing-crust forms when they spread so far that they touch.

LONGINQUITY (n.)Derived from the Latin word for distance, longinquity is a formal word for remoteness or isolation, or for any vast distance in space or time.

MAFFLE (v.)To stammer or stumble on your words. To faffel means the same thing.

NUNCUPATORY (adj.)If something is nuncupatory then it exists in name only. The word can also be used to describe a verbal rather than written agreement.

OBAMBULATE (v.)Literally means "to walk about." The horseback equivalent, incidentally, is to obequitate -- or "to ride about."

PACKTHREAD (n.)The strong string or twine used to wrap parcels? That's packthread.

QUADRIN (n.)A quadrin was old copper coin, which Webster explains was "in value [worth] about a farthing". Its name can also be used figuratively of any tiny amount of something, or an insignificant amount of cash.

RAKESHAME (n.)"A vile, dissolute wretch" -- also known as a rampallion, a scroyle, a runnion, a pander, a cullion and (if they seem destined to a life of crime) a crack-rope.

SHEEP-BITE (v.)To sheep-bite is "to practice petty thefts" according to Webster. Some of his other criminally underused S-words include scantle ("to divide into small pieces"), scranch ("to grind with the teeth"), stalactical ("resembling an icicle"), squabbish ("thick, fat, heavy") and stramash ("to beat," "to destroy"). Less useful is sniggle, defined as "to fish for eels by thrusting the bait into their holes."

TARDIGRADOUS (adj.)"Slow-paced; moving or stepping slowly."

UPTRAIN (v.)To uptrain is "to educate" -- literally "to train up."

VERNATE (v.)Derived from the Latin word for the spring, to vernate is "to become young again."

WRANGLESOME (adj.)To wrangle is "to dispute angrily" or "to involve in contention," according to Webster. So if you're wranglesome, then you're "quarrelsome and contentious."

XEROPHAGY (n.)Xerophagy is "the eating of dry meats," according to Webster, who described the practice as "a sort of fast among the primitive Christians." In all, he listed just 13 words under X in his dictionary - which is 13 more than Samuel Johnson, who instead stated that "X is a letter which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language."

YOKE-MATE (n.)Also called a yoke-fellow, a yoke-mate is "an associate or companion."

ZUFFOLO (n.)Z fairs slightly better than X in Webster's dictionary, with a total of 85 entries in all. A zuffolo, he explains, is "a little flute... especially that which is used to teach birds."

Also on The Huffington Post:

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This is a classic that even James Bond has been seen reading.

Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton, has been sent to a small village to solve a grisly murder.

Twice-divorced former cop Kinsey Millhone solves her first crime.

A psychological thriller set around a modern Valentine's Day massacre.

Himes' voice rings as we follow two tough cops, Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones.

A smart and spellbinding tale of a friendship and greed.

The master's first '' and one of his favorites.

The introduction of vulnerable young detective.

The thriller queen's murderous countdown.

More who-am-I than whodunit: the classic about an amnesiac.

Ex-cop Bernie Gunther solves crimes againt the backdrop of Nazi Germany.

Small-town pediatrician and coroner, Sara Linton, solves her first Grant County, Georgia crime.

Terrifying, even if you've seen the movie(s) multiple times.

One of the first novels about crackdealing, by the veteran writer.

Two Navajo boys have disappeared, and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn must solve the case.

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Archived Version

Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:15

The Securities Exchange Commission on Thursday charged a New York-based trading firm of manipulating the closing price of thousands of Nasdaq-listed stocks from June to December 2009.

The investigation found that Athena Capital Research used an algorithm to engage in a practice known as "marking the close," in which stocks are bought or sold near the end of the trading day to impact their closing price, a release said.

"The massive volumes of Athena's last-second trades allowed Athena to overwhelm the market's available liquidity and artificially push the market price'--and therefore the closing price'--in Athena's favor. Athena was acutely aware of the price impact of its algorithmic trading, calling it 'owning the game' in internal e-mails," the SEC wrote in a release.

Read MoreA brief history of high-speed trading in the 1800s

The SEC claimsAthenadeveloped strategies to dominate trade in the last few seconds of a trading day. These trades made up more than 70 percent of the volume of these stocks in the run-up to the close on the Nasdaq.

Without admitting or denying the findings, Athena has agreed to pay a $1 million penalty to settle the case, the SEC's first on high frequency trading manipulation.

The trading firm said in a release that it believed its trading activity "helped satisfy market demand for liquidity during a period of unprecedented demand for such liquidity." Athena added that it stopped running the trading strategy several years ago as those market needs diminished.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:55

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:21

October 16, 2014Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey talked about issues relating to technology, privacy, and public safety.

Javascript must be enabled in order to access C-SPAN videos.

*The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.

People in this videoHosting OrganizationRelated VideoClips from This Video

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Archived Version

Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:30

A Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission is warning about a government-backed study that ''seems to have come straight out of a George Orwell novel.''

Commissioner Ajit Pai '-- one of two Republicans on the five-member commission '-- warned in a Washington Postop-ed on Saturday about a National Science Foundation study of people's communications on Twitter, which he said amounted to government monitoring of people's speech.

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''In the United States, the government has no business entering the marketplace of ideas to establish an arbiter of what is false, misleading or a political smear,'' he wrote. ''The federal government has no business spending your hard-earned money on a project to monitor political speech on Twitter.''

The ''Truthy'' study, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, is being developed by Indiana University researchers to study how popular ideas and jokes spread throughout popular culture. One focus is the spread of ''political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution,'' researchers said.

''While the vast majority of memes arise in a perfectly organic manner, driven by the complex mechanisms of life on the Web, some are engineered by the shady machinery of high-profile congressional campaigns,'' the university explained.

To Pai, the project sounds a lot like the FCC's contentious plans to study the editorial practices of newsrooms, which many said could be a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of the press.

Pai was a major critic of that effort and his alarms helped tohave it scrapped in February.

''The episode reaffirmed that the American people, not their government, determine what their critical information needs are and that the First Amendment means the government has no place in the newsroom,'' he wrote in Saturday's op-ed.

''That principle applies here.''

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:28

How are U.S. troops fighting Ebola in Africa? | USA NOWNatalie DiBlasio hosts USA NOW on what U.S. troops are doing to fight Ebola in West Africa.

Video TranscriptAutomatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)

00:02 The military is preparing to deal with the bull after00:05 President Obama okayed the Pentagon to send up to 3000 more00:09 troops to West Africa. To help deal with the able crisis.00:13 I'm Natalie the Bellagio in this is investing now for October00:15 17 2014. So far 547. Troops are there mostly in Iberia00:22 but some aren't Senegal. They're building seventeen treatment centers and training00:26 local professionals and how to handle and diagnose a bullet patients.00:30 All branches of the military active duty and prisoner helping. Navy00:35 seabees are building to treatment centers and eighty medical personnel are00:38 conducting lab test. Soldiers are performing civil engineering and logistical duties00:43 and airmen -- word meaning military flights in and out of00:46 the country. Right now no troops or treat able patients directly00:51 they're leaving that to medical professionals. Aid organizations like US an00:55 idea and the Red Cross have been on the ground for00:57 months providing safe aerial team to dispose of bodies in 2401:01 hours. Help with lab work and spread prevention efforts. If troops01:06 are infected viable and they'll be quarantined stabilized and transported out01:10 of Liberia for treatment. They're constantly monitored for vital signs and01:14 for the virus. -- -- where investment in next material is01:19 president. This is where people play this. In preparation for their01:23 deployment soldiers have to go to a mandatory training to learn01:27 how to properly Wear protective suits with respirators. Even though the01:30 troops will not be anywhere near horrible with patients. We're following01:34 this online USA today dot com.

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Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:43

Amidst growing pressure, President Obama named Ron Klain as his Ebola 'czar.' Klain has worked with Vice President Joe Biden, former presidential candidate John Kerry and former Vice President Al Gore.

Video TranscriptAutomatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)

00:01 -- pressure mounts for the White House to take a00:04 stronger stance in the fight against a bola. Ron -- will00:08 be appointed as President Obama as Ebola czar. We have and00:11 has surgeon general for a year and that's a job that00:14 would have. Traditionally done a lot of these this role so00:17 now they need somebody come in -- step in and pull00:20 out of the various pieces together. Claim has served as a00:23 top aide to Al Gore during the 2000 election. He also00:27 served as an advisor for John Kerry's presidential campaign and as00:32 chief of staff to vice president Joseph Biden. In 2011 he00:36 left the White House to serve in the private sector. What00:39 he knows so many people inside Washington inside government inside the00:43 policy community. He knows how to make things work and that's00:46 one of the things that the president needs right now. Claims00:49 role as General Counsel to Al Gore's 2000 recount committee was00:53 the focus of the 2008 film recount. Oscar winning actor Kevin00:58 Spacey played claim in the HBO movie. -- -- -- --01:03 -- So the best man win them. -- -- -- --01:10 -- As the bullet czar a White House official says claim01:14 will be responsible for coordinating the administration's whole of government response.01:20 -- --

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:50

More ABC news videos | ABC Health NewsCopyThe Air Force's secret mini-shuttle has finally returned to earth after spending nearly two years on a classified mission in space, military officials said today.

The X37-B space plane touched down this morning at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after spending a staggering 674 days aloft.

One of the few things known about the space plane's classified missions is that it can stay in orbit for extended periods of time.

Measuring 29 feet in length and having a 15-foot wingspan, the unmanned re-usable orbital test vehicle looks like a miniature version of NASA's now retired space shuttles.

Like the space shuttle, the X-37B lands on runways, though it does so without pilots at the helm.

The latest flight was the plane's third mission. The X37-B will blast off on its fourth mission sometime next year from Cape Canaveral, the Air Force said.

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:39

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly clashed with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart Wednesday night in an intense debate over the existence of ''white privilege.''

O'Reilly appeared on ''The Daily Show'' to promote his new book ''Killing Patton,'' but Stewart steered the conversation in another direction.

''Listen to me,'' Stewart told O'Reilly. ''Here's all I want from you today '-- this is it, this is all we got to do in this conversation. I have one simple goal. I want you to admit that there is such a thing as white privilege. That's all I want.''

O'Reilly didn't oblige.

''OK look,'' the Fox News host told Stewart. ''If there is white privilege, then there has to be Asian privilege because Asians make more money than whites.''

''What?'' Stewart asked, seemingly stunned.

''Oh, you didn't know any of this, huh?'' O'Reilly countered, adding that Asians on average ''make more money'' and have a ''higher education.''

''You're missing the point,'' Stewart said.

''Sorry to confuse you with the facts,'' O'Reilly quipped.

''Sorry to confuse you with the facts.''The two continued to debate each other over the topic, going back and forth over the topic.

''You are carrying more of a burden as a black person in this country than a white person in this country,'' Stewart told O'Reilly.

''Collectively, yes,'' O'Reilly responded. ''But not ''''

''Individually,'' Stewart said. ''They don't stop and frisk Wall Street bankers, even though they've done far more damage to the economy.''

Things ultimately descended into a shouting match as Stewart attempted to convince O'Reilly that there had been a ''systemized subjugation of the black community.''

''Would you not agree with that?'' he asked.

''That was then, this is now!'' O'Reilly replied. ''Maybe you haven't figured out that there is no more slavery, no more Jim Crow, and the most powerful man in the world is a black American, and the most powerful woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey, is black.''

'--

Follow Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) on Twitter

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:35

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tom Frieden on Thursday lost the support of two Republican members of the House who are also doctors, as one called for Frieden's removal, and the other called for a House vote on imposing an Ebola-related travel ban.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) released a statement saying the first step to combating Ebola should be to remove Frieden for failing to be more careful about stopping the spread of Ebola in the United States.

Republicans are losing faith in the ability of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden to control Ebola in the United States and ensure the health of Americans. (AP Photo/Johnny Clark)

The CDC allowed infected nurse Amber Vinson to fly from Cleveland to Dallas this week, even after she reported a light fever. Frieden later said Vinson should not have flown, and Gosar said as a result that he should be removed for ''gross incompetence'' and failing to lead the CDC.

''The protection of the American people is the most important role of our government,'' Gosar said. ''CDC Director Thomas Frieden has failed to lead and has shown gross incompetence in his actions or lack thereof to prevent the spread of Ebola domestically.''

''We cannot afford such mistakes when American lives are at risk,'' he added. ''That is why I am calling for the immediate resignation of Director Friedan.''

Gosar's statement came out as a House subcommittee hearing was hearing testimony from Frieden, and as Republicans continued to press him on why he doesn't support a ban on people coming from Ebola-ravaged nations. With no sign of support for any travel restrictions in the Obama administration, another GOP doctor, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), said the committee should request a House vote on whether to ban travel.

''Mr. Chairman, I think perhaps this committee should consider forwarding to the full House a request that we have a vote on travel restriction, because people are asking us to do that, and I think they are exactly correct to make that request,'' Burgess said during a subcommittee hearing Thursday.

Burgess is one of a growing number of Republicans who say the U.S. should block the entry of anyone traveling from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone until the Ebola outbreak is resolved in those countries. But Democrats and the Obama administration have said a travel ban could backfire and make the Ebola outbreak worse in West Africa, which could ultimately put more Americans at risk.

Officials have struggled to convince Republicans that travel should remain open. In the hearing, Frieden made his most explicit case yet for why the U.S. should not impose a travel ban on people out of West Africa, by saying the current system makes it easier for health officials to track those people.

''Right now we know who's coming in,'' he said. ''If we try to eliminate travel, the possibility that some will travel over land, will come from other places'... will mean that we won't be able to do multiple things.''

He said a ban would make it harder for health officials to monitor people as they leave and arrive for symptoms, ask them for details about the contacts they might have had. ''We wouldn't be able to provide all of that information as we do now to state and local health departments so that they can monitor them under supervision,'' he said.

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:32

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas released the first video showing nurse Nina Pham speak in her room before being transported to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland Thursday evening.

The 56-second clip, recorded by attending physician Dr. Gary Weinstein, appears to show Pham in good condition before transferring hospitals.

At one point, she became emotional, shedding some tears ahead of her trip to Maryland.

''There's no crying,'' Weinstein said. ''Well, happy tears are okay. Otherwise no tears. No crying!''

''I love you guys,'' she said.

'--

Follow Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) on Twitter

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 14:52

October 15, 2014Secretary Chuck Hagel gave the keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army.'‚He talked about his proposal'... read more

Secretary Chuck Hagel gave the keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army.'‚He talked about his proposal to reduce the active duty Army force to its lowest level since before World War II.'‚This came as a result of defense spending cuts and a change in defense strategy to make the military a smaller tactical force as it shifts to more specialized capabilities.'‚Secretary Hagel has warned that further reductions would be necessary if sequestration* cuts were not rescinded by Congress.

*Sequestration, a legal procedure in which every federal agency has the same percentage of its budget taken back in order to cut deficit spending, was part of a debt ceiling and tax increase agreement for the Budget Control Act of 2011 and began March 1, 2013. close

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*The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 14:51

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Sat, 18 Oct 2014 14:40

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:05

By Eric Bradner, CNN

updated 3:03 PM EDT, Fri October 17, 2014

Washington (CNN) -- The Navy Reserve discharged Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter this year after he tested positive for cocaine, U.S. officials confirmed.

The discharge of Biden, a 44-year-old lawyer and managing partner at an investment firm, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. He confirmed the report in a statement to CNN.

"It was the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the Navy's decision. With the love and support of my family, I'm moving forward," he said.

Biden was commissioned as an ensign in May 2013 and assigned as a public affairs officer in a Norfolk, Virginia-based reserve unit. A month later, he tested positive for cocaine, and he was discharged in February, according to the report.

The U.S. official said the Navy never had contact with the vice president's office over the issue, and that standard procedure for failed drug tests is administrative discharge. The vice president's office didn't comment on the report.

Hunter Biden is the younger of Biden's two sons. His older brother, Beau Biden, is Delaware's attorney general and a major in the Delaware Army National Guard. He was deployed for a year in Iraq.

CNN's Barbara Starr and Jim Acosta contributed to this report.

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Fri, 17 Oct 2014 14:26

What greets you at the Onward Internet website (no mention of any telecom ties though...)

This piece originally appeared in Pro Publica.This story has been updated to include a comment from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.

On a recent Monday evening, two bearded young men in skinny jeans came to a parklet in San Francisco's trendy Hayes Valley neighborhood and mounted what looked like an art installation. It was a bright blue, oversized "suggestion box" for the Internet.

The boxes, sometimes accompanied by young people in futuristic costumes, have been popping up on both coasts for weeks, soliciting messages of support'--but their sponsor has been a mystery. The website for the campaign, Onward Internet, does not say. Their domain registration is private. And the site includes no contact information, only an animated video heavy on millennial lingo: "The Internet was made to move data...we got blogs, likes, selfies, and memes, OMG, BRB, and TTYL."

The lone hint at a larger message is oblique. "The Internet is a wild, free thing," the site says. "Unbounded by limits, unfettered by rules, it's everyone's responsibility to ensure that the Internet continues to advance."

Turns out Onward Internet may be the latest stealth entrant in the increasingly nasty battle over net neutrality, which will determine how the government regulates Internet providers.

The production agency for Onward Internet wouldn't say who their client is, but an employee for the company that rented the space for the Hayes Valley installation let slip that "It's something called the National Cable and Telecommunications Association"'--the principal trade group for the telecom industry.

Telecom companies have been the fiercest opponents of a proposal under which the government would treat broadband like a utility, making it easier for regulators to keep Internet providers from blocking certain sites or saddling some content providers with slower speeds or higher fees.

As the Federal Communications Commission nears a decision on new rules, suspicions have grown that industry players are funding independent groups to create the appearance of diverse, grass-roots backing. Think tanks have been accused of being co-opted. Nonprofits have been criticized for concealing who they represent. In one case, the telecom industry was accused of fooling unwitting businesses into joining a coalition against broadband regulation.

NCTA officials did not respond to questions about Onward Internet and would not confirm they're behind it. "What led you to the conclusion that this is an NCTA effort...?" asked Brian Dietz, a vice president for the organization, before he stopped responding to e-mails.

It's unclear what the lobbying giant hopes to get out of this particular campaign, but the Onward Internet website, call-in line, and Twitter feed are collecting messages of support from visitors who would have no way of knowing they're backing a telecom industry campaign.

"Sorry we can't come to the phone right now," the call-in greeting says. "We just got wind of the juiciest celebrity rumor and we're working to confirm it. So please leave your suggestion for the future of the Internet at the beep and visit Onward Internet dot com next month to see what we've done with it."

Many in the tech community have pinned their hopes for saving net neutrality on the reclassification proposal that would give the FCC more power over Internet providers. Their belief is that it would make it harder for Internet providers to charge content providers more for faster service, thus protecting tech startups from being squashed by established brands that have the resources to pay a premium.

That's why there was surprise in Silicon Valley when a nonprofit called CALinnovates, which says it represents the interests of technology companies and start-ups, entered the debate by taking a stance against the government regulation plan.

"We'd never heard of them until then," said Julie Samuels, executive director of Engine, a nonpartisan startup advocacy group.

CALinnovates filed comments with the FCC opposing the plan. The group's executive director, Mike Montgomery, wrote a column for the Huffington Post, echoing warnings raised by the telecom industry that more regulation would hamper innovation.

"Would we even know what an iPhone is if Steve Jobs had to run his pricing models past the FCC?" Montgomery asked. "Would Twitter be fomenting revolution if Jack Dorsey needed to check with regulators about what kind of data can be shared online and by whom?"

Most notably, the nonprofit got a flurry of press coverage for a poll it commissioned that found Americans don't support more regulation: "Only one in four Americans believe that government policies can keep up with the pace of innovation that we are seeing with technology, such as the Internet."

The group's stance gave the anti-reclassification camp a backer from within the tech community'--a boon for one of CALinnovates' supporters, AT&T.

In an interview with ProPublica, Montgomery declined to say to what extent his organization is funded by the telecom giant, which is listed as a "partner" on its website. Asked if AT&T consulted with him about his net neutrality stance, he said "We have input and advice from all of our members."

Later, a spokesman for the nonprofit released a statement to ProPublica saying, ''CALinnovates' position on net neutrality was based on a thorough economic and legal analysis and reflects CALinnovates' independent thinking on matters important to the tech industry."

The organization's telecom-friendly position didn't seem to mesh with its advisory board, which includes some of Silicon Valley's more prominent names. Ron Conway, for example, is a well-known angel investor who has been a strong backer of government action to protect net neutrality.

Asked about the apparent contradiction by ProPublica, Conway's spokesman lauded "diversity of viewpoints" and CALinnovates but said his boss was on "opposite sides" with the nonprofit.

Days later, Conway resigned from the CALinnovates board.

Outside of CALinnovates, Montgomery has worked for other organizations with telecom ties. Before heading up the nonprofit, he worked for a lobbying firm and political candidates that have taken money from AT&T.

Montgomery said he did not feel he needed to disclose CALinnovates' AT&T ties in his columns on net neutrality.

"We receive support from all of our partners," he said. "I think you'll see a diversity of opinion if you spend some time reading all the things I write."

The FCC has been taking public comments and hosting forums on net neutrality for months, and it's expected to make a decision by the end of the year.

Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu'--who coined the term net neutrality in 2003 and is a proponent of government regulation to protect it'--said he worries astroturfing efforts may lull some lawmakers into inaction.

"The effect of the astroturfing is to make everything foggy," Wu said. "It propels the argument that if things are cloudy, government should stay away (and) let the market decide."

After publication of this story on ProPublica, Brian Dietz, a vice president for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, issued a comment on behalf of the organization. He said that although the NCTA is interested in soliciting comments on net neutrality, it also wants to hear about other Internet-related issues.

"We know that network neutrality is important to Internet users and we share the vision that the Internet remains an open and unfettered experience for all to enjoy," he said in his statement. "We've kept NCTA's brand off Onward Internet because we want to collect unbiased feedback directly from individuals about what they want for the future of the Internet and how it can become even better than it is today. The cable industry is proud of our role as a leading Internet provider in the U.S. but we feel it's important to hear directly from consumers about how they envision the future so we can work hard on delivering it."