Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Swedes Arrested for Butter Smuggling
December 19th, 2011Via: Telegraph: Two Swedes have been arrested by Norwegian police for smuggling more than 250kg of butter into the country, offloading one consignment for more than £25 a packet. The two men, from the Northern city of Umea, managed to make their first delivery before a police patrol stopped their van on Saturday evening. “They […]
North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il Dead
December 19th, 2011Via: Reuters: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack while on a train trip, state media reported Monday, sparking immediate concern over who is in control of the reclusive state and its nuclear program. … South Korea, still technically at war with the North, placed its troops and all government workers on […]
Homeland Security: Paying with Cash?:
December 19th, 2011Via: YouTube:
Egypt Intensifies Crackdown on Street Protesters
December 19th, 2011WARNING: EXTREME VIOLENCE. Via: Sydney Morning Herald: Egypt’s military rulers escalated a bloody crackdown on street protesters over the weekend, chasing down and beating unarmed civilians, even while the Prime Minister was denying in a televised news conference that soldiers were using any force. In a highly incendiary development, video cameras captured soldiers stripping the […]
UMG Claims “Right to Block or Remove” YouTube Videos it Doesn’t Own
December 17th, 2011Via: Ars Technica: Universal Music Group has responded to Megaupload’s request for a temporary restraining order barring the music giant from further interference with the distribution of its “Mega Song.” UMG insists that it had a right to take down the video—not under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as Megaupload had assumed, but under a […]
Coming Soon: Retroactive Surveillance on Anyone
December 17th, 2011Via: Network World: As the price of digital storage drops and the technology to tap electronic communication improves, authoritarian governments will soon be able to perform retroactive surveillance on anyone within their borders, according to a Brookings Institute report. These regimes will store every phone call, instant message, email, social media interaction, text message, movements […]
Russia: Founder of Newspaper That Investigated Government Corruption Shot Dead
December 16th, 2011Via: Guardian: The founder of a newspaper that investigated government corruption has been shot dead outside the newspaper’s office in Russia’s North Caucasus region, police say. A gunman shot Gadzhimurat Kamalov as he was leaving the offices of the newspaper Chernovik in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan province, shortly before midnight on Thursday, the regional […]
Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30% of Americans
December 15th, 2011Via: Bloomberg: The brand-new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in the small northwest Arkansas city of Bentonville is the creation of Alice Walton, the daughter of the late Sam Walton, who founded Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the largest retailer in the world. Alice Walton, who is worth about $21 billion, has achieved her dream […]
Half of Americans Poor or Near Poor
December 15th, 2011Via: CBS: Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net frays. The […]
American Citizens Can Be Arrested As Terrorists On Home Soil And Held Indefinitely Without Trial
December 15th, 2011Now with even more Hope and Change. Via: Guardian: Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay. Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles […]
