German Minister Mentions Possibility of ‘Orderly Default’ for Greece
September 12th, 2011I don’t know how this could down in an “orderly” way.
Via: Telegraph:
Philipp Roesler, Germany’s economy minister, said an “orderly default” for Greece could no longer be ruled out and branded the country’s deficit-reduction measures “insufficient”.
The warning is likely to spook financial markets further and comes despite Greece yesterday announcing a fresh €2bn (£1.7bn) of budget cuts and the introduction of a country-wide real estate tax.
Evangelos Venizelos, the finance minister, said the cuts and tax measure were necessary to allow Greece to meet obligations demanded by the European Union and IMF in exchange for bail-out funds.
Writing in the Die Welt newspaper, Mr Roesler said: “To stabilise the euro, we must not take anything off the table in the short run. That includes as a worst-case scenario an orderly default for Greece if the necessary instruments for it are available.”
He said such a default would mean “re-establishing the affected state’s ability to function, perhaps with a temporary restriction of its sovereign rights”.
Mr Roesler’s comments come as Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine said finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had ordered preparations be made for a Greek bankruptcy. The report claimed the German government is preparing for two eventualities under that scenario – Greece staying in the euro or the country exiting and reintroducing the drachma. Despite the speculation, the European Commission said it was sending a team to Athens “in the next few days” tasked with finalising the payment of a new tranche of loans for Greece by the end of the month.
‘Find My Car App’ for Mall Zombies Also Handy for Police
September 11th, 2011Via: Sydney Morning Herald:
Westfield’s new app means you’ll never lose your car in the shopping centre again – and police now have at their fingertips technology to track down stolen and unregistered vehicles.
Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney recently added to its iPhone app the functionality for shoppers to find their parked car by entering its license plate number.
The idea behind it is that if a shopper forgets where they parked then they can find their car using the app, which also lets users find out the opening hours of each retailer, see special offers and search for a store’s location in the shopping centre.
But Westfield said police could also use it to find stolen or unregistered vehicles. In a statement, NSW Police said it worked closely with security at Westfield Bondi Junction and utilised their technology “when required”.
Canadians’ Mental Health Records Shared with U.S. Government
September 11th, 2011Via: CBC:
More than a dozen Canadians have told the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office in Toronto within the past year that they were blocked from entering the United States after their records of mental illness were shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
France’s Largest Banks Might Be Downgraded Next Week
September 11th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
BNP Paribas (BNP) SA, Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA (ACA), France’s largest banks by market value, may have their credit ratings cut by Moody’s Investors Service as soon as this week because of their Greek holdings, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Moody’s placed the three banks’ ratings on review in June to examine “the potential for inconsistency between the impact of a possible Greek default or restructuring and current rating levels,” the rating company said at the time. Cuts are likely as the review period concludes, said the people, who declined to be identified because the matter is confidential.
New American Ally in Somalia: ‘The Butcher’
September 9th, 2011Via: Wired:
If you thought it was bad that Washington is paying a shady French mercenary to do its dirty work in Somalia, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait to you see our latest ally: an admirer of Osama bin Laden with a gory past.
Richard Rouget, a notorious gun-for-hire who uses American funds to train African Union soldiers fighting in the ruins of Mogadishu, has been mentioned in connection with at least one murder. But U.S.-backed Somali government general Yusuf Mohamed Siad, a.k.a. “Indha Adde,” a.k.a, “The Butcher,” once ruled an entire region of Somalia with a bloody fist.
The U.S.-led international intervention in civil war-torn Somalia is unlike any of America’s other wars. Where the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are fought by tens of thousands of U.S. troops, in Somalia Washington pays others to do most of the fighting. These proxies include merc firms, regional bodies such as the A.U. and local allies including the nascent federal government.
That means less direct danger to American lives. But in another sense it means more danger. The more that the U.S. relies on proxy armies to do its fighting, the more it risks those proxies usurping American support and directing it towards their own dubious ends.
TSA Agent Threatens Woman with Defamation, Demands $500k for Calling Intrusive Search ‘Rape’
September 9th, 2011Via: TechDirt:
Amy Alkon is an advice columnist and blogger who is just one of many people who has had a horrifying and traumatizing experience going through airport security lately. After being pulled aside for an “enhanced” search, she found the process to be so invasive and so in violation of her own rights that she was left sobbing. She wrote about the experience on her blog, noting that she didn’t think the search was just “invasive” in the emotional sense, but flat out physically invasive:
Nearing the end of this violation, I sobbed even louder as the woman, FOUR TIMES, stuck the side of her gloved hand INTO my vagina, through my pants. Between my labia. She really got up there. Four times. Back right and left, and front right and left. In my vagina. Between my labia. I was shocked — utterly unprepared for how she got the side of her hand up there. It was government-sanctioned sexual assault.
Upon leaving, still sobbing, I yelled to the woman, “YOU RAPED ME.” And I took her name to see if I could file sexual assault charges on my return. This woman, and all of those who support this system deserve no less than this sort of unpleasant experience, and from all of us.
After investigating whether or not she could file sexual assault charges, and being told that this was probably a non-starter, she instead wrote about the experience, and named the TSA agent who she dealt with: Thedala Magee. Alkon felt that if people can’t stop these kinds of searches, they should at least be able to name the TSA agents who are doing them.
Magee responded by lawyering up and threatening Alkon with defamation and asking for $500,000 and the removal of the blog post.
Research Credit: Pookie
Justice Department Loses Round in Warrantless Phone Tracking
September 9th, 2011What’s the NSA doing with all of the surveillance data that it’s collecting on Americans? There won’t be any ACLU victory dances over that one anytime soon.
Via: Cnet:
The American Civil Liberties Union is touting its victory in a case against the Department of Justice over alleged mobile phone tracking.
According to the group, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered the Justice Department to hand over names and case docket numbers in cases where it “accessed cell phone location data without a warrant.”
“Today’s decision is a significant victory in the fight against warrantless tracking of Americans by their government,” the ACLU wrote on its site yesterday following the court’s decision. “There is no good reason for DOJ to keep this case information secret, except to keep the American people in the dark about what its own government is doing and stifle debate about the new tracking powers the government is claiming.”
Research Credit: triad (Sent from U.S. Department of Justice IP)
Blackout Stretches from Orange County Down Into Mexico
September 9th, 2011Via: NBC San Diego:
As night fell in San Diego County, millions of residents were left in the dark, wondering when power would return after a failure in the system created a cascade effect, knocking electricity out all the way to Orange County and down into Mexio.
A glimmer of hope came in the darkness when San Diego Gas & Electric officials announced power was slowly returning, with some customers’ service restored Thursday night. They said they hoped the majority of county resident would be back up by Friday afternoon. In the interim, they urged everyone to turn off whatever appliances they could so the system would not be overtaxed when power came back online.
By 8 p.m., officials were reporting that power had been restored to parts of Oceanside, Eastlake and the Chula Vista community of Bonita.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sander held a media conference at 8 p.m., saying that as a precautionary measure prompted by problem with water pumps, city residents living in the communities of Otay Mesa, Scripps Ranch, La Jolla, Mount Soledad, Tierresanta and Scripps Ranch were under a mandatory boil-water order.
Officials said late in the day that no serious injuries had been attributed to the outage.
33 Percent of Americans Raised Middle Class Move Downward as Adults
September 9th, 2011The report doesn’t mention people who were raised in middle class households and consciously, voluntarily moved downward. *wink*
My family of four is severely poor, according to the definitions in the report (and by New Zealand definitions), but we’re far better off than some people we know who are making several multiples of what we make each year.
It’s interesting how the report paints the picture of a low income lifestyle as something that happens to people because of unfortunate choices and circumstances. After all, it’s unthinkable that people would consciously choose to live debt free, stay home with their children, own their property and vehicles outright and legally avoid income tax rape by the vampire state…
Via: NPR:
The idea that children will grow up to be better off than their parents is a central component of the American Dream, and sustains American optimism. However, Downward Mobility from the Middle Class: Waking up from the American Dream finds that a middle-class upbringing does not guarantee the same status over the course of a lifetime.
Mall of America: Identifying “The Terrorists”
September 8th, 2011Via: NPR:
The report tells how the Bloomington police officers took Van Asten to a police substation in the basement in the Mall of America after mall security questioned him. They frisked him. They seized his camera. They detained him in that room for one more hour. The police called the Joint Terrorism Task Force. And an FBI agent told them: Seize the memory card in Van Asten’s camera and delete all his videos.
After two hours they let him go. Van Asten says he loves this country. Back when he was in the Army, he worked at a nuclear missile site. But he says that afternoon at the Mall of America shook him.
“When I was finally released, I couldn’t find my way to my own car for over a half-hour. I sat down in my car and I cried and I was shaking like a leaf.”
