The Rebeller

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Obama's Top Intelligence Adviser Resigns

I will repeat: we need an intelligence agency that is specifically set up to fight terrorism, domestic and foreign. Until that happens we will have more terrorist attacks on Americans in the U.S.:

The president's top intelligence adviser, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, has announced his resignation, effective Friday.

Blair, a retired four-star Navy admiral, has served in the post since January 29, 2009. His office oversees 17 federal agencies of the U.S. intelligence community, including the CIA, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Word of Blair's resignation comes two days after the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report that sharply criticized the National Counterterrorism Center, overseen by Blair's office, for failing to properly coordinate intelligence activities to detect the alleged attempted Christmas Day airline bombing in advance.

The report said the center, created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to coordinate U.S. intelligence efforts, was "not organized adequately to fulfill its missions."

Rand Paul Feeds Suspicions About Tea Party Racism

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2010/05/20/rand-paul-feeds-suspicions-about-tea-party-racism.aspx

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Video: Rand Paul: Businesses Should be Allowed to Discriminate

Rand Paul was the candidate of the Tea Party. He also represents their racially insensitive attitudes. Paul appeared on the Rachel Maddow Program and tried to explain his views. Judge for yourself whether you think he explained himself adequately:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Senate Fails to end Debate on Bank Reform bill

More proof that the Wall St./banks own the Congress. The Democrats promised results because they had a filibuster-proof majority. Just another promised not kept. Along with Obama's promise of change:

In a setback for the Obama administration, Senate Democrats failed to muster enough votes on Wednesday to end debate on the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s, delaying a vote on passage.

But analysts still expect the legislation eventually to pass. More debate on amendments was likely, with banks on alert for changes that could threaten their profits.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid scheduled another vote for 2:30 p.m. EDT Thursday.

In the 57 to 42 vote, two Democrats sided against invoking "cloture" to limit debate and move toward final passage. Sixty votes are needed to end debate in the Senate. Two Republicans voted with a majority of Democrats for cloture.

The loss seemed to come as a surprise to Democrats on a measure that enjoys widespread public support.

As backers of the bill scrambled for votes, Democratic Senator Arlen Specter was nowhere to be found one day after he lost a primary challenge in his home state of Pennsylvania.

"I don't have a sense on when he will be back," an aide said.

Reid said one lawmaker had gone back on his word to support the bill. He declined to name the lawmaker, but a Democratic aide said it was Republican Scott Brown, who has backed Democrats on other tight votes.

Video: Newt Gingrich Compares Obama to NAZIs, Stalin's Russia

More Republican demonization of Barack Obama. What is frightening is that this is a major figure in the Republican Party. It further proves that the GOP has become the party of hate.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Land Activist Killed by Gunmen in Colombia

Injustice still rules in Latin America. Will they never know democracy? It looked so promising for a while:

A leader of families displaced by Colombia's violence was shot dead in what human rights groups said Wednesday is the latest attack on activists seeking the return of land stolen by far-right paramilitary groups.

Rogelio Martinez, 51, was riding on a mototaxi near his residence in San Onofre, Sucre province when gunmen intercepted the vehicle and shot him at least three times Tuesday, police Col. Hugo Javier Agudelo said.

No arrests had been made and police didn't offer a motive. Human rights groups said Martinez had been receiving death threats since December 2008.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Men doing the Housework Reduces Divorce risk: Study

Makes sense:

Divorce rates are lower in families where husbands help out with the housework, shopping and childcare, according to a study of 3,500 British couples published Tuesday.

The research by the London School of Economics (LSE), entitled "Men's Unpaid Work and Divorce", found that the more husbands helped out, the lower the incidence of divorce.

The study said its conclusions blew open the theory running since the 1960s that marriages were most stable when men focused on paid work and women were responsible for housework.

"The lowest-risk combination is one in which the mother does not work and the father engages in the highest level of housework and childcare," the study found.

BP withholds oil spill facts — and Government lets it

It is clear that government (including the Obama administration) is in bed with the oil industry:

BP, the company in charge of the rig that exploded last month in the Gulf of Mexico, hasn't publicly divulged the results of tests on the extent of workers' exposure to evaporating oil or from the burning of crude over the gulf, even though researchers say that data is crucial in determining whether the conditions are safe.

Moreover, the company isn't monitoring the extent of the spill and only reluctantly released videos of the spill site that could give scientists a clue to the amount of the oil in gulf.

BP's role as the primary source of information has raised questions about whether the government should intervene to gather such data and to publicize it and whether an adequate cleanup can be accomplished without the details of crude oil spreading across the gulf.

10 Reasons not to Vote for Arlen Specter

The Term-inator: 10 Reasons not to Vote for Arlen Specter

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Video: Top Senate Republican: Kagan Broke Law

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told ABC News' "This Week" that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan "violated the law" by not allowing military recruiting on the Harvard Law School campus when she was dean there, and added the issue is "no little-bitty matter."