Cops: Teen said he'd shoot Pa. school, guns found

Cops: Teen said he'd shoot Pa. school, guns found: PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two handguns have been seized from the bedroom of a teen who threatened a shooting at his suburban Philadelphia high school a week after a mass killing at a Connecticut elementary school, police said Friday.

Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain: How to avoid the traps of holiday weight gain

Transcript: 'State of the Union with Candy Crowley' (12-16-12)

Small Connecticut Town Grieves; Interview with Governor Malloy; Interview with Governor Hickenlooper

Transcript: 'Meet The Press' (12-16-12)

Full Transcript here

Guests: Dannel Malloy, Michael Bloomberg, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Bennett, David Brooks, Randi Weingarten, Tom Ridge, Michael Eric Dyson, Pete Williams

U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens

We are watching our freedoms disappear before our own eyes. And no one seems to be able to stop it. Aren't the Republicans the party of freedom? And what about the left? Aren't they always ranting on about civil liberties and the threat from law enforcement? This President has not only adopted the Bush playbook but has surpassed his predecessor in attacking fundamental freedoms:

Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime.

Not everyone was on board. "This is a sea change in the way that the government interacts with the general public," Mary Ellen Callahan, chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security, argued in the meeting, according to people familiar with the discussions.

A week later, the attorney general signed the changes into effect.

Through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with officials at numerous agencies, The Wall Street Journal has reconstructed the clash over the counterterrorism program within the administration of President Barack Obama. The debate was a confrontation between some who viewed it as a matter of efficiency—how long to keep data, for instance, or where it should be stored—and others who saw it as granting authority for unprecedented government surveillance of U.S. citizens.

The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation.

Now, NCTC can copy entire government databases—flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others. The agency has new authority to keep data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years, and to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. Previously, both were prohibited. Data about Americans "reasonably believed to constitute terrorism information" may be.

Poll: Both Parties to Blame if Fiscal Cliff Talks Fail

Obama Administration Essentially Admits That Some Banks Are Too Big To Jail

We are going to find out what we should have learned in Obama's first term, he is an tool of big business. The failure to criminally prosecute any banker for the massive fraud of that bank is...criminal. More and more we are learning that Occupy Wall Street was right. The government rescued the banks for their criminality rather than prosecute them. The truth can no longer be covered-up:

One of the great things about being too big to fail is that you're also too big to jail, apparently.

So saith the Obama administration, via the New York Times, in its front-page story on Tuesday about HSBC's settlement with the government over money-laundering charges. Though the British banking giant had to pay a wrist-stinging $1.9 billion, the settlement helped it avoid formal criminal charges. The NYT quotes anonymous government officials who say they were skittish about indicting HSBC because formal charges would amount to a "death penalty" for the bank, potentially roiling the financial system.

This is at least three very specific flavors of bullshit.

Right-to-Work Laws Harm the Middle Class

Source:

States should not pass so-called "right-to-work" laws because they are a body blow to the middle class and undermine a state's economy. Unions are essential for building a strong middle class, yet right-to-work laws weaken unions by making them provide services without being paid for them—forcing certain workers to pay the costs of union representation for all workers.

And by harming the middle class, these laws hurt the economy because a strong middle class leads to additional business investment, greater entrepreneurship, more growth-enhancing public policy, and higher levels of trust that facilitate business transactions.

The evidence that 'right-to-work' laws harm the middle class is crystal clear... 

Study Shows a Pattern of Risky Loans by F.H.A.

Source: NY Times:

A new and extensive analysis of 2.4 million loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration in recent years shows a pattern of risky lending that could generate $20 billion in losses and harm thousands of the nation’s most vulnerable borrowers. By ignoring risks in loans it insured in 2009 and 2010, the study concludes, the F.H.A. is imperiling both borrowers and taxpayers who stand behind the agency.

The analysis emerged less than a month after the F.H.A.’s auditor submitted a troubling report on the financial soundness of its insurance fund. In mid-November, the auditor estimated that the fund, which backs $1.1 trillion in mortgages, has a value of negative $13.5 billion. In other words, if it were to stop insuring loans today, the F.H.A. fund could not cover the losses anticipated on loans it has already insured.

Another Mass Shooting in a Pro-Gun State

Will we ever learn. How many Americans have to die before we realize that allowing just about anyone to get a gun is suicidal. And when will we learn that the NRA owns the Congress and White House. And they don't give a damn about the lives of their fellow citizens. They want  to sell guns. And it doesn't matter who buys them:

Police say the man who opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall apparently killed himself after fatally shooting two people and wounding a third.

Clackamas County sheriff's Lt. James Rhodes says law enforcement who flooded the Clackamas Town Center in response to the afternoon shooting didn't fire any shots.

Witnesses described a scene of chaos and disbelief as a gunman wearing some sort of camouflage outfit and a white mask shot an initial burst of fire and then more rounds near the mall's food court.

Many shoppers fled and others hid in the backrooms of stores.

HSBC to pay $1.9B to settle money-laundering case

This leads to the obvious question: If corporations are people why isn't anyone going to jail?

HSBC avoided a legal battle that could further savage its reputation and undermine confidence in the global banking system by agreeing Tuesday to pay $1.9 billion to settle a U.S. money-laundering probe.

Europe's largest bank by market value will pay the biggest penalty ever imposed on a bank after facing accusations it transferred funds through the U.S. from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations such as Iran that are under international sanctions.

Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low

Source: Thinkprogress.org:

A constant conservative charge against President Obama is that he is inherently anti-business. However, businesses keep defying the storyline by making larger and larger profits, rebounding nicely out of the Great Recession.

In the third quarter of this year, “corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago.” Corporations are currently making more as a percentage of the economy than they ever have since such records were kept. But at the same time, wages as a percentage of the economy are at an all-time low, as this chart shows. (The red line is corporate profits; the blue line is private sector wages.):

CBO: Economic Recovery not Guaranteed

There is nothing to suggest that the economy will get better in the foreseeable future. We have a government and economy that is dysfunctional. Corporations are simply hording money and not investing in the economy. Workers are working longer hours for less pay. Assuming they have a job. This means no consumption. Which is essential to economic growth. Disaster only looms ahead:

One effect of the Great Recession was to massively widen the gap between the amount of wealth the economy could be producing and what it actually was producing. GDP production dropped almost $1 trillion from its pre-recession trend line, and between 2008 and 2011 the United States lost around $3.6 trillion.

CBO’s “current law” baseline, which assumes the nation goes over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” does not show a return to potential GDP until 2018. However, as the Economic Policy Institute noted yesterday, CBO’s predictions over the last three years have repeatedly pushed back the date of the recovery, suggesting there’s no guarantee it actually happens...

Video: Law prohibiting union agreements to pass in Michigan

Republican lawmakers in Michigan are pushing to pass a right-to-work law, which could have an impact in union-heavy states across the U.S. Elaine Quijano reports.

Man killed execution-style in Midtown Manhattan

Source:

Police are looking for a gunman who shot and killed a man in broad daylight in midtown Manhattan, CBS New York affiliate WCBS reports.

Authorities says a 31-year-old man was shot execution-style in the head just before 2.p.m. on 58th Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue, just outside Central Park and close to the busy shopping center of Columbus Center.

As the man walked down the street, the gunman walked up behind him, pulled a silver pistol, and fired a single shot into the back of his head in front of 202 W. 58th St. The gunman then got into a gray Lincoln MKV that was waiting for him and drove off, 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported.

"It was one shot, we all flinched. We all looked down the block. We didn't see nobody running from the scene. It was like the guy never existed," a witness told WCBS correspondent Dick Brennan. "Whoever did it got away clean."

Aurora Movie Theater Shooting: Suspect's Lawyers To Subpoena Fox News Reporter Jana Winter

source:

Attorneys for the Colorado movie theater shooting suspect plan to subpoena a Fox News journalist who was the first to report that James Holmes sent his psychiatrist a notebook full of violent descriptions.

The attorneys made the statement toward the end of a court hearing Monday after nine different law enforcement officials denied being the ones to tell reporter Jana Winter about the notebook. The defense argues the disclosure was a violation of a gag order in the case and is seeking sanctions against the leaker.

Antonin Scalia Defends Legal Writings Some View As Offensive, Anti-Gay

Source:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday found himself defending his legal writings that some find offensive and anti-gay.

Report: US influence as superpower could ebb as Asian economies surpass Europe, North America

Latest AP News
The United States could see its standing as a superpower eroded and Asian economies will outstrip those of North America and Europe combined by 2030, according to the best guess of the U.S. intelligence community in its latest forecast.

"The spectacular rise of Asian economies is dramatically altering ... U.S. influence," said Christopher Kojm, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, as it released the report Global Trends 2030 on Monday.

Boy, 7, shot to death at Pa. gun store

Another example of what the profusion of guns in our society is doing to us:

 A man's handgun went off while he was holding it as he got into his truck in the parking lot of a western Pennsylvania gun store Saturday, and the shot killed his 7-year-old son, authorities said.

Joseph V. Loughrey, 44, of Sharpsville, was getting into the truck when the 9 mm handgun discharged, wounding Craig Allen Loughrey in the chest, according to state police. The boy died at the scene at Twigs Reloading Den in East Lackawannock Township, 60 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Investigators said Loughrey told them he didn't realize there was a bullet still in the chamber. "This happens all too often where people think the gun was empty," Lt. Eric Hermick told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Obamacare Architect Also Lobbied for Big Pharma

This report from the The Young Turks shows how totally corrupt Washington is. Liz Fowler is a top lobbyists for the pharmaceutical companies. She is also an "author" of Obamacare. While she was pushing the healthcare plan she also worked on behalf of the companies who stood to profit from it. And they did. She was essentially a double-agent for the healthcare industry. And it happened with the knowledge and support of her employers the Obama White House and Senator Max Baucus.