The Rebeller

Saturday, June 13, 2009

H.I.V. Found in 22 Actors in Sex Films Since 2004

This is another reason why the porn industry should be shutdown. Porn "actors" should be treated like regular prostitutes under the law. And porn producers should be treated like pimps:

Health officials in Los Angeles said Friday that 22 actors in adult sex movies had contracted H.I.V. since 2004, when a previous outbreak led to efforts to protect pornography industry employees.

The officials accused an industry-supported health clinic of failing to cooperate with state investigations and of failing to protect not only industry workers but their sexual partners as well.

“We have an industry that is exposing workers to life-threatening diseases as part of their employment,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County. “That is outrageous and anachronistic. These infections are virtually entirely preventable.”

They are breaking the law. Shut them down:

Occupational health officials have long argued that failing to require that performers wear condoms during intercourse and other acts is a violation of safe-workplace regulations.

But Deborah Gold, a senior safety engineer with the California occupational health department, said violations in the pornography industry were so widespread that the state had a difficult time cracking down.

“Many of these companies have two sound stages where they do two to four scenes a day with actors hired from talent agencies,” Ms. Gold said. “In that case, it’s clearly a violation” to have performers have sexual intercourse without condoms.

Six Flags Files for Bankruptcy

A sign of the times:

Six Flags, the big theme park operator, filed for bankruptcy in early Saturday morning in Delaware after failing to reach an agreement with lenders over a plan to reorganize its debt outside of court.

Six Flags became only the latest company to prove unable to cope with its debt load at a time when previous solutions like refinancings are largely unavailable. The theme park operator, which had $2.4 billion in debt, faced nearly $300 million in payments to preferred stockholders due in August.

But the company is hoping to make its ride through bankruptcy a short one. In a statement, Six Flags said that it is seeking court approval for a pre-negotiated restructuring plan, one that has the unanimous approval of its lenders. That proposal would eliminate $1.8 billion in debt and slice off the $300 million in preferred stock payments.

“The current management team inherited a $2.4 billion debt load that cannot be sustained, particularly in these challenging financial markets,” Mark Shapiro, Six Flags’s chief executive, said in a statement. “As a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioning the Company for future growth.”

In its bankruptcy filing, Six Flags said that 37 of its subsidiaries, including parks like Great Adventure and Hurricane Harbor, had also sought court protection. The parks will continue to operate normally, but analysts have questioned whether attendance would fall off as some consumers shun waiting in line for roller coasters at a bankrupt theme park operator.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Afghan Violence hits Highest Level since 2001

There will be no military victory in Afghanistan. And it is likely that the Taliban will prevail. The unstable situation in Pakistan guarantees defeat for us there. Unfortunately, the President will continue to pursue a military solution with the loss of more American lives. The solution is what was done in Serbia and in our own country. Vice President Biden offered it for Iraq. But it won't happen. We do not have the necessary leadership or vision to solve the problem:

The violence that has surged for two years in Afghanistan reached a new high last week, and more difficulty lies ahead, the United States' top war zone commander said Thursday.
Gen. David Petraeus said the number of attacks in Afghanistan over the last week hit the highest level since the December 2001 fall of the Taliban.
"Some of this will go up because we are going to go after their sanctuaries and safe havens as we must," Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said during a speech at the Washington think-tank Center for a New American Security.
"But there is no question the situation has deteriorated over the course of the past two years in particular and there are difficult times ahead," he said.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

WHO Declares 1st Flu Pandemic in over 40 Years

Why isn't this getting more media coverage. Why aren't politicians calling for action to be taken. Do you trust them to protect us? We should be demanding the government start taking more measures to insure greater preparedness. The 9-11 and the economic meltdown happened because we are not vigilant. Wake up before it's too late.

The World Health Organisation declared an influenza pandemic on Thursday and called on governments to prepare for a long-term battle against an unstoppable flu virus.

The United Nations agency raised its pandemic flu alert to phase 6 on a six-point scale, indicating the first influenza pandemic since 1968 is under way.

"With today's announcement, WHO moves from an emergency to a longer-term response. Based on past experience, this pandemic will be with us for some months, if not years, to come," WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said in a letter to staff, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

People aged 30-50, pregnant women or people suffering from chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes or obesity are deemed at highest risk, she told a news conference.

Countries from Australia to Chile and the United States are also reporting that the new virus, commonly known as swine flu, is "crowding out" seasonal flu, becoming the predominant influenza strain, she said.

In fact the government is doing the opposite when they should be protecting us.

Well, as it turns out, volcano monitoring wasn't the only worthwhile public safety program that was deemed extravagant in the stimulus package, funding for pandemic preparation was axed as well. And playing a critical role was Susan Collins -- for whom the necessity of obtaining her vote is in inverse proportion to the intelligence she shows in policy making.

Via The Nation:

Famously, Maine Senator Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not."

Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate's version of the stimulus measure.

But we should not panic. Just prepare:

It's official: We're in a swine flu pandemic, the World Health Organization declared today.

"The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, said at a news conference.

That sounds scary. But neither the H1N1 swine flu virus nor the disease it causes are any worse today than they were weeks ago.

The only thing that's changed is that the WHO now officially acknowledges that H1N1 swine flu is circulating in communities in widespread parts of the globe, and that all nations can eventually expect to see cases.

"This does not mean there is any difference in the severity of the flu. This is not, at this point, a flu pandemic that is anywhere as severe as the 1918 pandemic," said Thomas R. Frieden, MD, in his first news conference since taking over as director of the CDC.

The announcement also triggers the pandemic preparedness plans of nations not yet affected by swine flu. It will have little or no effect on the U.S., which since mid-April has been aggressively putting national pandemic plans into action.

"For all intents and purposes, the U.S. has been in a flu pandemic for some time," Frieden said. "But this means the virus is here and is here to stay, and we must prepare our response."

You would think Iran, given all the propaganda, was an Islamo-dictatorship. It turns out that country has a thriving democratic electoral process. We are constantly bombarded with the quotes of the current President Ahmadinehad. We are led to believe that he is the next Hitler. It turns out he is no different a politician than the typical Republican nowadays. The language could be equated with the utterances of Dick Cheney. And it comes down to the same thing, pandering to neo-fascist elements in both countries. The Islamo extremists want to destroy Israel and their benefactors the U.S. In this country the Bush-Cheney administration was controlled by the neocons, a powerful pro-Israel clique. The Iranian people are just as victimized at the hands of politicians as are Americans.
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Russia urges U.S. to Drop Missile Shield to help ties

If President Obama is really smart (he is quite smart) he will give the Russians what they want on this issue. Pursuing the shield matter has a disaster for relations between our two countries. We need Russia as a bulwark against the rapidly growing threat from China.

Russia said on Thursday that full dialogue with the United States on missile threats could only begin if Washington dropped its plans to deploy a missile defense system in Europe.

"Only a rejection by the United States of plans to create a ... missile defense system in Europe could lay the groundwork for our fully fledged dialogue on questions of cooperation in reacting to potential missile risks," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters.

He said that Moscow viewed the U.S. missile plans as a way to counter Russia's strategic forces, but he added that Moscow hoped to find a way to reach a compromise with Washington.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

2 Japanese Carrying $134 bil. Worth of U.S. Bonds Detained in Italy

Very suspicious:

Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday.

The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities.

According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan.

I'm for tasing individuals who resist arrest. It gives cops more options. But using it against a 70+ year-old great grandmother? That's just plain stupid. And the fact that the brass defended that trooper is doubly insane. The woman was resisting but the officer could have easily subdued her and placed cuffs on the tiny woman. This case makes it more difficult for legitimate uses of the tactic to be employed by other police departments. The result will be a backlash. Congress might have to step in and provide guidance. You canno use excessive force against the citizenry and expect there not be consequences. This will ultimately undermine our ability to fight real crime. It also undermines the publics' trust in law enforcement.
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Video: David Letterman's Top Ten List on Palin's NY Visit

This was predictably hysterical. See the video. Listed below:

Top Ten Highlights Of Sarah Palin's Trip To New York:

10. Visited New York landmarks she normally only sees from Alaska

9. Laughed at all the crazy-looking foreigners entering the U.N.

8. Made moose jerky on Rachael Ray

7. Keyed Tina Fey's car

6. After a wink and a nod, ended up with a kilo of crack

5. Made coat out of New York City rat pelts

4. Sat in for Kelly Ripa. Regis couldn't tell the difference.

3. Finally met one of those Jewish people Mel Gibson's always talking about

2. Bought makeup from Bloomingdale's to update her "slutty flight attendant" look

1. Especially enjoyed not appearing on Letterman

Sarah, you might imagine, was not happy:

California-based radio show host John Ziegler asked Palin what she thought about the joke during his show on KGIL-1260 yesterday. Palin said Letterman was “sad” not to realize she was in New York “doing some good things here for good people,” including an autism walk.

“That’s pretty pathetic, good ol’ David Letterman,” Palin said.

Poll: 52% Say No One Speaks for the Republicans

It keeps getting worse for the Republicans. This USA Today/Gallup poll shows how bad it really is:

Republicans, out of power and divided over how to get it back, are finding even the most basic questions hard to answer.

Here's one: Who speaks for the GOP?

The question flummoxes most Americans, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, which is among the reasons for the party's sagging state and uncertain direction.

A 52% majority of those surveyed couldn't come up with a name when asked to specify "the main person" who speaks for Republicans today. Of those who could, the top response was radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh (13%), followed in order by former vice president Dick Cheney, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Former president George W. Bush ranked fifth, at 3%.

So the dominant faces of the Republican Party are all men, all white, all conservative and all old enough to join AARP, ranging in age from 58 (Limbaugh) to 72 (McCain). They include some of the country's most strident voices on issues from Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court to President Obama's policies at home and abroad. Two are retired from politics, and one has never been a candidate.

This comes in the wake other polls showing a party in decline:

A new Gallup analysis shows that the precipitous decline in the number of people who identify themselves as Republicans is widespread across nearly every demographic group -- a development that suggests that there is no simple solution to solving the party's current problems.

As we have written about before, the number of self-identifying Republicans stood at 21 percent last month -- the lowest it has been since the fall of 1983.

This tendency for people to disassociate themselves with the Republican Party is echoed in Gallup's data. Combining several months of surveys -- with a large sample of more than 7,000 adults -- shows that over the last eight years self-identifying Republicans have gone from 44 percent to 39 percent while self-identifying Democrats have risen from 45 percent to 53 percent. (These numbers push independents who lean in one direction or the other into the party toward which they lean.)

It's a white male party. This Gallup poll is from 6/1:

More than 6 in 10 Republicans today are white conservatives, while most of the rest are whites with other ideological leanings; only 11% of Republicans are Hispanics, or are blacks or members of other races. By contrast, only 12% of Democrats are white conservatives, while about half are white moderates or liberals and a third are nonwhite.

Baptist Preacher Calls for Obama's Death on FOXnews

This is another example of FOX promoting anti-Obama hate. Found this shocking story at Firedog Lake:

Crazy Christian Wiley Drake--pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., former running mate of American Independent Party presidential candidate Alan Keyes, a former second vice-president of the SBC--boasted after the assassination of Dr George Tiller that he had prayed for Tiller's death. On a recent webcast of his daily radio talk show, Drake the murder of Tiller "an answer to prayer."

Then he appeared on Alan Colm's Fox radio show and explained that Tiller's real sin wasn't abortion but not being right with Jesus, though Dr. Tiller's church thought he was right enough with Jesus to been usher. He also laid out his prayer style to Fox's Alan Combs:

Imprecatory prayer is agreeing with God, and if people don't like that, they need to talk to God. God said it, I didn't. I was just agreeing with God.

When Colms asked if there are others for whom Drake is praying "imprecatory prayer," Drake hesitated before answering that there are several.

The usurper that is in the White House is one, B. Hussein Obama.

Colms then asked:

Are you praying for his death?

Drake replied:

Yes

Colms pressed on:

So you're praying for the death of the president of the United States?

The pastor replied:

Yes.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

British Police used Water Torture on Drug Smugglers

This is the result of Bush/Cheney's torture policies. The police are now the law breakers. We are headed back to the middle ages. And they call this freedom.

Six Metropolitan police officers have been suspended from duty following allegations they used a form of water-based torture on suspected drugs smugglers, it emerged last night.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it was investigating the conduct of officers based in Enfield, north London, during drugs raids in the borough last November.

Neither the IPCC nor Scotland Yard would comment on the nature of the allegations but sources said the officers were accused of pushing suspects' heads into buckets of water.

One IPCC document is said to use the word "waterboarding" – the CIA technique condemned as torture by Barack Obama – in connection with the allegations.

The torture claims are part of an investigation which also includes accusations that evidence was fabricated and suspects' property was stolen. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug trial, it was reported last night.

Review: Palm Pre, iPhone 3GS Neck-And-Neck

A new challenge to iphone and blackberry:

The smart phone wars have heated up over the past few days with the release of Palm's new Pre and Apple's announcements of a new iPhone, a cheaper price for its existing phone and a new operating system for users of all iPhones.

The Palm Pre, which hit stores on Saturday for $199 after rebate (and a two year contract with Sprint) is a very worthy competitor for Apple. Unlike the iPhone it has a physical keyboard which, while a bit small, is quite good. But it also has a touch screen that you can use to launch programs, zoom, shrink or move windows and dial the phone, although there's no onscreen virtual keyboard for entering text.

One of the things I like best about the Pre is that you can synchronize it over the air. Rather than connect it to a PC or Mac to move over contacts and calendar items, you simply sign in to your existing accounts and it brings over all the data via the Sprint network. It works with Google's calendar and Gmail, Yahoo and other web-based services as well as for businesses with Microsoft Exchange servers. Apple does this through its $99 a year MobileMe service but Palm does it for free with a variety of services.