Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalSenate Passes Bill Letting States Tax Online Sales
Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate has passed a bill that could end tax-free shopping on the Internet for many shoppers.
The Senate voted 69 to 27 Monday to pass the bill, sending it to the House where it faces opposition from some lawmakers who regard it as a tax increase.
The bill would empower states to require businesses with more than $1 million in out-of-state sales to collect taxes for products they sell on the Internet, in catalogs and through radio and TV ads. Under the legislation, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INTERNET_SALES_TAX?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-06-19-01-25
Syria's Assad Likely Behind Chemical Weapons Use, White House Says
Source: Associated Press
By BRADLEY KLAPPER and MATTHEW LEE 05/06/13 04:55 PM ET EDT
--CLIP
The chemical weapons argument is now under surprising attack, with former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte saying over the weekend she and fellow members of a four-member U.N. human rights panel have indications the nerve agent sarin was used by Syrian rebel forces, but not by government forces.
Despite a clarification from the UN that it is has not yet made any definitive determination on chemical weapons use, Washington pushed back on del Ponte's assertion, saying it's highly likely that the Assad regime, and not the rebels, has been behind any chemical weapons use in Syria.
"We are highly skeptical of suggestions that the opposition could have or did use chemical weapons," Carney said. "We find it highly likely that any chemical weapon use that has taken place in Syria was done by the Assad regime. And that remains our position."
The State Department said the administration continues to believe that Syria's large chemical weapons stockpiles remain securely in the regime's control.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/syria-assad-chemical-weapons-white-house_n_3224057.html
Israel Tries To Tamp Down Syrian Anger After Killing Dozens Of Its Elite Soldiers
Israel is straining to arrest a slide toward regional conflict after staging an airstrike on a military facility outside Damascus, reportedly to stop a transfer of weapons to Hezbollah.By Arthur Bright, Staff writer / May 6, 2013
A day after it launched an airstrike outside of Damascus, killing scores of Syrian soldiers, Israel sought to play down the attack as a strike against regime-ally Hezbollah, not President Bashar al-Assad.
Reuters reports that Israel has made several soothing overtures to its war-racked northern neighbor after launching airstrikes in Syria on Friday and Sunday. Tzachi Hanegbi, a confidante of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Israeli radio on Monday that Mr. Netanyahu aimed to avoid "an increase in tension with Syria by making clear that if there is activity, it is only against Hezbollah, not against the Syrian regime."
Hezbollah, which seeks Israel's elimination, has long relied on the Assad regime to transfer weapons from Iran into its own hands. Damascus and the Lebanese Shiite militant group appear to have drawn closer together as a result of Syria's civil war, with Hezbollah fighters battling the Syrian opposition from inside the country.
Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's biggest-selling newspaper, said the Netanyahu government had informed Mr. Assad through diplomatic channels that the attacks were not attempts to affect the outcome of Syria's civil war.
MORE...
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2013/0506/Israel-tries-to-tamp-down-Syrian-anger-after-killing-dozens-of-its-elite-soldiers-video
Chris Christie’s Reelection Campaign Receives ‘Unprecedented’ Financial Support
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (CBS) – The reelection campaign for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is receiving “unprecedented” support when it comes to raising funds.
The “Chris Christie For Governor” Monday filed nearly $6.2 million in funds raised from an unprecedented 14,260 contributors.
Christie announced his re-election bid in November of last year and the primary is June 4th.
“Governor Christie’s style of strong leadership continues to resonate and draw an unprecedented show of support for the Governor’s reelection from inside and outside of the state, and from across the donor spectrum,” said William J. Palatucci, Christie for Governor Chairman.
more...
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/05/06/chris-christies-reelection-campaign-receives-unprecedented-financial-support/
Good thing the teabaggers will scuttle his bid for the WH in 2016. That is all I'm saying
Bay Area ‘Lewd Behavior’ Ban On Pooping Or Peeing On Subways Goes Into Effect
Starting Monday, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) riders will have to think twice before using trains or train platforms as public bathrooms, or risk losing the ability to use them at all.
SF Weekly reported on Monday that transit police will now be able to issue “prohibition orders” against repeat offenders. The bans, which can last anywhere from 30 days to 1 year, were passed as part of state Assembly Bill 716 in January 2013, meaning customers found defecating or urinating, or engaging in lewd behavior on BART property, among other offenses, could be banned from using the transit service if cited three times within a 90-day period. More serious infractions like physical assault will lead to a ban after just one instance. The bill also applies to political protesters with multiple arrests.
“We are really wanting to send the message that if you are going to come onto our system and be unruly or violent, there are going to be consequences,” BART spokesperson Alicia Trost told KGO-TV on April 29.
MORE...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/06/bay-area-lewd-behavior-ban-on-pooping-or-peeing-on-subways-goes-into-effect/
Ha...and you thought I was kidding with my tagline commentary?
Israel Razes Land, Demolishes Wells west of Hebron
HEBRON, May 6, 2013 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Monday razed tens of dunums adjacent to the Apartheid Wall west of Hebron, demolished two wells and destroyed the power network, said local sources.
Coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and settlement activity in the town of Beit Ula Issa al-A’mli told WAFA that Israeli bulldozers razed about 30 dunums of agricultural land and uprooted 2000 Olive, almond and grape trees.
He said bulldozers demolished two water wells, razed land while Israeli soldiers prevented farmers from attending to their land.
Beit Ula Mayor Muhammad al-A’mli said that soldiers accompanied by bulldozers destroyed the power unit which provides the area with electricity.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=22303
Turkey Fears Russia Too Much to Intervene in Syria
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov visited Ankara on April 17th, but the event went almost unnoticed. Despite deep differences between Ankara and Moscow over Syria, Turkey has refrained from rebuking Moscow. That's because Turkey fears no country more than it fears Russia.
Ankara has nearly a dozen neighbors if you include its maritime neighbors across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Emboldened by its phenomenal economic growth in the past decade and rising political power, Turkey appears willing to square-off against any of them; Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly chided the leaders of Syria, Iran, and Iraq. In fact, none of the country's neighbors can feel safe from Ankara's wrath -- with the exception of Russia, that is.
The Turks suffer from a deep-rooted, historic reluctance to confront the Russians. The humming Turkish economy is woefully dependent on Russian energy exports: More than half of Turkey's natural gas consumption comes from Russia. Consequently, Turkey is unlikely to confront Moscow even when Russia undermines Turkey's interests, such as in Syria where Russia is supporting the Assad regime, even as Ankara tries to depose it.
Historically, the Turks have always feared the Russians. Between 1568, when the Ottomans and Russians first clashed, to the end of the Russian Empire in 1917, the Turks and Russians fought 17 wars. In each encounter, Russia was the instigator and the victor. In these defeats, the Ottomans lost vast, and often solidly Turkish and Muslim, territories spanning from the Crimea to Circassia to the Russians. The Russians killed many inhabitants of these Ottoman lands and expelled the rest to Turkey. So many Turks descend from refugees from Russia that the adage in Turkey is: "If you scratch a Turk, you find a Circassian persecuted by Russians underneath."
Having suffered at the hands of the Russians for centuries, the Turks now have a deeply engrained fear of the Russians. This explains why Turkey dived for the safety of NATO and the United States when Stalin demanded territory from Turkey and a base on the Bosporus in 1945. Fear of the Russians made Turkey one of the most committed Cold-War allies to the United States.
MORE...
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/turkey-fears-russia-too-much-to-intervene-in-syria/275571/
Russia, China Express Alarm After Israel Hits Syria
Source: REUTERS
* After air strikes, Israel seeks to ease tension with Syria
* China urges restraint during Israeli PM's visit
* Russia says chance of foreign intervention growing
* Oil price rises on concern of regional tension
By Dan Williams and Khaled Yacoub Oweis
JERUSALEM/AMMAN, May 6 (Reuters) - Russia and China expressed alarm on Monday over the regional repercussions of two Israeli air raids on Syria, while Israel played down strikes which its officials said targeted Iranian missiles bound for Lebanese Hezbollah militants.
Oil prices spiked above $105 a barrel, their highest in nearly a month, on Monday morning as the air strikes on Friday and Sunday prompted fears of a wider spillover of Syria's two-year-old civil war that could affect Middle East oil exports.
Israel, whose prime minister visited China on Monday in a sign of business-as-usual, sought to persuade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday that the air strikes did not aim to weaken him and dismissed the prospects of an escalation.
"There are no winds of war," Yair Golan, the general commanding Israeli forces on the Syrian and Lebanese fronts, told reporters while out jogging with troops.
Read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20130506150459-hpfda
FBI: Raid Of Minn. Home That Netted Suspected Pipe Bombs, Firearms Disrupted 'Terror Attack'
Source: Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — The FBI says a potential terror attack that it believes was disrupted by a mobile home raid was in its "planning stages" and the target was believed to be in western Minnesota.
Buford Rogers was arrested Friday after a search of the 24-year-old's Montevideo home turned up Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms.
FBI spokesman Kyle Loven wouldn't elaborate Monday about the nature or target of the alleged plot, but says authorities believe there "would have been a localized terror attack, and that's why law enforcement moved quickly."
The FBI says it believes authorities potentially saved the lives of several local residents. The investigation is ongoing.
Read more: http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/03a12722798f4da5852e5fb2445adab1/US-FBI-Raid-Minnesota
Al Qaeda Headquarters in Libya
by Jamie Dettmer May 6, 2013 6:56 AM EDT
The volatile country, still reeling after the Benghazi attack and several recent bombings, has become a magnet for al Qaeda terrorists determined to sow instability in the region.
A rare interview with a top Libyan intelligence official reveals that, as an unintended consequence of the French intervention to quash a radical Muslim insurgency in nearby Mali, which forced al Qaeda in the Mahgreb to move north earlier this year, Libya has now become the main base of the terror group in the region, heightening the instability of what is already a volatile country.
“Libya has become AQIM’s headquarters,” says the intelligence source, adding that in just the last few weeks three new al Qaeda camps have opened in southern Libya.
The terror group’s boosted presence in Libya comes at a time when the struggling country is reeling from several threats to—or attacks on—Western targets.
On April 23, jihadist bombers sought to attack the British Council in Tripoli just minutes after other members of a suspected al Qaeda cell managed to detonate a powerful blast outside the French Embassy. The embassy bombing left two gendarmes injured—one seriously—and wounded several locals. The attack on the British Council failed—thanks to the incompetence of the jihadists.
MORE...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/06/the-al-qaeda-headquarters-in-libya.html
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