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Hissyspit's JournalBreaking: Judge Reduces Possible Sentence for Manning (Unlawful Pretrial Punishment)
Source: Associated Press
@BreakingNews: Judge reduces possible sentence for Bradley Manning, Army private accused of sending secret information to WikiLeaks - @AP
@kgosztola: Military court grants Bradley Manning 112 days sentencing credit for unlawful pretrial punishment
JUDGE REDUCES POSSIBLE SENTENCE IN WIKILEAKS CASE
By DAVID DISHNEAU
— Jan. 8 4:14 PM EST
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A military judge has reduced the potential sentence for an Army private accused of sending reams of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website.
Col. Denise Lind ruled Tuesday during a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade for Pfc. Bradley Manning.
Lind found that Manning suffered illegal pretrial punishment during nine months in a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va. She awarded a total of 112 days off any prison sentence Manning gets if he is convicted. Defense attorneys had sought to have the charges against him dismissed.
Manning was confined to a windowless cell 23 hours a day, sometimes with no clothing. Brig officials say it was to keep him from hurting himself or others.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/gis-hearing-wikileaks-case-focuses-motive
Climate Change is Turning Australia Purple with Blazing Heat
http://www.juancole.com/2013/01/turning-australia-blazing.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29Climate Change is turning Australia Purple with Blazing Heat
Published on January 8th, 2013
Written by: Juan
The heat wave or “dome of heat” afflicting Australia may produce a record temperature of over 122 degrees F. (over 50 degrees C.). For temperatures above 122 F., Australian weathermen have developed a new color scheme, purple, which they hadn’t had to use before (the last record temperature in that range was just about 122 F. on one day in 1961). The average temperature across the country is unprecedentedly hot nowadays.
Climate change is implicated in this disaster. Average temperatures have risen 1 degree Centigrade in the past century, and may rise by 5 degrees C. (9 degrees F.) by 2070, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Nine of Australia’s 20 highest recorded temperatures in the past century have occurred since 2000.
MORE[p]
Breaking: Obama to Nominate John Brennan to Head CIA; Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary
Source: CBS News
@CBSNews: Breaking news: Obama to nominate John Brennan to head CIA, sources tell CBS News
Obama to nominate John Brennan to head CIA, Chuck Hagel as defense secretary
January 07, 2013
WASHINGTON President Obama on Monday will nominate Chuck Hagel as his next defense secretary and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, two potentially controversial picks for his second-term national security team.
Democratic sources in the defense community and in Congress told CBS News about the Hagel nomination, and Senior administration officials confirmed for CBS News that the president will tape Brennan for the CIA post.
Hagel, even before being nominated, has faced tough criticism from congressional Republicans who say the former GOP senator is anti-Israel and soft on Iran. And Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran, withdrew from consideration for the spy agency's top job in 2008 amid questions about his connection to enhanced interrogation techniques during the George W. Bush administration.
Read more: http://m.cbsnews.com/storysynopsis.rbml?&pageType=politics&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2F8301-250_162-57562377%2Fobama-to-nominate-john-brennan-to-head-cia-chuck-hagel-as-defense-secretary%2F&catid=57562377&nb_spl
From Wikipedia:
"John O. Brennan (born September 22, 1955) is chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama; officially his title is Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to the President.[1][2][3] His responsibilities include overseeing plans to protect the country from terrorism and respond to natural disasters, and he meets with the President daily.[4][5] Previously, he advised Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues during the 2008 presidential campaign and transition.[6] Brennan withdrew his name from consideration for Director of the CIA in the new Obama administration over concerns about his support for the use of "enhanced interrogation" techniques by the CIA under President George W. Bush.[2][4] Instead, Brennan was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor, a position which did not require Senate confirmation.[2][4][7]"
Police: Arrested Teen Claims to be Sen. Rand Paul's Son
Source: CBS News
Police: Arrested teen claims to be Sen. Rand Paul's son
January 06, 2013
A teen who claims to be the son of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul was arrested Saturday night at Charlotte Douglas International airport, CBS Kentucky affiliate WKYT-TV reports.
Nineteen-year-old William Hilton Paul, also the grandson of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, was taken and booked into the Mecklenburg County Jail at around 11:30 p.m.
CBS affiliate WBTV in Charlotte, N.C., reports that Paul told officials at the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's office he is the son of Sen. Paul.
According to a statement posted on the Mecklenburg County Jail website, Paul was charged with disorderly conduct and being underage drinking.
Moira Bagley,
Read more: http://m.cbsnews.com/storysynopsis.rbml?pageType=national&url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57562358/police-arrested-teen-claims-to-be-sen-rand-pauls-son/&feed_id=1&videoid=37&catid=57562358
Paul Krugman: "The Triumph of Bad Ideas"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/opinion/krugman-the-big-fail.htmlOP-ED COLUMNIST
The Big Fail
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 6, 2013
- snip -
This isn’t how things were supposed to be. If you had polled the economists attending this meeting three years ago, most of them would surely have predicted that by now we’d be talking about how the great slump ended, not why it still continues.
So what went wrong? The answer, mainly, is the triumph of bad ideas.
- snip -
The story, at this point, is fairly straightforward. The financial crisis led, through several channels, to a sharp fall in private spending: residential investment plunged as the housing bubble burst; consumers began saving more as the illusory wealth created by the bubble vanished, while the mortgage debt remained. And this fall in private spending led, inevitably, to a global recession.
For an economy is not like a household. A family can decide to spend less and try to earn more. But in the economy as a whole, spending and earning go together: my spending is your income; your spending is my income. If everyone tries to slash spending at the same time, incomes will fall — and unemployment will soar.
- snip -
At that point governments needed to step in, spending to support their economies while the private sector regained its balance. And to some extent that did happen: revenue dropped sharply in the slump, but spending actually rose as programs like unemployment insurance expanded and temporary economic stimulus went into effect. Budget deficits rose, but this was actually a good thing, probably the most important reason we didn’t have a full replay of the Great Depression.
But it all went wrong in 2010. The crisis in Greece was taken, wrongly, as a sign that all governments had better slash spending and deficits right away. Austerity became the order of the day, and supposed experts who should have known better cheered the process on, while the warnings of some (but not enough) economists that austerity would derail recovery were ignored. For example, the president of the European Central Bank confidently asserted that “the idea that austerity measures could trigger stagnation is incorrect.”
MORE[p]
Ohio Sheriff Confronts Protesters in Football Rape Case (Anonymous Rally)
Source: Reuters
Ohio sheriff confronts protesters in football rape case
STEUBENVILLE, OHIO | Sat Jan 5, 2013 4:30pm EST
By Drew Singer
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - A county sheriff under fire for how he has handled a high school rape investigation faced down a raucous crowd of protesters on Saturday and said no further suspects would be charged in a case that has rattled Ohio football country.
Ma'lik Richmond and Trenton Mays, both 16 and members of the Steubenville High School football team, are charged with raping a 16-year-old fellow student at a party last August, according to statements from their attorneys.
Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla, accused of shielding the popular football program from a more rigorous investigation, told reporters no one else would be charged in the case, just moments after he addressed about 1,000 protesters gathered in front of the Jefferson County Courthouse.
- snip -
The protest's masked leader, standing atop a set of stairs outside the courthouse doors, invited up to the makeshift stage anyone who was a victim of sexual assault. Protesters immediately flooded the platform, which was slightly smaller than a boxing ring.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9040BP20130105
Finding Benjamin...
NCAE Wins Challenge to Payroll Dues Ban
Source: WRAL
NCAE wins challenge to payroll dues ban
By Matthew Burns
Posted: 1:30 p.m. today
A Wake County judge has ruled a law prohibiting the North Carolina Association of Educators from using payroll deduction to collect dues from its members to be unconstitutional.
Superior Court Judge Paul Gessner said the dues-deduction ban "constitutes retaliatory viewpoint discrimination" against NCAE, which violates the group's free speech rights.
"We are extremely pleased with the court's decision in this important case, especially the court's recognition that our members have a constitutional right to express their views on issues important to the education community," NCAE President Rodney Ellis said in a statement. "Standing up for those views is the very reason NCAE initiated this lawsuit."
The Republican-led House used a late-night session a year ago to override Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto of the dues-collection bill, immediately drawing the ire of the NCAE, which traditionally supports Democratic candidates.
Read more: http://www.wral.com/ncae-wins-challenge-to-payroll-dues-ban/11938870
Appeals Court: Motorist Cannot be Stopped for Giving Police the Middle Finger
Source: Raw Story
Appeals court: Motorist cannot be stopped for giving police the middle finger
By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, January 3, 2013 19:31 EST
A motorist cannot be stopped for “giving the finger” to a police officer, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
- snip -
The couple saw a police officer using a radar gun to catch speeding motorists at an intersection. John, who was a passenger in the car, stuck his arm outside the side window and “flipped the bird” over the car’s roof. The police officer then followed the couple to their son’s home and stopped them. John was arrested for disorderly conduct after other officers arrived as backup.
The officer who initially followed and stopped the couple said he did so because John appeared to be trying to get his attention by waving his middle finger. However, the court didn’t buy that argument.
“(T)he nearly universal recognition that this gesture is an insult deprives such an interpretation of reasonableness,” Circuit Judge Jon O. Newman wrote in the ruling (PDF). “This ancient gesture of insult is not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity. Surely no passenger planning some wrongful conduct toward another occupant of an automobile would call attention to himself by giving the finger to a police officer.”
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/03/appeals-court-motorist-cannot-be-stopped-for-giving-police-the-middle-finger
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