Playing Politics With $642 Billion

Posted by James on May 19, 2012 in Featured, Political | 0 comments

Obama has already threatened to veto the measure if it prevents his administration from carrying out its defense strategy.

Whats worse than playing politics? Playing politics with your money. The Republican controlled House ignored a Presidential veto threat and approved a budget breaking deal. The $642 billion defense budget (NDAA 2013) authorized Friday breaks a deficit cutting deal that Republicans were in favor of just last year. The new budget will, if left unchanged, also restrict the Presidents authority as Commander in Chief. The Republicans who are always keen to jump to the defense of defense stuck to their guns on highly controversial provisions as they try to play themselves off as stronger on defense than President Obama. Even the military opposes some of the additions.

The House voted 299-120 for the fiscal 2013 spending blueprint that authorizes money for weapons, aircraft, ships and the war in Afghanistan which is $8 billion more than Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to last summer. The added cost comes from calls to construct a missile defense site on the East Coast that the military opposes, bars reductions in the nation’s nuclear arsenal and reaffirms the indefinite detention without trial of suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens captured on American soil. The Republicans are so strong on defense that they even go above and beyond what the military wants.

The Democratically controlled Senate is predicted to scoff at most of the added provisions and is expected to erase many of them before it heads to the President. Thankfully the checks and balances system still exists.

Leon Panetta met with Republicans last week to push Obama’s proposed budget and to ensure them that this is the right direction for the country. Obama’s budget shifts military focus from solely on terrorism to the bigger threats of today including Asia, the Mideast and cyberspace as the nation emerges from two long wars. However as with the Republicans social strategy, Republicans would also like to see America’s military strategy stay in the 1950′s.

Republicans are always ready to call for increases in defense spending even when the nation is broke because most Republican politicians within Congress are owned by the defense corporations who dominate the jobs market in their home states. While this budget proposal is no doubt a shot at Obama it is also a sign that national defense is what keeps the Republicans alive. If the defense budget is cut then that could mean job losses in Republican controlled states and that could in turn mean a loss of seats for Republicans in Congress. This is a two pronged attack at President Obama’s foreign and domestic policy. They want to appear stronger on defense and they want to show that they care about jobs – jobs vital to the nation at that.

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 totals $554 billion, including nuclear weapons spending, plus $88 billion for the war in Afghanistan and counterterrorism efforts.

New cold war?

Is something going on in Russia that the public is unaware of? Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has declared Russia to be Americas number 1 enemy, completely bypassing China, and now the Republicans seem to be backing him on that. In an effort to revive cold war arguments the Republicans rejected the notion that Senate ratification of an arms control treaty with Russia in December 2010 has long been settled and that the president has the authority to enforce the pact. Do the Republicans want another nuclear arms race with the USSR Russia? While the rest of the world tries to reduce the possibility of nuclear war, the Republicans in America want to increase the odds. Joseph McCarthy would be proud.

Also contained within the budget was a section that authorized the use of force if Iran threatens the United States and her allies with nuclear weapons.

 
The House legislation would require the US military to prepare a plan to boost the presence of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in the Middle East, and conduct military exercises “or other visible, concrete military readiness activities”. These force readiness operations which are not currently being conducted would mean that the defense bill for 2014 would have to be larger to accommodate the cost of such exercises. During a time of economic uncertainty should the United States be playing chicken with a rogue nation? Should we be passing legislation that makes us look like a bully? Should Republicans be making political statements with $642 billion in cash?

Sources:

The SLTB Al Jazeera

GM Thinks Facebook Sucks

Posted by James on May 16, 2012 in Featured, Tech | 0 comments

General Motors is going to start swimming against the stream. GM announced yesterday that they will be pulling all advertisements from Facebook even as Facebook prepares to go public. GM didn’t give a specific reason for pulling their ads however a source familiar with the company (maybe the CFO?) said that marketing executives decided that the advertisements have little effect with consumers on the social site. No one was clicking GMs $10 million worth of advertisements and with GM being fresh from the brink of collapse I guess they don’t want to waste money on lost causes. I wonder if they advertised on Google+? Those getting a Facebook paycheck fired right back saying that saying GM ran a lousy Facebook campaign and ignored the social network’s advice.

The problem that this will present for Facebook in the long run is they’re going to be heavily reliant on advertising to make money in the future. Selling all of your user data isn’t enough to sustain the site of over half a billion users. With Facebook preparing to go public and their IPO soaring to ridiculous levels GMs announcement isn’t going to directly hurt Facebook but at the first sign that Facebook isn’t performing the way marketing managers across the globe think it should be they might opt to follow GM. Ford and Chrysler have said they won’t be abandoning Facebook.

“Facebook advised [GM] to invest more wisely in a campaign that would reach more people,” this person said. Instead, though, GM put most of its money into the development of promotional apps and its corporate “page presence” on Facebook, and “didn’t see a response” as a result. “No one will know that stuff is there unless you use paid media to promote it,” the anonymous Facebook individual said.

General Motors spent around $40 million worth on Facebook with $10 million going to direct advertising and the rest going into things like app development, page development and other apparently useless crap. You’d think that with all of the hardcore Chevy only people out there that the advertisements would have some affect and maybe they do but GM doesn’t think it is having millions of dollars worth of impact. I can say that when I actually had a Facebook page that I never ever clicked an advertisement unless by accident and there are plenty more like me who use things like Firefox’s Ad Blocker Pro to make sure they don’t hit one by accident. Since a heavy focus on advertising is essentially Facebook’s only business model this could present a serious problem for them.

46% of people think Facebook is a fad

Almost half of Americans think that Facebook will go the way of Myspace. Do you even remember Myspace? I do and I also remember that when it was nearing its climax they also started focusing heavily on advertising. It went downhill very quickly. About 43% of Americans think that Facebook will do just fine over the long term and 11% didn’t know.

• Investors are more optimistic than others about the company’s long-term prospects. 48 percent think it will be successful in the long run compared with 42 percent of non-investors.
• There’s a sharp divide on this question among users and non-users of the site. Fifty-one percent of users see it as a long-term success versus just 35 percent among non-users.
• Although they are generally more positive about the company, younger adults are no more apt than their older counterparts to expect Facebook’s long-term success; 51 percent think it will fade.

Is Facebook going to implode tomorrow? No it probably isn’t unless Zuckerberg committed suicide and even that might not stop the IPO rise and the continual hyping of Facebook. The problem is that once Facebook becomes a publicly traded company we the people will be able to see how it performs thanks to its stock price. Most people don’t correlate stocks with how they use social networks but the point is if Facebook’s stock starts to tank, the investors are going to bail and then the company won’t be able to sustain the quality of the website. Like Myspace it will become slow, riddled with ads and eventually deserted if they cannot figure out a way for advertising to get users to click. I don’t think this is just a Facebook problem either. It is a social network problem and Facebook is about to find out if they have fixed it.

Sources:

CNET ZDNet

FBI Agent On The Lam

Posted by James on May 15, 2012 in Featured, Weird News | 0 comments

Something doesn’t smell right with this one. Over the past 5 days that FBI Special Agent Stephen Ivens disappeared without a trace I’ve found the statements about his well being and the rather intensive manhunt to be suspicious. It is completely possible that what is going on in Los Angeles is completely normal but the way that they have portrayed this national security expert makes me wonder if they’re trying to discredit anything he says if he stumbles upon someone. Did he see something that troubled him? This agent is armed, suicidal, despondent, distraught and an avid hiker according to FBI statements but what I’d like to know is why he is now “suicidal” and why didn’t the FBI notice sooner?

Investigators, volunteers working for local police and about 50 FBI agents had searched the rugged Verdugo Mountains yesterday after bloodhounds tracked his scent in the area, according to authorities. He was last seen at his home in Burbank, California according to his family. His FBI issue handgun was not at his residence so authorities believe him to be armed however they state that he is not a danger to society. They do claim that he is a danger to himself however. Saturday’s search for him involved even more agents, over 100,  and was the largest manhunt in 20 years according to the Burbank police department. All of this for one man?

The law enforcement community is a tight knit group so on some level I understand the desire to find one of your own who may be having some trouble but what strikes me as off is they have no trouble at all telling the public that he’s suicidal, they only have trouble telling you why he wants to kill himself. Currently no one will give a reason for why this long time police officer and agent with a 1 year old baby is so troubled that he took off with his pistol. Even though the police and his FBI colleagues say he is not a threat to the public they have advised citizens to stay away from the hills where they believe he is headed. Why is it the only people they want looking for this man are people who carry firearms?

The FBI is also investigating whether his national security work played any part in his disappearance.

To me it seems like this man is on the run and the FBI doesn’t want to admit they have a breach in security or something of that nature. The reasons for stating he is suicidal have been inconsistent with most reports stating he is believed to be suicidal because he took his issued firearm with him. Don’t most agents always carry firearms? Also why all of the secrecy about why he is allegedly suicidal and despondent? Most people don’t just wake up in the morning and decide that today is they day they will go to the hills and blow their brains out especially someone who has been in law enforcement as long as agent Ivens has.

My theory goes something like this. Agent Ivens was working on preserving our national security when he stumbled upon something, something that he shouldn’t have seen, and he became troubled over what to do with that information. The FBI got wind of his discovery and Ivens became aware of their investigation. Knowing that he has a 1 year old child at home he chose to leave his family and head for the hills instead of putting them at risk of any potential fallout. It sounds far fetched I know but if you actually closely examine the statements from those conducting the manhunt it is all very sketchy. I have also been reading a ton of espionage, thriller and spy books recently so my mind tends to read between the lines and see plots and conspiracies.

What do you think?

Sources:

CNN Sky News CBS LA

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Author Recommendation: Ben Coes

Posted by James on May 11, 2012 in Author Recommendations, Featured | 0 comments

I’ve been looking for a new thriller series for a long time. Something to entertain the portion of my brain that loves action, violence, war, combat and assassinations. I found that with Ben Coes’ Dewey Andreas novels even if at first I was quite skeptical of this author whom I had not heard of before I received an email from someone claiming to be his marketing manager. I honestly thought the email was some sort of scam so I called the number given in the email. The phone call settled all doubt that she was in fact his marketing manager and that they were willing to send me a copy of his upcoming book The Last Refuge. Why am I telling you this? Because I received this book two months in advance and I want you to know that just because I got a book for free I’m not some hack who will give out a great review in exchange for something free.

While his very kind marketing manager rushed to send me The Last Refuge I started looking into Mr. Coes. I went to his website and then looked at the section about him. To be completely honest I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t like his books because he, at least on paper, seems to be a hardcore Republican. However I remembered thinking that exact same thing when I first stumbled upon Vince Flynn. I thought “there is no way we’d get along and no way that I will like his books”. I learned to tell my brain to shut up after picking up my first Vince Flynn book. Oddly enough upon further inspection of Mr. Coes’ website I saw a glowing recommendation from Vince Flynn himself that in combination with my initial thoughts of hesitation made me purchase his first two books. You can see them on my iPad here.

Power Down

While I was waiting for the advanced copy to arrive I dove into Power Down which is his first book. I didn’t read the synopsis (which might have quelled any initial doubt) so I didn’t know what to expect. After reading the first chapter though I knew I was hooked. The plot and the main character are so different from other thrillers in this niche that you stop comparing this book and the author to Vince Flynn and the like. You find it filling a void left by other books – a void you didn’t even know you had. The reason I say that is because the main character, Dewey Andreas, is so completely different than you’d expect from a former soldier (and former Delta Force). He’s an angry, rage filled, unappreciated, heavy drinker who left America over a decade ago and has no intentions of returning. After his son died of leukemia, his wife blew her brains out while he was training and the local prosecutor tried to frame him for it; the military abandoned him. I don’t think I could sing the Star Spangled Banner after all that either. Yet his work ethic and will to fight remain as is evidenced by the events that follow.

The other thing that I absolutely loved about this book was that Dewey Andreas is a trained killer but he wasn’t looking for the fight that found him. Basically he was standing in front of the fan when the shit hit it. To me this was unusual as well as something that I felt myself identifying with and it made his back story that much more believable. I wasn’t expecting to connect with a main character as much as I did with Dewey Andreas.

I  have to say the terrorist plot in Power Down is absolutely genius. Instead of putting together a mishmash of actual terrorist plots from CNN headlines Ben Coes delivers what can only be described as pure brilliance. It gives you a different look at terrorism – a look that will scare you. A look that will make you hope that there are people like Dewey Andreas because honestly this plot, this genius, makes much more sense than a half-baked underwear bomb. It is designed to destroy America and strike what we need and love most. If Osama bin Laden were alive he’d probably kill himself for not thinking of this first.

The Last Refuge

When his unreleased book arrived I had just finished Power Down so I sadly haven’t had a chance to read Coup d’Etat yet. I knew based off of the first book that if I started reading The Last Refuge at night I wouldn’t be able to sleep so I impatiently held off until morning. Now I did read the synopsis for this one and I had to scratch my head because Dewey Andreas’ past seemed to change from being a former Ranger and Delta to being a former SEAL and Delta. I’m sure that will be fixed before release. With that out of the way I was already very intrigued as it’s something that could be in the paper tomorrow. Iran has developed a nuclear bomb with intentions of destroying Tel Aviv.

With everything so current the book feels like it was written yesterday. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t reading a New York Times expose. The book throws mounds of valuable information at you as the plot unravels. I felt like my brain was going to reach maximum capacity the more I learned about VEVAK (Iranian version of DHS). If I have one gripe it is with the weapon terminology. Mr. Coes constantly uses “clips” instead of “magazines”. Clips or stripper clips is used to define a thin metal clip that is discarded upon loading the magazine. A magazine holds the bullets in the firearm. This is a common mistake and even Vince Flynn used “clips” in his first Mitch Rapp book. I really enjoyed the variation of firearms used though and I also like Dewey’s main sidearm, the M1911-A1 .45. While reading I saw mention of an iPad and a Keurig Coffee Brewer which made me smile because I just got done making a cup of coffee with mine. It’s those little modern details that make you believe in the relevancy that much more. I’d still believe the story if they were using an old Coffeemate but the Keurig mention makes it very 2012.

I love the introduction of Katie Foxx in thigh high leather Prada boots. Mr. Coes did a fantastic job of describing her. If you were to be killed by her at least you’d have a great view before you die. I’m hoping that she makes her way back into his next novel. I also really like the beautiful Jessica Tanzer the former head of FBI Counterterroism and now the Presidents National Security adviser who is dating Dewey. Knowing she’s gorgeous really adds to the sex scenes! The sex isn’t explicit but it is exciting and well crafted. It’s yet another humanizing look into the characters.

What also stood out was the inclusion of China. Dewey was asked at the end of the book what he thought the most dangerous threats were to America. He replied “Radical Islamists, China and Congress”. China has been mentioned in Coes’ previous books as well. In Power Down they were buying up all Saudi oil while very concerned about Capitana (the oil rig that Dewey worked). In The Last Refuge you see more of China’s devious nature. They have a mole within the Mossad. A mole that is high up and has been in place for over a decade. Beijing promptly passes the confidential information right over to Iran leading to some serious problems. China is a growing threat to our national security and Ben Coes has been spot on in highlighting the subtle and not so subtle ways they’re impacting us.

Finally I have to say that I found parts of the book quite funny. Every character has a fantastically well-written personality but I found myself laughing at Dewey’s comments the most. His little jokes and how he deals with Jessica helped break up the very serious tone of the book. I remember one joke that had me laughing for a full minute. As Dewey transformed himself into a Middle Easterner he looked into the mirror and said “Praise Allah, give me three felafels and a grenade please”. What kind of book with such a serious, real and informative plot has the time to be funny? A very, very good one.

As I finish this review I’m going to go back and read Coup d’Etat even though The Last Refuge was its sequel. Why go back in time? His books are simply that good. I feel like I’m missing out on more jokes from Dewey as well as the relationship between him and Jessica. Even though I learned some of the plot in The Last Refuge I don’t care. I want to read it and I frankly can not wait for his next book to come out. As I said previously his books are quite different from Vince Flynn and that is a good thing. If they were similar I’d be bored and this review would be short. The Last Refuge is one of the best books that I have ever read and the young series is truly outstanding. Ben Coes has done a marvelous job and I am now a huge fan.

I highly recommend all of Ben Coes’ books!

I will add more reviews as Mr. Coes releases more books and Dewey Andreas continues to evolve.

Book Synopsis'

• Power Down
• Coup d’Etat
• The Last Refuge

Power Down on Amazon

A tightly-coordinated series of attacks shatters America’s energy-producing capacity, bringing the country’s largest energy company to its knees.

Beneath a mammoth oil platform off the coast of Colombia, a cell of terrorists strikes the largest petroleum field in the hemisphere  and America’s hope for a new source of non-Mideast oil. In remote northern Canada, a major hydroelectric facility is targeted by a pair of suicide bombers. In Aspen, a lone assassin snowshoes silently through a Colorado snowstorm toward the ski house of the vacationing CEO. The night’s orchestrated destruction comes swiftly, anonymously, without a trace. But when no one stands up to take credit for the terror what quickly emerges is a deadly guessing game to find out who is behind the destruction — and what’s coming next.

And against the bloody backdrop, America’s best hope emerges from the unlikeliest of places: an anonymous oil platform worker named Dewey Andreas, a former U.S. soldier — a Delta commando — who survives the attack and vows to find out who is behind the death of his men. Calling on skills long-dormant, Dewey fights his way off the platform, following the trail of terrorists and operatives sent to stop him.

Meanwhile, the mysterious figure of Alexander Fortuna — an agent embedded into the highest levels of American society and business — works to set into play the second stage of these long-planned attacks. But Dewey’s unexpected survival interrupts Fortuna’s brilliantly-designed plan. Soon the two men are in a race against time; Fortuna to set off the next stage of attacks, Dewey to find the terrorist before it’s too late.

From the palaces of Saudi Arabia to the corridors of Washington power, from the dangerous alleyways of Colombia to the cane fields of Cuba, from the board rooms of Wall Street to the mansions of East Hampton, POWER DOWN offers a searing glimpse into an all-too-possible future, in which enemies hide in plain sight, the innocent are sacrificed, and America’s last hope, as always, rests in the hands of one of its own, a patriot, willing to risk it all for the country he loves. Via: Ben Coes

Coup d’Etat on Amazon

When a fragile peace breaks down and promptly devolves into a rapidly escalating shooting war between Pakistan and India, the United States is forced to intervene. With only hours remaining before the conflict reaches a deadly point of no return, the White house must find a way to shut it down immediately or risk the likelihood of a new global war.

A radical cleric has become the democratically elected president of Pakistan and uses a brutal incident in the Kashmir region as an opportunity to ignite war with India. The highly lethal conventional war spins out of control when Pakistan initiates a nuclear attack. India is on the verge of launching their own nuclear response, one that will have unimaginably disastrous results for the both the United States and the world at large. With only one chance to head this off, the President of the United States sends in his best people to do whatever it takes to restore the fragile peace to the region. With the clock ticking and Pakistan in the hands of a religious radical willing to do anything to destroy India, there remains only one viable option – to execute a coup d’etat in Pakistan.

There is only one man with the skills and experience to infiltrate the live war theater and remove the Pakistani president from power. Only one man the White House can trust. His name: Dewey Andreas. Now they have to find him before time runs out.

From the author of the critically acclaimed thriller Power Down, comes the latest ripped-from-the-headlines novel featuring his indelible and indomitable protagonist, the unforgettable Dewey Andreas.

The Last Refuge on Amazon

Off a quiet street in Brooklyn, Israeli Special Forces commander Kohl Meir is captured by operatives of Iranian intelligence, who smuggle Meir back to Tehran, where he’s imprisoned in Iran’s most notorious penitentiary –Evin – then tortured and prepared for a show trial that will likely lead to the firing squad.

Only hours before, Meir had been tipped off that Iran had finally succeeded in building its first nuclear weapon, one they were planning to use to attack Israel. Meir’s source was a high level Iranian government official and his proof was a photo of the bomb itself. Meir was in the U.S. to recruit Dewey Andreas for a secret operation to destroy the Iranian bomb. His capture by Iran put an end to all that.

Dewey Andreas, a former member of Delta, owes his life to Meir and the team of Israeli commandos who saved his life. Now to repay his debt, Dewey must attempt the impossible – rescue Meir from Evin, and find and eliminate Iran’s nuclear bomb before it’s brought to Tel Aviv by boat and detonated. BREAK Unfortunately, Dewey’s first moves catch the attention of Abu Paria, the brutal and brilliant head of VEVAK, Iran’s intelligence service. Dewey must outwit and outfight an opponent with equal cunning, skill and determination, and with the fate of millions hanging in the balance.

With the help of leaked information from high-level officials inside of Iran and dissidents from groups outside the country, Dewey devises a high-risk, high-stakes operation that will allow him to find and hijack the device before it’s too late.

App Review: Whatsapp

Posted by James on May 8, 2012 in App Reviews | 1 comment

I use this app everyday and if you know me you know that I have unlimited texting so why would I need an alternative texting app? Whatsapp is a reliabe alternative for those of you with limited plans but it also a fantastic way to skip those pesky international fees which is what I use it for. Got a friend who lives abroad and want to send/recieve texts, videos, voice messages and more? Whatsapp is the app that will get it done and it does so efficiently and stylishly. Did I mention that it is 100% ad free?

I’ve tried probably a dozen texting apps in the past two years and none live up to my expectations as well as Whatsapp does. I find that many texting apps are more focused on forums and being social media oriented rather than getting the job done. That added weight slows down their servers (which means more ads to pay for more servers) and it also slows that urgent message you’re trying to send. Whatsapp is a dedicated texting platform so other than the occasional service outages it is smooth sailing. The most important feature of this service are the message sent indicators. When you send a message you will see one check mark which tells you that your message has been uploaded to their server and the second check mark lets you know the other party got your message. This eliminates the confusion caused by other apps whose messages get lost in the interwebs.

One of the other major features of this app is that it allows you to use core functions of your phone like the camera and voice recorder to send or receive media but it also opens them up directly in the app so you don’t have to back out and open up the default app to see the content. As with the sms messages you also get a progress bar and checks to show you that your media has reached the other person.

Some other key features:

• Works on WiFi, 3G, 4G
• The ability to use a custom ringtone for all messages as well as custom tones for contacts
• The ability to send group messages
• Messages backup daily at 4am.
• The ability to set a status message to let everyone know if you’re busy, sleeping or just avoiding them.
• Email an entire conversation to whomever
• The ability to have a message pop up box
• Block contacts
• Custom backgrounds
• Emoticons
• The ability to see when a contact was last in the app

The negative:

• Server crashes sometimes affect just one user depending on location
• Videos taken in 8mp resolution cannot be longer than about 10 seconds
• Voice recordings wind up in your music folder which makes shuffle really odd
• SD card encryption can cause your message history to corrupt
• It is .99 cents for iOS products and .99 cents a year (first year free so it appears like the app is free) for Android products. This has royally irritated Android users.

Roundup:

Whatsapp is in my opinon the best texting app on the market. It costs just a mere .99 cents for what would normally cost you 10, 20 or 30 bucks a month in messaging fees. There is no added cost to send messages worldwide and Whatsapp is available on every operating system so you should be able to use it on any phone; anywhere. The ability to see that your message has arrived is a huge help and it is convenient to see that a person is typing a response back to you. The app is easy to use, looks very good and it does as advertized.

Give it a try:

Download: iOS Download: Android
 

Can’t We Just Execute The 9/11 Mastermind?

Posted by James on May 7, 2012 in Army/DOD, Featured, News | 1 comment

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed shown after his capture.

He’s a terrorist and the self proclaimed mastermind of the worst terrorist attack in American history. His name is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and he is currently facing a military trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He and the four other co-defendants have been charged with 2,976 counts of murder yet they still manage to turn a standard 2 hour pretrial hearing into a 13 hour circus. They’re killers and a stagnant reminder of what was supposed to be a beautiful September day. They were to be tried in U.S courts however Congress blocked that action and so they sit smugly at Guantanamo Bay where hundreds of other terrorists and some innocents have sat awaiting a trial.

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) came with some new provisions that allow not only for indefinite detention of civilians without a trial but it also gave the President the authority to assassinate American citizens. The only trial they would get is whether or not the drone is functioning properly. Yes you read that right, American citizens can be assassinated by their own government. Predictably this caused a bit of a stir and so Obama stated that his administration would never use those powers but what happens after he leaves? Your guess is as good as mine.

So if the President can throw the judicial branch out the window in the name of national security then why can’t we just kill the mastermind of 9/11? Why does he get a trial when an American potentially would not? Is it because he is of Pakistani origin and we fear rocking the boat? Here is a list of what Mohammed had been up to before he was caught.

• Was a member of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group al-Qaeda organization.
• The 9/11 Commission Report alleges that he was “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks.”
• He is also alleged to have confessed to a role in many of the most significant terrorist plots over the last twenty years, including the World Trade Center 1993 bombings, the Operation Bojinka plot, an aborted 2002 attack on the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles, the Bali nightclub bombings, the failed bombing of American Airlines Flight 63, the Millennium Plot, and the murder of Daniel Pearl.
• He confessed to being the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

He has been charged with war crimes, thousands of murders and faces the death penalty. It’s almost a sure thing that he will be executed but until that can happen he gets to continue to disrupt the trial and ignore the military judge. It is a dog and pony show where we are trying to get “justice” where the only justice is revenge. He deserves a military funeral and by that I mean a firing squad. A full 21 gun salute with live ammo. He is currently getting better treatment than that of a possible American being vaporized by his own government. He at least is getting a trial whereas an American can be held forever without one. We’ve let many leave GTMO without a trial only for them to go back to their terrorist ways. Are we actually risking putting this guy back into the world? Why is it the United States is now affording more rights to self confessed terrorists than they would their own citizens accused of similar crimes? Is this what the American way has boiled down to? Frankly I’m sick to my stomach.

Information

• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
• Guantanamo Bay
• NDAA 2012

According to different sources, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait, on March 1, 1964, or April 14, 1965, to parents who migrated from Balochistan, Pakistan. He spent some of his formative years in Kuwait, just like his nephew, Ramzi Yousef (three years his junior). He joined the Muslim Brotherhood at age sixteen. He returned to Pakistan soon after, and after spending some time there, went to the United States for further study.

He attended Chowan College and completed a degree in mechanical engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1986. The following year he went to Afghanistan, where he and his brothers (Zahed, Abed, and Aref) fought against the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. (Some sources claim that Khalid was fighting in Afghanistan before he moved to the United States.) There, he was introduced to Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, of the Islamic Union Party. The 9/11 Commission Report notes on page 149 that “Sayyaf part of the Afghan Northern Alliance”.

The 9/11 Commission Report also notes that, “By his own account, KSM’s animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.”

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a controversial detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq. It is operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) of the United States government in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which is on the shore of Guantánamo Bay. The detainment areas consist of three camps: Camp Delta (which includes Camp Echo), Camp Iguana, and Camp X-Ray, the last of which has been closed. The facility is often referred to as Guantánamo, G-Bay or GTMO, after the military abbreviation for the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

After the US Department of Justice advised that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could be considered outside U.S. legal jurisdiction, the first twenty captives arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002. After the Bush administration asserted that detainees were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on June 29, 2006, that they were entitled to the minimal protections listed under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Following this, on July 7, 2006, the Department of Defense issued an internal memo stating that prisoners would in the future be entitled to protection under Common Article 3.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 was signed into United States law on December 31, 2011, by President Barack Obama.

The Act authorizes $662 billion in funding, among other things “for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad.” In a signing statement, President Obama described the Act as addressing national security programs, Department of Defense health care costs, counter-terrorism within the U.S. and abroad, and military modernization. The Act also imposes new economic sanctions against Iran (section 1045), commissions reviews of the military capabilities of countries such as Iran, China, and Russia, and refocuses the strategic goals of NATO towards energy security.

The most controversial provisions to receive wide attention are contained in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled “Counter-Terrorism.” In particular, sub-sections 1021 and 1022, which deal with detention of persons the government suspects of involvement in terrorism, have generated controversy as to their legal meaning and their potential implications for abuse of Presidential authority. Although the White House and Senate sponsors maintain that the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) already grants presidential authority for indefinite detention, the Act states that Congress “affirms” this authority and makes specific provisions as to the exercise of that authority. The detention provisions of the Act have received critical attention by, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, and some media sources which are concerned about the scope of the President’s authority, including contentions that those whom they claim may be held indefinitely could include U.S. citizens arrested on American soil, including arrests by members of the Armed Forces. Source: Wikipedia

Sources:

Xinhua Washington’s Blog

Arizona’s Crazy Governor Bans Planned Parenthood Funding

Posted by James on May 6, 2012 in Dumb People, Featured | 0 comments

In what can only be described as a move to harm women Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Republican, signed a bill into law that will completely ban Planned Parenthood from receiving tax payer money for pretty much everything they do. Arizona already bars the use of tax money for funding abortions unless it is to save the life of the mother but the reason Governor Brewer and her Republican cohorts wanted this bill to pass was to ensure that absolutely no tax money can go to a provider of abortions never mind the other services they provide. There may not be a war on women but someone is definitely firing shots.

Planned Parenthood of Arizona claims that this law will mean that 20,000 women will lose access to life saving health care services as well as family planning services. Planned Parenthood is looking to challenge the law soon. Arizona’s Republican dominated legislature has brought up many bills on reproductive health this session and frankly none of them have or will help women. Planned Parenthood offers a vast array of services, over 10 for women alone not counting abortion.

Comments on the USA Today page indicate that many living in Arizona do not support this measure or their Governor signing this into law. Jan Brewer who not only looks crazy apparently likes leading the charge of crazy measures. She not only has banned state funding for abortions and non abortion services she also passed a bill into law that redefined when life begins. The bill was not drafted by a medical doctor and Jan Brewer isn’t a PhD in anything. The law states that life begins a full 2 weeks before conception. That’s right a full 2 weeks before you even have sex. I guess the Republicans didn’t want to own up to knowing about one night stands. How the hell do they enforce this crap? They can’t secure the border but they can clearly find the manpower to secure your vagina? Interesting. I should sign up for The Border Patrol in Arizona.

Why are women the target of such controversial and stupid laws heading into a hotly contested election season?

To be honest I really have no idea. I guess John Boehner’s wife didn’t make him a sandwich when he demanded and so he sent out the word to invade vaginas nationwide. According to certain Republicans featured on CNN Early Start a couple of weeks ago it was because women (and Republican men apparently) were reading the book Fifty Shades of Grey and if women in books are subservient to men then laws should be made to keep them subservient. Sounds very Saudi Arabia like to me. The truth is no one has an answer as to why women are the target of such laws nor is there any explanation to why women can’t have things such as birth control provided by an insurance company without a fierce battle.

Do Republicans know that women vote more than men? Did they think that when the weathered leather chair Jan Brewer signed this latest bill into law that women would throw down their pitchforks because a woman was signing it?

Lastly how is it that with all of the issues facing the United States of America that we find time to pick on women? I don’t have a vagina so I’m not terrified but women around the country should be preparing to cast votes for Democrats this November and rid Congress of those who want to make you the equivalent of a 1950′s housewife with a cute collar that says “slave”.

I’m pretty sure a lot of Republicans think that the false Planned Parenthood abortionplex story was true and that they’re saving thousands of lives. If only they cared this much about lives when it came to the troops.

 Sources:

USA Today Jezebel

Has Apple Killed Headphone Compatibility?

Posted by James on May 3, 2012 in Featured, Tech | 0 comments

The new microphone and audio control buttons are seen on the left and the previous version is on the right.

When I got my first iPhone, the iPhone 3G, way back in 2008 it only came with regular iPod earbuds and since I liked to talk hands free I looked into another solution. That solution was Apples very overpriced earbud/microphone combination and at 30 dollars a pair you’d expect them to last forever. Sadly that wasn’t the case so when the left earbud went out in the first pair a year later I got another pair and just yesterday my last pair died off. Again the left earbud went dead. Thankfully someone who had just purchased an iPad and didn’t need theirs gave me the new pair which also included the microphone and audio controls. However I don’t own an iPhone anymore and Apple doesn’t love me.

I was trying to get Skype to work on my phone and couldn’t figure out why my audio message wasn’t playing back to me. Anyone with an Android phone can tell you that when you plug in headphones an icon shows up in the notification bar that looks like headphones. When you plug in multifunction headphones, like Apples iPhone headset, an icon shows up that looks like headphones with a boom mic. At least that was the case until Apple changed up their headphone design for the iPad 3 and I assume all other devices. Now my HTC Thunderbolt only shows the headphone icon and it won’t register it as a microphone at all. When plugged in it uses the phones default mic for all applications which would make talking on Skype rather weird. Thinking something was wrong with my phone I went and got the old pair. When I plugged in the old pair, which is less than a year old, that microphone still works perfectly and the proper icon shows up. I tested it with Skype and voila there was my message playing back to me.

As I’m slowly starting to brew my anger stew I thought that maybe the new headphones were junk seeing as they are made in China for about 3 cents. I grabbed my iPad and these redesigned headphones and jammed them into place expecting them not to work but yet again when I dialed the friendly Skype lady I heard my voice crystal clear again. So I went back and forth between my phone and the iPad trying all different sorts of entry methods for my phone and still got nothing. The microphone just wont work with my Android. So if I had these in while listening to music and got a call I’d have to rip these out, answer and then hold the phone to my ear or I could try some weird combination of one earbud in and the other free to answer calls thus giving myself stereo audio and a working microphone. I would probably do that if I lived in a third world country but alas I live in America where it is ok to bitch about things like this.

So has Apple killed the ability to use their headphones on other companies devices? I’d say that they have but seeing as my testing group was limited to one phone I can’t be sure. What this demonstrates to me, if in fact they have done this, is that the coming smartphone wars are going to be increasingly petty. I mean if I can’t even use Apples free headphones on another non Apple device that is both sad and embarrassing for the most valuable company in the world. The only thing this does for me is solidify my move to Android and another maker of earbuds likely at a much cheaper price.

Does anyone want new Apple iPhone/iPad earbuds? $30 bucks and they’re yours!

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