Amerika na ivici propasti?

[Ugly MF]

Sou biznis!
Ja odavno pricam da je Ameriken prezident institucija samo za sou biznis i masovnu hipnozu.
Mislim i da nije bitno k oce biti prezident, amerika ima dve trase na jednom putu, malo se voze jednom ,malo drugom, tek tolko da misle da su demokratski izabrali vodju i da im to ukazuje da imaju frid'm!
a ustvari 

[Meho Krljic]

Ali barem rat protiv terora daje rezultate:

Man held in plot to attack Federal Reserve in NYC   

A Bangladeshi man who came to the United States to wage jihad was arrested in an elaborate FBI sting on Wednesday after attempting to blow up a fake car bomb outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan, authorities said. Before trying to carry out the alleged terrorism plot, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis went to a warehouse to help assemble a 1,000-pound bomb using inert material, according to a criminal complaint. He also asked an undercover agent to videotape him saying, "We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," the complaint said.
Agents grabbed the 21-year-old Nafis — armed with a cellphone he believed was rigged as a detonator — after he made several attempts to blow up the bomb inside a vehicle parked next to the Federal Reserve, the complaint said.
Authorities emphasized that the plot never posed an actual risk. However, they claimed the case demonstrated the value of using sting operations to neutralize young extremists eager to harm Americans.
"Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure," said Mary Galligan, acting head of the FBI's New York office. "The defendant faces appropriately severe consequences."
Nafis appeared in federal court in Brooklyn to face charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida. Wearing a brown T-shirt and black jeans, he was ordered held without bail and did not enter a plea. His defence attorney had no comment outside court.
The defendant had sought assurances from an undercover agent posing as an al-Qaida contact that the terrorist group would support the operation.
"The thing that I want to do, ask you about, is that, the thing I'm doing, it's under al-Qaida?" he was recorded saying during a meeting in bugged hotel room in Queens, according to the complaint.
In a September meeting in the same hotel room, Nafis "confirmed he was ready to kill himself during the course of the attack, but indicated he wanted to return to Bangladesh to see his family one last time to set his affairs in order," the complaint said.
But there was no allegation that Nafis actually received training or direction from the terrorist group.
Prosecutors say Nafis travelled to the U.S. on a student visa in January to carry out an attack. In July, he contacted a confidential informant, telling him he wanted to form a terror cell, the criminal complaint said.
In further conversations, authorities said Nafis proposed several spots for his attack, including the New York Stock Exchange — and that in a written letter taking responsibility for the Federal Reserve job he was about to carry out, he said he wanted to "destroy America." Other communications took place through Facebook, the complaint said.
A Twitter account with the suspect's name and photo had six followers and two messages and was linked to a Facebook page that had been taken down.
Nafis attended Southeast Missouri State University during the spring semester, which ran from January to May, university spokeswoman Ann Hayes told The Associated Press. He was pursuing a bachelor's degree in cybersecurity.
Hayes said Nafis requested a transfer of his records in July and the university complied, though she couldn't say where the records were transferred.
On Wednesday, federal officials were at the New York home where Nafis was staying, a red brick building in the Jamaica neighbourhood of Queens. Owner Rafiqul Islam said Nafis was staying with his second-floor tenants, and he was told he was related to the family. The tenants didn't answer their door and their apartment was dark.
Islam said Nafis had only lived there about a month or so.
"I didn't notice anything, he spoke to me very quietly," he said. "He said he was going to be studying here."
Neighbour Jose Santos, 19, said he would see Nafis at the same grocery store.
"He seemed like a regular nice guy to me," Santos said. "I'm just shocked right now to see that he tried to plant a 1,000-pound bomb. That's crazy."
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the case is one more reminder that New York remains a target:
"New York continues to be very much in the mind frame of terrorism. This individual came here with the express purpose of committing a terrorist attack; he was motivated by al-Qaida. We see this threat as being with us for a long time to come."
Kelly said security is always a precaution and there are about a thousand officers in the counterterrorism division. He didn't specify if any additional measures were being taken.
The bank, located at 33 Liberty St., is one of 12 branches around the country that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, make up the Federal Reserve System that serves as the central bank of the United States. It sets interest rates.
The Federal Reserve is one of the most fortified buildings in the city, smack in the middle of a massive security effort headed by the New York Police Department where a network of thousands of private and police cameras watch for suspicious activity.
The department uses sophisticated programs that can search for suspicious activity, like an object in one place for a long time, at the building modeled after London's "ring of steel." The analytic software also is designed to take video and catalogue it according to movements, shapes and colours, so officers can set parameters to search the system for, say, a suspicious van.
The Fed is also home to the world's largest accumulation of gold, according to the bank's website. Dozens of governments and central banks store a portion of their gold reserves in high-security vaults deep beneath the building. In recent years, it held 216 million troy ounces of gold, or more than a fifth of all global monetary gold reserves, making it a bigger bullion depository than Fort Knox.
The federal case was the latest where a terrorism plot against the city turned out to be a sting operation.
Four men were convicted in 2009 in a plot to bomb synagogues and shoot down military planes with missiles - a case that began after an FBI informant was assigned to infiltrate a mosque in Newburgh, about 70 miles north of New York City. The federal judge hearing the case said she was not proud of the government's role in nurturing the plot.
In 2004, a Pakistani immigrant was arrested and convicted for a scheme to blow up the subway station at Herald Square in Midtown. His lawyers argued that their client had been set up by a police informant who showed him pictures of Iraq abuse to get him involved in an attack against civilians.
___

[Meho Krljic]

Takođe, ko je kriv za američke žrtve u Libiji? Oh, pa Britanci!!!!!!!

For Benghazi diplomatic security, U.S. relied on small British firm 

    WASHINGTON/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - The State Department's decision to hire Blue Mountain Group to guard the ill-fated U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, entrusted security tasks to a little-known British company instead of the large firms it usually uses in overseas danger zones.
The contract was largely based on expediency, U.S. officials have said, since no one knew how long the temporary mission would remain in the Libyan city. The cradle of last year's uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, Benghazi has been plagued by rising violence in recent months.
Security practices at the diplomatic compound, where Blue Mountain guards patrolled with flashlights and batons instead of guns, have come under U.S. government scrutiny in the wake of the September 11 attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Federal contract data shows that the Benghazi security contract, worth up to $783,284, was listed as a "miscellaneous" award, not as part of the large master State Department contract that covers protection for overseas embassies.
"Blue Mountain was virtually unknown to the circles that studied private security contractors working for the United States, before the events in Benghazi," said Charles Tiefer, a commissioner at the Commission on Wartime Contracting, which studied U.S. contracting in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Several British government sources said that they were unfamiliar with Blue Mountain, which is based in Wales. They said British authorities used a different contractor for security protection in Libya.
Fred Burton, vice president of intelligence at the Stratfor consulting firm and a former U.S. diplomatic security agent, said he did not know Blue Mountain, but it likely got State Department work because it was already working in Libya.
"They may have been the path of least resistance," he said.
Blue Mountain was able to work in Libya because it forged a business alliance with a local security firm, as required by Libyan regulations.
Eric Nordstrom, former regional security officer for the U.S. Embassy in Libya, testified at a congressional hearing last week that contracting out for security in the eastern Libyan city "was largely based on our concern of how long we would be in Benghazi. We were concerned that if we retained or brought on board full-time employees we would have to then find a position for them if that post ever went away."
In describing the challenges of hiring private security at Benghazi, he added: "It's my understanding that there was a very high turnover with those people."
GUARDS OF BENGHAZI
Blue Mountain hired about 20 Libyan men - including some who say they had minimal training - to screen visitors and help patrol the mission at Benghazi, according to Reuters interviews.
Some of the guards sustained injuries and said they were ill-prepared to protect themselves or others when heavily armed militants last month stormed the rented villa that was serving as the mission.
They also described being hired by Blue Mountain after a casual recruiting and screening process.
State Department security officials had their own concerns about some of the guards at the mission months before the recent attack, according to emails obtained by Reuters this week. One guard who had been recently fired and another on the company's payroll were suspected of throwing a homemade bomb into the U.S. compound in April. They were questioned but not charged.
The State Department has declined to comment on the company other than confirming it was the contractor in Benghazi. Blue Mountain did not respond to numerous emails and phone calls, and a person answering the phone at its office in Carmarthen, Wales, said the company would not discuss the issue.
Previously known as Pilgrim Elite, Blue Mountain says on its website that it offers security services and professional training and has operated in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan.
The website once listed General Motors as a client, and a GM spokeswoman in Detroit told Reuters that Blue Mountain's work for the company was "on a very limited basis and mostly in the UK."
A Blue Mountain recruiter posted a notice on a security website in 2011 seeking employees with visas to work in Libya.
The State Department contract for "local guard" services in Benghazi took effect in March 2012. Several of Blue Mountain's Libyan employees told Reuters that they had no prior security training or experience.
"I was never a revolutionary or a fighter, I have never picked up a weapon during the war or after it," said Abdelaziz al-Majbiri, 28, who was shot in the legs during the September 11 assault.
The Libyan commander in charge of the local guards at the mission was a former English teacher who said he heard about Blue Mountain from a neighbor. "I don't have a background in security, I've never held a gun in my life," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety.
When hired, the commander said he was told "you have great English and get along with everyone and are punctual; we want you to be a guard commander."
The unarmed guards were told to sound the alarm over the radio and then run for cover if there was an attack, a Libyan who acted as a supervisor for the Blue Mountain local guard team at the mission said during an interview with Reuters.
He also displayed a medal embossed with "Department of State" and a horseman carrying Libyan and U.S. flags. "They thanked us for our help and also gave us this medal as an appreciation," he said.
Despite their inexperience, the Blue Mountain guards said they feared the Americans were not concerned enough about security.
"We used to tell the Americans who spoke to us on many occasions that we needed more support in security, because it felt thin on the ground. But they didn't seem to be so worried, and (were) confident that no one will dare to come close to the consulate," one guard said.
'DOWN IN THE WEEDS'
Tiefer, who is also a government contracting law professor at the University of Baltimore, said the Benghazi contract paled in comparison to other State Department security awards.
"This is down in the weeds," he said in a telephone interview.
Most State Department work goes to eight large private security firms with vast experience.
In the late summer of 2011, after Libyan rebels took control of Tripoli, Blue Mountain guards were seen working security at the Corinthia Hotel and its sister Palm City residential compound in the Libyan capital.
A United Press International report indicated that Blue Mountain and its local partner, Eclipse, also were competing for contracts guarding oil fields.
Blue Mountain and Eclipse parted ways in the spring over problems with Tripoli contracts, several sources familiar with the matter said.
The severed relationship may have prevented Blue Mountain from getting additional work in Libya, which required the local affiliation.
On a social network website earlier this year, a Blue Mountain official described the firm as "one of the few companies certified and legally allowed to work in Libya."
Blue Mountain Chief Executive Officer Nigel Thomas, a former British special forces member, did not respond to emails or phone calls.
NO EASY TASK
Setting up security in Libya after the anti-Gaddafi revolution was not easy, documents show.
In a July 9 memo approved by the late ambassador Stevens, regional security officer Nordstrom said his office hoped to shore up defenses at U.S. compounds in Libya and would consider partial arming of some local guard supervisors, without being more specific.
But Nordstrom described difficulties getting local gun permits, noting it could take up to 60 days for "selection, training, equipping, policy approvals and deployment" of armed guards.
(Hadeel Al Shalchi reported from Benghazi; Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Tripoli, Mark Hosenball and Lucy Shackelford; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Paul Simao)   

[Ugly MF]

Joj, mrzlo me da citam , posto sam siguran da nazalost nikad Ameri i Briti nece zaratiti i pustiti ostale da disu...

[Meho Krljic]

I posle treće debate, još ne znamo ko će da pobedi 

Obama calls Romney 'all over the map' in foreign policy debate 

President Barack Obama portrayed rival Gov. Mitt Romney as "all over the map" and inexperienced on key national security issues in the third and final debate of the presidential election Monday night in Boca Raton, Fla. Each candidate attempted to paint the other as an untrustworthy commander in chief, but Romney's performance was less aggressive than Obama's, and the governor was often on defense in the 90-minute exchange.
"I know you haven't been in a position to actually execute foreign policy—but every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong," Obama said, referencing Romney's initial support for the Iraq war.



The president in general was harshly critical of Romney, and landed a few well-placed zingers. "The Cold War's been over for 20 years," he said in response to Romney's comment from several months ago that Russia is America's primary geopolitical foe.
He later said, "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets," in response to Romney's criticism that America has fewer Navy ships than in the past. "We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines," the president added, a touch of mockery entering his voice.
Romney frequently pivoted to domestic issues and the economy, including the high number of Americans in poverty, his education record in Massachusetts, and his plans for reducing the deficit and creating jobs.
On foreign policy, Romney did not criticize how Obama handled the murder of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya, a topic he brought up in last week's town hall-style debate. Instead, Romney said the Middle East is in "tumult" and "chaos," and suggested Obama's strategy of killing Al Qaeda leaders in drone strikes is not enough to bring stability to the region.


"We can't kill our way out of this mess," Romney said. "We're going to have to put in place a very comprehensive and robust strategy to help the ... world of Islam and other parts of the world reject this radical violent extremism, which certainly [is] not on the run."
Romney also slammed Obama for what he called his "apology tour" in the Middle East, which he said projected weakness abroad. "The president began what I've called an apology tour of going to nations in the Middle East and criticizing America. I think they looked at that and saw weakness," Romney said. Obama called this a "whopper" and criticized Romney for fundraising on his trip to Israel. "When I went to Israel as a candidate, I didn't take donors," Obama said. "I didn't attend fundraisers. I went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself of the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable."
Despite the crossfire, the candidates seemed to agree on many key foreign-policy issues, including the use of drone strikes to kill people believed to be terrorists, harsh sanctions on Iran (though Romney said the sanctions should be even stricter), and a strategy of avoiding military involvement in Syria.
After Romney seemed to avoid specifics on how he would handle Syria's civil war differently from Obama, the president retorted: "What you've just heard Gov. Romney say is that he doesn't have different ideas."
Obama and Romney are statistically tied among voters in the most recent polls, with Romney able to catch up with the president on the strength of his performance in the first debate in Denver. On foreign policy in particular, Obama's lead over Romney, in the double digits only a few months ago, has shrunk to just four points, according to a recent Pew poll.
Americans considered President Obama the loser in the first debate in Denver by historic margins, and Romney's poll numbers soared after his strong performance there. When the candidates met for a rematch at Hofstra University on Long Island last week, a much more assertive Obama showed up, and snap polls showed he was considered a narrow winner of the night.
It remains to be seen if this debate will provide a "bounce" for either candidate in the last few weeks of the campaign. Voters overwhelmingly say the economy and jobs are the most important issues for them in this election.
 

In his final debate with Obama, Romney played it safe. Was that what voters wanted? 

There were times during this last debate when I almost thought I could hear the words of Mitt Romney's advisers playing in his head:
"Look, big guy, you're on track to win this thing. What they want to see tonight is a calm, confident leader, unthreatening, informed, unruffled. So don't get up in Obama's grill. Bring the conversation back to the economy when you can, and be the reasonable, credible Commander-in-Chief the voters want."
That was clearly the strategy Romney executed Monday night. He was at pains to agree with President Barack Obama on matters ranging from the deployment of drones to standing with Israel in the face of an attack. He drew attention to Obama's sharp criticisms by saying "attacking me is not an agenda"—a line he repeated later. He stepped back from a frontal assault on the administration's confusion over Libya, speaking more broadly about the Middle East, observing, "We can't kill our way out of this mess," and later talking about the need to promote "gender equality." (I wondered at this point whether the campaign had focused Romney's attention on the baseball and football games competing for the audience, raising the likelihood that a greater percentage of the audience might be female).
Indeed, there were moments when Romney seemed to be channeling the presence of another ex-governor whose need as a presidential candidate was to reassure.
But unlike Ronald Reagan, Mitt Romney did not need to prove that he is something other than a threat to the peace.
Rather, his challenge was to stand—or sit—face to face with the incumbent president and demonstrate that he could credibly argue matters of state, in the face of a debate foe determined to thrust and spar at every opportunity. Without question, Obama came into this last debate knowing that his presidency is hanging by a thread, in large measure due to his remarkably weak performance in the first debate. There was no opportunity he let pass. At one point, he pivoted from the killing of Bin Laden to a conversation he had with a girl whose father had died on Sept. 11, 2001. (I could not help but wonder what the people who charged George W. Bush with politicizing Sept. 11 might have to say about that).
What happened in this debate, then, was what often happens—in sports and in politics—when someone plays not to lose. Obama clearly dominated the debate, as the instant polls suggested. But now a different question arises. What if the premise of the Romney strategy was wrong?
Indeed, what if the premise of every pre-debate assessment—that this last debate was on a matter peripheral to voters' central concerns—is wrong? What if a significant sector of the electorate is still weighing the respective claims of the contenders to be in command when a threat to American security arises?
If that's the case (and we will not know for several days), it may turn out that playing it safe may have been the least safe course of all.

[Meho Krljic]

Ovo sve znamo  iz TV serija. Ortka pao za vutru par puta, plavi ga ispritiskali da će da robija desetljećima, on pristao da im umesto toga pomogne u ratu protiv terora. Genijalno je što se koautor ovog članka zove David Caruso  :

Informant: NYPD paid me to 'bait' Muslims   

NEW YORK (AP) — A paid informant for the New York Police Department's intelligence unit was under orders to "bait" Muslims into saying inflammatory things as he lived a double life, snapping pictures inside mosques and collecting the names of innocent people attending study groups on Islam, he told The Associated Press.
Shamiur Rahman, a 19-year-old American of Bangladeshi descent who has now denounced his work as an informant, said police told him to embrace a strategy called "create and capture." He said it involved creating a conversation about jihad or terrorism, then capturing the response to send to the NYPD. For his work, he earned as much as $1,000 a month and goodwill from the police after a string of minor marijuana arrests.
"We need you to pretend to be one of them," Rahman recalled the police telling him. "It's street theater."
Rahman said he now believes his work as an informant against Muslims in New York was "detrimental to the Constitution." After he disclosed to friends details about his work for the police — and after he told the police that he had been contacted by the AP — he stopped receiving text messages from his NYPD handler, "Steve," and his handler's NYPD phone number was disconnected.
Rahman's account shows how the NYPD unleashed informants on Muslim neighborhoods, often without specific targets or criminal leads. Much of what Rahman said represents a tactic the NYPD has denied using.
The AP corroborated Rahman's account through arrest records and weeks of text messages between Rahman and his police handler. The AP also reviewed the photos Rahman sent to police. Friends confirmed Rahman was at certain events when he said he was there, and former NYPD officials, while not personally familiar with Rahman, said the tactics he described were used by informants.
Informants like Rahman are a central component of the NYPD's wide-ranging programs to monitor life in Muslim neighborhoods since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Police officers have eavesdropped inside Muslim businesses, trained video cameras on mosques and collected license plates of worshippers. Informants who trawl the mosques — known informally as "mosque crawlers" — tell police what the imam says at sermons and provide police lists of attendees, even when there's no evidence they committed a crime.
The programs were built with unprecedented help from the CIA.
Police recruited Rahman in late January, after his third arrest on misdemeanor drug charges, which Rahman believed would lead to serious legal consequences. An NYPD plainclothes officer approached him in a Queens jail and asked whether he wanted to turn his life around.
The next month, Rahman said, he was on the NYPD's payroll.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Tuesday. He has denied widespread NYPD spying, saying police only follow leads.
In an Oct. 15 interview with the AP, however, Rahman said he received little training and spied on "everything and anyone." He took pictures inside the many mosques he visited and eavesdropped on imams. By his own measure, he said he was very good at his job and his handler never once told him he was collecting too much, no matter whom he was spying on.
Rahman said he thought he was doing important work protecting New York City and considered himself a hero.
One of his earliest assignments was to spy on a lecture at the Muslim Student Association at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. The speaker was Ali Abdul Karim, the head of security at the Masjid At-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn. The NYPD had been concerned about Karim for years and already had infiltrated the mosque, according to NYPD documents obtained by the AP.
Rahman also was instructed to monitor the student group itself, though he wasn't told to target anyone specifically. His NYPD handler, Steve, told him to take pictures of people at the events, determine who belonged to the student association and identify its leadership.
On Feb. 23, Rahman attended the event with Karim and listened, ready to catch what he called a "speaker's gaffe." The NYPD was interested in buzz words such as "jihad" and "revolution," he said. Any radical rhetoric, the NYPD told him, needed to be reported.
John Jay president Jeremy Travis said Tuesday that police had not told the school about the surveillance. He did not say whether he believed the tactic was appropriate.
"As an academic institution, we are committed to the free expression of ideas and to creating a safe learning environment for all of our students," he said in a written statement. "We are working closely with our Muslim students to affirm their rights and to reassure them that we support their organization and freedom to assemble."
Talha Shahbaz, then the vice president of the student group, met Rahman at the event. As Karim was finishing his talk on Malcolm X's legacy, Rahman told Shahbaz that he wanted to know more about the student group. They had briefly attended the same high school in Queens.
Rahman said he wanted to turn his life around and stop using drugs, and said he believed Islam could provide a purpose in life. In the following days, Rahman friended him on Facebook and the two exchanged phone numbers. Shahbaz, a Pakistani who came to the U.S. more three years ago, introduced Rahman to other Muslims.
"He was telling us how he loved Islam and it's changing him," said Asad Dandia, who also became friends with Rahman.
Secretly, Rahman was mining his new friends for details about their lives, taking pictures of them when they ate at restaurants and writing down license plates on the orders of the NYPD.
On the NYPD's instructions, he went to more events at John Jay, including when Siraj Wahhaj spoke in May. Wahhaj, 62, is a prominent but controversial New York imam who has attracted the attention of authorities for years. Prosecutors included his name on a 3 ½-page list of people they said "may be alleged as co-conspirators" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, though he was never charged. In 2004, the NYPD placed Wahhaj on an internal terrorism watch list and noted: "Political ideology moderately radical and anti-American."
That evening at John Jay, a friend took a photograph of Wahhaj with a grinning Rahman.
Rahman said he kept an eye on the MSA and used Shahbaz and his friends to facilitate traveling to events organized by the Islamic Circle of North America and Muslim American Society. The society's annual convention in Hartford, Conn, draws a large number of Muslims and plenty of attention from the NYPD. According to NYPD documents obtained by the AP, the NYPD sent three informants there in 2008 and was keeping tabs on the group's former president.
Rahman was told to spy on the speakers and collect information. The conference was dubbed "Defending Religious Freedom." Shahbaz paid Rahman's travel expenses.
Rahman, who was born in Queens, said he never witnessed any criminal activity or saw anybody do anything wrong.
He said he sometimes intentionally misinterpreted what people had said. For example, Rahman said he would ask people what they thought about the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, knowing the subject was inflammatory. It was easy to take statements out of context, he said. Rahman said he wanted to please his NYPD handler, whom he trusted and liked.
"I was trying to get money," Rahman said. "I was playing the game."
Rahman said police never discussed the activities of the people he was assigned to target for spying. He said police told him once, "We don't think they're doing anything wrong. We just need to be sure."
On some days, Rahman's spent hours and covered miles in his undercover role. On Sept. 16, for example, he made his way in the morning to the Al Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn, snapping photographs of an imam and the sign-up sheet for those attending a regular class on Islamic instruction. He also provided their cell phone numbers to the NYPD. That evening he spied on people at Masjid Al-Ansar, also in Brooklyn.
Text messages on his phone showed that Rahman also took pictures last month of people attending the 27th annual Muslim Day Parade in Manhattan. The parade's grand marshal was New York City Councilman Robert Jackson.
Rahman said he eventually tired of spying on his friends, noting that at times they delivered food to needy Muslim families. He said he once identified another NYPD informant spying on him. He took $200 more from the NYPD and told them he was done as an informant. He said the NYPD offered him more money, which he declined. He told friends on Facebook in early October that he had been a police spy but had quit. He also traded Facebook messages with Shahbaz, admitting he had spied on students at John Jay.
"I was an informant for the NYPD, for a little while, to investigate terrorism," he wrote on Oct. 2. He said he no longer thought it was right. Perhaps he had been hunting terrorists, he said, "but I doubt it."
Shahbaz said he forgave Rahman.
"I hated that I was using people to make money," Rahman said. "I made a mistake."
___
Staff writer David Caruso in New York contributed to this story.   

[Meho Krljic]

No, ako ih džihad ne dovede do konačne propasti, onda će joga!!!

Suit Eyed Over Yoga in Public Schools 

Parents in a southern California community are considering legal action over the constitutionality of a form of yoga being taught to their children, which they claim is introducing religion into public schools.
Last month, half of the students attending classes in the Encinitas Union School District K-6 elementary schools in San Diego North County began taking Ashtanga (Sanskrit for "eight-limbed") yoga for 30 minutes twice per week. In January, the other half will begin the lessons.
Concerned parents have now retained constitutional first amendment attorney Dean Broyles, who says that Ashtanga yoga is a religious form of yoga, and that religious aspects have been introduced into the schools.
"The poses and positions are acknowledged by Ashtanga and Hindi yoga as forms of worship and prayers to Hindu deities," he told ABC News. "They have a spiritual and religious meaning behind them."
Broyles said that although he was at first skeptical that there were truly religious belief and practices being taught to kids, the more he investigated and spoke with parents, the more he realized it was a constitutional issue.
Broyles says that he brought up the matter at a Encinitas Union School District (EUSD) trustees meeting, along with 60 concerned parents, on October 9. Now the EUSD trustees will be reviewing whether the grant money violates the religious freedom of students and parents.
The yoga, which is being taught in all nine of the schools in the district, is being funded by a $533,000 grant from the Jois Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes Ashtanga yoga across the world. All of the instructors teaching the students are certified and trained by the Jois Foundation in Ashtanga yoga.
Broyles points to hedge-fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones and his wife Sonia Jones, who is a known dedicated disciple of Sri Pattabhi Jois, the recently deceased master of Ashtanga yoga, as the money behind the EUSD yoga program. The district's program will be studied by the University of Virginia and University of San Diego to look at benefits of Ashtanga yoga, as outlined in a letter sent to parents by EUSD Superintendent Tim Baird.
"The study will look at the way that public school systems can impact student learning, health, positive relationships, and overall wellness through the implementation of a holistic approach to student wellness," Baird said in the letter.
Calls placed by ABC News to Superintendent Baird were not immediately returned.
The Tudor Joneses, Broyles says, were instrumental in the founding of the Jois Foundation and put up the money for the EUSD Ashtanga yoga grant. He says that parents are now not only questioning Hindu religion entering their schools, but the validity if this study being undertaken.
"We think that children are being used as guinea pigs," he said. "Following the money, you see what's going on ... It would be like a charismatic Christian organization funding classes in worship and praise, and also funding a research center at a public university that is studying whether this is an effective form of exercise."
Broyles says that it has been argued that the in-school yoga programs have been stripped of their spirituality. But he says that kids in EUSD are being exposed to Hindu thought and belief within the school.  "On the wall there was a poster that showed the Ashtanga, or 8-limbed deity. There are words showing what the limbs are," he said. "The ultimate goal is to be absorbed into the universe, which is called Samadhi. They had a poster depicting that. Fundamentally it is a Hindu religion being taught through Ashtanga yoga."
Children are also being taught eastern meditation techniques to calm themselves, where one clears the mind of all thoughts, poses that were imparted by Hindu deities, and in one class were trained in drawing mandalas, according to Broyles.
Parents also raised specific concerns about the program aside from the religious aspects, saying that the fact that kids are taking 60 minutes of the 100 mins per week allotted for physical education to do yoga is inappropriate. Broyles said that for 40 minutes per week the kids are not getting PE, and that they're not offering anything for kids that are opting out of the program.
Broyles says that there are some yoga enthusiasts in favor of the program; he says that people in the district don't really understand eastern mysticism, yoga's roots in Hinduism, and what's being taught.
"If we were introducing Christian worship of bowing, there would be outcry in the community," he said. "It's dangerous to kids."

[Meho Krljic]

Republikanci nastavljaju da daju prilično visokoprofilne izjave vezane za silovanje i trudnoću. Ovaj kandidat za senatora je, recimo objasnio da, iako je silovanje užasna stvar, ako je rezultiralo trudnoćom, on je mnenja kako je to bog tako hteo i, konsekventno, neb' valjalo da se abortira.

GOP Senate Candidate: 'God Intended' Pregnancies From Rape 

   
Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said pregnancies resulting from rape are part of God's plan, tearfully explaining that he only supports abortions when a mother's life is in danger.
"I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen," Mourdock said during Tuesday's Senate debate, choking up. Mourdock's opponent, Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly, opposes abortion except in cases of rape and incest.
After the debate, Mourdock further explained his comment.
"Are you trying to suggest somehow that God preordained rape, no I don't think that," said Mourdock, according to The Associated Press. "Anyone who would suggest that is just sick and twisted. No, that's not even close to what I said."
Democrats wasted no time linking GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to Mourdock. Earlier this week, Romney personally appeared in a TV ad for the Indiana state treasurer, offering his endorsement.
"Richard Mourdock's rape comments are outrageous and demeaning to women. Unfortunately, they've become part and parcel of the modern Republican Party's platform toward women's health, as Congressional Republicans like Paul Ryan have worked to outlaw all abortions and even narrow the definition of rape," Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement released to press.
"As Mourdock's most prominent booster and the star of Mourdock's current campaign ads, Mitt Romney should immediately denounce these comments and request that the ad featuring him speaking directly to camera on Mourdock's behalf be taken off the air," she added
"Mitt's man Mourdock apes Akin, reflecting a GOP that is way out of mainstream," Obama strategist David Axelrod tweeted.
Romney's campaign distanced itself from Mourdock's comment.
"Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock's comments, and they do not reflect his views," campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.
Abortion has become a more prominent issue in the presidential campaign in recent weeks, as Mitt Romney told the Des Moines Register that he would not pursue any specific abortion legislation as president and began airing a new TV ad in which a woman touts Romney's support for abortions in cases of rape and incest-a difference of opinion between Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan.
The Obama campaign hit Romney on abortion soon after, releasing a TV ad of its own that features footage from a 2007 GOP presidential primary debate in which Romney said he would be "delighted" to sign a bill banning all abortions in the U.S.
Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin said during an interview in August that women's bodies have ways of preventing pregnancy in cases of what he called "legitimate rape." Akin apologized for the comment, but refused to leave the race despite pressure from his own party.
ABC News' Elizabeth Hartfield and David Muir contributed to this report. Also Read   

[Father Jape]

http://nerdsforobama.tumblr.com/image/34278529136

[Lord Kufer]

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/26/us/new-york-nanny-deaths/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

Police: 2 kids found dead in Manhattan apartment, next to stabbed nanny

New York (CNN) -- A nanny stabbed to death two children of a media executive in a luxury Manhattan apartment, police said Thursday, before slashing her own throat.

The tragic scene played out in an apartment on West 75 Street in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

The mother, Marina Krim, returned home early Thursday evening to find two of her young children in a bathtub, stabbed, as their nanny lay bleeding nearby, police said.

The mother, 38, had just returned around 5:30 p.m with her 3-year-old daughter, who she had just taken to swimming lessons, police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

All the lights were out in the home, so she went downstairs to ask the doorman whether her two other children and their nanny had gone outside. After the doorman said they had not, the mother went back upstairs and started looking around, Kelly said.

Peering into a bathroom, she let out a scream upon finding her 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter stabbed to death in the bathtub, according to Kelly.

The children's 50-year-old nanny was on the bathroom floor unconscious and bleeding, Kelly said. A kitchen knife was next to her and police believe the nanny's wounds were self-inflicted.

The mothers screams were heard by neighbor, Sandy Marcus, who said she dialed 911. The children were taken to Roosevelt Hospital and pronounced dead.

The father of the children is Kevin Krim, an executive with CNBC, several officials familiar with the investigation said.

The father had been on a business trip, CNN affiliate WCBS reported. He returned Thursday evening and was met by police and given the news at the airport, the affiliate reported.

The nanny was arrested, police said, and taken to St. Luke's Hospital, in critical but stable condition. It was not clear why the violence occurred and officers did not know how long the nanny had worked for the Krim family, Kelly said.

The mother, was also rushed to a hospital, suffering from emotional trauma, the affilaite said.

She was so shaken with grief, Kelly said, that the mother could hardly communicate.

[Tex Murphy]

Ovaj kandidat za senatora je, recimo objasnio da, iako je silovanje užasna stvar, ako je rezultiralo trudnoćom, on je mnenja kako je to bog tako hteo i, konsekventno, neb' valjalo da se abortira.

Силовање је једна ужасна ствар, то је истина, али је мање ужасна од убиства.

[Meho Krljic]

Pa, sad, o tome se već puno raspravljalo. Mnogi misle da abortus u tako ranoj fazi ne može da bude ubistvo jer se radi tek o šačici ćelija koja, istina, ima potencijal da bude čovek ali taj potencijal imaju i oni koji veruju da se u tu šaku ćelija već uselila duša, pa ga ne ispoljavaju!

[Meho Krljic]

Nego, u Teksasu upozoravaju posmatrače koji su se prijavili da posmatraju, jelte, izbore, da ne prilaze na više od sto stopa biračkim mestima da ne bi bilo belaja    Dobro, posle su se ogradili:

International Election Observers Warned by Abbott

Updated: Oct. 24, 4:30 p.m.:
Project Vote Executive Director Michael Slater on Wednesday issued a statement addressing Attorney General Abbott's warning to international elections observers.
"America stands for democracy. It appears that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is ashamed of Texas's voting rights record or he would welcome observers with open arms. Instead, he is threatening them and attacking groups that are working to ensure that every eligible Texan is allowed to vote.
"Project Vote is one of the nation's largest nonpartisan, non-profit voting rights organizations. As such, we recently advised the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on areas of concern for voting rights this election. Along with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, League of Women Voters of the United States, and other voting rights organizations, we signed onto a letter inviting OSCE to monitor voting in states most likely to be impacted by voter restriction efforts.
"Texas has a long history of voting rights infringements, which is why it is subject to the Voting Rights Act. Recently, Texas lawmakers have passed laws that make it one of the states most hostile to voter participation. The Texas photo voter ID law and its redistricting plans were not pre-cleared by the Department of Justice.    "Project Vote is determined to use all of our available resources to support voting rights in Texas. That's why Project Vote is currently prosecuting two important lawsuits in Texas, one challenging Texas's burdensome restrictions on community voter registration drives, and a second challenging discriminatory procedures registration and list maintenance procedures in Harris County.
"In this election season, Project Vote urges the Texas Attorney General to devote scarce taxpayer resources to protecting voters from the very real threats of voter intimidation and suppression."
Original story:
International observers will descend on Texas to monitor the Nov. 6 general election, and the attorney general wants them to understand a clear message: We will be watching you.
In a letter to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, a division of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Attorney General Greg Abbott firmly stated that foreign observers have no business inside local polling places.
"While it remains unclear exactly what your monitoring is intended to achieve, or precisely what tactics you will use to achieve the proposed monitoring, OSCE has stated publicly that it will visit polling stations on Election Day as part of its monitoring plan," he wrote.
According to the letter, the organization met in April with groups that oppose voter ID legislation in Texas, including Project Vote, which tried unsuccessfully through legal challenges to halt five provisions that also affect voter registration in Texas. The voter ID bill is not in effect, however, after being stricken down by the Department of Justice and a federal court this year. Abbott has said he plans to appeal the case.
"The Texas Election Code governs anyone who participates in Texas elections — including representatives of the OSCE," Abbott wrote. "The OSCE's representatives are not authorized by Texas law to enter a polling place. It may be a criminal offense for OSCE's representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place's entrance. Failure to comply with these requirements could subject the OSCE's representatives to criminal prosecution for violating state law."    Representatives from Project Vote were not immediately available for comment.
Abbott foreshadowed the tone of his correspondence via Twitter by invoking a battle cry made famous at the 1835 Battle of Gonzales.
"UN poll watchers can't interfere w/ Texas elections," he tweeted. "I'll bring criminal charges if needed. Official letter posted soon. #comeandtakeit "
The Texas secretary of state's office took a more congenial tone in which it aimed to clarify the visitors' intention, which the office said has been muddied by inaccurate reports. It also asked Ambassador Daan Everts, a leader with the program, to clarify that the group's only mission is to observe Texas elections.
"We have had a long and productive relationship with OSCE and election process observers," secretary of state Hope Andrade wrote. The observation program "has provided valuable insights into the administrations of elections in various political systems and contexts. The exchange of information establishing best practices has been important and insightful and, up to now, completely devoid of any partisanship."
Andrade repeats Abbott's assertion that that the OSCE has no jurisdiction over Texas elections, but adds that she is certain the OSCE "does not intent to allow its organization and this observation program to be portrayed as an 'inspection' or 'monitoring.'"
In an email to county election officials, Keith Ingram, the state's director of elections, said he has spoken to the observers and they understood what they could do on their visit.
"I have specifically informed the Texas team that Chapter 61 of the Texas Election Code would not allow them into actual polling places, and they understood this limitation," he wrote. "Other than that, I told them that we are ready to answer any questions they may have. If you have any specific concerns or questions, please let me know."
Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.

[Tex Murphy]

Pa, sad, o tome se već puno raspravljalo. Mnogi misle da abortus u tako ranoj fazi ne može da bude ubistvo jer se radi tek o šačici ćelija koja, istina, ima potencijal da bude čovek ali taj potencijal imaju i oni koji veruju da se u tu šaku ćelija već uselila duša, pa ga ne ispoljavaju!

Лет'с агрее то дисагрее! 

[angel011]

Ovaj kandidat za senatora je, recimo objasnio da, iako je silovanje užasna stvar, ako je rezultiralo trudnoćom, on je mnenja kako je to bog tako hteo i, konsekventno, neb' valjalo da se abortira.

Силовање је једна ужасна ствар, то је истина, али је мање ужасна од убиства.


Da li bi tako rezonovao i da ti neko siluje majku, sestru, ćerku, da li bi insistirao da održe trudnoću i napao ih da su ubice ako se opredele za abortus?

[Mme Chauchat]

Odavno sam primetila da ova američka fundamentalistička sorta protivnika abortusa (tm) nema pojma o nekim osnovnim stvarima koje se tiču života, zdravlja i... uopšte dostignuća savremene medicine...

Npr. maltene je nemoguće tamo obaviti abortus posle kraja prvog trimestra - kada se ionako rade samo sa žestokim medicinskim razlozima; pre neku godinu su ubili nekog doktora koji ih je radio, valjda jedini u toj saveznoj državi (zaboravila sam ime ali bi se dalo naći uz nešto gugla).

[Lord Kufer]

Političari ništa ne znaju. Sve zavisi od toga kakvi su im savetnici i da li dovoljno brzo reaguju. Političari su ko lampice tinjalice...

[scallop]

Kao sijalice, bez prekidača ne svetle.

[Джон Рейнольдс]

Pa, sad, o tome se već puno raspravljalo. Mnogi misle da abortus u tako ranoj fazi ne može da bude ubistvo jer se radi tek o šačici ćelija koja, istina, ima potencijal da bude čovek ali taj potencijal imaju i oni koji veruju da se u tu šaku ćelija već uselila duša, pa ga ne ispoljavaju!

У шестој недељи трудноће, иако "шачица ћелија" још увек нема препознатљиву форму, почиње да се чује срце.

[lilit]

jbt, i mene skrljalo pitanje oko abortusa otkako imam decu. kad vidiš to srdašce kako kuca, nešto kvrcne. al i dalje sam u racionalnom modu, pitanje izbora ne sme da se postavlja.

[Meho Krljic]

Eh, srce. Čuje se srce i teletu pa ga jedete. Nije to neki argument!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[scallop]

Prvo ga eutanaziramo. Paradajz se ne čuje, pa ga živog nasečemo.

[Ghoul]

Eh, srce. Čuje se srce i teletu pa ga jedete. Nije to neki argument!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tako je, meho!

ja sam i za mladu teletinu i za (pravo na) abortus! 

[Tex Murphy]

Ovaj kandidat za senatora je, recimo objasnio da, iako je silovanje užasna stvar, ako je rezultiralo trudnoćom, on je mnenja kako je to bog tako hteo i, konsekventno, neb' valjalo da se abortira.

Силовање је једна ужасна ствар, то је истина, али је мање ужасна од убиства.


Da li bi tako rezonovao i da ti neko siluje majku, sestru, ćerku, da li bi insistirao da održe trudnoću i napao ih da su ubice ako se opredele za abortus?

А да ли би ти радије да те неко убије или силује?

[Tex Murphy]

Odavno sam primetila da ova američka fundamentalistička sorta protivnika abortusa (tm) nema pojma o nekim osnovnim stvarima koje se tiču života, zdravlja i... uopšte dostignuća savremene medicine...

Npr. maltene je nemoguće tamo obaviti abortus posle kraja prvog trimestra - kada se ionako rade samo sa žestokim medicinskim razlozima; pre neku godinu su ubili nekog doktora koji ih je radio, valjda jedini u toj saveznoj državi (zaboravila sam ime ali bi se dalo naći uz nešto gugla).

Републиканци кажу "живот почиње зачећем", а демократе "не знамо кад почиње живот, ал сто посто није онда кад кажу републиканци". Ја бих волио да од неког ко ИМА појма о основним стварима које се тичу живота чујем у ком тачно тренутку постаје људско биће.

[Lord Kufer]

Sve je život. Tu nema nikakve dileme.

[Tex Murphy]

Eh, srce. Čuje se srce i teletu pa ga jedete. Nije to neki argument!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Како није? Само што ми који једемо телетину (мада ја више волим крметину) признајемо да је жртва била теле и свјесни смо да је то теле убијено. О моралности свега тога неком другом приликом, сад ваљда само разјашњавамо терминологију 

[Lord Kufer]

Ma to je samo pitanje prihvatanja odgovornosti. Čisti denial.

[Mme Chauchat]

Odavno sam primetila da ova američka fundamentalistička sorta protivnika abortusa (tm) nema pojma o nekim osnovnim stvarima koje se tiču života, zdravlja i... uopšte dostignuća savremene medicine...

Npr. maltene je nemoguće tamo obaviti abortus posle kraja prvog trimestra - kada se ionako rade samo sa žestokim medicinskim razlozima; pre neku godinu su ubili nekog doktora koji ih je radio, valjda jedini u toj saveznoj državi (zaboravila sam ime ali bi se dalo naći uz nešto gugla).

Републиканци кажу "живот почиње зачећем", а демократе "не знамо кад почиње живот, ал сто посто није онда кад кажу републиканци". Ја бих волио да од неког ко ИМА појма о основним стварима које се тичу живота чујем у ком тачно тренутку постаје људско биће.

Ma vidi, što se mene tiče, to ti je čisto sholastičko pitanje, uopšte ne osporavam da se kod abortusa radi o prekidanju ljudskog života.
ALI.
Postoji bezbroj razloga zbog kojih se neko može odlučiti na abortus i razlaganje o tome koji su "opravdani" a koji "nisu" samo je mućenje vode. Razlozi mogu biti zdravstveni (npr. preeklampsija, ili neka teška i hronična bolest koju bi trudnoća pogoršala), mogu biti psihološki, mogu biti finansijski, kako god hoćeš... u krajnjoj liniji svi vode ka istoj odluci.

"Ukidanje abortusa" ne znači ukidanje abortusa već ukidanje legalnog abortusa. Dakle, žene pritešnjene ovim ili onim "neopravdanim" razlozima i dalje bi abortirale, ali samo bi one bogate mogle sebi da priušte iole pristojne uslove i pravog lekara. Ostale bi bile upućene na one babe iz Petrijinog venca ili gradske nadrilekare; abortusi bi se obavljali nestručno, u nehigijenskim uslovima, ili bi ih same žene radile amaterski, i odatle bi prirodno usledili mnogo češće komplikacije, veći stepen smrtnosti od tih komplikacija, češće trajne posledice u vidu bolesti i neplodnosti, da ne pominjem razgranatu korupciju, izloženost ucenama itd.

Sa te strane gledano, "ukidanjem" abortusa ne dobija se ništa a gubi se mnogo. I o tome ja pričam.

[Father Jape]

Naravno da život započinje začećem. Ali taj, nazovimo ga čisto biološki život, nema nijedno svojstvo zbog koga fetišizujemo ljudski život, odnosno tabuiziramo njegov gubitak i prekid.

Dakle, da, hladnokrvno ubistvo zdrave odrasle osobe, eutanazija bolesnika u vegetativnom stanju uz pristanak bližnjih i abortus jesu svi prekidanje ljudskog života, ali zapravo nemaju ništa zajedničko, pa nema razloga povlačiti ikakve paralele među njima. 

[Tex Murphy]

Naravno da život započinje začećem. Ali taj, nazovimo ga čisto biološki život, nema nijedno svojstvo zbog koga fetišizujemo ljudski život, odnosno tabuiziramo njegov gubitak i prekid.

Која су то својства?

[Джон Рейнольдс]

Већ смо о овоме не једном расправљали и да поновим свој став - ја не само што сам против забране абортуса, него сам и за еутаназију.

Али да се престане с мућењем воде о "слободним одлукама шта ћу са својим телом", већ ствари треба називати правим именом. Ако се слажемо да живот настаје зачећем, онда је абортус прекид живота, то јест... шта? Цело то мућење воде о "избору" доводи до тога да се абортус малтене поистовећује с контрацепцијом, што је пре свега екстремна неодговорност према себи и чист апсурд.

[mac]

Aha, abortus je legalan prekid života, kao eventualno i eutanazija, smrtna kazna, smoodbrana, i ovlašćeno ubistvo zbog nacionalnih interesa (00 - license to kill). Ako je napisano u zakonu onda je legalno, i to je to. Do sad nisam tako razmišljao.

[Lord Kufer]

Uvek se sudi za neautorizovano ubistvo, a ne kao što ljudi misle - za ubistvo.

[Meho Krljic]

Pustite sad abortus, na redu je - FRANKENSTORM!!!!!!!!!!

'Frankenstorm': Worse than sum of its parts

WASHINGTON (AP) — The storm that is threatening 60 million Americans in the eastern third of the nation in just a couple of days with high winds, drenching rains, extreme tides, flooding and probably snow is much more than just an ordinary weather system. It's a freakish and unprecedented monster.
How did it get that way?
Start with Sandy, an ordinary late summer hurricane from the tropics, moving north up the East Coast. Bring in a high pressure ridge of air centered around Greenland that blocks the hurricane's normal out-to-sea path and steers it west toward land.
Add a wintry cold front moving in from the west that helps pull Sandy inland and mix in a blast of Arctic air from the north for one big collision. Add a full moon and its usual effect, driving high tides. Factor in immense waves commonly thrashed up by a huge hurricane plus massive gale-force winds.
Do all that and you get a stitched-together weather monster expected to unleash its power over 800 square miles, with predictions in some areas of 12 inches of rain, 2 feet of snow and sustained 40- to 50 mph winds.
"The total is greater than the sum of the individual parts" said Louis Uccellini, the environmental prediction chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologists. "That is exactly what's going on here."
This storm is so dangerous and so unusual because it is coming at the tail end of hurricane season and beginning of winter storm season, "so it's kind of taking something from both — part hurricane, part nor'easter, all trouble," Jeff Masters, director of the private service Weather Underground, said Saturday.
With Sandy expected to lose tropical characteristics, NOAA is putting up high wind watches and warnings that aren't hurricane or tropical for coastal areas north of North Carolina, causing some television meteorologists to complain that it is all too confusing. Nor is it merely a coastal issue anyway. Craig Fugate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told reporters Saturday: "This is not a coastal threat alone. This is a very large area. This is going to be well inland."
Uccellini, who estimated that 60 million people will feel the storm's wrath somehow, said: "This storm as it grows and moves back to the coast on Monday and Tuesday, the circulation of this storm will extend all the way from the Midwest, the Ohio Valley, toward the Carolinas up into New England and southern Canada. It's really going to be an expansive storm system."
It's a topsy-turvy storm, too. The far northern areas of the East, around Maine, should get much warmer weather as the storm hits, practically shirt-sleeve weather for early November, Masters and Uccellini said. Around the Mason-Dixon line, look for much cooler temperatures. West Virginia and even as far south as North Carolina could see snow. Lots of it.
It is what NOAA forecaster Jim Cisco meant Thursday when he called it "Frankenstorm" in a forecast, an allusion to Mary Shelley's gothic creature of synthesized elements.
Cisco and others have called this storm unprecedented. Uccellini, who has written histories about winter storms, said the closest analogs are the 1991 Perfect Storm that struck northern New England and a November 1950 storm. But this is likely to be stronger and bigger than the Perfect Storm; it will strike farther south, and affect far more people.
In fact, the location among those with the highest odds for gale-force winds in the country's most populous place: New York City. New York has nearly a 2-in-3 chance of gale force winds by Tuesday afternoon.
One of the major components in the ferocity of the storm is that it is swinging inland — anywhere from Delaware to New York, but most likely southern New Jersey — almost a due west turn, which is unusual, Uccellini said. So the worst of the storm surge could be north, not south, of landfall. And that gets right to New York City and its vulnerable subways, which are under increasing risk of flooding, he said.
"There is a potential for a huge mess in New York if this storm surge forecast is right," Masters said.
Add to that the hundreds of miles of waves and the overall intensity of this storm, Uccellini said in an interview, and "we are in the middle of a very serious situation."
Forecasters are far more worried about inland flooding from storm surge than they are about winds.
There are several measures for hurricanes. And one NOAA research tool that measures the intensity of hurricane overall kinetic energy forecasts a 5.2 for Sandy's waves and storm surge damage potential. That's on a scale of 0 to 6, putting it up with historic storms, such as Katrina. It rates a much smaller number for wind.
Because of the mix with the winter storm, the wind won't be as intense as it is near the center of a hurricane. But it will reach for hundreds of miles, spreading the energy further, albeit weaker, meteorologists said.
Uccellini and Masters said they expect the central pressure of the storm to drop to a near record low for the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast for any time of year. That is a big indication of energy and helps power the wind. This puts it on par with the 1938 storm that hit Long Island and New England, killing 800 people, or the equivalent of a category 4 hurricane. 

[Meho Krljic]

I evo nešto o Kuferovoj omiljenoj temi: uvozu jeftine radne snage. Kako američke (uglavnom IT) firme zloupotrebljavaju H-1B vize:

H-1B visa abuse limits wages and steals US jobs

By Robert X. Cringely


The H-1B visa program was created in 1990 to allow companies to bring skilled technical workers into the USA. It's a non-immigrant visa and so has nothing at all to do with staying in the country, becoming a citizen, or starting a business. Big tech employers are constantly lobbying for increases in H-1B quotas citing their inability to find qualified US job applicants. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and other leaders from the IT industry have testified about this before Congress. Both major political parties embrace the H-1B program with varying levels of enthusiasm.
But Bill Gates is wrong. What he said to Congress may have been right for Microsoft but was wrong for America and can only lead to lower wages, lower employment, and a lower standard of living. This is a bigger deal than people understand: it's the rebirth of industrial labor relations circa 1920. Our ignorance about the H-1B visa program is being used to unfairly limit wages and steal -- yes, steal -- jobs from US citizens.
H-1B Explained
There are a number of common misunderstandings about the H-1B program, the first of which is its size. H-1B quotas are set by Congress and vary from 65,000 to 190,000 per year. While that would seem to limit the impact of the program on a nation of 300+ million, H-1B is way bigger than you think because each visa lasts for three years and can be extended for another three years after that.
At any moment, then, there are about 700,000 H-1B visa holders working in the USA.
Most of these H-1B visa holders work in Information Technology and most of those come from India. There are about 500,000 IT workers in the USA holding H-1B visas. According to the US Census Bureau, there are about 2.5 million IT workers in America. So approximately 20 percent of the domestic IT workforce isn't domestic at all, but imported on H-1B visas. Keep this in mind as we move forward.
H-1B is a non-immigrant visa. H-1B holders can work here for 3-6 years but then have to return to their native countries. It's possible for H-1B's to convert to a different kind of visa but not commonly done. The most common way, in fact, for converting an H-1B visa into a green card is through marriage to a US citizen.
H-1B isn't the only way for foreigners to work in America. They can work to some extent on student visas and, in fact, many student visas are eventually converted to H-1B for those who have a job and want to stay but maybe not immigrate.
Poorly Understood
There is a misconception about the H-1B program that it was designed to allow companies to import workers with unique talents. There has long been a visa program for exactly that purpose. The O (for outstanding) visa program is for importing geniuses and nothing else. Interestingly enough, the O visa program has no quotas. So when Bill Gates complained about not being able to import enough top technical people for Microsoft, he wasn't talking about geniuses, just normal coders.
I don't want to pick on just Microsoft here, but I happen to know the company well and have written over the years about its technical recruiting procedures. Microsoft has a rigorous recruitment and vetting process. So does Google, Apple -- you name the company. All of these companies will take as many of O visa candidates as they can get, but there just aren't that many who qualify, which is why quotas aren't required.
So when Microsoft -- or Boeing, for that matter -- says a limitation on H-1B visas keeps them from getting top talent, they don't mean it in the way that they imply. If a prospective employee is really top talent -- the kind of engineer who can truly do things others simply can't -- there isn't much keeping the company from hiring that person under the O visa program.
H-1B visas are about journeyman techies and nothing else.
Visa Shuffling
Companies can also transfer employees into the country who have worked for at least a year for the company overseas under an L-1 visa. These, too, are limited by quota and the quota is typically lower than for H-1Bs. Back in the late 1980s when the H-1B program was first being considered it was viewed as a preferable short-term alternative to L-1. It has since turned into something else far darker.
So has the B visa, which is intended for companies to bring their foreign employees into the US for business meetings and trade shows. You'd be amazed how many such business meetings and trade shows last 30 days as companies use B visas to enable foreign employees to work awhile in the United States. I'm told that IBM sometimes platoons workers on B visas, sending them to places like Mexico for a short time then bringing them back across the boarder for another stint.
Tourist visas are also commonly abused even though they specifically prohibit work.
The more interesting question here isn't which multinational corporations consistently abuse B and tourist visas but which ones don't, it is so common.
No Labor Shortage
A key argument for H-1B has always been that there's a shortage of technical talent in US IT. This has been taken as a given by both major political parties. But it's wrong. Here are six rigorous studies (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) that show there is no shortage of STEM workers in the United States nor the likelihood of such a shortage in years to come.
You may recall a recent column where the IT community in Memphis, TN proved there was no labor shortage in that technology hotbed.
The whole labor shortage argument is total hogwash. Yes, there is a labor shortage at substandard wages.
Can all of this be just about money? Yes.
What are the Rules?
The rules for H-1B visas state that they must be for technical positions for which there is no comparable US citizen available and the position must pay the prevailing wage or higher.
It's this definition of prevailing wage where we next see signs of H-1B abuse by employers. The intent of the original law was for companies not to use H-1B workers simply to save money. In the enabling legislation from 1990, however, there are two different definitions of the term "prevailing wage." The first is quite strict while the second, which is used by self-certifying employers to set actual pay scales, has plenty of wiggle room.
Warning, dense reading ahead!
Here is the initial definition of "prevailing wage" in 8 USC 1182(n)(1)A):

   
• The employer­

(i) is offering and will offer during the period of authorized employment to aliens admitted or provided status as an H–1B nonimmigrant wages that are at least­
(ii) the actual wage level paid by the employer to all other individuals with similar experience and qualifications for the specific employment in question, or
(iii) the prevailing wage level for the occupational classification in the area of employment,

And here is the redefinition of "prevailing wage" in 8 USC 1182(p)(4):

(4) Where the Secretary of Labor uses, or makes available to employers, a governmental survey to determine the prevailing wage, such survey shall provide at least 4 levels of wages commensurate with experience, education, and the level of supervision. Where an existing government survey has only 2 levels, 2 intermediate levels may be created by dividing by 3, the difference between the 2 levels offered, adding the quotient thus obtained to the first level and subtracting that quotient from the second level.

Note that section (p) requires that the Department of Labor set up four prevailing wage levels based upon skill but section (n) only requires a prevailing wage for occupation and location. There is no statutory requirement that the employer pick the skill level that matches the employee.
Let's see this in action. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the mean wage for a programmer in Charlotte, NC is $73,965. But the level 1 prevailing wage is $50,170. Most prevailing wage claims on H-1B applications use the level 1 wage driving down the cost of labor in this instance by nearly a third.
If you were casually reading the statutes, by the way, you would never see this redefinition. That's because section (p) does not refer to H-1B but rather to section (n) which is referenced by 8 USC 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b).
Got that?
Greed gone Wrong
But wait there's more!
It's not hard to suppose from this information that an influx of H-1B workers representing an average 20 percent of the local technical work force (those 500,000 H-1Bs against a 2.5 million body labor pool) would push down local wages. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that it does, too, but most of the more rigorous academic studies don't show this because there is no easily available data.
What data is available comes from the initial employer applications for H-1B slots These Labor Condition Applications, called LCAs, include employer estimates of prevailing wages. Because there are always more H-1B applications than there are H-1B visas granted, every employer seeking an H-1B may file 3-5 LCAs per slot, each of which can use a different prevailing wage. But when the visa application is approved, it is my understanding that sponsoring companies can choose which LCA they really mean and apply that prevailing wage number to the hire.
Because the visa has already been granted of course they'll tend to take the lowest prevailing wage number, because that's the number against which they match the local labor market.
Remember that part of this business of getting H-1Bs is there must not be a US citizen with comparable skills available at the local prevailing wage. If we consider that exercise using the data from Charlotte, above, a company would probably be seeking a programmer expecting $73,965 or above (after all, they are trying to attract talent, right?) but offering $50,170 or below (the multiple LCA trick). No wonder they can't get a qualified citizen to take the job.
Based solely on approved LCAs, 51 percent of recently granted H-1B visas were in the 25th percentile for pay or below. That's statistically impossible under the intent of the program.
We have no clear way of knowing what companies actually pay their H-1Bs beyond the LCAs, because that information isn't typically gathered, but remember that whatever level it is won't include benefits that can add another 30-40 percent to a US citizen's wage.
Extent of Abuse
Here is the Government of India touting its H-1Bs as cheaper than US workers, which of course they aren't by law supposed to be.
I wish this was the extent of abuse, but it isn't. A 2011 Government Accountability Office study found that approximately 21 percent of H-1B visas are simply fraudulent -- that the worker is working for a company other than the one that applied for the visa, that the visa holder's identity has changed, that the worker isn't qualified for H-1B based on skills or education, or the company isn't qualified for the H-1B program.
H-1Bs, even though they aren't citizens or permanent residents, are given Social Security numbers so they can pay taxes on their U.S. income. A study by the Social Security Administration, which is careful to point out that its job doesn't include immigration monitoring or enforcement, found a number of H-1B anomalies, the most striking of which to me was that seven percent of H-1B employers reported no payments at all to H-1B visa holders. This is no big deal to the SSA because these people qualify for no benefits, but it makes one wonder whether they are under-reporting just Social Security or also to the IRS and why they might do so? Those H-1B employers who do report Social Security income do so at a level that is dramatically lower than one might expect for job classifications that are legally required to pay the "prevailing wage."
Maybe at this point I should point out that the H-1B visa program is administered by the Department of Homeland Security. Feel better?
One defense of H-1B might be that it raises overall skill levels, but studies show H-1B employees to be consistently less capable than their US citizen counterparts. This data point is especially interesting because it is drawn from the LCA data where applying companies claimed that 56 percent of H-1B applicants were in the lowest skill category and could therefore be paid the least. So at the same time companies are claiming they need the H-1B program to bring in skilled workers, the workers they are bringing in aren't very skilled at all. Or if they are skilled, then the sponsoring companies are fudging their paperwork to justify paying lower than market wages.
Either truth is damning and the latter is downright illegal.
Here's where I'll give a shout-out to the Libertarian contingent reading this column because they'll tend to say "So what? It's every man or woman for himself. Employers should be able to do whatever they damned well please while workers can always go elsewhere."
But it's against the law.
Lawyer's Perspective
At this point a longtime reader of this column speaks up:

I have been a practicing immigration attorney for over 13 years. I have done many H-1B visas and like any other government program it was loaded and is still loaded with abuses..

. In my opinion, employers who need H-1B Visa workers should have to go through a screening process before they are allowed to submit the application and a bond should be posted if they violate the law.
For a large multinational corporation to play this game is not new. The reason that they carry on with these activities are for one reason only — control. Control of the employee and uneven bargaining at the end of the day. I have dealt with this with different multinational corporations... and they have, can and will act in the same manner. As always, it takes either an investigation by the USDOJ or massive fines (or both) to redirect bad behavior to federal compliance.
Even if I wasn't at ground zero in this stuff, it would still bother me," wrote another longtime reader who has spent his entire career in IT. "Our country spent decades learning to treat workers fairly and with respect. The driving force behind unions in the first place was to address serious problems in the workplace. With all this offshoring and H-1B crap, we've dumped 100 years of improving society down the drain. Maybe USA workers do cost too much. The problem is we are not fixing the actual problem. As more and more jobs go off shore, the damage to our economy grows. If we would fix the problemsthe playing field would be more level and USA workers could compete for jobs. These abuses by corporations are not only hurting USA workers, they are hurting our nation. Reprinted with permission

[scallop]

Meho, o Frankenstormu ćemo imati prilike da pričamo iz prve ruke. Sutra ujutro letimo i negde u toku dana ćemo morati preko fronta tog skupa oluja. Sa nadom da je pomalo preterivanje, kao što je svaka vest tamo preterivanje.

[Father Jape]

Која су то својства?

Dunno, tu bi valjalo dobro filozofski razmisliti da bi se pružila precizna definicija, ali stvari poput svesti, bivanja osobom i tako to. Dakle ono što par ćelija koje se umnožavaju nedvosmisleno nisu. 

[Meho Krljic]

Meho, o Frankenstormu ćemo imati prilike da pričamo iz prve ruke. Sutra ujutro letimo i negde u toku dana ćemo morati preko fronta tog skupa oluja. Sa nadom da je pomalo preterivanje, kao što je svaka vest tamo preterivanje.

Nadajmo se. Al vidim da pričaju o 60 miliona ugroženih itd. Držte se.

Nego, u drugim vestima: američke bebednosne snage treniraju za slučaj zombi invazije:

Marines, police prep for mock zombie invasion

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Move over vampires, goblins and haunted houses, this kind of Halloween terror aims to shake up even the toughest warriors: An untold number of so-called zombies are coming to a counterterrorism summit attended by hundreds of Marines, Navy special ops, soldiers, police, firefighters and others to prepare them for their worst nightmares.

"This is a very real exercise, this is not some type of big costume party," said Brad Barker, president of Halo Corp, a security firm hosting the Oct. 31 training demonstration during the summit at a 44-acre Paradise Point Resort island on a San Diego bay. "Everything that will be simulated at this event has already happened, it just hasn't happened all at once on the same night. But the training is very real, it just happens to be the bad guys we're having a little fun with."

Hundreds of military, law enforcement and medical personnel will observe the Hollywood-style production of a zombie attack as part of their emergency response training.

In the scenario, a VIP and his personal detail are trapped in a village, surrounded by zombies when a bomb explodes. The VIP is wounded and his team must move through the town while dodging bullets and shooting back at the invading zombies. At one point, some members of the team are bit by zombies and must be taken to a field medical facility for decontamination and treatment.

"No one knows what the zombies will do in our scenario, but quite frankly no one knows what a terrorist will do," Barker said. "If a law enforcement officer sees a zombie and says, 'Freeze, get your hands in the air!' What's the zombie going to do? He's going to moan at you. If someone on PCP or some other psychotic drug is told that, the truth is he's not going to react to you."

The keynote speaker beforehand will be a retired top spook — former CIA Director Michael Hayden.

"No doubt when a zombie apocalypse occurs, it's going to be a federal incident, so we're making it happen," Barker said. Since word got out about the exercise, they've had calls from "every whack job in the world" about whether the U.S. government is really preparing for a zombie event.

Called "Zombie Apocalypse," the exercise follows the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's campaign launched last year that urged Americans to get ready for a zombie apocalypse, as part of a catchy, public health message about the importance of emergency preparedness.

The Homeland Security Department jumped on board last month, telling citizens if they're prepared for a zombie attack, they'll be ready for real-life disasters like a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack. A few suggestions were similar to a few of the 33 rules for dealing with zombies popularized in the 2009 movie "Zombieland," which included "always carry a change of underwear" and "when in doubt, know your way out."

San Diego-based Halo Corp. founded by former military special ops and intelligence personnel has been hosting the annual counterterrorism summit since 2006.

The five-day Halo counterterrorism summit is an approved training event by the Homeland Security Grant Program and the Urban Areas Security Initiative, which provide funds to pay for the coursework on everything from the battleground tactics to combat wounds to cybersecurity. The summit has a $1,000 registration fee and runs Oct. 29-Nov 2.

Conferences attended by government officials have come under heightened scrutiny following an inspector general's report on waste and abuse at a lavish 2010 Las Vegas conference that led to the resignation of General Services Administrator Martha Johnson. The Las Vegas conference featured a clown, a mind-reader and a rap video by an employee who made fun of the spending.

Joe Newman, spokesman of the watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight, said he does not see the zombie exercise as frivolous.

"We obviously are concerned about any expenditure that might seem frivolous or a waste of money but if they tie things together, there is a lesson there," Newman said. "Obviously we're not expecting a zombie apocalypse in the near future, but the effects of what might happen in a zombie apocalypse are probably similar to the type of things that happen in natural disasters and manmade disasters. They're just having fun with it. We don't have any problems with it as a teaching point."

Defense analyst Loren Thompson agreed.

"The defining characteristics of zombies are that they're unpredictable and resilient. That may be a good way to prepare for what the Pentagon calls asymmetric warfare," Thompson said.

Organizers can also avoid the pitfalls of using a mock enemy who could be identified by nationality, race or culture — something that could potentially be seen as offensive.

"I can think of a couple of countries where the local leaders are somewhat zombie-like," he joked. "But nobody is going to take this personally."

[scallop]

Eto. I šta ja sad da mislim o oluji. U svakom slučaju biću bliže pod svih vas.

[Tex Murphy]

Која су то својства?

Dunno, tu bi valjalo dobro filozofski razmisliti da bi se pružila precizna definicija, ali stvari poput svesti, bivanja osobom i tako to. Dakle ono što par ćelija koje se umnožavaju nedvosmisleno nisu. 

Прекасно, сад смо на Франкенсторму!!! 

[Ghoul]

Која су то својства?

Dunno, tu bi valjalo dobro filozofski razmisliti da bi se pružila precizna definicija, ali stvari poput svesti, bivanja osobom i tako to. Dakle ono što par ćelija koje se umnožavaju nedvosmisleno nisu. 

[Father Jape]

Whedon On Romney

[дејан]

дилема да ће те ромни одвести у зомби апокалипсу а обама неће, чак и из ведонових уста, изгледа имбецилно (мада забавно)

[Father Jape]

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4280

[Ghoul]

teško vama, kafiri, sudnji dan kad udari...

[Father Jape]

Pismo plavih država crvenim državama:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/80714812.html

[Barbarin]

Stephen King gets kicked out of high school

[Agota]

http://aws1.earthcam.com/

[džin tonik]

uragan sandy zahvatio i sagitu. nema zive duse! ajd gul, ali on se ne broji.