organization:congress

America’s generals are just as morally bankrupt as Congress. ▻http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/14/a_stampede_of_hysterics?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&page=full

Alors même que même en cas de « séquestration » du budget fédéral US le budget militaire resterait à des hauteurs vertigineuses (égal à celui de la guerre froide), les généraux poussent des cris d’orfraie sur le danger imminent et existentiel d’une baisse dudit budget.

▻http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_images/130214_wheelergraph.JPG

The essential point is that even under the dreaded sequester, President Obama will spend more on defense than most other postwar presidents (and without the sequester he will outspend all of them, including Reagan). Moreover, it’s all in dollars adjusted for inflation.

From the maker of ’Waltz with Bashir’ comes ’The Congress’ - Israeli Culture | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/from-the-maker-of-waltz-with-bashir-comes-the-congress.premium-1.503326

http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.503336.1360758698!/image/2946038750.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_640/2946038750.jpg

Cahin-caha, Tripoli tente de normaliser sa vie politique. Ce n’est pas gagné...

Magarief gives “State of Union” address | Libya Herald
▻http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/02/09/magarief-gives-state-of-union-address

The President of the General National Congress Mohamed Magarief gave a keynote address to the nation on TV this evening, Saturday, ahead of the second anniversary of the revolution on 17 February, in a move to reassure the public about the direction Congress and the government area taking. The television appearance is seen as a response to criticism from political parties meeting in Benghazi earlier today about the competence of Congress and the government.

In his speech on Wataniya TV, he said that the anniversary of the revolution, was an occasion to unite Libyans not divide them.

He focused on the need to raise living standards and create prosperity in the country but he also warned that it would be difficult to meet the planned deadlines for writing the constitution.

He continued that the rebuilding of the police and national security was one of the most important factors in assuring economic and social stability.

Tunisian party threatens to quit government
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/02/201323153021219856.html

The Tunisian president’s secular party has threatened to withdraw from the Islamic-led government unless it drops two religiously-conservative ministers.

[…]

Coalition discussions on a cabinet reshuffle have broken down after Congress for the Republic asked for the replacement of Foreign Affairs Minister Rafik Abdessalem, who is son-in-law of Ennahda head Rached Gannouchi, and Justice Minister Nouridine Bhiri, saying their performances had been weak.

Hagel Hearing: The War Party’s Waterloo by Justin Raimondo
▻http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/01/31/hagel-hearing-the-war-partys-waterloo

We have to be thankful to Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of our more theatrical solons, for dramatizing the way in which the Israel lobby intimidates members of Congress: by asking Chuck Hagel if he could name a single Senator who was so intimidated he merely underscored how thoroughly each and every one of them is cowed. The whole spectacle of this public interrogation, with its tiresomely repetitive demands for pledges of undying loyalty to Israel, brought home the truth of Hagel’s remark.

Of course Hagel couldn’t say that, but the ugly reality resonated in the immense silence that followed this exchange. Interestingly, Hagel didn’t back down: He said “I don’t know.” As to what motivates any particular member of Congress on any specific “dumb thing” they do – well, he couldn’t know, could he? But of course, everybody knows about the Israel lobby: and if its power and vindictiveness were ever in danger of being forgotten, then surely the battle over Hagel’s confirmation has reminded us.

To anyone who lives outside the Washington bubble, there was something profoundly weird about the ritualistic invocations of undying loyalty to Israel, a country mentioned 135 times in the course of the hearing: Afghanistan only merited 27, while al Qaeda got 2 and Mali one. One would have thought Hagel had been nominated for Israeli Defense Minister instead of the top civilian in the Pentagon. As he faced the pro-Israel “inquisitors” – as Sen. Angus King put it – the educational value of this political drama was worth far more than all the books and articles one could possibly read.

Elias Khoury et les révolutions arabes
Video | Keynote Address by Elias Khoury at the “Inverted Worlds” Congress | Mish ma32ool
▻http://oib.hypotheses.org/155
A noter ce nouveau blog sur les activités de l’Orient-Institut Beirut

Khoury made the point that the Arab Revolutions are still in the forming and that the Arab World is in the midst of a change, what oblies people like him to be humble.

#Beyrouth
#recherche
#révolutions_arabes

Scientific Amusements (1890) | The Public Domain Review

Harry Houdini’s copy of Scientific Amusements left by his estate to the Library of Congress in 1927. From the Preface:
Young people of both sexes, and persons of all ages who have leisure and a taste for that which is ingenious as well as instructive and amusing, may be commended to this remarkably interesting collection of experiments, nearly all of which can be readily performed by an unskilled person who will carefully follow out the directions given. It is surprising how near we are to the most fundamental principles of science when we perform some of the simplest operations.
►http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/11/26/scientific-amusements-1890

En regardant ça, je me dis que ce serait pas mal pour seenthis de permettre l’embed des bouquins numérisés sur internet archive (#seenthis_todo ?)
►http://archive.org/stream/cu31924031296126#page/n11/mode/2up

The social crisis in the U

►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/pers-n24.shtml
24 November 2012

Thanksgiving Day 2012.

As President Barack Obama and Congress prepare to slash trillions of dollars from social programs that keep vast numbers of people out of destitution, the prevalence of hunger and poverty in the United States has reached rates unseen in decades.

The figures are staggering.

The number of Americans receiving food stamps reached a new record in August this year, at 47.1 million people, according to the latest figures from the Department of Agriculture. This is up by one million from last year, and up by more than half since October 2008, when the figure was 30 million. In Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, and the state of Mississippi, more than one-fifth of residents now receive food stamps.

Florida Election Officials Miss Tally Deadline in House Race
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 18, 2012

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — Election officials missed a deadline on Sunday to report results of a two-day recount in Representative Allen B. West’s bid to remain in Congress, apparently sealing unofficial results giving the victory to his Democratic opponent, Patrick Murphy.

St. Lucie County did not meet a noon cutoff to finish processing 37,379 ballots that were cast early in the 18th Congressional District race, but it eventually released the results, which showed Mr. Murphy gaining votes in the recount. Regardless, under Florida law, previously submitted results favoring Mr. Murphy will be certified unless an emergency exemption is granted by the state.

“It puts an end to it as far as we’re concerned,” said Eric Johnson, an adviser to the Murphy campaign. “It puts an end to it as far as the state’s concerned.”

Mr. West’s campaign showed no immediate sign of conceding.

“At this time, in our view, the race is still undecided,” said the West campaign manager, Tim Edson.

Mr. West, a Republican, can still seek to formally contest the election, a difficult legal remedy. His aides gave no indication whether they would pursue such action. Dejected supporters of the congressman claimed that there was fraud, loudly chanting “Count our votes!” before election officials. Mr. Murphy’s supporters held signs reading “Respect the Results: Concede Now” and “Patrick Won!”

A recount of three days of early-voting ballots was conducted in St. Lucie County last week, narrowing Mr. Murphy’s margin a bit. The county’s canvassing board ultimately agreed to retabulate all eight days of ballots after discovering several errors and Mr. West’s supporters made a relentless push for a fuller recount. The campaign hoped Mr. Murphy’s margin of victory would decrease enough to force a machine recount of all ballots across the entire three-county district.

The race was the country’s most closely watched House races. The two sides raised nearly $21 million as of Oct. 17, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, and “super PACs” spent about $6.6 million more.

Mr. West, 51, is a first-term Tea Party favorite and one of two black Republicans in the House. He has made a string of headline-grabbing statements, from calling a majority of Congressional Democrats communists to saying President Obama, Representative Nancy Pelosi and others should “get the hell out of the United States.”

Mr. Murphy, 29, who has been proclaiming victory since the wee hours of election night, is a political newcomer who portrayed Mr. West as an extremist who has done little in Washington than stoke partisan fires.
A version of this article appeared in print on November 19, 2012, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Florida Election Officials Miss Tally Deadline in House Race.

Le testament politique du #libertarien Ron Paul

Ron Paul’s Last Speech to Congress : 30+ Strangely Ordered Questions - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic
►http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/ron-pauls-last-speech-to-congress-30-strangely-ordered-questions/265263

– Why are sick people who use medical marijuana put in prison?
– Why does the federal government restrict the drinking of raw milk?
– Why can’t Americans manufacturer rope and other products from hemp?
– Why are Americans not allowed to use gold and silver as legal tender as mandated by the Constitution?
– Why is Germany concerned enough to consider repatriating their gold held by the FED for her in New York? Is it that the trust in the U.S. and dollar supremacy beginning to wane?
– Why do our political leaders believe it’s unnecessary to thoroughly audit our own gold?
– Why can’t Americans decide which type of light bulbs they can buy?
– Why is the TSA permitted to abuse the rights of any American traveling by air?
– Why should there be mandatory sentences—even up to life for crimes without victims—as our drug laws require?
– Why have we allowed the federal government to regulate commodes in our homes?
– Why is it political suicide for anyone to criticize AIPAC ?
– Why haven’t we given up on the drug war since it’s an obvious failure and violates the people’s rights? Has nobody noticed that the authorities can’t even keep drugs out of the prisons? How can making our entire society a prison solve the problem?
– Why do we sacrifice so much getting needlessly involved in border disputes and civil strife around the world and ignore the root cause of the most deadly border in the world-the one between Mexico and the US?
– Why does Congress willingly give up its prerogatives to the Executive Branch?
– Why does changing the party in power never change policy? Could it be that the views of both parties are essentially the same?
– Why did the big banks, the large corporations, and foreign banks and foreign central banks get bailed out in 2008 and the middle class lost their jobs and their homes?
– Why do so many in the government and the federal officials believe that creating money out of thin air creates wealth?
– Why do so many accept the deeply flawed principle that government bureaucrats and politicians can protect us from ourselves without totally destroying the principle of liberty?
– Why can’t people understand that war always destroys wealth and liberty?
– Why is there so little concern for the Executive Order that gives the President authority to establish a “kill list,” including American citizens, of those targeted for assassination?
– Why is patriotism thought to be blind loyalty to the government and the politicians who run it, rather than loyalty to the principles of liberty and support for the people? Real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it’s wrong.
– Why is it is claimed that if people won’t or can’t take care of their own needs, that people in government can do it for them?
– Why did we ever give the government a safe haven for initiating violence against the people?
– Why do some members defend free markets, but not civil liberties?
– Why do some members defend civil liberties but not free markets? Aren’t they the same?
– Why don’t more defend both economic liberty and personal liberty?
– Why are there not more individuals who seek to intellectually influence others to bring about positive changes than those who seek power to force others to obey their commands?
– Why does the use of religion to support a social gospel and preemptive wars, both of which requires authoritarians to use violence, or the threat of violence, go unchallenged? Aggression and forced redistribution of wealth has nothing to do with the teachings of the world’s great religions.
– Why do we allow the government and the Federal Reserve to disseminate false information dealing with both economic and foreign policy?
– Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority?
– Why should anyone be surprised that Congress has no credibility, since there’s such a disconnect between what politicians say and what they do?

texte complet :
►http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2012_cr/ronpaul.html
(à noter, il y a une coquille dans le texte complet qui écrit APAC là il faut lire AIPAC)

#etats-unis #idéologie

A MESSAGE FROM HRH THE QUEEN

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ’revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

–----------------------

1. The letter ’U’ will be reinstated in words such as ’colour,’ ’favour,’ ’labour’ and ’neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ’doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ’-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ’-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ’vocabulary’).

–-----------------------

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ’’like’ and ’you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ’u’’ and the elimination of ’-ize.’

–------------------

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

–----------------

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

–---------------------

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

–---------------------

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

–-------------------

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

–------------------

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

–------------------

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

–--------------------

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

–--------------------

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

–--------------------

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

–-------------------

13.. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

–----------------

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

–--------------

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

Posters: 180 Years of American Campaign Propaganda | Mother Jones
►http://www.motherjones.com/slideshows/2012/03/presidential-campaign-posters/bobby-kennedyjpg-1
petit échantillon d’#affiches électorales américaines

Posters: 180 Years of American Campaign Propaganda
A great new collection from the Library of Congress showcases how much—and how little—has changed.

http://www.motherjones.com/files/imagecache/node-gallery-display/photoessays/romney.jpg http://www.motherjones.com/files/imagecache/node-gallery-display/photoessays/bobby-kennedy.jpg

“We’re the one’s who are suffering—the poor, the working class”
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/inte-o23.shtml

“We’re the one’s who are suffering—the poor, the working class”

By our reporters
23 October 2012

The World Socialist Web Site spoke to some of the workers attending the Trades Union Congress demonstration in London.
Lorraine, Sheila and June

Asked why she was attending, June, a social worker said, “We are here today because we don’t believe in the economic measures that [Prime Minister David] Cameron is taking. There’s millions of youngsters unemployed, they want to attack our pensions and teachers’ pensions, and the austerity measures aren’t working. I’m a senior social worker. I’m losing £200 a month due to the changes that Cameron has forced on the county council. And I’m a single mum as well.”

Church Appeal on Israel Angers Jewish Groups
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/us/church-appeal-on-israel-angers-jewish-groups.html

A letter signed by 15 leaders of Christian churches that calls for Congress to reconsider giving aid to Israel because of accusations of human rights violations has outraged Jewish leaders and threatened to derail longstanding efforts to build interfaith relations.

[…]

The Jewish leaders responded to the action as a momentous betrayal and announced their withdrawal from a regularly scheduled Jewish-Christian dialogue meeting planned for Monday. In a statement, the Jewish leaders called the letter by the Christian groups “a step too far” and an indication of “the vicious anti-Zionism that has gone virtually unchecked in several of these denominations.”

Les millionnaires américains perçoivent aussi des allocations chômage | Slate
►http://www.slate.fr/lien/62679/millionnaires-americains-allocations-chomage

Ce n’est visiblement pas la crise pour tout le monde… Le site américain Bloomberg News expliquait en effet mardi 2 octobre que 2.362 Américains ayant perçu des allocations chômage en 2009 vivaient dans un foyer dont les revenus annuels sont d’au minimum un million de dollars.

Cette statistique étonnante est tirée d’une étude du Congressional Research Congress parue en août, et qui explique que l’Etat américain a versé près de 21 millions de dollars pour payer ces allocations, destinées la plupart du temps à des épouses au foyer et dépendantes financièrement de leurs époux.

Posters: WPA Posters
►http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wpapos

The Work Projects Administration (WPA) Poster Collection consists of 907 posters produced from 1936 to 1943 by various branches of the WPA. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress’s collection of more than 900 is the largest. The posters were designed to publicize exhibits, community activities, theatrical productions, and health and educational programs in seventeen states and the District of Columbia, with the strongest representation from California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The results of one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts, the posters were added to the Library’s holdings in the 1940s.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3b40000/3b48000/3b48700/3b48766r.jpg http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3b40000/3b49000/3b49000/3b49069r.jpg

Celebrating—and Limiting—Religious “Freedom” « Sexual Intelligence
►http://sexualintelligence.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/celebrating-and-limiting-religious-freedom

Celebrating—and Limiting—Religious “Freedom”

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. –Bill of Rights, Article I

That’s what the Bill of Rights says:
The government can’t establish an official religion;
The government can’t prevent people from practicing their religion.

I totally support both of these. Don’t you?

Here’s what the Bill of Rights does NOT say:
People can force others to follow their religious beliefs;
The government should make it easy for people to follow their religious beliefs;
The government should give people’s religious sensitivities more weight than people’s non-religious sensitivities;
The government should give religious institutions a voice in government decisions, or any privileges whatsoever such as tax breaks.

Read it again: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Today, millions of Americans expect that their religious beliefs entitle them to special privileges: e.g., exemptions from doing their jobs when tasks conflict with their “sincerely held beliefs;” zoning that prevents businesses they don’t like from opening near their churches.

One of the most important of these expected privileges is the privilege to require non-believers to behave like believers: e.g., prohibiting liquor sales on Sunday; prohibiting nude sun-bathing on beaches. Religious people also tend to feel that they should be protected from the behavior of non-believers—for example, from seeing condoms advertised on TV.

But it’s much worse than that.

Mainstream religions are obsessed with sexuality. But they’re not all that interested in sexual integrity, or sexual self-expression, or sexual communication, or sexual education. They’re interested primarily in limiting sexual expression. Mainstream religions distrust sexual autonomy—people making sexual decisions for themselves, relying on their own values and ethics.

Thus, since the religious program about sex is primarily “don’t do this, don’t do that,” when organized religion gets or seeks political power, it inevitably wants to institutionalize “don’t do this, don’t do that” in the legal system.

It doesn’t matter what the “this” or “that” is. The problem is the “You may not do it” part.

Organized American Christianity wants to limit the sexual expression not just of believers, but of non-believers. And so they demand—and often pass—laws that:
prevent strip clubs
prevent swingers clubs
prevent birth control
prevent abortion
prevent same-gender marriage
prevent actual sex education
* prevent sex research
…and more.

Sanctionnez, il en restera toujours quelque chose.
►http://consortiumnews.com/2012/09/10/how-sanctions-become-baggage

How’s this for old baggage: one of the topics Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is discussing with the Russians while in Vladivostok for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting is whether the United States will lift the 1974-vintage trade sanction known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment.

One of the coauthors of that legislation, Rep. Charles Vanik, left Congress in in 1981. The other coauthor, Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, died in office in 1983. The Soviet Union, which was the obvious target of the legislation even though the law was worded in general terms, died over 20 years ago, although the sanctions have continued to apply to Russia as the successor state.

The original impetus for the legislation was opposition to restrictions the Soviets were placing on Jewish emigration in the 1970s. That situation changed long ago. Mikhail Gorbachev opened the doors for what would become large-scale emigration of Russian Jews in the 1990s. If the amendment has accomplished some other purpose related to human rights, it is hard to see what that is. The mark of a sanction that has succeeded is that it gets lifted.

DNC chair: ‘I bring my love of Israel to work every day’ and our platform is more pro-Israel than GOP’s
►http://mondoweiss.net/2012/09/dnc-chair-i-bring-my-love-of-israel-to-work-every-day-and-our-platform-i

►http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SfiArE4xmjs

Here’s what happened. On Tuesday, we adopted a 100 percent strongly pro-Israel platform that I was so proud to support. I’m told that I’m the first Jewish woman to represent Florida in Congress. I bring my love of Israel to work with me every single day. I was proud of our platform already. In fact it has stronger language than even the republican platform on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.

U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html

Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran’s regional ambitions, according to a new study for Congress.

#armes

New Nuclear Commission Chief Faces Safety Questions - NYTimes.com
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/us/new-nuclear-commission-chief-faces-waste-storage-questions.html?_r=1

as a member of a blue-ribbon commission appointed to explore alternatives to Yucca Mountain, [Dr. Macfarlane] argued for changes in the process used to choose a site. (Congress chose Yucca Mountain over the objections of Nevada, which later gained enough political and legal muscle to fight it off.)

While Dr. Macfarlane was upbeat about the long-term prospects for nuclear waste, she took a somewhat harsher tone on the industry’s evaluation of earthquake risk. The old approach, which involved building a plan to withstand the strongest earthquake a site has ever had, will not do, she said.

Sometimes engineers do not understand geology and approach it as a static body of knowledge, she said.

“As a geologist, I also know that geological knowledge is constantly changing,” she said. For example, she said, geologists did not think there could be a mega-earthquake off the east coast of Japan until the Indian Ocean earthquake off Indonesia in December 2004, which also produced a devastating tsunami.

(...)

On another front, Dr. Macfarlane said she had instructed her staff to “use more transparent language.”

“People who live near a nuclear facility should be able to read the documents that the N.R.C. produces,” she said. “That will certainly give them more confidence of our ability to regulate safety.”

#déchets #nucléaires

Depuis que les jihadistes sont dans notre camp en Libye et en Syrie : State Department Purges Religious Freedom Section from Its Human Rights Reports
►http://cnsnews.com/news/article/state-department-purges-religious-freedom-section-its-human-rights-reports

The U.S. State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released on May 24, three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports.

The new human rights reports—purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered—are also the human rights reports that include the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath.

Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role.

For the first time ever, the State Department simply eliminated the section of religious freedom in its reports covering 2011 and instead referred the public to the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report – a full two years behind the times – or to the annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which was released last September and covers events in 2010 but not 2011.

In Vast Effort, F.D.A. Spied on E-Mails of Its Own Scientists
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/us/fda-surveillance-of-scientists-spread-to-outside-critics.html

A wide-ranging surveillance operation by the Food and Drug Administration against a group of its own scientists used an enemies list of sorts as it secretly captured thousands of e-mails that the disgruntled scientists sent privately to members of Congress, lawyers, labor officials, journalists and even President Obama, previously undisclosed records show.

#privacy #whistleblowers

A Database of Folly — Crooked Timber
►http://crookedtimber.org/2012/07/03/a-database-of-folly

The fact is, Congress isn’t interested in availing itself of your wisdom any more than the sausagemaker needs your help tidying the floor. Lawmaking is The Wire, not Schoolhouse Rock. It’s about blood and war and power, not evidence and argument and policy.

#open_data #activism

Il n’y a rien d’intéressant dans les #cablegate : seulement la description des préparatifs de « coup démocratique » pour destituer Lugo, dès mars 2009 : PARAGUAYAN POLS PLOT PARLIAMENTARY PUTSCH
►http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/03/09ASUNCION189.html#

¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Rumors persist that discredited General and UNACE party leader Lino Oviedo and ex-president Nicanor Duarte Frutos are now working together to assume power via (mostly) legal means should President Lugo stumble in coming months. Their goal: Capitalize on any Lugo mis-steps to break the political deadlock in Congress, impeach Lugo and assure their own political supremacy. While many predicted political shenanigans in March during the traditional social protest season that accompanies the opening of Congress, little has come of it (largely because Lugo has been careful not to provide the political or legal rope with which to hang him, thus depriving Oviedo and Duarte the numbers in Congress for their supposed “democratic coup”). But that could change quickly here. Mid-March outrage over multi-million dollar subsidies for sesame growers via a discredited NGO was considered as a possible ground for impeachment before Lugo walked away from the program (though the controversy continues). For a president already facing many challenges — internal political struggles, corruption, and the perception that his own leadership style is ineffective — Lugo must now also worry about making a mis-step that could be his last. END SUMMARY.