Via David Edwards @ The Raw Story

Republican presidential Rick Santorum is advising President Barack Obama not to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans because “higher-income people don’t have to pay taxes if they don’t want to.”

“Once we defeat Barack Obama this economy will start turning around,” the former Pennsylvania senator told a crowd in Miamisburg, Ohio. “Because you’ll know you have someone in there who’s going to unshackle businesses, reduce rates, not increase them. The president’s promised increased taxes if he’s re-elected.”

“All he wants to do to solve the deficit problem is increase taxes on people, particularly higher-income people,” Santorum continued. “You see, that sounds very populist. Go after the 1 percent. It’s interesting because the British just did this. They went after the 1 percent in Britain. They dramatically increased taxes on the highest-income Brits. And guess what? It failed.”

“What happened? Well, higher-income people don’t have to pay taxes if they don’t want to because they can move their money somewhere else, they can move their investments. They can stop investing. They can stop working. They don’t need to work. They’re higher-income people.”

DeAnne Julius, the former chairwoman of Chatham House in London, has explained that Britain’s 50 percent marginal tax rate on high-income earners should not be compared to 35 percent rate imposed on wealthiest Americans, who can take advantage of loopholes in the U.S. tax system.

“[R]elative to other countries, the U.K.’s 50 percent tax rate for high earners is uncompetitive, while the U.S. top rate of 35 percent is still highly competitive,” Julius wrote in an October 2011 op-ed for The New York Times.

“These factors led 20 British economists to warn that the 50 percent top tax rate is doing lasting damage to the British economy and is unlikely to raise much if any additional revenue,” she added. “However, these factors do not apply to the United States, where the current tax regime allows many high earners to escape paying even their proportional share of taxes and where both average and marginal tax rates are low by international standards.”

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast March. 5, 2012.

A man sees the hourglass turning on his life. To his young sons, he bequeaths something much more valuable than camels. He shows them what happens when they stand together.Directed by Ahmed Farah.

Televangelist Pat Robertson on Monday tried to deflect the blame for tornadoes away from God, saying people shouldn’t build houses in the Midwest and could prevent the deadly storms by praying.

“God doesn’t send tornadoes to hurt people,” he said. “We call them acts of God, but they’re not. All I can say is, why do you build houses in a place where tornadoes are apt to happen?”

Recently, early spring tornadoes in the Midwest and South have killed 39 people.

“If enough people were praying He would’ve intervened, you could pray,” Robertson continued. “Jesus stilled the storm, you can still storms.”

“But the hurricane for example is a release mechanism that God set in to take the heat out of this world and to transfer heat around various parts of the globe,” he added. “It’s very necessary. The fact that people want to build houses on the edge of an ocean is their fault, it’s not God’s… So don’t blame God for doing something foolish.”

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Citizens of the World.
We are Anonymous.

Just a few weeks ago, we declared our crusade against the government of Israel and all supporting counterparts for their involvement in war propoganda, crimes against humanity, and the systematic genocide and expulsion of minorities. Their crimes have resulted in the displacement of Palestinians who did not commit any crime but defend their homelands. Let’s also not forget the U S S Liberty incident where Israel killed 34 American servicemen.

Now, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee wants to lobby for more wars, more destruction, more deaths than they already have committed and unfortunately, our president has decided to defend them for it.

Our government’s foreign policy has no sovereignty to America. It’s sovereignty is to the state of Israel.

AIPAC is now our enemy.

We’re calling for an occupation of AIPAC and the destruction of their websites. Make them pay for their crimes.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We must certainly not forget.
Expect us or perish.

The United States Government has filed its application to have Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and three associates extradited to face charges of breaching copyright.

Crown Law is handling the case on behalf of the US Government.

A spokeswoman from Crown Law confirmed today that the papers had been filed in the North Shore District Court.

Crown Law had 45 days to file the papers following raids on the internet millionaire’s rented $30 million Coatesville mansion and other sites across Auckland in January.

The 38-year-old and his associates, Mathias Ortmann, Bran van der Kolk and Finn Batato, are accused of breaching international copyright laws to the value of US$500 million.

The US alleges that the group used the file-sharing site Megaupload in what US prosecutors allege was a “mega conspiracy”.

They face charges of conspiring to commit racketeering, conspiring to commit money-laundering, copyright infringement and aiding and abetting copyright infringement.

A date for the extradition hearing has been set down in August.

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The Obama administration on Monday plans to outline how U.S. laws empower the government to kill Americans overseas who engage in terrorism against their home country, a source familiar with the matter said, months after a drone strike killed a U.S.-born cleric who plotted attacks from Yemen.

Civil liberties groups have been pressuring the administration to offer justification for what has been described as a top-secret “targeted kill” program in which Americans who have joined al Qaeda or other militants are deemed legitimate targets to be killed overseas.

Attorney General Eric Holder plans to address the issue and the underpinning legal principles for using lethal force during remarks at Northwestern University School of Law on Monday afternoon in Chicago, the source said Sunday on condition of anonymity.

The Obama administration has stepped up using unmanned aerial drones against terrorism suspects including the September killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who went into hiding in Yemen who had been directing al Qaeda militants to launch several attacks against the United States.

U.S. officials have refused to talk much publicly about the program but some officials said last year that Americans like Awlaki could be placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior U.S. government officials which then informs the president of its decisions.

Holder will likely couple the justification with another argument that the administration has repeatedly made about terrorism: both traditional criminal courts and military tribunals work to prosecute terrorism suspects, the source said.

The speech will be the latest attempt by the administration to address the issue, an unusual break from past precedent of eschewing virtually any discussion about the top-secret program.

Defense Department lawyer Jeh Johnson last month referred to the so-called “targeted kill” program, saying that it pursued legitimate military targets overseas and rejected suggestions that the United States was engaged in assassination.

“Under well-settled legal principles, lethal force against a valid military objective, in an armed conflict, is consistent with the law of war and does not, by definition, constitute an ‘assassination,’” Johnson said at Yale Law School.

The American Civil Liberties Union on February 1 sued the Obama administration in federal court, demanding that Holder’s Justice Department release what it believes are legal memoranda justifying targeting Americans overseas using lethal force.

U.S. officials have linked Awlaki to several plots against the United States, including the 2009 Christmas Day attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a U.S. commercial airliner as it arrived in Detroit from Amsterdam with a bomb hidden in his underwear.

When the bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in a U.S. prison, authorities said that Awlaki himself approved and directed the plot from Yemen.

Civil liberties groups have complained that such militants should be captured and prosecuted in a U.S. courtroom where practical. They also fiercely oppose using military courts for terrorism cases.

The Obama administration has run into difficulties trying prosecute terrorism suspects in the U.S. court system, facing criticism over giving terrorism suspects full legal rights and whether they addressed security for the trials sufficiently.

Republicans in Congress and even some of Obama’s fellow Democrats have demanded that they be tried in military tribunals and blocked moving terrorism suspects from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the federal prison system.

Administration officials have insisted that terrorism suspects can be successfully prosecuted and incarcerated in both legal systems and said that the Abdulmutallab case was an example of the traditional courts working effectively.

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A New York woman who lives in a 34-room, 30,000-square-foot mansion is facing a federal criminal charge related to her employment of an illegal alien who allegedly served as a domestic servant in a “forced labor situation” that included her working 17-hour days, seven days a week, and sleeping in a walk-in closet.

Acting on a tip received by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, federal immigration agents last year removed the servant from the 12-acre estate (pictured below) on the Mohawk River in Rexford, a hamlet 20 miles north of Albany.

A subsequent criminal investigation determined that the woman–who barely spoke English and came from the Kerala state in India–was paid about 85 cents an hour during the 67 months she worked for Annie George and her husband (who died in a plane crash in mid-2009).

The servant, identified only as “V.M.” in a court filing, cooked for the George family, cleaned the sprawling mansion, and cared for the couple’s five children.

The George estate has a helicopter pad, an indoor swimming pool, 15 fireplaces, Scandinavian marble flooring, a four-story solarium, 24-karat gold gilded ceilings, a glass elevator, and an array of other features. Before his death, George’s husband listed the residence for sale at $30 million.

According to a criminal complaint filed Monday against Annie George, 39, the servant entered the U.S. on a non immigrant visa in 1998 to work for the family of a United Nations employee. She began working for the Georges in late-2005 after being offered about $1000 per month, a substantial pay increase.

In reality, “V.M” received sporadic minimal payments from the Georges. A U.S. District Court complaint estimates that the servant received about $29,000 over the five-and-a-half years she worked for the family. A U.S. Department of Labor investigation determined that the woman was “lawfully entitled” to a minimum of “approximately $206,000 for the entire approximate six years of V.M.’s work.”

The servant told federal agents that she received no personal or sick time while employed by the Georges, nor was she afforded any dental or medical treatment. She had to sleep in a closet in a bedroom shared by the family’s three daughters, the complaint alleges, because “Annie George required that V.M. be near the children at night.”

Investigators charge that after “V.M.” was removed last year from the mansion (which can be seen in this aerial photo), George spoke three times with the woman’s son in India. During one telephone call, George suggested that the “son tell his mother to tell authorities that she was a relative of George’s family and was only staying at George’s house as a guest.”

During the conversation, which the son recorded, George warned, “if she says anything about working, it would become a big crime. They’ll start adding up all the taxes and everything, for all the time.”

Charged with encouraging and inducing an illegal alien to reside in the U.S., George appeared yesterday afternoon before a federal magistrate, who released her without bond.

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It’s no secret that Stratfor hates Julian Assange. On February 27, WikiLeaks began the release of over 5 million emails from the global intelligence company. Within the first 400 or so emails, roughly 70 of them mention WikiLeaks or Assange. The most consistent thing in these emails is a strong hatred for the WikiLeaks founder.

The attacks against Assange come in a wide range, from simple name-calling—“douche,” “fucking idiot,” “delusional nut”—to multiple claims that he is a terrorist. He is called “anti-American” more than once, with one Stratfor analyst claiming that he “hates America more than [Osama bin Laden].” While claims of Assange’s anti-Americanism are widespread, they are unfounded, as WikiLeaks does not target specific countries but publishes the material it receives. Assange has also spoken favorably of America’s Founding Fathers and First Amendment. (For a good analysis on this issue see “Debunked: WikiLeaks is Anti-American.”)

Beyond the insults come threats and wishes for harm against Assange. After his arrest in December 2010, Australian ex-Senator Bill O’Chee writes “Hooray!” then comments, “Sadly he didn’t have a car accident on the way there.” The threats continue: “he needs to be water boarded,” “He’ll be eating cat food forever,” “He needs his head dunked in a full toilet bowl at Gitmo,” “tactical nuke solves everything,” and so on.

It is one thing to insult and threaten, but another to discuss plausible methods of capturing someone. Stratfor Vice President Fred Burton offers multiple ways in which he thinks Assange may end up in U.S. prison. He discusses bankrupting Assange, taking down his infrastructure, moving him from “country to country to face various charges” for 25 years, and charging him with “7-12 [years] for conspiracy.” He mentions using the same tools used to dismantle Al-Qaeda to “nail and de-construct” WikiLeaks. When Assange was planning to speak at the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) conference in Las Vegas (an appearance he cancelled due to security concerns), Burton suggested revoking his travel status and having him taken into custody as a material witness.

Burton then begins to discuss the idea of using a sealed indictment to imprison Assange, commenting that he would “be easy to indict.” He says the Department of Justice won’t seek prosecution itself, but that Congress would press for criminal prosecution. Stratfor analyst Sean Noonan then references Attorney General Eric Holder’s comments on the matter, which attest to Burton’s viewpoint: “[P]eople would have a misimpression if the only statute you think that we are looking at is the Espionage Act […] [T]here are other statutes, other tools that we have at our disposal.” Burton then confirms, “We have a sealed indictment on Assange.” Assange has since commented that they had three sources of information about the indictment before the Stratfor email.

Despite their intense hatred for Julian Assange and beliefs that he should be imprisoned, Stratfor holds no issues with using the information WikiLeaks has released. On numerous occasions they have sent the contents of various cables to each other via email. With the release of the Afghan War Logs, Burton asked that DSS surveillance reports be “culled out.” Stratfor CEO George Freidman, while having previously said WikiLeaks was, “dumpster diving and only getting the top layer of the garbage and thinking it was gold,” said that Stratfor needed to be prepared to go through Cablegate once it was released, noting “this stuff seems important.” He subsequently tasked the analyst staff to do so.

Not only that, but Stratfor mirrored Cablegate as it was released for its own private research, commenting that the mirror “definitely should not be ma[de] available to the public, or to our subscribers.” While debating possible legal issues of storing classified information, they quelled their concerns by simply “throw[ing] a password on it.”

While this hypocrisy has been seen in many other organizations such as the New York Times, Stratfor has truly set a new standard. Despite their hatred for Assange and their wish for legal action to be taken against him, they still found much use in WikiLeaks’ material, and even received increased web traffic by featuring articles on the organization. But, no matter how many times WikiLeaks is attacked, the fact stands that its releases have fueled thousands upon thousands of articles across the globe and continue to do so to this day.

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In a match that some would say was made in hell, the nation’s two leading producers of agro-chemicals have joined forces in a partnership to reintroduce the use of the herbicide 2, 4-D, one half of the infamous defoliant Agent Orange, which was used by American forces to clear jungle during the Vietnam War. These two biotech giants have developed a weed management program that, if successful, would go a long way toward a predicted doubling of harmful herbicide use in America’s corn belt during the next decade.

The problem for corn farmers is that “superweeds” have been developing resistance to America’s best-selling herbicide Roundup, which is being sprayed on millions of acres in the Midwest and elsewhere. Dow Agrosciences has developed a strain of corn that it says will solve the problem. The new genetically modified variety can tolerate 2, 4-D, which will kill off the Roundup resistant weeds, but leave the corn standing. Farmers who opt into this system will be required to double-dose their fields with a deadly cocktail of Roundup plus 2, 4-D, both of which are manufactured by Monsanto.

But this plan has alarmed environmentalists and also many farmers, who are reluctant to reintroduce a chemical whose toxicity has been well established. The use of 2, 4-D is banned in several European countries and provinces of Canada. The substance is a suspected carcinogen which has been shown to double the incidence of birth defects in the children of pesticide applicators in a study conducted by University of Minnesota pathologist Vincent Garry.

Researchers say that the effect of 2,4-D on human health is still not fully understood. But it may be a risk factor for conditions like non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which was often found in Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange. The EPA has stated that the chemical has “endocrine disruption potential” and interferes with the human hormonal system. It has also been shown to be toxic to honeybees, birds and fish according to research conducted by the US Forest Service and others.

In 2004, a coalition of groups spearheaded by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pesticide Action Network, wrote a letter to the EPA taking it to task for underestimating the health and environmental impacts of 2,4-D. America’s agriculture department, the USDA, however, may soon sign off on the pesticide’s use, and is accepting final public comments on the matter until the 27th of this month.

Large scale industrial farming has grown dependent on ever-increasing applications of agrochemicals. Some have compared this to a drug addict who requires larger and larger fixes to stay high. Herbicide use has increased steadily over time as weeds develop resistance and need to be doused with more and deadlier chemicals to kill them. This in turn requires more aggressive genetic engineering of crops that can withstand the escalating chemical assault.

Agricultural scientists warn that this growing addiction to agrochemicals is unsustainable in the long run. The fertility of the soil decreases as earthworms and vital microorganisms are killed off by pesticides and herbicides. They also pollute the groundwater, and may compromise the health of farm animals that are fed with the chemical-infused grain.

These impacts are poised to grow. US Department of Agriculture figures reveal that herbicide use rose by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008. Significantly, nearly half of this increase (46 percent) took place between 2007 and 2008 as a result of the hawking of new herbicide resistant crops like the new corn hybrid developed by Dow.

Nobody knows what effect introducing this hybrid would have on the health of American consumers. Corn laced with high levels of 2,4-D could taint everything from breakfast cereals to the beef of corn-fed cattle. Given that corn and high-fructose corn syrup are key elements in so many processed foods, some public health experts warn that all Americans will soon be guinea pigs in an ill-conceived mass experiment with one of the staples of our food supply.

Until recently, genetically engineered herbicide resistant crops were popular with farmers who benefited from higher yields and nearly effortless management of weeds. But now that the weed problem is coming back with a vengeance, some are reconsidering the wisdom of this chemical-intensive mode of farming. Dow biotech corn costs nearly three times more than conventional seed. And the projected doubling of pesticide use in the years ahead will be expensive, as well as destructive to farmland and ecosystems.

There are viable alternatives to chemical intensive farming, time tested methods like crop rotation, use of cover crops and other practices which allow farmers to compete naturally with weeds. The time has come for farmers to revive the knowledge of their ancestors in this regard.

Some agricultural scientists advocate developing a system of Integrated Weed Management to replace the unsustainable use of chemicals. But the big agrochemical companies have no interest in supporting the sustainable agriculture that would put them out of business. So long as there are billions of dollars to be made in selling herbicide and herbicide-resistant genetically-modified seed, there won’t be much research money available to explore the natural alternatives to the destruction of our nation’s heartland.

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Fred Burton, Stratfor Vice-President for Counterterrorism and Corporate Security, provided some insight on the strategy against Wikileaks in emails leaked on the Wikileaks website.

“Take down the money. Go after his infrastructure. The tools we are using to nail and de-construct Wiki are the same tools used to dismantle and track aQ [Al Qaeda]. Thank Cheney & 43 [former US President George W. Bush]. Big Brother owns his liberal terrorist arse.”

Burton is a former Deputy Chief of the Department of State’s counterterrorism division for the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). The DSS assists the DoD in following leads and doing forensic analysis of hard drives seized by the US Government in ongoing criminal investigations. He also stated what his strategy against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange would be:

“Bankrupt the arsehole first, ruin his life. Give him 7-12 yrs for conspiracy.”

A few hours later he added the comment: “Assange is going to make a nice bride in prison. Screw the terrorist. He’ll be eating cat food forever.”

Staffed by several former government staff, Stratfor has a natural enmity with Wikileaks.

Wikileaks has published 405 out of what they say is a cache of 5 million internal emails dated between July 2004 to December 2011. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning Wikileaks or Julian Assange.

Interestingly one message sent from Watch Officer Chris Farnham to CEO and founder George Friedman, titled “Assange is off the hook…” casts doubt on the sexual assault allegations against Assange.

“BTW, close family friend in Sweden who knows the girl that is pressing charges tells me that there is absolutely nothing behind it other than prosecutors that are looking to make a name for themselves. My friend speaks rather disparagingly about the girl who is claiming molestation. I also think the whole rape thing is incorrect for if I remember correctly rape was never the charge.”

After being informed that Assange was being accused under Sweden’s loose deifintion of rape, Farnham replied:

“If it really matters I can look into it, but from what I am hearing that is not the case. That’s not to say that my friend is foolproof either. She knows nothing of law or politics, she just knows the girl in question and follows the news.”

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