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Ten-thirty p.m. in East Oakland. Sirens and gunshots, the soundtrack of this stretch of Fruitvale Avenue, punctuate the air. Dozens of homeless people are gathered beneath a street lamp - some in wheelchairs, some drunk, some ranting furiously to themselves.
Then the Preacherman appears.
Everything stops. read more
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Spirituality
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EREZ CROSSING, Israel — Israel maintained its ban on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip Friday despite a recent Supreme Court order to allow a limited number of reporters to enter the territory.
The ban has been in place since a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas began to fray on Nov. 5. Israel eased the ban last month but tightened it again after launching its air offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers a week ago.
A legal challenge by the Foreign Press Association, which represents foreign media in Israel, prompted the court ruling this week to allow groups of up to 12 foreign journalists to cross the border whenever the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza is open for humanitarian cases.
That was the case on Friday, when Israel opened the crossing to allow nearly 300 Palestinians with foreign passports to leave Gaza. But authorities defied the court order and kept reporters out.
"We call on the Israeli government to immediately honor the will of the court and allow foreign journalists access to Gaza," the Foreign Press Association said in a statement. "The authorities' position that there was not enough time to coordinate and allow the journalists to enter does not seem reasonable." read more
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War On Terror
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SloshSpot: While drafting the recent guide outlining the real dangers associated with combining different types of alcohol, I got to thinking about one of the most prominent and outspoken substance-mixers of our time, the late Hunter S. Thompson. A man who graciously documented the uncharted depths of the binge unlike any other in history, HST provided us with nuggets of wisdom and encouragement all along the way. So instead of merely sharing a list of my favorite quotes from the author, I have placed them in their proper environment, the pervasive motivational poster.
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Revolutionaries
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From the site: Prosecute Cheney or Legalize Marijuana? Decide Today.
On December 15, Vice President Cheney admitted on national TV that he authorized torture, including waterboarding. That shocking confession makes Cheney a war criminal. But apart from Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, the Corporate Media barely noticed.
Under the Geneva Conventions, the United States must prosecute Dick Cheney for war crimes. So we submitted this question to President-elect Obama at Change.gov:
"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor — ideally Patrick Fitzgerald — to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"
— Bob Fertik, New York City
At the end of the first round on December 15, our Special Prosecutor question was #6 but Obama's team only answered the first five, including one on the legalization of marijuana.
The second round began on 12/30 and ends at midnight on 12/31. Once again, marijuana legalization is #1. We need your help to make our Special Prosecutor question #1! read more
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— Bob Fertik, New York City
At the end of the first round on December 15, our Special Prosecutor question was #6 but Obama's team only answered the first five, including one on the legalization of marijuana.
The second round began on 12/30 and ends at midnight on 12/31. Once again, marijuana legalization is #1. We need your help to make our Special Prosecutor question #1!">
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Denis Campbell, The Observer: Britain's parents will be accused this week of "killing their children with kindness", as the government embarks on a new campaign aimed at the growing and deadly problem of childhood obesity.
Graphic examples of children dying early from diabetes, heart disease and cancer will be publicised and the Department of Health will reveal "shocking" levels of ignorance and complacency among parents who are failing to accept responsibility for their children's health.
The campaign will be based on an unpublished DoH report, seen by the Observer, that has been sent to senior NHS managers. It says that three million families with young children need to be better informed to prevent their children becoming dangerously overweight.
In a section entitled "Killing with kindness", it says: "It's hard to say no to your kids, but if you give in every time you're not being kind, you're killing with kindness. Kids who eat the wrong sorts of food and sit around all day are more likely to get heart disease, cancer, diabetes and to die young. Some will die younger than their parents." read more
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Graphic examples of children dying early from diabetes, heart disease and cancer will be publicised and the Department of Health will reveal "shocking" levels of ignorance and complacency among parents who are failing to accept responsibility for their children's health.
The campaign will be based on an unpublished DoH report, seen by the Observer, that has been sent to senior NHS managers. It says that three million families with young children need to be better informed to prevent their children becoming dangerously overweight.
In a section entitled "Killing with kindness", it says: "It's hard to say no to your kids, but if you give in every time you're not being kind, you're killing with kindness. Kids who eat the wrong sorts of food and sit around all day are more likely to get heart disease, cancer, diabetes and to die young. Some will die younger than their parents."">
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Vanity Fair has pieced together a "sweeping draft" of an oral history of the history of the Bush White House--that is, the story of the last eight years as told through first-person quotes from the various people directly involved. It's fascinating but depressing stuff: "The threat of 9/11 ignored. The threat of Iraq hyped and manipulated. Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. Hurricane Katrina. The shredding of civil liberties. The rise of Iran. Global warming. Economic disaster. How did one two-term presidency go so wrong?" Find out the answer from those who witnessed, and participated in, the debacle.
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Gawker: Hahahaha criminal Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich has exercised his right to make an appointment to the US Senate.
Former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris will be our new Senator from Illinois, filling out the remainder of Barack Obama's term. Burris was the first black man ever elected to statewide office in Illinois! He's lost races for Senator, Mayor of Chicago, and governor during his long and distinguished political career, despite being a well-respected civic leader, and one imagines that this appointment may not work out so well for him either.
Blagojevich, you see, is currently under investigation by the feds for being terribly corrupt, and the Illinois legislature was just recently looking at either impeachment or at least stripping Blago of his right to appoint an interim Senator (which may not be kosher according to the Illinois constitutional?). Meanwhile, Burris "stepped up his efforts to win the governor's support" after Blago was arrested. read more
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Edward Mason, Boston Herald: A voter-approved law reducing possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil offense threatens to unravel drug testing of police and other public employees. The law, which goes into effect Jan. 2, prohibits government agencies and authorities from enforcing any punishment for pot possession with a fine greater than $100, according to the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association, and defines possession so broadly as to include traces of pot in blood to urine to hair and fingernails.
“This very much threatens to undermine our ability to do the drug testing we do,” said Jack Collins, an attorney for the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association. Collins is calling for police departments to stop drug testing certain employees until the Legislature can explicitly allow public employees who fail drug tests to be punished. Without swift action, police departments and other agencies face lawsuits from unions protecting their members, Collins said.
Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless predicted the new law has far-reaching consequences for even school bus drivers and MBTA train operators, who could point to the law and say they can only be fined, not fired, for marijuana offenses. read more
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nyceve on DailyKos: This is a little off the beaten track for me, but it is a very real example of how taxpayer money is being wasted on bailouts for failed executives.
It's particularly important to publicize this sort of wretched excess, known as the privatization of profits and socialization of loss, as we approach the opening of the 111th Congress and the battle for affordable and guaranteed healthcare for all Americans goes into high gear.
As sure as night follows day, we will hear many say, the United States can't afford to provide healthcare to all our citizens. When this deceit gets going, please remember that a huge amount of taxpayer money is raining on people like Peter Kraus — no questions asked.
This is 720 Park Avenue in New York City. It's one of the most expensive buildings in Manhattan. Peter Kraus and his wife Jill, just paid $37 million for an apartment in this building. This year, Peter Kraus received a payout of $25 million dollars for working at Merrill Lynch for just three months.
Here are some details about where our money is going. Let's take a tour of the Kraus residence on Park Avenue:
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Economics
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A boat delivering 3.5 tonnes of Cypriot medical aid to the Gaza Strip has been rammed by Israeli naval vessels in international waters, activists say. The Free Gaza campaign group, which operates the Dignity, also claimed shots were fired towards the crew.
The boat later docked in Lebanon after sustaining serious damage to one side. Israeli officials confirmed there had been "physical contact" but denied reports of shooting and said the crew had not responded to radio calls.
The 20m (66ft) Dignity was carrying 15 civilian passengers, including several doctors, journalists, a former US congresswoman and a member of the Cypriot parliament, says Free Gaza.
'Heavy gunfire'
Crowds turned out to greet the Dignity as it arrived in Tyre port. The organisation sent out an urgent statement on Tuesday saying the vessel had been surrounded by at least six Israeli military ships.
"They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage," said the statement. "We heard heavy gunfire in the background before all contact was lost with the Dignity." read more
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War On Terror
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The 20m (66ft) Dignity was carrying 15 civilian passengers, including several doctors, journalists, a former US congresswoman and a member of the Cypriot parliament, says Free Gaza.
'Heavy gunfire'
Crowds turned out to greet the Dignity as it arrived in Tyre port. The organisation sent out an urgent statement on Tuesday saying the vessel had been surrounded by at least six Israeli military ships.
"They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage," said the statement. "We heard heavy gunfire in the background before all contact was lost with the Dignity."">
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