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Colonel Cassad
The second report about the war crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine by The Foundation for the Study of Democracy (the director - M. S. Grigoryev), in which the data is given about large-scale and systematic violation of the European convention of human rights by the representatives of the Ukrainian armed forces, the National Guard, and other units of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, and also of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). We give some quotes from the report that we obtained.2015-03-15 00:42:00
War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture and inhumane treatment. Second report Yana, victim's wife on SBU officials: The data that has been accumulated since the first report by the Foundation for Democracy Studies provides ground to conclude that torture and inhumane treatment inflicted by the Security Forces of Ukraine (SBU), by the Ukrainian armed forces, the National Guard and other formations within the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, as well as by illegal armed groups, such as Right Sector, have not only continued but are gaining in scale and are becoming systematic. | |
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RT
As the UK has launched a new-judge led inquiry panel to investigate a pedophile ring operated in 1980s, the Home Secretary warns the allegations are just a "tip of an iceberg" and the problem is "woven, covertly, into the fabric of our society."2015-03-14 14:02:00
Following a spate of allegations concerning the abuse of children by adults, many of who abused their positions of power and status, Home Secretary Theresa May said Britons still do not appreciate the"true scale of that abuse." Writing in the Telegraph, May warned that the investigation into predators of children will "lead into our schools and hospitals, our churches, our youth clubs and many other institutions that should have been places of safety..." | |
Comment: The depth of depravity at the highest levels of British society is indeed staggering. And, yet, it is only the tip of the iceberg.
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Julie Lévesque
Global Research 2015-03-15 00:00:00
There are many reasons not to trust the mainstream media (MSM). Most, if not all those reasons, have been analyzed by independent news outlets. The MSM is owned by private companies and financed by advertising, both of which have a clear influence on its editorial content and the overall agenda setting. It has also been proven in the past, during the Church Committee, that the CIA, like other intelligence agencies, uses the mainstream media for propaganda purposes by planting stories and using journalism as a cover for agents. The mainstream media's complaisance towards governments has also been exposed, namely with the New York Times' yearlong silence on wiretapping under the Bush administration. Recently, however, several stories from mainstream journalists have emerged, exposing the corrupt nature of the MSM, thus weighing in on the growing mistrust it inspires. | |
Comment: Maybe, if there are enough articles like this, the public will finally get the message and the media will be motivated to "keep it real." (How un"real"istic is that!)
Black is the new White As in the newspaper joke...what is black and white and read all over? The trick is in figuring out what is "black" and what is "white." More and more, it seems black is winning out, almost to the point we have a "blackout on truth." Applause to those who recognize this and submit unbiased, uncompromised articles to try and balance this badly sloping equation and honor their integrity to the public and their craft. | |
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Dmitry Orlov
The term "chaos" has been popping up a lot lately in the increasingly collapse-prone world in which we find ourselves. Pepe Escobar has even published a book on it. Titled Empire of Chaos, it describes a scenario "where a[n American] plutocracy progressively projects its own internal disintegration upon the whole world." Escobar's chaos is tailor-made; its purpose is "to prevent an economic integration of Eurasia that would leave the U.S. a non-hegemon, or worse still, an outsider."ClubOrlov Blogspot 2015-03-10 19:12:00 Escobar is not the only one thinking along these lines; here is Vladimir Putin speaking at the Valdai Conference in 2014:
Indeed, Escobar's chaos doesn't seem to be working too well. Eurasian integration is very much on track, with China and Russia now acting as an economic, military and political unit, and with other Eurasian states eager to play a role. The European Union is, for the moment, being excluded from Eurasia because it is effectively under American occupation, but this state of affairs is unlikely to last due to budgetary problems. (To be precise, we have to say that it is under NATO occupation, but if we dig just a little, we find that NATO is really just the US military with a European façade hammered onto it Potemkin village-style.) And so the term "empire" seems rather misplaced. Empires are ambitious undertakings that seek to exert control over their domain, and what sort of an empire is it if its main activity is stepping on the same rake over and over again? A silly one? Then why not just call it "The Silly Empire"? Indeed, there are lots of fun silly imperial activities to choose from. For example: arm and train moderate opposition to a regime you want to overthrow; find out that it isn't moderate at all; try to bomb them into submission and fail at that too. Some people raise the criticism that the empire does in fact function because somebody somewhere is profiting from all this chaos. Indeed they are, but taking this as a sign of imperial success is tantamount to regarding getting mugged on the way to the supermarket as a sign of economic success. Success has nothing to do with it, but Escobar's "internal disintegration" does seem apt: the disintegrating empire's internal chaos is leaking out and causing chaos everywhere. Still, the US makes every effort to exert control, mainly by exerting pressure on friends and enemies alike, and by demanding unquestioning obedience. Some might call this "controlled chaos." But what is "controlled chaos"? How does one control chaos, and is it even possible? Let's delve. | |
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Stratfor
2015-02-18 17:28:00
The world is watching as the cease-fire in Ukraine progresses on shaky ground and France and Germany lead a spate of negotiations. However, Moscow's eyes are on Washington, where one of Russia's most powerful men — Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Services, or FSB — arrived Wednesday. The same day, Kiev took another important step in implementing the cease-fire when it withdrew its forces from the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve, a key location along the demarcation line where heavy fighting was still taking place. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the cease-fire between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces is largely being observed across the front line except in Debaltseve, which Lavrov called the "cauldron." Even as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko continued to deny that Russian-backed separatists had encircled Ukrainian troops in Debaltseve, the Ukrainian forces' retreat from the city was effectively a recognition by the Ukrainian leader that he had no choice but to give into the demands of Russia and his European counterparts. These parties were not about to see the Minsk agreement fall apart because of one battle where the separatists clearly had the upper hand. | |
Comment: So what was discussed? Given the timing, it's obvious Bortnikov wasn't just there to attend a Summit on extremism...
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Sputnik
2015-03-15 16:34:00
The US diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia said that the United States is planning to shut down its Saudi embassy in Riyadh and two consulates general for the next two days. The United States is planning to shut down its Saudi embassy in Riyadh and two consulates general for the next two days over security concerns, the US diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia said Sunday. A statement issued by the embassy said that, "Due to heightened security concerns at U.S. diplomatic facilities in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates have cancelled all consular services in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran for Sunday, March 15 and Monday, March 16, 2015." | |
Comment: Seems strange it is only for two days.
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Colonel Cassad
2015-03-14 15:57:00
On the topic of persistent questions asked in the comments regarding "Putin's disappearance" from the media field. My personal subjective view is that he will show up in public in the coming few days. Furthermore,this appearance will be associated with the development of the situation in the Ukraine, which is currently hanging in the balance, on the border of a large-scale war. Actually, the way I see it is that the effective undermining of the Minsk agreements by the junta is a sufficient reason for him to think and prepare to make certain decisions. Today is the last official day when the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine should pass a bill that implements the special status of the former Donetsk and Lugansk regions. If this decision won't be made today, then this will be a direct violation of the "complex of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements". The temporal interval between the 15th and the 20th of March also starts tomorrow. This interval is indicated by various sources as a possible time of the resumption of large-scale military action by the initiative of the Kiev junta. | |
Comment: This is probably the most reasonable explanation for Putin's recent lack of media appearances. But if you want ridiculous, just check out these: 5 Most Ridiculous Theories About the Whereabouts of Vladimir Putin
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RT
2015-03-15 15:48:00
Seemingly unfazed by the outrage his comments on Fox Business Channel have caused, the former US general who thinks the only solution to the Ukraine conflict is to "start killing Russians" has defended his stance, again speaking to Fox. Robert H. Scales, the retired United States Army major general whose outburst was aired by Fox on Tuesday, did not have to justify his comments as such, as he was invited for a cozy conversation with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren to jokingly discuss the reaction to his remarks. Responding to the news that the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal probe into his statements on charges of public calls for starting an aggressive war made in the media, and that his remarks violated article 20 of the United Nations' International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that bans any propaganda of war and instigation of discrimination, hatred or violence, Scales shrugged it off by branding it "a Russian form of war." "It's the Russia version of the First Amendment - five years in prison if you say something that makes [Russian President] Vladimir Putin angry," Scales told Fox News. | |
Comment: If this is the mental quality of American generals, it sure explains a lot. You can bet a country is on a sure path to destruction when its media can 'jokingly' discuss genocidal comments. But that's what happens when you let psychopaths take over.
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Brandon Martinez
Non-Aligned Media 2015-03-14 15:37:00
Ray Boisvert, a former assistant director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), has been busy trying to deflect blame from his former employer in the developing scandal involving an alleged CSIS asset who helped three British schoolgirls and others join ISIS. Boisvert's impetus is to shield CSIS and the Canadian state when their hand is exposed in duplicitous activity at home and abroad. He has frequently appeared as a pundit on mainstream media programs, and unsurprisingly was trotted out by the usual suspects to comment on revelations that a Syrian national who spied for CSIS was acting as a liaison for ISIS, helping Westerners travel through Turkey to join the militant group in Syria. The former CSIS big-wig told media that: If [the suspected ISIS liaison Mohammed Mehmet] Rashid worked in some capacity for CSIS, and based on reports his computer contained images of passport and travel documents of several apparent ISIL recruits, it's conceivable he was actually gathering intelligence for CSIS about those recruits and the methods, logistics and contacts for spiriting them into Syria. Comment: And we suppose all those U.S./UK helicopters and jets just have really bad coordinates when they drop all that aid and weaponry for ISIS in Iraq and Syria! Oh, and those U.S./Israeli 'military advisers' for ISIS found in Iraq? Top-secret double agents working hard for their countries to gather useful intelligence in the war against ISIS. Give us a break, Boisvert. No one's buying it. | |
Comment: Since when have Western intelligence agencies allowed anything so trivial as the law to get in their way? Does this guy think we're all naive idiots? And as for "the spy agency's current mandate", oh please! "Official mandates" are designed for public consumption. CSIS's mandate may have 'prevented' Rashid from stopping the girls from reaching Syria, for sure. But that could have been the point.
See also: Canadian intel agent linked with getting British schoolgirls into Syria to join ISIS | |
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RT
2015-03-15 00:47:00
Thousands of demonstrators have united across Canada to take action against proposed anti-terrorism legislation known as Bill C-51, which would expand the powers of police and the nation's spy agency, especially when it comes to detaining terror suspects. Organizers of the 'Day of Action' said that "over 70 communities" across Canada were planning to participate on Saturday, according to StopC51.ca.
The biggest gatherings were reported in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax. "I'm really worried about democracy, this country is going in a really bad direction, [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper is taking it in a really bad direction," protester Stuart Basden from Toronto, the Canadian city which saw hundreds of people come out, told The Star. "Freedom to speak out against the government is probably [in] jeopardy...even if you're just posting stuff online you could be targeted, so it's a really terrifying bill," Basden added.
The ruling Conservative government tabled the legislation back in January, arguing that the new law would improve the safety of Canadians.
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Comment: See also: Canada's State Policeman's Bill: C-51, legal opinion
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Bill Van Auken
World Socialist Web Site 2015-03-14 05:10:00
The protracted 2016 presidential campaign cycle has already begun, and with it the close attention of the media to the statements made by prospective candidates in hopes of discovering even the slightest "gaffe" that can be turned into a political news item. All the more odd then that the remarks made at a New Hampshire town hall meeting by one Republican presidential hopeful, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have been virtually blacked out by all of the major print and broadcast outlets. Asked by a member of the audience what he would do about automatic cuts to the Pentagon budget that would go into effect because of sequestration, Graham responded that the problem had left him sick to his stomach. He continued: "And here is the first thing I would do if I were President of the United States: I wouldn't let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We're not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We're not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts." The statement is extraordinary. A candidate for the presidency of the United States vows that, once elected, he would use the military to impose his—and its—will upon a recalcitrant Congress. Presumably, troops would hold members of the House and Senate at gunpoint until they produced the results demanded. | |
Comment: It sure doesn't read like a joke. And, it's not funny. Just another sign of creeping fascism in the United States.
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Peter Schwartz
World Socialist Web Site 2015-03-14 05:03:00
"In the long run, the role of 'paymaster' can only be played by one who is also ready to play the difficult role of 'taskmaster'," writes Herfried Münkler in his new book Macht in der Mitte (Power in the Center). The Berlin political scientist openly argues for German hegemony in Europe. Germany has "become the central power in Europe," writes Münkler, and must "play the corresponding role." Münkler justifies German claims to hegemony on the grounds that "the European integration process has come to a standstill" and its resumption cannot "be expected for the time being." "The idea that a European nation could one day emerge from the European project" has failed, says Münkler. Due to the longstanding economic crisis in France, the "Berlin-Paris Axis" has "become in the last years a German center." Under these circumstances Germany is obliged as the "power in the center" to take on the task of "holding Europe together" and of "getting Europeans into line." "Germany must lead in Europe," demands Münkler. He adds that the country will have to proceed carefully, something that "should not be confused with hesitancy and indecision." The role of a "power in the center" can "no longer be confined to that of a financial regulator," but includes "determined political and economic leadership." | |
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Sputnik
2015-03-15 04:36:00
NATO General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview to Sky News that the conflict in southeastern Ukraine is not the responsibility of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The conflict in southeastern Ukraine (Donbas) is not the responsibility of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has told Sky News. "Our main responsibility is to defend and to protect all NATO allies and no NATO ally has been attacked," Stoltenberg said on Friday, reminding that Ukraine is not a member of NATO "so there is a difference between Ukraine and NATO members, because the security guarantee is for NATO allies." A military conflict started in southeastern Ukraine in April, 2014, when Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters who refused to recognize the new coup-installed government. The Kiev authorities, as well as Western countries and NATO have been accusing Russia of being involved in the situation in Ukraine, going as far as to claim that Russia has sent weapons to Donbas independence supporters. Stoltenberg told Sky News that adherence to the Minsk truce is crucial to the stabilization of the situation in Ukraine. "The most important thing now is to support the implementation of the Minsk agreements, meaning respecting the ceasefire, making sure that all their weapons are withdrawn from the frontline," Stoltenberg said. Meanwhile on Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that Ukraine continues to build up its military potential and defense capability, having resumed regular military training,which will be conducted with the participation of NATO instructors. | |
Comment: Can there be a more mixed message than this? On the one hand "not NATO's problem" but on the other hand training and arming Ukraine as it prepares to ditch Minsk 2.0. "Believe what we say, not what we do." Psychopathic hypocrisy at its best.
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MondoWeiss
2015-03-14 13:46:00
The Forward's Nathan Guttman reports that the Netanyahu speech has enraged not just liberal Jews but centrist establishment types, who are finally becoming critical of Israel. The hardworking Guttman reports on an explosion in Washington ahead of the speech: On March 2, [Florida Rabbi David] Paskin, who attended the AIPAC annual conference in Washington that coincided with Netanyahu's speech, was among dozens at a packed closed-door session on pro-Israel outreach to progressives. There, the discussion quickly turned heated when former Democratic congressman Barney Frank (who is [AIPAC operative] Ann Lewis's brother) chided the lobby for not speaking out against Netanyahu's visit and for avoiding any criticism of Israeli policies. According to two session participants, Frank argued that this reluctance causes pro-Israel activists to lose their credibility among progressives.Remember that Walt and Mearsheimer were tarred as anti-Semites for saying in 2006 that the Israel lobby pushed the Iraq war. I supported the two scholars' argument because I had heard as much myself; in 2002, my brother shocked me when he said, "I demonstrated against the Vietnam War, but my Jewish newspaper said this war could be good for Israel."The Jewish community has never had an honest conversation about this matter; no, Jeffrey Goldberg and Marty Peretz and friends shut it down by calling Walt and Mearsheimer anti-Semites. That conversation would include asking Tom Friedman, David Remnick, Peter Beinart, and Kenneth Pollack if they pushed the Iraq war in part out of concern for Israel's security. And did they believe that Jeffrey Goldberg and Judith Miller were carrying water for Israel when they put out their bogus reports on Saddam's WMD? This is another great benefit of the Netanyahu speech, problematizing the issue of what Joe Klein called divided loyalties inside American Zionist life. Not a witchhunt, an accounting. By the way, Barney Frank voted against the Iraq war. | |
Comment: Perhaps. ever so slowly, the tide against Zionism is starting to shift. The crimes of Israel are becoming too large for their supporters in US to ignore. The question is, will there be a Palestine left before it finally does.
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Brandon Martinez
Non-Aligned Media 2015-03-13 23:38:00
The Ottawa Citizen has reported that an individual who authorities believe helped three British schoolgirls travel to Syria to join ISIS is linked to Canada's intelligence agency, CSIS. The Citizen noted that, "Turkish news agencies reported Thursday that a foreign intelligence agent detained in that country on suspicion of helping the girls travel to neighbouring Syria to join ISIL was working for the Canadian government." Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the suspect in question was working for an intelligence agency that is part of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS, adding that it wasn't the US or an EU member. Turkish media reports later identified the suspect as a CSIS agent, citing sources close to the Turkish government. Ottawa issued a prototypical denial that one of their operatives was involved. The story confirms what many analysts have been saying all along, which is that ISIS is an elaborate Western intelligence operation. | |
Comment: CSIS... ISIS... Maybe the guy was just confused which Western intelligence-related agency he was working for? The mask is falling off the ISIS bogeyman, and we're not shocked at whose face appears beneath it:
Perhaps IS/U.S. would be a more apt moniker. | |
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Kaunas
RT 2015-03-14 21:43:00
An 84-year-old former Soviet state security officer has been found guilty of genocide and sentenced by a Lithuanian court to five years in jail over his participation in a 1956 operation to arrest guerrilla leader Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas. Court prosecutors in the city of Kaunas asked for a longer sentence - seven years - for Stanislovas Drelingas, who insisted he was innocent. "Although the defendant denied his direct complicity in genocide, i.e., he denied having taken any part in the operation specified in the indictment, evidence in the case suggests that he was part of the operation and helped other members of the Soviet administration," the court said. The court ruled on the shorter term due to long-lasting legal proceedings, Drelingas' health problems, and the fact that his role in the crime was secondary. His verdict has not yet come into force and could be moved to a new trial in a Lithuanian appeals court. Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas - one of the leaders of an anti-Soviet guerrilla troop called "Forest Brothers" - was arrested in 1956 in Kaunas, sentenced to death, and shot after spending a year in a Vilnius jail. | |
Comment: Strange, we remember a time when ageing Nazis were being prosecuted, not ageing prosecutors of Nazis.
From prosecuting Soviet-era officials, to glorifying Nazis; from barring ethnic Russians from voting, to allowing the US to plant thousands of troops, missiles and tanks on their Russian borders... what is WRONG with these three NATO-stan countries? Can they not SEE what's happening in Ukraine? By indulging their fetish for pathocratic Western authorities, and by encouraging their countries' extremist elements, they are bringing down upon their heads the very thing that would destroy them: baiting the Russian bear into proxy border wars. Of course they can't see it. Really, some peoples are just not fit to govern themselves. | |
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Aljazeera
2015-03-14 13:59:00
The attack at Convent of Jesus and Mary School is the latest in a string of high-profile rape cases in the country A group of bandits gang raped an elderly nun on Saturday when she attempted to stop them from robbing a Christian missionary school in eastern India, police said, the latest crime to focus attention on the scourge of sexual violence in the country. The nun, who is in her 70s, was hospitalized in serious condition after being attacked by seven or eight men at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School in Nadia district, 50 miles northeast of the West Bengal state capital of Kolkata, a police officer said. Police Inspector General Anuj Sharma told Agence France-Presse that "two people have so far been arrested." The others remain at large. The robbers tied the school's security guards with ropes early Saturday and entered the nuns' room, where the women were sleeping. They took one of the nuns to another room when she tried to block their way and then raped her, the officer said. | |
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Stephanie March, Jessicah Mendes
ABC Online 2015-03-14 13:40:00
India's decision to ban a documentary about the gang rape and murder of a woman in Delhi has been described as "uncivilised" by the film's director. The Indian government obtained a court injunction last week to stop the documentary, India's Daughter, from being broadcast in the country. Comment: It is clear that the officials in Indian Government condone this behaviour. See this article here. The documentary examines the horrific gang rape and murder of a 23 year old medical student in Delhi in December 2012. "You cannot bury your shame and think you're going to deal with it somehow," the documentary's maker Leslee Udwin said. "India is part of the civilized world. I don't believe this ban was a civilised move." The film contains confronting and explicit interviews with one of the men convicted of the rape, Mukesh Singh, and two of his lawyers. All three men repeatedly blame the victim and the Indian legal system for the crime. "A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," Singh said during an interview conducted in a prison. He goes on to say: "When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape." The young woman attacked and killed by Singh and his accomplices is known as Nirbhaya, or "fearless" in Hindi, as Indian law prohibits the naming of victims of sexual assault. Comment: A truly psychopathic culture where the victim is blamed for the crime. And this attitude is prevalent in their so-called judicial system. Her mother, Asha Devi, told the ABC the documentary made a clear statement. "The documentary shows that there are people in our society who have no fear of law, who have no shame - who are such lowlifes that they are able to talk of their crimes," she said. Comment: They are not just low-lifes, they are actually not human although they might look human. They are psychopaths and are predators that walk among us. On the night of her attack, Nirbhaya was on her way home from a movie with a male friend at about 8:30pm. They boarded a private bus, which claimed to be going in their direction. But almost immediately the only other occupants - five men and a teenager - started harassing Nirbhaya. When her friend tried to intervene he was bashed. The men then dragged Nirbhaya to the back of the bus and gang raped her repeatedly for around 45 minutes, violating her with an iron bar and ripping out some of her intestines. Nirbhaya and her friend were then both dumped naked on the side of a busy highway and left for dead. Nirbhaya died two weeks later from injuries sustained during the attack. The men and teenager on the bus were arrested and charged. All five men were sentenced to death by hanging. But the sentencing has brought little comfort to Nirbhaya's parents. "Our lives are totally disturbed and nothing has changed from that day for us - we remain disturbed," her father Badri Nath said. Film's release could be prejudicial: lawyer The attack sparked immediate protests in Delhi, with thousands of demonstrators demanding social change and justice."I made this documentary because, in response to this horrific rape, ordinary men and women came out on to the streets of India's cities, day after day for over a month, in a momentous show of determination, of hopefulness and passion, commitment," Ms Udwin said. But the Indian government has questioned Ms Udwin's methods, saying she did not comply with the conditional permission she was granted to conduct interviews with the rapists in prison. A court in Delhi justified banning the film, saying the rapist's comments could create "law and order problems". Ms Udwin disputes this, saying she did comply with the conditions of access imposed by the head of Delhi's Tihar Prison. And it's not just the Indian government that believes the documentary should be banned from screening on Indian televisions. Some activists, including prominent lawyer Nandita Rao, support the ban believing the film could undermine the convicted rapists' ongoing appeals. "Once you show a film like this where one of the co-accused openly maligns, attributes roles and characters to other accused, you actually create a prejudicial environment and they cannot have a fair trial," Ms Rao said. "This is not only against our constitution, but in Britain, they would get an automatic acquittal. Fortunately, or unfortunately, our judges are not such sticklers for civil liberties and the film was banned in India." Comment: Sad to see this comment coming from a lawyer, worse still a woman. . Ms Udwin said she sought the advice of several Supreme Court judges before deciding to release the documentary, all of whom told her the cases against the convicted rapists would not be impacted. | |
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M. David
Counter Current News 2015-03-13 22:25:00
What say should the state have in marriage? That's a great question that many have been asking for a long time. But now the State of Oklahoma has answered that question in a fairly bizarre way... Instead of saying that the State will have no role in marriage, instead of recognizing any agreement between consenting adults related to marriage, the State has mandated that it will back away just enough to allow clergy and clergy alone to conduct marriages. It will recognize marriage conducted only by officially recognized members of religious clergy. So you can be gay or straight... as long as you go to church... or temple, or a mosque. Get the picture? That means if you aren't particularly religious, the State of Oklahoma will not recognize any marital contract formed between consenting partners, whether heterosexual or homosexual. House Bill 1125 was approved by a Republican majority, and now goes to the state Senate for consideration. Many glossed over this important detail about the State's refusal to recognize marriage rights if the marital contract was not conducted via a religious ceremony and clergy. Instead, initial reactions from many who wanted to see the state removed from policing marriages, was one of gratefulness. But the State was never saying it would back off of marriage. The State still ultimately decides what marriages it will or won't recognize. Far from making marriages more free of State imposition, theOklahoma just forced everyone who wants state-recognition of their marriage to undergo a religious ceremony. Rep. Dennis Johnson, a Republican, said "Marriage was not instituted by government. It was instituted by God. There is no reason for Oklahoma or any state to be involved in marriage." | |
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James Quinn
Investment Watch Blog 2015-03-13 13:53:00
I thought all those Obama jobs, the millions of Obamacare enrollees getting "free" health insurance, and the plunge in gas prices would lead to billions of excess disposable income being spent on stuff. Considering consumer spending accounts for 68% of GDP, this juggernaut of jobs would propel the US economy to new heights. Keynesianism at its finest. But something went awry on the road to prosperity. The American people have stopped spending money they don't have on shit they don't need. The blathering boobs on the tube will use the tried and true weather excuse, except last winter was the winter of the polar vortex. The very same morons who reported that this past winter was the 15th warmest in recorded history, will use cold and snow during winter time as the reason the American sheeple didn't shop. How could they possibly get to the mall in their leased four wheel drive SUVs, pickups, and minivans? Retail sales have fallen three months in a row. The last time this happened was at the beginning of the 2008 financial collapse. Do retail sales fall three months in a row when the economy is booming, or does it do that when we are in a recession? And these haven't been miniscule drops: December -0.9%, January -0.8%, February -0.6%. If we dig into the numbers we can assess the truth of our current situation: | |
Comment: The US economy is in shambles and is being propped up by smoke and mirrors.
The massive lie behind the U.S. unemployment numbers | |
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Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post 2015-03-09 12:35:00
In yet another example of the growing trend of the process of acclimatization of the general public to an open military presence on American streets as well as greater cooperation between the US Military and civilian law enforcement, South Carolina was recently the scene of a statewide "emergency preparedness" drill that incorporated both of these aspects in a visible form. On March 7, 2015, the state-wide drill, entitled Operation Vigilant Guard, took place under the pretext of preparation for the inevitable destruction a hurricane would bring to South Carolina. According to reports in the local media, the drills were based on the premise of the landfall of a Category 4 hurricane and "how they'd respond to get citizens help" in such an event. The training involved the South Carolina National Guard as well as National Guard units from Georgia in addition to participants from local and state law enforcement agencies as well as local and state "officials." | |
Comment: Responsible preparation, or is it paranoia to think that something big might be in the works?
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Ajamu Baraka
Counterpunch 2015-03-13 00:00:00
I tried! In my capacity as a member of the Center for Constitutional Rights' Board of Directors (CCR), I traveled to Selma on Friday to attend the induction of Arthur Kinoy and William Kunstler, two of the founding lawyers of CCR, into the Selma National Voting Rights Museum. And even though I knew that I would have to endure Obama's presence in Selma on Saturday, my plan was to stay in Selma until Sunday to catch up with friends and participate in the peoples' crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. But I never saw the sun come up in Selma. Before Air Force One ever entered Alabama airspace, Obama's presence overshadowed the commemoration. In conversations on Friday, I heard over and over again about how Obama was coming to town to symbolically "close the circle" on the struggle for voting rights. And though it shouldn't have, I could not shake the deep sadness that I felt every time I heard this and similar comments from so many of my people who still had so much invested in this cheap pro-imperialist hustler that after the induction on Friday I found myself on Highway 80 heading out of Selma toward Montgomery. I made the right decision. | |
Comment: So, in addition to being the new boss (same as the old boss), the oh so cynical and clever power-meisters chose Obama to the throne of the U.S. presidency precisely because they knew he would have the "talent" to hoodwink a certain percentage of blacks. Institutionalized racism and corporeal punishment towards blacks has reached a new plateau in Amerika. As the author of the article notes, extrajudicial killings by a psychopathic and militarized police force, the abominable numbers of blacks unfairly incarcerated and subsumed by the prison-industrial-complex, and an economy that is designed to keep the black working class and poor stuck in their place, all contribute to making blacks prisoners of a system with no way out. And brand Obama is the one of their wardens.
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The Blaze
2015-03-13 23:58:00
Police say a suspect arrested Friday in the killing of an Iraqi man taking photos of his first snowfall said he was looking for whoever shot at his girlfriend's home when he randomly came upon the victim and opened fire. Nykerion Nealon, 17, was being held without bond on a murder charge in last week's death of Ahmed Al-Jumaili, who in February moved to Dallas to escape violence in his homeland. "We don't believe he knew Mr. Al-Jumaili. We don't believe he knew Mr. Al-Jumaili's ethnicity," police Maj. Jeff Cotner told a news conference Friday. Cotner had earlier said police do not believe the killing was a hate crime. Al-Jumaili was outside his apartment complex taking snapshots of snow on the night of March 4 when he was shot. "Mr. Al-Jumaili was enjoying the snowfall with his wife and brother when he was shot, then he ran toward his apartment and collapsed in the breezeway," Cotner said. | |
Comment: This is just tragic. And there's a cruel irony that he left war-torn Iraq (courtesy of the U.S.), only to be killed in the U.S. American society is sick to the core.
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| Secret History |
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The Local, Spain
2015-03-13 10:04:00
Prehistoric cave drawings have been discovered in the northern region of Cantabria, dating back about 20,000 years, making the area "the European capital of rock art". The discovery is the first time that Paleolithic art had been found in the immediate area, the government of Cantabria said in a statement on Thursday. Culture minister Miguel Angel Serna said the findings make the region a "museum of the Paleolithic period." "A finding of these characteristics is not found every day, and represents a significant contribution to our heritage, making Cantabria the European capital of rock art," said Serna in a statement. The art was discovered in the cave 'Aurea', located 50 metres above the river Deva, by the president of a caving club and his wife, La Razón reported. The couple immediately notified the Museum of Archaeology and Prehistory in Cantabria. Experts examined the cave on Sunday and have since closed it for preservation, though officials told La Razón that the site could become attractive to tourists. The cave drawings include what appears to be a reoccurring sign, consisting of a red vertical line and dots and appearing at different locations within the cave. Some paintings appear to be draw by fingertip while others appear to be made by blowing paint onto the wall. The Paleolithic period is characterized as when humans first made primitive stone tools. Humans during this period usually lived together in small hunter-gatherer societies. Another cave in Cantabria, the 'cave of the castle', contains the oldest cave art in the world, dating back more than 40,000 years. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Laura Geggel
Live Science 2015-03-10 12:46:00
The chameleon's uncanny ability to change color has long mystified people, but now the lizard's secret is out: Chameleons can rapidly change color by adjusting a layer of special cells nestled within their skin, a new study finds. Unlike other animals that change color, such as the squid and octopus, chameleons do not modify their hues by accumulating or dispersing pigments within their skin cells, the researchers found. Instead, the lizards rely onstructural changes that affect how light reflects off their skin, the researchers said. To investigate how the reptiles change color, researchers studied five adult male, four adult female and four juvenile panther chameleons (Furcifer pardalis), a type of lizard that lives in Madagascar. The scientists found that the chameleons had two superposed thick layers of iridophore cells — iridescent cells that have pigment and reflect light. | |
Comment: There are reportedly 180 species of chameleons, noted for stereoscopic vision, that live in a range of habitats from the rain forest to the desert.
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Michael Slezak
A metal alloy that powers its own movement and deforms to get through tight spots could let us to build a Terminator 2 style robot (minus homicidal tendencies)New Scientist 2015-03-10 04:54:00
Hasta la vista, baby. A real-life T-1000, the shape-shifting liquid-metal robot from Terminator 2, is a step closer, thanks to a self-powered liquid metal motor. The device is surprisingly simple: just a drop of metal alloy made mostly of gallium - which is liquid at just under 30 °C - with some indium and tin mixed in. When placed in a solution of sodium hydroxide, or even brine, and kept in contact with a flake of aluminium for "fuel", it moves around for about an hour. It can travel in a straight line, run around the outside of a circular dish, or squeeze through complex shapes. "The soft machine looks rather intelligent and [can] deform itself according to the space it voyages in, just like [the] Terminator does from the science-fiction film," says Jing Liu from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. "These unusual behaviours perfectly resemble the living organisms in nature," he says, adding that they raise questions about the definition of life. When they first saw the drop move, Liu and colleagues weren't sure how it was able to do so. Experiments revealed two mechanisms at play. Some of the thrust stems from a charge imbalance across the drop, which in turn creates a pressure differential between the front and the back that pushes it forward. The aluminium also reacts with the sodium hydroxide, releasing hydrogen bubbles which drive the drop even faster. | |
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Source
2015-03-15 03:41:00
Even worms have free will. If offered a delicious smell, for example, a roundworm will usually stop its wandering to investigate the source, but sometimes it won't. Just as with humans, the same stimulus does not always provoke the same response, even from the same individual. New research at Rockefeller University, published online in Cell, offers a new neurological explanation for this variability, derived by studying a simple three-cell network within the roundworm brain. "We found that the collective state of the three neurons at the exact moment an odor arrives determines the likelihood that the worm will move toward the smell. So, in essence, what the worm is thinking about at the time determines how it responds," says study author Cori Bargmann, Torsten N. Wiesel Professor, head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior. "It goes to show that nervous systems aren't passively waiting for signals from outside, they have their own internal patterns of activity that are as important as any external signal when it comes to generating a behavior." The researchers went a step deeper to tease out the dynamics within the network. By changing the activity of the neurons individually and in combination, first author Andrew Gordus, a research associate in the lab, and his colleagues could pinpoint each neuron's role in generating variability in both brain activity and the behavior associated with it. The human brain has 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses, or connections, among them. The brain of the microscopic roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, by comparison, has 302 neurons and 7,000 synapses. So while the worm's brain cannot replicate the complexity of the human brain, scientists can use it to address tricky neurological questions that would be nearly impossible to broach in our own brains. | |
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Harvard University
Science Daily 2015-03-13 03:08:00
Among the facts so widely assumed that they are rarely, if ever studied, is the notion that wider hips make women less efficient when they walk and run. For decades, this assumed relationship has been used to explain why women don't have wider hips, which would make childbirth easier and less dangerous. The argument, known as the "obstetrical dilemma," suggests that for millions of years female humans and their bipedal ancestors have faced an evolutionary trade-off in which selection for wider hips for childbirth has been countered by selection for narrower hips for efficient locomotion. A new study, however, shows that what was widely assumed to be fact is, in actuality, almost entirely incorrect. A new study, conducted by researchers at Harvard in conjunction with colleagues at Boston University and Hunter College, found no connection between hip width and efficient locomotion, and suggests that scientists have long approached the problem in the wrong way. The study is described in a March 11 paper published in PLOS ONE. "This idea, that pelvic width for birth and pelvic width for locomotion are connected, is deeply ingrained in this discipline," said Anna Warrener, first author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow working in the lab of Daniel Lieberman, the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. "Everyone thinks they know this is true...but it's wrong, and it's wrong for two reasons.First, the way we had modeled the forces involved didn't make sense. Second, we found that you can't predict, from the width of the pelvis, how much energy someone is using, so we've been looking at this biomechanical problem entirely wrong." | |
Comment: True science: "Good science is about taking a critical look at things we take for granted."
How true! Often dearly held "science" turns not to be as straight forward as claimed, and sometimes it is plainly wrong. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Deccan Herald
2015-03-15 21:37:00
Gajendra, a fiery-tempered tusker which used to take part in Mysuru Dasara Utsav, on Sunday went berserk and killed its mahout at K Gudi Elephant Camp which falls under under Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve area in the district. The incident occurred when the victim Ganapathi (50), a resident of Nagalapur in Hunasusu taluk, tried to cool down the flaring tempers of the tuskers Gajendra and Srirama. Gajendra attacked the mahout, who suffered serious injuries and bled to death after a while. Ganapathi used to work as mahout at the elephant camp for the past two decades. His job was regularised only two years back. Forest Conservator and Director of BRT S S Lingaraju visited the camp and reviewed the situation. Ramasamudra East police have registered a case and investigations are on. | |
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Rima Granali
Philippine Daily Inquirer 2015-03-15 18:46:00
A carabao's wild run for freedom from a Quezon City slaughterhouse wreaked terror in a commercial area early Saturday, forcing an evacuation at a call center and tossing furniture in the lobby of a small hotel. Before it could be restrained, the water buffalo injured three people, including a butcher and a call center agent. At press time, the farm animal remained tethered and caged in a freight container outside a police station in Cubao, more than a kilometer from the abattoir, where its two-hour rampage ended. Police said the animal, a three-year-old female weighing about half a ton and with potentially lethal 18-inch horns, escaped around 3 a.m. from the Mega Q-Mart slaughterhouse on Ermin Garcia Street in Barangay (village) E. Rodriguez, after it was unloaded from a truck carrying livestock from Naga City. "Maybe the smell of blood made it run wild," Dante Floresca, one of the workers who delivered the animals, said in an Inquirer interview. | |
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keloland.com
2015-03-14 18:22:00
A woman in the Lower Swift Bear Community on the Rosebud Reservation has been killed after being attacked by a pack of wild dogs. The Mellette County Sheriff responded just before 6:30 Saturday morning. He reports that when he arrived, multiple dogs were still on the scene surrounding 49-year-old Julia Charging Whirlwind. The sheriff shot and killed two of the dogs so emergency crews could reach her. Charging Whirlwind was taken by ambulance to a Rosebud Hospital, where she later died. The Mellette County Sheriff also said that there have been multiple reports of wild dog attacks in recent weeks. | |
Comment: Other recent dog pack attacks in America: Man found dead near New Mexico reservation may have been attacked by dog pack
Pack of dogs kills 8-year-old girl on Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota Man likely to have died from a dog pack attack in Madison, North Carolina Feral dog pack found to have killed woman on Wyoming Indian reservation Denison, Texas woman attacked and severely injured by dog pack | |
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A serious forest fire spread quickly on Chile's coast Friday and threatened to reach the nearby port cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. Officials said the fire began at an illegal garbage dump in the afternoon and flames were spread quickly by high winds, leading authorities to declare a state of catastrophe in the area. Deputy Interior Secretary Mahmud Aleuy said that about 4,500 people in six neighborhoods had been evacuated as flames advanced nearby and that an additional 10,000 might need to be moved.
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The Tribune (India)
2015-03-15 17:42:00
Widespread rains battered large swathes of North India on Sunday bringing mercury down by several notches, even as it claimed 14 lives and damaged crops in several regions. Twelve people were killed in Rajasthan due to rain, lightning and hailstorms, which also destroyed Rabi crops in the state, while two were killed in Uttarakhand in rockslide triggered by heavy rain. Cold conditions returned to Delhi after the showers as the day temperature plummeted to 19.6 degree Celsius, nine degrees below normal. According to the Meteorological department, the city received 3.6 mm rains till 5.30pm this evening. The minimum temperature was 16.6 degrees, two notches above normal, while maximum was registered at 19.6 degree. On Saturday, the maximum was recorded at 27.3 degrees. | |
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national.bgnnews.com
Ongoing snowfall reached about 2 meters on Saturday on Uludağ Mountain, in what has been a suprise with spring right around the corner.2015-03-14 16:51:00
The 2,543-meter mountain, located in Turkey's western province of Bursa, has witnessed one of its best seasons in the year with the occupacy rate in hotels going at 100 percent. The snowfall also hit the 2014 Uludağ Economic Summit featuring prominent members of the Turkish business world as well as Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan. | |
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Brianna Lee
International Business Times 2015-03-14 15:58:00
Weather services issued multiple alerts Saturday for Cincinnati and several other Midwest cities Saturday as the Ohio River rose toward its highest level in nearly two decades. Rains could push the river just a few feet short of the levels seen in the 1997 flood that marked one the river's most severe on record. Local communities have evacuated residents from high-risk areas. The Ohio River Forecast Center predicts the river could crest at 58 feet -- six feet above minimum flood levels -- by Sunday, according to local reports. The river reached 64 feet in 1997, marking one of the most serious floods the area had seen in decades. The 1997 flood resulted in power cuts for thousands of Ohioans and an estimated $180 million in damage, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
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Matangi Tonga
2015-03-14 13:24:00
The strongest tropical cyclone on record in the South Pacific, Tropical Cyclone Pam, a Category 5 super storm, hit Vanuatu last night causing deaths and destruction. This morning Pam had a central pressure as low as 899hPa and was gusting up to 335km per hour at its centre. It is one of four cyclones unusually affecting the South Pacific at the same time. The Vanuatu Meteorological Services warned very destructive hurricane-force winds of 250 kilometres per hour continued to affect the country's southern provinces this morning. It said the central pressure of the system was estimated at 900 hectopascals, which is among the strongest tropical cyclones on record. Furthermore, at 8:00 am today, Saturday, the Fiji Meteorological Service reported that Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam (Category 5) was located about 890km West of Nadi. "It has a central pressure of 899hPa and average wind speeds of 250km per hour close to the centre with gusts up to 335km per hour. It is currently moving South 20km per hour. It is gradually turning southeasterly," Fiji Met stated. | |
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WYFF4.com
2015-03-14 22:55:00
The U.S. Geological Survey has reported an earthquake that shook part of Swain County late Friday night. The U.S.G.S. tracked the earthquake to Cherokee and said it happened at 11:51 p.m. According to the U.S.G.S. website, this was a 2.8 magnitude earthquake. | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
No new articles.
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| Health & Wellness |
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Dr. Davis
Wheat Belly Blog 2015-03-09 10:41:00
If you experience depression, you will typically be prescribed an antidepressant, an SSRI or other agent. If you consult a psychologist or counselor, the underlying psychological underpinnings (if any) are explored, strategies devised to cope. But there will almost never be talk about your diet, nutritional deficiencies that amplify dark moods, the life habits that allow demons to emerge. Yet there are some very powerful strategies available that have potential to substantially lift mood. Such solutions won't, of course, erase the effects of childhood trauma or grieving from personal loss, but they can help smooth the emotional impact of such life events, elevate the hormones of mood, and make life easier easily and naturally. Among the most powerful nutritional and natural mood lifters: | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
No new articles.
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| High Strangeness |
No new articles.
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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Andy Borowitz
The New Yorker 2015-03-13 20:51:00
Washington - After a challenging week for the legislative body, the approval rating of the United States Congress has shrunk to a point where it is no longer detectable by the technology currently available, a leading pollster said on Friday. Davis Logsdon, who heads the highly regarded Opinion Research Institute at the University of Minnesota, said that his polling unit has developed highly sensitive measurement technology in recent years to gauge Congress's popularity as it fell into the single digits, but added that "as of this week, Congress is basically flatlining." "At the beginning of the week, you could still see a slight flicker of approval for Congress," he said. "Then—bam!—the lights went out." Logsdon said, however, that people should resist drawing the conclusion that Congress's approval rating now stands at zero. "They may have support in the range of .0001 per cent or, say, .0000001 per cent," he said. "Our equipment just isn't advanced enough to measure it." Logsdon said that the swift descent of Congress's approval rating below detectable levels has surprised experts in the polling profession. "A couple of years ago, when they shut down the government, I wondered, What could they possibly do to become less popular than this?" the pollster said. "Now we know." |
