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Posted by Mandy Nagy on May 26, 2013 10 Comments
Change.org, one of the most widely used petition websites, with over 35 million users in 196 countries, was hacked this weekend. Unauthorized modifications that are said to have been “cosmetic” in nature were made Friday to twelve petitions hosted on the site, according to a spokesman for the organization. From CNN:
No personal information was stolen, spokesman Benjamin Joffe-Walt said in a written statement. He added that none of the 12 petitions targeted had its number of signatures affected. The modified petitions included one calling for officials to end the prosecution of a Florida teen charged in connection with a same-sex relationship with a 14-year-old; a petition to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay; and a petition and to allow gay Boy Scouts leaders, said Brianna Cayo-Cotter, a spokeswoman for Change.org.
The organization said its website was taken offline while a “minor vulnerability” exploited by a hacker was fixed.  Apparently the hacker had modified text and photos on those twelve petitions after gaining access to the site. The petition to end the prosecution of the Florida teen in question is likely for that of 18 year old Kaitlyn Hunt, a story that has made nationwide headlines in recent weeks.  Her father, Steven Hunt, set up a Change.org petition over a week ago to “Stop the prosecution of an 18 year old girl in a same-sex relationship.” Kaitlyn Hunt was expelled from Sebastian High School and arrested and charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years of age after it was discovered she was in a consenting relationship with a 14 year old female student. The hacker collective Anonymous has been outspoken in its support of Hunt, and has lobbied for the resignation of the officials involved in prosecuting the girl.
In the letter released by Anonymous, the group claims the Indian River County State Attorney's Office has "lost perspective" and vows to put together a petition with 200,000 signatures on it calling for the resignation of the officials involved. "The truth is, Kaitlyn Hunt is a bright young girl who was involved in a consensual, same-sex relationship while both she and her partner were minors. She has a big future ahead of her and there are people, thousands of people in fact, that have no intention of allowing you to ruin it with your rotten selective enforcement." The group also cites alleged intolerance by the younger girl's parents. Kaitlyn's mother had previously posted on a Facebook page, entitled "Free Kate," that the girlfriend's parents "conspired with police to entrap Kaitlyn" because they disapproved of the relationship.
Also mentioned by Change.org as one of the affected petitions was one to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2013 13 Comments

Windmills! The backbone of the Obama energy plan, and something of a fetish to him: Because the windmill industry is politically correct, it gets a pass on the wholesale slaughter of Eagles and other migratory birds: AP VIDEO: Wind turbines injure and kill protected birds, but the Obama...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on May 26, 2013 8 Comments

I wonder how this will be reported in the press. Press coverage or complicity? https://twitter.com/NoahPollak/status/338694756337078273 From The Commentator: A video has surfaced which claims to show Palestinian terrorists hurling firebombs and rocks at Israeli soldiers while hiding behind reporters and other media.  ...

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 26, 2013 9 Comments
It is well known that the Golden State is experiencing economic troubles. In fact, 10 California cities are poised to declare bankruptcy. Stockton has recently been given the go ahead to lead this fiscal emergency parade:
On Monday a judge ruled that Stockton, Ca. could enter bankruptcy. The city of 291,000 counts among its woes hundreds of millions of dollars in retirement promises it hasn't funded and hasn't been able to afford since a steep economic decline began several years ago. Today, unemployment in the Stockton metro area is a daunting 15.5 percent, which doesn't do much for the local tax base.
Los Angeles residents just elected a new mayor who will be forced to deal with budget shortfalls and the long term consequences of sweetheart pension deals for government employees.
Eric Garcetti will be Los Angeles' next mayor. By 3 a.m. Wednesday, with 100 percent of the votes counted, Garcetti had received 54 percent of the vote, making him L.A.'s first elected Jewish mayor.
Garcetti has his work cut out for him. One LA department is now making plans to distribute free condoms via bus to city residents:
The wheels on the bus go round and round all throughout Los Angeles…passing out free condoms. The County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health announced this week that it will be sending a 40-foot-long bus filled with free condoms throughout the city of angels, encouraging them to “suit up” with condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. “Suit Up” was the winning theme from the city’s condom wrapper design competition. All condoms distributed by the city’s condom bus will feature the bow-tie logo. LA residents can also check the condom mobile’s website to find a stop nearest them. The health department’s goal is to not just distribute one million condoms, but rather one million and one before the bus’s tour is finished. The health department has also partnered up with local LGBT sports leagues to help spread awareness.
Garcetti and other LA leaders may want to consider an analysis by Michael S. Greve, a professor at George Mason University School of Law. In the Library of Law and Liberty, he wrote on Conservatives, Condoms and Compassion:

Posted by David Gerstman on May 26, 2013 34 Comments
I can see clearly now the rain is gone ... How often does a cabinet secretary endorse an op-ed column? https://twitter.com/Sebelius/status/338412119940800512 Thomas Friedman must feel really good right now, Secretary Sebelius endorsed his latest, ObamaCare's other surprise.
Obamacare is based on the notion that a main reason we pay so much more than any other industrial nation for health care, without better results, is because the incentive structure in our system is wrong. Doctors and hospitals are paid primarily for procedures and tests, not health outcomes. The goal of the health care law is to flip this fee-for-services system (which some insurance companies are emulating) to one where the government pays doctors and hospitals to keep Medicare patients healthy and the services they do render are reimbursed more for their value than volume. To do this, though, doctors and hospitals need instant access to data about patients — diagnoses, medications, test results, procedures and potential gaps in care that need to be addressed. As long as this information was stuffed into manila folders in doctors’ offices and hospitals, and not turned into electronic records, it was difficult to execute these kinds of analyses. That is changing. According to the Obama administration, thanks to incentives in the recovery act there has been nearly a tripling since 2008 of electronic records installed by office-based physicians, and a quadrupling by hospitals. The Health and Human Services Department connected me with some start-ups and doctors who’ve benefited from all this, including Dr. Jen Brull, a family medicine specialist in Plainville, Kan., who said that she was certain she had been alerting her relevant patients to have colorectal cancer screening — until she looked at the data in her new electronic health care system and discovered that only 43 percent of those who should be getting the screening had done so. She improved it to 90 percent by installing alerts in her electronic health records, and this led to the early detection of cancer in three patients — and early surgery that saved these patients’ lives and also substantial health care expense.
Friedman suggests that the experiences of one doctor provide an example of how Obamacare will work universally. That's a huge leap of logic. But the next part really bothers me:

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2013 5 Comments

So writes Syracuse University Professor Zak Braiterman, Hezbollah — Part of the Global Left?: Reading this article about Hezbollah fighting in Syria and up to its waist in blood, it made me wonder if a certain philosopher still believes that Hezbollah is a social movement that is “progressive,”...

Posted by Anne Segal on May 26, 2013 15 Comments

In reaction to news that the Chicago board of education approved the closure of 50 schools, part of what Mayor Rahm Emanuel says is an effort to close a $1 billion budget shortfall in the city made prudent by school underutilization and lack of enrollment,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2013 2 Comments

From John: Taken in a parking lot in Marietta GA -- a proud member of the "wing nuts" and bi-partisan, to boot. Keep up the great work! ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2013 19 Comments

Newer readers may not know about the Tip Line.  It's not just a Tip Line, it just is named Tip Line.  It's a place, um, to leave tips, but it's also a place where readers can have a conversation on topics not really covered by...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2013 21 Comments

I've been accumulating these links, but there has been so much race-card playing, I haven't had time to post the videos below. Given it's a slow news holiday weekend, now seems as good a time as any to post them: Chris Matthews -- Only Whites can be racist: Julian...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2013 6 Comments
I mentioned the other day how the fight in Syria wasn't going quite as easily as many predicted for Hezbollah, with it suffering heavy losses even trying to take a modestly-sized border city, Will Qusayr be Hezbollah’s Stalingrad? As of the latest reports, rebels are still in control of parts of al-Qusayr, but the situation is very murky with pro-Assad sources proclaiming victory and anti-Assad forces denying.  Hezbollah officials are quoted as admitting the fight is much tougher than expected, and today saw round-the-clock shelling of the city. (video added) Against that backdrop, Hezbollah's leader proclaimed that it was in the fight in Syria to the bitter end, as reported by The NY Times, Hezbollah Leader Orders Full Fight to Save Assad:
The leader of the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Saturday decisively committed his followers to an all-out battle in Syria to salvage the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, saying that Hezbollah was fighting abroad to “immunize” Lebanon from an Israeli invasion he said would surely follow if Syrian rebels prevailed. “It is our battle, and we are up to it,” the leader, Hassan Nasrallah, declared, in his most direct embrace yet of a fight in Syria that Hezbollah can no longer hide now that dozens of its fighters have fallen recently in and around the strategic Syrian town of Qusayr. Outgunned Syrian rebels have held on for a week there against a frontal assault by Hezbollah and Syrian forces.

The speech was delivered via videotape on the 13th anniversary of the end of Israel’s 15-year occupation of southern Lebanon after years of battling Hezbollah’s guerrillas, which the group considers its greatest victory. Mr. Nasrallah seemed to be preparing his followers for the heavy price in lives and political capital that the organization could pay as it embarks on an unprecedented intervention in a neighboring country, a move that could deeply destabilize Lebanon.

The Lebanese website Naharnet reports:
On his party's involvement in the battles alongside Assad's forces, he said: “A political and economic world war was launched on Syria and thousands of fighters were sent without anyone complaining.” “Meanwhile, Hizbullah's involvement was considered a foreign interference,” he noted. Nasrallah explained that Syria is the resistance's backbone: “We cannot stand still and let the break the resistance's main supporter.” Nasrallah said Hizbullah fighters joining the war in Syria are not forced “go willingly and aspire to take part in the resistance.” “You will find tens of thousands of fighters that are ready to take all fronts and participate in the battles. No one is forced into the war,” he assured.
The leader of the Lebanese Sunni opposition, Saad Hariri, mocked Nasrallah's speech,

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2013 7 Comments
On April 25 we wrote about a federal court case which held Obama's DREAM policy unlawful, but reserved decision on whether to issue an injunction,Federal Court finds Obama DREAM policy illegal, but may not require actual deportations:
There are many news reports about the preliminary decision issued by Judge Reed O’Connor in the Northern District of Texas in a lawsuit brought by ICE agents challenging the Obama administration’s administrative DREAM provisions which direct Homeland Security not to commence removal proceedings as to people who meet the criteria. A copy of the decision is embedded at the bottom of this post. Copies of the Amended Complaint and Motion for Preliminary Injunction are at the links. The news accounts tend to overstate the breadth of the opinion. The ruling related only to the initiation of removal proceedings, and would not require any particular prosecutorial diligence once initiated, since that issue was not before the Court. Thus, assuming the Judge finalizes the ruling, the Obama administration would be required to commence removal proceedings, but absent further challenges, could allow Obama to delay actual deportations. The Judge reserved decision on the issue of whether injunctive relief was the proper remedy, and requested further briefing.
Since that time, both the plaintiffs and the government have submitted supplemental briefs arguing for and against, respectively, the issuance of an injunction prohibiting the Obama administration from further implementing the policy. Two private groups have sought to intervene in the case on the side of the government. The U. Texas-Austin student group University Leadership Institute is devoted to supporting "DREAM" policies allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the country, get in-state tuition, and defer deportation.  ULI also seeks changes in the law to support these goals:
ULI has received extensive training from experienced political consultants on effective communication and messaging.  Our thorough knowledge and new training on messaging and communication has permitted us to more effectively reach out to different communities, including religious groups, businesses, students, activists, and politicians.  Our newly formatted messages have proven to be more effective with the mainstream public and have also allowed us to form coalitions with unlikely allies.
The ULI not only seeks to submit a brief supporting the government position, it and certain individual students who have benefitted from the DREAM policy seek to become defendants in the case, which would allow them a

Posted by Mandy Nagy on May 25, 2013 1 Comment
A group of hackers attempted to break into the city of Haifa's water system computer network, according to an Israeli security expert. From the AP via ABC News:
Speaking at a lecture on Saturday in the southern city of Beersheba, Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, Israel's former cyber security adviser, said that a group calling itself "The Syrian Electronic Army" had launched the failed attack two weeks ago.
The Syrian Electronic Army however, maintains that it succeeded in infiltrating the network, in response to recent Israeli strikes. In an email to Softpedia, the group stated:
“We would like to announce that in response to the unfair and illegal attacks, taken place by Israel on DATE, SEA has penetrated one of the main infrastructural systems (SCADA) in Haifa and managed to gain access to some sensitive data. Also SEA is now able to cause irrecoverable damages to the Israeli's infrastructural systems,” the hackers said. The breach comes in response to the recent Israeli strike on a Damascus research center. “This message carries a serious caution to the Israeli statesmen. They should know that not receiving a quick reaction to such childish ventures, does not show the Syrian inability in doing so, but it is based on wisdom and humanity considerations. We do not approve of killing civilians and innocent people as this is an Israeli type of solution instead,” they added. “Also an advise to those who left their homelands for many years, dreaming a happy and safe life, deceived by politicians whose deed is much far than their slogans; Do the best to express your objections to Israeli policies, since we do not like to see innocent people getting killed in Texas, US, but this time in Haifa.” To demonstrate their attack, the hackers published a PDF file that contains screenshots of what appear to be SCADA control panels.
This news also comes on the heels of yet another #OpIsrael campaign, in which a variety of hackers claiming association to the Anonymous collective targeted various Israeli government websites.  Like its predecessor, the recent campaign also largely failed, with little damage to any major websites and only some minor defacements to a number of seemingly random small businesses and organizations. A group of pro-Israel hackers claimed to have recently unmasked several of the individuals behind the latest #OpIsrael attacks.  Given that Anonymous is a leaderless movement, it is entirely possible that the actions of that particular group were a rogue operation conducted while hiding behind the banner of Anonymous.  There is no known association of any of those to the Syrian Electronic Army. Meanwhile, the Syrian Electronic Army has also been busy hijacking the accounts of news outlets, most recently that of ITV News on Friday. While the SEA's selection of targets and its messaging, which usually consists of odd jokes mixed in with pro-Assad political propaganda, may seem like nothing more than "lulz" to some, there is a more serious side to the group's actions.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 25, 2013 6 Comments
At the end of March, wealthy depositors with banks on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus had their accounts "levied" as part of a bailout deal for Cypriot financial institutions by other European Union members. I delved into the news for an update on how the bribe plan worked. Admirably, as Cyprus receives EU-IMF bailout funds!

Cyprus has received the first installment of a 10bn-euro bailout package from international creditors, which was agreed earlier this year.

Cyprus received 2bn euros (£1.6bn; $2.6bn) in loans, said a statement by the European Stability Mechanism. Another 1bn euros will be transferred before 30 June, the ESM said.
It's a veritable bailout bonanza!!!  While the repercussions of the Cypriot bailout are still not clear, it is worthwhile taking a look at the recipient of another bailout deal: Greece.  Three years after their "rescue", the Greek economy is still full of fail.  In Mindful Money, economist Shuan Richards has this analysis:
It is now over three years since the bailout of Greece which if we recall was supposed to provoke “shock and awe”. Ironically it has followed the path of the original shock and awe claims of the attack on Baghdad where initial claims and boasts then became bogged down in an insurgency. In both instances reality proved inconvenient and we now see that Greece is bogged down in an economic decline rather than seeing the fruits of a “rescue” that was supposed to see her growing at 2.8% per annum right now. If that now sounds insane well it was supposed to rise to 3.1% next year on its way to 3.8% in 2015. Or we note it was put this way.
Richards actually has some information on Cyprus as well, and it is none too good:
You might think that something at least would have been learnt from this and yet what is beginning in Cyprus looks even worse.
For the period January-February 2013, the (Retail Sales) Index is provisionally estimated to have a decrease of 8,5% compared to the corresponding period of 2012. Based on the seasonally adjusted data that shows the trend of unemployment, the number of registered unemployed for April 2013 increased to 44.043 persons in comparison to 41.413 in the previous month…….In comparison with April 2012, an increase of 9.803 persons or 27,7% was recorded
Sound familiar?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2013 2 Comments

Pushing back against the narratives: CAMERA launches new website for pro-Israel college students “Affirmative Action Baby” … Or Survivor? Prager U. Video – The Separation of Church and State FIRE works overtime for targeted Syracuse U. students College Fix Editor: Porn is a weapon in the real campus ‘war on women’ Thomas...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 25, 2013 10 Comments

I couldn't have said it better myself. From John in Richmond, VA, who spotted this in the rear window of the vehicle in front of him: With all the scandal news breaking it may be hard to get to bumper stickers but these are timely. I have...

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