Always on? No thank you.Here’s how you can disconnect.

<p dir="ltr">Always on? No thank you. Here’s how you can disconnect.💻</p><p dir="ltr"> What does ‘always on’ mean to you? One view is: ‘always accessible to customers,’ ‘constantly available,’ and ‘alert at all times.’ But should ‘always on’ mean ‘always at work?’</p><p dir="ltr">When I was a child (a very long time ago) there was no internet, no mobile phones and at my parents’ house, not even a land line. Did it matter? No – your friends and relatives were nearby – you walked round to their houses to see if they were in, and you sent letters. In emergencies there were always telegrams – which usually contained information of someone’s death. Did my parents need to know exactly where I was? No. When my parents left work did they talk to other people about work – no.</p><p dir="ltr">In everyday life, I am mindful when it comes to communications. I set aside specific times of day to check messages on Email, Facebook, Whatsapp, Linked In, Twitter, Kik, Tango, Viber, Skype and several other specific apps such as news. I may glance at a message alarm because it tells me which of the above I need to look at later. If the phone rings then I will see who it is, provided that I am on my own. However if I am with a clients, colleagues or friends that is a different story. I focus exclusively on who I am with. If someone asks ‘I am important person why didn’t you answer my calls?’ My response is ‘If I was with an important person such as you, how would you feel if disrupted our meeting and spoke on the phone?’ Most things can wait an hour or two.</p><p dir="ltr">Right now, I am in Kuwait focusing on the one thing I am there to do which is training. I am especially focused because I have no access to the internet nor phone while on the client site. And my portable Wi-Fi doesn’t work because I am in a different country. So therefore for large periods of the day I am ‘always off’. Has it made a difference? I have no idea.</p><p dir="ltr">When I eventually make it back to my hotel room, I get the internet. I can then spend hours just running around each of the media about to see if there are messages. UK mobile still has no phone reception. UAE text messages are hours late. Using my sphere of influence techniques I realize I can do nothing except invest in two Kuwaiti sim cards which frankly isn’t worth it for five days.</p><p dir="ltr">So how am I spending my time? Working on the least possible interactions with the outside world unless they are really urgent (according to me not them). Some of these are personal, some are business – all is blurred these days. Learning how to convert email content into WhatsApp messages to deal with the communication challenges. But principally dealing with the opportunities afforded by being with this particular client at a particular time.</p><p dir="ltr">I am building face to face relationships with the people I am training, and the organizers of the training. I am taking advantage of the bus journeys from hotel to client to build face to face relationships with my fellow trainers who are from all over the world and delivering very different topics. And also sitting by the sea, chewing the fat with these new colleagues. And with all of these activities I am not tempted to be distracted by the phones and laptops because they are all tucked in bed in my hotel room.</p><p dir="ltr">These are opportunities which will not be available next week.</p><p dir="ltr">I have business colleagues in England who close their offices for the weekend and it means they are refreshed when Monday morning starts up. I respect that, and while I have prearranged client meetings over the UAE weekends I believe it is important to have my personal time too.</p><p dir="ltr">Here are some quotes from professionals and business owners about being ‘always on’.</p><p dir="ltr">• “[Always on means] being able to communicate with people, make the decisions, get the information, at any hour of the day”<br>• “From my perspective, if you need to get something done – regardless of time, or whether you’re in the office or not – it has to get done”<br>• “The second I wake up I check my emails. Then I go downstairs and make the children’s breakfast. Then I check them again before I leave [for work].”<br>• “I try not to check my emails until at least half an hour after I’ve started working”<br>• “I normally check my emails when I wake up. But I think my most productive days are those where I don’t check my emails until later in the day.”<br>• “Some people are getting more mindful of stepping away from that culture and actually turning their phones off at night.”</p><p dir="ltr">Like many, I suffer from information overload but I plan my life so I am awake enough to deal with it, and also recognize that some people will always ‘want it right now,’ totally disregarding there may be other people in my life. As far as I am concerned I am more effective when I am mindful and so they can have their response when I am ready. If these people are so demanding then they can demand from other people, and also instant response give the impression you are their only client.</p><p dir="ltr">I have a life to lead so I choose not to be ‘always on’- and so can you.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCazejM0XTlKQf7T3NiHwVO5Q7cGHPulVX7teDh4z1TYaTkVLLej1j-6ipwml2KjWEeTqZUWrreiZhfY1Rp_mcGm81cckfD2bdvMeEGx28OVwy7griyL5D5k9oz7M9LX-QRrGbNi23lcY/s1600/2016-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCazejM0XTlKQf7T3NiHwVO5Q7cGHPulVX7teDh4z1TYaTkVLLej1j-6ipwml2KjWEeTqZUWrreiZhfY1Rp_mcGm81cckfD2bdvMeEGx28OVwy7griyL5D5k9oz7M9LX-QRrGbNi23lcY/s640/2016-04.jpg"> </a> </div>

Always on? No thank you.Here’s how you can disconnect.

Always on? No thank you. Here’s how you can disconnect.&#128187;  What does ‘always on’ mean to you? One view is: ‘always accessible to ...

These right-wing groups are gearing up for an onslaught on Obama's Supreme Court nominee

<p dir="ltr">Conservative outfits are spending millions to make sure Merrick Garland isn't confirmed.</p><p dir="ltr">On Wednesday, President Barack Obama picked Merrick Garland, a federal court of appeals judge with a stellar and moderate reputation, to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. His strategy was obvious: present obstructionist Republicans with a nominee with little or no baggage. But Senate Republicans immediately signaled that the Garland nomination would not change their calculations—that the fight to block any nominee was on. And prior to Obama's announcement, conservative groups were already gearing up for this crusade, perhaps the last big battle of the right's war on Obama.</p><p dir="ltr">The political players leading this effort are the usual suspects. The Republican National Committee had already announced plans to oppose Obama's nominee—whoever it might be—and to run ads in competitive Senate races in Colorado, Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire and elsewhere, in addition to targeting Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The tea party group FreedomWorks is rallying grassroots voters to the cause. On the other side of political spectrum, liberal advocacy groups such as the Alliance for Justice and People for the American Way are girding for a massive fight.</p><p dir="ltr">This face-off could well be nastier and more expensive than past confrontations over the Supreme Court. It's the first political fight of this kind since the controversial Citizens United decision allowed money to flow freely into the political system. The influx of money has also helped create a well-funded extra-party political infrastructure that is now turning its sights on the SCOTUS fight.<br>Thanks to Citizens United, campaign finance rules that once limited the use of corporate and union money for certain advertisements no longer exist. Meanwhile, dark-money groups—which can get involved in campaigns but don't have to disclose their donors—are supposed to spend slightly more than half of their money on nonelection activities to keep their nonprofit status. As a result, they "may funnel a lot of the rest of their money into Supreme Court-related ads," says Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California-Irvine law school</p><p dir="ltr">Here's a look at the groups launching the assault against Garland:</p><p dir="ltr">Judicial Crisis Network: Perhaps the biggest player in the Supreme Court fight is the Judicial Crisis Network, launched in 2005 and long a dark-money conduit for a number of rich conservative donors. Founded by Ann Corkery, a low-profile conservative fundraiser and lawyer, the group reportedly launched with startup money from California foreclosure king Robin Arkley II, a wealthy conservative who helped bankroll the effort to unseat former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle (D). Corkery's husband Neil is JCN's treasurer.</p><p dir="ltr">Other early JCN supporters included Jay Sekulow, a longtime culture warrior and chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (which was created by televangelist Pat Robertson), and Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a leading conservative legal group. Originally called the Judicial Confirmation Network, the group was formed to help push through George W. Bush's judicial nominees. After Obama was elected in 2008, the group shifted its focus to blocking his federal court nominees.</p><p dir="ltr">In 2008, JCN ran ads attacking then-candidate Obama for associating with former Weatherman Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The group went all in to oppose the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, setting up state-level opposition groups to pressure vulnerable Democratic senators. It also ran attack ads against Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan the following year.</p><p dir="ltr">Since Citizens United, JCN has become more heavily involved in elections, particularly judicial and attorney general elections at the state level. It has spent millions of dollars to swing state supreme courts to the right and to elect business-friendly attorney generals. The group is a beneficiary of significant amounts of dark money. The bulk of its budget in 2014 came from an outfit called Wellspring Committee, a secretive nonprofit group that isn't required to disclose its donors.</p><p dir="ltr">According to Wellspring's most recent tax filing, it gave JCN nearly $7 million that year. Wellspring was a creation of the Koch brothers, the billionaire industrialists who have pumped millions of dollars into conservative political campaigns over the past several years. According to Ken Vogel's book Big Money, Wellspring was one of the Kochs' first forays into using a nonprofit entity to funnel money secretly to other political organizations to obscure the source of the funding. The Koch brothers reportedly broke with Wellspring in 2008 and moved on to other projects, but Wellspring still apparently maintains ties with members of their donor network.</p><p dir="ltr">Within a week of Scalia's passing, JCN announced the launch of a $1 million ad campaign calling on Senate Republicans to refuse Obama a hearing on any Supreme Court nominee. The ads praised senators in competitive 2016 races who had already pledged to block any Obama nominee. (Last week, the group ran ads attacking Judge Jane Kelly, a federal appeals court judge who was briefly on Obama’s Supreme Court short list, for once having represented a "child molester.") After Obama announced Garland's nomination, JCN disclosed that it would spend another $2 million on ads opposing his confirmation.</p><p dir="ltr">Carrie Severino, a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who serves as JCN's chief counsel and policy director, said last month, "We cannot allow President Obama turn the Supreme Court nomination process into another partisan game, where Obama’s goal is to dominate the court with extremist liberal ideologues."</p><p dir="ltr">America Rising: A super-PAC, America Rising was founded in 2013 by Mitt Romney's former campaign manager, Matt Rhoades. The PAC's biggest donor this cycle is Republican hedge fund mogul Paul Singer. Close behind is Mike Fernandez, a big Jeb Bush donor. The outfit has made a name for itself by sending out trackers to follow Democratic congressional candidates during the 2014 election—looking for material for attack ads. The trackers scored a big hit when they captured Senate candidate Bruce Braley calling Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley "a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school," a comment that hurt Braley's campaign.</p><p dir="ltr">America Rising's involvement in the Supreme Court fight is coming largely through a subsidiary, America Rising Squared, run by a former communications director for Sen. John McCain, that was created to do opposition research on Democratic candidates. Before the Garland pick was announced, JCN and the Republican Party each hired American Rising to dig up dirt on potential Supreme Court nominees. After Garland's nomination, America Rising Squared executive director Brian Rogers released a statement warning of the judge's liberal leanings. "Merrick Garland has been called the ideal judge to move the Supreme Court to the left and cement President Obama's liberal legacy for decades into the future." And he told the Washington Post, "We've done a good deal of research on Judge Garland so far and now we're in the midst of a big surge to get after the record to make sure the American people have all the information they need to weigh this debate."</p><p dir="ltr">One Nation: Republican strategist Karl Rove's dark-money monster, Crossroads GPS, will be a key player in Senate elections, though under a less familiar name. That outside spending group, created in the wake of Citizens United, has lately been operating using an entity called One Nation. The new group is headed by Crossroads' President Steven Law, a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has made obstructing Obama's Supreme Court nominee a priority. One Nation has already spent several million dollars trying to help endangered GOP senators such as Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).</p><p dir="ltr">The group has said it will likely focus its Senate campaign efforts on the Supreme Court fight, honing in on the impact of a new potential liberal justice and the effect on core conservative issues. Ian Prior, a spokesman for the group, told Politico last month,"The consequences of our next Supreme Court justice and what that will do to shape the court for 20 years is certainly an issue that One Nation will be front and center in addressing over the next several months."<br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMNWYNdk0a6kc9oqpD6N8GPzbwVBadVVQHlx84gv3y2xbJi1zDZJuWowBJstSfNGz0YkB9l0Qdeky4acztyrXjRDjqWYl4-e4PktVAJrtSVwVSVkvYPzPbOEHupShyDFCZdIAIuxrnilg/s1600/IMG_20160319_165718.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMNWYNdk0a6kc9oqpD6N8GPzbwVBadVVQHlx84gv3y2xbJi1zDZJuWowBJstSfNGz0YkB9l0Qdeky4acztyrXjRDjqWYl4-e4PktVAJrtSVwVSVkvYPzPbOEHupShyDFCZdIAIuxrnilg/s640/IMG_20160319_165718.jpg"> </a> </div>

These right-wing groups are gearing up for an onslaught on Obama's Supreme Court nominee

Conservative outfits are spending millions to make sure Merrick Garland isn't confirmed. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama picked Mer...

Opinion: Ukraine should not repeat the mistakes of its past two revolutions

Another chance for change in Ukraine.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBqbimP8TbP4atLiqcCczwYBc3uXP6xAMXr3gNVNGeQaS5prPFw_i5SG8c8KRRfOKjKSgqcaDclxSWcuotcsqFaI_wwvIziVXKBfyRjBi4Qnk_SXmTfZH7Q0TuDLrhBH9o5O5WoPnkUE/s1600/620.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBqbimP8TbP4atLiqcCczwYBc3uXP6xAMXr3gNVNGeQaS5prPFw_i5SG8c8KRRfOKjKSgqcaDclxSWcuotcsqFaI_wwvIziVXKBfyRjBi4Qnk_SXmTfZH7Q0TuDLrhBH9o5O5WoPnkUE/s1600/620.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Throughout the weekend Ukrainians were mourning the victims of the Maidan - more than 70 people were massacred on Thursday morning by squads of snipers who took positions on buildings overlooking the area. It is still not quite clear who ordered the blood-bath that day but the fact is that most victims got very precise shots into their heads or chests - a clear proof that the main goal of the "operation" was killing.<br /><br />The very labelling [Ua] of the protesters as "terrorists" was actually brand new in Ukraine. Until Yanukovych's return from Sochi, the protesters were smeared as "radicals", "fascists" and "putschists" in the pro-government propaganda machine, but the top officials refrained, in most cases, from employing this language. As long as they negotiated (or pretended to) with the leaders of opposition, they preferred to distinguish the "fascists" and "radicals" from the "healthier" part of protesters, prompting the latter to distance themselves from the former.<br /><br />The sudden emergence of the Putinesque term "anti-terrorist operation" in Yanukovych's post-Sochi parlance was highly ominous. It meant that everything was permitted and one should expect the worst. In 1999, as Anne Applebaum points out, "[t]he term granted Russian soldiers carte blanche to destroy Grozny, the Chechen capital". This is why so many reacted with horror when the Ukrainian defence ministry warned that the army "might be used in anti-terrorist operations on the territory of Ukraine".<br /><br />The path to violence<br /><br />The ruthless killing of peaceful protesters with no firearms has completely delegitimised the regime - both domestically and internationally. Despite the regime's expectations, the protesters in the Maidan did not run away after the bloodshed but stood defiant. New people from all over the country rushed to support them bypassing police cordons and transport blockades. Local councils in western regions took over local government, subordinated the local police, and renounced obedience to the capital.<br />The prospect of civil war in a 45-million country [Ua] has finally forced the EU to move from words to deeds and impose sanctions on Ukrainian officials. This  - predictably -  triggered the split within the ruling party as more and more of its members rushed to distance themselves from the criminal policies of the government. Within a day the regime fell down as a house of cards, resembling the split within the Soviet leadership in 1991 and that of their East European satellites two years earlier.<br /><br />Back then, the Ukrainian democratic and national liberation movement was hijacked by the communist nomenklatura who got rid of their party membership cards but not of old habits. In 2004, Ukrainians made a second attempt to complete the unfinished business. They staged a spectacular non-violent Orange revolution that brought new people to power but failed to enforce the much-needed institutional changes. They allowed their leaders to play with the rules rather than by the rules. This lawless, dysfunctional democracy compromised itself to such a degree that the orange electorate punished the leaders by staying at home and watching how the supporters of Yanukovych voted him by a slight majority into office.<br /><br />The result was disastrous. In a less than four years, the president and his team destroyed all the trances of an independent judiciary, privatised the police and security service and effectively monopolised both Ukrainian politics and economy. The country fell in the hands of the "Family" - the president, his two sons and their close friends, mostly natives of the Donbas region.<br /><br />Under these circumstances, the third Ukrainian revolution turned regretfully violent, following rather Romanian than the Polish, East German and Czechoslovak pattern of peaceful transition. This was actually what Alexander Motyl, a political science professor from Rutgers University, predicted a year ago. He wrote that violence is very likely to occur when "the society is humiliated and exploited, when oppressors look vulnerable and weak, and when individuals or groups with violent agendas exist."<br /><br />The way forward<br /><br />The cleaning up of the house is the major task for the new Ukrainian government. As Motyl foretold back in 2013:<br /><br />"Following the extensive institutional destruction wrought by Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, Ukraine will have to be reconstructed from top to bottom. Mere reform will no longer be enough. Even 'radical reform' may not quite accurately capture the magnitude of change that Ukraine will have to endure to emerge from the 'Yanukovych Ruin' politically energised and rejuvenated, rather than enervated and ossified."<br /><br />But the problem is that the new Ukrainian government faces not only this strategic task but also numerous mundane issues like paying domestic and international bills, keeping the order and curbing attempts at mob justice against the most hated members of the ancien regime.<br />The EU further guardianship is highly important in these circumstances, but probably even more important is advance of new people with no tails of corruption, nepotism, or dubious business activity in the past.<br /><br />The old politicians like Yulia Tymoshenko or Viktor Yushchenko should stay off the political process. They had a chance to build a new Ukraine in 2005 but pathetically failed.<br /><br />Today, after the bad experience of two previous revolutions, Ukrainians broadly believe that the Maidan should stay - at least for some time - and watch the new government. The real threat to the revolution comes not from Moscow or Kremlin-sponsored Crimean separatism. Nor does it come from the far-right groups that got some prominence during the struggle.<br /><br />The biggest threat comes from within:  from old habits and old-boy networks, from sophisticated corruption schemes and shadow funds accumulated by oligarchs, from lack of much needed skills on part of the revolutionaries and lack of political will on part of the politicians.<br /><br />The rapid fall of ancien regimes are often deceptive. In most cases they are as resilient. The two Ukrainian revolutions - of 1991 and 2004 - rather pitifully illustrate the rule.<br /><br />The new revolution, however, was not that peaceful. It cost the lives of so many bright and courageous people that Ukrainian politicians have simply no moral right to spoil it by pursuing their selfish, partisan, and parochial goals.<br /><br />

Opinion: Ukraine should not repeat the mistakes of its past two revolutions

Another chance for change in Ukraine. Throughout the weekend Ukrainians were mourning the victims of the Maidan - more than 70 people were m...

Are You Prepared For When You Need Credit?"With shutdown and default clocks ticking"

Reviewing and verifying your credit is a good start to knowing how risky may look to lenders–they look at the same type of data when making decisions.<br /><h1 abp="3313" class="headline" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1381738994150_7827">Shutdown Hits U.S. Global Economic Reputation </h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZJapivHNt971smKHXFyYtCd3upL8ZjdL97ZupAeg1I1G3gtFpRbFIy1NO2LKzyzcYh3VdBuOzCe_P59jqXJPGnc70za_67iGH9I3ci81vrqhKLuB5by2CWIYJcROIMxKMtFA5lxAABA/s1600/us-dollar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZJapivHNt971smKHXFyYtCd3upL8ZjdL97ZupAeg1I1G3gtFpRbFIy1NO2LKzyzcYh3VdBuOzCe_P59jqXJPGnc70za_67iGH9I3ci81vrqhKLuB5by2CWIYJcROIMxKMtFA5lxAABA/s1600/us-dollar.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>With shutdown and default clocks ticking, lawmakers hit an impasse.<br /><br />Four days before a possible US government default on its debt, lawmakers failed to reach agreement. That, says a European central banker, could be 'very negative for the US economy and the world economy and could certainly harm the recovery.'<br /><br /><div abp="2429">As the day wore on Sunday, the Senate was starting to seem schizophrenic about the prospects for a breakthrough on the government shutdown (13 days and counting) and the threat of government default (as soon as this coming Thursday, according to the Treasury Department).</div><div abp="2429"><br /></div><div abp="2430">As usual, the venues for political discourse this day were the TV news shows.</div><div abp="2430"><br /></div><div abp="2431">"We will have decided as a Congress that we need to avoid going over the debt limit and we'll figure it out," Sen. Rob Portman (R) of Ohio said on NBC’s "<a abp="2432" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="8" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Meet+the+Press" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: Meet the Press">Meet the Press</a>.”</div><div abp="2431"><br /></div><div abp="2433">Sen. Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois, the Senate majority whip (second in command), was sanguine as well.</div><div abp="2434">"I'm a hopeful person and I believe we can do it," he said, also speaking on “Meet the Press.”</div><div abp="2434"><br /></div><div abp="2434">But many of the predictions were far gloomier.</div><div abp="2434"><br /></div><div abp="2439"><a abp="2440" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="10" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/David+Plouffe" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: David Plouffe">David Plouffe</a>, a former senior adviser to President Obama, says the odds of a breakthrough are "no better than 50/50.”</div><div abp="2439"><br /></div><div abp="2441">"I think the notion that somehow this is going to be easily solved this week is completely false," Mr. Plouffe said on ABC’s “This Week.” “So I think the country needs to prepare that this could go on for a while."</div><div abp="2441"><br /></div><div abp="2442">For many <a abp="2443" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="11" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/U.S.+Republican+Party" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: U.S. Republican Party">Republicans</a>, a key stumbling block is any Democratic effort to increase spending beyond the automatic limits set by sequestration.</div><div abp="2442"><br /></div><div abp="2444">"If you break spending caps you're not going to get any Republicans in the Senate,” <a abp="2445" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="12" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Lindsey+Graham" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: Lindsey Graham">Sen. Lindsey Graham (R)</a> of South Carolina said on <a abp="2446" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="13" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/ABC+Inc." rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: ABC Inc.">ABC</a>.</div><div abp="2444"><br /></div><div abp="2447">"Now they want a spending bill that increases spending and dramatically will increase the debt," Sen. Rand Paul (R) of <a abp="2448" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="14" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Kentucky" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: Kentucky">Kentucky</a> said on <a abp="2449" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="15" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Cable+News+Network" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: Cable News Network">CNN</a>'s “State of the Union.” "It's a non-starter."</div><div abp="2447"><br /></div><div abp="2450">Democrats Saturday rejected <a abp="2451" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="16" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Susan+Collins" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: Susan Collins">Sen. Susan Collins</a>’ plan for getting beyond the current impasse.</div><div abp="2450"><br /></div><div abp="2452">That includes a six-month stopgap funding bill through March and a debt ceiling increase through January. </div><div abp="2452"><br /></div><div abp="2452">Regarding the <a abp="2453" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="17" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Patient+Protection+and+Affordable+Care+Act" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act">Affordable Care Act</a> (“Obamacare”), the Collins proposal also would delay for two years a tax on medical devices, and it includes stronger income verification for those deemed eligible for insurance subsidies under the new law.</div><div abp="2452"><br /></div><div abp="2454">Democrats saw that as merely delaying the debt ceiling fight for three months. But the moderate Republican from Maine still sees it as a useful point of discussion.</div><div abp="2454"><br /></div><div abp="2455">"We're continuing to talk," Sen. Collins said on CNN. "And I'm still hopeful that at least we sparked a dialogue that did not exist before we put out a plan."</div><div abp="2455"><br /></div><div abp="2456">"I see this as a positive framework going forward," agreed Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) of Minnesota. "And we need that right now."</div><div abp="2456"><br /></div><div abp="2457">When (or if) anything gets hammered out in the Senate – where discussions continue between Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky – it still would have to be agreed to by the much more fractious House, where <a abp="2458" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="18" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/John+Boehner" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: John Boehner">Speaker John Boehner</a> barely has things under control and indeed his speakership may be in jeopardy.</div><div abp="2457"><br /></div><div abp="2459">"Here's what I'm worried about," Sen. Graham said on ABC. "A deal coming out of the Senate, that a majority of Republicans can't vote for in the House, that really does compromise Speaker Boehner's leadership. After all this mess is over, do we really want to compromise John Boehner as leader of the House? I don't think so."</div><div abp="2459"><br /></div><div abp="2460">Well, sure, Democrats certainly would like to compromise Boehner’s speakership – right out of existence with a party turnover in next year’s election. But probably not at the expense of a political debacle that could end up harming the national economy and making markets nervous around the world.</div><div abp="2460"><br /></div><div abp="2461">"If this situation were to last a long time, it would be very negative for the <a abp="2462" class="inform_link" data-rapid_p="19" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+States" rel="nofollow" target="_self" title="Title: United States">US</a> economy and the world economy and could certainly harm the recovery,” Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, said Saturday.</div><div abp="2461"><br /></div><div abp="2463">"We trust the US authorities will find a way out of this complex situation," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a three-day meeting of finance ministers in Washington.</div><div abp="2463"><br /></div><div abp="2463"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJaQi-CGqc-9CuqEbkaZQQu7XE2tse1K_GomOOmtNseA0FqHZrUQ-Z3E0PLfu24JRNjoOWz0hXmX3hF4M4Q4KMCjuxBJKGdeaubm_FHikL-dcBh3Mq2mqXZrbyEptb8dHxdSOOd3sCYc/s1600/1524t.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJaQi-CGqc-9CuqEbkaZQQu7XE2tse1K_GomOOmtNseA0FqHZrUQ-Z3E0PLfu24JRNjoOWz0hXmX3hF4M4Q4KMCjuxBJKGdeaubm_FHikL-dcBh3Mq2mqXZrbyEptb8dHxdSOOd3sCYc/s1600/1524t.jpg" /></a></div><div abp="2463"><br /></div><h3>At this point, it’s unclear what that trust is based upon.</h3><div>World financial leaders converging on Washington for a high-level economic summit are getting a closer look at the US stalemate as talks resolving the shutdown inch closer. </div><div><br /></div><div>Economists say the budget fight has already hurt the US economy. (Oct. 10)</div>

Are You Prepared For When You Need Credit?"With shutdown and default clocks ticking"

Reviewing and verifying your credit is a good start to knowing how risky may look to lenders–they look at the same type of data when making ...

The West Just Doesn’t Get Putin

<div abp="309">U.S. reactions to President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed article in the <a abp="310" density="sparse" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/new-york/">New York</a> Times this week, from outrage to ridicule, show just how badly much of the Western policy elite are misinterpreting <a abp="311" density="full" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/russia/">Russia</a>. </div><div abp="309"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img abp="295" alt="Vladimir Putin " src="http://www.bloomberg.com/image/idczpqT_deXM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russian President Vladimir Putin carrying a hunting rifle in the Republic of Tuva. Photograph by Dmitry Astakhov/AFP via Getty Images</td></tr></tbody></table><div abp="312">This is largely the product of dashed and unrealistic expectations that many in the West held after the collapse of communism. They thought Russia would reform itself and become a junior partner to the U.S. in global affairs. Instead, the country was re-established as an authoritarian and fiercely independent state. Putin has been demonized as the symbol of this disappointment, leaving Western elites dangerously ill-equipped to read him. </div><div abp="312"><br /></div><div abp="313">Putin decided to weigh in to the U.S. debate on Syria and its foreign policy in general not only to describe Russia’s position but also to exploit an opening: President <a abp="314" density="sparse" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/barack-obama/">Barack Obama</a> is evidently reluctant to use force in Syria, the U.S. Congress is split on the issue, and most Americans are opposed to further military action in the Middle East, period. Putin has decided that U.S. foreign policy is too important to be left to the American people and its leaders alone, so he has turned to them to present his case. </div><div abp="313"><br /></div><div abp="315">Putin’s primary goal isn’t a deal with the U.S. on Syria, but on the international security system as a whole. His central thesis is that a stable world order should be based on the institutions of the United Nations, and in particular consensus among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, <a abp="316" density="sparse" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/france/">France</a>, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. In this vision, nothing serious could be done in the field of international security, especially the use of force, without Russia’s approval or acquiescence. For Putin, this amounts to an essential equality among the major powers, which he sees as a foundation of global stability. </div><h2 abp="317">Syria Reality </h2><div abp="318">At a minimum, Putin seeks to prevent the Obama administration from striking Syria. He is convinced, and wants to convince Americans, that nothing good will come of it, pointing to the incontrovertible reality that the U.S. would de facto be making a common front in Syria with its <a abp="319" density="full" href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/201759.htm" rel="external" title="Open Web Site">designated</a> terrorist enemies, the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of <a abp="320" density="sparse" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/iraq/">Iraq</a> and the Levant. As a pragmatist, however, Putin recognizes that something more substantial is needed to stave off the U.S. attack -- hence his chemical weapons initiative, which has led to a reprieve. </div><div abp="318"><br /></div><div abp="321">Next, Putin wants to convince Americans that using force at will doesn’t serve U.S. national interests. The chaos and uncertain futures of post-U.S. intervention Iraq and <a abp="322" density="full" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/afghanistan/">Afghanistan</a> are Putin’s exhibits A and B in making this case. Interventionism, he argues, also undermines American priorities such as nuclear <a abp="323" density="full" href="http://www.state.gov/t/isn/" rel="external" title="Open Web Site">nonproliferation</a> and is bad for the public image of the U.S. around the world. These are substantive arguments also made by many Americans. Putin’s real concern, though, lies elsewhere. Making military intervention routine, in his view, creates a dangerous inertia in U.S. foreign policy. At some point, he must fear, the U.S. propensity to use force as a problem-solver might lead to a collision with <a abp="324" density="sparse" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/china/">China</a> or Russia. </div><div abp="321"><br /></div><div abp="325">Putin’s end goal is to put the U.S. back into the UN Security Council box. In his view, the U.S. has come to soar above this international system and doesn’t consider itself bound by institutions such as the UN. For Putin, whose idea of international stability is a concert of several major powers, this is inherently destabilizing. </div><div abp="325">He targets American <a abp="326" density="full" href="http://ktla.com/2013/09/10/president-obama-to-address-nation-on-syria/#axzz2ell9kKAT" rel="external" title="Open Web Site">exceptionalism</a> as the ideological underpinning of this special role the U.S. has carved out for itself, and believes that a combination of fatigue among Americans from overextension and the rise of non-Western powers will eventually result in a more normal pattern of international relations. </div><h2 abp="327">Equal Partners </h2><div abp="328">Putin’s goals are not primitive. He isn’t just scoring points against the U.S. or trying to humiliate Obama. Instead, he invites Americans to “right-size” their foreign policy and international stature, and offers Obama a way out of the difficult situation into which he has maneuvered himself on <a abp="329" density="sparse" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/syria/">Syria</a>. Putin wants partnership, but not in the sense that he works on the U.S. agenda and gets paid a commission for helping out. </div><div abp="328"><br /></div><div abp="328">He understands the U.S. is much stronger than Russia, but he nevertheless demands a relationship of equals. </div><div abp="330">To many of Putin’s U.S. readers, this is an absurd notion, an attempt to compensate for Russia’s diminished post-Soviet means and stature by constraining the U.S. They also see Russia’s focus on sovereign immunity as preventing the UN Security Council from applying well-intentioned new norms of international law, such as the 2005 <a abp="331" density="full" href="http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/about-rtop/core-rtop-documents" rel="external" title="Open Web Site">Responsibility to Protect</a>. Yet the Russian president isn’t giving up. He is determined to turn the resolution of the Syrian conflict into a path toward equality in U.S.-Russian relations. </div><div abp="330"><br /></div><div abp="332">When U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry came to Moscow in May, Putin offered him an approach to resolving the Syrian conflict that would be co-sponsored by the U.S. and Russia and similar to the 1995 Dayton <a abp="333" density="full" href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/bosnia/dayton_peace.html" rel="external" title="Open Web Site">accords</a>, which ended the war in Bosnia. Kerry seemed to agree, but in reality the U.S. continued to expect Russia to do one thing: Stop supporting President Bashar al-Assad and ease him out of power. </div><div abp="332"><br /></div><div abp="332">Putin’s formula was starkly different: The U.S. and Russia should build on the areas where they agree, and split the difference where they don’t. The result was deadlock. </div><div abp="332"><br /></div><div abp="334">This appears to be changing. With his proposal, Putin has upped the ante and taken personal responsibility for the deal on Syria’s chemical weapons. He needs to be believed when he says that in Syria, Russia isn’t supporting Assad, but the norms of international law -- as Putin sees them. The game the Russian leader is playing is big and long. Putin expects to be there for the duration, long after Obama has left the White House. With the Syrian crisis, he has stepped onto the global center stage and is no longer just a naysayer or spoiler, but a potential producer of global public goods. </div><div abp="334"><br /></div><div abp="335">Unfortunately, many Americans rejected Putin’s arguments this week because they have developed a caricatured view of the man making them. Putin may deserve that caricature in some areas, but not in this case. The very fact that a simple op-ed article became the top news item around the globe is a significant achievement for Russia’s president, in his new role as public diplomat in chief. </div><div abp="336">(Dmitri Trenin is director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.) </div><div abp="337">To contact the writer of this article: Dmitri Trenin at DTrenin@carnegie.ru. </div>

The West Just Doesn’t Get Putin

U.S. reactions to President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed article in the New York Times this week, from outrage to ridicule, show just how badly m...

Putin’s Game's Plan's

The problem Vladimir Putin has faced is how to convince the West that Russia means business when it offers a solution to the chemical weapons issue.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0-xmNHW0uOUlWj4isX4EHa_7wLgECnnzFJtTwYs3O6RnJL2gkapmd3Z2g0_EOFsq_JYBhpYl6EFd7vnJP_k6faBVg-QSzbY-7Ctjt9NI5VjNV618taC1jV5FXFZx645GXLvj0oxLPc3s/s1600/BN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0-xmNHW0uOUlWj4isX4EHa_7wLgECnnzFJtTwYs3O6RnJL2gkapmd3Z2g0_EOFsq_JYBhpYl6EFd7vnJP_k6faBVg-QSzbY-7Ctjt9NI5VjNV618taC1jV5FXFZx645GXLvj0oxLPc3s/s1600/BN.jpg" width="294" /></a></div><br />After all, for well over a decade Russia has been a naysayer and spoiler, either protesting against US military interventions or seeking to obstruct Washington’s policies.<br /><br />Why has Russia now stepped forward and offered an alternative solution, tentatively accepted both by Damascus and the Americans?<br /><br />By reaching out to Barack Obama at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Putin was hardly seeking either to ‘humiliate’ the US President or to ‘save’ him.<br /><br />The personal relationship between the two leaders is missing; it is all business. In offering his plan to Obama, Putin had important interests in mind.<br /><br /><div><div>The Russian leader’s short-term goal was to prevent US military strikes against Damascus. Putin admitted to having been surprised by the vote in the British Parliament ruling out UK participation in US-led attacks. </div><div><br /></div><div>He must have been no less impressed by Obama’s decision to turn to Congress for approval of military action. Watching the House debate, he saw that Obama stood a good chance of getting a ‘no’ from Congress. </div><div><br /></div><div>By coming up with his initiative, the Russian president was seeking to strengthen the hand of those in the US who opposed military action in Syria.</div><div><br /></div><div>He also has a long-term goal. It is to turn the tide in US foreign policy by supporting the neo-isolationist trend in American politics against the interventionists, who have prevailed since the mid-1990s.</div><div><br /></div><div>Putin understood that both goals were ambitious enough to warrant his direct engagement. Rather than leaving the job to Sergei Lavrov, his Foreign Minister, Putin assumed personal responsibility for the Syrian chemical disarmament plan.</div><div><br /></div><div>He realized that Russia had first to deliver Assad, and then to make sure that the Syrians stuck to the terms of the deal. He knew he was taking a big risk, but letting things run their course threatened to produce the outcome in Syria that Russia feared: a new lease on life for US interventionism, and the triumph of the jihadists on the ground.</div><div><br /></div><div>In making his offer to Damascus, Putin counted on Assad’s rationality. For the Syrian president, chemical weapons were the only WMD in his arsenal. </div><div><br /></div><div>They could only function as a credible deterrent against Israel – or the US, should it consider a ground invasion. </div><div><br /></div><div>Trading the weapons for US non-intervention, implicitly guaranteed by Russia, must have appeared a good bargain to Assad as he faced the prospect of US airstrikes. </div><div><br /></div><div>By going along with the Putin plan, Assad would be saving his rule in Damascus and possibly his own life.</div><div><br /></div><div>Putin has never considered Assad to be Russia’s ally – whatever the Western, Arab and Israeli media write. He knows enough about Middle Eastern politics not to be complacent. </div><div><br /></div><div>An American threat helps keep Assad rational, but it is not enough. Hence, Russia’s agreement that the UN Security Council resolution on the Syrian chemical disarmament refers to Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows the use of force. </div><div><br /></div><div>Moscow only wants to make sure that such use is not automatic, and that Russia will have a final say in the decision-making.</div><div><br /></div><div>Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal needs to be brought under international control before being removed and eliminated. Having already destroyed most of the Soviet Union’s chemical weapons, Russia is prepared to engage on the ground. </div><div><br /></div><div>A decade after withdrawing from UN peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, Putin has indicated the possibility of sending Russian troops on a UN mission to the Middle East.</div><div><br /></div><div>In May, as John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, and Lavrov came up with an agreement in Moscow to work towards political settlement in Syria – Geneva II – Putin thought he had Obama committed to something like ‘Dayton for two’, a more balanced version of the US-led process which ended the Bosnian war in 1995.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Russians and Americans would both push the Syrian side, kicking and screaming, toward a ceasefire and a compromise political settlement. Washington, however, was still thinking in terms of Moscow helping it ease Assad out of power. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, the US-Russian Syrian chemical deal logically leads to the need to establish local ceasefires, and to advance to a political settlement. Crucially, Moscow and Washington are leading the process on an equal basis.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ku9eh7vPJbdTf00Co8Ted39tvIGD4s9sYXLtLXrgA1OxEXlwRrJEUdCEMvm0cAgnJjYkUuhCwf5WRTQ7YmN11lGhXOW-xIxyvhGa3v3b3-XBtxfVPVRVE_eJA-v8b2dck97xmKGFRuE/s1600/putin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ku9eh7vPJbdTf00Co8Ted39tvIGD4s9sYXLtLXrgA1OxEXlwRrJEUdCEMvm0cAgnJjYkUuhCwf5WRTQ7YmN11lGhXOW-xIxyvhGa3v3b3-XBtxfVPVRVE_eJA-v8b2dck97xmKGFRuE/s1600/putin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>For Putin, Syria has always been more than just Syria. He aims at a world order in which the Security Council’s five permanent members, not the US – alone or with its allies – decide on major issues pertaining to war and peace. It is a tall order. </div><div><br /></div><div>Putin knows he may fail, but he evidently believes the risk is worth taking.</div></div><h3>Putin’s Game's Plan's</h3><div><br /></div>

Putin’s Game's Plan's

The problem Vladimir Putin has faced is how to convince the West that Russia means business when it offers a solution to the chemical weapon...

Let the ride begin to the political theater in Washington DC.

American truckers are putting Washington DC on notice.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwmG9r24IJBM7DP-vRfALunPL8khOk4arA5WY9hj_p3oesYVltcitxdxCvkoQdPLdxfHl3zUyvn5H5Lz1wRLGTdG-RB2Acriag0mHWoz5-6MFjCIy8UgXI5A049xdKkoWYze1Ptucccpk/s1600/dc.jpg" width="640" /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />There seems to be no end to the political theater in Washington DC. But what began as a simple game of chicken between the White House and the Republican opposition has quickly morphed into a game of political Russian roulette.<br /><br />A nation polarized, stuck in the ultimate political gridlock imaginable over federal spending. As America waits for a resolution to the federal government shutdown, an unlikely community has decided to put their money where their mouth is. By all accounts, they are the most under-appreciated industry in today’s America. Truck drivers are the backbone of the American economy. Everything Americans own, buy and need is delivered to them by trucks daily, yet few take any notice of the people behind the wheels. That could all change after this weekend, as America gets a taste of its first-ever diesel-driven flash mob.<br /><br />According the organizers at RideForTheConstitution.org, over 3,000 truckers, thousands more demonstrators on foot, have already RSVP’d to converge on the nation’s capital starting this Friday, Oct 11th, as they plan to slow traffic into Washington DC, and present a list of demands to law makers there.<br /><br />“Somebody had to do it,” explained Zeeda Andrews, a former country singer and Mac Truck spokesmodel. Organizers have been surprised by the amount of support they’ve gathered since their campaign gained visibility last month.<br />“I didn’t think it would be this big. Maybe that’s because the American people are just fed up. It’s more than just a trucking issue now, we are in a constitutional crisis and something has to be done, and it’s common people like myself - with nothing to lose, who are going to get something done.”<br /><br />Considering the fact that most people have never sat in the cab of an 18 wheeler in their life, the DC truckers have somehow managed to attract a pretty wide appeal. Already, parallel protests have sprung up, set to take place in most major US cities on Friday and Saturday.<br /><br />Larry Klayman, a former US Justice Department prosecutor, and founder of Freedom Watch, has also volunteered his support for the DC truckers’ campaign. This past summer Klayman represented the families of Navy SEAL Team 6 who were killed when their Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan in August 2011, following the White House’s rather incredible raid on the alleged bin Laden lair in Abbotabad, Pakistan.<br />“I’m throwing my support behind this campaign because we’ve have had enough. Our government has broken away from the people, and our grievances are not being heard, so we need to get out there and make it clear to the powers that be that be - whether it’s President Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner, or whether it’s majority leader Harry Reid in the Senate - that we are simply not going to take it anymore. The time has come to save our country, and we’ll do it in the style of Ghandi, Lech Walesa, and Martin Luther King”, said Klayman.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Political demands</blockquote>Organisers will join Klayman today at the steps of the US Capitol building to present their list of demands. At the top of that list is an appeal for economic survival, with a call for immediate action on the spiralling cost of diesel and harassment from federal regulatory agencies which is not only driving up costs of goods and services, but also killing transportation profits, pushing independent truckers into fuel poverty, and ultimately out of business.<br /><br />Beyond this emerges a broader spectrum movement of political dissent, which echoes concerns heard from many different quarters in the US.<br /><br />As far as civil disobedience goes, their protest is no walk in the park. Logistically speaking, it’s a nightmare. Then there’s the political demands, which, in terms of the average Americans’ attention deficit disorder, are comprehensive, and not exactly ‘media friendly’ – especially for the likes of MSNBC and FOX. But unlike the much celebrated, but highly ineffective Occupy Movement, which ended up being a controlled street party whose indelible mark on society was that it produced a boiled down abstract of class warfare – ‘The 1% vs. the 99%’ - the DC Truckers have a fairly sharp libertarian agenda, coupled with a detailed list of constitutional demands.<br /><br />Unless you’ve been hiding in a bunker lately, you would know that something is serious brewing in America. In the last year alone, – the White House has been dodging and fighting to stave off a seemingly endless daisy chain of scandals. In addition to the Navy SEAL Team 6 cover-up, there is a not-so-small issue of the White House using the IRS to target the President’s political opponents, the horrific Benghazi cover-up involving a dead US Ambassador and servicemen, and gun-running from Libya to Syria, and the US support of al Qaeda fighters in Syria.<br /><br />In addition to these and other federal interventions hurting truckers' livelihoods, the campaign feels that all unconstitutional federal laws and agencies should be wiped from the books. They include the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Transport Security Agency (TSA), and The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).<br />US talk radio host Pete Santilli has volunteered to help the truckers get their message out over the airwaves.<br /><br />“If you look at the list of demands, regardless of where you are in the political spectrum, you would not disagree with: stop supporting al Qaeda (in Syria), don’t raise the debt ceiling – and threaten us - that if we don’t print another trillion dollars that they’ll collapse out system – that’s a forceful means to steal money from us. President Obama needs to be held accountable for crimes committed against the United States and Congress needs to hear those crimes.”<br /><br />“The beauty of this event is that it is open and nonpartisan – it absolutely cuts right through party lines. Every American can participate in this”. Santilli adds here, “John McCain and Lindsey Graham – they must go. Any of these unconstitutional legislators, anyone who has committed unconstitutional acts in office, must vacate voluntarily. If they refuse to go, we want to cut off their money supply so they won’t be able to make millions off us anymore.”<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Attacks and Censorship</blockquote>The Truckers are not without their enemies, who are keen to discredit them, silence them, or both.<br /><br />As their campaign goes viral, so goes the media shooting match. The campaign has been directly targeted by George Soros-funded leftwing outlet, Media Matters, who have been busy digging up old Facebook posts and ‘likes’ from personal pages of Ride For The Constitution’s organisers, in effect, waging a character assassination against them.<br />When running a 21st century activist campaign, one must also beware of deadly communitarian policing, also known as “community guidelines” policy.<br /><br />Ride For The Constitution’s Facebook page was live only six days when it received 86,000 likes, only to be promptly pulled down by the social network. The same happened with its Twitter account, which was pulled down after only 6 days.<br />In both cases, accounts were frozen because of an anonymous complaint.<br /><br />Santilli says he’s mounting a legal challenge against one of the social networks.<br /><br />“It seems like the First Amendment doesn’t apply on social networks. You work hard to build-up a huge audience, only to see it disappear in an instant – because a few political enemies anonymously complain that they were somehow offended”.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Fuel poverty</blockquote>As with all political movements through history, the pain normally starts in the wallet. Rising toll road charges and inflated diesel prices are forcing many out of America’s trucking industry. In 2013, the reality is that drivers are losing their trucks - and losing their business. After labour, diesel fuel is the second highest expense for motor carriers, and can reach as much as much as 20% of transport’s total operating costs.<br /><br />Organisers Zeeda Andrews and Michael ‘JB’ Schaffner concluded in their joint statement on what they feel is a national crisis:<br /><br />“By no means are these the only issues that need action, to be resolved. There are many, many more issues that continue to plague this industry, as new regulations create even more contradictions in law. As per the fourteenth amendment of our Constitution, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges, or immunities of Citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”.<br /><br />"So let these issues be the beginning of where we take a stand, not just as The American Drivers, but as Free and Independent Americans, protecting what our Constitution preserves for us.”<br /><br />At the very least Washington DC might be in for a shock this weekend. Call it shock therapy for the political class. At its best, it could jump-start real American discourse nationwide.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Let the ride begin. </blockquote><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.publimetro.us/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydQb5XpjsPLtgIwqm9YrW2eLoyEJmaNq6tQmGzFSGxMguB7JRahgNfWMUmwKQ-AX78iZ7f_uiVEC7PguEkjvFgyhnQl_Sd9gvSLyWsyNrC8I-icXxYVyVXeJBBEIxZFRR113ZwkN46kA/s1600/dc.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />

Let the ride begin to the political theater in Washington DC.

American truckers are putting Washington DC on notice. There seems to be no end to the political theater in Washington DC. But what began as...

Terror,mass shootings don't mean more danger:Don't worry.

<h3>Yet those who study such violence have a message: Don't worry.</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqUM5nmmKXVRbXpYiNizbc7V4DCb2azkokkgMJnp-cBfpTnaZ7TKc-qsD_jRIKFkwNzFZTjwzjozy7vy8xBAtk1HPKrw-veGFPpOyx1j-CCqNApbpYphKsK4V1ghf03rIENb3AIQYbbYQ/s1600/012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqUM5nmmKXVRbXpYiNizbc7V4DCb2azkokkgMJnp-cBfpTnaZ7TKc-qsD_jRIKFkwNzFZTjwzjozy7vy8xBAtk1HPKrw-veGFPpOyx1j-CCqNApbpYphKsK4V1ghf03rIENb3AIQYbbYQ/s1600/012.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><h3>It almost feels these days as if there is no safe place — that after global jihad strikes a Nairobi shopping mall or a deranged shooter invades the Washington Navy Yard, the next target could very well be our own store, school, theater or stadium.</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4QmjBPVqbc4n3X-7hMc9NQ6uMuXliANchpyEDSj-OQW9VBrXofHkduYuRP7XaqKagnq9GtAeGe9E2a6jSm4XWR3uvVBNl4HofeiMm-mxuYcL2MtLR-GAdYOTh-y85_JvRhJiukcmFZg/s1600/al-ben.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4QmjBPVqbc4n3X-7hMc9NQ6uMuXliANchpyEDSj-OQW9VBrXofHkduYuRP7XaqKagnq9GtAeGe9E2a6jSm4XWR3uvVBNl4HofeiMm-mxuYcL2MtLR-GAdYOTh-y85_JvRhJiukcmFZg/s1600/al-ben.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Yet those who study such violence have a message: Don't worry.<br /><br />Even though anxiety is a natural response to pervasive and frightening media images of carnage, they say, statistics indicate that most of the world has never been safer.<br /><br />"Vivid images and memories of these images are used to make judgments about the overall likelihood of dangerous events." says Robert Kraft, a psychology professor at Otterbein University. In fact, "these horrific events are no more likely today than they were yesterday or 10 years ago."<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEAXPgRoDYb2PBfNsv0UP1ASjxYqxz3SOXVvI2s6ue5j-MSj_uY0vBD8WG4VM85DOsagKVkwfTXVvoRncNunsE7EmdbyJ1Slcg889XLb948e6Fht-1hBL-ZUHEGTYVHw0TCm0PUv_a2M/s1600/occupy-oakland-vandalize-city-hall-burn-flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEAXPgRoDYb2PBfNsv0UP1ASjxYqxz3SOXVvI2s6ue5j-MSj_uY0vBD8WG4VM85DOsagKVkwfTXVvoRncNunsE7EmdbyJ1Slcg889XLb948e6Fht-1hBL-ZUHEGTYVHw0TCm0PUv_a2M/s1600/occupy-oakland-vandalize-city-hall-burn-flag.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Says David Schanzer, a Duke University professor who directs the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security: "Since 9/11, you are far more likely to drown in your bathtub than be killed by terrorists in the United States."<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EUhWnIYxqeRnKmQt-ieJQIrlpKIEUS-7RmJkcF24qN7ksOoZnj8B-BxJLqhPs_UGBoGn7RuVg5U_YtWv8wkWrU_iAnJgCqXKrdiYwpA1q235DpIj5LjiRwJ0zgXaWw8tlhmllVW9fUE/s1600/eaab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EUhWnIYxqeRnKmQt-ieJQIrlpKIEUS-7RmJkcF24qN7ksOoZnj8B-BxJLqhPs_UGBoGn7RuVg5U_YtWv8wkWrU_iAnJgCqXKrdiYwpA1q235DpIj5LjiRwJ0zgXaWw8tlhmllVW9fUE/s1600/eaab.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Worldwide, as regular bombings persist in a few unstable countries like Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya, the terrorism trend is less clear. The number of annual fatalities has fluctuated over the past few decades, according to figures compiled by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCexciaLApbZVoV-VoJbJkUXUtaHA54EwTR2eE7VeVs_CDP9amz5qpbohyu5efCcv-b6y0Py5HRIdRw291PJJnwLvsbhXEOESfxoeAGpt1XRI9nG1xFkzdXQeaazJI_cXJbhRlly0Uc3o/s1600/512x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCexciaLApbZVoV-VoJbJkUXUtaHA54EwTR2eE7VeVs_CDP9amz5qpbohyu5efCcv-b6y0Py5HRIdRw291PJJnwLvsbhXEOESfxoeAGpt1XRI9nG1xFkzdXQeaazJI_cXJbhRlly0Uc3o/s1600/512x.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br />Global terrorism deaths as defined by the consortium reached almost 11,000 in 1984, then dipped before approaching 11,000 again in 1997. Deaths fell once more before rising in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. There were 3,144 killings in 2003, then 12,761 in 2007. In 2012, after the consortium made its data collection more comprehensive, it counted 15,514 deaths from terrorism — mostly in about 10 countries.<br /><br />The Nairobi attack, by the fanatic Somali Islamic group al-Shabab, stood out. It touched points across the globe, killing at least 60 civilians from countries including Britain, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China. Five Americans were among the nearly 200 wounded.<br /><br />Al-Shabab is "a threat to the continent of Africa and the world at large," Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.<br /><br />That attack came five days after a man who heard voices brought a shotgun through Navy Yard security and killed 12 people. It was the latest in a series of mass shootings, which are defined as killing four or more people: the December massacre of 26 in Newtown; 12 slain in a Colorado movie theater; other 2012 killings at a café, temple, sauna, colleges.<br /><br />"What troubles us so deeply as we gather here today is how this senseless violence that took place here in the Navy Yard echoes other recent tragedies," President Barack Obama said at a memorial service.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6gx-aVahD7Z7jIURdnMKvUwjhwjqfGV1oF3R186w9gWmlO7vQEpPFqDNupJ3P4tCKnvI0ItHr1v23abIv_4_jJ7_j3s3OaFMCWBaUzsR4atzT8Nev18LagtFFLbnbUuUKOVO9VS9yGfY/s1600/1c5cc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6gx-aVahD7Z7jIURdnMKvUwjhwjqfGV1oF3R186w9gWmlO7vQEpPFqDNupJ3P4tCKnvI0ItHr1v23abIv_4_jJ7_j3s3OaFMCWBaUzsR4atzT8Nev18LagtFFLbnbUuUKOVO9VS9yGfY/s1600/1c5cc.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />That's not to mention the narrowly averted disasters: a man arrested this week on a charge he planned to shoot up a Salt Lake City mall; a gunman last month who was talked into laying down his weapon after invading a Georgia school.<br /><br />Yet chances of being killed in a mass killing are probably no greater than being struck by lightning, according to Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass killings in America. He says mass killings peaked in 1929 and have dropped in the 2000s.<br /><br />Over the past 30 years, the United States has steadily averaged about 20 mass killings each year, according to James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who studies such events.<br /><br />Despite these statistics, it can still feel as if the whole world is a battlefield, says Meg Mott, a professor of political theory at Marlboro College.<br /><br />In the global war on terrorism, "there is no separation between battlefields and civic life," Mott said in an email. And it's not clear who is fighting whom: "Is it the West against Islam? The Free World against Terrorists? The Good Guys against the Bad Guys?"<br /><br />People once assumed they were safe as long as their nation wasn't being invaded, Mott says, but "that world no longer exists."<br /><br />The response to the heightened sense of danger is ongoing and widespread.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcuDFGA6_2yjZcpURj4FSE1znVS5Av6YiZ3Q6LVPIEtCYNXc9E8Bm9eoVYcdPbVy14AmWQros3X-7LH-ApaHtNtzKC21wGizoclMQ7ZJt_fEJkYCBIi5FivJmZiXWc9cQ9k2yd9N7kXEg/s1600/BPLqpI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcuDFGA6_2yjZcpURj4FSE1znVS5Av6YiZ3Q6LVPIEtCYNXc9E8Bm9eoVYcdPbVy14AmWQros3X-7LH-ApaHtNtzKC21wGizoclMQ7ZJt_fEJkYCBIi5FivJmZiXWc9cQ9k2yd9N7kXEg/s1600/BPLqpI.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Israelis are long accustomed to armed guards and bag searches, while Londoners often struggle to find trash cans — many were removed from the capital after Irish terrorists started using them to hide bombs. In America, there are more armed guards in schools, and even some armed teachers. Police cars are parked outside of movie theaters. Sports venues are allowing fewer bags inside. Companies are marketing new products — the Bullet Blocker kid backpack; the First Command emergency alert system; the TraumAid-SRK-S School Survival and Rescue Kit.<br /><br />John Phelps, president of the Risk Management Society, says more businesses around the world are using sophisticated models to assess the likelihood of physical or computer-based attacks.<br /><br />"Twenty years ago that wasn't happening," Phelps says.<br /><br />So is there more risk today? "I'm not exactly sure that's true," he says.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />He recalls the assassinations of the 1960s, the rampant hijacking of airplanes in the 1970s, the bombing of Beirut barracks and the midair destruction of a Pan Am airliner in the 1980s.<br /><br />"Today, news can live in social media for a long time," Phelps says. "You didn't have cable TV news back then. So it's a different period in communication, which may make it appear to some people that the threats have increased."<br /><br />Magnus Ranstorp, research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defense College, says the location of attacks can increase the sense of vulnerability.<br /><br />"That's why the attack in Kenya is so serious," he says. "It's a commercial hub, and a major tourism hub, so tranquility has been shattered, the perception of safety has been shattered in a very brutal way, especially because this was directed against Westerners."<br /><br />All of which creates an atmosphere ripe for even more worries, says Todd Farchione, a professor at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders.<br /><br />"As soon as you increase unpredictability, and there also is a lack of control, that increases anxiety," he says.<br /><br />"The probability of something happening is so very low," Farchione says. "But this is the nature of terror and terrorism: It gets in our heads that something could happen. This is the entire idea of terror. It's like this insidious fear that seeps into our mindset."<br /><br />Kraft, the psychology professor, observes that if people paid closer attention to statistics instead of snap judgments, they might realize how safe they really are.<br /><br />"For many of us in this country," Kraft says, "our most dangerous activity is by far something we do every day without giving it a second thought: driving a car."<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJaQi-CGqc-9CuqEbkaZQQu7XE2tse1K_GomOOmtNseA0FqHZrUQ-Z3E0PLfu24JRNjoOWz0hXmX3hF4M4Q4KMCjuxBJKGdeaubm_FHikL-dcBh3Mq2mqXZrbyEptb8dHxdSOOd3sCYc/s1600/1524t.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJaQi-CGqc-9CuqEbkaZQQu7XE2tse1K_GomOOmtNseA0FqHZrUQ-Z3E0PLfu24JRNjoOWz0hXmX3hF4M4Q4KMCjuxBJKGdeaubm_FHikL-dcBh3Mq2mqXZrbyEptb8dHxdSOOd3sCYc/s1600/1524t.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>

Terror,mass shootings don't mean more danger:Don't worry.

Yet those who study such violence have a message: Don't worry. It almost feels these days as if there is no safe place — that after glob...

Lots of Noise in DC & NY:Opinion

<h3>There was a lot of noise, yesterday, but not much progress.</h3><img height="426" src="http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2013/0924-ted-cruz-budget-battle-senate/17059197-1-eng-US/0924-TED-CRUZ-BUDGET-BATTLE-SENATE_full_380.jpg" width="640" /><br /><br />Here in Our Nation's Capital it is difficult to catch your breath as the days tick by toward September 30 - the end of the 2013 Fiscal Year.<br /><br />On the Senate floor yesterday, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz (who is opposed to ObamaCare) filibustered a bill that had not been brought to the floor. As I type this at 10:10 PM Eastern time, Cruz had been speaking since shortly after 2:40 yesterday afternoon.<br /><br />He had been speaking for a little over six hours, reciting everything from carefully reasoned anti-ObamaCare arguments to readings from Dr. Seuss but, as I made my way to CSPAN 2, the first words I heard Sen. Cruz say were: "Even fools seem smart when they are quiet."<br /><br />Even if you are a fan, you have to admit to the irony of those words.<br /><br />When it comes to defunding ObamaCare in return for getting a Continuing Resolution to fund the Government until the end of the calendar year - it doesn't appear likely that will happen. Any more than it is likely an asteroid will fall through the roof of your garage and land in the back seat of your car today.<br /><br />According to one well-placed insider who - unlike me - actually knows what he is talking about, the path forward will be a "clean" CR at current (that is to say extending the sequester) levels.<br /><br />Apparently the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) have signaled they are OK with that. Again, as I am typing this, there is no word from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) as to whether she will approve, nor whether Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md) will be able to round up the 40-or-so Democratic votes that will likely be necessary to push it over the top in the House.<br /><br />On the ObamaCare front, the plan is to delay implementation for one year - aligning the entire bill with some parts that have already been pushed back. This would not defund ObamaCare, but it is much harder for Democrats to argue against it, given the AFL-CIO's support, a number of bills already adopted, and the Department of Health and Human Services' decision to delay certain parts.<br /><br />If everyone were playing with a full deck I could make the case that this is a good solution because it gives Congress a year to decide how (or whether) to amend or rescind ObamaCare.<br /><br /><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Ted_Cruz%2C_official_portrait%2C_113th_Congress.jpg/220px-Ted_Cruz%2C_official_portrait%2C_113th_Congress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ted Cruz, official portrait, 113th Congress.jpg" border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Ted_Cruz%2C_official_portrait%2C_113th_Congress.jpg/220px-Ted_Cruz%2C_official_portrait%2C_113th_Congress.jpg" /></a>However, because most of the 535 Members of the House and Senate are playing with cards that have no markings on either side, I feel confident that even if my source is correct, we will be back here in late September of 2014 facing exactly the same set of issues.<br /><br />Meanwhile up in New York City Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama had a well-covered discussion about the GOP playing politics with health care.<br /><br />I can't be the first person to point out that they are the only two men in American history whose push for a national health care system caused them to control of the House of Representatives. Clinton in 1994, Obama in 2010.<br /><br />Also in New York the diplomatic press corps was breathlessly reporting that President Obama would "meet with" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during the opening of the U.N. General Assembly session.<br /><br />This "meeting" was never likely to be a formal sit-down - that's not the way diplomacy works. U.S. officials said it would simply be "an encounter," but Rouhani didn't even want to be in the same place at the same time with Obama. That might have had more to do with domestic Iranian politics than diplomatic chess playing, but it didn't happen.<br /><br />You can look at that two ways. First, that when the President of the United States makes it clear he (or, someday she) would like to have a chat and that offer is rebuffed, it is a huge international embarrassment to the American President.<br /><br />I look at it the other way: You can put your hand out for a shake, but you can't make the other guy take it.<br /><br />I assume the U.S. Department of State agrees with me that I wouldn't trust Rouhani as far as I could throw the whole nation of Iran, but that doesn't take away from the President's offer.<br /><br />Ted Cruz won't get his way in Washington; Barack Obama didn't get his way in New York.<br /><br /><h3>There was a lot of noise, yesterday, but not much progress.</h3><br /><img height="384" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/9/25/1380093350199/Ted-Cruz-009.jpg" width="640" />

Lots of Noise in DC & NY:Opinion

There was a lot of noise, yesterday, but not much progress. Here in Our Nation's Capital it is difficult to catch your breath as the day...

Opinion-Analysis Crisis-Syria

<h3>President Obama has taken the biggest gamble of his presidency.</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpO5XSQD7Y4gkPl9xiqtUbrLrCQb4chL24sh2z-vZO0MbrLE2RJuyUUrf_z6T1XJPtD9pGLVOhlVqlwYZyLUwCbG8zbQb_dIzy6AbYKu1O9WUUsR3lNm7MIVsyN-ho3U2G2zkeEBw-Ok/s1600/56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpO5XSQD7Y4gkPl9xiqtUbrLrCQb4chL24sh2z-vZO0MbrLE2RJuyUUrf_z6T1XJPtD9pGLVOhlVqlwYZyLUwCbG8zbQb_dIzy6AbYKu1O9WUUsR3lNm7MIVsyN-ho3U2G2zkeEBw-Ok/s1600/56.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />His decision to put off an attack on Syria and seek authorisation from Congress apparently stunned some of his closest advisers.<br /><br />Victory is by no means assured, particularly in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.<br /><br />Perhaps the Senate isn't safe either - this will be a free vote and there'll be no formal attempt by party leaders to persuade their colleagues.<br /><br />After receiving a lengthy classified intelligence briefing on Capitol Hill, several senators and congressmen seemed unconvinced.<br /><br />The draft resolution from the White House calls for authorisation for action to "deter, disrupt, prevent and degrade" Syria's ability to use chemical weapons: two senators - one Republican, one Democrat - called that too open-ended.<br /><br /><h3>If Congress doesn't back him, it will be disastrous for the president.</h3>

Opinion-Analysis Crisis-Syria

President Obama has taken the biggest gamble of his presidency. His decision to put off an attack on Syria and seek authorisation from Congr...

Opinion:New dialogue serves as first major step to build new-type China-U.S.relationship

<h3>WASHINGTON, July 9- The fifth China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), to be held here Wednesday, will serve as the first major step to implement the bilateral consensus on building a new type of major-country relationship.</h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUhegoIYfarWS2VIfTufCZqbW6k8_GY-1VINfu5ehZexeCRPqkUTmDvuwrtJNkZRJ4s6jVhPUg_lLDLn0faV-ZItrbofxb4j6IdtI4BcxGak4L2OaBVG9ZgJgbgPcKVkpwxhqX8g-tOgk/s1600/132.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUhegoIYfarWS2VIfTufCZqbW6k8_GY-1VINfu5ehZexeCRPqkUTmDvuwrtJNkZRJ4s6jVhPUg_lLDLn0faV-ZItrbofxb4j6IdtI4BcxGak4L2OaBVG9ZgJgbgPcKVkpwxhqX8g-tOgk/s1600/132.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />This round of dialogue, to be co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi together with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Secretary of State John Kerry, will be the first high-level dialogue since Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama held a summit in California in June.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQhfS8HWif5cF2XdySZNXZZeEm52D0Mbjl4zfJh7BoEUqE2Fm92b3M_qx5KlVXIEbEjZMljOko1ptEQfawMyOpxc7nrYEomRzrU9ipsA9FmKLjQoUbhFcFqWn-GMoCzxVo0yl5Y8QzPA/s1600/logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQhfS8HWif5cF2XdySZNXZZeEm52D0Mbjl4zfJh7BoEUqE2Fm92b3M_qx5KlVXIEbEjZMljOko1ptEQfawMyOpxc7nrYEomRzrU9ipsA9FmKLjQoUbhFcFqWn-GMoCzxVo0yl5Y8QzPA/s1600/logo.png" /></a>At the unprecedented summit, which was regarded as having ushered in "a new chapter of trans-Pacific cooperation", both leaders pledged to seek to build a new model of relationship featuring coordination and cooperation instead of rivalry and confrontation.<br /><br />They also agreed to continue the existing bilateral dialogues and exchanges, which were applauded for playing a crucial role in enhancing mutual trust, expanding cooperation and managing disputes.<br /><br /><br />In fact, the new round of S&ED is necessitated not only by the need to implement the consensus of the Xi-Obama summit, but also by the urgency to deal with differences and tackle shared challenges.<br /><br />While endeavoring to shift the gear of economic development so as to sustain its growth, China is facing daunting challenges including shortage of resources, worsening pollution and uneven development among regions.<br /><br />The U.S. economy is still reeling from the worst economic slowdown since the 1930s, as its recovery is far from steady and sufficient. It also faces major challenges such as spiraling fiscal deficit, ongoing sequestration and lingering high unemployment.<br /><br />No doubt, deepening economic cooperation and increasing bilateral trade and investment between the two largest world economies will benefit not only both countries, but also the global economy as a whole.<br /><br />Meanwhile, global security also demands for closer China-U.S. cooperation, at a time when the tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain high, the Syrian civil war worsens, the Iranian nuclear crisis looms large, and terrorism still poses threats.<br /><br />As the U.S. continues to carry out its rebalancing policy in the Asia-Pacific region by increasing its military presence and involvement in regional territorial disputes, China and the U.S. need to further promote mutual trust and build confidence through dialogues and military-to-military exchanges.<br /><br />This round of S&ED is regarded as significant because it will be the first chance for the newly-appointed senior officials from both governments to get to know each other and establish working relationships. Progress is hoped to be made on some pressing issues including trade and investment, cyber security, climate change and military-to-military exchanges.<br /><br />Undeniably, the recent controversy over Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who exposed the U.S. wide-ranging global surveillance and cyber spying operations, has complicated the situation to some extent.<br /><br />This episode offers an opportunity for the two countries to start serious discussions on cooperating to create rules in the cyberspace.<br /><br />It is desirable that the new round of S&ED will bear tangible fruits, so to pave the way for further advancing the cause of building a new type of China-U.S. relationship.<br /><div><br /></div>

Opinion:New dialogue serves as first major step to build new-type China-U.S.relationship

WASHINGTON, July 9- The fifth China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), to be held here Wednesday, will serve as the first majo...

Snowden alone in calling out Empire as naked

The American Empire stands naked, called out by one man among a hundred thousand who knew its dirty secrets and systematic betrayal of the world's trust.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExjur_rNLD4iRMPF2de7xmHbfrPrhHxnFn7hQh7kXdGAI3WxNVXuworHp7ODAJW5pb0Am-RzPnEFlX5401qCMlDKeq1Qmg-fyrF2VFgAtEt958ZMEwEaHv5llNOqyMy3XCrANdJY4VCM/s690/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExjur_rNLD4iRMPF2de7xmHbfrPrhHxnFn7hQh7kXdGAI3WxNVXuworHp7ODAJW5pb0Am-RzPnEFlX5401qCMlDKeq1Qmg-fyrF2VFgAtEt958ZMEwEaHv5llNOqyMy3XCrANdJY4VCM/s690/10.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shadows are cast on the White House in the early morning in Washington.(Reuters / Larry Downing)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />While international politics in the West has been leaping over each other to suck up to The Empire's New Clothes following September 11, 2001, the United States wasted no time in reinforcing the order of Pax Americana - that the US would establish peace in the world through superior firepower.<br /><br />The world was turned into a simple black-and-white "You're with us, or you're against us." In the decade that followed, many countries that were inconvenient to Pax Americana were invaded, none of which had anything to do with the events on September 11.<br /><br />The rattling of sabers were reminiscent of a high school bully: "if you don't accept that we can do whatever we want, we might be mean to you, so behave." Or, as US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed that sentence in just slightly more diplomatic language recently: "Hand over Snowden, or there may be consequences."<br /><br />Most people in the United States aren't aware that their country is acting like their hated high school bully to most of the rest of the world. The few who do tend to take it with humor: bumper stickers have been seen satirizing this as "Be nice to America, or we'll bring democracy to your country", playing on the media spin that every war of aggression to maintain Pax Americana is about "bringing democracy" somewhere.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">So when one man, Edward Snowden, reveals to the world that the Empire stands naked and that it really has been behaving like a bully, wiretapping everybody wholesale, there are shockwaves. But that's where the similarities with the folklore tale ends. Where the naked emperor cringed and realized the game was up, the naked Empire instead chooses to keep rewarding sucking up, pretending that nothing has been revealed at all, and to punish the whistleblower at all costs as a warning to others.</blockquote><br />Politicians in the United States have been quick to call Snowden this, that and the other thing. No wonder. The surveillance hawks who couldn't care less of the human rights of the world would much rather talk about Edward Snowden as an individual than about the fact that the world's trust in the United States has been systematically betrayed wholesale.<br /><br />Take Microsoft software as an important example. As part of the NSA unravelings, it was uncovered that Microsoft gives security holes to the National Security Agency for exploiting before it sends out security repair patches to its users and customers - essentially betraying the trust of every customer worldwide, and making sure that no government, corporation, or media outlet can ever trust Microsoft products again: for Microsoft gave the master key to every customers' operations to the NSA.<br /><br />Without Snowden setting the ball rolling, we would not have known this, and we would continue to have been owned - in the hacker and literal sense of the word - by the United States. Now, we can at least see that any Microsoft-developed software, and probably any closed US-developed software, is a huge security risk that no nation outside the United States can afford to take.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp1ATww_qqwRhW5tFYl3preFlMKZhI3KKHci_c-xuW_B5z4PI-A0gRBdl5kF-MAtlFYSyDJ7akiyZoHg0vdBtgB0qAGNcPtQT6tGh1lGwnq0B_3_qAXkNpn17bqXm5eIHqu_OAfX0xsvc/s690/49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp1ATww_qqwRhW5tFYl3preFlMKZhI3KKHci_c-xuW_B5z4PI-A0gRBdl5kF-MAtlFYSyDJ7akiyZoHg0vdBtgB0qAGNcPtQT6tGh1lGwnq0B_3_qAXkNpn17bqXm5eIHqu_OAfX0xsvc/s690/49.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snowdon Supporters demonstrate before Obama visit to Berlin.(Photo from instagram.com/rt)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Today, Snowden is said to be comfortable on the inside of Sheremetyevo Airport outside Moscow, pending new travel documents being issued by some friendly country. (You have to love the fact that he's enraging US bully hawks by planning his trip to China, Russia, Cuba, and Venezuela. The only thing missing would be a trip to Pyongyang with a stopover in Tehran - and we find ourselves rooting for the countries that shield him, those countries we have been told sternly are black-and-white evil.)<br /><br />What's really interesting is how other people who have had their doubts about the United States have started to come forward. There are now rumors that those who have been doubting the Empire's ability to pay back its enormous debts are starting to raise their voices about it. No wonder: the United States has long been bankrupt, but people have been... pretending... otherwise to make sure that a crash to the world economy doesn't happen on their watch.<br /><br />If the doubts in creditworthiness take hold, things can come crashing down quicker than you would expect. Compare with 1987, at what felt like the height of the Cold War - who would have guessed that the Soviet Union would be formally dissolved just four years later?<br /><br />If history teaches us anything, it is that all empires come to an end. History books could theoretically point at Snowden's leak of conscience as the starting point of major, major changes to the geopolitical order. At least they ended a blind and naive trust in the United States' interest in doing good for anybody but itself.<br /><a href="http://rt.com/op-edge/snowden-us-secrets-truth-317/" target="_blank">source</a><br /><img src="http://rt.com/files/opinion/94/00/00/00/photo10.a.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Gill Sans Light', Helvetica; font-size: 10px; height: auto; margin: 0px 6px 0px 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /><br /><div style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Gill Sans Light', Helvetica; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the first Pirate Party and campaigns for sensible information policy.</div>The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author

Snowden alone in calling out Empire as naked

The American Empire stands naked, called out by one man among a hundred thousand who knew its dirty secrets and systematic betrayal of the w...

Turkish PM to Press US on Syria

<br />Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to press the United States to take a more active role in response to the situation in Syria as he meets Thursday with President Barack Obama at the White House.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQe8zEk_QspBGVYtYoj6-1i-jVe4oMRD_3rV3BZiTq5Ny1chOpYtR3dnrKkUaSVdgrimC5iXEACstelNPgSRvqlyqohA-YeUWDjDaLERWwNND0QELe0Xv0XVOf4rcv5_n9t_3nYsBxhdv/s1600/0D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQe8zEk_QspBGVYtYoj6-1i-jVe4oMRD_3rV3BZiTq5Ny1chOpYtR3dnrKkUaSVdgrimC5iXEACstelNPgSRvqlyqohA-YeUWDjDaLERWwNND0QELe0Xv0XVOf4rcv5_n9t_3nYsBxhdv/s1600/0D.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h4><span class="imageCaption">President Barack Obama, right, meets with Turkey's Prime Minister<br /> </span><span class="imageCaption">Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, May 16, 2013, in the<br /> </span><span class="imageCaption">Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. </span></h4></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the leaders will discuss ways to bring an "essential" transition to Syria.  Those include aid to the Syrian people and to rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, as well as support for a proposed peace conference that could take place next month in Geneva.<br /><br /> He said Obama remains committed to the goal of a Syria without Assad that reflects the will and rights of its people.<br /><br /> A Turkish minister accompanying Erdogan in Washington said Ankara believes stopping the Assad government from indiscriminate killing of its own people is a priority.<br /><br /> Turkish Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis said the United States and Turkey can achieve that goal only by persuading all members of the U.N. Security Council to take action.<br /><br /> "I think President Obama and Prime Minister Erdogan will be able to discuss new challenges and opportunities to convince the international community in terms of taking the necessary measures to stop the bloody Assad regime," Bagis said.<br /><br /> Erdogan will also meet Thursday with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1XQhIynQ_CHjXTKMDL03TRrxm0kn7Z-RkzK8Z4w4BmfQm0G6CJyaDKElOdsQMaeYs-pGXQhtgChSIoJPaODmSkdRFPU3kHTd3w8icAq4feZFI3u_4btcjQODRhlgs9wpzFmslvXfEa9bF/s1600/01a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1XQhIynQ_CHjXTKMDL03TRrxm0kn7Z-RkzK8Z4w4BmfQm0G6CJyaDKElOdsQMaeYs-pGXQhtgChSIoJPaODmSkdRFPU3kHTd3w8icAq4feZFI3u_4btcjQODRhlgs9wpzFmslvXfEa9bF/s1600/01a.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h4>Prime Minister Erdogan expected to ask United States<br /> to play more active role in Syrian crisis</h4></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> The talks come less than a week after two car bombs exploded in a Turkish town near the Syrian border, killing 51 people in an attack Turkey blamed on Syria.<br /><br /> During the more than two-year crisis in Syria, Turkey has given shelter to Syrian rebels as well as thousands of refugees.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /> Kerry said Wednesday the United States and Russia are "very hopeful" that plans to hold peace talks in June are progressing.  He said the peace drive is based a proposal announced last year for the creation of a transitional government in Syria "with full executive authority by mutual consent," ambiguous wording which deliberately leaves President Bashar al-Assad's future role unclear.<br /><br /> Also Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn the Syrian government's "escalation" of the country's war and backed the role of the opposition Syrian National Coalition as party to a potential political transition.<br /><br /> The non-binding resolution, drafted by Qatar, passed with 107 votes in favor, 12 against and 59 abstentions -- an outcome with less support than a similar declaration issued by the General Assembly last year.<br /><br /> The resolution demands that Syria give a United Nations team free access to investigate alleged uses of chemical weapons. That team - authorized by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - is ready to deploy, but Syria has not allowed it into the country.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZOoROBlVQxIT2l0wYYzqD07otQf2kI-L652WQKrkfundmolnjIgWglNykmvMnVmC6YeY3_jJxYQhP133VkHstmwtwRL7EBpY8RMW5UeW1U_YKp2zXyIvkbAUSq1kkTvRhsxQyoG6Lr-v/s1600/%2540publimetro.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="40" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZOoROBlVQxIT2l0wYYzqD07otQf2kI-L652WQKrkfundmolnjIgWglNykmvMnVmC6YeY3_jJxYQhP133VkHstmwtwRL7EBpY8RMW5UeW1U_YKp2zXyIvkbAUSq1kkTvRhsxQyoG6Lr-v/s1600/%2540publimetro.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />

Turkish PM to Press US on Syria

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to press the United States to take a more active role in response to the situation i...

Driver Tweets Pic Of Dying Hit And Run Victim Instead Of Calling Police`

Legal obligations aside, let us throw out a moral question: if you saw someone motionless in the street, critically injured following a hit and run accident, would you phone for police and render aid, or would you snap a pic of the dying victim and Tweet about it?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOXkghEp33zfGsk5I_BTKVXS3eZxbkilu7EA1fGT0L3vicjLQ7u5-V1LI9DamaYBAO8yRi6adngCwf1kjxl3NNT4b84nZuuQFyw3M12Sikw9k_0jnNyLwhJMjJ-Dx-DglrWgxh6gyFOrZX/s1600/jaguar-xf-police-car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOXkghEp33zfGsk5I_BTKVXS3eZxbkilu7EA1fGT0L3vicjLQ7u5-V1LI9DamaYBAO8yRi6adngCwf1kjxl3NNT4b84nZuuQFyw3M12Sikw9k_0jnNyLwhJMjJ-Dx-DglrWgxh6gyFOrZX/s1600/jaguar-xf-police-car.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>A nineteen-year-old driver in Edinburgh, Scotland, opted to do the latter when he saw a body in the road outside Edinburgh’s Ocean Terminal. The injured man, who had been sleeping in the road prior to being struck by a car, was later pronounced dead at the Edinburg Royal Infirmary.<br /> According to The Daily Record, the driver in question, 19-year-old Ikram Choudhury, came upon the scene at roughly 1:55 in the morning. Stopping his car, Choudhury snapped a picture of the victim on his smartphone, then tweeted, “Eeeehm wtf? Some guy just casually lying outside Ocean Terminal.”<br />Choudhury then returned to his car and drove home, never checking on the victim and never dialing 999, the U.K. equivalent of our 911. Police arrived on scene at 2:10 a.m. and immediately called for an ambulance, but the victim later succumbed to his injuries.<br /> Choudhury’s picture of the victim remained on his Twitter feed for some eight hours, until police asked him to take it down.<br /> In Choudhury’s defense, he didn’t witness the hit and run accident and likely assumed the man was just another homeless guy, sleeping off a drunk in a rather inappropriate place. Still, common sense would have dictated a call to 999 to report a body in the road.<br /> Police have cleared Choudhury in the actual hit and run, but the teen driver may still face charges for failing to render aid.<br /> Let this be a reminder to all of us that life is more than an opportunity for social media recognition. The real world, with real people, real drama and, occasionally, real danger, lies beyond our computers, tablets and smartphones.`

Driver Tweets Pic Of Dying Hit And Run Victim Instead Of Calling Police`

Legal obligations aside, let us throw out a moral question: if you saw someone motionless in the street, critically injured following a hit ...

When criminals tweet, police pay attention

As the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case has illustrated, today's detectives have a tool that previous generations couldn't have imagined: social media. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS1CSimkUJK7_gLKZ6hJ02xVxY2zwhsWLD9uYc3KJKO97z6lgsyhnEQuq1BTmnAajrhOb5hyphenhyphenCl2tvR9yeEiuXRCV01cgErjcN2AFc6DwpIr1g813-FtPrIcPnbC9U4on-S7gCYHGQp-QKP/s1600/l_d762ae4f75431e6c0c0e9977a9b0428f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS1CSimkUJK7_gLKZ6hJ02xVxY2zwhsWLD9uYc3KJKO97z6lgsyhnEQuq1BTmnAajrhOb5hyphenhyphenCl2tvR9yeEiuXRCV01cgErjcN2AFc6DwpIr1g813-FtPrIcPnbC9U4on-S7gCYHGQp-QKP/s1600/l_d762ae4f75431e6c0c0e9977a9b0428f.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Traditionally, evidence such as DNA, fingerprints and eyewitness accounts were what helped convict defendants in criminal cases. If the police were lucky, perhaps there'd be grainy surveillance video or a credit card trail. But as the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case has illustrated, today's detectives have a new tool in their arsenal: social media.<br />The Steubenville case drew national attention after a blogger named Alexandria Goddard got wind of the case, heard rumors of a cover-up and started screen-capping Tweets from both the alleged perpetrators and witnesses to the rape. Soon the investigating officers had nude photos of the incapacitated girl, videos of boys laughing about the rape and incriminating text messages from at least one of the two suspects, both of whom were convicted on Sunday.<br />The Steubenville case might be the most high-profile instance of social media being used to help make a criminal case, but it's far from an isolated event. In 2011, 17-year-old Calvin Pietri was arrested after he bragged about taking part in an anti-gay murder on his Facebook wall, authorities said. That was the same year the IRS caught up with Rashia Wilson, who proclaimed on Facebook that she was the “first lady of tax refund fraud," according to authorities. On Monday, alleged members of a New York City drug gang called the "Fetti Boys" were rounded up after posting videos on YouTube depicting the cartoon-emblazoned bags of marijuana and crack they were selling, authorities said<br />In fact, New York has so many of these online braggarts that in 2011, the NYPD set up a special social media unit to monitor these sites. Civil libertarians, however, worry that this kind of surveillance could lead to ethical violations. Christopher Dunn, associate legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union said, "Police infiltration of social media should be closely regulated."<br />Not every police department uses social media for surveillance. Kentucky police officers just post "most wanted" pictures on their Facebook wall and watch the tips roll in.<br />According to the Guardian, social media-related crime reports were up 780 percent over the past four years in the U.K. Chief constable Andy Trotter of the Association of Chief Police Officers told the paper,"It is a new world for all and we could end up in a situation where each constabulary needs a dedicated Twitter squad."<br />And that may not be so farfetched. A 2012 survey of 1,200 federal, state and local law enforcement professionals revealed that 67 percent of the officers polled "believe social media helps solve crimes more quickly," and that "87% of the time, search warrants utilizing social media to establish probable cause hold up in court when challenged."<br />As for Steubenville, the trial may have ended but Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced on Sunday that after his cybercrimes experts analyze "396,270 text messages; 308,586 photos/pictures; 940 video clips; 3,188 phone calls; and 16,422 contacts listed in phones," he will be convening a grand jury to determine whether more crimes have been committed and whether more charges should be filed.

When criminals tweet, police pay attention

As the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case has illustrated, today's detectives have a tool that previous generations couldn't have imagine...