AXS TV anchor Dan Rather and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Wednesday night said the National Security Agency couldn’t justify its sweeping surveillance powers. Maddow began her segment on MSNBC by noting that any government power was supposed to rely on the consent of the governed. “When...
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Dan Rather: NSA ‘is demolishing the trust in the government’
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Neo-Nazi plans to build an all-white city of racists in North Dakota
A man living in North Dakota plans to turn his small town into a bastion of white supremacists, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. “I didn’t have a clue who the guy was until he showed up. All I know is he bought that house sight unseen, $5,000 cash, and had no idea what it looked like,...
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‘Vitriolic coverage’: Study examines why Fox News viewers hate Obama
Those who think the growing popularity of highly-partisan opinion shows is tearing the United States apart now have some empiric evidence on their side. Research published in the September issue of Political Research Quarterly has found pundits on political opinion shows influence attitudes toward...
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Palestinian activist arrested for selling ‘Morsi perfume’
Palestinian security services have arrested an Islamist sympathiser in the West Bank for selling perfume named in honour of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi, family members said on Thursday. Islambuli Badir, a 36-year-old member of Islamist movement Hamas, was arrested during a raid on...
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Retiring FBI director warns ‘the threat is still here’
He took the reins of the FBI a week before the attacks of September 11, 2001. Twelve years later, Robert Mueller is retiring, convinced that “the threat is still here.” Shortly before passing the baton to his successor James Comey on September 4 — a dozen years to the day since...
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The world’s most accurate clock is made from the element ytterbium
US scientists said Thursday they have built the world’s most precise clock, whose ticking rate varies less than two parts in one quintillion, or 10 times better than any other. The clock, made from the element ytterbium, could be used for technological advancements beyond timekeeping, such as...
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An ‘aporkalypse’ has Texas fighting losing battle against feral pig menace
Texans have penned them in state-of-the-art traps, tracked them with night-vision goggles, massacred them with machine guns and and even shot them from helicopters. But despite all the firepower and ingenuity the Lone Star State can muster, it is losing the war on feral hogs. The population of one...
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Obama offers plan to deal with the high cost of college
Barack Obama took aim at the spiralling cost of higher education on Thursday, threatening US universities with a new official ranking system he claimed would help students identify whether they were getting value for money. As crippling student loans are increasingly seen as a impediment to social...
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NSA promises transparency by launching new Tumblr blog
As scrutiny of the activities of the US National Security Agency (NSA) continues, a new Tumblr blog launched by the Office of the Director of National Security is promising more transparency on “lawful foreign surveillance activities” carried out by US agencies. IC on the Record will...
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Elon Musk condemns the ‘perversion of democracy’ in Texas
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is not at all pleased with lawmakers in Texas. “If the public is overwhelmingly in favor of something and then the legislators vote against the overwhelming public interest, that is a perversion of democracy,” he recently told ABC News. “I mean, the...
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Watch: Obama heckled over sentencing of Chelsea Manning
President Barack Obama was interrupted by protesters on Thursday night amid a speech on college affordability. While Obama was speaking in Syracuse, New York, two woman began shouting at him. One of the women held up a giant “Free Bradley Manning” sign. Both women were escorted out of the event....
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In Washington ‘The game becomes more important than those for whom government should exist to help’
O Little Town of Washington (via Moyers & Company) In the wake of all the talk surrounding Mark Leibovich’s controversial book about Washington, This Town, I was asked how that city has changed since I first lived there nearly 45 years ago. The question makes me feel a little like Grandpa...
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Republican Rep. Joyce: Unemployment caused by drunk, high workforce not lack of jobs
Add to the many reasons people can’t find jobs — a weak economy, offshoring, technology disruption, employer uncertainty — this rationale, from Republican Rep. Dave Joyce: too many of us are just too drunk or high to get a job. Joyce (R-OH), spoke with the Stow-Munroe Falls...
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Prosecutor: No race motive in shooting of Australian in Oklahoma
WASHINGTON — US prosecutors handling the case of two black teenagers accused of shooting dead a white Australian baseball player said Friday there was no evidence to suggest the killing was racially-motivated. The murder of Chris Lane, 22, in the small Oklahoma town of Duncan has triggered a race...
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U.S. preparing missile strike on Syria as evidence mounts of chemical weapons use
The Pentagon is reportedly preparing for a possible order to strike Syrian targets with cruise missiles, as evidence mounts of the use of chemical weapons emerges from an attack on a Damascus suburb earlier this week, CBS News reported Friday. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of...
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Former porn star Sasha Grey pens first erotic novel
AFP – With her first erotic novel, out in Brazil this week, US ex-porn star Sasha Grey says she aims to forge a new path in literature while promoting women’s self-empowerment. The 25-year-old was mobbed by 1,000 fans Wednesday at a launch in Sao Paulo for “The Juliette...
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Giant panda delivers cub at National Zoo in D.C.
AFP – A giant panda gave birth to a cub Friday at the US National Zoo in Washington, raising hopes for a rare success after a series of false pregnancies, officials said. “WE HAVE A CUB!!” the zoo announced on Twitter after female giant panda Mei Xiang’s unnamed baby was...
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US photojournalist recounts horror of captivity after escaping al-Qaeda in Syria
AFP – A US photojournalist who escaped from Syrian rebels after seven months in captivity revealed details of his ordeal Friday and spoke of his anguish at leaving a fellow hostage behind. Matthew Schrier, 35, fled the clutches of a rebel group aligned to Al-Qaeda in July after being...
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Ancient banyan tree in Hong Kong succumbs to fungus, development
AFP – A 400-year-old banyan tree in Hong Kong will be cut down, authorities said Friday, after being hit by a fungal disease brought on when a park development starved its roots of oxygen and nutrients. Nestled in the heart of the city in Kowloon Park, the tree, Hong Kong’s oldest...
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Prisoner hunger striker demands end to indefinite detention in Pelican Bay’s supermax cells
Lawyers for a hunger-striking prisoner in Pelican Bay released audio describing the demands of the remaining hunger strikers protesting indefinite solitary confinement in the California prison. Todd Ashker, a prisoner sentenced to life for killing an inmate, has been imprisoned in the...
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