Apologists for the National Security Agency (NSA) point to the arrest of David Coleman Headley as an example of how warrantless mass surveillance is necessary to catch terrorists. Headley played a major role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 166 people.

While few would argue that bringing someone like Headley to justice is not a good thing, Headley’s case in no way justifies mass surveillance. For one thing, there is no “terrorist” exception in the Fourth Amendment. Saying a good end (capturing terrorists) justifies a bad means (mass surveillance) gives the government a blank check to violate our liberties.

Even if the Headley case somehow justified overturning the Fourth Amendment, it still would not justify mass surveillance and bulk data collection. This is because, according to an investigation by ProPublica, NSA surveillance played an insignificant role in catching Headley. One former counter-terrorism official said when he heard that NSA surveillance was responsible for Headley's capture he “was trying to figure out how NSA played a role.”

The Headley case is not the only evidence that the PATRIOT Act and other post-9/11 sacrifices of our liberty have not increased our security. For example, the NSA’s claim that its surveillance programs thwarted 54 terrorist attacks has been widely discredited. Even the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies found that mass surveillance and bulk data collection was “not essential to preventing attacks.”

According to the congressional Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 9/11 Commission, the powers granted the NSA by the PATRIOT Act would not have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Many intelligence experts have pointed out that, by increasing the size of the haystack government agencies must look through, mass surveillance makes it harder to find the needle of legitimate threats.

...

More...http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/may/03/usa-freedom-act-just-another-word-for-lost-liberty/

ISIS Executes 600 Yezidi Men

Erbil, Kurdistan Region – On Friday the so-called Sharia Court of the Islamic State group (IS/ISIS) reportedly executed 600 hostages from the Yezidi community of Shingal (Sinjar) in the Talafar district in northern Iraq.

The group piled the bodies into the well of Alo Antar on al-Ayyadiya highway, local sources reported.


Shahin Shingali, a fighter in the ranks of the Peshmerga forces, stated to ARA News that since Friday the IS radicals transferred nearly 700 Yezidi hostages to Talafar.


“Without a direct intervention by the international community, Iraq will be witnessing more genocides against innocent people at the hands of the IS terrorists,” Shingali said.



Aseel al-Nujaifi, governor of Nineveh province in Iraq, confirmed on Friday that the IS terrorists executed hundreds of Yezidi captives.
“A new crime was committed by Daesh (Islamic State) against our Yezidi people on Friday,” al-Nujaifi said in a statement.
“IS gangs executed hundreds of innocent Yezidi prisoners.”



“These terrorists are degrading Islamic religion. Muslim clerics should bear their responsibility to show the public the reality of this terrorist group, demonstrating how it is diametrically opposed to the correct, tolerant teachings of the Islamic religion,” al-Nujaifi added.



Commenting on the incident, the Yezidi writer and researcher Salem Rashidani told ARA News: “We have received reports saying that IS militants executed the Yezidi men in the district of Talafar in Nineveh province, after isolating them from their families, throwing their corpses in the valley near the city.

http://aranews.net/2015/05/isis-militants-execute-600-yezidis-northern-iraq/

Looks like the original report misreported the total deaths or this could be newer, probably the former.

UN peacekeeping missions throughout Africa in the 90s were strife w/ abuses, both sexual and physical so this is hardly a surprise to me. Those that have worked under the UN banner have done nothing but to ruin their reputation in areas where they were supposed to help the most. I've long wanted the US to kick the UN out of NYC and stop giving them money.

For his sake, I hope this legal battle is resolved in a manner that doesn't keep the legal costs to keep soaring much higher than it already has.

You can bet these upper and mid level employees of these big banks and hedge funds have been building themselves a position or are awaiting the upcoming tools for institutional investors to get some exposure to bitcoin. These news stories of certain interests getting involved in something are cattle calls to those in the industry to load up.

This doesn't do much for me at this point as we're already use to certain places coming on board to accept bitcoin. I won't give a crap unless each one accepting it gives a discount because of the benefits it offers as a payment option. Yet, having bigger outfits like major chain stores and big corporations accepting it is a boost because it drives much news about bitcoin. I'm not spending my coinage for garbage especially if they don't hook me up for it.

I think ladies may take notice at these stores if they see the BTC on the register or store window but they still would have no incentive to figure out how to attain it and then use it. What I'd like to see is for supermarkets, drug stores and convenience stores to start accepting bitcoin and allow discounts for using it. Many women (the family's main shopper) have their super savers coupons or plastic member tags on their keychains and dig the savings they get for using it at a CVS or a Wallgreens (USA). This is when you'll see mass adoption but until people get discounts for using it or can only buy something they want/need w/ bitcoin, then it will remain speculative. You'd think BitPay would drive this point home when contacting businesses to accept bitcoin because they'll only get more business as time goes by and all will be well.

I just saw it posted elsewhere yesterday and even the publishing date under the video says April 30th so idk. More Ron Paul precious metals/sound money types need to see Ron taking it more seriously because they are still sitting back with the general public in regards to their impression of Bitcoin. The tech is too much for many of the aging metals types and this is a major perception problem world wide.

The average person has no incentive to use Bitcoin until certain places offer discounts for doing so. Businesses should know that as they expand their sales in Bitcoin then they have the benefits of no charge backs and lower transaction costs so they should be looking to incentivize Bitcoin use by offering a break on their prices for it. W/o more of that happening or being able to only get a certain thing by paying w/ Bitcoin, then there is no use for the general public to use it. Most upwardly mobile people that are natives of a country don't have relatives in other parts of the world where they'd use Bitcoin for remittance. Aside from that, they only way folks will want Bitcoin is if they know of the deflationary effect and that by holding it, they'll become wealthier over time. Sorry to say, that is what will turn heads, not the technology at this point.

But when the super majority of the population is running on all cylinders and having the freedom to innovate then the most amount of people are succeeding and more well off rather than the flipside under the mediocrity and misery of egalitarian communism which reduces people to the lowest common denominator because one can't reap rewards for their efforts. Then, under capitalism where the most are thriving, charities and churches are well funded to help out those that can't help themselves. The lazy parasites deserve nothing and need to be ostracized until they grow a pair and man up.

US-led airstrikes kill 52 Syrian civilians in a day, not 1 ISIS fighter

US-led airstrikes have killed 52 Syrian civilians in one day, a monitoring group reports. There was fighting in the vicinity, but the strike allegedly failed to kill even a single Islamist fighter.

"Airstrikes by the coalition early on Friday on the village of Birmahle in Aleppo province killed 52 civilians," the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Seven of the victims were children. A further 13 were buried under the rubble, he added.

The scene was precipitated by clashes between Kurdish militiamen and Syrian rebels on the one hand and the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists on the other, about a mile away.

"But Birmahle is only civilians, with no [ISIS] positions and no clashes," Abdel Rahman continued, although raids were carried out on a nearby town, where seven militants were killed.

US-led airstrikes have been pummeling rebel positions since September. They are designed to support Kurdish units in Syria and Iraq, who have proved effective at fighting and stalling jihadists, as in the embattled Syrian-Turkish border town of Kobani in January.

Friday marked a major escalation in Syrian civilian deaths caused by the airstrike campaign. Since September, the coalition flyovers have resulted in 66 civilian deaths. Friday added another 52.

Syrian President Bashar Assad repeatedly pointed out that the bombardments are an illegal intervention unauthorized by a UN Security Council resolution, and so violate the sovereignty of Syria. The Syrian president told Russian media in late March that the West does not have a political solution to the crisis in Syria, and said it is only interested in destroying his government and “turning us into puppets.”

http://rt.com/news/255105-us-strikes-syria-isis/

Now, if only the retards that are running US foreign policy and their neocon backers didn't arm the Syrian 'rebels' and their IS counterparts in the last few years, IS wouldn't be the threat they are and being able to roam into different communities and takeover w/o a fight. The Kurds should've been the ally all along but lay off the drone strikes unless they're more cautious. Yet at this point, the US has funded both sides and has contributed to these innocent people being killed.

Yeah this in conjunction w/ the newer apps/ETFs/exchanges/whatever else the will be coming is what I was driving at to bump the price in the short to mid term and putting a stake in the bear market. The halving is just an inevitable part of the protocol that's beneficial outside of market forces and developments.

I guess what I meant is that I've been seeing so many people mention that the halving will be the salvation from this bear market in and of itself. I'm well aware that coinage will immediately become scarcer by 50% upon the halving but I was insinuating that other tools will becoming into the market that will drive the price bullish prior to and perhaps w/ full knowledge of the upcoming halving.

I know, right! I didn't know that an unbiased, interested party existed anymore. Refreshing after all this market has went through.

Pretty nice but I am not too strong about your push, thank you. I wish you the best.

This payment of .04 seems quite low at this stage of the game, let's go higher cuz other games go 5 times higher or more when you post regularly on a regular basis.

Anyone notice how Bernie Sanders is being Marginalized like Rand and Ron Paul?

"I don't suppose many people think Bernie Sanders will be the next President...."


I just think it's an interesting observation that the media is also treating Sanders as just someone that will force Hillary to be more liberal. Similar to how Ron was a "good candidate but didn't have a shot" that was only in the race to expand libertarian ideas and whatnot. Kind of points to proof that those in charge of the Democrat and Republican parties might not be too different after all. Plus it's just interesting to see it on the other side.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4209035939001/sanders-white-house-bid-targets-immoral-economic-system/?playlist_id=928378949001#sp=show-clips

Santorum on Bruce Jenner: ‘If He Says He’s Woman, Then He’s a Woman’

Speaking to BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray from the South Carolina Republican Party’s convention this weekend, Santorum had this to say about Jenner’s transition:

“If he says he’s a woman, then he’s a woman. My responsibility as a human being is to love and accept everybody. Not to criticize people for who they are. I can criticize, and I do, for what people do, for their behavior. But as far as for who they are, you have to respect everybody, and these are obviously complex issues for businesses, for society, and I think we have to look at it in a way that is compassionate and respectful of everybody.”

The potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate added that “these are tough issues” and, answering another question about what public restrooms Jenner should be able to use, said that he does not “think the federal government should get into the whole issue of bathrooms.”

Santorum has long been a prominent foe of the LGBT community, so it is more than a little surprising to hear him express so much unconditional support for Jenner. Is it Jenner’s embrace of the Republican Party that has Santorum feeling so friendly? Or could it be Jenner’s declaration that being transgender does not make him gay?

More...http://www.mediaite.com/online/santorum-on-bruce-jenner-if-he-says-hes-woman-then-hes-a-woman/

Curfew remains in place in Baltimore even as charges defuse tensions

BALTIMORE — After an unprecedented week of upheaval, thousands in this beleaguered city came out once again Saturday, this time hoping that the end of chaos would mark the beginning of real change.

The crowd gathered at City Hall on a gorgeous spring day may have been smaller than the 5,000 predicted when the rally was planned, but it was decidedly upbeat.

Protesters who had grown hoarse calling for police to be held accountable in the death of Freddie Gray seemed almost disoriented by getting their wish. Some toggled between euphoria and skepticism. Others tried to keep the pressure on, saying that only a conviction would equal justice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/as-baltimore-stirred-to-life-saturday-calm-and-normalcy-prevail/2015/05/02/1478e0c8-f057-11e4-a55f-38924fca94f9_story.html

Perhaps but I'd like to see the Sanders-socialist take on the Hillary-fascist for the democratic nomination rather than her just walking through the forest unscathed. Tho, it could be uncouth for democrats to choose between the two. Hopefully, the sensible outside bunch will wade into the GOP primary and support Rand.