No Agenda Episode 512

Presidential Proclamation -- Mother's Day, 2013

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 8, 1914 (38 Stat. 770), has designated the second Sunday in May each year as "Mother's Day" and requested the President to call for its appropriate observance.

Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed

Sat, 11 May 2013 21:13

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

May 10, 2013

MOTHER'S DAY, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Today, sons and daughters all across America come together to honor the women who raised them. Whether single or in partnership, foster or adoptive, mothers hold a special place in our hearts. For many of us, they are our first caretakers and our first teachers, imparting the early lessons that guide us growing up. And no matter the challenges we face or the paths we choose, moms are there for their children with hope and love -- scraping and sacrificing and doing whatever it takes to give them a bright future.

That work has often stretched outside the home. In the century since Americans first came together to mark Mother's Day, generations of women have empowered their children with the courage and grit to fight for change. But they have also fought to secure it themselves. Mothers pioneered a path to the vote, from Seneca Falls to the 19th Amendment. They helped write foundational protections into our laws, like freedom from workplace discrimination and access to affordable health care. They shattered ceilings in business and government, on the battlefield and on the court. With every step, they led the way to a more perfect Union, widening the circle of opportunity for our daughters and sons alike.

That history of striving and success affirms America's promise as a place where all things can be possible for all people. But even now, we have more work to do before that promise is made real for each of us. Workplace inflexibility puts a strain on too many mothers juggling their jobs' needs with those of their kids. Wage inequality still leaves too many families struggling to make ends meet. These problems affect all of us -- and just as mothers pour themselves into giving their children the best chance in life, we need to make sure they get the fairness and opportunities they deserve.

On Mother's Day, we give thanks to proud, caring women from every walk of life. Whether balancing the responsibilities of career and family or taking up the work of sustaining a home, a mother's bond with her child is unwavering; her love, unconditional. Today, we celebrate those blessings, and we renew them for the year to come.

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 8, 1914 (38 Stat. 770), has designated the second Sunday in May each year as "Mother's Day" and requested the President to call for its appropriate observance.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 12, 2013, as Mother's Day. I urge all Americans to express love and gratitude to mothers everywhere, and I call upon all citizens to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this

tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

Presidential Proclamations -- Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, 2013

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Sat, 11 May 2013 21:13

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

May 10, 2013

PEACE OFFICERS MEMORIAL DAY AND POLICE WEEK, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Day after day, police officers in every corner of America suit up, put on the badge, and carry out their sworn duty to protect and serve. They step out the door every morning without considering bravery or heroics. They stay focused on meeting their responsibilities. They concentrate on keeping their neighborhoods safe and doing right by their fellow officers. And with quiet courage, they help fulfill the demanding yet vital task of shielding our people from harm. It is work that deserves our deepest respect -- because when darkness and danger would threaten the peace, our police officers are there to step in, ready to lay down their lives to protect our own.

This week, we pay solemn tribute to men and women who did. Setting aside fear and doubt, these officers made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the rule of law and the communities they loved. They heard the call to serve and answered it; braved the line of fire; charged toward the danger. Our hearts are heavy with their loss, and on Peace Officers Memorial Day, our Nation comes together to reflect on the legacy they left us.

As we mark this occasion, let us remember that we can do no greater service to those who perished than by upholding what they fought to protect. That means doing everything we can to make our communities safer. It means putting cops back on the beat and supporting them with the tools and training they need. It means getting weapons of war off our streets and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals -- common-sense measures that would reduce gun violence and help officers do their job safely and effectively.

Together, we can accomplish those goals. So as we take this time to honor law enforcement in big cities and small towns all across our country, let us join them in pursuit of a brighter tomorrow. Our police officers serve and sacrifice on our behalf every day, and as citizens, we owe them nothing less than our full and lasting support.

By a joint resolution approved October 1, 1962, as amended (76 Stat. 676), and by Public Law 103-322, as amended (36 U.S.C. 136-137), the President has been authorized and requested to designate May 15 of each year as "Peace Officers Memorial Day" and the week in which it falls as "Police Week."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 15, 2013, as Peace Officers Memorial Day and May 12 through May 18, 2013, as Police Week. I call upon all Americans to observe these events with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also call on Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials of the other territories subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day. I further encourage all Americans to display the flag at half-staff from their homes and businesses on that day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this

tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

Presidential Proclamation -- National Women's Health Week, 2013

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Sat, 11 May 2013 21:12

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

May 10, 2013

NATIONAL WOMEN'S HEALTH WEEK, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Since our Nation's founding, women have given their all to expanding opportunity for their families and for future generations. Decade after decade, that fierce dedication has been rewarded with remarkable progress in nearly every part of society; yet all too often, advances in women's health and well-being have lagged behind. During National Women's Health Week, we recommit to changing that reality and increasing access to health services that help women and girls get the care they need.

Three years ago, I signed the Affordable Care Act -- reform that brought about a new era of equality in health care and gave women unprecedented control over their health. Under the law, women will no longer face higher insurance premiums because of their gender. It will be illegal for insurers to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions like pregnancy or cancer. Already, 47 million women have gained access to preventive services at no out-of-pocket cost, including well-woman visits, domestic violence screenings and counseling, and contraceptive care. And millions more are benefitting from improved prescription drug coverage under Medicare that helps seniors get the medication they need at prices they can afford.

These changes are making a real difference for families in every part of our country. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, working mothers no longer have to choose between getting essential care and paying their bills. Women no longer have to delay mammograms just because money is tight. And young people can stay on their parent's health insurance until age 26, so they no longer have to worry about how to afford health care when they are just starting out. I encourage women of all ages to visit www.WomensHealth.gov, www.GirlsHealth.gov, and www.HealthCare.gov to learn more about resources available to them, including the new Health Insurance Marketplace.

This week, as we reflect on how far we have come in the fight to provide Americans with the care they deserve, let us renew our commitment to empowering all women with the chance to live strong, healthy lives.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 12 through May 18, 2013, as National Women's Health Week. I encourage all Americans to celebrate the progress we have made in protecting women's health and to promote awareness, prevention, and educational activities that improve the health of all women.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

BARACK OBAMA

Presidential Proclamation -- National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation Week, 2013

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Sat, 11 May 2013 21:12

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

May 10, 2013

NATIONAL DEFENSE TRANSPORTATION DAYAND NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION WEEK, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

As a Nation, we have no task more urgent than creating good jobs, strengthening our economy, and reigniting the thriving middle class that has always been the true engine of America's growth. To meet these goals, we need to rebuild the infrastructure that powers our industries. We need to make our cities more connected and more resilient to the challenges we face. We need to restore our roads, bridges, and ports -- transportation networks that are essential to making the United States the best place in the world to do business.

In the past 4 years, we have taken important steps down that path. But even now, too many of our rail lines are slow and backed up. Too many of our bridges remain unsafe. We know our country can do better -- which is why I proposed a "Fix-It-First" program earlier this year to put people to work on our most pressing transportation projects. Alongside it, I also proposed a Partnership to Rebuild America, which would attract private capital to upgrade the infrastructure our businesses need most. These initiatives would help modernize communities, expand small businesses, and get more construction workers back on the job.

We also recognize that repairing our transportation networks is about more than economic growth -- it is about security. At a time when our cities face unprecedented threats and hazards, we must do more to ensure our first responders and our service members can respond effectively during crisis. That means protecting our critical infrastructure and repairing roads and bridges that put our people at risk.

Together, we can make meaningful progress toward those goals. Let us recommit this week to revitalizing transportation, pioneering new solutions to tough challenges, and making lasting investments in America's infrastructure.

In recognition of the importance of our Nation's transportation infrastructure, and of the men and women who build, maintain, and utilize it, the Congress has requested, by joint resolution approved May 16, 1957, as amended (36 U.S.C. 120), that the President designate the third Friday in May of each year as "National Defense Transportation Day," and, by joint resolution approved May 14, 1962, as amended (36 U.S.C. 133), that the week during which that Friday falls be designated as "National Transportation Week."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Friday, May 17, 2013, as National Defense Transportation Day and May 12 through May 18, 2013, as National Transportation Week. I call upon all Americans to recognize the importance of our Nation's transportation infrastructure and to acknowledge the contributions of those who build, operate, and maintain it.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

BARACK OBAMA

May 11th is National Train Day! : TreeHugger

Vision of Joe Biden as president

IRS admits, apologizes for targeting right-wing groups in election run-up '-- RT USA

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Source: BadChad's ThoughtPile

Sat, 11 May 2013 21:11

Officials from the US Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday after confessing that the agency had targeted conservative political groups, putting them under extra scrutiny during the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election.

Organizations that used words including ''tea party'' or ''patriot'' in their applications for tax-exempt status were flagged. Some were asked for their list of financial donors, a flagrant violation of IRS policy, Lois Lerner, an IRS division head, told the Associated Press.

''That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate,'' she said. ''That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review. The IRS would like to apologize for that.''

Approximately 75 groups were targeted, although none had their tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner added. She reiterated that the scheme was started by low-level employees in Cincinnati, Ohio and that IRS higher-ups were not privy to what was happening at the time.

''They didn't do it because of any political bias,'' Lerner continued. ''It was an error in judgment and it wasn't appropriate but that's what they did. We've now corrected these issues, and we don't expect that any of these will be repeated going forward.''

Tea Party groups and similarly-minded activists who were outspoken in their disdain for US President Barack Obama complained of mistreatment from the IRS before the election, when political feelings are naturally heightened. Sal Russo, founder of the Tea Party Express political action committee, told ABC News that though his group was never harassed by the IRS, he did hear of government resistance to the tax exemption requests.

''On our bus tours the local Tea Party groups were all screaming about it,'' Russo said. ''It was so pronounced around the country that it was obvious the Tea Party groups were being targeted. Not unlike any bureaucracy, the first reaction is to deny everything even when they don't know the facts.''

He added that he was ''glad they finally acknowledged what was obvious to everyone else.''

Other leaders in the Tea Party, a right-wing anti-government faction created in 2009 in reaction to government relief for foreclosed-upon homeowners, were decidedly less forgiving.

''It is suspicious that the activity of these 'low-level workers' was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred,'' Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which bills itself as the biggest Tea Party group in the US, told ABC. ''President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grassroots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again.''

One coincidence that's fueled conspiracy theories is the IRS' responsibility to enforce Obama's health care law, which critics have cited as prime evidence of governmental overreach. Jay Sekulow, an outspoken conservative lawyer, equated the wrongdoings by the IRS to government censorship during the American Civil Rights movement when he spoke to The New York Times in 2011.

''This is obviously a coordinated effort by the IRS to stifle these Tea Party and Tea Party-affiliated groups, and to stifle free speech activities,'' he said.

IRS apologizes for targeting conservative groups - Yahoo! News

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Fri, 10 May 2013 12:54

WASHINGTON (AP) '-- The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.

Organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

"That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases for further review," Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

"The IRS would like to apologize for that," she added.

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice.

Agency officials found out about the practice last year and moved to correct it, the IRS said in a statement. The statement did not specify when officials found out.

About 75 groups were inappropriately targeted. None had their tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called on the White House to investigate.

"Today's acknowledgement by the Obama administration that the IRS did in fact target conservative groups in the heat of last year's national election is not enough," McConnell said. "I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not under way at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views."

Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The forms, which the groups made available at the time, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

Certain tax-exempt charitable groups can conduct political activities but it cannot be their primary activity.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.

"The Ways and Means Committee has persistently pushed the IRS to explain why it appeared to be unfairly targeting some political groups over others '-- a charge they repeatedly denied," said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee.

"The IRS's 'too little too late' response is unacceptable, and I will continue to work to ensure there are protections in place so no American, regardless of political affiliation, has their right to free speech threatened by the IRS," Boustany said.

Tea Party groups were livid on Friday.

"I don't think there's any question we were unfairly targeted," said Tom Zawistowski, who until recently was president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, an alliance of tea party groups in the state.

Zawistowski's group was among many conservative organizations that battled the IRS over what they saw as its discriminatory treatment of their effort to gain non-profit status. The group first applied for non-profit status in June 2009, and it was finally granted on Dec. 7, 2012, he said '-- one month after Election Day.

During the 2012 election, many tea party groups applied for tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which grants tax-exempt status to social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.

That determination is up to the IRS.

Lerner said the number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.

Lerner said this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity, Lerner said.

As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words, "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.

"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.

The IRS statement said that once applications were chosen for review, they all "received the same, even-handed treatment."

Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

"Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale," the IRS said in a statement. "We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system."

Marcus S. Owens, who spent a decade leading the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, said Friday that it made sense that the problem arose among workers in Cincinnati because the agency "really has delegated a lot of authority" to local offices to make decisions about handling their workload.

But Tea Party groups weren't buying the idea that the decision to target them was solely the responsibility of low-level IRS workers.

"It is suspicious that the activity of these 'low-level workers' was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which describes itself as the nation's largest tea party organization. "President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grassroots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again."

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Associated Press reporters Alan Fram and Steve Peoples in Boston contributed to this report.

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Employers Pull Applicants' Credit Reports

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Sun, 12 May 2013 07:59

THE first couple of times Alfred J. Carpenter was turned down for a job, he didn't know what to think.

He been laid off early in the recession and then had the bad fortune of tearing tendons in his knee just when he didn't have health insurance. The job market was terrible and he had been out of work for more than a year. But the managers at the first two shoe stores to which he applied in the summer of 2010 seemed to be taken by his r(C)sum(C). He had sold shoes for six years at Salvatore Ferragamo on Fifth Avenue and later at J. M. Weston, where a pair of men's dress shoes can cost $2,000. The manager at one shop was already discussing salary. The other, he said, invited him to fill out the paperwork normally done on the first day on a job.

''Who does that if they're not planning on hiring you?'' Mr. Carpenter asked.

Yet neither job materialized. One manager, he said, ''basically hung up on me.''

A friend at Bergdorf Goodman, the high-end clothier, secured him an interview for an opening in the shoe department. But when Mr. Carpenter confided to his friend that his finances were a mess, ''he tells me, 'Oh, you've got bad credit? They'll never hire you.' '' Sure enough, a week or two later, Mr. Carpenter said, he received a notice from Bergdorf informing him that while running a credit check, the store found information that played a role in its hiring decision. It was a so-called adverse action letter that by law a business conducting a credit report is supposed to send to an applicant.

Mr. Carpenter kept applying for jobs and kept checking off the box granting his would-be employer permission to look into his past. And he kept being turned down. There was the recession and there may have been dozens of applicants for each of these jobs. But while Bergdorf was the only company to follow up a job rejection with an adverse action letter, Mr. Carpenter became convinced that his credit report was a curse.

''No one lets me explain, 'Hey, I had this freak injury when I didn't have health insurance,' '' he said. ''It's black and white: 'You have these bad marks on your record, you don't get hired.' '' Down to his last $200, he applied for and was granted food stamps and federal housing assistance.

''There's no reason,'' he said, ''a strong, able guy like me should have to go on welfare.''

PEOPLE tend to think of banks and other lenders as the main users of credit reports. But over the last several decades, credit reporting bureaus have been selling their services to a much wider range of buyers.

''Credit reports are really seeping into the soil,'' said Sarah Ludwig, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, a New York-based nonprofit. ''It's taken an outsized role in employment, housing and insurance.''

For those seeking a job, it can lead to what Chi Chi Wu, a staff lawyer at the National Consumer Law Center in Boston, calls ''a bizarre, Kafkaesque experience.''

''Someone loses their job,'' Ms. Wu said, ''so they can't pay their bills '-- and now they can't get a job because they couldn't pay their bills because they lost a job? It's this Catch-22 that makes no sense.'' It can also be a kind of backdoor job discrimination, Ms. Wu contends, given the numerous studies that demonstrate that those black, Latino or simply poor are more likely to have lower credit scores than those who are white and have means.

Experian, one of the big three credit reporting bureaus, states in its marketing materials, ''Credit information provides insight into an applicant's integrity and responsibility toward his or her financial obligations.''

But to Ms. Wu and others, a credit report says more about a person's economic circumstances than his or her moral character. ''Some people can go to daddy and say, 'I can't pay my bills, will you bail me out?' '' Ms. Wu said. ''And others can't.''

Nearly half '-- 47 percent '-- of employers use credit checks when making a hiring decision, according to a 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Most businesses use credit checks only to screen for certain positions, but one in eight, the survey found, does a credit check before every hire. ''We've heard from dozens of people over the past several years who say they're being denied jobs specifically because of a credit check,'' Ms. Ludwig said. The people contacting her group, she said, are ''mostly lower-wage workers,'' especially those applying to big retail chains.

Privacy Breach on Bloomberg's Data Terminals - NYTimes.com

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Sat, 11 May 2013 20:39

A shudder went through Wall Street on Friday after the revelation that Bloomberg News reporters had extracted subscribers' private information through the company's ubiquitous data terminals to break news.

The company confirmed that reporters at Bloomberg News, the journalism arm of Bloomberg L.P., had for years used the company's terminals to monitor when subscribers had logged onto the service and to find out what types of functions, like the news wire, corporate bond trades or an equities index, they had looked at. Bloomberg terminals, which cost an average of more than $20,000 a year, are found in nearly every banking and trading company.

Bloomberg said the functions that allowed journalists to monitor subscribers were a mistake and were promptly disabled after Goldman Sachs complained that a Bloomberg reporter had, while inquiring about a partner's employment status, pointed out that the partner had not logged onto his Bloomberg terminal lately.

The incident led to broader concerns about the line at Bloomberg between its lucrative terminal business and the hypercompetitive newsroom, threatening to undermine the credibility of both. In a secretive world that thrives on opacity, traders and financial firms jealously guard every speck of information about their activity to avoid tipping their hand on their trades and investments.

''On Wall Street, anonymity is critically important. Secrecy and the ability to cover one's tracks is paramount,'' said Michael J. Driscoll, a former senior trader at Bear Stearns who now teaches at Adelphi University. He added: ''If Bloomberg reporters crossed that line, that's an issue.''

The news gathering technique appears more widespread than the Goldman incident, which was first reported by The New York Post. A preliminary analysis at Bloomberg revealed that ''several hundred'' reporters had used the technique, a person briefed on the analysis said. (Bloomberg employs more than 2,400 journalists worldwide. A spokesman declined to comment on the analysis and said no reporters had been fired.)

There are also fears that the monitoring may have gone beyond Wall Street. Banking regulators at the Federal Reserve are examining whether their own employees were subject to tracking by Bloomberg reporters, according to people briefed on the matter. A spokeswoman for the Fed declined to comment.

There are now more than 315,000 Bloomberg terminal subscribers worldwide who rely on the desktop computer for research, trading, communication and a constant stream of financial information and news.

But as it turned out, what the subscribers were doing was not always confidential. Bloomberg reporters used the ''Z function'' '-- a command using the letter Z and a company's name '-- to view a list of subscribers at a firm. Then, a Bloomberg user could click on a subscriber's name, which would take the user to a function called UUID. The UUID function then provided background on an individual subscriber, including contact information, when the subscriber had last logged on, chat information between subscribers and customer service representatives, and weekly statistics on how often they used a particular function. A company spokesman said both of those functions had been disabled in the newsroom.

Terminals never allowed journalists to see specific securities or trades, but even general hints of what users are searching could provide a glimpse into Wall Street's thinking '-- powerful currency in the competitive world of financial journalism. Daniel L. Doctoroff, chief executive of Bloomberg L.P. and a close confidant to the company's founder, Michael R. Bloomberg, said in a memo to employees that ''client trust is our highest priority and the cornerstone of our business.'' Mr. Bloomberg stepped away from day-to-day operations when he became mayor of New York City.

Last month, the company further centralized its data security efforts, including appointing Steve Ross, a senior executive, to the newly created role of client data compliance officer.

''To be clear, the limited customer relationship data previously available to our reporters never included access to our trading, portfolio, monitor, blotter or other related systems or our clients' messages,'' Mr. Doctoroff said. He posted a damage control message to clients on the Bloomberg terminal and blog, calling the reporting practice a ''mistake.''

Nathaniel Popper contributed reporting.

Budget request denied, Sebelius turns to health executives to finance Obamacare.

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Sun, 12 May 2013 08:03

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is asking private industry executives to help fund Obamacare's implementation.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama's landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said.

Her unusual fundraising push comes after Congress repeatedly rejected the Obama administration's requests for additional funds to set up the Affordable Care Act, leaving HHS to implement the president's signature legislative accomplishment on what officials have described as a shoestring budget.

Over the past three months, Sebelius has made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and asked that they contribute whatever they can to nonprofit groups that are working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law, according to an HHS official and an industry person familiar with the secretary's activities. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk openly about private discussions.

An HHS spokesperson said Sebelius was within the bounds of her authority in asking for help.

But Republicans charged that Sebelius's outreach was improper because it pressured private companies and other groups to support the Affordable Care Act. The latest controversy has emerged as the law faces a string of challenges from GOP lawmakers in Washington and skepticism from many state officials across the country.

''To solicit funds from health-care executives to help pay for the implementation of the President's $2.6 trillion health spending law is absurd,'' Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement. ''I will be seeking more information from the Administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law.''

Federal regulations do not allow department officials to fundraise in their professional capacity. They do, however, allow Cabinet members to solicit donations as private citizens ''if you do not solicit funds from a subordinate or from someone who has or seeks business with the Department, and you do not use your official title,'' according to Justice Department regulations.

HHS spokesman Jason Young added that a special section in the Public Health Service Act allows the secretary to support and encourage others to support nonprofit groups working to provide health information and conduct other public-health activities.

Sebelius is working ''with a full range of stakeholders who share in the mission of getting Americans the help they need and deserve,'' Young said. ''Part of our mission is to help uninsured Americans take advantage of new, quality affordable insurance options that are coming thanks to the health law.''

Young said that Sebelius did not solicit for funds directly from industries that HHS regulates, such as insurance companies and hospitals, but rather asked them to contribute in whatever way they can.

But the industry official who had knowledge of the calls but did not participate directly in them said there was a clear insinuation by the administration that the insurers should give financially to the nonprofits.

Meredith McGehee, policy director for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which researches government ethics issues, said she was troubled by Sebelius's activities because the secretary seemed to be ''using the power of government to compel giving or insinuate that giving is going to be looked at favorably by the government.''

The success of the Affordable Care Act largely hinges on whether enough people sign up for insurance coverage. If only a small number of sick people participate, premiums would spike.

But spreading information about the law to the 30 million uninsured Americans has been a struggle, partly because there isn't enough money to fund the effort, HHS officials have argued.

The Affordable Care Act included $1 billion to be used in overall implementation of the law. Congressional Budget Office projections, however, estimated that federal agencies will need between $5 billion and $10 billion to get the law up and running over the next decade. And because many states have refused to partner with the federal government in setting up the law, the burden on HHS has grown.

HHS has repeatedly requested additional funds from Congress to assist in the implementing but has been turned down.

After Congress rejected a request in March for nearly $1 billion in additional spending for fiscal 2013, the White House asked for $1.5 billion for fiscal 2015 to set up and run dozens of exchanges that will provide Americans options for health insurance. The new marketplaces will launch in October for open enrollment.

''We requested additional money . . . but we didn't receive any additional funding for the exchanges,'' Ellen Murray, HHS's assistant secretary for financial resources, said last month at a budget briefing. ''So we've had to come up with a Plan B. We've been working very hard to develop that.''

In 2012, budget documents show that HHS pulled hundreds of millions of dollars from programs not specifically earmarked for the Affordable Care Act's implementation.

On top of that, the agency announced Thursday that it would use $150 million in Affordable Care Act funds meant to build additional community health centers to train thousands of health-care outreach workers at facilities that already exist.

''Investing in health centers for outreach and enrollment assistance provides one more way the Obama administration is helping consumers understand their options and enroll in affordable coverage,'' Secretary Sebelius said in a statement.

Many of Sebelius's calls have gone to current supporters of Enroll America, the most prominent nonprofit group working on the health care law's implementation, an HHS official said. Its president, Anne Filipic, joined the group in January after serving as the White House's deputy director for public engagement.

''We all have a lot of work to do between now and the Marketplace opening in October,'' Filipic said in a statement. ''That's why it's so important that the public, private and non-profit sectors are coming together to educate consumers about the opportunities that will be available to them later this year. Secretary Sebelius recognizes how important the work Enroll America is doing and we're thrilled to be working with her.''

Health insurers plan to run their own outreach campaigns alongside the work of the Obama administration. They have a vested interest in recruiting Americans to enroll in their specific products rather than those of their competitors.

''As open enrollment gets closer, health plans will be engaged in a variety of innovative outreach activities,'' spokesman Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the trade association America's Health Insurance Plans, said.

Chicken Diaper (Free shipping!) from My Pet Chicken

poultry variance - Google Search

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Archived Version

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:05

Variance Details | Backyard Chickens Alliancewww.backyardchix.org/cobb-county/variance-details/- CachedThe Variance comes with a set of rules-. Cobb County Code section 134-94(4)-Poultry meaning a female pullet or hen of the Gallus gallus domesticus; also ...I'm not zoned for chickens! help UPDATE VARIANCE COST ...www.backyardchickens.com/t/356924/...chickens...variance.../20- CachedJul 13, 2010 ... hello everyone. i just got a notice today saying that there was a complaint and i'mnot zoned for chickens at all. before i got these babies i read ...Backyard Chickens Defense Fund for Variance Appeal | Indiegogowww.indiegogo.com/p/407247/x/3251360

2 days ago ... This Campaign is raise funds to appeal a Variance denial concerning BackyardChickens in Cobb County, GA.How to Change Chicken-Raising Regulations - For Dummieswww.dummies.com/.../how-to-change-chickenraising-regulations.html- Cached - SimilarSometimes all you need to do is request a zoning variance. That would allow you, and only you, to keep chickens based on your particular circumstances.Poultrygenetics, breeding, and biotechnology [electronic resource] - Google Books Resultbooks.google.com/books?isbn=0851996604

William M. Muir, Samuel E. Aggrey - 'Ž2003 - 706 pages

Subsequent approaches to the estimation of variance components MINQUE ...e.g. Hofer, 1998), are not widely applicable in livestock and poultry breeding.

Resident wants to own chickens without variance - Clarkston Newswww.clarkstonnews.com/Articles-i-2010-09-29-237930.113121-sub14475. 113121_Resident_wants_to_own_chickens_without_variance.html- CachedSep 29, 2010 ... It's a little known fact, but folks wishing to raise chickens in the Village of Oxfordcan do so, if they fork over a lot of cash and get permission from ...[PDF] requirements for completing variance application - Community ...comdev.cobbcountyga.gov/documents/2013VarianceApplication_008.pdf- CachedRequirements for Variance Application. Page 4. Application No. Hearing Date:Applicant's information for requesting backyard chickens. 1. Is there a ...Cobb County For Backyard Chickens | Facebookwww.facebook.com/CobbCountyChickens- CachedInteresting conversation with the BZA member- it would seem that there has beenan email Campaign to encourage the BZA to deny the chicken Variances- ...Pittsburgh Pro-Poultry People (P4): Chicken-Keeping FAQpittsburghpropoultrypeople.blogspot.com/p/faq.html- CachedFeed must be kept in a rodent-proof container. Urban chicken farmers must applyfor a zoning variance ($300) in compliance with the Urban Farming Ordinance.Variance for HOA - The Dallas Backyard Poultry Meetup Group ...www.meetup.com/DallasBackyardPoultry/messages/boards/.../9059947- CachedThe Dallas Backyard Poultry Meetup Group is for people who have smallbackyard flocks of chickens for pets, eggs, and meat. You just might ...

How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools

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Sat, 11 May 2013 07:03

This article was reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.'‚If the national movement to ''reform'' public education through vouchers, charters and privatization has a laboratory, it is Florida. It was one of the first states to undertake a program of ''virtual schools'''--charters operated online, with teachers instructing students over the Internet'--as well as one of the first to use vouchers to channel taxpayer money to charter schools run by for-profits.

About the AuthorLee FangLee Fang is a reporting fellow with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. He covers money in politics,...

Also by the AuthorLobbyists are winning top jobs in Congress and are poised to provide big legislative favors to their former employers.

Meanwhile, Republicans oppose green cards for same-sex couples.

But as recently as last year, the radical change envisioned by school reformers still seemed far off, even there. With some of the movement's cherished ideas on the table, Florida Republicans, once known for championing extreme education laws, seemed to recoil from the fight. SB 2262, a bill to allow the creation of private virtual charters, vastly expanding the Florida Virtual School program, languished and died in committee. Charlie Crist, then the Republican governor, vetoed a bill to eliminate teacher tenure. The move, seen as a political offering to the teachers unions, disheartened privatization reform advocates. At one point, the GOP's budget proposal even suggested a cut for state aid going to virtual school programs.

Lamenting this series of defeats, Patricia Levesque, a top adviser to former Governor Jeb Bush, spoke to fellow reformers at a retreat in October 2010. Levesque noted that reform efforts had failed because the opposition had time to organize. Next year, Levesque advised, reformers should ''spread'' the unions thin ''by playing offense'' with decoy legislation. Levesque said she planned to sponsor a series of statewide reforms, like allowing taxpayer dollars to go to religious schools by overturning the so-called Blaine Amendment, ''even if it doesn't pass'...to keep them busy on that front.'' She also advised paycheck protection, a unionbusting scheme, as well as a state-provided insurance program to encourage teachers to leave the union and a transparency law to force teachers unions to show additional information to the public. Needling the labor unions with all these bills, Levesque said, allows certain charter bills to fly ''under the radar.''

If Levesque's blunt advice sounds like that of a veteran lobbyist, that's because she is one. Levesque runs a Tallahassee-based firm called Meridian Strategies LLC, which lobbies on behalf of a number of education-technology companies. She is a leader of a coalition of government officials, academics and virtual school sector companies pushing new education laws that could benefit them.

But Levesque wasn't delivering her hardball advice to her lobbying clients. She was giving it to a group of education philanthropists at a conference sponsored by notable charities like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. Indeed, Levesque serves at the helm of two education charities, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a national organization, and the Foundation for Florida's Future, a state-specific nonprofit, both of which are chaired by Jeb Bush. A press release from her national group says that it fights to ''advance policies that will create a high quality digital learning environment.''

Despite the clear conflict of interest between her lobbying clients and her philanthropic goals, Levesque and her team have led a quiet but astonishing national transformation. Lobbyists like Levesque have made 2011 the year of virtual education reform, at last achieving sweeping legislative success by combining the financial firepower of their corporate clients with the seeming legitimacy of privatization-minded school-reform think tanks and foundations. Thanks to this synergistic pairing, policies designed to boost the bottom lines of education-technology companies are cast as mere attempts to improve education through technological enhancements, prompting little public debate or opposition. In addition to Florida, twelve states have expanded virtual school programs or online course requirements this year. This legislative juggernaut has coincided with a gold rush of investors clamoring to get a piece of the K-12 education market. It's big business, and getting bigger: One study estimated that revenues from the K-12 online learning industry will grow by 43 percent between 2010 and 2015, with revenues reaching $24.4 billion.

In Florida, only fourteen months after Crist handed a major victory to teachers unions, a new governor, Rick Scott, signed a radical bill that could have the effect of replacing hundreds of teachers with computer avatars. Scott, a favorite of the Tea Party, appointed Levesque as one of his education advisers. His education law expanded the Florida Virtual School to grades K-5, authorized the spending of public funds on new for-profit virtual schools and created a requirement that all high school students take at least one online course before graduation.

''I've never seen it like this in ten years,'' remarked Ron Packard, CEO of virtual education powerhouse K12 Inc., on a conference call in February. ''It's almost like someone flipped a switch overnight and so many states now are considering either allowing us to open private virtual schools'' or lifting the cap on the number of students who can use vouchers to attend K12 Inc.'s schools. Listening to a K12 Inc. investor call, one could mistake it for a presidential campaign strategy session, as excited analysts read down a list of states and predict future victories.

Good for Business; Kids Not So Much

While most education reform advocates cloak their goals in the rhetoric of ''putting children first,'' the conceit was less evident at a conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, earlier this year.

Standing at the lectern of Arizona State University's SkySong conference center in April, investment banker Michael Moe exuded confidence as he kicked off his second annual confab of education startup companies and venture capitalists. A press packet cited reports that rapid changes in education could unlock ''immense potential for entrepreneurs.'' ''This education issue,'' Moe declared, ''there's not a bigger problem or bigger opportunity in my estimation.''

Moe has worked for almost fifteen years at converting the K-12 education system into a cash cow for Wall Street. A veteran of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, he now leads an investment group that specializes in raising money for businesses looking to tap into more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money spent annually on primary education. His consortium of wealth management and consulting firms, called Global Silicon Valley Partners, helped K12 Inc. go public and has advised a number of other education companies in finding capital.

Moe's conference marked a watershed moment in school privatization. His first ''Education Innovation Summit,'' held last year, attracted about 370 people and fifty-five presenting companies. This year, his conference hosted more than 560 people and 100 companies, and featured luminaries like former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, now an education executive at News Corporation, a recent high-powered entrant into the for-profit education field. Klein is just one of many former school officials to cash out. Fenty now consults for Rosetta Stone, a language company seeking to expand into the growing K-12 market.

As Moe ticked through the various reasons education is the next big ''undercapitalized'' sector of the economy, like healthcare in the 1990s, he also read through a list of notable venture investment firms that recently completed deals relating to the education-technology sector, including Sequoia and Benchmark Capital. Kleiner Perkins, a major venture capital firm and one of the first to back Amazon.com and Google, is now investing in education technology, Moe noted.

The press release for Moe's education summit promised attendees a chance to meet a set of experts who have ''cracked the code'' in overcoming ''systemic resistance to change.'' Fenty, still recovering from his loss in the DC Democratic primary, urged attendees to stand up to the teachers union ''bully.'' Jonathan Hage, CEO of Charter Schools USA, likened the conflict to war, according to a summary posted on the conference website. ''There's an air game,'' said Hage, ''but there's also a ground game going on.'' ''Investors are going to have to support'' candidates and ''push back against the pushback.'' Carlos Watson, a former cable news host now working as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs specializing in for-profit education, guided a conversation dedicated simply to the politics of reform.

Sponsors of the event ranged from various education reform groups funded by hedge-fund managers, like the nonprofit Education Reform Now, to ABS Capital, a private equity firm with a stake in education-technology companies like Teachscape. At smaller breakout sessions, education enterprises made their pitches to potential investors.

Another sponsor, a group called School Choice Week, was launched last year as a public relations gimmick to take advantage of the opportunity for rapid education reforms. Although it is billed as a network of students and parents, School Choice Week is one of the many corporate-funded tactics to press virtual school reforms. The first School Choice Week campaign push earlier this year featured highly produced press packets, sample letters to the editor, a sign in Times Square and rallies for virtual and charter schools organized with help from the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity. The blitz got positive press coverage, providing ''grassroots'' cover for newly elected politicians who made school privatization their first priority.

A combination of factors has made this year what Moe calls an ''inflection point'' in the march toward public school privatization. For one thing, recession-induced fiscal crises and austerity have pressured states to cut spending. In some cases, as in Florida, where educating students at the Florida Virtual School costs nearly $2,500 less than at traditional schools, such reform has been sold as a budget fix. At the same time, the privatization push has gone hand in hand with the ratcheting up of attacks on teachers unions by partisan groups, like Karl Rove's American Crossroads and Americans for Prosperity, seeking to weaken the union-backed Democrats in the 2012 election. All of this has set the stage for education industry lobbyists to achieve an unprecedented expansion in for-profit elementary through high school education.

From Idaho to Indiana to Florida, recently passed laws will radically reshape the face of education in America, shifting the responsibility of teaching generations of Americans to online education businesses, many of which have poor or nonexistent track records. The rush to privatize education will also turn tens of thousands of students into guinea pigs in a national experiment in virtual learning'--a relatively new idea that allows for-profit companies to administer public schools completely online, with no brick-and-mortar classrooms or traditional teachers.

* * *

Is this about stopping 3D Printers in general, not just for guns?

Gun companies not liking it?

After 100,000+ Downloads, Group With 3-D Gun Plans Goes Dark : The Two-Way : NPR

Defense Distributed website seized, Cody Wilson arrested on conspiracy charges!

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Archived Version

Sat, 11 May 2013 08:21

Breaking: Defense Distributed website seized, Cody Wilson arrested on conspiracy charges!Skip to comments.

Breaking: Defense Distributed website seized, Cody Wilson arrested on conspiracy charges!Gun Watch ^ | 2 April, 2013 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 04/01/2013 7:47:44 AM PDT by marktwain

Unknown details at this time. Defense Distributed website now displays the logos of Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations, and the following information:

This domain name associated with the website DefenseDistributed.com or Defcad.org has been seized pursuant to an order issued by a U.S. District Court.

The webpage goes on to say that several individuals and entities have been indicted and charged with federal crimes including conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act, the Undetectable Firearms Act, and others.

At this time, I have no other confirmation of these arrests or actions.

There is some doubt about this action as the word "entities" is mispelled as "entitites" on the page.

If this is confirmed, it is a major chilling of free speech and net freedom. Defense Distributed had just obtained a federal license to make firearms.

Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed have been primary promoters of the concept of 3D printed firearms and magazines. There are obvious political motivations for the Obama administration to stop their activities, which have often been cited as showing how it would be impossible to enforce a federal magazine ban or ban on semi-automatic modern sporting rifles.

Cody Wilson had always said that they would be careful to follow federal law.

This may be a case of "three felonies a day" where the federal government is able to find that anyone has committed felonies every day, under broad and vague federal statues.

Link to seized webpage

Link to article on Defense Distributed federal license

TOPICS:Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Government; PoliticsKEYWORDS:3dprinting; banglist; codywilson; defensedistributed

Is this real? Would the Department of Justice mispell "entitites" on a web page?Is this type of seizure notice familiar to anyone?

1 posted on 04/01/2013 7:47:44 AM PDT by marktwainTo: marktwain

My hope would be that it's not an April Fool's joke.

There are somethings that you don't joke about and seizure by the feds is one of them.

2 posted on 04/01/2013 7:51:29 AM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)To: marktwain

Is this real?Check out the date - both the date of the article and today's date.

3 posted on 04/01/2013 7:52:44 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)To: marktwain

Chilling. Absolutely chilling to the bone.

That website looks like something out of the movies.

4 posted on 04/01/2013 7:54:18 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)To: rarestia; All

Good chance this is an April Fools joke. I hope so.

5 posted on 04/01/2013 7:55:23 AM PDT by marktwain (The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)To: marktwain

With the spelling of entities, I would say a joke....

6 posted on 04/01/2013 7:58:08 AM PDT by phalynxTo: marktwain

One of the most popular webs site I vist does this on april 1st every couple of years

To: marktwain

I don't know if it is real or not. The source of the page is pointing here:http://defcad.org/usc_domain.jpgThe DNS entry points to here:50.63.48.1And the WHOIS info on that IP block is stating GoDaddy.com.

8 posted on 04/01/2013 7:58:33 AM PDT by Michael Barnes (Obamaa+ Downgrade)To: marktwain

Wow!The only thing that they weren't charged with was spitting on the sidewalk.

Just go's to prove the point that when the government wants to persecute you,it can.

If your on that jury Nullifye the charges as a Second Amendment violation.

This is a method the government will use to steal our guns.

9 posted on 04/01/2013 8:00:27 AM PDT by puppypusher (The World is going to the dogs.)To: marktwain

who sez federal employees can spell

10 posted on 04/01/2013 8:06:23 AM PDT by t1b8zsTo: t1b8zs

DHS is mostly low-information and high-fat.

Holder's ppl.

11 posted on 04/01/2013 8:08:47 AM PDT by Hardraade (http://junipersec.wordpress.com (Vendetta))To: Hardraade

12 posted on 04/01/2013 8:12:25 AM PDT by Perdogg (Sen Ted Cruz, Sen Mike Lee, and Sen Rand Paul are my adoptive Senators)To: marktwain; All

I think it's a prank. Netcraft.com shows that the site hosting (DNS) was changed on 1-Apr-2013.

To: marktwain

Not for real. The real website is a dot-COM domain, not a dot-ORG.See for yourself: www.defcad.com

Maybe you can get a moderator to put "April Fool!" or similar in the title - not today, of course.

14 posted on 04/01/2013 8:51:24 AM PDT by CboldtTo: marktwain

I would not be surprised if it is real. The ''undetectable fireams act'' is real and any lower receiver printed via 3d may be in violation of that act. Plus, the government wants this shut down!

15 posted on 04/01/2013 8:51:49 AM PDT by Solson (The Voters stole the election! And the establishment wants it back.)To: Cboldt

DefenseDistributed is also their site. The associated Wiki has also disappeared.

16 posted on 04/01/2013 8:54:48 AM PDT by Solson (The Voters stole the election! And the establishment wants it back.)To: marktwain

This may be a case of "three felonies a day" where the federal government is able to find that anyone has committed felonies every day, under broad and vague federal statues.''There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.'' '• Ayn Rand

17 posted on 04/01/2013 8:55:36 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed &water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW & FOREVER!)To: Cboldt

The links to the file packs at Defcad.com are also pointing to the same USC jpeg. Hmm...

18 posted on 04/01/2013 9:03:34 AM PDT by Solson (The Voters stole the election! And the establishment wants it back.)To: marktwain

Looks like a April Fool's joke. The pic's info says it was made 8 minutes in to April 1st on Photoshop.

19 posted on 04/01/2013 9:09:37 AM PDT by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)To: struggle

Looks like it was modified again Monday, April 01, 2013 11:24:55 AM to address the spelling issue.

20 posted on 04/01/2013 9:12:23 AM PDT by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)To: struggle; All

''Looks like it was modified again Monday, April 01, 2013 11:24:55 AM to address the spelling issue.''

I think Copy is having a good laugh. It is certainly driving up hits to the web site and generating interest...

Not that they needed more hits!

21 posted on 04/01/2013 9:53:58 AM PDT by marktwain (The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)To: marktwain

>>>Not that they needed more hits!

Yeah, it's a win/win for Cody. The DoJ are probably flipping out right now.

1. Cody gets more publicity.2. The large mag issue seems more meaningless.3. He has the excuse of April Fool's day.4. If the gov actually arrests him and closes the site, people will be shocked.5. Proponents will be more likely to mirror his site.

22 posted on 04/01/2013 9:59:47 AM PDT by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)To: struggle

This also helps drive home the apparent ultimate objective of the anti gunners. Know the guts were churning all around.....

YMMV

23 posted on 04/01/2013 10:08:17 AM PDT by petro45acp (It's a fabian thing.....how do you boil a frog? How's that water feelin right about now?)To: marktwain

There is some doubt about this action as the word "entities" is mispelled as "entitites" on the page.Anti-Entitites. I am one.

;^)

To: struggle; All

''Yeah, it's a win/win for Cody. The DoJ are probably flipping out right now.''

Cody is a very smart young man. He needs to move toward minarchy from anarchy. Then he will be an incredibly valuable member of society, instead of merely a very valuable one!

25 posted on 04/01/2013 10:18:39 AM PDT by marktwain (The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)To: Disambiguator; All

There is some doubt about this action as the word "entities" is mispelled as "entitites" on the page.What is it about people who are a bit cavalier about spelling? So many of them seem to be absolutely brilliant!

Didn't Thomas Jefferson say: "It is a poor mind that cannot think of more than one way to spell a word."?

26 posted on 04/01/2013 10:34:40 AM PDT by marktwain (The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)To: marktwain

Without misspelled words, the Freeper Lexicon would be woefully bereft of material. No Stuned Beebers...

To: marktwain

28 posted on 04/01/2013 11:34:28 AM PDT by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)To: marktwain

Well, I went to DefenseDistributed.com and the DoJ logo is definitely there...which tells me this is probably a April Fools Day hoax. If DoJ really seized the place we'd get a ''404 not found'' error.

29 posted on 04/01/2013 11:37:59 AM PDT by Cyber Liberty (I am a dissident. Will you join me? My name is John....)To: marktwain

They put their stuff on defcad, which still seems to be there.www.defcad.com

To: Cyber Liberty

Defense Distributed is back up now. It was April Fool's day after all.

31 posted on 04/02/2013 7:48:34 AM PDT by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.