CLG News

U.S. Hispanics decry Arizona law at May Day rallies 01 May 2010 Angered by Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants, Hispanic protesters took to the streets on Saturday to denounce the new law and call on Washington to act urgently on immigration reform at May Day rallies across the United States. In a sea of American flags and banners painted with "We Are All Arizona" and "Overturn Arizona Apartheid," tens of thousands of marchers, dressed in white, turned out in downtown Los Angeles, where police expected "a very large crowd."

US issues Iran delegates late visas 01 May 2010 The United States has finally issued visas for Iranian delegates scheduled to attend next week's United Nations nuclear disarmament conference in New York. The last-minute issuance came on Saturday, after officials in Tehran condemned Washington's delay in conferring visas to several members of Iran's delegation.

Expert: Surface area of gulf oil spill has tripled 01 May 2010 The surface area of a catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill quickly tripled in size amid growing fears among experts that the slick could become vastly more devastating than it seemed just two days ago. Frustrated fishermen eager to help contain the spill from a ruptured underwater well had to keep their boats idle Saturday as another day of rough seas kept crews away from the slick.

Afghan MP: US troops murdered my relative in raid 30 Apr 2010 A female member of the Afghan parliament has said that US troops raided her home overnight and killed a neighbour who was one of her relatives, in an incident that sparked angry protests yesterday in the east of the country. Ms Siddiqi said scores of US soldiers raided her home shortly before midnight. Inside the house, she claimed that they broke furniture and tied up family members, including her brother, for hours. Outside, they shot dead a neighbour, who was related to her by marriage.

GAO: Census has computer problem created in early '08 30 Apr 2010 A computer system that the Census Bureau needs to manage its door-to-door count of the U.S. population remained buggy and prone to crash a day before enumerators were set to begin their work, government officials said Friday. The bureau's Paper Based Operations Control System did not function reliably in tests and, despite hardware and software upgrades, "may not be able to perform as needed under full operational loads," the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report. The paper-based system's hasty design began in early 2008, after the census bureau scrapped plans to use a handheld-computer method that ended up costing more than $700 million but did not operate adequately. [Sounds like a Bush corporaterrorist crony got a bl*w job to implement another failed system.]

US: We stand by Israel at UN 01 May 2010 The US says it would not withdraw its support for Israel at the UN, denying reports that it would let the body target the occupation of the Palestinian lands. British newspaper The Guardian said on Thursday that the US deputy Middle East envoy David Hale had promised the Palestinian Authority that Washington would consider letting the United Nations Security Council attack Israel if it found Tel Aviv's settlement construction in the West Bank "provocative."

4 Iraqi police die in Baghdad blasts 01 May 2010 Explosions across Iraq's capital kill four law enforcement agents as nationwide unrest continues to take its toll on security forces and civilian population. Three police died on Saturday north of Baghdad, when trying to break into a vehicle used earlier by the robbers of a jeweler's, said an Interior Ministry official according to an AFP report.

Jury convicts Palin e-mail intruder on two counts; mistrial declared on ID theft 30 Apr 2010 A federal jury this afternoon convicted Sarah Palin e-mail intruder David C. Kernell of felony destruction of records to hamper a federal investigation and misdemeanor unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. The jury acquitted Kernell, 22, of felony wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips declared a mistrial on another charge, felony identity theft, after the jurors said they were hopelessly eadlocked.

Oh no. It's the oh-too-familiar Obama 'I'm about to f*ck the left' foreshadowing: Obama Says Liberal Courts May Have Overreached 29 Apr 2010  In a seeming rejection of liberal orthodoxy, President Obama has spoken disparagingly about liberal victories before the Supreme Court in the 1960s and 1970s -- suggesting that justices made the "error" of overstepping their bounds and trampling on the role of elected officials. Mr. Obama made his remarks Wednesday night against a backdrop of recent Supreme Court rulings in which conservative justices have struck down laws favored by liberals, most notably a January ruling that nullified restrictions on corporate spending to influence elections.

BP Fought Safety Measures at Deepwater Oil Rigs --Owner of Louisiana Oil Well Objected to System That Would Have Shut Off Spill 30 Apr 2010 BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident. One area of immediate concern, industry experts said, was the lack of a remote system that would have allowed workers to clamp shut Deepwater Horizon's wellhead so it would not continue to gush oil. The rig is now spilling 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. In a letter sent last year to the Department of the Interior, BP objected to what it called "extensive, prescriptive regulations" proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. "We believe industry's current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs…continue to be very successful." [This is *bullsh*t.* Five years from now, BP will be appealing their seven hundred-dollar fine to the High Wh*re Court, which will quietly concur with the corporaterrorists. Start reading. Arming the Left: Is the time now? By Charles Southwell 21 Oct 2003.]

Fla. declares emergency over oil spill --As emergency workers prepared for environmental damage along the coast, President Barack Obama said a Gulf oil spill will not deter plans for future drilling. 30 Apr 2010 President Barack Obama sent Justice Department investigators and military aircraft to the Gulf of Mexico Friday in response to the growing fear of the environmental damage that a spreading oil slick may cause, but he declined to abandon plans for new offshore drilling because of the unfolding disaster. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency for six Panhandle counties, saying the slick spill from the Deepwater Horizon platform threatens Florida's coasts "with a major disaster."

Australian accountant faces terror charges 01 May 2010 Two men, including a US-Australian dual citizen, have been charged with conspiring to give computer advice, buy wrist watches [LOL!] and do other tasks to help al-Qaeda "modernise." A vaguely worded indictment unsealed on Friday (US time) in the federal court in Manhattan accused Wesam El-Hanafi, who was born in Brooklyn, of travelling to Yemen to meet with unnamed al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] members in February 2008. The terrorists "instructed him on operational security measures and directed him to perform tasks for al-Qaeda," the indictment says.

Goldman didn't tell SEC about mortgage moves for months 30 Apr 2010 In December 2006, Goldman Sachs embarked on a frantic effort to shed billions of dollars in risky mortgage securities and purchase exotic insurance to protect itself against what it had concluded could be the collapse of America's housing market. Yet for nine months, until Sept. 20, 2007, the Wall Street giant didn't disclose its actions in key filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in telephone conferences with analysts or in its press releases.

Vera Baker was Obama's mistress: Swiss paper says it has evidence to prove it 30 Apr 2010 (Gather) Swiss newspaper Le Matin is reviving old claims that President Barack Obama had an extramarital affair in 2004 with Vera Baker, a young woman who worked on his campaign team when he was running for Illinois Senator. The paper claims "video surveillance tapes exist that are rather compromising for the 44th president of the United States." It also alleges that software engineers have dug up email exchanges between Obama and Baker since he has been President. [I don't deny that Obama f*cked this woman, but I'm more concerned with how he has f*cked his other supporters, not that I'm one of them, or ever was. I knew he was a fraud from the outset. --MDR, Ph.D.]

Obama Cheating Scandal 01 May 2010 (National Enquirer) President Obama [is] in a shocking cheating scandal after being caught in a Washington, DC Hotel with a former campaign aide. A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old Vera Baker in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions. Now, the investigators are searching for a hotel surveillance videotape.

US-led troops kill 3 Afghan civilians 30 Apr 2010 A raid by US-led troops has killed two women and a child in southern Afghanistan amid rising public opposition to the presence of foreign forces there. NATO officials said the victims were killed on Friday when their vehicle came under fire as they were traveling on a highway in Zabul province, AFP reported. Two others have reportedly been injured in the attack in the southern province, where American troops make up the bulk of the NATO contingent.

Pentagon Confirms It Gave $1.4 Billion in No-Bid Fuel Contracts to Mysterious Companies 28 Apr 2010 The Pentagon's main supply agency has acknowledged awarding $1.4 billion in no-bid contracts to two foreign companies whose ownership and management seem extremely mysterious. The contracts, involving delivery of aviation fuel to U.S.-run air bases in Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan, are currently under investigation by a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform... Kyrgyz opposition leaders who were involved in Bakiyev's ouster have been quoted in The New York Times as charging that companies controlled by Maksim Bakiyev "skimmed as much as $8 million a month from fuel sales to the [American] base."  

White House: No new drilling efforts until probe of explosion is done 30 Apr 2010 The White House vowed Friday that no expansion of offshore oil drilling will take place until investigations are completed into a rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which is sending thousands of gallons of crude oil lapping toward Louisiana's shores. With the edge of the massive spill reaching the gulf coastline late Thursday, according to wire services, the crisis is threatening to eclipse the Exxon Valdez as the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades.

Govt declares national disaster as oil reaches Louisiana coast 30 Apr 2010 US President Barack Obama is dispatching senior cabinet members, including the heads of homeland security and environmental protection, to assess the situation in the Gulf of Mexico as a BP oil spill reached the shores of Louisiana early on Friday. Oil from a giant slick hit the US Gulf Coast on Thursday evening, prompting Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (T) to declare a state of emergency and call for the federal government’s help in averting an environmental disaster. [Oh dear. The little puke 'calling for the federal government's help' is not going to *sit well* with his  FreedumbWorks paymasters. --LRP]

Gulf spill is really a river of oil, environmentalists say 29 Apr 2010 To understand the gravity of the danger facing Louisiana's coast from the oil that began washing ashore Thursday, pollution clean-up veterans offered this starting point: Forget the word "spill." "This isn't a spill," said Kerry St. Pe, who headed Louisiana's oil spill response team for 23 years. "This isn't a storage tank or a ship with a finite amount of oil that has boundaries. This is much, much worse." It's a river of oil flowing from the bottom of the Gulf at the rate of 210,000 gallons a day that officials say could be running for two months or more.

US anti-terrorism team visits Lebanon-Syria border 29 Apr 2010 A US 'anti-terrorism' assessment team visited the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing this week, a US embassy official said on Thursday, amid allegations that Damascus was supplying its ally Hezbollah with missiles. The official told AFP that a team from the Department of State's Antiterrorism Assistance programme (ATA) was in Lebanon on a visit planned months ago at the invitation of the government to assess the training Washington provides to security and law enforcement personnel.

White House Pledges Action as Oil From Spill Begins Hitting Land 29 Apr 2010  President Barack Obama today pledged "every single available resource" to plug an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, dispatching "SWAT" inspection teams to the rigs in the area and three top administration officials to oversee the response to the spill heading inexorably toward Louisiana's coast. Fingers of oily sheen from the massive slick, 600 miles in circumference and expanding, began lapping the shoreline late tonight, The Associated Press reported.

Showdown at Guantánamo: Khadr won't come to court 29 Apr 2010 Accused Canadian war criminal Omar Khadr refused to come to his hearing Thursday, complaining that guards were "trying to humiliate" him by clamping blinders over his eyes. Khadr, who claims he was tortured while held as a teen in Afghanistan and Guantánamo, missed the second day of his hearing considering whether his confessions to interrogators years ago were voluntary.

Car bomb kills 8 in southwest Baghdad 29 Apr 2010 At least eight people have been killed and 20 more others injured as an explosive-laden car was detonated near a liquor shop in a neighborhood in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The explosion occurred around 8:00 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) in the al-Shurta al-Rabaa area of southwestern Baghdad.

Previously 'Dead' al-Qaeda Leader Back to Pupa Stage By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org 30 Apr 2010 Well, he's back again from the grave - to live to fight another day --or, at least live to be re-killed again when Obama needs more troops and killer drones to fight in the Af/Pak undeclared war!

Minot Air Force Base Airman Killed --Internal investigation underway 29 Apr 2010 The Minot Air Force Base says one of their Airmen was killed in a training exercise around midnight. In a press release officials say a male Airman from the 17th Munitions Squadron was struck in the head while at work, and died of injuries soon after. They are not releasing the name of the Airman. A spokeswoman from the Minot Air Force Base says cases like this are extremely rare and it has been at least ten years [?!?] since something like this has taken place. [*Math check.* See: Minot base crew commander found dead --Cause of death unclear 03 Feb 2009.]

Pilot cleared of 9/11 accusations 29 Apr 2010 An airline pilot wrongfully imprisoned and accused of training hijackers in the 9/11 terrorist attacks finally won his battle for compensation this week. Lotfi Raissi, and Algerian-born commercial airline pilot who was trained in the US and living in Britain, was the first person to be arrested after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was held for five months at the Belmarsh High Security Prison in London, but later released due to lack of evidence.

Nasrallah warns Israel of any attack 30 Apr 2010 Hezbollah secretary general warns Israel of great risks if it decides to once again attack Lebanon or on any other country in the Middle East. Speaking to the Kuwaiti television Al-Rai on Thursday, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said that if Israel launches an attack against Lebanon or anywhere else in the region, "it would be taking a very dangerous risk on its part."

Occidental's profit nearly triples; BP’s more than doubles --Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell also report higher first-quarter earnings than in 2009. British Petroleum's earnings report draws ire as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill grows. 30 Apr 2010 Higher crude prices are again pumping up profits of major oil companies worldwide. Occidental Petroleum Corp. nearly tripled its net income compared with a year earlier, with $1.1 billion, or $1.32 a share, in the first quarter of 2010, the Westwood company said Thursday. The announcement came during a week in which most of the giants of oil and gas reported sharp increases in quarterly earnings... But it was London-based BP, with quarterly profits that rose to $6.1 billion from $2.6 billion a year earlier, that was the lightning rod for ire over huge earnings in the midst of a deadly and growing disaster.

'Rep. Sinema called the change 'frightening.'' Arizona immigration law: Tougher restrictions sought 29 Apr 2010 A conference committee of legislative Republicans and Democrats has approved several changes to Arizona's new immigration law. The changes still need final approval from both the House and the Senate before being passed along to the governor. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, the lone Democrat that showed up for the committee, opposed the changes -- and the new law as a whole. Sinema said the revised version is even worse than what became law because it now requires a representative of a city, county or the state to determine immigration status in cases where they are responding to violations of city or county ordinance, such as a barking dog or tall weeds in the yard.