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Three-year-old swims with whale
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The swimming boy is Yang Yang – he’s three, and he’s been swimming since he was one. The beluga whale is all white… it’s the one on the right. Together they swim in China to mark June 1 as the International Children’s Day.
SPJ unmasks Kyl as ‘Senator Secrecy’
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The Society of Professional Journalists, which works to improve and protect journalism, has smoked out “Senator Secrecy” – also known as Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ).
Kyl admitted publicly Thursday that he placed a secret hold on Senate Bill 849, also known as the Open Government Act of 2007. The bill would significantly reform the federal Freedom of Information Act, which is one of the strongest tools Americans have to supervise the inner workings of government and to hold elected officials accountable.
The Senate bill has bipartisan support and the unanimous approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a nearly identical version of the bill in March. The secret hold blocked the bill from a Senate vote on May 24.
SPJ members helped unmask Kyl by asking every U.S. senator whether he or she placed the secret hold. Members reported their findings online.
And here is another one. These are the kind of America-hating assholes that needs to be drawn and quartered in the public square.
If we can’t get open, accountable government from our elected officials, why the fuck do we have to worry about terrorists? Anybody who believes that the ends justify the means in domestic policy has no place in government.
“The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. ”
-Patrick Henry
Cartoons
“Verschärfte Vernehmung”
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The phrase “Verschärfte Vernehmung” is German for “enhanced interrogation”. Other translations include “intensified interrogation” or “sharpened interrogation”. It’s a phrase that appears to have been concocted in 1937, to describe a form of torture that would leave no marks, and hence save the embarrassment pre-war Nazi officials were experiencing as their wounded torture victims ended up in court. The methods, as you can see above, are indistinguishable from those described as “enhanced interrogation techniques” by the president. As you can see from the Gestapo memo, moreover, the Nazis were adamant that their “enhanced interrogation techniques” would be carefully restricted and controlled, monitored by an elite professional staff, of the kind recommended by Charles Krauthammer, and strictly reserved for certain categories of prisoner. At least, that was the original plan.
Kidney-donor TV show a hoax, producers admit
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Dutch reality television show in which a supposedly dying woman had to pick one of three contestants to whom she would donate a kidney was revealed as an elaborate hoax on Friday.
The show, which the broadcaster had said aimed to focus attention on a shortage of donor organs in the Netherlands, was condemned by Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende before broadcast Friday night and sparked controversy worldwide.
Identified only as “Lisa,” the 37-year-old woman who had been said to be suffering from a brain tumor was to base her selection on the person’s history and conversations with the candidates’ families and friends.
In the last minutes of the program, she was revealed as a healthy actress and producers stunned viewers by saying “The Big Donorshow” was a hoax.
The contestants were also part of the deception, although all three are genuine kidney patients.
“Their life is bitter reality,” the host said after revealing the deception, just at the moment at which Lisa was to have stated her choice.
Dutch Education Minister Ronald Plasterk hailed the show as a “fantastic stunt” and an intelligent way to draw attention to the shortage of donor organs.
Watching the press go for this all week was already hilarious before I knew it was a stunt. Well done, BNN!
When does BNN plan to have “The Big Faver Beans Show?”
Dutch donor-hoax proves controversial…
The initiative of Dutch broadcaster BNN caused some stir. Not only within The Netherland, but also abroad: here (BBC), here (ABC) and here (France24) amongst others. Just do a Google-search on “Dutch Donor Show” and be astonished by the res…