[Quote]:

A state police raid on a Winthrop Avenue apartment netted no drugs or arrests—but it left Tomas Torres hospitalized and his apartment in tatters.

Torres (pictured), who’s 54, said state cops broke down the door of his first-floor Winthrop Avenue apartment Wednesday afternoon, punched him in the face, stomped on his head, and then laughed at him as they tossed his apartment looking for drugs.

Police said he tried to jump out the window, then resisted their efforts to detain and handcuff him.

They had the wrong guy, said Torres. The police found nothing in his apartment and released him to go to the hospital, where he said he was told he has a fractured arm, he said.

It’s the second recent incident in which an unarmed New Havener has accused a state drug cop of brutality.

I weep for the world…

Sometimes I lose my faith in humanity…

[Quote]:

Teh White House is teh offcial residance adn pricipal workplace of teh Persident of teh Untied States. Located at 1600 Pennsilvania Avennue NW iin Washengton, D.C., teh house wass desgined bi Irish-born James Hoben, adn builded beetwen 1792 adn 1800 of white-paented Akwuia sendstone iin teh Neoclasical stile. It has beeen teh residance of eveyr U.S. Persident sicne John Adams. Wehn Thomas Jeffirson moved inot teh house iin 1801, he (wiht archetect Benjamen Henri Latrobe) ekspanded teh buiding outward, createng two collonades taht wire meaned to conceal stables adn storage.

[Quote]:

Dexia SA, the Franco-Belgian mega-bank that collapsed and was bailed out in 2008 and that re-collapsed in early October, is a big deal in Belgium where it employs 10,000 people and has over 21 million bank accounts. Its assets of $715 billion dwarf Belgium’s $395 billion economy.

The three countries involved in the bailout agreed in October to guarantee €90 billion in loans, of which Belgium will be responsible for 60.5%, France for 36.5%, Luxembourg for 3%. Belgium’s portion, €54.5 billion, represents nearly 14% of its GDP. The process is moving forward. On December 21, the European Commission approved on a temporary basis €45 billion of those guarantees though they violate EU rules on government subsidies for private companies.

[..]

The ultimate costs to Belgian taxpayers will be huge and long-term, given how small the country is. Yet there have been no legal consequences for those responsible. Until now….

Lynx Capital, a Belgian investment firm, has sued Dexia SA and former CEO Pierre Mariani for “spreading false and misleading information” and “market manipulation.” The amount in the case is small—and irrelevant. Lynx purchased 5,350 shares on September 5, 2011, for €1.46 per share and lost 82% of its investment over the next few months. But in a potentially significant development for Belgium, where class-action law doesn’t exist, Bernard Delhez, CEO of Lynx, is now trying to encourage other shareholders to join the cause.

The complaint alleges that Mariani and Jean-Luc Dehaene, Dexia’s former president, issued reassuring statements about the financial condition of the bank from the time they took over, following its bailout in 2008, until September 2011. Because the bank was in a precarious situation throughout and engaged in high-risk activities, the information in those reassuring statements was false and misleading and was intended to artificially inflate Dexia’s share price. Hence, Dexia and Mariani engaged in market manipulation.

Moreover, Mariani must have known that the information was false and misleading. For example, Mariani confided in Dehaene in 2008 that Dexia was “not a bank but a hedge fund” (L’Expansion). Dehaene spilled the beans on this conversation last October during the presentation of the breakup plan. Among the others reasons why Mariani must have known about the true condition of Dexia was a note that Luc Coene, Governor of the National Bank of Belgium, had sent to Dexia last August, in which he recommended that Dexia be dismantled.

[Quote]:

A 93-year-old Tennessee woman who cleaned the state Capitol for 30 years, including the governor’s office, says she won’t be able to vote for the first time in decades after being told this week that her old state ID failed to meet new voter ID regulations.

Thelma Mitchell was even accused of being an undocumented immigrant because she couldn’t produce a birth certificate

[Quote]:

McKinsey & Co. was already arguing back in 1994 that “a national government has no choice but to move forward to embrace the global capital market unless it wants to harm its own citizens, its economy and its own purposes.”

But the case of German automakers — BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen — tells a different story. Each company produces vehicles not only in Germany, but also in “transplant” factories in the U.S. The former are characterized by high wages and high union membership; the U.S. plants pay lower wages and are located in so-called “right-to-work” (anti-union) states.

It turns out that “inevitability” has nothing to do with the differing conditions; the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.

[Quote]:

An effort by GoDaddy customers to boycott the domain registrar over its support for Hollywood-backed copyright legislation has sparked allegations of foul play.

NameCheap, whose chief executive last week likened the Stop Online Piracy Act to "detonating a nuclear bomb" on the Internet, said today that GoDaddy has intentionally thrown up technical barriers to prevent its customers from leaving. It lost over 70,000 domains last week.

[..]

“GoDaddy appears to be returning incomplete Whois information to Namecheap, delaying the transfer process” in violation of rules established by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, NameCheap wrote in a blog post today. By this afternoon, the company said that GoDaddy had “finally unblocked our queries” and that transfers should now “go smoothly.”

[Quote]:

Greek politicians reacted angrily on Monday following the admission by former Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz that Turkish secret agents intentionally started forest fires in Greece in the 1990s as part of state-sponsored sabotage.

The claims are not new and were common knowledge on the islands of the eastern Aegean which were particularly hard hit by wildfires in the 1990s. But Yilmaz’s comments — part of an interview published in the Turkish daily newspaper Birgun over the weekend — are the first admission by an official source that Ankara was funding subversive activities in Greece.

Quote

…

The company’s founder, Jean-Claude Mas, was able to charge lower prices for the implants using the non-approved silicone.

…

(lawyer) Haddad denied reports that Mas was a former butcher, saying that before founding PIP in 1991 he worked for more than 15 years as a medical sales representative for Bristol Myers.

[Quote]:

"Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light."

[..]

The pope started off Saturday’s celebrations by lighting a peace candle in the window of his study during the unveiling of a larger-than-life nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square. The scene, at 23 feet high and 82 feet wide, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, according to the Vatican’s news agency.

Let’s see… gold embroidered hat, diamond and ruby encrusted solid gold scepter, 23 foot tall, 82 foot wide nativity scene.

Yep. There’s plenty of superficial glitter this season..

A Jewish woman entered a hotel. There was a sign that read “Pets welcome, Jews not welcome.”

Undaunted by this, the Jewish lady Mrs. Rosenburg, asked the hotel owner for a room please.

The innkeeper said, “Sorry we have no vancancies.” Mrs. Rosenburg replied, “The sign says VACANCIES right there!”

The innkeeper said, “Mrs. Rosenburg, you know we don’t allow Jews here.”

Mrs. Rosenburg repiled, “I’m not jewish, I’m a bona-fide christian”.

The innkeeper said, “With a name like Rosenburg. Really? Well, for one, who is your savior?”

Mrs. Rosenburg replied calmly, “Why, Lord Jesus Christ of course”

The innkeeper, frowning said, “Oh really. Then tell me how JESUS was born?”

Mrs. Rosenburg replied with all decorum, “He was born of the virgin Mary”

The innkeeper said showing greater impatience, “And where was he born?”

Mrs Rosenburg, showing a small facial tick replied “In a small town of Bethehem in a manger.”

The innkeeper said, “That’s right…….and why was he born in a manger?”

Mrs Rosenburg slammed her fists on the counter and shouted, “BECAUSE SOME JUMPED UP GOYISHCHE SHMUCK OF AN INNKEEPER REFUSED TO GIVE A JEWISH LADY A ROOM”

[Quote]:

A US judge has signed a default judgment finding Iran, the Taliban and al-Qaida liable for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[Quote]:

The government has been using its secrecy system in absurd ways for decades, but 2011 was particularly egregious.

[Quote]:

Nigerian authorities on Thursday put emergency measures in place to prevent the spill of less than 40,000 barrels from the Shell facility, the biggest leak in Nigeria for more than 13 years, washing up on its coast.

The spill is small compared to last year’s much documented rupture of BP’s Macondo well off the United States but critics say the fact it happened in Nigeria means little attention has been paid to it.

In comparison, BP’s Macondo disaster spilled nearly 5 million barrels in the Gulf of Mexico, sparked criticism of the company by politicians, a media frenzy and wiped billions off its market value.

"There are double standards operating. With the Deepwater Horizon spill last year there was a massive amount of interest," said Paul Horsman, a spokesman for Greenpeace, the environmental group. "The reality is, where ever the oil industry operates, it creates havoc."

Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the summer/winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make your great nation. Not to imply that this country is necessarily greater than any other country in the world. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishees.

[Quote]:

Go Daddy is no longer supporting SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" currently working its way through U.S. Congress.

"Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation – but we can clearly do better," Warren Adelman, Go Daddy’s newly appointed CEO, said. "It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."

So they did see effect on their business after all.. but trust once lost is difficult to get back.

[Quote]:

When you give out money based on politics, without any accounting, this is what you get:

The West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission (WMSRDC) is a federal- and state-designated agency responsible for managing and administrating the homeland security program in Montcalm County and 12 other counties.

The WMSRDC recently purchased and transferred homeland security equipment to these counties — including 13 snow cone machines at a total cost of $11,700.

Wait. It gets funnier:

“It is used to attract people so they can be educated and prepared for homeland security,” Dey said from his office in Muskegon. “More importantly, they (homeland security officials) felt in a medical emergency the machine was capable of making ice packs which could be used for medical purposes.”

This is excellent commentary.

Feel safer yet?

Wow.

I guess that in space, no one can hear me scream….

[Quote]:

Copyright troll Righthaven was conceived of as a way of extorting money from websites on behalf of newspaper owners when quotations from those newspapers were posted to the web. The idea was that the newspapers would assign "the right to sue" to Righthaven, which would pursue lawsuits on their behalf, and share the take. Righthaven’s primary tactic was to shotgun legal threats to everyone they could find, regardless of whether their claims had merit, and then withdraw the threat when someone stood up to them — classic copyright trolling.

Over the years that followed public interest groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation worked with Righthaven’s victims and won a string of victories, in which Righthaven’s ass was repeatedly handed to them (the death blow was probably when judges began to affirm that there is no licensable "right to sue" separate from other parts of copyright).

Now Righthaven is pretty much dead. They’ve lost control over their domain (assigned to one of their victims, who has become a creditor of theirs, since the court awarded him costs), gone broke, and are just waiting for someone to dump them in a pauper’s grave. It’s possible that one of their early investors will come back and rescue them, but that would be a miracle as implausible as the climax of the Smurf’s Family Christmas.

[Quote]:

Samsung has just distributed the worst news of this Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade cycle: the popular Galaxy S smartphone that sold 10 million units last year and the 7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet won’t be upgraded to Android 4.0.

[Quote]:

it’s a development platform, not a computing platform. That’s why tech commentators can’t see the difference.

iOS for iPhone and iPad is a platform. Android is not. Android is something companies use to develop products. Anything done on Android after release of a product that has no relation whatsoever to the product. This is no different from iOS, except the company who developed iOS and the product is one and the same, and that has effects on what they think customers may expect from them. No wonder people are more loyal to Apple.

[Quote]:

Major Internet companies have formed a united front in their opposition to the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act. Well, almost. One exception has been the domain registrar GoDaddy. In a op-ed published in Politico shortly after SOPA was introduced in the House, GoDaddy applauded the bill and called opponents "myopic."

Now furious Internet users at reddit (owned by Advance Publications, which also owns Condé Nast) have organized a boycott of the registrar.

"I just finished writing GoDaddy a letter stating why I’m moving my small businesses 51 domains away from them, as well as my personal domains," wrote redditor selfprodigy on Thursday morning. He proposed that December 29 be declared "move your domain day," with GoDaddy customers switching to competing registrars. The post has accumulated more than 1,500 comments, most of them supporting the idea.

We contacted GoDaddy for comment. A spokesman declined to comment on the boycott specifically, but reiterated the firm’s support for the legislation. She sent us a link to the company’s written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee last month.

"This debate is about preserving, protecting, and creating American jobs, and protecting American consumers from the dangers that they face on-line," the statement reads. "US businesses are getting robbed and US consumers are getting duped."

Yes, GoDaddy, customers are indeed getting duped.

By you.

[Quote]:

The incident occurred mere moments after the House went into session. Hoyer made a motion for a vote on the Senate’s payroll tax cut extension, which would extend the lower rates for another two months, but the Republican presiding over the House did not acknowledge the motion. He instead adjourned the House, then got up and walked out.

“As you walk off the floor, Mr. Speaker, you’re walking away, just as so many Republicans have walked away from taxpayers, the unemployed, and very frankly, as well, from those who will be seeking medical assistance from their doctors, 48 million senior citizens,” Hoyer can be heard saying.

“We regret, Mr. Speaker, that you have walked off the platform without addressing the issue of critical importance to this country, and that is the continuation of the middle class tax cut, the continuation of unemployment benefits for those at risk of losing them, and a continuation of the access to doctors for all those 48 million seniors who rely on them daily for help.”

And that’s when the audio cut out. Seconds later, footage faded to a shot of the capitol from outside.

Moments later, someone at C-SPAN took to Twitter and explained: “C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras – the Speaker of the House does.”

It’s for reasons just like this, one might infer, that Boehner told C-SPAN back in February it would not be allowed control its own cameras.