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Prepare for More Horse Meat

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While many of you are aware of the forthcoming sequester on March 1, which may result in furloughs within the ranks of 2.1 million federal employees, you may not be aware of how this might affect your food. According to Daniel Werfel, a controller for the Office of Management and Budget, it might result in reduced food inspections by the Department of Agriculture.  Not that these guys do such a wonderful job in the first place, but this seems like a really bad idea considering that food fraud was already up 60% last year.  From CNN:

At Thursday’s hearing, Werfel said agencies might not be able to avoid furloughs that would reduce essential services. At the Agriculture Department, for example, it’s not possible to avoid furloughs that would result in fewer food inspections, because most of the agency’s expenses are the salaries and benefits of people who perform those tasks.

“So it becomes a math issue, ultimately,” he said. “This is one of the very tangible and clear and significant impacts of sequester: This division within USDA will not be able to make its core mission of sending the inspectors to these locations.”

The exact number of total furloughs planned is still unavailable, since agencies are still deciding how to spread the cuts. It’s possible some agencies may yet be able to spare some employees from furloughs or at least minimize days of unpaid leave.

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Video of the Day: Regulators Squirm When Asked About “Too Big to Jail”

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This video has been going around for a few days, but wow.  Very powerful and could be effective in knocking some sense into more sheeple if it gets spread widely enough.  It’s an absolute joke that these people being questioned by Senator Elizabeth Warren are supposed hold the banks to task.  I mean this Tom … Read more

“Freiheit stirbt mit Sicherheit” – Project Camover Has Crossed the Atlantic

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Ever heard of Project Camover?  Probably not.  It relates a movement to locate and destroy CCTV spy cameras that began in Germany, and since spread to many other countries in Europe such as Finland and Greece, and has finally reached the West Coast of the United States.  Their motto is “Freiheit stirbt mit Sicherheit,” which translates to “Freedom dies with Security.”  This is simply an inevitable reaction to the increased surveillance state around us, from things like “Trapwire,” to audio and video recording devices on public buses.  Apparently, they really enjoy using the fire extinguisher method to get the job done.  The U.S. offshoot has been identified as the “Barefoot Bandit Brigade” and is operating the Puget Sound region.  From Vice:

Have you ever walked down a street in a developed country? If yes, consider yourself the unsung star of a silent short, because someone, somewhere was almost certainly watching you as you did.

CCTV’s nothing new, which is probably why people seem to have either forgotten about or become disinterested in how creepy it is. Not so Camover, a group from Germany who have been running around Berlin smashing CCTV cameras to pieces, which isn’t surprising given that their slogan is: “Freiheit stirbt mit Sicherheit”, or “Freedom dies with Security”.

Watch these guys in action in the video below.


VICE: Hey, Camover – what’s with all the aggro?
Camover: We were bored. Just kidding. We’re critical of consumer society, where people swallow the opinions given to them by the media. They forget to think for themselves. And we thought it would be fun to motivate people to go out at night and get rid of these annoying cameras.

How many cameras have you destroyed?
We have no idea how many we’ve already destroyed. It’s not a big deal to destroy a camera – often you can do it quickly on the way home.

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Pope to Stay in Vatican City for “Immunity” and “Security”

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It doesn’t take a “conspiracy theorist” to wonder about the reasons behind the sudden resignation of the Pope; the first time this has happened in 600 years.  As the days have passed, details have begun to emerge and it seems that the most likely catalyst was his connection to the child abuse scandals rampant within the Catholic Church.  Now we find out that as a result of these concerns, he will be hiding out in the Vatican for the remainder of his days.  From Reuters:

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.

“His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn’t have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else,” said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The final key consideration is the pope’s potential exposure to legal claims over the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.

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Stop CISPA: The Internet Spying Bill is Back in Congress

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If at first you don’t succeed in implementing total state surveillance on your citizenry, try and try again.  These guys are just unbelievable.  From the EFF: It’s official: The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act was reintroduced in the House of Representatives yesterday. CISPA is the contentious bill civil liberties advocates fought last year, which … Read more

Fish Becoming Easier to Catch Due to Anti-Depressants in the Water Supply

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What an epic headline.  I’m certainly not the only one that will draw parallels to the human experience as it relates to the overuse of such drugs in society.  I’ll let the following quotes from the UK’s Daily Mail speak for themselves: A new study shows that anti-depressants in the water supply are making the … Read more

Two Tier Society: In Boston Politicians’ Parking Spaces Are Plowed Before the Handicapped

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While this seems like a minor incident, I do think it reflects a growing two-tier society in America where certain connected people are not only granted privilege when it comes to low interest loans, bailouts and a free pass on the rule of law, but increasingly, also special treatment in the smaller things.  Incredibly, in Boston, bureaucrats’ parking spaces are immediately cleaned off even while those of the handicapped remain covered in snow.  From The Boston Herald:

With much of Massachusetts buried under mountains of snow while residents shoveled out their cars, state lawmakers parked on Beacon Hill in special snow-free parking spaces courtesy of taxpayer-funded plows, the Truth Squad has found.

The free, reserved spaces for lawmakers around the State House were cleared of all snow within hours after the storm ended, while spaces reserved for city residents still remain entombed in snow, untouched by city plows.

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Texas DMV Sells Personal Information and There’s No Opt-Out

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Don’t mess with Texas!  Everyone needs to relax; don’t you know privacy is for terrorists? From Tech Dirt: The Texas DMV claims its “top priority” is protecting drivers’ information, but that hardly seems to be the case when it’s pulling in $2.1 million a year selling it off. There are protections in place, but they … Read more

Wall Street Wins Again: The Much Vaunted Mortgage Task Force “Does Not Exist”

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You know why Jaime Dimon is always smiling and why the oligarchs in general are so arrogant?  They keep pillaging the American public and no one does anything about it.  The sheeple are so brainwashed at this point most of them will fall for anything.  Now, for the outrageous story of the day… From Salon:

Recent profiles of this event have called last night’s State of the Union the “anniversary” of the formation of the working group.  But you can’t really have an anniversary of something that never existed in the first place.  There never was a Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities working group, never a so-called task force dedicated to ferreting out Wall Street fraud — the deceptive origination of mortgage loans, sale of worthless mortgage-backed securities for huge sums, and subsequent unloading of toxic debt to unsuspecting buyers. The working group fails to exist as a tangible entity to this day.  What does exist is the same years-old Financial Fraud Enforcement Group that serves as a conduit for press releases about investigative actions already in progress.

Schneiderman’s “task force” (a generous appellation) was merely a politically motivated shell organization grafted onto that public relations strategy.  This was evident almost from the moment of the announcement, but the coalition of self-proclaimed bank accountability advocates, who had backed the administration into a corner over the lack of prosecutions, decided to align with Schneiderman and his kabuki task force, losing whatever leverage they may have had.  If those same groups who feel “betrayed” and “lied to” had stayed on the outside and shamed those in power into action, we would probably have more accountability today.

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The Meat Industry Now Consumes 80% of All Antibiotics

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Care for a side of horse meat with that dose of tetracycline in your chicken wings?  Recovery never tasted so good!  Basically since 2003, antibiotic use for sick people is flat, but up 50% for use in the meat industry.  These stats are shocking.  From Mother Jones:

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration proposed a set of voluntary “guidelines” designed to nudge the meat industry to curb its antibiotics habit. Ever since, the agency has been mulling whether and how to implement the new program. Meanwhile, the meat industry has been merrily gorging away on antibiotics—and churning out meat rife with antibiotic-resistant pathogens—if the latest data from the FDA itself is any indication.

Note that that while human antibiotic use has leveled off at below 8 billion pounds annually, livestock farms have been sucking in more and more of the drugs each year—and consumption reached a record nearly 29.9 billion pounds in 2011. To put it another way, the livestock industry is now consuming nearly four-fifths of the antibiotics used in the US, and its appetite for them is growing.

meatAntibio

In an email, a Pew spokesperson added that while  the American Meat Institute reported a 0.2 percent increase in total meat and poultry production in 2011 compared to the previous year, the FDA data show that antibiotic consumption jumped 2 percent over the same time period. That suggests that meat production might be getting more antibiotic-intensive.  

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