Can Barack Obama Ban Guns By Executive Order?

freedomoutpost

Tim Brown

This week Vice President Joe Biden alluded to Barack Obama possibly using executive order to impose gun control. Biden said this during a meeting surrounded by several gun control groups and gun violence victims. The question on many people’s minds is, “Can this actually happen?”

First, let’s understand what an executive order actually is. It is supposed to be an order delivered by the President to those under his authority, sort of like the CEO of a company giving direction to those under him. According to the National Archives:

Executive orders are official documents, numbered consecutively, through which the President of the United States manages the operations of the Federal Government.
The text of Executive orders appears in the daily Federal Register as each Executive order is signed by the President and received by the Office of the Federal Register. The text of Executive orders beginning with Executive Order 7316 of March 13, 1936, also appears in the sequential editions of Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

Robert Longley at About.com also confirms this is how executive orders work and adds, “Thirty days after being published in the Federal Register, executive orders become law. While they do bypass the U.S. Congress and the standard legislative law making process, no part of an executive order may direct the agencies to conduct illegal or unconstitutional activities.

Executive orders are not to be used to bypass the legislative branch, but they are to be used simply under the executive branch and do become a law under that authority. Typically these are used for the purpose of:

1. Operational management of the executive branch
2. Operational management of federal agencies or officials
3. To carry out statutory or constitutional presidential responsibilities

At least that is what they are supposed to be used for. The Constitutional authority for presidential executive orders are found in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, “The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America,” and Article II, Section 3 which states, “The President shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed…”

So there is authority granted to the President and that has been recognized even by our first President, George Washington, who signed his first executive order in 1789. He was not alone. Many of the founders, who became President, such as John Adams, James Madison, and James Monroe issued one executive order each. While President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued 3,522!

So the question we have to deal with is “Is it possible that Barack Obama could sign an executive order to impose gun control?” The answer is, “Yes, it is possible he could sign such an executive order.” The issue though, is whether or not such an executive order would be upheld by the Congress or the Supreme Court. Congress may pass a law that alters an executive order, and they can be declared unconstitutional and vacated by the Supreme Court. A recent Congressional response to an executive order can be found here.

One wonders, after the ruling from the Supreme Court in 2012 on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), how they would rule on an executive order regarding the Second Amendment. Fox News’ 19′s Ben Swann says they would probably not allow it to stand.

Swann asks, “Is the President attempting to issue an executive order on gun control, violating Second Amendment rights?”

The example would be that if Obama signed and executive order to ban what he calls “assault weapons” or rifles with high capacity magazines, that order would have to go before the Supreme Court. The issue before the Court would then be for them to decide what weapons Americans have rights to. We can see a glimpse into how they have ruled in the past in at least two cases that have dealt with this issue (not the executive order).

The most recent Supreme Court decision was District of Columbia vs. Heller. The legal contention was whether banning handguns in Washington D.C. was a violation of the Second Amendment. In that case, the Court ruled that it was a violation. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the majority opinion:

“the Second Amendment extends, prima facie,to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.”

All of that sounds great. However, within the opinion, Scalia also referenced the 1939 Supreme Court case United States vs. Miller, writing:

We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms. Miller said, as we have explained, that the sorts of weapons protected were those “in common use at the time.” 307 U. S., at 179. We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of “dangerous and unusual weapons.”

But wait, he does clarify what he means in the following paragraph:

It may be objected that if weapons that are most useful in military service—M-16 rifles and the like—may be banned, then the Second Amendment right is completely detached from the prefatory clause. But as we have said, the conception of the militia at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification was the body of all citizens capable of military service, who would bring the sorts of lawful weapons that they possessed at home to militia duty. It may well be true today that a militia, to be as effective as militias in the 18th century, would require sophisticated arms that are highly unusual in society at large. Indeed, it may be true that no amount of small arms could be useful against modern-day bombers and tanks. But the fact that modern developments have limited the degree of fit between the prefatory clause and the protected right cannot change our interpretation of the right.

Some may argue that AR-15′s and Ak-47′s are dangerous, but aren’t all weapons? After all, isn’t that part of the definition of a weapon, that it’s dangerous? Could this apply to a tank or a rocket propelled grenade launcher (RPG)? Perhaps, but from Justice Scalia’s writings it does not apply to rifles, such as the AR-15.

How about “unusual?” Well, considering that millions of gun owners own semi-automatic rifles, which the Left refers to as “assault weapons,” and that they are even sold at your local Wal-Mart hardly makes them unusual.

Should Obama seek to push through something along these lines, there is no doubt that it would be a long, tedious process in court. With that said, let me interject that if conditions were made right, then perhaps the Supreme Court and even the Congress might just go along with it. What do I mean? Given that FDR’s Executive Order 9066 was the order that directed the interment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, many of whom were U.S. citizens, we should not be asleep at the wheel on this issue. In the heightened state of acting on emotion following the attack on Pearl Harbor, it seems this was a clear violation of the Constitution. This is why so many people oppose the National Defense Authorization Act and it is why citizens must always be alert and sober to what happens around them.

Catherine Malabou: A Materialist Concept of Plasticity

egsvideo

Catherine Malabou, philosopher and author, answering students' questions about the plasticity of life. In this lecture Catherine Malabou discusses contradiction and the Real, Deleuze's critique of the organism and Hegelian dialectics, deconstruction in philosophy, self-contradiction within biology, the mechanization of life, dialectical materialism, the unity of body and mind, and the reciprocity of thinking and willing in relationship to Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Martin Heidegger and Baruch Spinoza focusing on Homo sacer, totalitarianism in democracy, Nazism, immanence, epigenetics, biopolitics, the movement of truth, bare life, Dasein, technology and spiritual substance. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland Europe. 2012. Catherine Malabou.

Catherine Malabou, Ph.D., born in 1959, was a student at the École normal supérieure (ENS) and Sorbonne University in France. She wrote her dissertation on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel under the direction of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, completing it in 1994. The thesis was published in 1996 under the title L'Avenir de Hegel, plasticité, temporalité, dialectique (The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality, and Dialectic). Catherine Malabou has taught at Nanterre University in Paris, the University of California at Berkeley, the New School for Social Research in New York City and currently is a full-time professor at the Centre for Modern European Philosophy of Kingston in the United Kingdom. She also teaches an intensive summer seminar at the European Graduate School (EGS).

Catherine Malabou is a specialist of contemporary French and German philosophy, with a focus on Hegel and Heidegger. She is most famous for her concept of ontological "plasticity." Her work also incorporates neuroscience and neuro-psychoanalysis. Malabou has published many works including Voyager avec Jacques Derrida - La Contre-allée (1999, English publication in 2004 entitled Counterpath), Que faire de notre cerveau? (2004, English publication in 2008 entitled What Should We Do with Our Brain?), La Plasticité au soir de l'écriture : Dialectique, destruction, deconstruction (2005, English publication in 2009 entitled Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing: Dialectic, Destruction, Deconstruction), Changer de différence (2009, English publication in 2011 entitled Changing differences). More recently, Catherine Malabou published a book in French with Judith Butler entitled Sois mon corps (2010). She also manages a philosophy book series for the French publisher Éditions Léo Scheer.

"Ocultos" - Controversias religiosas [Documental]

Karoll William

Una interesante controversia de cultos. Documental rodado en Bauta, La Habana, por estudiantes de la EICTV.

Ichikawa: Impactos de la Reforma Migratoria en las relaciones Cuba-EEUU

eichikawa
Karoll William

La crisis de la información y la crisis de la manipulación de la información

eichikawa

Emilio Ichikawa

Julian Assange es más potable para la sensiblería mediática de izquierda que para la política de izquierda. Tiene cierta “onda” contestataria y púber, pero siempre ha estado demasiado protegido y los revolucionarios le guardan sospecha. Sobre todo los revolucionarios en el poder. En su serie “Diálogos con Julian Assange”, que realizó para la agencia informativa transnacional RUSSIA TODAY (ya con oficinas en Miami y La Habana), tiene un capítulo muy plástico, el número 8, que realiza a un trío de “Cypherpunks” (lo traducen como “Criptopunks”), un movimiento que él considera derivado de su propio proyecto de Wikileaks. En el esquema mental de Assange no existe una lucha entre clases, ni entre norte y sur, ni entre ricos y pobres… Su versión de Buenos Vs. Malos la formula de esta manera: “Se está librando una guerra furiosa por el futuro de la sociedad. Es invisible para la mayoría de la gente. Por un lado están las redes de gobiernos y corporaciones, por otro lado están los Cypherpunks…” (que se les oponen en Internet).

Los invitados de Assange son tres jóvenes relajados que muestran harta confianza ante las cámaras. Uno viene de Alemania, otro de Francia y el último de los EEUU. Con un magnifico humor, se dedican a contar algunas de las travesuras que han hecho a gobiernos dictatoriales del mundo; entre ellas, el cambio de horario a una guardia palaciega que provocó que actuaran con impuntualidad. No hay ideas ni proyecto, pero sí una conciencia de superioridad por tener la capacidad de “utilizar” (consumir) tecnología con una destreza por encima de la media de usuarios; cosa que les permite alterar estructuras de la “vida real” allí donde esta “vida real” empata con ellos a través de la red.

Este es un buen ejemplo para ilustrar que en el activismo político actual es obsoleto el uso de Internet como un medio para exponer e intercambiar información, ideas e investigaciones historiográficas y sociológicas que a mediano plazo lesionen la ideología del rival. La llamada “batalla de ideas” en la red es un eufemismo como nombre y una táctica depreciada como arma cuando se compara con las acciones de las “ciberguerrillas” o “cibercomandos”, que tienen como “tarea” distorsionar y “burlar” lo real. De ahí su carácter simpático o “gracioso”. Es decir, para la confrontación ideológica, a corto plazo (que es lo que interesa al auditor), no se trata por ejemplo de crear plataformas como WIKIPEDIA o ECURED que divulguen investigaciones de los intelectuales orgánicos de sus respectivos bandos; es cuestión de falsear el contenido, bloquear la red, hackear los correos de los colaboradores, privar de servicio, etc.

Ni siquiera se trata ya de propiciar una información falsa o semi-veraz en el lugar de los hechos y luego amplificarla en una familia de webs, blogs, twitters, emisoras de radio y TV; es demasiado lento y por demás caro. Como se hizo en el caso de la enfermedad de Hugo Chávez (o de Clinton), antes de multiplicar un “twiit” creado en La Habana (o en Yew York) se opta por duplicar un sitio en las redes sociales en nombre de algún familiar y dar un parte sobre su salud que después multiplicarán en la red una decena de sitios debidamente seleccionados. Realmente no hay que tener un médico infiltrado en el CIMEQ ni un General infiltrado en el Pentágono, ni un agente en un grupo de Miami u otro en Palmarito de Cauto para “activar” opiniones.

Ya no hace falta crear una información falsa cuando se puede crear un falso informador. La información falsa del periodista real puede desmentirse al confrontarla con la realidad. Frente al irreal periodista virtual toda información, por muy falsa que sea, acaba siendo verdadera en su efecto.

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-ILUSTRACION: “Equilibrium”, by Karoll William: karollvisualarts.wordpress

Hagel: U.S. should give up nukes before rogue nations

Read at wnd >>

Cuba: Beisbol e identidad nacional

hernandez01/ Por Andrés Pascual

Vidal López [Foto: A.Pascual]

La pérdida de la identidad nacional del cubano no tiene nada que ver con que Orestes Miñoso fuera considerado para el acápite “fatiga extrema” de la prohibición de 1948 (afectaron a Bob Feller, que pensó jugar en el champion torneo 1948-49) para el campeonato invernal de 1949-1950 y que los Indios de Cleveland le hubieran pagado un dinerito extra para que no jugara, tampoco que hubieran utilizado esa justificación con el propio Miñoso, con Fornieles, con Camilo y con Consuegra para el de 1954-1955, la creación del capítulo prohibitivo a los peloteros cubanos que estaban en Grandes Ligas no los incluía a todos, esos son los argumentos de un perro del castrismo, el plumífero Elio Menéndez, farsante absoluto y de todos los que se dedican a confundir al pueblo, ni más ni menos que reproductores de las mentiras que les prepara el DOR del PCC; porque, no lo dicen, los demás cubanos de aquellos años que jugaban en las Mayores, SÍ pudieron actuar en la Liga Cubana, luego no fue absoluta como imposición a todos los peloteros (los dolores en los brazos de los pitchers jugaron un papel importante y el bean ball a la cabeza que le tiró Grimm a Minnie pesó muchísimo), pero esos que escriben para aquel pueblo evaden hablar con seriedad, con la verdad, porque, nadie lo dude, ES LA MANIOBRA SUCIA Y ERRÁTICA de continuar imponiéndole una credibilidad muy particular a una población que, el 80 % creyó hasta que… por lo que, continuar a estas alturas…

Ya no cabe más estiércol sobre el cuerpo pestilente del experimento que llamaron “revolución” y que hoy, pese al fracaso más absoluto del comunismo en el mundo, 54 años después, sus “dirigentes” continúan explotando, reprimiendo y esclavizando a través de la frase “estamos construyendo el socialismo”.

La pelota cubana no fue grande y trascendental por obra y gracia de sus jugadores, sino de los hombres que la administraban, que hicieron las cosas casi copia al papel carbón del Beisbol Organizado, por lo que pertenecer, aplicar las formas de trabajo del circuito de ligas menores desde los 40’s, fue la garantía que selló la grandeza de nuestro pasatiempo, aun cuando, tomando a Cuba como ejemplo por su éxito, se creó la Confederación para aplicarle la experiencia, o tratar de hacerlo, al resto de la región que se organizó en Miami en 1948.

Recuerdo que hace más de 6 años leí un material de Elio Menéndez, cuyo objetivo fue alabar a Chávez durante un juego que celebraron en La Habana entre castristas y chavistas, en el que fustigaba a los dueños de la clubes de la Liga Invernal, porque “cambiaron” a Vidal López (en la foto), a Dumbo Fernández, incluso a René González, por importados americanos a través de la cuota de 9 refuerzos.

Bueno, Elio Menéndez no tiene cara y, lo que dice, como todos los que lo repiten sin analizar bien o desconociendo el asunto total o parcialmente, lo puede hacer porque no existe la tribuna neutral, que permita establecer la controversia que le dé al público la posibilidad de aprobar cuál argumento es confiable y, si no lo hacen, si no lo autorizan, es porque saben de antemano que no tienen la mínima posibilidad de convencer a nadie contra la crítica contraria. Esa es la razón de la mordaza a la opinión libre bajo la bota comunista: como no han dicho nunca un octavo de verdad, pues mejor que nadie saben que, si permiten el comentario diferente en el debate, están fritos, sin embargo, algunos plumíferos todavía no se reconocen en la extraordinaria derrota, en el monumental fracaso que es la Cuba castrista y deberían.

Entre las barbaridades que se leen de allá están las comparaciones erradas, a libre albedrío, para tapar el gran hoyo negro que es esa pelota corrupta en el terreno y en las oficinas del PCC en todos los niveles, desde apostadores comprando a peloteros, a vividores en puestos de “dirigentes” solo para vacilar y pisotear el ex gran deporte nacional, por ejemplo, ni Blandino ni Trigoura fueron mejores bateadores que Héctor Rodríguez ¿De dónde sacan eso? Trigoura fue un buen antesalista amateur del Teléfonos que no lo firmaron, a pesar de que jugó 6 campañas en la UAAC y Blandino no les gustó a los scouts tampoco, el tercera base del Almendares fue el mejor bateador de la Liga Cubana era moderna. Eulogio Osorio fue un buscador de contrato que vino de Oriente y no lo encontró, lo vi en 1961 en la Liga de Guerra Matos PR-2 y apenas pudo jugar con El Ciego (granja agrícola palaceña), porque, como que tenía profesionales de ligas menores enfrente ¿Qué podría hacer ante aquellos? Julio Rojo nació en 1940 y Marcelino López en 1943 ¿Por qué no firmó el pitcher derecho como sí el zurdo del Cotorro? Novato de condiciones que tuvo que quedarse Amorós Hernández, igual que Hurtado, que le dejaron los padres la firma para “el año que viene” y ya ven… A Tony González le pagaba el Marianao 80 pesos para que cogiera bolas en prácticas, todavía está asustado con Valdivieso, Lorencito y Ossie Álvarez, no solo por lo que bateaban, sino por como fildeaban: “muchacho, tú no te acuerdas de esa gente coñoooooó…. Eran la yaya”, dicho delante mío y de varios más, hace 3 ó 4 meses, cuando visitó Miami con un grupo de veteranos para jugar softball.

La salida del club Cubans Sugar Kings del circuito triple A, así como el descabezamiento del profesionalismo, estuvo relacionada con motivos políticos, pero de la parte castrocomunista, porque el tirano no tenía intención de dejar ventanas abiertas a los aires de independencia y soberanía individual o de grupo por medio de ningún negocio particular de gran envergadura y la pelota lo era.

Además, había que romper el nexo amistoso pueblo cubano-americano que estableció el beisbol, una vez que se buscaba sembrar un odio enfermizo y visceral contra todo lo que oliera a americano, sello que distingue la política devenida en catástrofe para el pueblo cubano hasta hoy.

Nada de lo que dicen los espadones del castrocomunismo en Cuba es verdad, pero nadie puede contradecirlos ni extraoficialmente, porque puede caer preso y hay más de 55,000 condenas conocidas por propaganda enemiga o desacato, solo por hablar este tipo de cosas en una esquina de una panadería, no digo yo en una columna de periódico.

Voy a contarles una anécdota, tengo un amigo en Cuba, decente, respetuoso y hablo en el estilo del cubano de antes, que el 80 % de hoy no es ni digno ni cubano porque carece de “identidad nacional”; bien, mi amigo, historiador del beisbol, profesor universitario con varios libros escritos, ha dedicado varios años de su vida a investigar, a recopilar datos, números…sobre todos los jugadores de beisbol cubano posibles, tanto amateurs como profesionales.

Todo ese trabajo ha dado al traste en una enciclopedia biográfica que, supongo, debe ser un excelente material de referencia. Sin embargo, en nuestro país, que es donde debería publicarse por el desconocimiento total de la población fanática del beisbol, ni ha hecho intentos por proponerlo porque, al estilo americano, no es “políticamente correcto”, pero, diferente a esta gente, esa proposición no encontraría el editor ni la imprenta, sino al DSE para ponerlo en su lugar por “atentar contra los poderes del Estado” por la vía de la propaganda enemiga, supongo que, con lo que acabo de decir, no necesite más detalles, NADIE, para reconocerse como sometido y espadón o como libre y soberano.

Si Castro hubiera estado en Cuba en la fecha en que introdujeron el beisbol, nunca se hubiera conocido el juego, porque no lo hubiera permitido, que este no es un tipo caracterizado por hacer cosas buenas y agradables.

Antes hablé de la pérdida de la identidad nacional: la base de esa condición en una sociedad está hecha con la mantención en el lugar de privilegio que debe ocupar el renglón identidad cultural, cuya arista más visible e importante tiene que ser el conocimiento y el respeto por el pasado.

Con respecto al beisbol, un survey para verificar cuántos de las generaciones nacidas bajo la bota castrista conocen sobre la gloria legítima cubana pre-tiranía, sería ideal para confirmar quién tiene la razón con respecto a Miñoso, a los Cubans y a toda esa sarta de mentiras consuetudinarias que le inyectan a un pueblo, de cierta forma contuberniado con el escarnio, tiñosas pagadas que atentan contra su país por medio de la desinformación más absoluta, repudiable y descarada.

La transmisión televisiva del balompié profesional, su difusión mediática a la cañona, son parte del pisoteo de la identidad nacional, planificada desde 1959 por un monstruoso aparato al que le importa muy poco el asunto: el balompié está en las ternas en Cuba para desviar el gusto hacia este deporte, alejando al pueblo de la órbita americana por medio de la desaparición total de un símbolo en las relaciones “pueblo a pueblo” entre ambos países, es, nadie lo dude, parte importante en la construcción de la tumba del juego de pelota allá.

Además, como colateral: es otra contribución al derrumbe definitivo de la identidad nacional que, a estas alturas, parece que la politización ha logrado desbancar, por las facetas del “hombre nuevo”, el conocimiento de qué es importante como condición para representar dignamente como cubano a esa nacionalidad. Definitivamente, no somos “el mismo pueblo” que algunos pregonan, yo soy cubano, los demás… ¿Quién sabe?

How Gaming Will Change the World

ForaTv

Jane McGonigal, author of The New York Times best seller "Reality Is Broken" and world-renowned designer of alternate reality games, talks about how games can be created to improve the way we learn, work, solve problems, and lead our real lives.

The Myths and Truths About Joseph Kennedy

ForaTv

Historian and biographer David Nasaw dispels historical myths about Senator Joseph P. Kennedy, including his perceived ties to bootlegging and the Mafia.

Twitter atrapa #Cuba intentando manipular la red social

joanantoniguerrero
El régimen pretende hacer pasar por "censura" las consecuencias a sus malos usos de la red de microblogging

Cuba quiso celebrar el inicio del año en las redes sociales simulando una iniciativa espontánea en Twitter para conmemorar el 54 aniversario de la Caravana de la Libertad, es decir, haciendo spam. Los cabecillas de la Revolución pensaron en coger la red de microblogging más popular para sus cosas y salieron escaldados, pues su plan chocó con los criterios de buena conducta marcados por la plataforma, normas claras que están al alcance de todos. Todo el mundo debe saber que si alguno de sus usos está en la lista de lo sospechoso, Twitter suspende cuentas (para este tema, leer este artículo puede contribuir a aclarar conceptos).

Yo no soy partidario de los robots en Twitter, ni tan siquiera cuando difunden mensajes con los que puedo estar más a favor. Aborrezco estas técnicas de difusión de información que lo único que hacen es estorbar e inundar la red con mensajes que no siempre nos traen los mejores links. Prefiero seguir las cuentas que me aportan una selección específica de datos e información, y no bombardeos de piñón fijo, ya sea a favor o en contra de la dictadura castrista.

Ahora Cuba dice que Twitter ha bloqueado casi un millar de cuentas de jóvenes cubanos por razones ideológicas. Es más, su cinismo es tal que incluso los portavoces del régimen han acusado a la compañía de violar el derecho a la libertad de expresión de todos estos jóvenes. Por lo visto, no hay vergüenza.

Ciertamente Cuba tiene capacidad para movilizar a un millar de cubanos, convocarlos en sitios oficiales, y hacerlos actuar como auténticos autómatas en un Joven Club (salas en las que tienen acceso a material de computación, aunque más allá de la propaganda, muchos cubanos saben que la maquinaria de estas aulas no funciona y también es muy dudosa la conectividad a Internet que pueden ofrecer; pero bueno, al régimen le basta decir que existe esto en la Isla, lo viste con los datos estadísticos necesarios, y cualquiera que no esté al caso se lo cree; con Cuba todo es así), este millar de personas, si fueron a un Joven Club no lo hicieron por amor a la Revolución, ni por deseos irrefrenables de celebrar el 54 aniversario de un hecho histórico bajo el hash tag #Caravana54, lo hicieron para acatar un mandato, cumplir una orden, ejecutar una tarea, esclavizados para la ocasión, empleados para propósitos propagandísticos de un régimen decadente. 

Continuar leyendo en joanantoniguerrero >>

El limbo bolivariano/ Pong

White House responds to secession petitions

WND/ Drew Zahn

The White House has responded to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who signed digital petitions asking permission for states to peacefully secede from the union.

In a nutshell, the answer is no.

“As much as we value a healthy debate,” writes Jon Carson, director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement, in in the official response, “we don’t let that debate tear us apart.”

WND was the first news outlet in the nation to report when a Louisiana man began a petition on the White House’s “We the People” website, asking permission for his state to peacefully secede.

The Louisiana petition quoted from the Declaration of Independence: “‘Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government.’”

According to the guidelines of the “We the People” website, when a petition reaches 25,000 signatures, the White House has pledged to put the petition on a queue for response.

Louisiana’s petition quickly reached that threshold and was followed by similar petitions from all 50 states, several of which also topped the 25,000 mark.

Counter-petitions were also created, including one that called on the White House to “deport everyone that signed a petition to withdraw their state from the United States Of America.” That petition also cleared the 25,000-signature hurdle.

The official White House response is listed as a response to all of the secession petitions, pro and con.

“Our founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States ‘in order to form a more perfect union’ through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government,” the response reasoned. “They enshrined in that document the right to change our national government through the power of the ballot – a right that generations of Americans have fought to secure for all. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it.

“As President Abraham Lincoln explained in his first inaugural address in 1861, ‘in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual,’” the response continued. “In the years that followed, more than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Supreme Court confirmed that ‘[t]he Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States.’”

The full response can be read here.

The question of secession’s constitutionality has been debated, indeed, since long before Abraham Lincoln’s time, and has remained debated even since the Texas v. White Supreme Court decision cited in the White House response.

WND columnists Walter E. Williams and Alan Keyes, for example, have both penned columns arguing secession is perfectly constitutional. Williams’ column, available here, cites historical evidence from both the Founding Fathers and the Civil War era. Alan Keyes’ column, available here, argues God-given rights cannot be trumped by man-made law, Supreme Court decisions or civil war.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/white-house-responds-to-secession-petitions/#GcIKCHOfOVi2pfds.99

'American Taliban' wins right to group prayer in prison

security

nydailynews.com

By Mariano Castillo

The man known as the "American Taliban" won a legal fight that will allow him and fellow Muslim inmates to gather for daily prayers.

A federal judge ruled Friday that the warden at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, was violating John Walker Lindh's rights by not allowing the religious activities.

Lindh argued that before 2007 Muslim prisoners were allowed to pray together for at least three of Islam's five daily prayers. Since then, with the exception of the holy month of Ramadan, the Muslim prisoners are allowed to gather only once a week.

The unit Lindh is housed in has 55 cells, and the majority of the prisoners are Muslim, according to court documents.

By not allowing group prayer, while at the same time allowing other group activities such as board games, the warden was violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson found.

The law was designed to protect freedom of religion in prison, where policies can place burdens on such rights.

The judge ordered an injunction "prohibiting the warden from enforcing the policy against daily congregate prayer for Muslims, including Mr. Lindh, for whom daily congregate prayer is a sincerely held religious belief," the court order states.

Already, prisoners are allowed to gather in the unit's multi-purpose room to listen or watch recording of Quran verses. Allowing them to pray is not significantly different from this and should be allowed, the judge ruled.

Lindh, who was born in California, converted to Islam as a teenager.

He traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 and attended a terror training camp where he was introduced to Osama bin Laden.

Lindh was captured by the Afghan Northern Alliance on November 25, 2001, and imprisoned in a compound in Mazar-e-Sharif, where he was questioned by CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann, who was killed in an uprising at the compound a short time later.

As part of a deal, Lindh pleaded guilty to supplying services to the Taliban and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony. His family filed a petition for clemency to commute the 20-year sentence, a request that was denied by President George W. Bush in one of his final acts in office.

CNN's Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.

Eric Holder: Gun Owners Should 'Cower' in Shame Like Smokers

NB Staff

Paris an anti gay marriage city

NO LONE GUNMAN: JFK's Nephew Convinced Oswald Didn't Act Alone

foxnews

Friday, Jan. 11, 2013: Journalist Charlie Rose, right, talks with Rory Kennedy, center, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, at the AT&T Performing Arts Center, in Dallas. (AP)

DALLAS –  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced that a lone gunman wasn't solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and said his father believed the Warren Commission report was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship."

Kennedy and his sister, Rory, spoke about their family Friday night while being interviewed in front of an audience by Charlie Rose at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. The event comes as a year of observances begins for the 50th anniversary of the president's death.

Their uncle was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dallas. Five years later, their father was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel while celebrating his win in the California Democratic presidential primary.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his father spent a year trying to come to grips with his brother's death, reading the work of Greek philosophers, Catholic scholars, Henry David Thoreau, poets and others "trying to figure out kind of the existential implications of why a just God would allow injustice to happen of the magnitude he was seeing."

He said his father thought the Warren Commission, which concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president, was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship." He said that he, too, questioned the report.

"The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman," he said, but he didn't say what he believed may have happened.

Rose asked if he believed his father, the U.S. attorney general at the time of his brother's death, felt "some sense of guilt because he thought there might have been a link between his very aggressive efforts against organized crime."

Kennedy replied: "I think that's true. He talked about that. He publicly supported the Warren Commission report but privately he was dismissive of it."

He said his father had investigators do research into the assassination and found that phone records of Oswald and nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald two days after the president's assassination, "were like an inventory" of mafia leaders the government had been investigating.

He said his father, later elected U.S. senator in New York, was "fairly convinced" that others were involved.

The attorney and well-known environmentalist also told the audience light-hearted stories Friday about memories of his uncle. As a young child with an interest in the environment, he said, he made an appointment with his uncle to speak with him in the Oval Office about pollution.

He'd even caught a salamander to present to the president, which unfortunately died before the meeting.

"He kept saying to me, 'It doesn't look well,'" he recalled.

Rory Kennedy, a documentary filmmaker whose recent film "Ethel" looks at the life of her mother, also focused on the happier memories. She said she and her siblings grew up in a culture where it was important to give back.

"In all of the tragedy and challenge, when you try to make sense of it and understand it, it's very difficult to fully make sense of it," she said. "But I do feel that in everything that I've experienced that has been difficult and that has been hard and that has been loss, that I've gained something in it."

"We were kind of lucky because we lost our members of our family when they were involved in a great endeavor," her brother added. "And that endeavor is to make this country live up to her ideals."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/12/rfk-jr-very-convinced-president-kennedy-not-killed-by-lone-gunman/#ixzz2Hn9rGtl

Congress Must hold Hearings into the Al Jazeera Deal

ijreview.com

NewZeal

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

If Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) lets the Al Jazeera-Al Gore deal go through without scrutiny, then every broadcast entity or communications facility in America is ripe for the plucking by any of our nation’s enemies and adversaries.

For those who haven’t been paying attention lately, the government of Qatar has announced a deal through Al Jazeera with former Democratic Vice President Al Gore for his Current TV cable channel, in order to transform it into an arm of its Jihadist or “Terror TV” network, once known as a mouthpiece for mass murderer Osama bin Laden. They are planning to call it “Al Jazeera America,” when the oil money for the transaction is coming from abroad. This is part and parcel of the deception, which is designed to make it appear as though Al Jazeera is as American as apple pie and simply has a foreign-sounding name.

To be sure, the deal was not technically announced by Qatar, a Middle Eastern dictatorship where freedom of the press is not permitted. Instead, Al Jazeera made the announcement. But that is part of the deception. Al Jazeera is an arm of the Qatar regime and is not in any sense of the term an “independent” news organization. It is government-funded with “advertising” from such entities as Qatar Airways, the national airline partly owned by the regime. Qatar and Al Jazeera are one and the same.

The purpose of this transaction is to soften the American people up for more Middle East revolution, including within the borders of the U.S. Dr. Judea Pearl, the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, supports an investigation of the deal and says, “Al Jazeera weaves the ideological structure and combustible angers from which Jihadi recruits eventually emerge.”

Qatar postures as a friend of the United States and hosts a U.S military base. But Qatar also served as the base for anti-American and anti-Semitic “cleric” Yusef al-Qaradawi before he returned to Egypt to help consolidate the Muslim Brotherhood revolution there. Al-Qaradawi is a leading television personality on Al Jazeera.

You may have missed the news that Qatar just extended another $2.5 billion in economic aid for Egypt, following a gift of $400 million that the emir of Qatar made to the terrorist group Hamas.

Al Gore and his partners, including Joel Hyatt, got more than that—$500 million, according to reports. Whether or not that is an accurate figure, any amount is a drop in the bucket to the emir, who is worth billions of dollars and lives in opulence.

By the way, Muslim Brotherhood leader and president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, just told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he wants the release of the Blind Sheikh, sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City. This first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center killed six people and injured over 1,000 others.

Dr. Pearl calls Al Jazeera “the main propaganda machine” of the pro-terrorist Muslim Brotherhood. It is no surprise, therefore, that Qatar would underwrite the Egyptian regime and Hamas, and that the Obama Administration would voice no public objection to the sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera.

However, there is no reason to believe this sale is legal. The circumstances surrounding the sale clearly require Congressional hearings and this is where the Republican House of Representatives and its new chairman of Homeland Security, Rep. Michael McCaul, come in.

If ever there was a time for Congress to take action, this is it. This is not a time to let the Obama Administration take the lead, since it has already approved the questionable deal, which fattens the coffers of two prominent Democrats.

There are many things about this deal that stink and which require an investigation by McCaul’s committee.

towleroad.com

First, there are unresolved complaints to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) about Al Jazeera’s operations in the U.S. Jerry Kenney of Kenney Broadcasting has asked that the DOJ enforce the law by requiring that foreign propaganda pumped into American homes by Al Jazeera be labeled as such. He says, “Why is it that if I buy a pair of tennis shoes made in China, it has to be labeled made in China? But foreign propaganda which is being aired in the U.S. is not being labeled as foreign propaganda, with its country of origin, in violation of the law? I want to know what I am getting. If you know who has produced something, you look at it differently.”

Secondly, it appears that Al Jazeera has evaded the law requiring federal approval for foreign investments in America that have national security implications.

Al Jazeera has issued a 26-page document in which it claims that the deal “does not involve any federal communications licenses or other assets subject to FCC approval.” Again, this is deceptive, since broadcaster Jerry Kenney has filed an FCC complaint about Al Jazeera programming being illegally aired on taxpayer-supported public TV stations. Al Jazeera also claims that “None of the statutory factors that trigger a CFIUS review—e.g., production of important technology, production of military goods, operation of critical infrastructure—are implicated in this transaction.”

CFIUS is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and is under the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department. It is described as “an inter-agency committee authorized to review transactions that could result in control of a U.S. business by a foreign person (‘covered transactions’), in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States.”

What “covered transactions” come under the review of CFIUS? We have learned through press reports that CFIUS approved China-based Dalian Wanda Group Corporation’s purchase of AMC Entertainment, one of the nation’s largest movie theater chains.

The CFIUS process is secretive but we learned about this approval from the Chinese entity, which announced it in a press release in July of 2012.

The writer Zach Coleman notes, “News broadcasting is more politically sensitive than cinema operation and Al Jazeera is a much more controversial acquirer than Dalian Wanda, which was previously unknown in the US.”

This is precisely the case. Yet, Al Jazeera claims it had no obligation to obey the law in this case.

I asked the Treasury Department whether Al Jazeera was required to apply for approval of the purchase and all I got was a run-around. A spokesman said, “I will decline to comment. By law, information filed with CFIUS may not be disclosed by CFIUS to the public. Accordingly, the Department does not comment on information relating to specific CFIUS cases, including whether or not certain parties have filed notices for review.”

How’s that for transparent government? Mark Jaskowiak, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Investment Security at Treasury, should be called before Congress to explain the double standard.

If the Chinese buying a movie theater chain comes under the auspices of CFIUS, then a takeover of a cable channel reaching 40-50 million homes has to qualify as well.

Jerry Kenney, president of Kenney Broadcasting, says, “It’s even more insidious in the case of Al Jazeera because cable companies bundle these packages of channels and deliver them to your home, whether you watch them or not. You end up subsidizing the channels you don’t want. Current TV was actually getting a fee from the cable operators to run the channel. So subscribers who pay for that package will end up paying money to Al Jazeera for its new channel.”

In the case of a movie theater, Kenney points out, “you have to make an effort to get out of your home to drive to a theater to watch a movie. With Al Jazeera, you will be forced to pay for it coming into your own home, whether you want it or not.”

It is time for Rep. McCaul to do his duty and announce hearings into this curious transaction. The Committee on Homeland Security can be reached at 202-226-8417.

Zeman wins first round of Czech presidential vote

Euronews

Cuba: A Silent Mariel

capitolhillcubans

Waiting for January 14

General Raul Castro’s new migratory regulations have aroused enthusiasm in many Cubans. Like the gold rush in the nineteenth century. Or the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Here's what we agree on: Migratory reform will not bring democracy, political tolerance and respect for human rights. Things will remain the same in Cuba. More or less.

The Special Services will continue to be particularly hard on dissidents. Military employers will continue to expand their economic power by controlling an 80% bite of the strategic sectors that generate hard currency.

But if you visit the island and speak frankly with the Cubans, you will notice that many have burned their bridges waiting for the starting pistol, on January 14, 2013.

In a Havana neighborhood, five people feel that 2012 will be their last year to Cuba. Rosa already sold her three-bedroom home in Vibora Park for $22,000. “Thanks to the efforts of friends, with the money I can get a temporary residence in Costa Rica. I have a job offer. I hear it’s a beautiful country, not for nothing is it called the Switzerland of America,” she says, expectantly.

Antonio is another story. “I signed the document authorizing my daughter to travel to Chile for two years with her mother. We will be apart, but she has a work contract at an IT company. The agreement was that if she can establish herself, she will earn money for my ticket plane,” he says. At least Antonio didn’t demand money to authorize the travel of their minor daughter, which is common in these parts.

Even elderly people opt for a future far away. Rodolfo, 60, a German translator, has a married son in South America. But his dream is to look for a few euros in Germany. He has good contacts with German businessmen and in mid-2013 expects to spend some time “clicking” in the land of Goethe.

Norberto, meanwhile, is determined to sell his car, a 1957 Chevrolet, and with the money he can afford a six-month stay in Angola. “According to Angolan friends, job opportunities abound. I know Portuguese, I have technical skills in construction and could work in any of the projects being carried out in Luanda and Cabinda.”

Niurka has it harder. She is an engineer, and the new immigration measures look very closely at professionals. “With money and gifts I got my release from my job. I studied in Moscow and I have many Russian friends. I hope to travel with my husband, who also graduated in the USSR. We know Russian. We have been told that Russia now abounds in the new rich.”

Please do not try to spoil the party for these habaneros, talking about how hard life the life of an immigrant is, or about the bestial crisis raging through Europe. Or think they are Party functionaries or walking idiots who blindly believe what is published in the official media.

The economic crisis affecting many nations today is no invention of the newspaper Granma. But when a person has sold all his possessions, he does not want to hear bad omens.

While waiting for January 14, people are still making plans. For two convertible pesos, Internet you can download the list of countries that do not require visas to Cubans. Or you can copy from Wikipedia the customs of peoples considered exotic.

And many on the Island are now looking at countries that historically have not been the traditional destinations of the diaspora. Spain and the United States are still coveted options. But Spain is scary with its suffocating economic crisis and 40% youth unemployment.

The United States, meanwhile, is the natural destination. If you ask any potential emigrant to choose which country they want to live in, eight in ten say our northern neighbor. But few in Cuba believe that rigid U.S. immigration authorities will grant visas to Cubans, knowing that because of the Cuban Adjustment Act they would not return home.

So those with the possibility of travel have widened their horizons. And they’re thinking they will land in Serbia, Brazil, South Africa or any small island in the Caribbean.

In any event, many in Cuba excitedly await Jan. 14. The Government has announced that more than 200 offices dedicated to immigration procedures will be opened throughout the island

It’s like a Mariel Boatlift. But legal.

Courtesy of Translating Cuba.

Aaron Swartz, Reddit founder and Internet activist, 26, commits suicide

cnn

pbs.org

Aaron Swartz, the Internet political activist who co-wrote the initial specification for RSS, has committed suicide, a relative told CNN Saturday. He was 26.

"Great minds carry heavy burdens," wrote one user on Reddit, a popular social media website that Swartz helped develop and popularize following a merger in 2006.

Swartz also co-founded Demand Progress, a political action group that campaigns against Internet censorship.

A young prodigy, his passion pushed limits and landed him in legal troubles in recent years.

In 2011, he was arrested in Boston for alleged computer fraud and illegally obtaining documents from protected computers. He was later indicted from an incident in which he allegedly stole millions of online documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He pleaded not guilty in September, according to MIT's "The Tech" newspaper.

Two years earlier, the FBI investigated him after he released millions of U.S. federal court documents online. No charges were filed in that case.

Swartz, who completed a fellowship at Harvard's Ethics Center Lab on Institutional Corruption, frequently blogged about his life, success and personal struggles. In some instances, he wrote about death.

"There is a moment, immediately before life becomes no longer worth living, when the world appears to slow down and all its myriad details suddenly become brightly, achingly apparent," he wrote in a 2007 post entitled "A Moment Before Dying."

State suspends gun carry permit for TN man who made viral video

msnbc

A Middle Tennessee firearms trainer who made an ominous comment about killing people in a YouTube video that gained national attention this week, has had his handgun carry permit suspended Friday by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

James Yeager, 42, had his permit suspended based on a “material likelihood of risk of harm to the public,” the department said in a statement.

Col Tracy Trott of the Tennessee Department of Safety said it didn’t take him long to reach a decision after viewing the comments on the Internet.

“I watched it twice to make sure I was hearing what I thought I heard,” Trott said.

“It sounded like it was a veiled threat against the whole public. I believed him. He had a conviction in his voice, and the way he looked into the camera, I believe he’s capable of a violent act,” Trott said.

Yeager told Channel 4 News he is aware of the suspension, and his attorney will handle his statements going forward.

The department said Yeager has the right to seek a review of the decision.

Man’s YouTube video gains national attention

James Yeager is a man with an impressive resume, including time as a small-town police chief and serving in security in Baghdad, but he said he spoke in anger when he made the video.

“I’m telling you, if that happens, it’s going to spark a civil war, and I’ll be glad to fire the first shot,” Yeager said in a video on his YouTube page.

He was reacting to a recent comment from Vice President Joe Biden that the Obama administration may take executive action to pass control measures.

“I’m not going to let anyone take my guns. If it goes one inch further, I’m going to start killing people,” he said in the YouTube video.

Yeager pulled the comments from YouTube after receiving backlash, and he said Thursday he didn’t mean what he said.

“I was angry when I made the video and probably should have metered my words better. I am not plotting to kill any officials or anything like that,” Yeager told Channel 4 News.

Yeager runs Tactical Response, a training center in Camden, TN, that specializes in weapons and tactical skills. The door of the business notes the staff is trained to kill.

The well-armed clientele was already making neighbors at the strip mall nervous, and then they heard the video.

“The guy needs to chill it. You know, you make those threats, and you’ve said that and now you come around the wrong person, you get hurt like that,” said John Eaker, who owns a nearby pawn shop.

“He may get more than he asks if he keeps running that yak on the Internet, you know,” another neighbor said.

Yeager said he knows he’s considered a radical in his views, but he’s is not backing off comments that he will defend his right to bear arms in spite of getting death threats by email.

“It will be time to shoot people when the Constitution is set on fire,” he told Channel 4 News. “If somebody comes to take my guns, I will shoot them.”

According the Tennessee Department of Safety, Yeager is not a certified instructor. When asked about that, he said he allowed his license to expire.

The state also said Tactical Response is not a department-certified school.

Keep reading on msnbc >>

O'Reilly: The unintended consequences of a liberal America

Millions notice pay hit after payroll tax hike

Read on foxnews >>

US budget deficit grows by $260M in December

foxnews

Washington –  The U.S. annual budget deficit is on track to reach $1 trillion for a fifth straight year, though government revenue jumped last month as people paid some taxes early to avoid higher rates in 2013.
The Treasury Department says the federal deficit grew just $260 million in December. But for the first three months of the budget year, the deficit is now $292 billion.
In December, tax revenue rose 12 percent to $270 billion. Spending fell 17 percent to nearly the same amount.
The budget year begins on Oct. 1. The size of the annual deficit will hinge, in part, on how Congress and the White House resolve a debate over raising the nation's borrowing limit. Republicans are demanding deep spending cuts in return for any increase.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/11/us-budget-deficit-grows-by-260m-in-december/#ixzz2HjcW0jcS

Top Senate Dems Urge Obama to Take Unilateral Action on Debt Ceiling

foxnews

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

WASHINGTON –  If President Obama were to break the impasse with Republicans over raising the debt limit by taking unilateral action, such a move would have the potential to set off a firestorm of controversy and spark a protracted legal battle.
Top Senate Democrats say, go for it.
The White House has dismissed talk that Obama would rely on unusual measures to raise the nation's debt limit without Congress' approval, but administration officials also have warned that the country could default on its debt and trigger a new economic crisis if lawmakers don't increase the limit on borrowing.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is among those urging Obama to consider options like invoking the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to find ways around the $16.4 trillion legal cap on government borrowing. The amendment states that the "validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned," which some lawmakers believe permits a way out of the debt limit jam.
The government hit the debt limit last month and is juggling the books to buy additional time for Congress to act. But those moves only buy a few weeks of wiggle room, which requires Congress to act -- likely by mid- to late-February -- to avoid a market-quaking default on U.S. obligations.
The White House has said emphatically that it does not believe that the 14th Amendment permits Obama to ignore the debt cap on U.S. borrowing, though it considered the question during the 2011 debt crisis.
"There is no Plan B. There is no backup plan," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday. "There is no alternative to Congress raising the debt ceiling."
A letter to Obama on Friday from Reid and Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., doesn't mention the 14th Amendment, but aides to the senators said that's what they have in mind in urging the president to consider unilateral action.
"We believe you must be willing to take any lawful steps to ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis -- without congressional approval, if necessary," the letter said.
Battling House and Senate leaders have made virtually no progress on a strategy for legislation to lift the debt cap. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, insists that any debt increase be matched by equivalent spending cuts. Obama, buoyed by his re-election victory, says he won't negotiate as he did in 2011, when he traded a $2.1 trillion debt increase for tight spending limits on agency budgets and automatic, across-the-board spending cuts if a congressional "supercommittee" failed to reach a budget agreement.
"Senate Democrats cannot ignore their responsibilities for political convenience -- and the American people will not tolerate an increase in the debt limit without spending cuts and reforms," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.
The impasse has people on both sides scratching their heads over how it will be resolved. The anxiety is such that some on the left are urging Obama to mint a coin worth perhaps $1 trillion to be deposited at the Federal Reserve and drawn upon to meet government obligations.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/11/top-senate-dems-urge-obama-to-take-unilateral-action-on-debt-ceiling/#ixzz2HjZi3tYm

El golpe constitucional en Venezuela

EE.UU. saluda flexibilización migratoria de Cuba pero no cambiará su política

ntn24

Estados Unidos no modificará su política de visas para los cubanos ante la inminente entrada en vigor de nuevas normas para salir de la isla, declaró este viernes la portavoz del Departamento de Estado, Victoria Nuland.

A partir del lunes, los cubanos que tengan pasaporte ya no deberán pedir y pagar un permiso de salida ni contar con una carta de invitación para partir del país.

Esos dos requisitos fueron durante décadas los principales obstáculos para viajar al exterior, además de las visas que les reclaman los países destinatarios.

La medida cubana había sido anunciada en octubre y saludada por Washington como una nueva señal de apertura.

Pero "la política migratoria de Estados Unidos, regulada por la Ley de Inmigración y Naturalización (INA) no se modificará", señaló Nuland en una declaración oficial.

Los ciudadanos cubanos aún requieren visa o permiso de entrada válidos para ingresar a Estados Unidos, excepto aquellos que consiguen llegar de forma clandestina.

Estados Unidos "está trabajando para garantizar los mecanismos para controlar cualquier incremento en las demandas de visas o de inmigración indocumentada", añadió el texto.

Washington "urge a las familias cubanas a que utilicen la reunificación familiar legal y otros mecanismos de inmigración ya aplicables", concluyó el texto.

Cerca de un millón de cubanos viajó al extranjero por motivos personales entre 2000 y agosto de 2012, según cifras oficiales.

De los casi dos millones de cubanos que emigraron desde la llegada de Fidel Castro al poder en 1959, el 85% de ellos vive en Estados Unidos.

ONU acepta el mascado de coca en Bolivia

Caracol Radio

La Organización de Naciones Unidas readmitió a Bolivia en la Convención de Viena de 1961 sobre drogas y estupefacientes, y aceptó el pedido boliviano para que se permita el mascado de coca en el país, informó la organización mundial en un comunicado divulgado este viernes en La Paz.

"Bolivia reaccederá a la Convención Unica de la ONU sobre Estupefacientes, con una excepción que permitirá el masticado de coca", informó la Oficina del Centro de Informaciones de Naciones Unidas en La Paz. 

en el 2009 cuando solicitaba en Viena a la ONU retirar la planta de la lista de estupefacientes prohibidos por los convenios internacionales. complacido mr. morales

Humala: "Preguntare por la situacion de Chavez"

no va a verlo porque ni siquiera un presidente albista tiene acceso a chavez. 'preguntare'- dice. de lo que si estoy seguro es que ningun otro entusiasta albista, llamese correa, evo u ortega se atenderan ni un callo en cuba; que son tiranuelos izquierdosos pero no verracos.

Cuba: "Campaña Electoral" de Candidatos a Diputados

to'l mundo sigue el juego. ni los candidatos a diputados explican como representaran los intereses de los electores que votaran por ellos, ni estos preguntan. mimica kubiche a lo  madame tussauds.

Cuba: Kubiches luchando su yuca [Video]

rafa

Cuba: 2nd Least-Free Economy in the World

2013 Index of Economic Freedom/
Wall Street Journal/The Heritage Foundation

Capitolhillcubans

According to the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom, Cuba is the second least-free economy in the world.

It ranked 176th out of 177 countries in the world.

Only North Korea was considered less free.

Despite all of the news and propaganda about Raul Castro's so-called "reforms," Cuba ranked only 0.2 points higher (28.5) than last year and well below the regional (59.4) and world average (59.6).

More "reforms" you can't believe in.

See the report by the Wall Street Journal/The Heritage Foundation here >>

Havana on High Cholera Alert

capitolhillcubans

Meanwhile, a Cuban independent journalist, Calixto Martinez Arias, remains imprisoned since September 16th and is charged with "disrespect" for the figures of Fidel and Raul Castro, for exposing the regime's cover-up of the cholera outbreak.

Why the silence from the foreign news bureaus in Havana -- on both the cholera outbreak and Calixto's imprisonment?

From Cafe Fuerte:

Havana put on alert over cholera outbreak

The Provincial Health Office this Monday confirms that government authorities have declared a high alert for sanitary conditions in three of the 19 municipalities in the Cuban capital due to a cholera outbreak (IPS).

Until now, the majority of the cases have been reported in the municipalities of Cerro, 10 de Octubre, and Regla, although cases found in six other municipalities have been classified as isolated.

Dr. Hernan Madera, an epidemiology specialist who heads a multidisciplinary group created in Cerro, reports that those who have been infected are immediately transferred to the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute (IPK) for treatment.

It is reported that almost fifty individuals infected with cholera have been admitted into the IPK.

Translation by Babalu Blog.

Dr. Boaz Almog: Quantum Levitation

ForaTv/ In October 2011, Boaz Almog and Barak Deutscher from the superconductivity group at Tel-Aviv University led by Prof. Guy Deutscher, demonstrated how a superconductor disc is trapped in a surrounding magnetic field, a phenomenon called "Quantum Levitation" or "Quantum Locking". By using the exceptional large scale superconductors produced by Mishael Azoulay, they are able to demonstrate a quantum effect that, although well known to physicists worldwide, was never seen and demonstrated this way. In addition to developing new superconductor technologies and applications, the superconductivity group in Tel-Aviv University is dedicated to teaching and educating the young and adults about superconductivity, through the unique and counter-intuitive phenomena of 'quantum locking' and 'quantum levitation'.

¿Cuando se va a morir Hugo Chávez Frías?

y subcastro que piensa de todo esto?

--------------------------------- 

runrun/Victor A Casado

Hugo Chávez Frías no se va a morir cuando la gente quiera o cuando digan los medicos. Se va a morir -en mi opinión- cuando este bien estructurado el Plan de Sucesión:

1. Que Diosdado sea reelecto en la Asamblea (Etapa cumplida).

2. Que el TSJ emita su opinion en el sentido de que HCF se podra “juramentar” cuando el quiera (Etapa cumplida).

3. Que las FAN presenten al PSUV (Diosdado y Maduro) el plan de contingencia necesario para garantizar la paz ciudadana ante una eventual crisis. (Etapa por cumplirse)

4. Que las Milicias esten debidamente preparadas para responder ante un eventual enfrentamiento con opositores.(Etapa por cumplirse).

5. Que los duros del Chavismo (Disodado y Maduro) tengan cuadrado y acordado la distribucion del poder.

6. Que HCF haya resuelto y dejado sus cosas personales y financieras bien arregladas.

Cuando todo lo anterior ocurra, entonces daran la noticia y sabremos si Chavez esta muerto, conectado o vivo (pero incapacitado para asumir la Presidencia).

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