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NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 21 Sep 2014 15:00

Propaganda in the United States is propaganda spread by government and media entities within the United States. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to influence opinions. Propaganda is not only in advertising; it is also in radio, newspaper, posters, books, and anything else that might be sent out to the widespread public.

Domestic[edit]World War I[edit]The first large-scale use of propaganda by the U.S. government came during World War I. The government enlisted the help of citizens and children to help promote war bonds and stamps to help stimulate the economy. To keep the prices of war supplies down, the U.S. government produced posters that encouraged people to reduce waste and grow their own vegetables in "victory gardens." The public skepticism that was generated by the heavy-handed tactics of the Committee on Public Information would lead the postwar government to officially abandon the use of propaganda.[1]

World War II[edit]During World War II the U.S. officially had no propaganda, but the Roosevelt government used means to circumvent this official line. One such propaganda tool was the publicly owned but government funded Writers' War Board (WWB). The activities of the WWB were so extensive that it has been called the "greatest propaganda machine in history".[1]Why We Fight is a famous series of US government propaganda films made to justify US involvement in World War II.

In 1944 (lasting until 1948) prominent US policy makers launched a domestic propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to agree to a harsh peace for the German people, for example by removing the common view of the German people and the Nazi party as separate entities.[2] The core in this campaign was the Writers' War Board which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.[2]

Another means was the United States Office of War Information that Roosevelt established in June 1942, whose mandate was to promote understanding of the war policies under the director Elmer Davies. It dealt with posters, press, movies, exhibitions, and produced often slanted material conforming to US wartime purposes. Other large and influential non-governmental organizations during the war and immediate post war period were the Society for the Prevention of World War III and the Council on Books in Wartime.

Cold War[edit]During the Cold War, the U.S. government produced vast amounts of propaganda against communism and the Soviet bloc. Much of this propaganda was directed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover, who himself wrote the anti-communist tract Masters of Deceit. The FBI's COINTELPRO arm solicited journalists to produce fake news items discrediting communists and affiliated groups, such as H. Bruce Franklin and the Venceremos Organization.

War on Drugs[edit]The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, originally established by the National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988,[3][4] but now conducted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998,[5] is a domestic propaganda campaign designed to "influence the attitudes of the public and the news media with respect to drug abuse" and for "reducing and preventing drug abuse among young people in the United States".[6][7] The Media Campaign cooperates with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other government and non-government organizations.[8]

Iraq War[edit]In early 2002, the U.S. Department of Defense launched an information operation, colloquially referred to as the Pentagon military analyst program.[9] The goal of the operation is "to spread the administrations's talking points on Iraq by briefing ... retired commanders for network and cable television appearances," where they have been presented as independent analysts.[10] On 22 May 2008, after this program was revealed in the New York Times, the House passed an amendment that would make permanent a domestic propaganda ban that until now has been enacted annually in the military authorization bill.[11]

The Shared values initiative was a public relations campaign that was intended to sell a "new" America to Muslims around the world by showing that American Muslims were living happily and freely, without persecution, in post-9/11 America.[12] Funded by the United States Department of State, the campaign created a public relations front group known as Council of American Muslims for Understanding (CAMU). The campaign was divided in phases; the first of which consisted of five mini-documentaries for television, radio, and print with shared values messages for key Muslim countries.[13]

NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act[edit]The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]

Ad Council[edit]The Ad Council, an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various private and federal government agency sponsors, has been labeled as "little more than a domestic propaganda arm of the federal government" given the Ad Council's historically close collaboration with the President of the United States and the federal government.[17]

International[edit]Through several international broadcasting operations, the US disseminates American cultural information, official positions on international affairs, and daily summaries of international news. These operations fall under the International Broadcasting Bureau, the successor of the United States Information Agency, established in 1953. IBB's operations include Voice of America, Radio Liberty, Alhurra and other programs. They broadcast mainly to countries where the United States finds that information about international events is limited, either due to poor infrastructure or government censorship. The Smith-Mundt Act prohibits the Voice of America from disseminating information to US citizens that was produced specifically for a foreign audience.

During the Cold War the US ran covert propaganda campaigns in countries that appeared likely to become Soviet satellites, such as Italy, Afghanistan, and Chile.

Recently The Pentagon announced the creation of a new unit aimed at spreading propaganda about supposedly "inaccurate" stories being spread about the Iraq War. These "inaccuracies" have been blamed on the enemy trying to decrease support for the war. Donald Rumsfeld has been quoted as saying these stories are something that keeps him up at night.[18]

Psychological operations[edit]The US military defines psychological operations, or PSYOP, as:

planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.[19]

The Smith-Mundt Act, adopted in 1948, explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at the US public.[20][21][22] Nevertheless, the current easy access to news and information from around the globe, makes it difficult to guarantee PSYOP programs do not reach the US public. Or, in the words of Army Col. James A. Treadwell, who commanded the U.S. military psyops unit in Iraq in 2003, in the Washington Post:

There's always going to be a certain amount of bleed-over with the global information environment.[23]

Agence France Presse reported on U.S. propaganda campaigns that:

The Pentagon acknowledged in a newly declassified document that the US public is increasingly exposed to propaganda disseminated overseas in psychological operations.[24]

Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the document referred to, which is titled "Information Operations Roadmap." [22][24] The document acknowledges the Smith-Mundt Act, but fails to offer any way of limiting the effect PSYOP programs have on domestic audiences.[20][21][25]

Several incidents in 2003 were documented by Sam Gardiner, a retired Air Force colonel, which he saw as information-warfare campaigns that were intended for "foreign populations and the American public." Truth from These Podia,[26] as the treatise was called, reported that the way the Iraq war was fought resembled a political campaign, stressing the message instead of the truth.[22]

See also[edit]References[edit]^ abThomas Howell, The Writers' War Board: U.S. Domestic Propaganda in World War II, Historian, Volume 59 Issue 4, Pages 795 - 813^ abSteven Casey, (2005), The Campaign to sell a harsh peace for Germany to the American public, 1944 - 1948, [online]. London: LSE Research Online. [Available online at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000736] Originally published in History, 90 (297). pp. 62-92 (2005) Blackwell Publishing^National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988 of the Anti''Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Pub.L. 100''735, 102 Stat. 4181, enacted November 18, 1988^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, footnote 6, page 3 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 (Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999), Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, pp. 9''10 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006, Pub.L. 109''469, 120 Stat. 3501, enacted December 29, 2006, codified at 21 U.S.C. § 1735^Barstow, David (2008-04-20). "Message Machine: Behind Analysts, the Pentagon's Hidden Hand". New York Times. ^Sessions, David (2008-04-20). "Onward T.V. Soldiers: The New York Times exposes a multi-armed Pentagon message machine". Slate. ^Barstow, David (2008-05-24). "2 Inquiries Set on Pentagon Publicity Effort". New York Times. ^Rampton, Sheldon (October 17, 2007). "Shared Values Revisited". Center for Media and Democracy. ^"U.S. Reaches Out to Muslim World with Shared Values Initiative". America.gov. January 16, 2003.

NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 21 Sep 2014 15:00

Propaganda in the United States is propaganda spread by government and media entities within the United States. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to influence opinions. Propaganda is not only in advertising; it is also in radio, newspaper, posters, books, and anything else that might be sent out to the widespread public.

Domestic[edit]World War I[edit]The first large-scale use of propaganda by the U.S. government came during World War I. The government enlisted the help of citizens and children to help promote war bonds and stamps to help stimulate the economy. To keep the prices of war supplies down, the U.S. government produced posters that encouraged people to reduce waste and grow their own vegetables in "victory gardens." The public skepticism that was generated by the heavy-handed tactics of the Committee on Public Information would lead the postwar government to officially abandon the use of propaganda.[1]

World War II[edit]During World War II the U.S. officially had no propaganda, but the Roosevelt government used means to circumvent this official line. One such propaganda tool was the publicly owned but government funded Writers' War Board (WWB). The activities of the WWB were so extensive that it has been called the "greatest propaganda machine in history".[1]Why We Fight is a famous series of US government propaganda films made to justify US involvement in World War II.

In 1944 (lasting until 1948) prominent US policy makers launched a domestic propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to agree to a harsh peace for the German people, for example by removing the common view of the German people and the Nazi party as separate entities.[2] The core in this campaign was the Writers' War Board which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.[2]

Another means was the United States Office of War Information that Roosevelt established in June 1942, whose mandate was to promote understanding of the war policies under the director Elmer Davies. It dealt with posters, press, movies, exhibitions, and produced often slanted material conforming to US wartime purposes. Other large and influential non-governmental organizations during the war and immediate post war period were the Society for the Prevention of World War III and the Council on Books in Wartime.

Cold War[edit]During the Cold War, the U.S. government produced vast amounts of propaganda against communism and the Soviet bloc. Much of this propaganda was directed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover, who himself wrote the anti-communist tract Masters of Deceit. The FBI's COINTELPRO arm solicited journalists to produce fake news items discrediting communists and affiliated groups, such as H. Bruce Franklin and the Venceremos Organization.

War on Drugs[edit]The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, originally established by the National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988,[3][4] but now conducted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998,[5] is a domestic propaganda campaign designed to "influence the attitudes of the public and the news media with respect to drug abuse" and for "reducing and preventing drug abuse among young people in the United States".[6][7] The Media Campaign cooperates with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other government and non-government organizations.[8]

Iraq War[edit]In early 2002, the U.S. Department of Defense launched an information operation, colloquially referred to as the Pentagon military analyst program.[9] The goal of the operation is "to spread the administrations's talking points on Iraq by briefing ... retired commanders for network and cable television appearances," where they have been presented as independent analysts.[10] On 22 May 2008, after this program was revealed in the New York Times, the House passed an amendment that would make permanent a domestic propaganda ban that until now has been enacted annually in the military authorization bill.[11]

The Shared values initiative was a public relations campaign that was intended to sell a "new" America to Muslims around the world by showing that American Muslims were living happily and freely, without persecution, in post-9/11 America.[12] Funded by the United States Department of State, the campaign created a public relations front group known as Council of American Muslims for Understanding (CAMU). The campaign was divided in phases; the first of which consisted of five mini-documentaries for television, radio, and print with shared values messages for key Muslim countries.[13]

NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act[edit]The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]

Ad Council[edit]The Ad Council, an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various private and federal government agency sponsors, has been labeled as "little more than a domestic propaganda arm of the federal government" given the Ad Council's historically close collaboration with the President of the United States and the federal government.[17]

International[edit]Through several international broadcasting operations, the US disseminates American cultural information, official positions on international affairs, and daily summaries of international news. These operations fall under the International Broadcasting Bureau, the successor of the United States Information Agency, established in 1953. IBB's operations include Voice of America, Radio Liberty, Alhurra and other programs. They broadcast mainly to countries where the United States finds that information about international events is limited, either due to poor infrastructure or government censorship. The Smith-Mundt Act prohibits the Voice of America from disseminating information to US citizens that was produced specifically for a foreign audience.

During the Cold War the US ran covert propaganda campaigns in countries that appeared likely to become Soviet satellites, such as Italy, Afghanistan, and Chile.

Recently The Pentagon announced the creation of a new unit aimed at spreading propaganda about supposedly "inaccurate" stories being spread about the Iraq War. These "inaccuracies" have been blamed on the enemy trying to decrease support for the war. Donald Rumsfeld has been quoted as saying these stories are something that keeps him up at night.[18]

Psychological operations[edit]The US military defines psychological operations, or PSYOP, as:

planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.[19]

The Smith-Mundt Act, adopted in 1948, explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at the US public.[20][21][22] Nevertheless, the current easy access to news and information from around the globe, makes it difficult to guarantee PSYOP programs do not reach the US public. Or, in the words of Army Col. James A. Treadwell, who commanded the U.S. military psyops unit in Iraq in 2003, in the Washington Post:

There's always going to be a certain amount of bleed-over with the global information environment.[23]

Agence France Presse reported on U.S. propaganda campaigns that:

The Pentagon acknowledged in a newly declassified document that the US public is increasingly exposed to propaganda disseminated overseas in psychological operations.[24]

Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the document referred to, which is titled "Information Operations Roadmap." [22][24] The document acknowledges the Smith-Mundt Act, but fails to offer any way of limiting the effect PSYOP programs have on domestic audiences.[20][21][25]

Several incidents in 2003 were documented by Sam Gardiner, a retired Air Force colonel, which he saw as information-warfare campaigns that were intended for "foreign populations and the American public." Truth from These Podia,[26] as the treatise was called, reported that the way the Iraq war was fought resembled a political campaign, stressing the message instead of the truth.[22]

See also[edit]References[edit]^ abThomas Howell, The Writers' War Board: U.S. Domestic Propaganda in World War II, Historian, Volume 59 Issue 4, Pages 795 - 813^ abSteven Casey, (2005), The Campaign to sell a harsh peace for Germany to the American public, 1944 - 1948, [online]. London: LSE Research Online. [Available online at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000736] Originally published in History, 90 (297). pp. 62-92 (2005) Blackwell Publishing^National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988 of the Anti''Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Pub.L. 100''735, 102 Stat. 4181, enacted November 18, 1988^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, footnote 6, page 3 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 (Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999), Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, pp. 9''10 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006, Pub.L. 109''469, 120 Stat. 3501, enacted December 29, 2006, codified at 21 U.S.C. § 1735^Barstow, David (2008-04-20). "Message Machine: Behind Analysts, the Pentagon's Hidden Hand". New York Times. ^Sessions, David (2008-04-20). "Onward T.V. Soldiers: The New York Times exposes a multi-armed Pentagon message machine". Slate. ^Barstow, David (2008-05-24). "2 Inquiries Set on Pentagon Publicity Effort". New York Times. ^Rampton, Sheldon (October 17, 2007). "Shared Values Revisited". Center for Media and Democracy. ^"U.S. Reaches Out to Muslim World with Shared Values Initiative". America.gov. January 16, 2003.

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Archived Version

Thu, 02 Jul 2015 15:14

A bill to support the manufacturing of small modular reactors in Washington state passed the state Senate 31-12 on Tuesday as the Legislature wrapped up its work.

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, however, the House had yet to consider it.

Sen. Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick, said that if it did not pass, she would be back with the bill next year.

It had bipartisan support in the Senate, plus the support of the governor, she said.

Senate Bill 5113 would require the Department of Commerce to coordinate and advance the manufacturing of small modular reactors in the state to make sure that Washington is a player in what could be a new energy production field. It also would promote a clean-energy education program, which would include nuclear power.

''The bill says that we will lay the groundwork to make sure that Washington is competitive for nuclear and other clean-energy jobs now and for years to come,'' Brown said.

''Washington has the in-state expertise to begin looking at the supply chain for the components of small modular reactors. We have the intellectual capital,'' she said.

There is interest in the Tri-Cities for positioning the community as a center for assembling or manufacturing the small nuclear plants to be shipped around the world, including to Asia. The reactors are proposed to be manufactured in modules and then shipped to where they will be used, with additional modules added as demand for electricity production increases.

Brown is concerned that nearby states are gaining an edge in the field. Oregon is home to NuScale Power, which is developing a small modular reactor, and NuScale is working with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and Energy Northwest to operate its first small reactor, likely in Idaho.

''So are we going to forge a path to more manufacturing jobs, and more gainfully employed residents, or are we going to sit back and watch states around us take our intellectual capital and dominate this industry?'' she asked.

Added to the bill is a requirement that the state Department of Commerce and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction prepare a joint report to the Legislature by Dec. 1 with recommendations for a clean-energy education program.

The program would be required to include grants both for clean-energy ambassadors and for professional development for teachers.

The clean-energy ambassadors would visit classrooms to introduce students to clean energy science and technology. They could cover solar and wind power, small modular reactors and opportunities for nuclear waste cleanup technology careers.

Certified science teachers could receive grants to help them pursue professional development opportunities in clean-energy science and broaden their exposure to the field.

''One way to ensure that young people understand nuclear energy is to introduce them to our many great scientists, engineers and others who work in the nuclear field,'' Brown said. ''It's also one of the best ways to guarantee that the next-generation of Washington job-seekers is prepared for opportunities in emerging nuclear and other clean-energy fields.''

Annette Cary: 509-582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com; Twitter: @HanfordNews

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Archived Version

Thu, 02 Jul 2015 15:14

The TPP agreement seeks a trade agreement spanning the Pacific Rim and currently involves 12 countries: New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Chile, Peru, and Mexico.A draft of part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal leaked to the Politico website suggests the US is demanding increased protections for pharmaceutical companies, restricting access to the lower-cost generic versions of drugs that agencies such as New Zealand's Pharmac buy.

The draft copy of the intellectual property chapter of the trade agreement as it stood on May 11, before the Guam negotiating round, includes what is known as 'patent-linkage' provisions which would prevent regulators in TPP countries approving generic versions of drugs whenever there were unresolved patent issues, the Washington-based Politico website reported.

The draft would make linkage mandatory, as it is in the US, allowing drug companies to fend off generics by claiming patent infringements, the website reported. It cited Heather Bresch, chief executive of generic drug maker Mylan, as saying mandatory patent linkage would amount to "a recipe for indefinite evergreening of pharmaceutical monopolies."

The issue of generic drugs is sensitive in New Zealand because drug-buying agency Pharmac takes advantage of the availability of generic versions of medicines to reduce the cost to Kiwis. Generics are made after a brand-name drug comes off patent and typically when the developer's right to keep research secret expires.

Read more:TPP talks set to accelerate after Obama fast track - Groser'Obama wins key trade bill - TPP prospects grow

Prime Minister John Key and Trade Minister Tim Groser have both said Pharmac's ability to access cheaper versions of drugs won't be compromised by the trade deal. Key said last month there was "no chance of that and no suggestion of that" and he was "quite comfortable that our capacity to have Pharmac, and the benefits New Zealanders enjoy because of it, will be preserved."

The Politico report says the provisions in the draft TPP have implications for so-called biologics, the next big thing for drug companies, which are hugely expensive to develop and tackle conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis B and cancer. It cited Doctors Without Borders policy director Rohat Malpini as saying his organisation deemed the TPP "the worst-ever agreement in terms of access to medicines."

To be sure, Politico also cites US trade officials saying the draft may not survive into the final form of the agreement because of the degree of compromise required to get all the signatories on board.

Groser said this week he expects that with US legislators granting President Barack Obama's administration fast-track approval powers, the 12 nations' negotiators will put their real cards on the table after several years of shadow-boxing.

"Now that Congress has spoken, it is show time," Groser said in a speech to the US/NZ Partnership Forum in Auckland this week.

The TPP agreement seeks a trade agreement spanning the Pacific Rim and currently involves 12 countries: New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Chile, Peru, and Mexico.

Where the deal differs from other free-trade agreements is that it includes alignment of regulatory settings across borders rather than simply removing quotas and tariffs. It has faced staunch opposition from those who claim it undermines national sovereignty through investor-state dispute settlement provisions and through its treatment of intellectual property and medical procurement.

- BusinessDesk

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 15:12

LOS ANGELES (AP) '-- The Miss USA pageant, left without a TV home following blowback against co-owner Donald Trump over his comments on Mexican immigrants, has been rescued by the Reelz channel.

In a statement Thursday, Reelz CEO Stan E. Hubbard said the cable and satellite channel acquired the rights because of a belief that the pageant and the women who compete in it "are an integral part of American tradition."

"As one of only a few independent networks, we decided to exercise our own voice and committed ourselves to bringing this pageant to American viewers everywhere," Hubbard said.

While Reelz, which reaches 70 million homes, said it considered the interests of Miss USA contestants, the host city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and viewers in making its decision, it made no mention of Trump or the hot water he's found himself in since he announced his presidential bid in June.

The statement also did not include details on how Reelz acquired the rights to broadcast the pageant that is a joint venture between Trump and NBC, as is Miss Universe. NBC cited Trump's comments on immigrants in announcing it is cutting business ties with him.

Trump's presidential campaign announcement contained his assertion that some Mexican immigrants to the United States bring drugs and crime, and some are rapists.

Trump declined to comment on the Reelz acquisition.

This isn't the first time Reelz has gone its own way. When the History channel dropped "The Kennedys" miniseries that had been made for it, saying it didn't fit its brand, Reelz aired it in 2011 and was rewarded with record channel ratings and awards attention.

Reelz said the Miss USA pageant will be televised July 12, its originally scheduled date on NBC. The pageant will have to scramble after a mass exodus of performers, hosts and judges who cited opposition to Trump's views as the reason.

Rapper Flo Rida had been the highest profile performer scheduled for Miss USA, and his representative confirmed Wednesday that he wouldn't perform. Country singer Craig Wayne Boyd, winner of "The Voice" last year, and pop singer Natalie La Rose also dropped out. There were no more announced performers.

In a Miss USA news release last month, the judges were listed as HGTV star Jonathan Scott, country singer Jessie James Decker, E! News anchor Terrence Jenkins, TV host and former Miss Universe winner Zuleyka Rivera and Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith.

Of that quintet, only Decker's name was listed as a judge by Miss USA on its website Wednesday. That's the day Smith dropped out.

The pageant lost both of its co-hosts, Cheryl Burke of "Dancing With the Stars" and MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Jeannie Mai, who hosted a show on the Style Network, was listed as a show host.

Last week, the hosts of the now-abandoned Univision Spanish-language simulcast, Roselyn Sanchez and Cristian de la Fuente, said they wouldn't take part in it.

Trump's campaign comments struck many Latinos as insensitive, and Univision's decision last week to back out of televising Miss USA and break off its business ties with Trump led to a cascade of others following suit. Trump responded by suing Univision on Tuesday.

Aside from the pageant world, there has growing fallout on other fronts for the GOP presidential hopeful and businessman.

On Wednesday, the Macy's department store chain, which carried a Donald Trump menswear line, said it was "distressed" by Trump's remarks and was ending its relationship with him.

Trump said in a statement that he had decided to end his relationship with Macy's because of pressure on them by outside sources.

"Both Macy's and NBC totally caved at the first sight of potential difficulty with special interest groups who are nothing more than professional agitators," Trump said.

Also on Wednesday, New York City officials said they were reviewing the city's contracts with Trump in light of his comments, and Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a statement calling them "disgusting and offensive," adding that "this hateful language has no place in our city."

The Trump Organization currently operates several city concessions, including a golf course, ice skating rink and carousel.

Representatives for Trump did not respond Wednesday to an email seeking comment on the city's review.

The PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, USGA and PGA of America also on Wednesday distanced themselves from Trump in a statement and said his remarks were "inconsistent with our strong commitment to an inclusive and welcoming environment in the game of golf."

Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, the nation's only Latina governor and a rising star in the Republican party, added her voice Wednesday to criticism of the GOP presidential hopeful, denouncing his comments as "horrible."

___

Associated Press writers David Bauder, Frazier Moore, Michael Balsamo, Mesfin Fekadu and Mae Anderson in New York and Russell Contreras in Albuquerque, New Mexico contributed to this report.

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Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:42

Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, shown in a Facebook photo speaking at a conference. (Special Photo)

BUFORD '-- Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, an autism researcher hailed as a hero by some, dismissed as a fringe conspiracy theorist by others, is believed to have committed suicide following a visit to his Buford office by federal agents, authorities confirmed Thursday.

Multiple law enforcement officials said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration searched Bradstreet Wellness Center last week. On Monday, plastic sheets covered the windows of the two suites the office takes up in a complex off Commerce Drive, and the doors were locked.

Employees who answered the door said they couldn't give any information, that it was too soon to speculate on how he died. By Wednesday night, some of Bradstreet's supporters were speculating that his death wasn't a suicide, but a conspiracy.

The Rutherford County, N.C. Sheriff's Office says the doctor, 61, of Braselton, was found dead by a fisherman in the Rocky Broad River on Friday afternoon, not far from the lake Bradstreet and his wife often visited on vacation.

''Mr. Bradstreet had a gunshot wound to the chest, which appears to be self inflicted,'' a statement from the office said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

The FDA has yet to reveal why agents searched the office of the doctor, reportedly a former pastor who has been controversial for well over a decade. Robert Hiser, an assistant special agent in charge with the federal agency's criminal investigations division, referred questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta, which couldn't immediately be reached Thursday.

The Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency aided the FDA with the raid, but director Rick Allen said Thursday he wasn't immediately able to give information on the purpose of the search.

Bradstreet has been criticized for using methods of treating autism that were dismissed by mainstream medical professionals. He has also been blasted for reportedly treating patients for ''mercury toxicity,'' based on the belief that an ingredient in a childhood vaccination caused autism, a theory which the leading voices in medicine say is inaccurate.

As news of his death spread, many of his supporters began posting messages online, saying that he had saved their children's lives, that he was champion for the movement to cure autism. They posted story after story in which his therapies and drugs were successful.

Others, including a man who said he was his brother, called him a martyr for autism and insinuated that the truth about his death wasn't yet known. The man, Thomas Bradstreet, is shown as the creator an online fundraising page, asking for $25,000 from supporters for ''Finding out the TRUTH.''

More than $5,000 had been donated by shortly after noon Thursday.

Jamie Keever, the investigator from the sheriff's office on the case, said he was aware of the theories.

''I've talked to some of those people today,'' he said Thursday. ''I don't know what to say. They have a right to their opinion.''

Efforts to reach the Bradstreet family were not successful this week.

Return to gwinnettdailypost.com for updates.

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Archived Version

Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:40

Dr Jeff Bradstreet found dead in an apparent suicide in North CarolinaBradstreet died of what seems to be self-inflicted gunshot wound to chestFound in Rocky Broad River in Chimney Rock on June 19 by a fishermanBradstreet published research based on claim vaccines cause autismThe medical community says such claims have been disprovedUS FDA agents searched his office for reasons unknown before his deathBy Associated Press and Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 22:30 EST, 26 June 2015 | Updated: 13:11 EST, 27 June 2015

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Anti-vaccine Dr Jeff Bradstreet was found dead in an apparent suicide in North Carolina after agents from the US Food and Drug Administration searched his office for reasons unknown.

The Rutherford County Sheriff's Office said in a news release issued this week that Bradstreet, 61, died of what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

Bradstreet's body was found in the Rocky Broad River in Chimney Rock on June 19 by a fisherman and rescue team divers responded to the scene and recovered a handgun from the river.

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Anti-vaccine Dr Jeff Bradstreet was found dead in an apparent suicide after FDA agents searched his office

Bradstreet published autism research based on the disputed claim that vaccines cause autism (stock photo)

Bradstreet ran the Bradstreet Wellness Center clinic in Buford, Georgia, and published autism research based on the disputed claim vaccines cause autism.

The medical community says such claims have been disproved.

The clinic was raided by agents from the FDA who were receiving assistance from the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency, the Gwinnet Daily Post reported.

Bradstreet is from Braselton, Georgia.

His body was sent to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center for an autopsy on June 23 and the case is still under investigation by the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office.

Bradstreet's clinic was raided by FDA agents with assistance from the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency

His family is raising funds online to investigate his death as some do not believe it was a suicide.

The investigator from the sheriff's office, Jamie Keever, said: 'I've talked to some of those people today.

'I don't know what to say. They have a right to their opinion.'

A GoFundMe page raising money to 'find the answers to the many questions leading up to the death of Dr Bradstreet, including an exhaustive investigation into the possibility of foul play' has already raised more than $15,000.

Fiona O'Leary of Autistic Rights Together [ART], responded to Bradstreet's death and the call for an investigation into his death.

She said: 'While it is very sad to hear of the death of Dr Bradstreet in such tragic circumstances, it is important to consider his position as one of the world's leading practitioners in the field of bio-medical treatments for autism.

'Many of these so called 'treatments' are unlicensed and unproven to be of any benefit to autistic people, indeed many can have serious and dangerous side effects on an individual's health and well being.

'Many supporters of Dr Bradstreet and the bio-medical industry are hailing him as a hero, claiming foul play at the hands of the government, yet the truth is more simple perhaps.

'None of the many so called treatments or cures could ever be substantiated and proven to be effective or beneficial outside of the bio-medicals own propaganda machine.'

How children with the autism perceive the world (related)

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Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:38

Posted on April 30, 2015 by willyloman

by Jon Rappoport

California Senate Bill 277 has passed through the Judiciary Committee, and needs another Committee's rubber stamp before it arrives on the Senate floor for debate'--and what looks like a ride into law.

Governor Brown will sign the Bill. Brown has become a standard fool. He's worn out. Whatever interesting ideas he may have entertained in his former ''moonbeam'' incarnation are gone in the wind.

Bill SB277 eliminates the personal belief and religious exemptions from vaccination. It also states that children cannot attend public or private school unless they are vaccinated according to the State's schedule.

Medical exemptions are still allowed, but these won't be easy to come by, because physicians who grant them will be scrutinized and harassed.

[read more here]

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Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:38

by Scott Creighton

On June 19th, the Rutherford County sheriff's office received a report from a fisherman who said he spotted a body floating in the Rocky Broad River in Chimney Rock, N.C.

The body was later identified as that of Dr. James Jeffrey Bradstreet of Braselton, Georgia.

The body displayed a single gunshot wound to the chest and divers later recovered a pistol from the river.

Officials immediately declared it ''appears to be'' a suicide but their investigation continues.

This information, reported by Fox Carolina, is just about the sum total of coverage Dr. Bradstreet's death has received from the so-called ''legitimate press''

Let me see if I got this right: a working doctor taking care of patients with autism, which his son also suffers from, decides to kill himself so he travels a hundred miles to some obscure little river in North Carolina where he somehow manages to shoot himself in the chest in a deep enough part of the river that it requires divers to locate the gun that drops out of his hand when he pulls the trigger. Did he swim out there and shoot himself? Was he in a canoe which disappeared after the fact? Did he wade out in the river and shoot himself and linger long enough to toss the weapon out in the deep water as he slumped to his death?

Does anyone think any of those possibilities wouldn't be laughed out of court were the local sheriff's office to present them as the official story of what happened to Dr. Bradstreet?

Or, does it make more sense that someone killed him and transported his body and the murder weapon to some lazy backwoods river a hundred miles away where a search for the missing doctor would never reach and then dumped his body and the murder weapon in such a shoddy way that it resurfaced and was found by some fisherman?

I guess a little more information on Dr. Bradstreet is required at this point. If someone is going to suggest a murder and subsequent cover-up, then one must first examine the potential presence of motive and in this case, the motive might very well be a big one.

Our recent history is littered with accidental deaths and suicides of folks who had the potential to stand in the way of very important agendas.

The story of Aaron Swartz comes to mind. He was one of the founders of Reddit who led the charge against SOPA and CISPA and was very effective doing it. He also hacked into a library at the school he attended in order to release thousands of documents and studies to people on the internet for free. The Justice Department wanted to use that act to prosecute him but the school wasn't really behind the idea and they eventually tried to offer him a 3 month sentence if he simply pleaded guilty so it wouldn't go to trial. He refused. He said knowledge shouldn't be reserved only for the wealthy and that it should belong to the people. He would have won his case and set a precedent in the courts that may very well have changed the way we view education.

Two months before the honey-dipped ''Edward Snowden'' psyop began and one month before hundreds of lobbyists traveled to D.C. to push for the new CISPA (which part of it was finally garnered for them via the new Freedom Act, thanks to ''Edward Snowden'') Aaron Swartz was discovered by NYDP's Special Ops division hanging in his closet, dead from an apparent suicide because, as the official story goes, he couldn't face those 3 months in jail.

The story of Mike Connell also comes to mind. He helped rigged the election of 2004 which kept George Bush, and more importantly, Dick Cheney, in the White House. He's the one Karl Rove supposedly threatened just before he was scheduled to testify in the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell case in 2008. Supposedly Rove told Connell if he didn't take the fall for the election fraud in Ohio back in 2004, his wife would be prosecuted for some other offense.

On September 22, 2008 Connell was served with a subpoena in the case. On Dec. 19th, 2008, the plane he was piloting crashed on approach at Akron-Canton Airport. He never gave that testimony.

These are just a few. There are more like Vince Foster for example or better still, Dr. Bruce Ivins. You get the picture.

The point is, taking out people who stand in the way of what some view as progress is not something that just happens in the movies. It's real and simply screeching ''conspiracy theorist'' at someone who calls these mysterious and timely deaths into question doesn't work anymore. At least, not like it used to.

And that's what they are doing in the case of Dr. Bradstreet's rather mysterious end.

Over at Autism News they posit the following question: Death of Dr. James Jeffrey Bradstreet '' should we believe the conspiracy theorists?

Only hours after his death, the conspiracy theorists were out in force. Erin Elizabeth on the HealthNut website stated'...

Doubtful News offers more of the same: Anti-vax doctor dead of apparent suicide; conspiracists fired up . They even go so far as to suggest the ''antivax'' crowd's ''paranoia'' is at the heart of this ''conspiracists'' theory:

'There is speculation not only that Bradstreet was murdered but that another alternative practitioners death over the weekend suggests that there is some plot. There is ZERO evidence for this and the paranoia reflects the mentality of the anti-vax crowd who think they are right but everyone is out to get them. Of course the family doesn't help by saying he gave his life for Autism. Will he be thought of as a martyr?!

The influence peddlers always do this. They always attempt to marginalize, early on in any discussion of any questionable event, anyone and everyone who dares to wonder about or discuss the circumstances of the official story in any way that sheds light on flaws in the story. They did this too me 2 weeks after the ''Edward Snowden'' story first broke calling me and a few others ''Edward Snowden Truthers''

The idea is as old as the hills. Frighten people with public shaming into silence regarding whatever issue or event they are researching and writing about. It's institutionalized bullying. Fox News was great at it back in 2002 and early 2003 when they were demonizing anyone who dared raise questions in public about how the various stories justifying the invasion of Iraq kept falling apart. It is as American as apple pie at this point. In fact, our current system of government probably wouldn't survive for very long if it wasn't so widespread and casually accepted as it is.

Funny thing is, when you see this kind of behavior launched so quickly and uniformly across the media spectrum, it should itself raise some red flags.

In this case the vaccine choice crowd is being warned to avoid discussion of any possible other explanation of this mysterious death because they fear they are already being labeled as ''paranoid'' and thus a further marginalization as ''conspiracy theorist'' regarding this certainly wont help their cause.

However, there is good reason to be suspicious, if not just due to the manner in which he supposedly took his own life, but also in the timing of it.

You see, Dr. Bradstreet was a leading advocate for vaccine choice in this country. He was firmly in the camp that believes and with good reason that some of these vaccines being pushed on parents to give their children are not only not necessary but are in fact unnecessarily harmful to kids. Again, he has very good reason to believe that. Like I said before, his own child has autism which Dr. Bradstreet believes was caused by a vaccine he was given at the age of only 15 months or so.

Dr. Bradstreet also treated children with autism through a controversial process of mercury cleansing. Mercury is an additive in some vaccines that many believe to be the cause of autism in these cases.

Upon mention of his death in various social media platforms, a number of people claiming to be parents of children he treated have left messages praising his work. In some cases they claim the effects of the autism have been completely reversed in their children and are thankful for his tireless efforts.

It's hard for me to understand how some people would disregard the odd circumstances surrounding his death when one thinks about how he led his life and how much he seemed to enjoy helping so many children with autism. Had Dr. Bradstreet remained mum on the subject of mercury in vaccines, his passing would have been something that required a good deal more sympathy and national attention. But because he spoke out against something he thought was wrong, something that needlessly endangered a significant number of children for the benefit of Big Pharma.

You see, right now there is something underway in California which Big Pharma is definitely interesting in taking nationwide and that is the mandatory vaccination program they just passed via SB277.

Without getting too deep into it, SB277 is a majorly controversial bill which mandates public and private school students get at current standards, 12 vaccinations before being allowed to enroll. I have covered the unconstitutional mandate a little. I should have done more.

Back in April of this year, the fight was well underway when I started paying attention to it. Thousands of people showed up at the California legislature in order to voice their disapproval of SB277. So many in fact they had to postpone the vote on the legislation they were scheduled to take.

Well, that vote did take place and Big Pharma got what they wanted. Of course it comes in the wake of the clearly staged Disney outbreak, which was also conveniently timed when you think about it.

Here's the timing: The FDA along with the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency raided Dr. Bradstreet's offices the week before his so-called ''suicide'' which took place sometime around the 19th of this month. His offices could have been raided earlier the same week, which was last week. This week, on Thursday the 25th, six days after his body was found, SB277 goes back for the vote and is approved.

In a sense you have the same storyline developed here that you did with Aaron Swartz.

The Justice Department initiates some form of prosecution or threat of it via the raid which closed down his offices and the target ends up ''committing suicide'' rather than suffer the consequences of that prosecution.

It's the same fucking story.

Dr. Bradstreet was an educated man and a clear, outspoken voice against the vaccine industry which stands to profit to the tune of billions of dollars in California alone with this new mandatory vaccination program they got shoved down the throats of the people of California.

Imagine just how much they will make if it goes nationwide.

That's a lot of money and Bradstreet threatened to get in the way of that much like Swartz did with the telecom industry and the new CISPA they've been dreaming about.

And that's a hell of a motive.

Now that he's gone and there will be no prosecution, they can say they found whatever they want to say they found in his offices. They can claim he was selling child porn from his computers or crack out of his back door. Maybe he secretly worshiped the confederate battle flag if they want to be current or funded ''ISIS'' in Mexico.

The sky's the limit.

But more importantly, with him gone they can now discredit his work in any way they can come up with, perhaps they write an unsigned suicide note in which he declares his work to be a fraud.

Like I said, the sky's the limit.

By getting rid of him, they remove a vocal and believable foil to their nationwide mandatory vaccination ambitions.

By discrediting his work, they can effectively erase his scholarly contributions post mortem, thus diminishing their future effectiveness as well.

There's a motive for you that makes sense. It doesn't involve a doctor swimming out in the middle of a river shooting himself in the chest and it doesn't involve him driving a hundred miles to the middle of nowhere to do it. It also doesn't involve him abandoning his family and patients at a time when they needed him the most.

My theory involves an industry that stands to make billions and trillions of dollars on a product they put out which they know for a fact causes suffering and death in a certain, acceptable, percentage of the CHILDREN they force it on.

You tell me which makes more sense.

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Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:37

James Jeffrey "Jeff" Bradstreet (July 6, 1954 '' June 19, 2015), was a controversial American doctor, alternative medicine practitioner, and a former Christian preacher[2] who ran the International Child Development Resource Center in Melbourne, Florida,[3] a medical practice in Buford, Georgia[4] and in Arizona, where he practiced homeopathy.[5]

Education and career[edit]Bradstreet has held a Florida medical license since 1984. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of South Florida in 1976 in Natural Sciences, where he also went to medical school beginning three years later. His postgraduate research focused on aerospace medicine, and received his training in this field from Wilford Hall Medical Center. He was an adjunct professor of child development and neuroscience at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Arizona.[6]

Vaccines and autism[edit]Bradstreet has published some controversial autism research, which implicates vaccines in the causation thereof, in the fringe journal Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, which is not indexed by PubMed. This research has concluded that autistic children have a higher body burden of mercury,[7] as well as that three autistic children have measles virus RNA in their cerebrospinal fluid.[8] This research was originally presented to the Institute of Medicine before they published their report concluding that the evidence favors rejection of a relationship between vaccines and autism.[9]

Bradstreet treated an autistic child named Colten Snyder (who was one of the test cases in the autism omnibus trial) with chelation therapy. This he did in spite of the fact that, according to Denise Vowell, "The April 29, 2000 hair test for mercury demonstrated a low level of mercury in Colten's hair, but one within the reference range of normal for the laboratory, and one well below the 90th percentile for U.S. children ages six to eight." In addition, Vowell stated, "The more disturbing question is why chelation was performed at all, in view of the normal levels of mercury found in the hair, blood and urine, its apparent lack of efficacy in treating Colten's symptoms, and the adverse side effects it apparently caused."[10] Over an eight-year period, Colten visited Bradstreet's office 160 times.[11]Stephen Barrett has stated, "It appears to me that Bradstreet decides which of his nonstandard theories to apply and records diagnoses that embody them," and describes Bradstreet's mercury provoked tests as "phony".[10]

Alternative autism therapies[edit]In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Bradstreet defended the use of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) as an autism treatment, saying, "Every kid with autism should have a trial of IVIG if money was not an option and IVIG was abundant."[12] Bradstreet also published some research regarding the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for autism,[13] some of which has concluded that it is ineffective,[14] as well as a paper arguing that autistic children have an increased vulnerability to oxidative stress.[15] Further treatments Bradstreet frequently used on autistic children included Gc-MAF, which he claimed to have treated 600 children with;[16] this was partially supported by parents reporting their gratitude for his treatment of their children.[17] In an article in Autism Science Digest, Bradstreet endorsed stem cell therapy as an autism treatment, writing, "By natural design, the purpose of stem cells in the brain is regulation, healing, and repair. Biologically, therefore, stem cells appear to be better suited to heal the brain than any other current therapy. No matter how challenging the task of repairing the brain may appear to be, case reports have built an argument for supporting the reversibility of autism using immunological interventions."[18]

Personal life and death[edit]Bradstreet was found deceased in Rutherford County, North Carolina in June 2015, after his Buford, Georgia medical office was raided by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).[4][19][20] At the time of his death, he lived in Braselton, Georgia and ran his medical practice in Buford, Georgia.[4]

Bradstreet's son is autistic, which Bradstreet attributed to a vaccination his son was given at age 15 months.[21]

Selected Publications[edit]Siniscalco, D.; Sapone, A.; Giordano, C.; Cirillo, A.; Magistris, L.; Rossi, F.; Fasano, A.; Bradstreet, J. J.; Maione, S.; Antonucci, N. (2013). "Cannabinoid Receptor Type 2, but not Type 1, is Up-Regulated in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Children Affected by Autistic Disorders". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders43 (11): 2686''95. doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1824-9. PMID 23585028. editSiniscalco, D.; Bradstreet, J. J.; Antonucci, N. (2013). "Therapeutic Role of Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Autism Spectrum Disorder-Related Inflammation". Frontiers in Immunology4: 140. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2013.00140. PMC 3677147. PMID 23772227. editAdams, J. B.; Baral, M.; Geis, E.; Mitchell, J.; Ingram, J.; Hensley, A.; Zappia, I.; Newmark, S.; Gehn, E.; Rubin, R. A.; Mitchell, K.; Bradstreet, J.; El-Dahr, J. (2009). "Safety and efficacy of oral DMSA therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders: Part A - Medical results". BMC Clinical Pharmacology9: 16. doi:10.1186/1472-6904-9-16. PMC 2774660. PMID 19852789. editBradstreet, JJ; Dahr, JE (2004). "Detection of Measles Virus Genomic RNA in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Three Children with Regressive Autism: a Report of Three Cases"(PDF). Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (Association of American Physicians and Surgeons) 9 (2): 38''45. Retrieved 26 August 2013. References[edit]^Allison, Wes (14 May 2000). "Secretin: miracle drug or a quack remedy?". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 19 September 2013. ^Allen, Arthur (1 April 2009). "Treating Autism as if Vaccines Caused It". Slate. Slate.com. Retrieved 25 August 2013. ^"In Memory of Jeff Bradstreet". CECIL M. BURTON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORY. Retrieved 20 June 2015. ^ abcAlastair Jamieson. "Anti-Vaccine Doctor Jeff Bradstreet Dead in Apparent Suicide". NBC News. Retrieved 27 June 2015. ^""Autism Specialist"Blasted by Omnibus Special Master". Quackwatch. Retrieved 27 June 2015. ^Jeff Bradstreet Curriculum Vitae^Bradstreet, Jeff (Summer 2003). "A Case-Control Study of Mercury Burden in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders"(PDF). Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons8 (3): 76''79. ^Bradstreet, JJ; Dahr, JE (2004). "Detection of Measles Virus Genomic RNA in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Three Children with Regressive Autism: a Report of Three Cases"(PDF). Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (Association of American Physicians and Surgeons) 9 (2): 38''45. Retrieved 26 August 2013. ^Immunization Safety Review. Institute of Medicine. 2004. p. 182. ^ abBarrett, Stephen (15 March 2009). ""Autism Specialist" Blasted by Omnibus Special Master". Quackwatch. Retrieved 24 August 2013. ^Offit, Paul (2011). Deadly Choices. Basic Books. p. 102. Retrieved 28 August 2013. ^Tsouderos, Trine; Callahan, Patricia (23 November 2009). "Autism treatment: Science hijacked to support alternative therapies". Chicago Tribune. p. 2. Retrieved 25 August 2013. ^Rossignol, D. A.; Bradstreet, J. J.; Van Dyke, K.; Schneider, C.; Freedenfeld, S. H.; O'Hara, N.; Cave, S.; Buckley, J. A.; Mumper, E. A.; Frye, R. E. (2012). "Hyperbaric oxygen treatment in autism spectrum disorders". Medical Gas Research2 (1): 16. doi:10.1186/2045-9912-2-16. PMC 3472266. PMID 22703610. edit^Granpeesheh, D.; Tarbox, J.; Dixon, D. R.; Wilke, A. E.; Allen, M. S.; Bradstreet, J. J. (2010). "Randomized trial of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for children with autism". Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders4 (2): 268. doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2009.09.014. edit^James, S. J.; Melnyk, S.; Jernigan, S.; Cleves, M. A.; Halsted, C. H.; Wong, D. H.; Cutler, P.; Bock, K.; Boris, M.; Bradstreet, J. J.; Baker, S. M.; Gaylor, D. W. (2006). "Metabolic endophenotype and related genotypes are associated with oxidative stress in children with autism". American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics141B (8): 947. doi:10.1002/ajmg.b.30366. edit^"GcMAF '' the beginning of the end for autism". PRWeb. 8 September 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2013. ^"Dr. James Bradstreet Condolences - Sign the Guest Book - CECIL M. BURTON FUNERAL HOME and CREMATORY". CECIL M. BURTON FUNERAL HOME and CREMATORY. Retrieved 27 June 2015. ^"Stem cells and autism: one year later"(PDF). Autism Science Digest. Autism One. Retrieved 25 August 2013. ^Joshua Sharpe (June 26, 2015). "Controversial autism researcher, Jeff Bradstreet, commits suicide after FDA raid in Buford, authorities say". Gwinnett Daily Post. Retrieved June 27, 2015. BUFORD '-- Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, an autism researcher hailed as a hero by some, dismissed as a fringe conspiracy theorist by others, is believed to have committed suicide following a visit to his Buford office by federal agents, authorities confirmed Thursday. Multiple law enforcement officials said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration searched Bradstreet Wellness Center last week. ^Heather Carpenter (23 June 2015). "Body located in Rocky Broad River in Chimney Rock identified". FOX Carolina. Retrieved 27 June 2015. ^Olmsted, Dan (28 June 2005). "The Age of Autism: Homeschooled". UPI. Retrieved 25 November 2014. External links[edit]

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Source: Signs of the Times

Sat, 27 Jun 2015 22:54

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Sat, 20 Jun 2015 11:49

CHICAGO (AP) '-- The American Medical Association has adopted policies against nonmedical vaccine refusals and for transgender people in the military.

The nation's largest doctors' group says parents should not be able to refuse to have their kids vaccinated for personal or religious reasons. That's because of the health risks unvaccinated kids pose to others.

At its annual policymaking meeting in Chicago on Monday, the AMA said it would support efforts to end those exemptions in state immunization mandates.

The AMA also adopted a policy saying there's no medically valid reason for the military's ban on transgender service members. And it agreed to organize efforts to create guidelines for assessing whether older physicians remain competent to safely treat patients.

The group has considerable lobbying clout and its positions tend to influence policymakers.

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Source: Signs of the Times

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:53

California is going full totalitarian, but is anyone surprised?The state's controversial and tyrannical mandatory vaccine bill has jumped another hurdle on its path to becoming law.

Yesterday, California lawmakers approved the bill, which requires all schoolchildren be vaccinated before being permitted to attend public or PRIVATE schools unless they have a MEDICAL exemption.

That's right: they are not going to allow religious or philosophical/personal belief exemptions to vaccinations any longer if this passes the full Assembly.

From the text of the bill:

(a) As used in this chapter, "governing authority" means the governing board of each school district or the authority of each other private or public institution responsible for the operation and control of the institution or the principal or administrator of each school or institution.

(b) The governing authority shall not unconditionally admit any person as a pupil of any private or public elementary or secondary school, child care center, day nursery, nursery school, family day care home, or development center, unless, prior to his or her first admission to that institution, he or she has been fully immunized.

If you have an unvaccinated school-aged child in California, your only option for education will be homeschooling (which is arguably far better than public indoctrination centers anyway, and likely better than most private schools).If the bill becomes law, California would join Mississippi and West Virginia as the only states with such authoritarian requirements.

How long until other states follow, though? Some think that this law would encourage lawmakers in other states to limit non-medical exemptions too.

Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, one of the bill's authors, said

"SB277 is about freedom. Freedom from deadly, crippling contagions that are now preventable through the science of vaccination."

I don't know about you, but I think this bill is the antithesis of freedom.The bill was approved after five hours of emotional testimony from hundreds of opponents.

From the Associated Press:

Opponents of the legislation say they should have the freedom to decide what's best for their child and that the bill would unfairly deny students a public education.

Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, said he was not convinced that there was a health emergency because of insufficient vaccinations.

"I think that really stretches the facts to the point of really almost being sort of a scare tactic," he said before voting against the bill.

Naturally, those who support the bill cite the Disneyland measles "outbreak" as justification for taking away parental (and children's!) rights - even though measles is a relatively benign disease and the majority of those who contract the illness during "outbreaks" in the US are...vaccinated.Santa Monica pediatrician Dr. Jay Gordon testified against the bill. He sought to separate the bill from the December measles outbreak, noting that all those cases of measles occurred outside a school environment:

"If SB277 had been in place last year, this outbreak would have proceeded in much the same manner," he said.

No matter what you personally think about vaccinations, laws like these set a dangerous precedent.This is a violation of civil and religious freedoms.

It is not moral nor ethical to force people to submit to medical procedures that carry the risk of serious injury or death.

Who owns your body, or those of your children?

The government, it appears.

About the author

Lily Dane is a staff writer forThe Daily Sheeple, where this articlefirst appeared. Her goal is to help people to "Wake the Flock Up!"

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Fri, 26 Jun 2015 15:41

H. R. 2546

To prohibit the sale of a firearm to, and the purchase of a firearm by, a person who is not covered by appropriate liability insurance coverage.

Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York (for herself, Mr. Lynch, Ms. Tsongas, Mr. Grijalva, and Ms. Clark of Massachusetts) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

To prohibit the sale of a firearm to, and the purchase of a firearm by, a person who is not covered by appropriate liability insurance coverage.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,SECTION 1.Short title.

This Act may be cited as the ''Firearm Risk Protection Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2.Prohibitions on sale of firearm to, and purchase of firearm by, a person not covered by appropriate liability insurance.

(a) Prohibitions.'--Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

''(aa)(1)(A)(i) It shall be unlawful for a person to purchase a firearm unless, at the time of the purchase, the purchaser presents to the seller proof that the purchaser is covered by a qualified liability insurance policy.

''(ii) It shall be unlawful for a person to sell a firearm unless, at the time of the sale, the seller verifies that the purchaser is covered by a qualified liability insurance policy.

''(iii) It shall be unlawful for a person who owns a firearm purchased on or after the effective date of this subsection not to be covered by a qualified liability insurance policy.

''(B) Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to the purchase or sale of a firearm for the use of the United States or any department or agency of the United States, or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision of a State.

''(2) In paragraph (1), the term 'qualified liability insurance policy' means, with respect to the purchaser of a firearm, a policy that'--

''(A) provides liability insurance covering the purchaser specifically for losses resulting from use of the firearm while it is owned by the purchaser; and

''(B) is issued by an insurer licensed or authorized to provide the coverage by the State insurance regulatory authority for the State in which the purchaser resides.''.

(b) Penalty.'--Section 924 of such title is amended by adding at the end the following:

''(q) Whoever violates section 922(aa) shall be fined not more than $10,000.''.

(c) Effective date.'--The amendments made by this section shall apply to conduct engaged in after the 180-day period that begins with the date of the enactment of this Act.

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Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:26

A leap second will occur on June 30.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Short on time? Don't worry. This month you'll get an extra second.

A "leap second" will be added on June 30 at midnight Coordinated Universal Time (or 8 p.m. EDT). Leap seconds are added occasionally to help keep the atomic clock synced up with the earth's rotation.

"The earth's spin isn't uniform, it's not constant," Nick Stamatakos, the chief of earth orientation parameters at the United States Naval Observatory, told USA TODAY Network.

Because of the earth's inconsistent speed, scientists in the 1950s created an atomic clock to keep precise track of time. However, as the earth's rotation sped up and slowed down, the atomic clock continued steadily ahead and the two time indicators grew farther apart.

To fix that inconsistency, scientists then created the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) to help bridge the gap between the earth time and the atomic clock. However, the atomic clock continues to race ahead, so at least once every 10 years scientists add an extra second to the UTC to keep them closer together. It's particularly important for things like GPS navigation, Stamatakos said.

"The GPS will tell a user where his location is relative to the GPS spacecraft," he said. In order to do that, the GPS spacecraft has to know time very accurately and that time has to incorporate the earth speeding up and slowing.

"If you don't know the time accurately you can mistake where you are and your speed," according to Stamatakos.

"Having these leap seconds every so often is like having a mini Y2K every couple years," Stamatakos said. In advance, many people working with computer systems have tested them to see how they will deal with the extra second, he said.

The stock market is sometimes impacted because computers are so fast now that trading can happen in a second or less.

"Some U.S. exchanges will pause around the leap second as a precaution or will halt after-hours trading beforehand," according to MarketPlace's Mitchell Hartman.

"In every-day life, this extra second has practically no importance. However, in every field where exact time is needed (e.g. astronomy, navigation, spaceflight, but also computer networks for stock markets or energy supply, and much more) this second is of great importance," Wolfgang Dick, a spokesman for the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, the organization that maintains global time, told USA TODAY Network in an email.

What will you do with your extra second?

Follow @lagrisham on Twitter

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1LoZCUR

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Sun, 28 Jun 2015 14:22

Ethan Kaplan Techcrunch.com 6/27/15

The music business is about to undergo another seismic shift. And Apple's streaming service is the tsunami that will force the industry to rebuild. Again.

It was around 2005 when I joined Warner Bros. Records as their new head of technology. I was the 20-something-year-old kid who was supposed to have every answer about all things digital. I remember distinctly the first record I worked on. Not because the record was special to me personally (it wasn't), but because that was when I began to understand how a ''record'' was viewed by the record labels and the industry.

Back in the day, two things drove music sales: the record itself and the story that publicists told about the record. There was no iTunes pre-sales or bundling the album with new Samsung phones. Everything depended on first-week sales and chart position, as well as how the record rose or fell during the second week. It was a totally anonymous process. Even the record store owners had no idea who was buying. It was a simple transaction reported to SoundScan.

The Story, Sale And Spins

By the late 1990s, the music industry had created a pretty successful promotion and publicity machine. First-week sales were driven by meticulously choosing the best single from the record, getting spins on top radio shows, producing big budget videos for MTV, print and TV promotions, record reviews and interviews with the artists. All things served the commerce transaction funnel.

The results of that first week of sales, along with the radio airplay, helped tell the ''story.'' If the record charted to No. 1 with millions of sales, the news was used to bolster second-week sales, as well as support the second single on radio and MTV and help launch the tour. The story, the sale and the spins '-- this marketing dance worked over and over again.

When the iTunes Music Store started dominating digital retail sales, and digital started eating into the total retail picture, the record labels didn't bother to change the process very much. They just got a level of analysis and quantification that they never had before (for Apple, primarily), as well as higher margins.

Artists and labels that tap into and understand big data will shape every aspect of the music game, from PR and promotions to songwriting and recording.

Music industry professionals never thought about loyalty or customer churn, because the month-over-month cycle (or even year-over-year) was less important than release-over-release.

In fact, the record labels often anticipated that an artist would lose portions of their audience with every new release, in exchange for new fans, as people got older, audiences changed and pop culture evolved. For example, many fans of New Kids on the Block eventually lost interest in the boy band sound and graduated to rock or R&B as they got older and went to high school or college.

Music ''As A Service'' Is Born

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the on-demand and ''as a service'' economy started heating up across a broad range of industries. Enterprise software developers started hosting their applications on the web, with subscription services focused on locking in long-term customers to optimize average revenue per user (ARPU). The traditional high-margin transaction of software sales gave way to by-the-cent optimization of a built-in audience.

And where was the music business through this?

While first-generation SaaS (software as a service) providers were taking hold in the enterprise, a few pioneering streaming music services were making their debut. As Napster fell victim to legal battles, Rhapsody emerged in 2001 as one of the first legal providers of subscription-based music. At that time, the record labels viewed Rhapsody and others subscription services as ''just another'' source of revenue to support physical retail sales.

When retail sales in Wal-Mart and Target were strong, streaming was a nice additive source of revenue. In the waning days of physical retail sales, iTunes and Amazon propped up the entire music business, and streaming continued to be a small additional source of revenue.

It appears now that the scaffolding is falling away for the digital music sales cycle.

The problem? The music industry is still organized to support the traditional retail and digital sales cycle. As subscription services become the dominant source of revenue for recorded music, the entire business will have to shift gears to survive.

It's no longer about pre-sales and Week 1, it's about nurturing an audience month-over-month to drive loyalty and increase returns on a streaming service platform. All of the promotion dollars and methods to support Week 1 have to be retooled for a longer cycle, up to 6 months in many cases.

Now that the narrative has changed, can the music industry move into being an ''as a service'' economy?

The New Music Paradigm

It used to be that an artist could be meticulous about the rollout of their career, and afford disappearing acts between records. If they disappear now, so does the attention on their music and, ultimately, the money they receive from the streaming services.

For example, Lorde can go from being discovered on a playlist to an international superstar, but veteran artists like U2 have to get creative with promotions, for better or worse, like bundling their new record with a music service and forcing themselves on the masses to re-engage a once-loyal audience. New Kids on the Block is a great example as they continue to play sold-out shows around the world with acts like TLC and Nelly to reignite the nostalgia of the 1990s and 2000s.

The new music paradigm is infinite promotion. For the artist, this means Week 1 will be no different from Week 4 or 8. Music publicity and promotions will have to focus on getting more and more fans engaged to generate plays over much longer periods of time instead of short sales cycles. Artists will have to be on the road longer to generate revenue for live performances and merchandise sales, while also generating new fans to tune into streaming services.

Record labels will have to do a better job of incorporating data and analytics to understand fan loyalty in this new world order. Understanding who is listening, for how long and in what context will be a game changer. This is something that simply couldn't be captured in the days of physical retail sales. Artists and labels that tap into and understand big data will shape every aspect of the music game, from PR and promotions to songwriting and recording. Those who don't understand analytics will ultimately fade away.

The streaming services also have to play the SaaS game to ensure subscribers don't churn and join other streaming services. In many respects, the artists themselves become creative talent for iTunes, Spotify and others, much like engineers and product developers are the rock stars behind other SaaS providers, such as Uber and Airbnb.

The contrast between artists, music services and traditional SaaS providers seems an odd one at first, but not when you think about how they engage audiences and generate revenue. Both provide a service. Both rely on continual engagement to do so profitably. But only one business has a language, workflow and practice oriented around continual, lean product development and quantified customer development.

As of today, it isn't the business that made Apple put the U2 album on your phone.

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Tags: ; record labels, music Industry

This entry was posted on June 28, 2015 at 3:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 13:49

Video cross-posted here at NewsBusters. Liberal New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand sat down for a friendly interview with Jon Stewart on Wednesday night and the two eagerly took turns bashing Republican members of Congress for being ''cynical'' for disagreeing with liberal policy positions.

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 15:08

Dance halls in Texas were the hearts of their towns. But the tradition and popularity of the honky tonks are dwindling, CBS News' David Begnaud reports.

If you two-step your way through The Broken Spoke in Austin, you'll meet James White, the local rhinestone cowboy.

"I'm old enough to be a legend," White said.

He's been greeting guests five nights a week since he opened the place in 1964.

"It's a true mom-and-pop operation. I tell people that my wife's the working half of the family and I'm in charge of BS and PR, and we ain't going to change nothing," White said.

Nowadays, the 76-year-old honky tonk pioneer compares his Broken Spoke to the Alamo, a dance hall, once in the middle of nowhere, now sandwiched in a sought-after city.

"I said, 'Well I'm not leaving,'" White said. "I'm ain't changing nothing. I'm going to be just like I've always been."

That country charm is what's allowed The Broken Spoke to roll on, but elsewhere across Texas, in mostly rural areas, historic dance halls are endangered.

"Many of them have actually disappeared either through lack of interest or support, fallen down, burned, turned into barns and other things," said Deb Fleming, president of Texas Dance Hall Preservation, Inc.

Fleming said the heritage of Texas can be traced back to the dance hall.

"With the immigration of the Europeans that came into Texas, they built a church, a community center, which could be used as a dance hall, was a dance hall," said Fleming. "All these different cultures that came into Texas and then melted together over the years, that's the history of Texas."

Fleming's said dance halls are still romantic, with great stories.

"Every hall has a story, and every person that's danced in a hall, has grown up in a hall has a story," Fleming said.

Twin Sisters Dance Hall is surviving. It's the oldest dance hall in Texas, one hour west of Austin. It opened to the public in 1870. George and Nelda Vogel have waltzed there for 66 years, but they say they don't dance there enough.

Dwindling attendance and performer royalty fees has led to tough times for the owners. Jake Penrod is one local musician who is affordable. He started his career in a dance hall.

"If the kind of music that I play is going to survive, this is where it's going to carry on," Penrod said.

It's estimated that 1,000 dance halls were built in Texas between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Now, just 400 are still standing, and only two operate daily, Luckenbach Dance Hall in Luckenbach, Texas, and Gruene Hall in New Braunfels.

Rockabilly band Two Tons of Steel hasn't missed a Tuesday night performance at Gruene Hall in 20 years. Liz Jensen has shown up early for the last 18.

"I've come here over the years and seen mothers with their sons teaching them to dance, and then a few years later you see them here with a date. It's just like a family," Jensen said.

And the famous family members are endless. Many still play there, like Willie Nelson, who has his own window entrance.

Gruene Hall manager Shane Roch has worked there on and off for 15 years. They still dust the floors with cornmeal so it's easier to slide as you dance at the 6,000 square foot open air dance hall. Michelle Simmons will teach you how to swing.

If only it was as easy to preserve Texas' decaying dance halls. James White is the example of what is needed: People with an undying passion, willing to save what's left one two-step at a time.

"I Band-Aid this place together 'cause it's got heart and soul," White said. "And no matter who it is, nobody has to tell them where they're at. They know darn good and well they're not at Carnegie Hall."

For more, visit Texasdancehall.org

(C) 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 13:47

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:27

NEW YORK '' It's been a tough week for Donald Trump. First, the presidential candidate was dumped by NBC following statements he made about Mexican immigrants during his presidential announcement, and now mega-retailer Macy's has announced it's done with the Donald. But there is some lingering uncertainty over who dumped whom.

Macy's told FOX411 dropping the mogul was its idea.

"We have no tolerance for discrimination in any form,'' the retailer wrote in a statement. ''We are disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico. We do not believe the disparaging characterizations portray an accurate picture of the many Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Latinos who have made so many valuable contributions to the success of our nation. In light of statements made by Donald Trump, which are inconsistent with Macy's values, we have decided to discontinue our business relationship with Mr. Trump and will phase-out the Trump menswear collection, which has been sold at Macy's since 2004.''

But Trump insists the decision to end the relationship was his.

''I have decided to terminate my relationship with Macy's because of the pressure being put on them by outside sources,'' he said in a statement sent to FOX411.

The pressure Trump seemed to refer to came in the form of an online petition imploring Macy's to drop Trump, which garnered more than 700,000 signatures.

Trump stated that if he launches a new product line, it will be solely comprised of made-in-America items.

''While selling Trump ties and shirts at Macy's is a small business in terms of dollar volume, my principles are far more important and therefore much more valuable. I have never been happy about the fact that the ties and shirts are made in China, and should I start a new product line somewhere in the future, I would insist that they are made in America. Quite frankly, I was never satisfied with manufacturing my product in China, but because of what they've done in terms of devaluing their currency, it is very hard for other companies to compete and make such apparel in the United States. These are the kinds of issues I am committed to addressing.''

Trump reiterated that he is only committed to his presidential run, not the brands he's had business relationships with up until this week.

''I have also continually stated that I am not beholden to anyone and this includes NBC and Macy's. Clearly, NBC and Macy's support illegal immigration, which is totally detrimental to the fabric of our once great country. Both Macy's and NBC totally caved at the first sight of potential difficulty with special interest groups who are nothing more than professional agitators, who are not looking out for the people they purport to represent, but only for themselves. It is people like this that are actually running our country because our leaders are weak and ineffective.''

Companies That Have Cut Ties with Donald Trump | FindTheCompany

Fox News' Christopher Snyder contributed to this report.

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 11:42

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 11:38

In a discussion on the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to affirm gay marriage as a constitutional right, Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough slammed President Obama for taking undeserved credit. The former Florida congressman noted: ''[I]t's sort of mind boggling that the president's up there in 2015 and just as early as 2012 Joe Biden got out in front of the president. And Joe Biden's low point, politically, inside the White House was when he did that. Because he became immediately persona non grata.''

Scarborough added that the Obama administration was ''enraged just three years ago that Joe Biden said he supported marriage equality.'' The MSNBC personality emphasized how fast the politics of this issue have changed: ''[J]ust go back to the president of the United States that we saw here celebrated in 2015 scared to death in 2012 to get out front and say anything other than he opposed same-sex marriage.''

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 11:23

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

While all three networks covered the decision by NBC Universal on Monday to cut ties with 2016 Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, it was the CBS Evening News that chose to veer off and portray the ongoing battle as ''a problem'' for the GOP as its ''trying to develop Hispanic support.''

In addition, the network touted Democrats as ''determined to keep Hispanics in their camp'' and declined to provide a party label when airing a soundbite from a Democratic state legislator from Arizona.

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 11:08

Jeffrey Toobin was at it again last night on Anderson Cooper 360, this time claiming that the comparison between bans on interracial marriage and gay marriage is an ''exactly a parallel situation.''

After Cooper asked whether officials, in a hypothetical situation, could deny licenses to interracial couples if they had a religious objection, Toobin asserted: ''Ted Cruz was asked that exact question today by Savannah Guthrie on The Today Show and he ducked it.'' Cooper lamely opined that ''of course'' Cruz would duck the question. Neither Toobin or Cooper deemed it worthy to mention that Cruz is the product of an interracial marriage.

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 11:02

[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

CNN's Jim Acosta quoted colleague John King at a Tuesday press conference at the White House by asking President Obama about "what some people are calling 'your best week ever.'" Acosta played up that "you had two Supreme Court decisions supportive of the Affordable Care Act and of gay rights. You also delivered a speech down in Charleston that was pretty warmly received."

The correspondent then underlined that 'it seems that you've built up some political capital for the remaining months of your presidency." He asked, "I'm curious, how you want to use it? What hard things do you want to tackle at this point?"

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 10:57

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes devoted a segment during Monday's All In to commenting on the financial crisis in Greece and chose not to attack the left-wing government or any of the previous governments for their spending habits, but rather laid blame at the feet of ''morally monstrous'' European banks and others in the Eurozone for grinding ''Greece into misery'' in ''a sadistic exercise in sheer will to power.''

While alluding to a comparison between the current Greek crisis and the American mortgage crisis during the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009, Hayes first bemoaned how Greece is ''being punished because they can't pay back their loans'' by the ''outright enablers of Greek excess'' in ''the northern Europeans.''

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 10:37

[See NewsBusters for more.] George Stephanopoulos and the crew at Good Morning America on Wednesday did their best to dismiss the latest batch of Hillary Clinton's e-mails to be released, insisting that there are "no bombshells." Stephanopoulos in May apologized after it was revealed that he secretly donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, hiding it from his bosses and viewers. The anchor saw the new e-mails as "revealing new details about the daily life of a top diplomat, some flashes of personality too." Reporter Jim Avila continued the nothing-to-see-here tone, lecturing, "Many of the e-mails mundane, the business of running a vast government agency... But some reveal a bit of personality."

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 10:35

Tunisian authorities have arrested 12 people suspected of links with the beach terror attack in Sousse.

They are continuing the search for two men who trained in a Libyan jihadist camp alongside the Sousse gunman Seifeddine Rezgui and the Bardo Museum attackers.

On Tuesday police released the photos of Rafkhe Talari and Bin Abdallah wanted in connection with the beach massacre.

Thirty-eight tourists, mostly British nationals were killed in the attack. Twenty-two people were killed by two gunmen in the Tunis Bardo Museum attack in March.

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 10:34

Europe will wait for the results of the Greek referendum.

That is the overall message coming from EU leaders and the head of the euro zone's ministers' Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

''There will be no talks in the coming days, either at Eurogroup level or between the Greek authorities and the institutions on proposals or financial arrangements. We will simply await now the outcome of the referendum on Sunday,'' said Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

But France's President Fran§ois Hollande said a deal must be reached before Sunday to avoid political uncertainty.

He also added it was the duty of other euro zone members as well as Greece to keep the country in the single currency area.

''Now is not the time for vetoes or ''intransigent statement'' but for dialogue,'' Fran§ois Hollande added.

Hollande didn't say who he was referring to but he may have had German policymakers in mind, who've made increasingly tough declarations on Athens.

Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to ease tensions after talks with Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

She said no negotiations were possible before Sunday's referendum.

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Thu, 02 Jul 2015 10:32

The Greek finance minister has reiterated the Syriza government's defiant stance ahead of Sunday's referendum on the country's bailout terms.

Yanis Varoufakis backed his prime minister's recommendation of a 'No' vote and repeated the assertion by Alexis Tsipras that the government may resign if the result goes the other way.

Interviewed on Australia's ABC Radio, Varoufakis added that Syriza would cooperate with whoever took over.

The economist said in his blog that a 'No' vote would in fact be a 'Yes for a proud Greece in a Decent Europe'.

Compounding nerves already jangling ahead of Sunday's vote, opinion polls contradict each other.

One survey by GPO for the BNP Paribas bank gives the 'Yes' campaign a four-point lead.

An earlier poll gave the 'No' camp a nine-point lead, while finding that support for the government's stance had fallen.

Thursday morning again saw long queues of pensioners waiting to receive payouts from the limited number of banks that have opened.

For many Greeks such scenes symbolise the state of the country, with the referendum widely seen as determining whether Greece will stay in the euro.

Eurozone finance ministers have ruled out further talks until after the vote.

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Wed, 01 Jul 2015 04:16

Greece will vote on Sunday in a referendum which may decide the future of the country in the euro.

The vote was only recently announced by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, leaving a short period of time for preparation.

The result will decide whether or not the country accepts a recent offer made by its creditors.

James Reynolds reports from Athens.

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Tue, 30 Jun 2015 02:57

Story highlightsStonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee are in stained-glass windows in the National CathedralThe windows were installed in 1953 at the request of the United Daughters of the ConfederacyThe Confederate flag is featured prominently in pictures apparently posted by Dylann Roof in online writings laced with racial hatred. Roof has been charged with murdering nine people at a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17.

The image on the left includes Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate general. On the right is Robert E. Lee.

EXPAND IMAGE

In his sermon on Sunday, the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the National Cathedral, announced that he would call on the venerable church's governing body to remove two stained-glass windows put in place to honor "the lives and legacies of Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee."

The windows were installed in 1953 at the request of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and are two of many stained-glass bays on the cathedral's main level.

Hall said the National Cathedral had installed these windows to "foster reconciliation" between the North and the South. But they did did more than simply seek to repair a divided nation, he said.

They sought to "reframe the Civil War and present these two generals as saintly, exemplary Christians" when these two men were in fact ardent supporters of Hall called an "unjust cause ... the sin of slavery."

"We can live with some contradictions until we can't," Hall said.

Hall said the cathedral should serve as a "house of prayer for all people," but insisted that this goal cannot be met "while the Confederate battle flag shines in our windows."

Citing the church's national prominence, he called on the cathedral to be a leader for national faith organizations, saying "there simply is no excuse for the nation's most visible church to display a symbol of racism, slavery and oppression. None."

Hall emphasized that changing the windows will take time, but a display "explaining them in their historical context" will be placed near their bay while the cathedral directors seek to install a replacement that will "tell the full, yet painful, yet hopeful story of race and justice in America."

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Mon, 29 Jun 2015 21:38

The Foreign Policy Initiative seeks to promote an active U.S. foreign policy committed to robust support for democratic allies, human rights, a strong American military equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and strengthening America's global economic competitiveness.Read More

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Mon, 29 Jun 2015 21:38

The Foreign Policy Initiative seeks to promote an active U.S. foreign policy committed to robust support for democratic allies, human rights, a strong American military equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and strengthening America's global economic competitiveness.Read More

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Mon, 29 Jun 2015 20:16

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Mon, 29 Jun 2015 18:26

New documents released by a federal court show President Obama called then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the night of the 2012 Benghazi attack -- but the contents are being withheld by the State Department.

It had previously been disclosed that Clinton and Obama spoke the night of the terror attacks. But the documents offer additional information about the timing of the call -- after the initial attack on the U.S. consulate, but before the second wave where mortars hit the nearby CIA annex and killed former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.

The contents of the call, however, are being withheld, not because the information is classified but because the administration claims they represent internal deliberations about the 2012 terror assault.

The claim comes as Clinton also faces accusations that she withheld Benghazi-related emails from her private server in the trove of emails handed over to the State Department.

The contents of the call were only shared with Obama's and Clinton's closest aides. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes sent an email on the call to State Department officials Jake Sullivan and Philippe Reines, and National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan.

The email was released as part of an ongoing lawsuit by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

The email on the Obama-Clinton phone call bears the subject line, "Call." The text of the email says, "Readout of President's Call to Secretary Clinton," but the rest of the details are fully redacted. The State Department cited the so-called "B5" exception for internal deliberations.

The emails also show that Rhodes, on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, and before the attack was over, endorsed a statement from Clinton that cited an anti-Islam Internet video.

That statement noted some tried to justify the assault "as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet." Rhodes told Clinton's aides that "we should let State Department statement be our comment for the night."

The following day, Sept. 12, Meehan sent an email to State and NSC officials saying Rhodes would host a conference call that morning "to ensure we are all in sync on messaging for the rest of the day."

The narrative about protests over an Internet video would later become a point of major controversy. Fox News was first to report, on Sept. 17, 2012, there was no demonstration before the attack.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement: "It is little wonder that Mrs. Clinton and the entire Obama administration have fought so hard to keep these documents from the American people -- they shine a spotlight on the administration's incompetence and indifference. All evidence now points to Hillary Clinton, with the approval of the White House, as being the source the Internet video lie."

Other emails from Judicial Watch lawsuits have, separately, shown Rhodes played a central role in preparing former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice for her Sunday show appearances that weekend where she blamed protests over the Internet video.

In that Sept. 14 email, Rhodes specifically draws attention to the video, without distinguishing whether the Benghazi attack was different from protests elsewhere in the region.

The email lists the following two goals, among others:

"To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy."

"To reinforce the President and Administration's strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges."

Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.

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Mon, 29 Jun 2015 16:49

"Star Trek" actor George Takei on Twitter: "Outraged over Indiana Freedom to Discriminate law, signed today. LGBTs aren't 2nd class citizens. #BoycottIndiana #Pence"

The band Wilco tweeted: "We're canceling our 5/7 show in Indianapolis. 'Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act' feels like thinly disguised legal discrimination." In another tweet it said: "Hope to get back to the Hoosier State someday soon, when this odious measure is repealed. Refunds available at point of purchase."

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard signed an executive order reaffirming that groups doing business with the city must still abide by its human rights ordinance, which bars discrimination on the basis of categories that include sexual orientation and gender identity. "Our city thrives because we have welcomed and embraced diversity," he said. "RFRA threatens what thousands of people have spent decades building. And I won't allow that to happen without a fight."

"Because of Indiana's new law, later today I will sign an Executive Order regarding state-funded travel," Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy tweeted. Another tweet added: "When new laws turn back the clock on progress, we can't sit idly by. We are sending a message that discrimination won't be tolerated."

Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted: "Apple is open for everyone. We are deeply disappointed in Indiana's new law and calling on Arkansas Gov. to veto the similar #HB1228."

Former Florida Gov. and potential Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said, "I think Gov. [Mike] Pence has done the right thing. I think once the facts are established, people aren't going to see this as discriminatory at all."

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee released a statement: We stand united as San Franciscans to condemn Indiana's new discriminatory law, and will work together to protect the civil rights of all Americans including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. Effective immediately, I am directing City Departments under my authority to bar any publicly-funded City employee travel to the State of Indiana that is not absolutely essential to public health and safety. San Francisco taxpayers will not subsidize legally-sanctioned discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people by the State of Indiana.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who is openly bisexual, released a statement: Indiana's new law offends me. No individual, regardless of where they live or whom they love, should suffer discrimination. I urge state leaders in Indiana to take swift action to prohibit discrimination and reverse the damaging impact of this law. Oregonians continually demonstrate a strong belief in fairness and equal treatment under the law. As recently as 2013, Oregon voters have defeated proposals similar to Indiana's law, underscoring our shared values and rejecting discrimination. I encourage Oregonians to join me in expressing their concerns about this erosion of individual rights in Indiana and anywhere it may occur.

"The NCAA national office and our members are deeply committed to providing an inclusive environment for all our events," said NCAA President Mark Emmert. "We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees."

Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, tweeted: "Today we are canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination."

GOP presidential candidate and U.S. Sen.Ted Cruz (Texas) said in a statement: Governor Pence is holding the line to protect religious liberty in the Hoosier State. Indiana is giving voice to millions of courageous conservatives across this country who are deeply concerned about the ongoing attacks upon our personal liberties. I'm proud to stand with Mike, and I urge Americans to do the same.

Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, tweeted: ".@GovPenceIN, is it going to be legal for someone to discriminate against me & others when we come to the #FinalFour?"

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman released a statement that read in part: "It is unconscionable to imagine that Yelp would create, maintain, or expand a significant business presence in any state that encouraged discrimination by businesses against our employees, or consumers at large... Yelp will make every effort to expand its corporate presence only in states that do not have these laws allowing for discrimination on the books."

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted: "Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today. We shouldn't discriminate against ppl bc of who they love #LGBT"

Twitter's global public policy team account tweeted: "We're disappointed to see state bills that enshrine discrimination. These bills are unjust and bad for business. We support #EqualityForAll."

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay tweeted: "The Colts have always embraced inclusiveness, tolerance, and a diverse fan base. We welcome ALL fans to Colts Nation. ONE FAMILY!"

Adrian Swartout, owner and CEO of the Gen Con gaming convention, wrote a letter to Indiana's governor before he signed the bill, saying: "Gen Con proudly welcomes a diverse attendee base, made up of different ethnicities, cultures, beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds. Legislation that could allow for refusal of service or discrimination against our attendees will have a direct negative impact on the state's economy, and will factor into our decision-making on hosting the convention in the state of Indiana in future years."

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said, "Laws that say you can discriminate have no place in this country."

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is led by President Lee Saunders, said in a release: "AFSCME is pulling our Women's Conference out of Indiana this fall as a sign of our disgust and disappointment with Governor Pence's discriminatory law. We stand with the ever-growing number of corporations and associations who are taking similar action this week, and demanding fairness for all in the state of Indiana."

Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle said he will not be moving forward with a $40 million expansion of the company's headquarters in Indianapolis. The company joined with eight other large companies headquartered in the state to write a letter to the governor and state GOP leaders. It read, in part: Regardless of the original intention of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, we are deeply concerned about the impact it is having on our employees and on the reputation of our state. All of our companies seek to promote fair, diverse and inclusive workplaces. Our employees must not feel unwelcome in the place where they work and live.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) tweeted, "I stand with @mikepence4gov in defense of religious liberty and real tolerance."

NASCAR issued a statement: NASCAR is disappointed by the recent legislation passed in Indiana. We will not embrace nor participate in exclusion or intolerance. We are committed to diversity and inclusion within our sport and therefore will continue to welcome all competitors and fans at our events in the state of Indiana and anywhere else we race.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser issued an order banning official D.C. government travel to Indiana. "Discrimination is intolerable wherever it exists. I stand with the LGBT community on #RFRA," she tweeted.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement: Denver is an inclusive city, and we take tremendous pride in that. Due to the actions taken by the State of Indiana, we will join with other cities across the nation in suspending the use of city funds for official business to Indiana. This law is just wrong, plain and simple, and we will not tacitly condone discrimination through the use of taxpayer dollars.

Nike President and CEO Mark Parker said in a statement: NIKE proudly stands for inclusion for all. We believe laws should treat people equally and prevent discrimination. NIKE has led efforts alongside other businesses to defeat discriminatory laws in Oregon and opposes the new law in Indiana which is bad for our employees, bad for our consumers, bad for business and bad for society as a whole. We hope Indiana will quickly resolve this.