Dvorak News Blog

Associated Press ready to be new RIAA? Sue Google, sue every blogger?

By Eideard Monday April 6, 2009

The Associated Press has unveiled rate cuts to help member newspapers reeling from declining advertising revenue and said that it would sue websites that used its members’ articles without permission.

The changes the AP announced at its annual meeting in San Diego include a new $35 million in rate assessment reductions for 2010, on top of $30 million it had already instituted for 2009.

The AP further threatened to “pursue legal and legislative actions” against websites that do not properly license news content, and plans to develop a system to track its members’ news distributed online to determine whether it is being legally used.

“We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories,” Singleton said…

While the AP did not name Google, many newspapers resent the popular search website because they say it siphons away ad revenue that should be going to their own websites instead of to sites like Google’s and Yahoo’s…

Some newspapers threatened to cancel their membership, prompting the AP to try to find ways to keep them. One new option the wire service is offering is a limited service for papers “with minimal world and national coverage needs.”

Google is a primo target – though, I wonder if they’ll take the RIAA path and sue individual bloggers?

Skeleton found in tree 29 years after suicide

By Eideard Monday April 6, 2009

21 Comments

The skeleton of a German retiree who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker.

German police in the southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing.

An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11 meters up, near the top of the spruce tree.

“After searching the area we found the skeleton up in the tree with the pistol hanging on a rope next to it,” police spokesman Leonard Mayer said. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.

Kind of gives new meaning to “hanging out in the woods”, eh?

Mexico’s President Says US Politicians Taking Drug Money from Cartels

By McCullough Monday April 6, 2009

40 Comments

The President of Mexico has an unfortunate message for Americans still ignorant of the Drug War’s cold realities: Some of your politicians are involved.

Yes folks, it is long-past time to start thinking about alternative strategies for combating both the harmful effects of drug addiction and the deadly effects of forcing an economy outside of the law.

“It is impossible to pass tons of drugs and cocaine to U.S. without some great complicity of some American authorities,” said Mexican President Felipe Calderone.

“There is traffic in Mexico because there is corruption in Mexico. And that is true. But with the same argument, if there is traffic in United States, it is because there is some corruption in United States.”

Nah!!! Say it ain’t so!!!

What kind of university agonizes over the commencement address being delivered by the President of the United States?

By Eideard Monday April 6, 2009

123 Comments

If you answered “Catholic” – you’d be correct.

Daylife/Getty Images

President Obama will speak at Notre Dame’s commencement on May 17. That is an honor to some, but an outrage to others.

Some alumni have called the campus saying they have thrown away their Fighting Irish sweatshirts in disgust. The local bishop, John D’Arcy, has vowed to boycott the graduation ceremony. A visiting high school senior, Halley Chavey, who said she was thrilled just weeks ago to be accepted here, said she might reject the offer because the college was hosting “the most pro-abortion president we’ve ever had…”

“Most of us are like, ‘Wow, the president of the United States is coming,’ ” said Brett Ensor, a Texas native who belongs to the Knights of Columbus, opposes abortion and voted for Mr. Obama’s Republican opponent, Senator John McCain. “What college wouldn’t want Obama to come? This is a tremendous honor for us…”

Notre Dame is regarded as an academic powerhouse and conservative Catholic bastion. But in a mock election here in November, Mr. Obama defeated Mr. McCain among students by about 11 percentage points. He won roughly the same margin of victory among Catholic voters in the national election…

In the view of the Rev. Richard McBrien, a prominent liberal theologian at Notre Dame, the commotion over Mr. Obama centers not on faith, but on politics.

“This crowd,” Mr. McBrien said, referring to conservative Catholics, “are simply Republicans who are upset that Obama won the election — and they want to pick a fight.”

Pretty accurate characterization of American Catholics in the article. Including their divergence from monocultural obedience as required by the Vatican.

A Coffin, a Flag, a Photograph – coming home

By Eideard Monday April 6, 2009

30 Comments

For the first time in 18 years, the Pentagon granted the news media access on Sunday night to cover the arrival of a coffin to Dover Air Force Base from overseas.

The coffin, draped in a flag and bearing the body of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers of Hopewell, Va, was unloaded from a government aircraft by the military honor guard. Sergeant Myers, 30, was killed by an improvised explosive device near Helmand Province in Afghanistan on April 4, according to the Defense Department.

A ban on news coverage of returning war dead, which had been in place since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, was lifted by the Obama administration following a review of the policy by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In the hours leading up to the transfer of Sergeant Myers’s corpse, Air Force officials received the consent of his family members — per the new policy — to grant members of the news media permission to be on hand.

Welcome home, Sergeant Myers.

Camera Cars to Spy on UK Drivers

By Joe C Monday April 6, 2009

27 Comments

Hitler UK!

UK Camera Car

Police are taking a leaf out of Google’s book with their latest weapon in the war on motorists.

They are using cars with spy cameras on a mast. Drivers talking on their mobile phones, eating, applying make-up or otherwise driving illegally will be pictured.

And as the telescopic cameras can zoom in from some distance, the first inkling that they have been snapped could be when a £60 fine lands on the doorstep.

Police say the new cars – similar to those used by Google to map town and city streets – will help reduce road deaths. But motorists say the Big Brother vehicles will merely be another cash cow for the Government and a further ‘tax’ on hard-pressed motorists.

…

Drivers who are caught using their mobiles will be sent a £60 fine and will have three penalty points on their licence.

Those caught on camera without a seatbelt or driving erratically while eating will be fined £30.

Don’t eat and drive!

Obama Derangement Syndrome

By Uncle Dave Monday April 6, 2009

102 Comments

It appears that when a political party falls from power, has no leadership and can’t admit to themselves and take blame for the havoc they caused while in power, they go a little crazy. This is from the thoroughly conservative David Horowitz.

I have been watching an interesting phenomenon on the Right, which is beginning to cause me concern. I am referring to the over-the-top hysteria in response to the first months in office of our new president, which distinctly reminds me of the “Bush Is Hitler” crowd on the Left.

Speaking of this crowd, have you seen any “I am so sorry” postings from that quarter as Obama continues and even escalates the former president’s war policy in Afghanistan and attempts to consolidate his military occupation of Iraq?

Conservatives, please. Let’s not duplicate the manias of the Left as we figure out how to deal with Mr. Obama. He is not exactly the anti-Christ, although a disturbing number of people on the Right are convinced he is.

I have recently received commentaries that claim that “Obama’s speeches are unlike any political speech we have heard in American history” and “never has a politician in this land had such a quasi-religious impact on so many people” and “Obama is a narcissist,” which leads the author to then compare Obama to David Koresh, Charles Manson, Stalin and Saddam Hussein. Excuse me while I blow my nose.

This fellow has failed to notice that all politicians are narcissists – and that a recent American president was a world-class exponent of the imperial me. So what? Political egos are one of the reasons the Founders put checks and balances on executive power. As for serial lying, is there a politician that cannot be accused of that? And once, the same recent president set a pretty a high bar in this category, and we survived it. As for Obama’s speeches, they are hardly in the Huey Long, Louie Farrakhan, Fidel Castro vein. They are in fact eloquently and cleverly centrist and sober.

No Agenda #86 – Now On Cage Match

By KD Martin Sunday April 5, 2009

4 Comments

Click image to go to No Agenda.

John and Adam discuss the news of the day from an international perspective

Queue / cue / Q the closing credits — We hope you enjoy the show!

No Agenda

Running time: approx. 90 mins.

FBI links long-haul truckers, serial killings

By Eideard Sunday April 5, 2009

29 Comments

The FBI suspects that serial killers working as long-haul truckers are responsible for the slayings of hundreds of prostitutes, hitchhikers and stranded motorists whose bodies have been dumped near highways over the last three decades.

Federal authorities first made the connection about five years ago while helping police link a trucker to a string of unsolved killings along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and several other states. After that, the FBI launched the Highway Serial Killings Initiative to track suspicious slayings and suspect truckers.

A computer database maintained by the FBI has grown to include information on more than 500 female crime victims, most of whom were killed and their bodies discarded at truck stops, motels and other locations along popular trucking routes crisscrossing the U.S.

The database also has information on scores of truckers who’ve been charged with killings or rapes committed near highways or who are suspects in such crimes, officials said. Authorities said they do not have statistics on whether driving trucks ranks high on the list of occupations of known serial killers…

Although some local police agencies have been briefed on the program, the FBI had not publicized its existence outside law enforcement until earlier this year, when officials agreed to show The Times the inner workings of the operation and share details of some of their cases.

Since the program began, more than two dozen killings have been solved, authorities said.

I know, we all saw the plot on Criminal Minds. Art imitating life once again?

Crooked Philly Cops Caught on Tape Shaking Down Storeowner

By McCullough Sunday April 5, 2009

25 Comments

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THE NARCOTICS officers knew they were being watched on video surveillance moments after they entered the bodega.

Officer Jeffrey Cujdik told store owner Jose Duran that police were in search of tiny ziplock bags often used to package drugs. But, during the September 2007 raid, Cujdik and fellow squad members seemed much more interested in finding every video camera in the West Oak Lane store.

“I got like seven or eight eyes,” shouted Officer Thomas Tolstoy, referring to the cameras, as the officers glanced up. “There’s one outside. There is one, two, three, four in the aisles, and there’s one right here somewhere.” For the next several minutes, Tolstoy and other Narcotics Field Unit officers systematically cut wires to cameras until those “eyes” could no longer see. Then, after the officers arrested Duran and took him to jail, nearly $10,000 in cash and cartons of Marlboros and Newports were missing from the locked, unattended store, Duran alleges. The officers guzzled sodas and scarfed down fresh turkey hoagies, Little Debbie fudge brownies and Cheez-Its, he said.

Feeling Royal After The Obama’s Meeting With The Queen? Try The Purple Store!

By Uncle Dave Sunday April 5, 2009

3 Comments

Click the pics to let the royal purple flow

Michelle’s hand on the Queen’s back put the whole country in a twitter.

Found by Brother Uncle Don

New York Times Co. Threatens to Shut Down Boston Globe

By John C Dvorak Sunday April 5, 2009

17 Comments

New York Times Co., Which Wants Concessions, Threatens to Shut Down Boston Globe – washingtonpost.com — So the Boston paper is losing a million a week as is the SF paper. How does a newspaper lose this much money every week? I’d love to see some spreadsheets on this.

In a striking example of corporate hardball, the New York Times Co. has threatened to shut down one of its journalistic jewels, the Boston Globe, unless the New England paper’s unions agree to sweeping concessions.

The Globe quoted union officials last night as saying that Times and Globe executives made the demands in a 90-minute meeting with union officials. The unions were asked to quickly agree to $20 million in cost-cutting moves to avoid the potential shutdown.

The executives told the union leaders that the Boston paper will lose $85 million this year without serious cutbacks, the Globe report said. An employee briefed on the discussions was quoted as saying the Globe lost $50 million last year.

Judge won’t divulge details of Ferdinand Marcos trust fund missing $5 million

By Eideard Sunday April 5, 2009

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U.S. District Court Judge Manuel L. Real, who has endured a rare public censure by the federal judiciary, the threat of impeachment and removal from several cases for questionable conduct, now faces demands to account for $5 million or more in apparently missing trust funds.

Lawyers for rival Filipino groups laying claim to the seized assets of late Philippines Dictator Ferdinand Marcos have petitioned a federal appeals court to demand that Real provide a detailed accounting of $35.3 million entrusted to him nearly a decade ago as U.S. courts were pondering who should receive the money.

The appeal, made public Wednesday, does not allege wrongdoing by Real. Rather, it disparages his single page of cryptically described account activity as raising concerns about whether the full amount and any earned interest has been returned, say lawyers who filed the petition last month with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals…

In the challenge to his handling of Marcos’ funds, Real’s vague report on account activity over the past decade referred to $98 million in unspecified security purchases and $118 million in unspecified security sales, despite his own order against trading account assets and a 9th Circuit edict that he refrain from disbursing money until a final court judgment. It was impossible to verify whether the figures provided by Real were accurate or comprehensive…

Real has met with lawyers for all sides three times since the high-court judgment but provided only a single page of unspecified receipts and payments. In only two outlays mentioned over the decade he controlled the account, Real reported $63,398 for “trustee fees” and more than $4.9 million for “other disbursements.”

What crap! $4.9 million for “other”. Can I try that on the IRS? Will you send me cookies in prison?

Caption This Photo

By Uncle Dave Sunday April 5, 2009

43 Comments

The Decline Of Christianity In America

By Uncle Dave Sunday April 5, 2009

158 Comments

There it was, an old term with new urgency: post-Christian. This is not to say that the Christian God is dead, but that he is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory. To the surprise of liberals who fear the advent of an evangelical theocracy and to the dismay of religious conservatives who long to see their faith more fully expressed in public life, Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the American population.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey that got Mohler’s attention, the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 percentage points since 1990, from 86 to 76 percent. The Jewish population is 1.2 percent; the Muslim, 0.6 percent. A separate Pew Forum poll echoed the ARIS finding, reporting that the percentage of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith has doubled in recent years, to 16 percent; in terms of voting, this group grew from 5 percent in 1988 to 12 percent in 2008—roughly the same percentage of the electorate as African-Americans. (Seventy-five percent of unaffiliated voters chose Barack Obama, a Christian.) Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009, from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of, say, Episcopalians in the United States.)

While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago. […] As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America’s unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom—not least freedom of conscience. At our best, we single religion out for neither particular help nor particular harm; we have historically treated faith-based arguments as one element among many in the republican sphere of debate and decision. The decline and fall of the modern religious right’s notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life.

On a vaguely related topic, there is the debate in the world on the freedom to defame religion.