Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where we hang out and talk about the goings on here and everywhere.
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Portulacas and Swallowtail butterfly, 2012 by joanneleon
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
~Winston Churchill
Young the Giant - My Body Live at Sunset Sound
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News
New Afghan police attack on NATO forces, no deaths
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan policeman opened fire on NATO forces and Afghan soldiers Monday morning in the fifth apparent attack in a week by Afghan security forces on their international partners. The U.S.-led military coalition says none of its service members were killed.
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A recent rash of ‘‘green-on-blue’’ attacks, in which Afghan security forces or attackers wearing their uniforms turn their guns on the coalition troops training them, has raised worries about a deterioration of trust between the two sides as well as the quality of the Afghan police and soldiers who will take over full security responsibility for fighting the Taliban when most international troops leave by the end of 2014. It also raises renewed worry that insurgents may be infiltrating the Afghan army and police despite heightened screening.
NATO spokesman Charlie Stadtlander says an initial investigation indicates the attacker was an Afghan police officer, though the man was wearing civilian clothes. He says the shooter escaped.
Bomb Kills Local Afghan Official, Peace Council Member
A district mayor, a local peace-council official, and three others have been killed in a roadside-bomb attack in Afghanistan's northern Takhar Province.
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The central government in Kabul set up the HPC to facilitate peace with the Taliban.
Afghan officials say they broke up terror plot that targeted Parliament
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan security forces foiled an insurgent plot to attack Afghanistan’s parliament and the home of one of the country’s leaders, Afghan officials said Sunday.
Four Afghans and a Pakistani were arrested in central Kabul late Saturday by officers from Afghanistan’s intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, together with a large amount of weapons and ammunition and some Afghan army uniforms, according to an NDS statement.
The statement said that the night-time raid that netted the suspects had thwarted “many suicide and coordinated attacks in Kabul,” including an attack on Parliament and the home of Karim Khalili, Afghanistan’s second vice-president and leader of the Hezb-i-Wahdat party.
'Green on blue' killings sapping morale in Afghanistan
Early on Friday three US Marines were gunned down by a Afghan police commander and his men after accepting an invitation to have dinner.
Later the same day an Afghan civilian working at a NATO base shot dead three more US soldiers.
And on Saturday an Afghan police officer described as an "Taliban infiltrator" shot dead at least 10 of his colleagues in the south-western province of Nimroz.
Details Emerge on Government Study of Presidential Pardon
The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a request for proposals for its first-ever in-depth study of presidential pardons, providing fresh details on what it envisions the review will entail.
The agency said it would undertake the study in response to articles published by ProPublica and The Washington Post in December that found white applicants were nearly four times as likely to be pardoned as minorities. African American applicants fared the worst: Just 7 of 189 people pardoned by President George W. Bush were African American. So far, President Obama has pardoned 22 people, including 2 minorities.
Everything you need to know about voter ID laws
Voter ID laws have become a political flashpoint in what’s gearing up to be another close election year. Supporters say the laws — which 30 states have now enacted in some form — are needed to combat voter fraud, while critics see them as a tactic to disenfranchise voters.
We’ve taken a step back to look at the facts behind the laws and break down the issues at the heart of the debate.
Emails Give Glimpse Into Deals That Fueled Financial Meltdown
As ProPublica has been detailing for two years, Wall Street banks and the hedge fund Magnetar worked together to build mortgage-backed deals that the hedge fund also bet against. The more than $40 billion of deals helped fuel the crash of 2008.
Now, recently collected emails from bankers and a Magnetar executive involved in some of the deals appear to shed new light on how they did it.
Charges against Easton protester accused of attempted robbery may be unwarranted, attorney says
Charges brought against a 22-year-old Easton man accused of attempted bank robbery may be unwarranted given the circumstances of the case, an attorney with the ACLU said Tuesday.
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Gorczynski was arrested after walking into a pair of city banks and displaying two signs, one reading, "You're being robbed," the other reading, "Give a man a gun, he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, he can rob a country," authorities have said.
Gorczynski is charged with felony attempted robbery as well as lesser charges of making terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.
Federal spending on clean energy falls short on jobs, but wind and solar advance
Four years ago, the Democrats’ promises on clean energy were all about jobs. As Obama took office seeking nearly $1 trillion in spending and tax cuts to boost a free-falling economy, he wanted to include green energy spending and he stressed the job benefits.
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On jobs, the promise fell short. The White House said its clean-energy stimulus funds created 224,500 jobs. An independent study this year concluded that 70,000 jobs were added to clean technology industries from 2007 to 2010. That study was done by the Brookings Institution, the Breakthrough Institute and the World Resources Institute.
Obama and his team argued that spending on clean energy would have other benefits. They said it would help the United States get some of the renewable energy manufacturing that otherwise would go to China, where energy technology is subsidized. It also would create jobs in the future and help the environment.
Iran twin quakes kill more than 250
Residents of the zone in northwestern Iran hit by powerful twin earthquakes described moments of terror and panic with birds crowing loudly in warning seconds before the ground shook.
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State television said at least 250 died. The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted a local official who put the toll at 277. State TV said 44,000 food packages and thousands of blankets have been distributed in the stricken area.
In Washington, the White House press secretary sent a message of sympathy for the victims.
"Our thoughts are with the families of those who were lost, and we wish the wounded a speedy recovery," it said." We stand ready to offer assistance in this difficult time."
Dolphins befriend an underwater camera
So a bunch of guys go fishing, and they take a long an underwater camera, encased in a mobile, waterproof housing. Basically, their camera can move around underwater, like a little RC car.
Then this happens ...
Blog Posts of Interest
Love Can Conquer Hate -- WI Sikhs: "We Feel More Close to Other Faiths Than Ever" by Ian Reifowitz on DailyKos
DOJ Attributes Its Inadequate Response to Targeted Killing FOIA on the Deputy and Attorney General’s Staff by emptywheel
Temps to increase 11°F by 2100; "That’s basically Miami Beach in Boston" by Gaius Publius on Americablog
Young The Giant - Cough Syrup
We are ready for some serious change. We are ready to take up the tools of a free and analytic press to peacefully undermine the stranglehold of the kleptocrats on our battered democracy. We are ready to expose and publicize their greed, lies and illegal machinations and hold their enablers in government and the media to account. Are you in?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
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