The US justice department is preparing a report which concludes that the FBI repeatedly broke the law by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist to obtain more than 2,000 telephone call records over four years from 2002, including those of journalists on US newspapers, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post.

The bureau also issued authorisations for the seizure of records after the fact, in order to justify unwarranted seizures.

The Washington Post said the emails show how counter-terrorism ­officials inside FBI headquarters breached regulations designed to protect civil liberties. (Read more from guardian.co.uk)

This week, the FBI released a “digitally-altered” image showing what Osama Bin Laden possibly looks like now that he’s older.

While the FBI claims to have used “cutting-edge” technology to create the image, a Spanish politician has noticed that the poster is a modified version of his campaign photo — he now finds his face in America’s most wanted list.

While on the surface it’s an amusing misstep by intelligence agencies, Gaspar Llamazares, the former leader of Spain’s United Left coalition, calls the move “shameless.” (Read more from mashable.com)

Too good to last. Some government will soon come and exploit them.

“Here no-one can say to you: ‘No, that’s pirated’ or ‘You can’t sell that here,’” he tells me when I ask if he ever has any trouble from the authorities.

“If we were in the south of the country, you could complain that no customs tax has been paid for example, but when you’re in the New Forces-zone everything can come in and be sold,” he says.

The north of Ivory Coast – an area covering 60% of the country and a zone bigger than England and Wales – remains under the authority of an ex-rebel group, the New Forces, who split the country in two after a rebellion in 2002.

Bouake is the ex-rebel capital of “Soroland”, as the zone is sometimes nicknamed, after the New Forces leader, Guillaume Soro.

. . . .

Things are a lot cheaper than in the south – we see that people from the south often come here to stock up for less

Soroland may not be a breakaway zone, but for seven years the inhabitants of this zone have got used to living without government taxes, customs charges and even water and electricity bills.

Reunification – already under way – will be a challenge to complete.

Hussein Doumbia is one of many local business leaders who have learnt to profit from this vast black market zone.

Members of the government’s armed forces formerly aiming to recapture Bouake now profit from the duty-free shopping. (Read more from news.bbc.co.uk)

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

. . . .

Monsanto gathered its own crude statistical data after conducting a 90-day study, even though chronic problems can rarely be found after 90 days, and concluded that the corn was safe for consumption. The stamp of approval may have been premature, however. (Read more from huffingtonpost.com)

This story is interesting because of how different political ideologies interpret it. The socialists call ‘corruption’ and say we need stricter enforcement, righteous people working at the FDA, severe punishments, and in general, more government.

Libertarians like me agree that this is corruption, but point out that corruption is inevitable when government has a monopoly on approving foods. More liberty is the answer. Here are some suggestions:

· Make it legal for milk producers to label their milk rBGH-free, or artificial-hormone free, etc. The consumers will ultimately decide.

· Do NOT pass the “food safety” legislation for which Monsanto is so vigorously lobbying. All it will do is cut down on competition.

· Legalize competition with the FDA. Dozens of private food approval organizations will arise. For example the Organic Foods Consumer Association, would resume certifying food as organic. Food producers will strive to get approval of the most trusted ones. The consumer will ultimately decide.

The righteousness of government bureaucrats will fail us every time. Freedom works best.

Western runners, of whom 90 per cent suffer injuries every year, would be better off leaving their sneakers at home, and running barefoot.

Science and sceptical runners are catching up with something the Tarahumara Indians have known for ever: your naked feet are fine on their own. According to a growing body of clinical research, those expensive running shoes you’ve been relying on may be worse than useless: they could be causing the very injuries they’re supposed to prevent.

Perhaps the best research in the field has been going on for hundreds of years in a maze of canyons in northern Mexico. There, the reclusive Tarahumara tribe routinely engage in races of 150 miles or more, the equivalent of running the London Marathon six times in the same day. Despite this extreme mileage, as I learnt during several treks into the canyons, the Tarahumara are somehow immune to the injuries that plague the rest of the running world. (Read more from telegraph.co.uk)

This is a wonderful explanation.

* Reckless behavior by banks was not a CAUSE of the crisis, it was a symptom of massive government subsidy of irresponsible behavior and artificially low interest rates.

* The prime cause of the crisis was and remains artificially low interest rates.

* Obama is not preventing another crisis by regulating banks, he is causing one.

I think Paul handled this very deftly, quickly finding gaping holes in Weiner’s big government propaganda.

Did you know that just 16 large sea going cargo ships can produce as much pollution as all the world’s cars. Think about that! There are 100,000 of these ships on the sea! And none are restricted from burning dirty sulphur laden fuel oil that is not allowed as fuel by others. And that means they produce 6,250 times as much pollution as ALL the cars in the world! But I only hear about those Hummers being gas hogs. (Read more from riverjournal.com)

The vice-chairman of the UN’s climate science panel admits that it made a mistake in asserting that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) included the date in its 2007 assessment of climate impacts.

A number of scientists have recently disputed the 2035 figure, and Jean-Pascal van Ypersele told BBC News that it was an error and would be reviewed.

But he said it did not change the broad picture of man-made climate change.

The issue, which BBC News first reported on 05 December, has reverberated around climate websites in recent days.

Some commentators maintain that taken together with the contents of e-mails stolen last year from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, it undermines the credibility of climate science.

. . . .

Meanwhile, in an interview with the news agency AFP, Georg Kaser from the University of Innsbruck in Austria – who led a different portion of the AR4 process – said he had warned that the 2035 figure was wrong in 2006, before AR4′s publication.

“It is so wrong that it is not even worth discussing,” he told AFP in an interview.

David Frum and David Brooks calls in 2008 for Republicans to ditch libertarianism are disgusting.

SA is right about the liberty movement needing leaders. Senator Demint is fiscal conservative, but foreign policy wise, he’s a neo-con. There is, of course, Ron Paul. Rand Paul and Peter Schiff are also running.

These are the REGULATORS which so many of my liberal friends consider guardians and saviors.

Again, and again and all day long — regulation does not protect the public from business. It protects business from the public.

The government shouldn’t reward liars. But that’s the effect of changes to the Obama administration’s failing program to help homeowners modify their mortgages.

Until recently the rules were clear: if you grossly understated your income to qualify for the program, you had to restart the loan modification process. It made sense. After all, we got into this housing mess partly because too many people were dishonest about how much they made.

Fast forward to today. The federally funded Home Affordable Modification Program was aimed at getting banks to rework mortgages for homeowners in order to slow the pace of foreclosures. The government set a goal of modifying up to 4 million mortgages over the next three years.

The program isn’t working like it’s supposed to. Since March, just 31,000 homeowners have won permanent relief. One big reason why is that lenders are doing what they should have been doing all along — requiring things like proof of income.

How’s the government responding? By letting homeowners who fudge their income numbers off the hook with little more than a wink and a nod. (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Rewarding irresponsible people is horrible economics, not to mention morality, but in D.C., political expediency rules all else.