The GrassCity Gazette

[MountyBounty]

14 People Charged With Illegally Purchasing 77M Cigarettes

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia and smuggling the cigarettes to New York.

Two are also accused of paying an agent posing as a hit man to kill a husband and wife whom they believed had stolen from them.

The indictments handed up Thursday in federal court in Alexandria are the culmination of a yearlong investigation.

Authorities say the smuggling ring paid $8 million plus guns and drugs to the undercover agents for the cigarettes.

Cigarette smuggling has increased in recent years as high taxes in New York and elsewhere have made the crime more profitable.

The defendants lived in Virginia, Maryland, New York and the District of Columbia.

Foxnews.

[Dickie4:20]

YouTube - Was I hired to stand in the way of...

[Dickie4:20]

Major Hasan and The Legacy of George W Bush | CommonDreams.org

[AK Infinity]

msnbc.com Video Player

[willisvillis]

Irish priest kidnapped in Philippines released by MILF | csmonitor.com

Irish priest kidnapped in Philippines released by MILF


Filipino militants released an elderly Irish priest late on Wednesday night after holding him in captivity for 32 days. Father Michael Sinnott had worked in the Philippines for nearly 33 years when six armed gunmen kidnapped him from a gated compound in Pagadian City on Oct. 11. He was released into the custody of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which turned him over to government authorities on Thursday morning

[AK Infinity]

Lucas Daniel Smith 10.12.09 new Declaration ...
Get your own at Scribd or explore others:

[Dickie4:20]

Every Island


Friday the thirteenth was an unlucky day for three more banks and of course for taxpayers, costing us another billion Dollars. Technically the FDIC operates on premiums from insured banks and not public money but bankers don’t have their pay docked for this, they pass it on to us.

Everything stupid that corporations do gets paid for by us. Libertarians think every man is an island. Unless you live on a real island in a remote part of the world you can’t even begin to be independent. Of course with global warming, you had better have pontoons on your island.

[kstigs]

Originally Posted by Dickie4:20

Libertarians think every man is an island. Unless you live on a real island in a remote part of the world you can’t even begin to be independent. Of course with global warming, you had better have pontoons on your island.

Why the random, incorrect generalization about libertarians? Libertarians are for freedom. They're not for everyone living independently of each other.

[Dickie4:20]

Originally Posted by kstigs

Why the random, incorrect generalization about libertarians? Libertarians are for freedom. They're not for everyone living independently of each other.

I think the point was no one is truely independent in this society and we all rely on each other in some way or another..

[Dickie4:20]

Wonk Room » Scoring Obama’s Foreign Policy Record

great article

[MountyBounty]

THE COOLEST (OR CREEPIEST) THING ON FACEBOOK by Scott Budman

acebook likes to talk about privacy, but, let’s be honest: If you’ve spent any time on the social networking behemoth, you know the site is all about revealing yourself.

A new app, however, may take Facebook’s hey-look-at-me culture one step too far.

It’s called “Photo Tagger,” from a company called Face.com. It uses impressive photo recognition technology to take your uploaded photos, go out to the Web, and identify them through “tags.” Tags being those little ID’ing names that you can see when you scroll your cursor over a Facebook photo.

That in itself doesn’t sound all that bad, but when we tried this in the newsroom, it scared the crap out of just about everybody with a Facebook account. Here’s why: While it’s a convenient way to tag photos you may have just uploaded as an album onto your Facebook page, it can quickly and accurately identify someone who may not know they’re in your album, or who may not be a friend of yours.

The only mistakes we saw were when someone was ID’ed, but it was actually their twin brother or sister. That in itself unsettled a few of our test subjects.

Face.com’s CEO Gil Hirsch, talking to us from Tel Aviv, Israel, where the company is based, explained that his company’s technology helps to solve the problem of identifying people whose faces are not facing the camera (or are out of focus) when you take a picture, and are therefore harder to tag.

He says the point of “Photo Tagger” is not to stalk people, but rather to better identify people who are OK with you putting pictures of them onto your Facebook photo albums. In fact, he says, his app is specifically built to only find people who already want to be your friend. But what about people who don’t quite get that once they’re on any social networking site, they’re pretty much kissing their privacy goodbye? Most people I know think nothing of putting their (identified) family members up on Facebook, and letting in just about anybody who wants to be their “friend.”

Understandably, this has been creeping out many of the women I work with. Now, to Face.com’s credit, the app asks the Facebook member if he or she wants to be tagged, and they can opt not to. You can adjust your “privacy” settings on the site. But again, once you’re on Facebook, do you really have any more privacy?

In a social networking landscape where being recognized is currency, this new app could actually bring you more credit for your work. It will make it easier for you to be seen, and identified. But that’s also the point of the concern.

How often have you been “friended” by someone you don’t know? This will likely increase that. If you social network, folks, your stuff is on the ‘net, and will be seen by others. They don’t call it the World Wide Web for nothing. Use “Photo Tagger” if you’d like. The technology is pretty cool. You just have to get over the fact that being recognized is easier than ever.

Source

[Dickie4:20]

Failure to publicly respect military service would get a liberal raked over the coals, but if Bill Kristol the no-nothing neocon who loves war does it, its ok.

William Kristol: Anti-Obama, pro-America | Washington Examiner

"In areas where policies are still being debated — in foreign policy in particular — conservatives need to keep urging Obama to do the right thing. We are disgusted with Obama’s irresoluteness on Afghanistan. But we continue to urge that he side with the experienced military leaders he’s been fortunate to inherit against the second-guessing of political hacks (and of failed retired generals turned political hacks)."

Hes obviously talking about retired Generals Karl Eikenberry and James Jones.

[Dickie4:20]

YouTube - Ed Show - Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR04)...

Look, a real Democrat with guts!