SIX MEN ARRESTED IN LONDON DURING POPE'S VISIT

LONDON (Reuters) in black, Tetractys Merkaba in red.

News item provided by Reuters which is owned by Rothschild. Is this the classic Hegelian dialectic being played out?

- Anti-terrorism police -otherwise known as a government/banker/nwo hit squad with badges- on high alert during a visit by Pope Benedict to the British capital, arrested six men on Friday on suspicion of preparing an attack. Arrested for committing a 'pre-crime'. Arrested by the thought police for thinking about a crime. How very appropriate that this Orwellian activity is taking place in London!

Police -anti-terrorism police, actually, the employment of the word 'police' hoping to confuse the public into thinking that these two groups are the same. THEY ARE NOT, otherwise they would merely be 'the police'- moved quickly to make the pre-dawn arrests of five men who worked as street cleaners in the area in central London near parliament where the pontiff later spoke.

A sixth suspect was arrested about eight hours later but it was not clear if he worked for the same cleaning company contracted by the Westminster area of London. Important to note two things.

1. What is 'the Westminster area of London"? Is this a deliberately vague statement designed to deflect attention away from the fact that these people were more than likely contracted by the City of Westminster? In this so-called terrorist age, what checks and balances were employed by this council in their employment processes? Given that the Pope's London visit was only just announced, did these street sweepers gain employment after the announcement was made? If so, then, would the Council really hire anybody to be in a position to attack the pope? Or, were these so-called terrorist street sweepers contracted before the announcement in the hope that the Pope might visit London one day? If these street sweepers were hired before the announcement of the Pope's tour, this is a good indication that they were placed there by someone who did know, someone like a secret service organisation. Were these street sweepers set up like Bali, 9/11, 7/7 & the 1993 attack on the WTC car park?? We don't now yet, but, something seems to be rotten in the state of London. Events like this offer proof that there is a need for these anti-terrorist activities, and that the government may try to capitalise on the manufactured situation by taking away more public freedom via statutory legislation, which is actually an offer to contract with them, reducing your sovereignty in the process.

2. The City of Westminster, like all government structures are for-profit corporations. That is why they were following the profit driven path of using contracted labour, rather than providing gainful employment that would allow for their employees to live and participate in a community. The priority for this Council is profit, not the welfare of the people they are supposedly serving.

British broadcaster Sky cited unnamed sources as saying the six were Algerian -Sky offers no investigative journalism into this alleged incident whatsoever, but, are oh so quick to offer a culprit's nationality. Another example of a Rupert Murdoch owned company prioritising profit over truth? Remember, this is the company that took BBC off it's Chinese cable package to gain access to the Chinese market, that, for the last ten years, offered absolute lies and fabrications when talking about, both the participants in, as well as the importantly successful S11 protests against the World Economic Forum, and, who started the FOX News network in the United States that spins its political opinions as news. Were these 'unnamed sources' the real culprits? but police said they could not comment on the report and the Algerian embassy said it had not been notified of the arrests of any of its nationals.

Police, who searched eight homes and two businesses in London, reviewed security arrangements after the arrests but decided they remained "appropriate."

The BBC reported that the men had posed "a possible threat to the pope" but police refused to confirm or deny that. The Vatican said the trip would go ahead as planned and that the pope was calm.

Security is expected to be tight on Saturday when demonstrators protesting against the pope plan to march from Hyde Park to Downing Street, the prime minister's official London residence.

Pope Benedict is due to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron, his deputy Nick Clegg and acting opposition leader Harriet Harman, before attending a prayer vigil at the park.

POPE SPEAKS TO CIVIC LEADERS

The pope on Friday visited the parliament area, where he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and addressed British leaders.

Hundreds of protesters along the route called him the "anti-Christ" and shouted "shame" as they held up pictures of children who were sexually abused by priests in a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

Similar protests were held at a Catholic university the pope visited on Friday morning.

The six unnamed men, aged between 26 and 50, were arrested on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," according to police statements.

The pope has been heavily protected during his four-day visit to Britain, traveling in a custom-built bulletproof car surrounded by security officials.

Benedict has not been the target of any serious attacks but his predecessor was almost killed in an assassination attempt in 1981 and was the subject of several other attacks.

When the pope travels outside the Vatican he is protected by the host country's police forces plus a small contingent of about a dozen Vatican security men.

In July 2005, four British Islamists killed 52 people and wounded hundreds by setting off suicide bombs on London's transport system.

An Islamist cell attempted a car bomb attack on Glasgow airport in June 2007, in which one of two would-be suicide bombers was killed. WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING? This is an attempt to link Islam in as the perpretrators of some type of thought crime that the police refused to confirm was an attack on the Pope in his bullet-proof car surrounded by security that could only be compromised by someone on the inside.

Then again, many of you think a bloke in a cave in a third-world country orchestrated the simultaneous hi-jacking of four airliners and using them to take down three buildings in New York, not to mention impact on the Government HQ of the country that spends the most money on its military, so many of you will willingly swallow this so-called attack on the Pope.

"We are totally confident in police and there are no plans to change the program," said Father Federico Lombardi. He said the pope was calm and looking forward to the rest of the visit.

The pope held talks at Lambeth Palace with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the world's 80 million Anglicans.

Williams and the pope, whose Churches split in 1534, both spoke of the importance of faith in society and agreed that Christianity should not be seen as a threat to freedom.

In a joint statement, they said they were committed to continued dialogue but acknowledged obstacles to unity "from within the Christian community," One of the biggest problems for Christianity is that Christians cannot agree on who exactly is a Christian, what Christianity is, and what actually constitutes the Christian bible. a reference to divisions over Anglican women priests and gay bishops.

Later, the pope told British leaders, including four former prime ministers, that religion had to be a "vital contributor" to national debate on a host of issues.

(Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina, Adrian Croft, Stefano Ambrogi and Bill Maclean; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

Anti-Counterfeit Deal Close to Being Signed for Illegal Downloads

By Stephen Jones
Epoch Times Staff
Created: Sep 5, 2010 Last Updated: Sep 5, 2010

DOWNLOAD: A picture taken on March 2009 in Paris shows the screen of a computer showing a web site of downloading contents. Internet users who illegally download movies or music could be slapped with tough penalties. (Caroline Ventezou/Getty Images )

Internet users who illegally download movies or music could be slapped with tough penalties, under an international agreement set to be approved this month.

Representatives from almost a dozen governments and authorities are expected to meet in Tokyo later this month to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Details of the agreement are still shrouded in mystery after the U.S. government blocked the release of the latest draft document that was hammered out during two years of negotiations.

Despite assurances from participant governments, the ACTA has already become a lightning rod for civil rights activists and developing countries around the world.

“In negotiating this agreement,” the newly-formed Internet Freedom Movement said in a recent statement, “the governments and power brokers of the world have chosen to ignore the voice of the people, opting instead to expand their authoritarian spheres of influence into the digital frontier.”

Despite its inception in the Bush administration, the ACTA has since been adopted by Obama, who has described it as a key plank in the government’s strategy against the global trade in counterfeit goods, valued at US$200 billion annually.

The potential signatories to the agreement—the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, the E.U. and its 27 member states, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Singapore, Mexico, and Morocco—agreed in the last meeting in Washington on Aug. 20 to wrap up negotiations in late September.

U.S. officials have said that since ACTA does not require changes in U.S. law, it would not need to be approved by Congress prior to its implementation. However, the secrecy surrounding the negotiations has raised concerns over the content of the final agreement.

An early draft negotiating document that was leaked on the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks in 2007 indicated that authorities would crack down on peer-to-peer file sharing.

The document indicated that travelers could see their iPods or laptops being screened by border security at airports and face criminal charges if found with illegally downloaded films or music. In addition, it would require ISPs to monitor the communication of users, and cut off the Internet connection of serial copyright violators.

Those measures appear to have been watered down, in documents that have been subsequently leaked in 2008, 2009, and earlier this year.

In a joint statement in August, participating countries sought to allay fears over the content of the agreement, saying that it “will not oblige border authorities to search travelers' baggage or their personal electronic devices for infringing materials.” Despite that, the agreement is still likely to grant customs officials the authority to seize counterfeit goods without a court order in all the participating countries.

A further cause for concern raised by Indian officials is that the agreement could affect the free flow of goods—particularly in generic drugs. The country launched a WTO dispute against the E.U. earlier this year over seizures of generic drugs in transit to South America.
However in the August statement, the participatory countries said that the ACTA “will not hinder the cross-border transit of legitimate generic medicines.”

The level of confusion over the content of the agreement is a reflection of the efforts of governments in obscuring the detail of current negotiations.

In March last year, the U.S. government denied a Freedom of Information Act request into the text of the ACTA draft, declaring it a “property classified” national security secret. Unnamed sources told the EurActiv website that the U.S. government has influenced a clampdown on information about ACTA being released widely.

Members of the European Parliament (MEP), who will vote on the treaty later this year, have not been given the full negotiating text—although they have been regularly debriefed.

At a meeting in July this year, Swedish MEP and Swedish Pirate Party member Christian Engström said he was told he could not circulate the details of the briefing with his constituents.

“In a democracy, new laws should be made by the elected representatives after an open public debate,” he wrote on his blog. “They should not be negotiated behind closed doors by unelected officials at the commission, in an attempt to keep the citizens out of the process until it is too late.”

The document has reportedly been circulated to lobbyists for some of the biggest commercial interests.

The U.S. movie, music, and software industries claim that they lose more than $16 billion in sales every year to pirated products, sold, or distributed on the Internet. In a speech at the Export-Import Bank in March this year, President Obama said that his administration was going to “aggressively protect our intellectual property.” But details of the negotiations suggest already that the implementation new agreement could be fraught with confusion.

According to a recent report by Reuters, the E.U. is pushing for “geographical indicators” being added to the draft document—which would protect goods that are drawn from a particular location, such as Cognac or Champagne. However, business groups are concerned that goods such as Kraft Parmesan cheese could also be regarded as an illegal item.

Nefeterius McPherson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, was quoted as saying that all of the current disputes are resolvable by the time the participants meet later this month in Tokyo.

US 'POPCORN LUNG' SUFFERER COMPENSATED

AAP September 5, 2010, 9:09 am

A US factory worker suffering from a life-threatening disease known as "popcorn lung" is bracing for an appeal after a jury last month awarded him $US30.4 million ($A33.4 million) against a supplier of a chemical found in butter-flavoured microwave popcorn.

The verdict on August 13 was thought to be the largest award in the country to an individual in a lawsuit involving diacetyl, according to the man's lawyer, Ken McClain. Lawyers for the supplier, BASF, are appealing.

Gerardo Solis, 45, has worked for various popcorn and popcorn-flavouring plants in the Chicago area since 1987. Over time, Solis, a father of three, developed bronchiolitis obliterans, a rare respiratory disease that has destroyed 75 per cent of his lungs, leaving him with the minimum lung capacity a person needs to live. Fireworks displays or second-hand smoke can send Solis into brutal coughing fits, which can cause him to pass out.

Eventually, he'll need a lung transplant, his lawyer said.

"His pain suffering, the loss of life expectancy, these are quality-of-life issues that you can't always put a dollar amount on," McClain said. Solis declined to comment.

Initially, 15 companies and one trade organisation were named in the complaint filed in 2006. All companies but BASF settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

"BASF disputed the claims and is disappointed with the jury verdict," Maureen Paukert, a spokeswoman for the company, wrote in an e-mail. "The company will appeal and is confident its position will be vindicated on appeal if not corrected before by the trial judge."

According to the lawsuit, BASF failed to warn Solis and his co-workers about, among other things, the health and safety hazards associated with diacetyl, failed to conduct adequate testing on the harmfulness of the chemical, and failed to advise workers to wear respirators and chemical suits. The result, the lawsuit alleged, was that Solis continues to suffer physical pain and emotional distress while losing his wage-earning capabilities.

McClain alleged that BASF was particularly culpable because it knew of diacetyl's harmful effects as far back as 1993 when its parent company, BASF AG, found the chemical damaged the lung tissue of rats in a laboratory experiment.

Paukert declined to comment on the alleged study.

Diacetyl is a naturally occurring compound that gives butter its flavour. Studies have shown that the heated vapours of the chemical diacetyl lead to a breakdown of the airway branches deep in the lungs. The lung scarring is irreversible and can be fatal.

In 2002 a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health investigation of a popcorn plant in Jasper, Mo., found a direct link between former workers who developed "popcorn lung" and their exposure to the chemical.

California and the Federal Drug Administration are now considering banning the chemical, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is considering limiting the level of exposure workers can have to the chemical, although no new rules or laws have been enacted despite years of study.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

ARMY TO EVACUATE VICTORIAN FLOOD VICTIMS

ABC September 5, 2010, 4:49 pm

User submitted © Enlarge photo

The Defence Force will help evacuate residents in Victoria's north as the flood crisis worsens and scores of homes remain under water.

Floodwaters are expected to rise in Gippsland and the north-east, particularly around Benalla and Wangaratta, in what residents are calling the worst floods in more than a decade.

Hundreds of homes have already been evacuated and residents are taking shelter at the six relief centres that have been set up across the state.

Victorian Premier John Brumby has been briefed by the police, fire and emergency chiefs.

He says 150 extra police and 50 federal Defence personnel are being deployed to northern Victoria.

"We've been in touch with the Federal Government - there'll be some Defence deployment tomorrow," Mr Brumby said.

"[They will be] relatively small numbers, but there'll be 50 Defence personnel in the north of the state assisting with things like relief, evacuations or relocations and assisting with things like sandbagging and holding back the water."

Mr Brumby says about 250 homes in the north-east and central region have already been inundated with water, but he says it is set to get worse.

"We expect the number of houses to increase particularly in the west of the state and running up the Goulburn again through the north-east tonight and tomorrow so there could be hundreds of more that are affected," he said.

Mr Brumby will soon head to Wangaratta, in the north-east, where flooding has lead to scores of evacuations.

About 40,000 Victorian residents are without power due to strong winds.

Powercor and SP Ausnet have brought in extra crews to repair fallen powerlines in areas stretching from Melbourne's outer-east to Gippsland and around Warrnambool, Ballarat and Daylesford.

SP Ausnet spokesman Joe Adamo is urging people to be patient.

"At this stage, some customers may experience lengthy delays," he said.

"We don't have an actual timeframe. Due to the winds and the weather forecast, crews are working as safely as possible to restore power.

"We do stress and advise people to keep clear of all or any fallen powerlines or hazards that they come across and report them immediately to our 24 hour faults hotline which is 13 17 99."

The ABC's television signal and radio services in Ballarat have also been affected by storms.

The signals went down about 11pm when trees fell on powerlines at the Lookout Hill transmitter site.

The service is expected to return tomorrow, when it is safe enough to set up an emergency transmitter.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the thoughts of all Australians are with those who are dealing with the flood damage in Victoria.

She says she has spoken with Mr Brumby to convey her sympathies.

Homes evacuated

About 70 properties at Benalla in the state's north-east have been evacuated and the flooding has isolated some homes.

In nearby Nagambie, a caravan park has been evacuated, while floodwaters have cut off about 20 people at Dargo.

The manager of the Paradise Island Caravan Park at Wangaratta, Shane Downey, says the water levels are rising at a rate of about half a metre per hour.

"It's come over the levy bank from the Ovens River and it's also come through the back water," he said.

The park has been evacuated, but nearby houses are not currently under threat.

Floodwaters have also engulfed Wangaratta's Painters Island Caravan Park, with water levels expected to peak in the region on Tuesday.

SES spokesman Lachlan Quick says new flooding in Myrtleford, Bright and Mt Beauty will peak today, but the flooding emergency will remain widespread.

"Shepparton will be affected from about Monday onwards," he said.

"Wangaratta will peak above moderate flooding on Tuesday, Horsham will be affected from Monday and Tuesday.

"Charlton will rise to major flood level later today and the Macalister River will have impacts today and tomorrow and Sale is a potential one.

"Possible further releases could see the flooding of Newry."

Gippsland residents are being warned to prepare now, with Sale being identified as possibly being under threat.

Jen Wilkinson, who lives at Dargo in Gippsland, says melted snow and debris from the storms are rushing through the Wonnangatta River near her home.

"We can see the river, the brown flooding river with logs speeding down and occasional trees floating down so it's a moderate flood here," she said.

Mr Quick from the SES says there have been more than 2,000 calls for help so far this weekend.

"We have used emergency alert several times - I think we're up to four or five times now statewide," he said.

"That's the emergency message that will come across as either a text message or on landlines - it'll come across as a recorded voice message.

"We do alert the communities that look like they'll be severely affected using that. We do ask that you be prepared to relocate if necessary if you're in low lying or flood prone areas."

Emergency relief

Meanwhile, the Victorian Government has announced relief funds for people affected by the floods.

People who cannot go home and need basic financial help will be eligible for grants of about $1,000.

Larger grants of about $26,000 will be available for those whose homes have been structurally damaged.

SES operations manager in Wangaratta, Alan Barnard, says the grants will be a welcome relief for people whose homes have flooded.

"From what I can see at the moment I think there's certainly going to be a significant number of people who are going to be able to take up those grants," he said.

"I think it's great the Government has got on board so quickly to assist our people in their greatest time of need."

HANDBOOK SUGGESTS THAT DEVIATIONS FROM 'NORMALITY' ARE DISORDERS

By George F. Will

Sunday, February 28, 2010; A15

Peter De Vries, America's wittiest novelist, died 17 years ago, but his discernment of this country's cultural foibles still amazes. In a 1983 novel, he spotted the tendency of America's therapeutic culture to medicalize character flaws:

"Once terms like identity doubts and midlife crisis become current," De Vries wrote, "the reported cases of them increase by leaps and bounds." And: "Rapid-fire means of communication have brought psychic dilapidation within the reach of the most provincial backwaters, so that large metropolitan centers and educated circles need no longer consider it their exclusive property, nor preen themselves on their special malaises."

Life is about to imitate De Vries's literature, again. The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatry's encyclopedia of supposed mental "disorders," is being revised. The 16 years since the last revision evidently were prolific in producing new afflictions. The revision may aggravate the confusion of moral categories.

Today's DSM defines "oppositional defiant disorder" as a pattern of "negativistic, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures." Symptoms include "often loses temper," "often deliberately annoys people" or "is often touchy." DSM omits this symptom: "is a teenager."

This DSM defines as "personality disorders" attributes that once were considered character flaws. "Antisocial personality disorder" is "a pervasive pattern of disregard for . . . the rights of others . . . callous, cynical . . . an inflated and arrogant self-appraisal." "Histrionic personality disorder" is "excessive emotionality and attention-seeking." "Narcissistic personality disorder" involves "grandiosity, need for admiration . . . boastful and pretentious." And so on.

If every character blemish or emotional turbulence is a "disorder" akin to a physical disability, legal accommodations are mandatory. Under federal law, "disabilities" include any "mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities"; "mental impairments" include "emotional or mental illness." So there might be a legal entitlement to be a jerk. (See above, "antisocial personality disorder.")

The revised DSM reportedly may include "binge eating disorder" and "hypersexual disorder" ("a great deal of time" devoted to "sexual fantasies and urges" and "planning for and engaging in sexual behavior"). Concerning children, there might be "temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria."

This last categorization illustrates the serious stakes in the categorization of behaviors. Extremely irritable or aggressive children are frequently diagnosed as bipolar and treated with powerful antipsychotic drugs. This can be a damaging mistake if behavioral modification treatment can mitigate the problem.

Another danger is that childhood eccentricities, sometimes inextricable from creativity, might be labeled "disorders" to be "cured." If 7-year-old Mozart tried composing his concertos today, he might be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and medicated into barren normality.

Furthermore, intellectual chaos can result from medicalizing the assessment of character. Today's therapeutic ethos, which celebrates curing and disparages judging, expresses the liberal disposition to assume that crime and other problematic behaviors reflect social or biological causation. While this absolves the individual of responsibility, it also strips the individual of personhood and moral dignity.

James Q. Wilson, America's preeminent social scientist, has noted how "abuse excuse" threatens the legal system and society's moral equilibrium. Writing in National Affairs quarterly ("The Future of Blame"), Wilson notes that genetics and neuroscience seem to suggest that self-control is more attenuated -- perhaps to the vanishing point -- than our legal and ethical traditions assume.

The part of the brain that stimulates anger and aggression is larger in men than in women, and the part that restrains anger is smaller in men than in women. "Men," Wilson writes, "by no choice of their own, are far more prone to violence and far less capable of self-restraint than women." That does not, however, absolve violent men of blame. As Wilson says, biology and environment interact. And the social environment includes moral assumptions, sometimes codified in law, concerning expectations about our duty to desire what we ought to desire.

It is scientifically sensible to say that all behavior is in some sense caused. But a society that thinks scientific determinism renders personal responsibility a chimera must consider it absurd not only to condemn depravity but also to praise nobility. Such moral derangement can flow from exaggerated notions of what science teaches, or can teach, about the biological and environmental roots of behavior.

Or -- revisers of the DSM, please note -- confusion can flow from the notion that normality is always obvious and normative, meaning preferable. And the notion that deviations from it should be considered "disorders" to be "cured" rather than stigmatized as offenses against valid moral norms.

georgewill@washpost.com

WTC 7 Burning

Serco

PHILADELPHIA DEMANDS $300 BUSINESS LICENSE FROM BLOGGERS

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on Monday 23 August 2010

Philadelphia, the home of the Liberty Bell wants bloggers to pay up or shut up. The crack in the Liberty Bell just grew wider. That’s right, forget your free speech rights, because according to Philadelphia it isn’t free. It’ll cost you $300 if you run a blog with any ads that creates even 1 cent of income.

According to a Philadelphia newspaper:

For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.

So she earned $50 and has to pay out $300? Like most people, she didn’t think placing ads on her blog classified her blog as a “business”. Of course, the city only knows about the ads you’re placing on your blog if you report that income on your taxes. So it’s the honest bloggers who are being screwed. I’m not advocating being a tax cheat, but if ever there was a reason to not report taxes, this would be it. Maybe she’ll join the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party?

Another blogger, Sean Barry on his blog Circle of Fits, hosted on the free Blogspot earned just $11 in profit over two years and also received a letter from the city.

Barry wrote on his blog Friday

Circle of Fits is a labor of love for the most part. I re-launched it in Sept. 2008 as therapy…as a project that could allow me to reconnect to a long dormant creative writing/ side of my life trapped under years of doubt, loss and laziness…and inspired into fruition by the snapshots of the last year of my late sister’s life.
…
…
I never expected Circle of Fits to “make money” or be deemed a “business”… I put ads on it as an experiment, and I don’t ever expect anyone to click on them..I don’t even know how to put the time in to learn how to control which ones are being presented.

I for one have never heard of a “license” to blog.

Fine, if they want to play it that way and consider hobbyist blogging in the basement as a “business”, then two can play that game. Since you are a “business”, you can now safely deduct your Internet costs (~$400/year) and computer on your federal income tax return. You can also deduct your home office and a percentage of your electricity, mortgage, heating, etc. Also, you can deduct losses for 5 years, which should more than offset the $300. Of course, these deductions really only work if you don’t take the standard deduction on your federal income tax. And if the IRS agent comes knocking, just say “Hey, my stupid city says I’m running a business. Take it up with them.”

http://itknowledgehub.com/networking-infrastructure/philadelphia-demands-300-business-license-from-bloggers/

DEBATING PHILADELPHIA'S $300 'BLOG TAX'

Ray Gustini Ray Gustini Mon Aug 23, 1:04 pm ET

WASHINGTON, DC – The city of Philadelphia is now requiring bloggers who sell ad space to register for a $300 "business privilege license" to continue working in the city. The move to bolster the city's finances--first reported by the Philadelphia City Paper--was greeted with deep skepticism. Here's a sampling of responses:

• $300 Far Too High The city's rationale for demanding the tax is understandable, writes Technorati's Alex Priest. "The city's budget is screwed, everyone is in the red, tax revenue is down, yada, yada, yada." It's the amount of the tax he thinks is wrongheaded. Priest writes that a $300 licensing fee is"outrageous and inexplicable in almost any context," especially when applied to bloggers who "99.9% of the time, aren't making any money anyway."

• Not as Unreasonable as it Looks The fact the city requires freelance writers to pay the same fee shows that bloggers aren't being singled out, contends FireDogLake. "Bloggers aren't being unfairly targeted," they write. Rather, "anyone conducting any form if financial transaction is being targeted."
  

• How Angry Bloggers Should Respond New York Magazine's Nate Freeman suggests outraged Philly bloggers eschew ad services like Google AdSense as a way of protesting the fee. Sure, "the minimal profits that once came rolling in will dry up," a fact Freeman believes is outweighed by the "self-satisfaction of refusing to give the city that hard-earned blog revenue."

• Will Affect Very Few Bloggers Mashable's Christina Warren puts the fee in context. "It isn’t like they are doing full-scale audits for every person in Philly who runs a blog with ads," Warren notes. The only people the crackdown will have a "real-world impact on" are amateur bloggers who "report their blogging income on their individual income tax return." So, in other words, very few people.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20100823/cm_atlantic/debatingphiladelphias300blogtax4793

ANOTHER HERALD SUN HIT PIECE ON THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

Real danger of the bush trio is a flouting of their voters' wishes

• Andrew Bolt From: Herald Sun August 26, 2010 10:31PM

Bob Katter wants to split Queensland into two states. Source: Herald Sun

THE Three Amigos - the rural independent MPs who'll pick our new prime minister - get more dangerous by the day.

Now they've blackmailed Labor and the Liberals into promising not to call an election for another three years.

Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Tony Windsor have by a fluke been left holding the three votes in a Parliament of 150 that will tip the scales to Labor or the Coalition.

They have told Labor's Julia Gillard and the Coalition's Tony Abbott that the price of their support includes a promise not to call another election until 2013. Both Abbott and Gillard promptly caved in.

But how on earth will this play out?

How can Gillard promise to stay a full term, when she couldn't guarantee three years even to Kevin Rudd, who was at least elected, not selected?

But, more fundamentally, how dare these people trade away our right to an early election? How dare they bind us to three years of a government likely to be the most impotent and divided since World War II?

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

Related Coverage

• Voters in key seats say: elect Abbott The Australian, 12 hours ago
• Gillard walks fine line on Greens The Australian, 12 hours ago
• Gillard poised at a tipping point The Australian, 12 hours ago
• Abbott finally agrees to open books Herald Sun, 1 day ago
• Abbott risks forcing three to Left: Brown The Australian, 1 day ago

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

If Abbott becomes prime minister, it's almost certain now to be with a majority of just two.

To get anything through the House of Representatives against Labor's will, he'd need the vote of every Liberal and National MP, plus that of the lone West Australian National and three of the four independents.

What are the odds? Katter is a gun-toting climate sceptic and agrarian socialist whose latest wild plan is to split Queensland into two states, as well as create an expanded state of North-Western Australia.

Oakeshott, however, is a global warmist who wants softer boat people laws. Andrew Wilkie is a former Greens member. Tony Windsor is in the middle, although no one's sure where.

Good luck getting consensus there on tougher boat people laws, free trade or just about anything else.

And even if he did get some deal, Abbott would still need to get it through a Senate dominated by Labor and the intransigent Greens. Imagine three years of that kind of paralysis.

And if Labor wins? To get its agenda through the House of Representatives against a Coalition Opposition, Labor would be likely to need the votes of the lone Greens MP, Adam Bandt, and two of the four independents.

Then it would need the backing in the Senate of the Greens, who oppose its plans for an emissions trading system and want a bigger mining tax.

Labor might get a bit more through Parliament, with the help of the Greens, but it's likely to cost a lot more than it counted on when it promised to balance the Budget in three years.

Three years you'll get of this, with no hope of an early election if it all becomes a farce - unless an independent or government MP rats.

HAPPY? Really want a guaranteed three years of government, no matter how bad?

And now the Three Amigos are consulting with a Labor envoy they dub a "wise elder" to find ways to "change politics".

That envoy, Windsor's cousin, Bruce Hawker, is a paid Labor consultant who on Monday outlined his pet proposal - "bringing people from outside the government into the cabinet or into the ministry".

This means your government would include ministers no one voted for, accountable to no one but the Labor - or Liberal - machine.

If you're stunned that a normal election that's merely produced a tighter result should degenerate into this carnival in which three men from the bush issue imperious demands, float wild proposals, and mull over ways to make politicians less accountable, be not surprised.

So full of themselves are the Three Amigos that they seem itching to choose the very prime minister their own voters don't want.

The Senate vote in the seats of all three shows their own electorates strongly prefer the Coalition.

Indeed, a Galaxy Poll this week found 52 per cent of their own voters want them to choose Abbott, and just 36 per cent Gillard.

But what would mere voters know? Watch the giddy deal makers now go their own way, finding new ways to stop you making them go yours.

HERALD SUN MONITORS "PERSONS OF INTEREST" ON FACEBOOK

Accused who cried poor buys iPhone

• Kate Jones From: Herald Sun August 28, 2010 12:01AM

AN accused Bob Jane T-Mart rioter who told a court he couldn't afford anger management classes has boasted about his new iPhone on Facebook.

Maxwell Brett Lawson, 21, told friends he lined up at Chadstone to buy the new iPhone, which costs $49 a month on an entry-level plan.

On Thursday Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard Lawson, of Junction Village, had not been attending $100 anger management sessions, despite being ordered to as part of his bail conditions.

A lawyer for Lawson told the court the sessions were too expensive for Lawson.

Despite this, magistrate Donna Bakos extended his bail.

Lawson will face court again on January 19 with eight other men charged over the Oakleigh riot, which caused more than $50,000 damage.

While leaving court on Thursday, Lawson happily smiled for photographers while talking on his mobile phone.

He commented on Facebook, "Page 23 of the herald sun lmao it's a good pic to" (sic).

Asked if he found the court case funny, Lawson said he took it very seriously, but had found his photo in the Herald Sun amusing.

"If I found it funny I wouldn't have got a lawyer and followed my bail conditions," he said. "I want it over and done with. I'm over it, sick of it."

He said he could not afford the anger management course because he was "short on funds".

DOB IN FOOTY HOONS BY TEXT

• Amelia Harris From: Herald Sun August 28, 2010 12:01AM

AMATEUR football fans will be able to dob in drunks and foul-mouthed supporters during the finals via their mobile phone as part of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour.

Spectators who witness drunken, unruly or antisocial behaviour can send a text message to a special number, which will go to Victorian Amateur Football Association headquarters, which will alert the ground manager.

Fans acting inappropriately can be evicted from games.

The VAFA - the biggest senior community football league in Australia - will launch the MCG-style system when its finals start today.

And it hasn't ruled out introducing the scheme during the home-and-away season.

Alcohol cannot be bought, sold or consumed during VAFA games.

The only exception is for club-organised, sit-down functions where alcohol is removed from the table before the first bounce.

VAFA chief executive officer Michael Sholly said antisocial behaviour could increase during finals when emotions ran high and more people attended games.

"Most people in community football do know amateur football rules about no drinking at games, but because they play in other competitions they try to pretend they don't," Mr Sholly said.

"When you first approach them, they plead ignorance.

"It's certainly not the people who follow amateur football every week.

"This provides (fans) with a way to contact us and we can send a person over to deal with (unacceptable behaviour) rather than them having to do it."

The MCG text message hotline was launched at last year's Boxing Day Test.

Mr Sholly said the VAFA decided to try the idea after its success at Melbourne's sporting mecca.

"We would consider it (during the home-and-away season)," he said.

"It is obviously a lot harder with 125 matches a week.

"We might not be able to respond as quickly."

The Herald Sun revealed last week that clubs in the Essendon District Football League have been banned from selling alcohol before noon on Saturdays and 4pm on Sundays if juniors are playing next to a licensed clubhouse.