March 13, 2015

Mayor candidate found beheaded in Mexico

In the state of Guerrero, a leftist Mexican mayoral candidate has been found decapitated. Aide Nava was believed to have been kidnapped by a band of criminals on Monday.

On Wednesday, authorities announced having discovered Aide Nava's decapitated body the previous day in the state of Guerrero. According to local media, the criminal gang Los Rojos has threatened other politicians with the same fate suffered by the 42-year-old, who was running for mayor in the town of Ahuacuotzingo.

"It is a very lamentable case, and of heavy significance," Guerrero Attorney General Miguel Angel Godinez said on Wednesday. "For that, we have to manage it with a lot of care."

In 2014, narcotics criminals had murdered Nava's husband, the former mayor of Ahuacuotzingo. Meanwhile, their son, kidnapped last year, remains missing.

"We are sorry for the murder of Aide Nava and demand an investigation," Celestino Cesareo Guzman, the head of Nava's Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) in Guerrero state, said on Wednesday. "She was taken from a political meeting in the community, and lamentably they ended her life," Guzman said.
Mexicans will head to the polls on June 7 to vote for federal legislators and state and local officials.

Last year, the state of Guerrero became the focus of international media attention after 43 trainee teachers disappeared in a case that may have involved German weapons. Los Rojos, the gang implicated in Nava's murder, rival Guerreros Unidos, the cartel believed to have killed the students in September.
According to the government, corrupt local police had abducted the students in league with Guerreros Unidos. According to the United Nations, such disappearances occur frequently in Mexico.

http://www.dw.de/mayor-candidate-found-beheaded-in-mexico/a-18308902

March 12, 2015

Snowden refused to meet with Ponomarev??

The Russian lawmaker kicked out of the country speaks out about Putin, Snowden, and a Russian collapse

In President Vladimir Putin's quest to amass more power, the Russian government has become increasingly corrupt and ever more dangerous for critics and political activists.

Case in point — the suspicious murder of Putin opponent Boris Nemtsov as he walked home across a busy bridge in Moscow almost two weeks ago.

We recently sat down with Ilya Ponomarev — a representative in the lower house of the Russian parliament who has been barred from Russia for his opposition to Putin — and got his take on what's going on in Russia.

Ponomarev believes that the people who killed Nemtsov were affiliated with one of Russia's state security forces, and he says Nemtsov's murder was meant as a "message to Russian elites ... and a message to the West."

BI: Russia is obviously a surveillance state. That being said, America has its own conundrums: NSA phone tapping, Edward Snowden, CIA torture tapes. How is the United States different from Russia in this regard?

IP: I think that there are excesses that exist in all societies. I won't say it's normal to have them, but it's natural to have them. I'm watching very closely ... what Snowden has done. I don't know him personally. I wanted to talk to him, but all of the security people didn't allow me to. But I think that he took the wrong approach to a very right thing which he was doing. Just the implementation was wrong. There was a clear platform to what he was doing, although of course that there were some mistakes made.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ilya-ponomarev-interview-2015-3#ixzz3U1G8UbVq

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And just who *ARE* the "security people" controlling access to Snowden, I wonder?

March 11, 2015

Ex-KGB Major: The Russians Tricked Snowden Into Going To Moscow

Ex-KGB Major Boris Karpichkov told Nigel Nelson of The Mirror that spies from Russia’s SVR intelligence service, posing as ­diplomats in Hong Kong, convinced Snowden to fly to Moscow last June.

“It was a trick and he fell for it," Karpichkov, who reached the rank of Major as a member of the KGB's prestigious Second Directorate while specializing in counter-intelligence, told Nelson. "Now the Russians are extracting all the intelligence he possesses.”

Karpichkov fled Moscow in 1998 after spying on his native Latvia for the KGB and the post-Soviet FSB. The 55-year-old says he is still in contact with several of his old spy pals.

Snowden flew from Hawaii to Hong Kong on May 20, 2013 and identified himself to the world on June 9. The 30-year-old American became stranded in Moscow on June 23 after he landed with a void U.S. passport and an unsigned travel Ecuadorian document obtained by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Karpichkov said that the Kremlin leaked Snowden’s planned flight to Moscow to provoke the U.S. into revoking Snowden's passport, which Washington did on June 22. Assange also advised Snowden that "he would be physically safest in Russia."

Snowden has been living under the protection of the post-Soviet security services (FSB) since at least receiving asylum on Aug. 1. Karpichkov told The Mirror that Snowden lives in an FSB-controlled neighborhood in Moscow's suburbs.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-kgb-spy-the-russians-tricked-snowden-2014-6

March 9, 2015

Question submitted by Blue_Tires

While I'm in the question asking mood:

Has progressive political discourse become so abstract to the point where liberals with a straight face are defending Gaddafi now? (This wasn't just one random poster, nor is this the first time it's happened on DU):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026300021

At what point to you just push the "RESET" button?

March 6, 2015

DIYers - Which of these do you recommend?

http://hooniverse.com/2012/09/24/truth-in-advertising-hazard-fraught-tools/

March 6, 2015

CF-101 "Voodoo"

Admit it -- You LOVE that red zigzag under "Canada"





https://twitter.com/RCAF_ARC/status/573872699417690112
http://t33.ca/jet-aircraft/mcdonnell-cf-101-voodoo.html

March 6, 2015

Snowden says he'd like to return to Geneva

(Reuters) - Edward Snowden has made a public appeal for Switzerland to grant him asylum, saying he would like to return to live in Geneva, where he once worked undercover for the Central Intelligence Agency.

The fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor, wanted by Washington for leaking details of U.S. mass surveillance programs, spoke from Moscow by video link to a Geneva audience after a viewing of "Citizenfour", an Oscar-winning documentary about his case.

"I would love to return to Switzerland, some of my favorite memories are from Geneva. It's a wonderful place," he told the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights on Thursday night, where he was asked about seeking asylum.

"I do think Switzerland would be a sort of great political option because it has a history of neutrality," he said, praising its multicultural diversity and human rights record.

Snowden said he had appealed to 21 countries, "the majority in central and Western Europe", for asylum after the United States canceled his passport and he was stopped from going to Ecuador.

"Unfortunately no country said yes," he said, blaming "political interference" by the Obama administration.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/06/us-swiss-usa-snowden-idUSKBN0M21KO20150306

Seriously? He's still spewing that same old canard?

What's preventing him from leaving his cushy apartment, walking down the street to the national embassy of his choice, and requesting asylum? Unlike Assange, Snowden isn't wanted by the local (Russian) authorities, so assuming he's telling the truth about being a "free" man in Moscow who does what he wants, nobody should prevent him from leaving...

March 6, 2015

Question submitted by Blue_Tires

I'm sorry, but this is just a bullshit hide:

On Thu Mar 5, 2015, 12:54 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

Disclaimer: OP is a frequent defender of Russia Today...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6318093

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

RT has nothing to do with this thread. Low-grade stalking.

JURY RESULTS

A randomly-selected Jury of DU members completed their review of this alert at Thu Mar 5, 2015, 01:03 PM, and voted 4-3 to HIDE IT.

Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Disclaimer: this does seem to be stalking. OP has nothing to do with RT.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: First time.. I voted to Hide.. WTF is wrong with this person?
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: OP only posted a link. Alerter needs to stop stalking.

Juror #7 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: What's the point?

CONSEQUENCES OF THIS DECISION

You will no longer be able to participate in this discussion thread, and you will not be able to start a new discussion thread in this forum until 2:03 PM. This hidden post has been added to your <a href="/?com=profile&uid=124981&sub=trans">Transparency page</a>.

IMPORTANT: Hidden posts remain on your Transparency Page for 90 days. If at any time your Transparency Page contains five or more hidden posts there are additional consequences: 1) your Transparency Page will be displayed and can be read by any logged-in member, 2) you will be unable to post until there are fewer than five hidden posts remaining on your Transparency Page, 3) if you are a forum or group Host and/or serving on the Malicious Intruder Removal Team (MIRT), you will lose those privileges.

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Since WHEN is pointing out a poster's hypocrisy worthy of a hide? And at what point does the jury system stop being about evaluating posts, and just become a passive-aggressive method of petty revenge against posters the jurors might have a grudge against? I only ask because I've lost so many decisions on posts I've alerted on that I don't even bother to alert anymore, and I'm losing the majority of "borderline" calls when I get alerted on...

March 6, 2015

Greenwald says the "Snowden ready to come home!" stories were all fake

https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/573509916188672000

Maybe Kucherena needs to stop claiming he speaks for Snowden, then...And maybe Glenn should just interview Snowden himself to get the real story instead of calling everyone out after the fact...

March 5, 2015

SERIOUSLY? *This* is how simple it's been this whole time??

Man who posts flyers looking for a girlfriend reveals he has had 118 ‘hook-ups’ so far





IT’S a tough marketplace to stand out in. So when New Yorker Dan Perino wanted to settle down amid Manhattan’s brutal dating scene, he took an inventive approach.

The actor and part-time web designer made a flyer with his picture and contact details along with the words “looking for a girlfriend” and “this is not a joke” and plastered it across his local neighbourhood.

Now six months on, the 51-year-old has become a national celebrity and posted more than 40,000 pictures of his face around New York, in an unusual approach to dating that has seen him score hundreds of dates and 118 ‘hook-ups’ so far.

“It’s been going great” he told news.com.au. “I’ve had ... hook-ups with 118 girls, but the dating is a lot more than that.”

The unorthodox approach gained him national media attention when it first came to light in August last year. Since then, Mr Perino has made a documentary, written a short story and is hoping to fund a reality show from his exploits.

“At that time I just wanted to find a girlfriend, I had no idea. I built the flyer with a friend of mine, thinking that I would find one within a week. That wasn’t the case. Then CBS news wanted to interview me and it just kept going and going with the media,” he said.

“I was getting 200-300 calls per day. I couldn’t get back to everybody, it was difficult. I’ve got back to everybody by now, there’s been over 8000 phone calls. I posted well over 40,000 flyers. I try to keep it below 14th street although I do go up to mid-town sometimes.”

The flyers have led to plenty of text messages and at least one or two phone calls a day, although Mr Perino said some are intimidated by his new found ‘celebrity’ status.

“A lot of girls get nervous around me on a date because of the celebrity thing. They’ll read all the articles on me on Google ... They’re just scared, they’re not used to it I guess. I walk down the street and get stopped 10 or 15 times a day for my picture,” he said.

While initially he would take his dates out to dinner, the huge number of prospective girlfriends meant it was costing him a fortune and he’s now downgraded his dates to coffee — albeit with a red rose.

The project has led to plenty of scepticism over whether it’s all a piece of performance art but Mr Perino insists he is genuine.

“It didn’t start of as any kind of media thing, it just started as me to find a girlfriend, but I didn’t really realise that until later in the game ... I guess you could call it a piece of artwork,” he said.

One of his short stories details how a 25-year-old woman in town with her father on business sent a limo to pick him up and bring him to her hotel. Some of his other more bizarre exploits are expected to be featured in the upcoming documentary.

While’s he’s now going on more dates, Mr Perino said women are still the ones who hold all the cards in the dating scene.

“Women are actually picking up me. There’s an interview process. Even if you go on a coffee date, there’s an interview process the women does. They kind of ask you questions without you knowing … to see if you’re going to be strong enough and attractive enough to be with them there’s no such thing as men picking up women, it just doesn’t exist.”

http://www.amny.com/news/dan-perino-s-looking-for-a-girlfriend-fliers-in-nyc-led-to-hook-ups-with-118-girls-he-says-1.10006768
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/man-who-posts-flyers-looking-for-a-girlfriend-reveals-he-has-had-118-hook-ups-so-far/story-fnet0gly-1227245980924