The Breakfast Club: 4-4-2014

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

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This Day in History

Breakfast News

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Afghan policeman shoots dead AP reporter Niedringhaus

Two female journalists working for the Associated Press news agency have been shot by a police officer in eastern Afghanistan, officials say.

One of the women, Anja Niedringhaus, died in the attack. Her colleague, Kathy Gannon, is reported to be stable.

The attack took place in the town of Khost near the border with Pakistan.

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Kerry: Peace talks not open-ended

RABAT, Morocco (AP) – Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. will evaluate its role in the Mideast peace process after negative Israeli and Palestinian moves.

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How the U.S. secretly created a ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir political unrest

In July 2010, a U.S. government official flew to Barcelona to put the final touches on a secret plan to build a social media project aimed at undermining Cuba’s communist government.

Joe McSpedon and his team of high-tech contractors had come in from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Washington and Denver. Their mission: to launch a messaging network that could reach hundreds of thousands of Cubans.

To hide the network from the Cuban government, they would set up a byzantine system of front companies using a Cayman Islands bank account, and recruit unsuspecting executives who would not be told of the company’s ties to the U.S. government.

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Texas executes man after court’s OK

A serial killer was put to death yesterday in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his attorneys’ demand that the state release information about where it gets its lethal-injection drug.

Tommy Lynn Sells, 49, was the first inmate to be injected with a dose of newly replenished pentobarbital that Texas prison officials obtained to replace an expired supply of the powerful sedative.

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FSU under investigation for handling of Jameis Winston case

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation of Florida State University into whether its handling of the Jameis Winston rape allegations violated Title IX laws, according to a letter confirming the decision that was obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

A spokesman for the Department of Education confirmed the school is being investigated for a Title IX complaint.

An FSU student said she was raped by Winston on Dec. 7, 2012. Deadspin reported Thursday that school officials met with Winston in late January to discuss the alleged assault. But as it attempts to comply with Title IX, the school might have further violated the law. Both a lengthy delay in conducting the investigation and a meeting only with Winston contradict guidance given to schools in 2011 by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

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Detroit Man Charged With Using Religion To Pull Off Mortgage Scam

A Detroit man is accused of using religion to gain the confidence of people with mortgage problems and steal more than $300,000.

The Michigan attorney general’s office says Anthony Carta’s company called “Freedom by Faith Ministries” was a total scam.

Carta, 55,  is accused of taking money from more than 100 people who were led to believe he would help them with their montages through his company.  Authorities say Carta pocketed the cash, but did nothing to assist the customers.

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Ocean discovered on Enceladus may be best place to look for alien life

Researchers have discovered a deep saltwater ocean on one of the many small moons that orbit Saturn, leading scientists to conclude it is the most likely place in the solar system for extraterrestrial life to be found.

Gravitational field measurements taken by Nasa’s Cassini space probe revealed that a 10km-deep ocean of water, larger than Lake Superior, lurks beneath the icy surface of Enceladus at the moon’s south pole.

David Stevenson, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said the body of water was so large it “may extend halfway or more towards the equator in every direction. It might even extend all the way to the north.”

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Dieting monkeys offer hope for long life

Extreme calorie counting boosts lifespan in monkeys, according to new research.

Until now, the rationale for following an ultra-low calorie diet to ward off ageing has been based on experiments in worms and mice.

Studies reported in Nature Communications found primates also benefited from the regime.

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Must Read Blog Posts

The Bidding on The Republic Begins in Earnest

The Road Warrior

The Evening Blues – 4-3-14

We have pubic hair for a reason

DOJ Doesn’t Want You to Know about Any Inspire-related FISA Surveillance Programs

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The Daily Wiki

Inattentional Blindness

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Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Mahatma Gandhi

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Breakfast Tunes



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LaEscapee’s Stupid Shit from Last Week

A Rambling

4 comments

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    • on 04/04/2014 at 17:27

    Our troops needed to be out of Afghanistan years ago. Actually, they never should have been sent there in the first place.

    My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Anje Niedringhaus. Blessed Be.

    We wish Kathy Gannon a speedy recovery.

    AP detailed on Niedringhaus’ Pulitzer Prize-winning career:

       Niedringhaus covered conflict zones including Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, Gaza and the West Bank during a 20-year stretch, beginning with the Balkans in the 1990s. She had traveled to Afghanistan numerous times since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

       Niedringhaus, who also covers sports events around the globe, has received numerous awards for her works.

       She was part of an AP team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for coverage of the war in Iraq, and was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation. She joined the AP in 2002 and had since been based in Geneva, Switzerland. From 2006 to 2007, she was awarded a Nieman Fellowship in journalism at Harvard University.

       Niedringhaus started her career as a freelance photographer for a local newspaper in her hometown in Hoexter, Germany at the age of 16. She worked for the European Press Photo Agency before joining the AP in 2002, based in Geneva. She had published two books.

    • on 04/04/2014 at 19:22

    if it required me to go on a severe Calorie Restriction (CR) diet.

    The participants restrict calories by 25% over several years, existing mainly on a diet of vegetables, fruits (especially apples), and soups.

    I can do a healthy, lower calorie diet but even that is hard to maintain within the American Life Style.

    Would definitely have to eliminate travel agency planned trips, drop all of my friends and not visit with my family since it seems that almost all activities revolve around food.  

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