Eideard

The BBC World Service is to receive a “significant” sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China.

In what the BBC said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that will see US state department money – understood to be a low six-figure sum – given to the World Service to invest in developing anti-jamming technology and software.

The funding is also expected to be used to educate people in countries with state censorship in how to circumnavigate the blocking of internet and TV services…

Fortunately, the U.S. government need not rely on state censorship to prevent access to BBC World Service in the United States. Self-censorship by the major networks, cable and satellite TV distribution systems takes care of that.

The deal, which is expected to be formally announced on International Press Freedom Day, 3 May, follows an increase in incidents of interference with World Service output across the globe, according to its controller of strategy and business, Jim Egan…

“Governments who have an interest in denying people information particularly at times of tension and upheaval are keen to do this and it is a particular problem now,” said Egan…

Egan added that the battle against jamming is likely to be an ongoing one because repressive countries are likely to develop methods to counter any anti-censorship technology that is developed.

I was surprised to find the Obama administration doing this. Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats think of the BBC with the same brain cells that quiver in fear at mention of AlJazeera’s English service.

My guess is that the grant will come with provisos requiring BBC World Service to barely continue efforts to enter the U.S. online – and forget TV here altogether.

The U.S. government agency that prints passports has for years failed to resolve persistent concerns about the security risks involved in outsourcing production to foreign factories.

“On a number of levels this is extremely troubling,” said Clark Kent Ervin, a former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security. “Something like that ought to be produced only in the United States, under only the most rigorous security standards.”

Despite repeated assurances they would move production to the U.S., a key government contractor has continued to assemble an electronic component of the nation’s new, more sophisticated passport in Thailand…

The Thai factory was one of several concerns raised in an inspector general’s audit earlier this year that looked into the way the GPO is producing the new e-passport – a passport that is supposed to be impenetrable to counterfeiters because it stores information on an embedded computer chip that is tucked into the cover.

Experts agree that passport production is a critical homeland security concern, given that possession of an American passport can help a traveler bypass some of the stringent reviews conducted of those entering the U.S. from abroad. Ervin described the document as an EZ-pass into the United States, something officials say terrorists know all too well.

GPO’s inspector general has warned that the agency lacks even the most basic security plan for ensuring that blank e-Passports — and their highly sought technologies – aren’t stolen by terrorists, foreign spies, counterfeiters and other bad actors as they wind through an unwieldy manufacturing process that spans the globe and includes 60 different suppliers.

RTFA – and face up to the reality that years of incompetent management by fools like Bush and creeps like Cheney will take forever to unravel and get sorted. Outsourcing the components for something as significant as passport production to 60 companies around the world is the ultimate in corporate cronyism.

We probably need a special agency established just to investigate and correct the economic crimes and corruption the current administration inherited from the days of Republican control of our government.

Republican energy program

The United States on Thursday finalized its first greenhouse gas emissions rules on automobiles and hiked fuel efficiency standards for the first time since the 1970s, measures Canada imposed as well.

The U.S. rules will first apply to 2012 model cars, rolling off production lines next year. They are part of President Barack Obama’s goal to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by about 17 percent under 2005 levels by the year 2020.

Obama wants Congress to pass a long-delayed climate bill, but to push it along, he has also set in motion steps for the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating emissions from cars and large polluters like power plants…

“We’ve developed a clean cars program that is a win for automakers and drivers, a win for innovators and entrepreneurs, and a win for our planet,” said Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the EPA, which finalized the fuel rules with the Department of Transportation.

The efficiency rules, which car-makers knew for months were coming, require that cars and trucks get on average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, up 42 percent from current rules, of just under 25 miles per gallon.

The EPA spelled out on Thursday for the first time that average vehicle emissions will be limited to 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile by 2016, down from 295 grams in 2012.

Canada’s government also finalized fuel efficiency rules on Thursday. Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Canada and the United States “will effectively share common standards” for limiting vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

The two countries are working together on proposed standards for tractor-trailer trucks, which should be released in the next few months, Prentice said.

RTFA. Witness useful regulation that can be promulgated between nations – even without the participation of the Party of NO.

The battle of El Alamein was a turning point in World War II but the unexploded munitions it left behind continue to kill and maim the local population.

As spectators of desert warfare, Arab Bedouins have always had the front-row seats. For thousands of years they have watched vast armies wage war on the harshest of battlefields.

In 331 BC, the Bedouin were ringside, tending their camels, sheep and goats, as Alexander the Great mustered his men in the sands of Mesopotamia – modern-day Iraq – and conquered half of Persia. In 1942, their descendants were still grazing animals, this time in the Sahara, as they witnessed the massed armies of Montgomery and Rommel fight out the pivotal World War II battle of El Alamein.

Today however, Egyptian Bedouin are not merely onlookers but reluctant combatants in a battle against death and injury in their ancestral lands.

The Allied and Axis forces are long gone from North Africa but their lethal legacy remains – millions of rusting landmines, bombs, mortars and artillery shells lying in wait for the unwary shepherds and their children…

The exact number of killed or injured since 1942 is unknown

RTFA. Tales of those left to a life distorted by the detritus from foreign armies.

A comparatively small number of registered landmine victims are suing for damages. Western lawyers and politicians have many “expert” reasons why this shouldn’t be allowed.

US losses to online crime almost doubled during 2009, reveals a report.

Losses totalled $560 million in 2009, up from $265 milion in 2008, showed the annual report by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

The most popular scams involved requests for advanced fees and non-delivery of merchandise…

One scam that proved popular in 2009 involved people receiving an e-mail from the “Ishmael Ghost Islamic Group”. The sender claims he has been told to assassinate the recipient and their family. Only by giving a donation to a UK group that helps Islamic expatriates will the death threat be lifted.

While the average loss from online fraud during 2009 was $575 the total jumped significantly because some victims lost enormous sums to criminals, said the report. About 1% of the crimes reported involved losses of more than $100,000…

The report also tried to put figures on the character of the hi-tech crime population. Figures it gathered suggest that 76% of criminals are male and more than 50% of them live in six locations; California, Florida, New York, Texas, Washington and the District of Columbia.

See! Stop giving all the credit to Nigeria. Our native con artists are doing OK on their own.

Foodborne illnesses cost the United States $152 billion in health-related expenses each year, according to a study just released by consumer and public health groups.

Food safety advocates are hoping that the study will boost efforts in Congress to overhaul the nation’s antiquated food safety system.

Uh, don’t hold your breath!

Dozens of pathogens, many of them unknown, creep into the food supply each year, sickening millions. The price tag includes medical costs, lost productivity and quality-of-life, according to a study from the Produce Safety Project…

The latest study to delve into foodborne illnesses comes as Congress works to craft legislation that would mark the first major overhaul of the food safety system in 50 years…

“My hope… is that the sobering numbers of this report will compel the Senate to act immediately on food safety legislation,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who has vigorously pushed for food safety reform. “We literally cannot afford to wait.”

The Republican Party thinks the whole world can wait while they say NO another hundred times. The Democrats are still waiting to grow a backbone before they press even the simple majority they’ve had since the 2008 election.

RTFA. The rest of us are free to sicken and die.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former secretary of state, has come out in favor of eventually repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay and lesbian service members.

“In the almost seventeen years since the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed,” Powell said in a statement released by his office Wednesday. “I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I will be closely following future hearings, the views of the Service Chiefs and the implementation work being done by the Department of Defense,” Powell said…

“General Powell has made clear that his position is about effectiveness in the military,” Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solomonese said.

“His powerful voice for ending ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is a tipping point in favor of the brave men and women who are serving our nation in silence. The support of respected present and former military leaders brings us closer to repeal, signaling that we’re moving forward and will get there soon.”

“The truth is that there are no more excuses, the death knell for ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ has been rung and now is the moment to send this law into the history books where it belongs.”

Bravo! I keep forgetting there used to be Republicans with a conscience. There are so few left.

Few people expect luxury while flying, but these days, even the basics seem to be in bad shape.

It’s not uncommon to find your tray table broken, the in-flight entertainment system not working and your seat cushion worn — all of which can make you think, how old is this plane anyway?

It won’t be an issue for passengers who board the shiny new Boeing 787 Dreamliner when it enters commercial service — perhaps sometime next year if everything goes smoothly during its testing period…

But for now, the reality for many U.S. air travelers is that most of their journeys take place on planes that have been in service for a decade or more and show it, though in ways that have no impact on their safety — like worn interiors, broken creature comforts and less than spotless conditions…

“It’s inevitable you draw the link, even subconsciously sometimes, between whether a plane is cosmetically well maintained with whether it’s safe,” said Joe Brancatelli, who flies dozens of times a year and runs JoeSentMe.com, a Web site for business travelers…

In fact, it has been a while since most Americans have experienced that new plane smell.

The average age of the fleet of the seven large U.S. passenger airlines — including American, Alaska, Continental, the merged Delta and Northwest, Southwest, United and US Airways — is about 14 years old, according to The Airline Monitor.

It found American and Delta/Northwest had the oldest fleets, at about 16 years on average. As of the end of 2008, a small percentage of the merged Delta/Northwest’s planes dated back to the late 1960s.

U.S. fleets are among the oldest in the world, said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia.

RTFA. There’s a bit of babble about safety regulations – which doesn’t mean squat unless the regulations are enforced. Anyone know of any regulations, at all, anywhere, that were enforced during the Bush/Cheney years? We have eight years worth of mediocrity to fix.

Thanks, Liz

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Measures under consideration in the Turkish government deal with discrimination and human rights for the Kurdish minority community, the interior minister said. Ankara is considering a series of provisions aimed at finding a political solution to lingering issues with Kurdish minorities and guerrilla separatists.

Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, called recently for PKK rebels in Iraq to form so-called peace groups who would surrender to Turkish authorities. Ankara, for its part, is considering a series of amnesty offers and cultural considerations as part of a broader reconciliation plan.

Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay said the government was preparing a human rights bill and anti-discriminatory measures to send to lawmakers for their approval, Turkey’s leading English-language daily newspaper Today’s Zaman reports.

Atalay added there were plans for a trilateral committee of U.S., Iraqi and Turkish officials to discuss the resettlement of PKK members from camps in northern Iraq to compounds inside his country.

The interior minister estimated that there were around 11,000 members of the PKK in Iraq. “I think more than 50 percent of them would return to Turkey,” he said.

Surely, Cheney and his brown shirts teabaggers will find some reason to whine about this bit of diplomacy in the Middle East.

Kurds returning home? Declarations of peace? Civil rights? Not the kind of change Republicans favor.