News and Views is a column containing an assortment of interesting national and international political and financial information, opinions, candidate reviews, scheduled events, Tea Party information, meetings and press releases that we hope will interest you.
America Owns the Internet
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) died in Congress, but the Administration of President Barack Obama is showing it doesn’t need the legitimacy of law in its effort to take over the world. Now, through the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, any Internet domain is subject to seizure at any time.
Case in point: The Canadian-owned online sports gaming site Bodog.com.
Bodog.com was registered with the Vancouver-based DomainClip. It has no ties to the United States. Yet, Maryland State prosecutors were able to obtain a warrant ordering Verisign, the company that ultimately manages all the dot-com, dot-net and dot-org domain names in the world, to redirect the website to a warning page advising that it had been seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The U.S. government has a history of going after online gaming operations, whether they are located within the United States or offshore. But stepping into another country’s jurisdiction steps it up a notch.
Online gambling has nothing to do with Homeland Security. There are two reasons the Administration is doing this: Control of Internet content and money. Piracy is just the cover story the Administration uses.
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Jockeys For Power
Last weekend, Egypt’s Islamic-dominated parliament voted to start the process of a no-confidence vote for the military-backed, interim government of Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri. Parliament also moved to vote to end more than $1 billion in U.S. aid for the Egyptian military. Do these dramatic moves mean that Egypt’s revolution is about to take a disastrous turn for the worse?
LIGNET believes that the recent actions of Egypt’s parliament are electioneering tactics used to increase support for the Muslim Brotherhood ahead of the coming presidential election in May. They have no real teeth as the military has veto power over them. Leveraging the recent decision of the interim government to release Americans jailed for interfering in Egyptian domestic affairs, the Brotherhood is jumping on a wave of anti-foreign sentiment to increase its votes at the ballot box.
What You Lose When You Sign That Donor Card
Giving away your organs sounds noble, but have doctors blurred the line between life and death?
Becoming an organ donor seems like a win-win situation. Some 3.3 people on the transplant waiting list will have their lives extended by your gift (3.3 is the average yield of solid organs per donor). You’re a hero, and at no real cost, apparently.
But what are you giving up when you check the donor box on your license? Your organs of course—but much more. You’re also giving up your right to informed consent. Doctors don’t have to tell you or your relatives what they will do to your body during an organ harvest operation because you’ll be dead, with no legal rights.
The most likely donors are victims of head trauma (from, say, a car or motorcycle accident), spontaneous bleeding in the head, or an aneurysm—patients who can be ruled dead based on brain-death criteria. But brain deaths are estimated to be just around 1% of the total. Everyone else dies from failure of the heart, circulation and breathing, which leads the organs to deteriorate quickly.
The current criteria on brain death were set by a Harvard Medical School committee in 1968, at a time when organ transplantation was making great strides. In 1981, the Uniform Determination of Death Act made brain death a legal form of death in all 50 states.
The exam for brain death is simple. A doctor splashes ice water in your ears (to look for shivering in the eyes), pokes your eyes with a cotton swab and checks for any gag reflex, among other rudimentary tests. It takes less time than a standard eye exam. Finally, in what’s called the apnea test, the ventilator is disconnected to see if you can breathe unassisted. If not, you are brain dead. (Some or all of the above tests are repeated hours later for confirmation.)
Here’s the weird part. If you fail the apnea test, your respirator is reconnected. You will begin to breathe again, your heart pumping blood, keeping the organs fresh. Doctors like to say that, at this point, the “person” has departed the body. You will now be called a BHC, or beating-heart cadaver.
Still, you will have more in common biologically with a living person than with a person whose heart has stopped. Your vital organs will function, you’ll maintain your body temperature, and your wounds will continue to heal. You can still get bedsores, have heart attacks and get fever from infections.
“I like my dead people cold, stiff, gray and not breathing,” says Dr. Michael A. DeVita of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “The brain dead are warm, pink and breathing
Israel/Balkans: Jerusalem gains Strategic Allies To Offset Turkish Ill Will
Relations are flourishing between Israel and countries in southeastern Europe as Jerusalem’s “Periphery Doctrine” is prompting it to develop close strategic alliances with countries that can play a role in fighting anti-Israel sentiments. After considerable success in sub-Saharan Africa, Jerusalem appears to be reaping the rewards of the same policy in Eastern Europe.
These expanded relations appear driven by Israel’s desire to offset Turkey’s recent unsettling aggressiveness toward Israel and Jerusalem’s desire for help in developing its newly discovered large natural gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. East European countries with which Israel is making major inroads include Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece.
Does Humanitarian Aid Improve America’s Image?
Pew Global Attitudes Project
Nearly a year ago, as Japan struggled with the devastation wrought by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the United States military launched “Operation Tomodachi,” a major humanitarian aid mission, to help the Japanese government respond to the crisis. The effort made a strong impression on the Japanese people – ratings for the U.S. reached sky-high levels following the American mission. And it was not the first time that relief to those in need has enhanced America’s reputation. In recent years, both Indonesians and Pakistanis have expressed more positive views about the U.S. after receiving significant levels of disaster relief. However, the Indonesian and Pakistani examples also suggest that the impact of humanitarian efforts has its limits.
In Japan, America’s overall image was already quite positive before the tsunami. Roughly two-in-three Japanese respondents (66%) expressed a favorable view of the U.S. in a spring 2010 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. But a year later, in a Pew survey conducted just weeks after the tsunami, 85% gave the U.S. a positive rating, the highest percentage among 23 nations polled. Similarly, a September-October, 2011 survey, conducted by the Japanese Cabinet Office, found 82% expressing a “friendly feeling” toward the U.S., the highest percentage since the annual poll began in 1978.
Of course, many things can affect how people view the U.S., but the aid clearly had an impact. Nearly six-in-ten Japanese (57%) said the U.S. provided a “great deal” of assistance following the disaster, while another 32% said the U.S. gave a “fair amount” of assistance. In contrast, fewer than one-in-five believed the European Union, United Nations, or China had provided a great deal of aid.
Japanese public opinion also shifted on an issue that is frequently a weak spot of America’s global image: the perception that the U.S. tends to ignore the interests of other countries. In 2010, just 31% of Japanese respondents said the U.S. takes into account the interests of countries like Japan; a year later, 51% held this view.
Indonesia is another example of a country where humanitarian efforts led to a more positive image for the U.S.; and importantly, it is an example of improvement in a predominantly Muslim nation where opinions of the U.S. had soured dramatically after the onset of the Iraq war. Prior to Iraq, the U.S. was generally popular in Indonesia, but in a 2003 poll taken after American forces dislodged Saddam Hussein from power, only 15% of Indonesians expressed a favorable opinion of the U.S.
NBC Host ‘We’re Managing Expectations’ on Economy, ‘Especially for the White House’
Filling in for co-host Matt Lauer on the March 9 NBC Today, CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla seemed to suggest the media was helping the Obama administration shape public perception of the economy: “…we’re in a situation where we’re sort of managing expectations, especially for the White House.”
Quintanilla followed that admission by asking CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer about the upcoming jobs report: “Data’s been pretty good. If it’s not so good today, does that mean we’re suddenly once again going in the wrong direction?” Cramer replied: “I don’t want to think that. I think that there are many good forces at work.”
In his first question to Cramer, Quintanilla spun a decrease in jobless claims as the latest in a string of good economic figures: “Let’s talk first about another number we got this week, jobless claims for unemployment awfully close to a three-year low. Do you think the good news is going to continue today?”
Quintanilla made no mention of the real unemployment rate being over 15%, when you include those who have given up looking for work.
After being rebuffed by Obama, Netanyahu Seeks Canadian Prime Minister’s Help on Iranian Nukes
Israel is turning its attention to Canada as it looks to strengthen international pressure to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. A series of key high-level meetings in the past few months has led to escalating rhetoric from Canadian officials that are likely intended to convince the United States and European Union to take further action to stop Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa on March 2 for a three-day visit to discuss the growing instability in the Middle East and the threat of Iran’s nuclear program. Although Harper told Netanyahu that he would prefer to see a “peaceful resolution of the situation.” Canada under Stephen Harper is one of Israel’s closest allies and will likely support possible airstrikes by Jerusalem against Iranian nuclear sites.
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