Exact numbers of Americans erroneously held by immigration authorities are hard to come by, since they are not systematically recorded. In one study, 82 people who were held for deportation from 2006 to 2008 at two immigration detention centers in Arizona, for periods as long as a year, were freed after immigration judges determined that they were American citizens.

LINK

A former official from within the ranks of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reporting that US and NATO forces have landed outside of Syria and are training militants to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, formerly a translator with the FBI, wrote over the weekend that American soldiers are among the NATO troops that have mysteriously and suddenly landed on the Jordanian and Syrian border. According to her, several sources internationally have confirmed the news, although the US media has been instructed to temporarily censor itself from reporting the news.
[snip]
Edmonds writes that an Iraqi journalist based out of London has confirmed that US forces that vacated the Ain al-Assad Air Base in Iraq last week did in fact leave the country as part of President Obama's drawdown of troops, but rather than return home, the soldiers were transferred into Jordan during the late hours of Thursday evening. Another source, writes Edmonds, informs her that "soldiers who speak languages other than Arabic" have been moving through Jordan mere miles from the country's border with Syria.
[snip]
Nizar Nayouf, a correspondent for Edmond's Boiling Frog Post whistleblower site, says an employee of the London-based offices of Royal Jordanian Airlines has further confirmed that at least one US aircraft transporting military personnel has brought American troops into Jordan in recent days.

BFP Exclusive- Developing Story: Hundreds of US-NATO Soldiers Arrive & Begin Operations on the Jordan-Syria Border

Robin Sanders [of] Illinois [. . .] was driving home when an officer pulled her over for having a loud muffler. But instead of sending her off with a warning, the officer arrested Sanders, and she was taken right to jail.

"That's when I found out [that] I had a warrant for failure to appear in Macoupin County. And I didn't know what it was about." Sanders owed $730 on a medical bill. She says she didn't even know a collection agency had filed a lawsuit against her. . . .

A company will often sell off its debt to a collection agency, generally called a creditor. That creditor files a lawsuit against the debtor requiring a court appearance. A notice to appear in court is supposed to be given to the debtor. If they fail to show up, a warrant is issued for their arrest.

Surprise, surprise.

The University of Vermont has temporarily suspended the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon after one their members sent out a survey asking his brothers who they would like to rape.
[snip]
Sigma Phi Epsilon -- or SigEp -- was already on probation for alcohol abuses, but this latest incident prompted university authorities to contact the national fraternity and the police.
[snip]
"If I could rape someone, who would it be?" the survey asked.
[snip]
Students have been asked to contact UVM Police Services at 802-656-3473 if they have any information about the survey.

A study released by the Center for Disease Control Wednesday found that almost one in five women in the U.S. had been victims of sexual assault.

--RawStory

Included in a 35-question automated phone poll by Public Policy Polling to track the Republican Presidential campaign among likely Republican caucus voters in Iowa was the following query:

"Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Tim Tebow?"

The question went to 171 of 555 respondents to the poll over the past three days, with 48 percent voting for "favorable." Only 13 percent voted for "unfavorable." Another 40 percent said they were "not sure,"

• Viagra Commercials, as if they aren't cheesy enough, now there is one without a woman in the commercial.  Also the dudes seem to be getting younger.  My peeve, a couple of those clowns are easily younger then me.

• Super Bowl Half Time Show.  It's football and should be a pleasure/reward for the fan who loves the game.  Madonna & Cirque du Soleil, seriously NFL ?

• Upselling.  Is there a company out there who will be satisfied that I bought something from them without trying to badgering me upgrade or buy something else.

• Advertizing so obnoxious, including videos that play w/o my help, it's hard to concentrate on anything but the advertizing.

• Pharmaceutical Ads in which the side effects list takes longer to play then the actual ad.  Half the mentioned side effects seem like they need their own medications.

• Doctors, who when I sign in, have a pharmaceutical brand pen and clip pad.  And low and behold, the doc thinks I need that medication.  If any place should be free of the influence of big business, it's the doctor's office.  Yet last month, I thought I stepped into the Internets with all the advertizing.  What happen to professionalism, at least the appearance of it ?

• Famous People selling ridiculous stuff, Jimmy Johnson are you so 'hard' up for cash, you need to sell a fake product, ExtenZe ?  Danica Patrick Go Daddy, really ?

OWS nails a fat cat and 91 minions

Possibly racist voter ID required.

Occupy Oakland's Costs to Residents Spell Disaster

Occupy protesters claim that port workers support them, even if their union leaders don't. And for the everyday people trying to live their lives, there is a price to be paid, one protester explained.

"The 99 percent have made sacrifices for this movement," said a member of the Occupy Oakland group who calls herself Veruca. "Everyone has to make sacrifices. We're into this together."

In this case, she must be referring to the $8.5 million in wages, taxes and business activity generated daily at the Port of Oakland--and sacrificed to the cause by the truckers, port workers, business owners and Central Valley farmers who count on perishable goods reaching overseas markets.

A statement on the Occupy Oakland website, www.occupyoakland.org, suggests that targeting ports serves another purpose besides hitting the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans in their pocketbooks. The action at West Coast ports is warranted by "nationally coordinated attacks on Occupy movements," according to the statement.

In other words, the port actions were called in part as retribution when cities decided to clear camps around the Bay Area and many other cities in the country.

Growing public sentiment against local Occupy protesters should serve as a wake-up call to the faceless, nameless group. And the group's misguided decisions to target public operations instead of the corporate marauders who benefited from the federal government's failure to hold the people's interest in trust are still confounding to many Americans.

If there is a second phase of operations, when Occupy protesters actually decide to occupy the offices of the corporate and financial institutions that benefited from our misery, maybe their message will wake America's masses. Unfortunately, all Monday's action did was take bread off the table of working people, and that's nothing to be proud of.

"Why don't people come out here and Occupy about the violence in our neighborhood?" said [Charlene] Adams, a 44-year-old project manager at a substance-abuse clinic. Every Saturday, she and other members of her church stand on street corners and hold signs asking people to "Stop the Violence."

Black activists and the general African American public are keenly aware that OWS's essential whiteness was key to its success in establishing encampments of borderline legality, and to the relatively favorable press coverage the movement has garnered. It is axiomatic that immediate and massive police repression would have been deployed to crush any such initiative by Blacks and browns. . . .

The battle against Wall Street is most vicious, and for the highest stakes, in the Harlems of the nation, where finance capital attempts to disperse whole populations to artificially inflate the value of corporate assets in housing and land. If there is any piece of ground where an anti-Wall Street movement should stand and fight, it's Harlem. . . .

At three months of age, it is essential that the Occupy movement demonstrate that it is a permanent feature on the political landscape, not a flash in the pan. African Americans are acutely aware that they can never "retire" from the struggle, as relatively privileged social justice activists might have the option of doing.

-Christine O'Donnell endorsing Mitt Romney.

every time I think this cant get better.
an Barney said, I didnt think I had lived a good enough life . . .

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Hundreds of Iraqis set alight US and Israeli flags on Wednesday as they celebrated the impending pullout of American forces from the country in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah.

Shouting slogans in support of the "resistance," the demonstrators held up banners and placards inscribed with phrases like, "Now we are free" and "Fallujah is the flame of the resistance."

Surrounded by the Iraqi army, demonstrators carried posters bearing photos of apparent insurgents, faces covered and carrying weapons.

They also held up pictures of US soldiers killed and military vehicles destroyed in the two major offensives against the city in 2004.

"We are proud to have driven the occupier out of Iraq, at the cost of enormous sacrifice," said Khalid al-Alwa, the local leader of the Islamic Party, a Sunni Muslim grouping.

Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama, who made an election promise to bring troops home, told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Washington will remain a loyal partner after the last troops roll across the Kuwaiti border.

U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.
[snip]
During town-hall-style meetings with military personnel in Asia l[in October], the secretary of defense, Leon E. Panetta, noted that the United States had 40,000 troops in the region, including 23,000 in Kuwait, though the bulk of those serve as logistical support for the forces in Iraq.

fact: environmentalists, a somewhat less enthusiastic supporter of the president, does not.

fact:  Obama is in the process of manipulating the republicans into "forcing" him to accept the pipeline to get tax cuts for the middle class and extended unemployment for poor folks like me.